Where? I just see a little baby kitten that needs treats and scritches - stat!

https://web.archive.org/web/20240328004259/https://www.thecut.com/article/age-gap-relationships-marriage-younger-women-older-man.html

I misremembered it being from a movie- it’s from some New York publication

Yeah exactly - as I posted that it occurred to be that it’s a big blind spot for me- having the privilege to assume charitable readings of things- when for the teachers it had to be incredibly frustrating to have someone miss the point so bad- and like you’re saying, the quantification aspect is often used to push systems to the breaking point (and usually tied to monetization somehow) rather than incorporating into a system of knowledge. Anyway- I have no authority in the group- but fortunately much better teachers have given thought to this and so I pass along their works in reading lists for the group- hopefully at least one person reads at least one recommendation! Facilitating the group often feels like detective work- following the trail of missed points until you find the one that made just enough sense to them for the concept to click. Hell I’ve dedicated a lot of time to trying to do better, and am constantly self-critiquing and finding ways new ways I’ve unintentionally shown my ass recently.

I give them the benefit of the doubt since their heart seems to be in the right place, and they study/restore fish habitat, remove dams, etc. but it was definitely a

That’s crazy- they just decided to up and strip land for agriculture without any outside forces- at least the NGOs and Coke can save the day cynicism aside (death to capitalism, etc) this is cool and good, and you love to see the water quality improvements

Oh yeah? Explain that to the heirloom jar of “dna” (similar to a sourdough starter) passed down to me that I literally carry everywhere

Rant- tangentially related: I’m not a member of an Indigenous group, but I work in a field where the big push recently is incorporating “traditional ecological knowledge”. Holy shit, the un-deserved patience that Indigenous teachers extend to us crackers is mind boggling. Like we’re slowly using western scientific framework to “discover” knowledge, which has already been cultivated by other peoples over time, peoples that we genocided without mercy, but now that our cultural hegemony has declined so much and we’ve fucked up the balance of the ecosystem so much, we have the gall to finally “acknowledge” other knowledge systems. It even still is empty gestures until something meaningful is done with it. I’ve heard tribal elders talk about the necessity of patience, and they’re seemingly endless fonts of it, because god damn do we never get the point. Like at a recent event, an Indigenous scientist was talking about how everything is about balance, and a PhD asked how we can quantify balance. Like…1) such an effective missing of the point. 2) like fucking look outside idk- you’re a fucking climate scientist surely you’ve observed the world around you. I’m constantly feeling the need to shake and shout at my colleagues, and I’ve not been doing this nearly as long. As patronizing of a tone that crackers always take with Indigenous people, we really are just the shitty teenage nibling who insists they’re an awesome driver after wrapping their car around a tree- maybe one day we’ll be better, but I have a hard time finding faith. Anyway, that’s why I’m not a member of the Sturgeon clan.

2 when I first wake, 6 about 1hr into work when mfs are testing me, 1 when I finally make it home ready to do it all again

The fall didn’t actually kill him- he was just trapped in there with the lawn mower comically chasing him around for days until he collapsed from exhaustion

“You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” Apparently the answer to the author is, “yes”. Deeply unserious examination

More like kiesterville

Trying to upbear it twice but it keeps undoing my upbear

doot doot

So fresh and so loose!

Thanks!!

My favorite irl pedantry is correcting -phobes that using “them” in the singular is actually grammatically correct. Since it’s usually an argument with pedants and civility libs it usually gets them all riled up. Disregarding that I don’t really care about grammar, it’s fun to do a little bad faith and remind them their ignorance is bottomless.

“Look, my foot’s about to be Indigenous to your ass, pal”

Tbf we have the disadvantage of reading this. Anyone in the UWEC audience zoned out the moment she said “brat” and immediately started thinking of grilling.

Fr. WRT my parents - I wouldn’t give them too much leeway lol but they were a startling, real-time example of isolation and mass news media consumption during the “lockdown” in the US.

Got to see their rhetoric shift from things that annoyed me (typical boomer jingoism) to things that enraged me (transphobic, homophobic, anti-homeless, opinions wrt riots etc.) following isolation from their (surprisingly progressive) church groups, friends, and consumption of mass news media.

I like to think that the conversations I (loudly) had with them when those things came up and the years-long embargo from our home had some effect of spurring self-crit and growth, but the settler mindset runs deep so who knows. I’d previously passed along Braiding Sweetgrass, which my mom didn’t finish because it made her feel too sad- so hearing that they were learning from Indigenous knowledge keepers and attending community events was a great surprise. So growth is possible. I also had a lifetime friend remind me that in 8th grade I “didn’t believe in climate change”, and now that’s essentially what my life revolves around lol so pobodys nerfect.

My hometown has been gutted enough by capital that they recognize its effects if not in terminology, then in the friends that lost jobs when the pallet factory, drill-bit factory, paper mill, etc. closed in the late 90s/early 00s, or more recently when an investment firm acquired the largest employer in town (mail order retail) on behalf of a competitor with the sole purpose of immediately shuttering it. Seems like so many pieces that led to my “lefty” development have been there, if one understands them that way and not as a lizard-person conspiracy lol.

Frankly, this website has taught me so much about the importance of self-crit in an era where you can get any dogshit opinion validated online or on tv. There seems to be a common theme among settler crackkkers where you avoid discussing things that make you uncomfortable wrt the atrocities of past generations, and it’s so crucial to be beaten over the head with those lest they be forgotten.

Idk where I was going with this necessarily- just enjoyed (as usual) engaging with someone on this site.