Some of my stupid thoughts

The silence around what is happening to women and girls in Afghanistan is one of the worst crimes in this world. Like it’s so fucking bleak and brutal how like no one outside of a few human rights organizations are talking about what is happening to women there.

Like I don’t think people understand how bad it is. Here is a list of things women cannot do in Afghanistan anymore:

“Education: Girls are banned from attending secondary school or university. About 2.4 million girls have been deprived of education, severely limiting both their opportunities and the country’s development. In 2024, the Taliban also banned women from training as doctors, nurses and midwives – among the last professions open to them.

Employment: Women have been barred from almost all jobs, including roles with international humanitarian groups and UN agencies. There are very limited exceptions for jobs in primary education and healthcare. Before the Taliban takeover, women made up a quarter of the civil service, nearly 13% of judges and 16% of prosecutors. Women were active in most professions and increasing numbers ran their own businesses.

Public and political life: Women have been shut out of public life and decision-making. Before the takeover, women held more than a quarter of parliamentary seats. The Taliban have also clamped down on civil society organisations. Most former women MPs, judges, journalists and rights activists are in exile or hiding.

Freedom of movement: Women need a male chaperone (mahram) to travel, use public transport or even visit a health centre. They are also banned from driving. The Taliban recently said women should not leave home without their husband’s permission.

Public spaces: Women are banned from parks – including parks previously designated as women only – gyms, public baths and other recreational places. They cannot participate in cultural activities.

Dress: Women must cover their entire body and face when in public. They cannot decorate their hijab or add perfume. Prior to the Taliban takeover, many younger women wore Western clothing with a loose headscarf.

Policing and punishments: The Taliban have reintroduced public flogging and stoning as punishments for adultery, although it is unclear whether any stonings have been carried out. The Taliban’s so-called morality police frequently harass and detain women for alleged infringements of dress codes and other rules. There are widespread reports of women being raped and assaulted in Taliban prisons.

Access to justice: Women have no judicial recourse to challenge the many restrictions imposed on them. Special police units and courts set up under the previous government to handle family disputes and cases of domestic and sexual violence have been dismantled. All women’s shelters have shut. Taliban laws allow husbands to beat their wives and effectively block women from seeking divorce.

Media: Some regions have banned the broadcast of women’s faces and voices. Elsewhere, women must wear a face covering on TV. They cannot appear alongside male presenters or work in mixed newsrooms. Female journalists face restrictions in accessing information. They are largely barred from interviewing Taliban officials or attending press conferences. Women are also banned from TV dramas.

Sport: Women and girls are barred from sports and competitions. The country’s female athletes compete in exile. Women’s gyms had become increasingly popular in larger cities before the Taliban takeover.

Child marriage: The ban on girls’ education and deepening poverty are driving more parents to marry off their daughters early. A decree published in May suggests girls as young as nine can be wed. About 29% of girls in Afghanistan marry under the age of 18 and nearly 10% before 15, according to data published by UNICEF in 2023.

Maternal and child mortality: Afghanistan has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, but risks are increasing. Factors include the high rate of child marriage and deteriorating health care. The ban on midwifery schools will compound the risks.

General health care: The ban on girls’ education will cut off the supply of women doctors and health workers, with dire repercussions for women’s health care. Rules stipulating that women must have a mahram to attend health centres and that female health workers must have a mahram for home visits already restrict access to care.

Freedom of expression: Journalists and women’s rights activists risk intimidation, arbitrary arrest, detention and torture. The Taliban have cracked down on women’s protests, most recently in Herat.

“Morality” law: In 2024, the Taliban announced that women should not read, sing or speak in public. The so-called morality code says women should not even be heard singing or reading aloud from inside their home, as their voices are a source of temptation. The restriction on speaking outside the home has not been enforced.

Beauty salons: The Taliban have shut down beauty salons. These not only served as important places for women to socialise, but also provided employment for thousands of women.

Weddings: Women cannot wear make-up, hair extensions or perfume for wedding and engagement parties. Music is forbidden and people cannot sing or dance. Couples can no longer exchange rings, which the Taliban say is a Christian tradition.”

Women in Afghanistan are living in a hell and we’re just letting that happen. This is a crime against humanity and the west is just silently letting it happen.

ao3 is not gonna start censoring fanfics just because the thought crimes people are throwing a hissy fit

ao3 has no algorithm so if you’re seeing works you do not want to read then my guy. what are you doing at the devils sacrament?

someone accused me of feigning a sexual attraction to spiders for clout. there's easier ways to get clout, man.....

Someone once called my 22 minute hand sewn 18th century buttonhole tutorial video "Empty, clout driven content" so I think some people will just say anything.

