ThePrettiestOne

robothugscomic:

New comic!

I’d better watch myself or else the ARAs are going to get on my ass. 

menstrualcramps:

magnius159:

Police Killing of Unarmed Native American Continues To Receive Little Media Attention

The tragic case of Corey Kanosh, 35, has received very little media attention, in spite of the growing outrage over police shootings of unarmed, innocent citizens. In Corey’s case, we are not dealing with an African American man shot by white cops, but an unarmed Native American man who was suspected of crimes that he was later proven innocent of, who was given only seconds before police opened fire on him.

Corey was a member of the Paiute Tribe of Utah. In spite of the historical injustices committed by the State against Native Americans, his story has received virtually no national attention. Now, his friends and family have been pushing to move the legal process forward, but so far they have only raised a tiny amount of money.

“The hold up on progressing has been due to lack of money to fund the oh so dreaded legal process,” they explain. “We need your help. Please help us on our way to get this case back up and ready. It’s time to take on the unwilling non-cooperative Millard County Sheriffs Department.”

Corey was shot by a Millard County sheriff’s deputy after he was wrongly suspected of car theft.

Sheriff’s spokeswoman Lindsay Mitchell explained that a 911 call was made about the theft of a car from the Kanosh Paiute Indian Reservation. But Corey had nothing to do with that.

Unarmed Paiute indigenous man innocent of all crimes killed by white cop in 10 seconds

Justice For Corey Kanosh Fundraiser

Pay attention to this

fuckyourgenderid:

dannydecato:

cyberdesert:

shoot me

Compare these maps to determine whether or not your boss is invited to your gay wedding

^^^ this is v important

ageekyfemmeforeveringlasses:

attndotcom:

Agreed.

Basic thoughts. For an ignorant institution.

classwarfairy:

shout out to everyone who was forced to internalize all their emotions growing up and now have a constant underlying anger that colors every part of their lives bc they never got to learn how to process their feelings

comedycentral:

Click here to watch Jon Stewart’s reaction to the State of the Union address.

For all its concern with change in the present and future, science fiction is deeply rooted in the past and, surprisingly, engages especially deeply with the ancient world. Indeed, both as an area in which the meaning of “classics” is actively transformed and as an open-ended set of texts whose own ‘classic' status is a matter of ongoing debate, science fiction reveals much about the roles played by ancient classics in modern times.

Classical Traditions in Science Fiction—edited by Brett M. Rogers and Benjamin Eldon Stevens—is the first collection dedicated to the rich study of science fiction's classical heritage, offering a much-needed mapping of its cultural and intellectual terrain. Available February 9th from Oxford University Press, this volume discusses a wide variety of representative examples from both classical antiquity and the past four hundred years of science fiction, exposing the many levels on which science fiction engages the ideas of the ancient world, from minute matters of language and structure to the larger thematic and philosophical concerns.

Below, Vince Tomasso explores the role of classical antiquity, myths, and tradition in Battlestar Galactica.

[Read More]

Read the full article

micdotcom:

Watch Martin Luther King Jr.’s powerful Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech 

More than 50 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. was honored by the Nobel Committee for his nonviolent campaign against racism in the United States. 

"I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when 22 million Negroes of the United States of America are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night of racial injustice," began King in his acceptance speech in Stockholm, Sweden. "I accept this reward on behalf of a civil rights movement [that] is moving with determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger to establish a reign of freedom and rule of justice."

But King’s speech was far from pure adulation, and the civil rights leader quickly sought to draw attention to the ongoing struggle of black Americans seeking dignity and respect.

Taylor Swift’s rise to feminism in 2014.

luxpanic:

farutakia:

Russel brand

I was very wrong about Russel Brand. respect to him

Boom. Parenting done right. 

Harry Connick Jr. talking about his daughters dating on Ellen.

goddesscru:

writingwithcolor:

Common Micro-aggressions: African Americans and/or
Black People

Anonymous said: What are some common micro-aggressions that a black american will regularly have to deal with?

Behold this masterpost of common micro-aggressions towards African Americans and/or people in the African Diaspora, several of which may be applicable to other PoC. Micro-aggressions can be perpetuated by White people as well as fellow Black people and People of Color.

This is just to give a thorough understanding of some of the things a Black person (often in America) deals with. Don’t run forward and jam-pack your Black character with every one of these experiences, though I can say I’ve personally experienced every one of these or know someone who has.

