Part of the reason why the fields of peace studies, conflict studies, and the field of peace and conflict studies (that's my field!), matter is because too often people become fixated on the idea of a negative peace. In the three fields of study I mentioned in my last tweet I mentioned the idea of "negative peace". "Negative peace" is the sort of "peace" people see when silence falls over a place after the last round of gunfire comes to an end. It is an absence of active, visible violence.

Tucker Carlson is so in love with Papa Putin that he just admitted that Republican senators do not want to do things for the American people... Because Graham had a semi-reasonable position that if Russian jets attack American military hardware that'd merit retaliation. Neither the US nor Russia are reliable narrators in this context, but given the current American narrative that Russian aircraft circled the drone and downed it by colliding with a propeller, Senator Graham's response is, when viewed from that lens, a fairly reasonable one.

I have been a substitute teacher and have taught these subjects to today's kids.

These fucking kids absolutely need to be told these things were bad. And to be fair, I don't think it's JUST them, but trust me, kids need to be told, explicitly, that this shit was bad.

https://twitter.com/steveplotnicki/status/1635418394710409216

Expanding on this, I live in North Carolina, and I taught in Virginia. There are parents in both states who were proud to be slave owners, and also nazis have kids. If their teachers don't say this seemingly basic shit, their parents will poison them. Y'all know that

Regardless of its origins, which are a part of Knowles sad little article, "Transgenderism" has a specific meaning when he uses it. It has a specific intent. Knowles wants you to conflate being transgender with being mentally ill. But being trans does not require any sort of

https://twitter.com/michaeljknowles/status/1636020928118243332

mental illness. Sometimes transphobes will either cite gender dysmorphia, or wholly make up mental illnesses, and pretend that they are being kind by attempting to exterminate trans people. It's always a smokescreen, though a really bad one. Medical professionals have long agreed

It's a me, Mario

https://twitter.com/GamerhubCo/status/1632062884757864455

So Long Gay Bowser

I mean that's just another area where Jesus was wrong then. That's not special. We could just teach facts instead... Especially since it's not like we other the creation myths of OTHER faiths. We're just supposed to uncritically play favorites with Christianity? Grow up.

https://twitter.com/erichovind/status/1635371279011414016

*we teach the creation myths

I follow a rule that on my personal Facebook profile I don't talk about religion, aside from every once in a blue moon or on special occasions. Today was a "every once in a blue moon" day. I talked about the conversion therapy tweet that went viral yesterday & Christianity. In my longest post in a while, I talked about why conversion therapy, mission trips, & Christianity are all immoral. I was clear that this was not a condemnation of all Christians, but I was unequivocal in my condemnation of Christianity. The long & short of it boils down to

Truly incredible to see Fox News ghouls continue to pretend that racial justice in economics and banking isn't absolutely fucking essential to bolstering the American economy and helping middle and working-class Americans. Access to opportunities for economic advancement for all of American history, including now, has often been tied to one's racial and ethnic background. Dismantling white supremacy in the economic system is ABSOLUTELY essential to helping POC of all sorts advance beyond where they currently are from a socioeconomic standpoint.

Jumpchains are a type of Choose Your Own Adventure wherein someone gets to visit different fictional franchises, and purchase powers, items, and invent money to bring characters from said franchises on a jumpchain, which is the in-fiction name for the journey "Jumpers" go on. You retain the powers and items you purchase, which so long as you bought them using the currency each CYOA gives you, are more or less guaranteed to work in other settings. So if you visit Star Wars and use the currency to become a Jedi The Force will work even in Faerun.

1/ There is one party that really likes big government and it's not the Democrats. 2/ Republicans want to create something worryingly close to a police state where big brother checks your pants before you go to the bathroom, where the government is in your doctor's office opining on whether or not you can get life-saving medical care, and where

Republican lawmakers should finally free themselves from Fox News, or at least Tucker Carlson. Carlson asks & expects Republican lawmakers to put aside the fact that insurrectionists would have gleefully subjected them to life-threatening, possibly life-ending violence. Carlson asks that Republicans whitewash history to own the libs. Normally Republicans are fine with this, but this time it's different. Republican lawmakers, an inherently and definitionally selfish set of people, are being asked to forgive people who set out to do them violence.