Had a soul-searing moment where I sat unblinking trying to figure out what a "hand sewn 18th century butthole" could be for, until I read that again.

(x)

real

real

It’s always “American Cultural Imperialism means I, a Lichtensteiner, must weigh in on how Biden should have passed a law banning all cops.” Until you tell them that laws are passed by Congress and then it’s “Well not everyone is American you stupid Yankee stop expecting me to know how your government works,”

I’m not saying a non-American Tumblr User needs to have passed a civics test to post about Destiel MPreg, but like. Your average poster on here will rant about how the Dems should be Doing Something or they’re Just As Bad and yet apparently there’s a near 50:50 shot they don’t even know Republicans control Congress.

you misspelled "liechtensteiner" while using liechtenstein as a joke to emphasise the smallness and irrelevancy of non-US countries

i think there may in fact be a touch of americal cultural imperialism going on here

Yeah man I used to think pointing out simple typos (like forgetting the “e” in Liechtenstein) invalidated someone’s argument too. I was 14.

Alright, so I'm from a smallish European country, and I live in the US, and I Know How the System Works, and like...

Look. The US system is massively fucked. They don't have escape clauses in their constitution that force politicians to actually do their job, which is why if they don't approve a budget on time, government employees don't get paid. Like, in a lot of places, if the elected government can't find a way to compromise on the fucking budget, that's cause to toss out the whole government and hold new elections. It costs money and is a pain, and whoever was obstructing the budget going through is likely to lose seats. Most of the time, politicians avoid it like the plague.

On a national scale, there's little to no ways to recall anything. Supreme Court Judges are appointed for life terms. There's no such thing as a vote of no confidence.

The American system was built with checks and balances, but rich assholes have found every loophole in the system to make those checks and balances work to keep the status quo as is. They have enshrined the Constitution to be a holy document, rather than a work in progress.

It really is genuinely fucked up here.

And like, being from Europe, and being aware of our own countries' flaws is like being from your average dysfunctional family. Yeah, our parents are kind of racist. Yeah, our rich uncle keeps blocking his ears and going "lalala" whenever we talk about universal basic income. Getting your nation's concerns actually brought up within the European Union is a massive pain.

But yeah, your average European country is LOVINGLY dysfunctional. Like, your parents may call you names, but they still drive you to school and keep you fed and clothed.

Whereas, the US is legit in a massive divorce where two shithead parents can't communicate well enough to even know where their kids are. Like, the average American is fending for themselves, and half of the siblings are too young or too tired to even make a decision on where they want to go. Of the ones that have an opinion, half want to stay with Mom because she's fun and lets them play games all night, while half the siblings want to stay with Dad, even though he's working 100 hours a week and still struggles to feed them (Mom has even less food at home, but GAMES, and she doesn't mind how much soda you have, though she won't buy it for you, and you gotta watch out around her new boyfriend).

And so, when a well-meaning European says something like "Why doesn't your Dad just get full custody when he's clearly the more dedicated parent", the reaction you get back from Americans is anger, because yeah, they understand that if the system worked half-way as intended, things COULD be better. But the specific system their family is trapped in is more like a hostage negotiation than a family. And they are hurt, and a little jealous, and often respond by lashing out at the kids who have better home lives.

And like... it's just worth understanding that things that should be universal sometimes aren't.

There are a couple of misconceptions here. I have a degree in American Government or, more whimsically, How the System Works. I am very passionate about civic education and I believe Americans are given inadequate education about our government. I also believe as adults we are responsible for understanding how our government works.

American politicians avoided shutting down the government like the plague too, for the first 200 years. The first government shutdown happened in 1980 and only lasted one day. The first few shutdowns were all that short. It was basically an extra dramatic threat, because there is political blowback for shutting down the government, and the voters don't always assign blame in a way that benefits the party leveraging the threat. The first long government shutdown was in 1995 and lasted 21 days, following a 5 day shutdown not long before. Before that, the longest shutdown was 3 days. The 1995 shutdown was a huge deal at the time because it was so unprecedented. Younger people don't necessarily realize this because since then there was a 16 day shutdown in 2013 and 35 day shutdown in 2018, which remains the longest in US history. The 1995 and 2013 shutdowns both happened when Republicans gained control of Congress with a Democratic president in office. The 2018 shutdown happened when House Democrats refused to pass a budget that included funding for Trump's border wall.