General Micro-aggressions

• People excusing blackface.
• Having our grammar and annunciation corrected.
• "I don’t see you as a Black person/ I don’t see colour.”
• Calling Black people ghetto, thugs, rachet, sassy, urban…
• People debating why they should be allowed to say the n-word.
• Then saying the n-word anyway.
• Whispering, spitting, or stumbling over the word “Black” as if it’s a curse.
• Refusing to pronounce your name right, or just calling you by a different name that’s easier.
• Alternatively, “jokingly” calling you a "ghetto" name.
• Constantly mixing up unrelated and not even resembling Black people, because you know.. ‘Black people all look the same’.
• Dismissing our experiences as “just overreacting,” defending the wronging party, or using our plight to talk about one’s own experience (e.g. “well as a gay man i’ve got it rough…”).
• Telling racist jokes and calling you sensitive when you don’t find it funny.
• ”______  is the new civil rights movement!” Black folks are still fighting for their rights so…

Media

• Fox news (xD)
• Caricatured depictions of Black people on TV.
• Casting calls for Black people only tailored for “race roles.”
• Media treating white criminals and killers better than Black victims (see these headlines).

Stereotypes

• Assuming you only listen to rap/hip-hop/r&b.
• Assuming you love chicken, Kool-aid, and/or smoke weed.
• Assuming you’re good at sports.
• Assuming there’s no father in the picture in Black families.
• Assuming all Black people (see: young girls) have children.
• Calling Black people who don’t conform to one’s image of Blackness, “less black,” acting white or “oreo.”

AAVE

• Non-Black People mimicking/imitating AAVE.
• People falling into AAVE when talking to Black People.
• “Why don’t Black people speak real English instead of ‘ebonics’?”

Insults/doubting intelligence:

• You’re so articulate!”
• “You take advanced classes?!”
• "How did she get into that [prestigious school and/or program]?”
• "They only got x because they’re Black/Affirmative action.”
• Assuming a Black person (usually male) attends college because of a sports scholarship.
• Counselors discouraging Black students to take prestigious coursework, assuming it’s too difficult for them.

 Respectability politics:

• "You’re a credit to your race."
• “I’m glad you’re not like those other Black people. You’re not ghetto or listen to that rap stuff..”
• Tone policing: dismissing someone’s reaction/argument/etc. because they are too “emotional.” Thinking that we need to be calm in order to be taken seriously. 
• Pitting African immigrants against African Americans, especially those coming to America for education, aka “Good Blacks.”

Beauty Standards and Dating

• "You’re pretty for a Black girl."
• "You’re pretty! Are you mixed?"
• "I don’t usually date/aren’t attracted to Black people.”
• Calling attraction to Black people “jungle fever.”

Fetishization/Othering

• People asking you what you are or where you’re really from.
• Referring to Black people or our features as “exotic.”
• Referring to Black people’s skin as chocolate or other foods.

Black Women/Misogynoir

• Saying Black women are “strong, independent and don’t need no man.”
• Calling Black women “sassy" or angry if she shows passion/emotion.
• Referring to white and non-black women as “girls” and “women” while calling Black women “Females.”
• [White] males who apply courtesy to white women (holding doors, giving up seat) but don’t apply the same to Black women.
• Referring to Black women on government assistance as “welfare queens” (While ignoring that white people get more government assistance than Black people in the USA).
• "Black women All woman are beautiful.” (Stop. That. Please.)

Hair.

• People touching/petting your hair without consent.
• “So is that your real hair? Are those extensions?”
• Calling natural black hair unprofessional.
• White people appropriating Black hair styles (dreads, twists, etc) and being praised as edgy, while it’s “ghetto, unprofessional, and unclean” on our own heads.

Poverty Assumptions:

• “Do you live in the ghetto?”
• “Can you afford that?”
• “Here are the value prices of this product…”

Racial Profiling + Criminalization:

• Crossing the street to avoid passing Black men/people.
• Following in stores, assuming Black people are stealing.
• Moving aside when we pass, clutching purse, locking doors.
• Asking Black people for I.D. when paying with card (while white people are not asked).
• Being pulled over + arrested at astonishingly higher rates than white people.

For a fuller understanding of micro aggressions and the effects it has on individuals overtime, please see this: “These incidents may appear small…”

~Mods: Colette and Alice

This is important.

