[ID: A brown striped cat lays draped over the corner of a Rubix cube-shaped ottoman. The cat’s arms are out in a nearly square shape, and they look at the camera with an excited expression. /End ID]
Holy shit please do not do this. This is the most disorganised disaster I’ve ever seen and all they’re going to do is get vulnerable people fired. Do not go on strike as an individual. Do not do not do not. The point of a strike is collective action to show the collective power of workers.
It is not enough to say that the NLRB has made vague gestures at showing that a non-union strike is theoretically possible. If you get fired illegally and you’re not part of a union, who’s going to pay for your employment tribunal? You? Unless you’re aware of how expensive tribunals can be and have that money set to the side, you’re opening yourself up to a world of hurt.
This is genuinely the most dangerous, nonsensical thing I’ve seen on this website in a long, long time. Do not do this. Do not mistake masturbatory individualistic action for a collective movement.
If you would like to find a way to seriously stick it to your bosses, speak to your coworkers, organise an actual union in your workplace (if you need pointers on this, don’t be afraid to reach out — I’ve done it before and would be happy to share pointers!). If you want public healthcare, get involved in any of the myriad campaigns for single payer going on. But do not, do not welcome unnecessary risk into your life like this.
Seriously, this is so incredibly sus. You do not just organize a general strike on a national scale by sending out a tweet and slapping together a website with no relevant information. At best, this is a well-intentioned but dangerously misguided social media activism move. At worst, this is an intentional disinformation campaign to undermine the labor movement. Do your research and learn your history before getting involved in stuff like this- the consequences are very real
I’m not passing around blame but this feels like a consequence of social media activism misunderstood as organizing. It rarely if ever is. Social media can be introductory, informative, and discursive, but you can’t organize workers by announcing what they should be doing
Anti-trans activists often cite research that is supposed that some 80% of trans kids grow up cis (non-transgender). It turns out that the relevant study did not distinguish between variance in gender expressions and having a different gender identity.
One study, which is often cited, has claimed an 80% desistance rate in trans children. However, when the study was scrutinised, it was discovered that the methodology was deeply flawed. The study in question did not differentiate between young people with gender dysphoria, young people who socially but not medically transitioned, and young people who were simply exploring gender-diversity. In fact, nearly half of the children involved in the study could not be located at its conclusion, and were recorded as ‘desisters’ by default. The only justifiable conclusion that could be drawn from the study on a subsequent review of its data, was that strong gender dysphoria was a good predictor of future medical transition.
The reason for this is simple. The study used the definition “gender identity disorder” found in the previous edition of the American psychiatric manual, which had a definition that included all kinds of gender variance. The current edition, the DSM-5, no longer uses the term “gender identity disorder”. Indeed, it does not see being transgender as a mental disorder at all. Instead it used the term “gender dysphoria”, which is – as Gender GP points out – a much narrower concept.
Kristina Olson and Lily Durwood put it this way over at Slate:
Perhaps the clearest evidence that most children in these samples were never transgender to begin with is that, when they were directly asked “are you a boy or a girl” as part of a battery of intake questions, an overwhelming percentage (more than 90 percent) of children in these clinics provided the answer that aligned with their natal sex.
The underestimation of harm in suppressing or redirecting children’s gender expression, is the
most serious concern in interpretations of desistance literature. That gender identity or
expression may change among children (or adults) does not support the hypothesis that it is
preferable or possible to externally “coax” gender in a particular direction, or that this could be
done without harm.
Please note the different meanings of the term “transgender”.
It is normally used as an umbrella term for all kinds of gender variance. This particular debate, however, is mainly about kids who feel severe distress due to the misalignment between their experience gender and the biological sex of their bodies or from being forced to present as a gender who is not theirs. They are normally those who will benefit most from transitioning socially as kids.
You do not need to suffer from gender dysphoria to be seen as transgender in the wider sense of the term. This applies to children as well as adults.
Note also that a lot of trans kid suppress their gender identity in order to please the people around them. The fact that they come out later in life does not make them less trans.
whilst i am always and forever just begging doctors to properly check interactions before they prescibe things (@ pharmacists: fuck everyone else i respect you i love you xoxo)
i am in fact also begging everyone to read the leaflets you get with your medication. if you have difficulty reading or understanding those leaflets that’s fine just like… ask the pharmacist. never met one who wasn’t happy to explain drugs.
but like…
“SSRIs make you less tolerant of heat” should not be a shock - it’s in the leaflet. they make you sweat, give you hot flashes, and make your skin more sensitive to the sun. that’s all in there.
“mixing alcohol and benzos is a Bad Time” is not a shock. it’s in the leaflet to avoid alcohol.