The thing all three of the long shutdowns have in common, besides happening in the last thirty years, is Republicans becoming unhinged, though in a different role in 2018. And that's the crux of the issue. The system works as long as the people in power are even remotely reasonable. House Democrats did not make that decision lightly in 2018, because political blowback from a shutdown is likely to hit the party directly responsible for the shutdown whether they're ultimately responsible or not and also because shutting down the government has serious consequences. Republicans, on the other hand, don't care. They actively do not want the government to function and don't care who is hurt by the government shutting down.

There is a mechanism to address this: we could vote them out of office. The American system doesn't have a mechanism to dissolve the government and call new elections in part because legislative elections are every two years. If Americans want to punish the party responsible for shutting down the government they don't have to wait long to do it. But Republicans bank on their constituents reelecting them anyway and it works. Sometimes they lose control of Congress, but the party hasn't been abandoned en masse.

Supreme Court Justices can actually be impeached and removed from office. It works the exact same way as the presidential impeachment process. The House votes to impeach, which requires a simply majority, and the Senate votes to convict, which requires a two thirds majority, so 66 of the 100 senators. It's true that this is not an easy process, which is probably why it's never happened. A justice has never been removed from the Supreme Court. Samuel Chase was impeached but was acquitted, just as three presidents have been (one of them twice). It's fair to argue the process should be easier, but it's worth noting that all of the people with the power to impeach and remove justices and presidents are elected. If the people want to recall a Supreme Court Justice or president, they can refuse to vote for anyone for House or Senate who doesn't promise to do it. Republicans impeached Bill Clinton for purely political reasons. Both of Donald Trump's impeachment votes were along party lines, with a handful of exceptions, even the one in the aftermath of January 6th 2021. Clarence Thomas is brazenly corrupt enough to justify impeachment, but no Republican House will bring articles and if a Democratic House did, no Republican senator would vote to convict.

The American system is broken because Republicans are breaking it on purpose and people are continuing to vote for them anyway. That is something the writers of our constitution did not anticipate. Maybe they should have. But they did anticipate that they wouldn't anticipate everything. It's true that many politicians as well as the national mythology treats the constitution as a holy document, but the constitution is a work in progress. There is a divide among American constitutional scholars about whether the constitution is a living document. I am extremely biased in this area. Article 5 of the constitution itself provides a process to amend it. 27 amendments have been ratified. The first 10 are the bill of rights and were ratified pretty much immediately after the constitution itself. The most recent amendment was ratified in 1992. The writers of our constitution also published a number of essays expanding on various aspects of the constitution and the reasoning behind them. These are known collectively as the Federalist Papers and frequently cited in matters of constitutional law.

I'm not denying there are flaws in the American system. Every system has its own flaws, its own strengths and weaknesses. But there is no system on earth that won't slide into dysfunction if its people continue to elect politicians who don't want it to function.

Yeah, this is a much better explanation of why things are the way they are in the US. I will freely admit to oversimplifying to get to my point. (That countries are like families - you don't get to choose where you're born, all you can do is try to make life as good as you can while you have to live under the same roof).

Instead of certain actions triggering new elections, the system is set up around frequent smaller elections. That absolutely is not a bad idea as a concept, but with how politically disenfranchised the American population is, there are problems keeping people engaged long enough to remember who did what and why.

I do prefer to toss out the whole government and hold new elections when people can't find a way to do the jobs they were elected to do. I think holding repeated elections until you get a government made up of people who are willing to work together is more effective than the current American system. But that's just me.

My point is in fact only that most European countries have a higher political participation rate than the US of A, and that this means the dysfunction in the system is more manageable.

And that I want my fellow Europeans to remember that the average progressively inclined American citizen is fighting against a river of apathy to get even the most basic stuff done, and that that's why y'all sometimes get annoyed when people who get Nice Things (like trains and medical care) ask why no one's doing anything about [insert topic here - for example, the widespread police brutality] in the US.

Thanks for this follow up! I respect having a preference for one style of government over another and I appreciate anyone being engaged and informed.

gen z has to reckon with its radicalization problem. you are not a morally pure and superior generation of youth come to save the world, your men and boys are radicalized at an unprecedented level and you ignore it because it’s too hard to address but you have to. these boys are in your classes, they date your friends, you know them and you cannot continue to pretend this is an “old white guy” problem

girls are contributing, too. the coquette aesthetic, the “i don’t want to girlboss i want a man to pay my bills”, girlmath girljob girlmoney. it’s a joke, it’s clothes, it’s whatever, i get it but it is driving a mentality of traditional gender roles and you know you’re joking but your boyfriend doesn’t. your kid brother doesn’t. you have to stop this shit it is a contributing factor

Jokes can normalize things that you find unacceptable or annoying very, very easily. If you and your friends consistently joke about girlmath and girlmoney when you spend money on something unwise or irresponsible, it'll eventually just become a thing you say while spending money on something unwise or irresponsible. It'll stop being a joke.