I love One Piece because you can tell that a lot of the planning for the world building started happening way later in development then the basic facts of the world were. So I'm gonna talk about my favorite example of this. Mild spoilers for a manga that is almost as old as me. So the basic premise of One Piece, in case you have no idea, is that you follow a pirate named Luffy as he seeks to assemble a crew and become the second King of the Pirates. Luffy is, seemingly, a regular but dumb kid whose key strength is that he ate a devil fruit as a kid.

Every time some loser says "I see you're on an I-Phone" or whatever if you call for Legacy to be boycotted they are using the genetic fallacy to try and silence you. They want to use the fact that you are a human being, in a society, to try and make you feel bad. They need to frame you as a hypocrite so they can feel good about the game where their character is gonna be using spells that kill people to end the lives of rebels who thought "It'd be pretty cool if wizards didn't kill my sister, or at least if they do that they be punished".

I'm gonna be honest, there are regular ass people who don't care about Legacy one way or another. They will either buy the game or not. What they won't do is go over to boycotters and tell us we're bad. If you go to harass people who boycott the game you aren't normal. I've been at the forefront of this for months. I know how people are. Normal ass people, some of whom will get the game and some of whom won't, don't care as much as the people who are offended for being called out for their bigotry are. If you come to people like me to tell me

IDK y'all... Separate the art from the artist for one second and think about how weird it is to want to play a game where you're, basically, an underage cop fighting against a group of people who want their people to have more rights and to be viewed as equals to humans.

https://twitter.com/AlexWentzell/status/1616575172365979648

If the thought of playing a game where you're someone who is mad that POC want more rights, and that SOME POC are willing to fight, die, and kill for those rights makes you uncomfortable... That's this fucking game. It's reskinned to make it a bit more palatable but only barely.

Just saw a Muslim say that shortly, possibly minutes, hours, or days after his birth little baby Jesus defended the honor of his (virgin) mother by telling people who criticized her that he was a servant of Allah which is... That's certainly a claim. Just imagine that though. This newborn baby, has to hear people bashing his mom (who was the victim of a crime, because virgins don't get pregnant), so in the minds of some Bible enthusiasts the best & coolest way they imagine Jesus clapping back at the haters is for him to talk.

TW: Discussion of mental health stuff & suicidal thoughts
I don't always appreciate being... around, in general, but it's been a year and a day since I last wanted to unalive myself. And that was because I had just been the victim of a crime. But looking back... I'm glad I'm still here. Just in general. A year & a day ago I was the victim of a crime that left me pretty severely in the hole, financially. I was able to get out of that hole, thanks to friends and family making sure I was alright. Since then, it hasn't always been easy but I've been ok.

The death of Twitter is, honestly pretty objectively, a bad thing. Twitter is one of the quintessential news vehicles in 2022, which itself is a less than great thing, but beyond that it has served as a connector and community creator for millions of communities. It's honestly pretty shitty that lots of communities are having to, at best, move and at worst are dissolving altogether. I've made friends who've changed my life on the bird-app. My life has been improved because of people I've met on Twitter. And I'm not alone.

Seeing able-bodied people react to news about Fetterman shows me just how blind able-bodied people are to this nation's truly astounding amount of ableism. I promise y'all that many, MANY able-bodied people would say, if they thought they could get away with it, that blind & deaf people shouldn't be voted for, & shouldn't even be eligible for office. I'm a physically disabled person, I've thought about running for office, and one of the reasons why I have hesitated is because of my health issues. Just because people don't admit it, doesn't make disabled

As we close in on November we're gonna start to see MUCH more attention shift to Georgia. If it matters, if you value my opinion and you live in Georgia, vote for Senator Warnock. Herschel Walker is an abusive monster out of Congress & he'll become worse if given real power. At this point it's not just about his politics. I mean they are predictably terrible, he is a Southern Republican, but on a personal level he's a goddamn monster who belongs far from rooms where shit happens.

The thing that gets me about the whole "Latinx was made up by white people" argument, besides the fact that it's just not true, is that even if it was true it's just a bad argument and I never see people actually point this out. I will pretend it's a true argument for a second. Even if it was true, that's not an argument against it. Languages evolve all the time, & additions to language from non-native speakers of the language are as valid as additions to the language from people who ONLY speak it. I think white, non-native Spanish-speaking transpeople