“my ADHD meds made me not want to eat” is not a shock. it’s in the leaflet that they cause appetite suppression and weight loss.
you do not have to “find out the hard way” you really don’t.
and bc doctors are fuckin useless at bothering to actually read and/or understand and/or explain interactions like… ever, apparently? there are plenty of places you can check for yourself or, again, just ask the pharmacist if there’s anything to watch out for.
i mean asking a pharmacist about interactions is basially asking them to infodump about their hyperfixation. you’re asking someone who thinks drugs are really cool to talk about drugs they are not going to be upset about this.
oh hey my grandma was a nurse too!
the amount of people who don’t read them and then later are like “WHY DIDN’T ANYONE TELL ME ABOUT THIS”
*pinches nose bridge* they did. it was in the leaflet.
And if you lose the leaflet, or can’t read the print, or whatever, DRUGS.COM
It’s got, like, every medication ever, with pictures and everything, and all the side effects, AND a really handy interactions checker.
love drugs.com for that. only site that has the full full list of side effects (go to the ‘for professionals’ section) and their interaction checker is great as well bc it does also include supplements and recreational drugs in the database.
i personally prefer the go.drugbank.com checker but only because i’m a supermassive nerd and gives you all the technical mechanisms behind the interaction. plus you can go full nerd and look at the complete pharmacology of anything. which is probably only parsable by, like, 5 people who follow me but it is really cool though
anyway if, unlike me, you’re a normal person drugs.com is absolutely your best friend outside of an actual pharmacist
Cannot stress enough how important this is. I’m allergic to an antibiotic & was once given another medication that was not that medication but was contraindicated for ppl with that allergy. My allergy info is up to date with my pharmacy… but their computer missed that, or they didn’t check.
That kind of mistake can kill a person. Always check.
My flatmate is currently working on his doctorate in pharmacy and he says to never trust doctors to explain medication. They apparently go about prescribing it willy nilly and don’t actually know what they’re doing. There’s a reason why pharmacy is a whole separate degree that people have to study years and years for.
Your flatmate is right and I would like to kiss him on the mouth (platonically) (after covid)
In Ireland, non-binary people are not recognised by law.
In Ireland, the waiting list to be seen by the ONLY GENDER CLINIC in the entire country is currently 3 years.
In Ireland, you are required to be diagnosed by two separate professionals before you are sent to do a 3 hour interview detailing your childhood, relationship and sexual history, disclose any forms of abuse suffered, and be asked about your masturbating habits just to be believed. Some times they will require you have your parents (even when you are an adult) confirm or deny what you say before they will consider you for treatment.
In Ireland, there are no surgeons who will perform top or bottom surgery for any non-cis person - despite the fact that we have many mastectomy surgeons on the island.
In Ireland, if you receive treatment abroad then you will be refused aftercare here if you suffer any complications even though if you were a cis person who has treatment abroad, they will provide aftercare.
As a library worker, there’s something I want to say to you.
You do not have to apologize for the books you choose to read.
At all. To anyone. You owe nobody any explanations; you need no excuse or “good reason” to be reading the book.
You do not have to be ashamed for wanting to read “bad” books. You wanna read Twilight? We got Twilight. Need a banal, cookie-cutter-plot mystery or thriller?Those are always fun. Our regulars check them out by the towering stack. Ask Betty for recommendations; she’s read them all. 50 Shades of Oh Fucking No? We’ve got it, we even got it in large print. Have fun. Check out the rest of our porn too. Oh, and the sex manuals are a MUST if you want to “experiment” yourself. Don’t be afraid to ask; they’re here for a reason.
Want to read a book written by a huge asshole everyone hates and agree was a monster? Yeah, we have those. No, we don’t think you’re an asshole for wanting to know what was actually written in there, or judging things for yourself.
You are not too old for Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Babysitter’s Club, or Captain Underpants. You are not too young for Sherlock Holmes. There’s nothing wrong with a boy reading The Princess Academy or Sweet Valley High. There’s nothing wrong with a girl being into The Hardy Boys or Artemis Fowl instead.
You do not have to pull the shame face and offer me an excuse when you check out your books. I don’t care if I got so angry at that book I threw it against a wall when I read it: you have the right to read it, and enjoy it if it’s enjoyable for you. THAT’S WHY THE LIBRARY HAS IT IN THE FIRST PLACE. If we only stocked pure, unproblematic literature everyone approved of, by authors of unquestionable virtue, we wouldn’t have any books at all. Or music. Or movies. It would be utterly fucking boring. And it certainly wouldn’t be a library.
