The need to be polite and feeling of blame are both an extension of the lie that we are weak and can’t physically stand up for ourselves. It doesn’t necessarily matter whether we’re believed if we are ultimately safe from the assault in the first place.

But our culture has made us forget that we are strong and capable, has raised us to never develop the muscles to be able to stop someone, to never tear an assailant’s skin off with our teeth, etc.

I could be wildly out of left field, here, and I am extremely privileged that I’ve never been hurt in this way. I just want to see minorities believe that we are strong…because we are.

Women and some other minorities are raised to not even consider using acts of violence to protect ourselves, like it never crosses our minds as a possibility that we could physically hurt an assailant if we wanted to. We have internalized a sense of weakness that isn’t actually true. This has been detrimental to our safety as well as the safety of other women. Fuck the patriarchy for doing this to us.

Americans fuck around, Americans find out.

This world doesn’t need us. We’ve enjoyed decades of undeserved praise and good will from the world, and it’s inflated our ego enough that we think we’re invincible.

that introduced many teens to fast fashion.

Sounds to me like the company is getting what they deserve.

Is there no such thing as market competition anymore??? This is so frustrating!

That’s too terrifying to be funny.

As someone who works in higher ed, this is terrifying.

Awesome! I’ll add them to my list!

I want off this ride.

If American society as a whole devolves so much that I and everyone else are all fighting to survive together because we are all homeless, then society as a whole will look a lot different, structurally. I can’t speak to how resistance will look, in that case, because I don’t know what it will consist of. I imagine that we will have much better community support systems in place, since more will be needing them to survive.

I understand the community-first perspective. I agree that we survive together or die together. But we also can’t pour from an empty cup. I can’t help others if I’m fighting to survive, forced to spend time hunting down food and water and a warm bed, which also takes time away from protesting and helping others.

This American gets what you’re saying. I’m trying to figure out what I can do without ending up homeless.

Young millennial, actually.

It’s my generation’s joke that social security wouldn’t be available for us to retire on, but seeing it actively dismantled fills me with an indescribable rage.

I assume soda and other bottled drinks are included in this warning, as well as any other container lined with plastic, and I think some canned drinks and food are….which, uh, sucks.

I’m in the process of switching to Proton too. I just opened the account; haven’t taken additional steps of switching login emails associated with all of my other accounts, yet. I’ll probably start with giving the new account to local grassroots organizations, first.

I’d like to learn more about what people have to say too!

I haven’t heard of those! Do you recommend?

I’m so glad you asked! It feels good to find kinship and community in this way!

Honestly—this is going to sound really woo-woo, but I’m not trying to—I encourage you to take the journey to find the resources yourself. Trust that your own curiosity will lead you to the right entry point and the right format for your mindset and life experiences, whether it’s book, movie, YouTube short, poem, or audiobook. The right teacher will appear when you ask the right questions. I can recommend the book that started me on this journey, but it may not resonate with you and you could lose interest.

But if you really don’t know where to start, I started with the audiobook version of Braiding Sweetgrass, and paid attention to her lessons on reciprocity and living life directed by the lessons of plants. I then moved on to Restoring the Kinship Worldview, and now I’m listening to Sand Talk. I’m also looking for documentaries.

Good luck on your journey! Let’s see how many others we can invite along with us!

I completely agree with all of your points. It’s really hard to break out of the belief that it’s far more comfortable at home, that other people are scary, that you don’t know how to meet people, etc., but you know what’s more scary?

Being absolutely and utterly alone.

It doesn’t have to be this way. We cannot thrive and become whole humans like this. We cannot save ourselves from tyranny like this. Making a bunch of comments online is not making real change out there.

I really hope we can figure out how to bring back third spaces/the commons, and soon.

“Amending this bill to require the Ten Commandments be made of bulletproof kevlar may actually be useful as a shield from gun violence, a real problem Texans face,” Samuels said.

Savage. Beautiful.