Eventually, it might something you say to JUSTIFY spending money on something unwise or irresponsible. You're just a girl, you can't be expected to do anything more than girlmath, people shouldn't bug you about what you spend money on. If that happens, you'll have accepted the absurd logic that was supposed to make the joke funny as regular logic. On some level, you'll have accepted the idea that you are intellectually inferior due to your gender.

Be very fucking careful with the ideas behind the things you joke about.

[ID image from a comic of white man with greying hair in an X-man uniform talking to a young white woman in an X-man uniform. A younger white man in street clothes stands behind them.

Text: It always begins as a joke. Listen to me, both of you.

One sees a father or a mother of whom they do not approve --

And their brats won't shut up, and the parents are so exhausted that they just let their children scream, all sticky and crying and hitting and wild.

And you say to your friends "You should have to pass a test to breed." Do you understand? "You should have to get licensed to have kids."

It starts as a joke.

Then perhaps there is a tragedy. A post partum mother who should have gotten help, but her insurance did not cover the therapy.

A father who erred because he was raised believing that men are pathetic if they are caregivers.

The first tests are drafted.

And you think "Good." You think "Those children will be safe now."

The test comes out, and yes, there're some problems, but nothing that cannot be ironed out, yes?

But now, anyone with a mental illness, with a criminal record, is barred from becoming a parent, and you think "Well, this is sensible, yes?"

Because you've never known anyone like that, so who is to tell you they are not like they are portrayed in stories?

Sick, dangerous, criminal -- these words expand.

Suddenly it is anyone with diabetes, anyone with cancer -- because they could die and leave their children orphaned, so how dare they ever try to have children?

it is Deaf couples, disabled couples, interracial couples, gay couples -- because don't they know how hard they're making it for their children?

Then it is whoever they want.

You think you are working for the greater good. You can't even fathom the life of someone who isn't exactly like you.

Then one day -- it is you.

Some gene, some history, some past behavior -- and suddenly you, too, are sick, dangerous, criminal.

Because the truth is this --

Human hate can adapt to anything.

You think you are safe.

But if someone hates you, they will come up with a reason after the fact.

Only then do you realize what you put in power. Only then do you realize what you stripped away.

There is terrible power in a joke, in a story, in taking the truth and making it ugly.

Do you understand, children?

End ID]

I would not describe Hegseth as "hilariously stupid". "Hideously moronic" or perhaps "Existentially incompetent", sure, or if we want to get poetic, "Drives his guardian angel to drink through his idiocy".

In fact, running off of that image, I imagine that, instead of the angel-and-demon-on-shoulders setup, he instead has two demons, but the second demon has the job of constantly whispering "Breathe in, Breathe out", as otherwise Pete might suffocate without the reminder. He might have once have had an original thought, but it definitely has died of loneliness in the time since.

But he tells Trump what the Orange One wants to hear, and that's apparently enough.

the thing about using Bce/Ce isn't that im pretending the calendar isn't based in Christianity, its that i dont want to literally participate in christianity every time i talk about the year. ill use the common calendar for the sake of convenience but im not saying ad because it isnt the year of my lord.

My marriage license came with AD pre-printed on it, and when my rabbi signed to officiate she crossed it out and relabeled it CE and I think that is so iconic of her

Whenever a new bird enters my life it is a tradition of mine to make it rad

Tolerance is a peace treaty, not an expression of surrender.

Or in other words: tolerance works both ways - I will tolerate you, even if I don't agree with your beliefs, so long as you're willing to tolerate me, even if you don't agree with my beliefs. Calling for the death of an entire nation is not even vaguely an expression of any form of tolerance - and people therefore shouldn't be expected to tolerate it.

skipping the ad isn't enough...... i need to banish it. i need to murder it. i need to stab it to death. i need to blow it the fuck up.

femmes should really consider revisiting a sort of 90s “hard femme” with like knifes and switchblades and a really slicked back ponytail with a leather jacket and nothing underneath and scuffed up nasty fuck-me pumps with visible dirt on them and cigarettes and slept-in smudged eyeliner as the only makeup and beer and being gross and filthy. instead of the whole deer bow i’m just a little pink princess thing

like let’s let the idea of “femininity” breathe a little bit you guys are strict as fuck about it just like the straights are

The first rule of fandom is have fun. The second rule of fandom is find an enabler and become an enabler. Yes you should write that fic. What if it was even hornier? What if it was angstier? What if you wrote it just for me?

This water is VEGAN???? *spits it out* bring me some meat water you punk clown

The invention of broth