“Twitter and Tumblr are public, but that doesn’t mean that everyone is invited to the table–just like if you see a group of friends talking at a restaurant, that is not an invitation to barge in and ask them questions, even though you are able to see them and hear their conversation.”

-

“Educate Me!” “Go Google It!” (via brutereason)

verymorstan - I found the quote I was talking about last night.

(via saathi1013)

bogleech:

exeggcute:

satire is “I’m going to take this concept to an extreme or absurd level in order to demonstrate how bizarre/nonsensical/illogical it is” and not “I said something bigoted but just kidding I didn’t really mean it hahaha”

Dang it I’ve written like 5000 words trying to explain this and I only needed this post to reblog

needlekind:

this comic is EVERYTHING

http://thefabulousweirdtrotters.tumblr.com/


http://thefabulousweirdtrotters.tumblr.com/


http://thefabulousweirdtrotters.tumblr.com/


http://thefabulousweirdtrotters.tumblr.com/


http://thefabulousweirdtrotters.tumblr.com/


http://thefabulousweirdtrotters.tumblr.com/


http://thefabulousweirdtrotters.tumblr.com/


http://thefabulousweirdtrotters.tumblr.com/


http://thefabulousweirdtrotters.tumblr.com/


http://thefabulousweirdtrotters.tumblr.com/

thefabulousweirdtrotters:

Jim Kazanjian

mimicryisnotmastery:

theboycourt:

So among a whole lot of other things, the white media is just going to ignore the fact that this man is dating a fucking middle schooler.

They not gonna paint his trifling, unrepentant white ass as a thug either, go figure.

“We have candidates for president now saying that government can’t create jobs. These are guys with government jobs! They’re on the government payroll, saying government can’t create jobs. Government created your job.”

- Lawrence O’Donnell, obliterating the ridiculous conservative meme that the government doesn’t create jobs (via shayera-librarian)

I call him a real-life Legolas, but as the “fastest archer alive,” Lars Andersen is reportedly capabale of firing three arrows in 0.6 second—which makes him faster than Legolas. In this video, he puts those hard-earned skills (which he polished while LARPing, of course) to use recreating the techniques he picked up from old manuscripts, while in the process debunking some of the classic Hollywood myths about archery.

Andersen’s biggest pet peeve in movies? The quiver that archer characters wear on their back. “I recently read about a girl who did Katniss Everdeen (from Hunger Games) cosplay. She’d had to glue the arrows to the inside of the quiver to make sure they didn’t bounce out when she ran around,” he said. “If that doesn’t tell us that the back quiver is silly, I don’t know what does.”

Anyone else want to see an action movie where Anderson, Hunger Games trainer Khatuna Lorig, and Russian quickshooter Iza Privezenceva all just take turns being badasses?

(via The College of Wizardry on Twitter)

Are you following The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?

vancity604778kid:

ultrafacts:

Source For more posts like this, follow the Ultrafacts Blog!

superbestiario:

“I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs. I knew at that point I had to have a camera.” – Gordon Parks

Segregation history, Gordon parks. 1956

This isn’t ancient history. This was NORMAL and ACCEPTED in America in my parents’ lifetime.

We still have a lot of work to do, to realize the promise of equality in this country.

“We have learned from intersectionality that people can be oppressed along more than one axis, such as women of color or trans people of color. But intersectionality also means that people can be both oppressed and oppressors at the same time, along different axes. For example, a white woman has white privilege but may be disadvantaged by her gender. A poor white man may be white and male, but he may be disadvantaged by his class status. An overweight middle class white man may face fat phobia. The word cannot neatly be divided into oppressors and the oppressed.

If we want to dismantle certain structures of oppression (say, gender), we need to not reinforce other structures of oppression in the process (say, appearance, or class). We need to take down all the structures of oppression, whether based on gender, race, class, sexual orientation, gender preference, or appearance.”

- Reinforcing Other Axes of Oppression Isn’t “Punching Up” (via socio-logic)

khoshekh-yourself:

catsuitmonarchy:

optimysticals:

vancity604778kid:

ultrafacts:

Source Click HERE to Follow the Ultrafacts Blog!

ALICE ROOSEVELT WAS HARDCORE. “She was known as a rule-breaker in an era when women were under great pressure to conform. The American public noticed many of her exploits. She smoked cigarettes in public, swore at officials, rode in cars with men, stayed out late partying, kept a pet snake named Emily Spinach (Emily as in her spinster aunt and Spinach for its green color) in the White House, and was seen placing bets with a bookie. 

So what I’m reading here is, she was a Roosevelt?

Well I have a new hero.

Her whole wikipedia article is gold

"When her father was governor of New York, he and his wife proposed that Alice attend a conservative school for girls in New York City. Pulling out all the stops, Alice wrote, ‘If you send me I will humiliate you. I will do something that will shame you. I tell you I will.’"

"Her father took office in 1901 following the assassination of President William McKinley, Jr. in Buffalo (an event that she greeted with "sheer rapture.")"

“During the cruise to Japan, Alice jumped into the ship’s pool fully clothed, and coaxed a congressman to join her in the water. (Years later Bobby Kennedy would chide her about the incident, saying it was outrageous for the time, to which the by-then-octogenarian Alice replied that it would only have been outrageous had she removed her clothes.”

"She was dressed in a blue wedding dress and dramatically cut the wedding cake with a sword (borrowed from a military aide attending the reception)"

"When it came time for the Roosevelt family to move out of the White House, Alice buried a Voodoo doll of the new First Lady, Nellie Taft, in the front yard."

"Later, the Taft White House banned her from her former residence—the first but not the last administration to do so. During Woodrow Wilson’s administration (from which she was banned in 1916 for a bawdy joke at Wilson’s expense)…"

"As an example of her attitudes on race, in 1965 her African-American chauffeur and one of her best friends, Turner, was driving Alice to an appointment. During the trip, he pulled out in front of a taxi, and the driver got out and demanded to know of him, "What do you think you’re doing, you black bastard?" Turner took the insult calmly, but Alice did not and told the taxi driver, "He’s taking me to my destination, you white son of a bitch!"

“To Senator Joseph McCarthy, who had jokingly remarked at a party “Here’s my blind date. I am going to call you Alice”, she sarcastically said “Senator McCarthy, you are not going to call me Alice. The trashman and the policeman on my block call me Alice, but you may not.”

»“Senator McCarthy, you are not going to call me Alice. The trashman and the policeman on my block call me Alice, but you may not.”«

I’m in love.  Are there any good biographies of this woman?  I’ve sworn off Wikipedia.

“Some cooler heads at Wikipedia’s Arbcom seem prepared to demur from some of the most egregious sanctions in the infamous original draft decision on Gamergate. Two apparent outcomes hang in the balance. The original plan would ban all the major feminists and GamerGate critics involved in the area from mentioning anything pertaining to games, gender, or sexuality anywhere in Wikipedia. The compromise, apparently, is to sanction one second-tier Gamergate ringleader as well, and perhaps to deadlock on sanctioning some of Gamergate’s targets.
 
What is conspicuously absent from the discussion is any trace of explicit concern for the way Wikipedia has been exploited as a platform for spreading baseless speculation and innuendo about the sex lives of women who have been targeted – targeted either because GamerGaters want to drive them out of the industry, or because some GamerGaters think this is fun.”

- Mark Bernstein: Thoughtless

“

GamerGate seeks to drive women out of computing by choosing some targets, harassing them until they go into hiding, and warning the remaining women (and the declining number of women pursuing computer science degrees) that they might be next. Methods for achieving this include:  

• anonymous threats of assault, rape, and murder.
• anonymous messages to employers seeking to have the victim demoted or dismissed.
• publicizing the target’s sexual history, both as an end in itself and as a way to make the target less attractive to prospective employers.

  At an early date, GamerGate identified Wikipedia, “the encyclopedia anyone can edit,” as ideal for their purposes. It’s conspicuous. Google loves it: for most everyday people, Google will make Wikipedia its first or second hit. No one admits it, but reporters use Wikipedia as a crib all the time. It’s anonymous, and it’s rich enough to make that anonymity stick.”

-

Mark Bernstein: How GamerGate Uses Wikipedia as a weapons platform.

These GamerGate assholes are explicitly and implicitly supported and have been enthusiastically endorsed by Adam Baldwin. You may want to think about this, if you’re considering attending a convention where he’s appearing.

In the next few days, we’ll be updating The Old Reader to have https enabled for all users by default. This means that your browser will now be told to communicate with The Old Reader using a secure connection, as you will see by the lock icon and the https rather than the http in the address bar of your browser.

While this will be a great change for most of you, there may be some of you that are unable to use https, or https will result in poor experience. So, we’ve added an option to your settings page to turn off this default.

It is also important to note that many of the posts that you read in The Old Reader reference images, videos, podcasts, etc., are not using a secure connection. Because of this, you may see a warning about “unencrypted elements” depending on the type of browser you use and the settings you have.

We do our best so that no matter what your setting, https or http, no information about your Old Reader session is transferred from your browser to any of the feeds you are subscribed to. If you’re seeing otherwise, let us know and we’ll drop everything and fix it immediately.

As always, if you have any issues at all, please contact support@theoldreader.com and we’ll be happy to hear your feedback or give you a hand.

Do you know what’s popular on the web right now?

If you ignore search engines, social media, and shopping, the most popular content on the web is sports (espn.com), news (cnn.com, huffingtonpost.com, foxnews.com), and porn.

If you ignore celebrities like Katy Perry, the most popular stuff on Twitter is mainstream news sites (CNN, BBC). 

If you look at what’s popular among The Old Reader users, you get a much different picture. 

First off, you like comics. Really, really like comics. XKCD, Dilbert, and the Oatmeal dominate the list of most popular feeds on The Old Reader. 

After comics, the majority of feeds are tech blogs and tech news sites. Then comes lifestyle stuff like Lifehacker. There is also a lot of longer form content like TED Talks or in-depth magazine reporting. We also see national news sites like nytimes.com and what might be considered local news sites, like Boston.com.

Interestingly, there is very little sports in our feeds. That might be because our users are just not sports fans. Or it might be that sports is easy to consume on Twitter. 

Looking at all of the data, I’m starting to think that The Old Reader is like a newspaper. Our readers are using it to compile a single source of information, news, analysis, satire, and opinion. It’s a source of information that you would have to work really hard to get just going online or using social media.

In fact, I think that the popularity of comics on our list supports my theory. It seems to me that just like in the days of the newspaper, comics are the one thing everyone can agree on. 

And as a comic fan, I’d like to point out that the comics you like are not childish entertainment. These comics are satire. Satire is only useful or interesting to people who have a good handle on what’s going on and are looking for a more subtle, sophisticated take- a way to make sense of the all the other stuff they read.  

On the Internet or social media, most people don’t read much beyond the headlines on mainstream news sites. But judging from our most popular feeds, The Old Reader makes it possible to consume a broader range of stuff, from comics and satire to news and analysis, to blogs and feature-length content.

Having information and being informed are not the same thing. Our users are looking to be informed. The paradox of our time is that you can have all of the information in the world available and learn less. There are more sources of information, but you need new literacy skills to decode messages in the way news and information are presented.

Most of us don’t have the time or mental energy to really analyze everything coming at us. But if you use it right, I really believe The Old Reader can help you get a better handle on a complicated world. 

You may have heard the saying "nice guys finish last," but there is plenty of evidence that says being nice is far more advantageous. This video explains why being nice is almost always the best way to go.

Read more...

“

Ronald Reagan created a mythological character — the “Welfare Queen” — and taught America that it was OK to be racist, OK to hate poor people, and OK to resent paying taxes. More than 30 years later, a substantial number of Americans still believe that lazy black women make millions of dollars a year by popping out babies and signing them up for welfare.

In an article in Politico, Rand Paul attempts to create a mythology that he hopes will convince Americans to hate science. Paul knows that if he can get voters to resent scientific research as much as they resent minorities and poor people, then he and his fellow Republicans will be free to ignore inconvenient facts about climate change, population trends, and other data that goes against the Republican agenda.

Paul questions the wisdom of paying for research funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). NSF is the primary source of government funding for research in economics, mathematics, computer science, and social sciences — basically things that Republicans don’t understand. [….]

Just as Reagan wanted us to believe that it is OK to be racist, Rand Paul wants us to believe that it’s OK to be ignorant. It’s OK to resent money spent on scientific research, regardless of the potential benefits of that research.

Rand Paul wants us to believe that science is too expensive, a luxury that we cannot afford. The reality is that Republicans cannot afford an informed electorate that engages in critical thinking. We cannot afford to stop learning. We can’t afford to stop asking questions.

If the Congressman wants to portray the Republican War On Science as a budgetary crisis, then he might want to check his facts.

”

-

Bob Seay, "Turning Science Into the New Welfare Queen" (via holygoddamnshitballs)

"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." - Derek Bok

(via iammyfather)