I moved this weekend and I am sore as fuck now. Always a stressful thing, moving. But it was worth it I think. It's a nice new place. Life is sort of tiring at the moment and I hope things get better soon. At least it is supposed to be better weather soon. Can't wait to start my herb nursery on my new balcony.
For any of you following the events at Columbia University:
The NYPD (!) was asked for a statement by the NYT and could not find a justification for why they were asked to arrest the students at the encampment last Wednesday
There is a pro-genocide demonstration happening across the street from campus featuring a flag which is half the flag of the US and half the flag of "Israel"
I had a discussion on trans people with my family in law today and it got really nasty. As in, I walked out of the room out of madness nasty. Screaming nasty. I'm not proud of it but I snapped when I heard the 'rapist toilet' argument come up again.
Yeah. Just a shame I let myself get angry. But if they conceil their arguments behind a thin veil of 'concern' while the arguments contain the words 'mental disorder' and 'rape' and 'but our current heteronormative society mag not be ready' even I seem to have my limits.
The lack of focus I was having last week is only getting worse, I sit down to work and I just...don't. And I'm having memory problems, last week was even more of a blur than the weeks before it. Going to see a doctor about this soon, hopefully it isn't anything too major.
It’s unfortunate how forgotten this piece of history is outside of Portugal. I also find it funny that I’m the only person in my family that “celebrates” this day.
Yep, April 25th marks the day when the Portuguese working class, with the MFA (movimento das forças armadas) took down fascism and almost made Portugal a socialist country.
And now they are talking about celebrating another date, 25th november, which marks the end of the revolution and the start of the turn towards capitalist western succdem government. Dudes really love discrediting actually liberating movements
Got in a discussion on Reddit about sex work and the whole white, male 'WOMEN SEXUAL LIBERATION REEEE' crowd came crawling out of their basements to downvote. To them, sex work is this perverse fantasy of a white woman being empowered instead of the reality in which 99% are human trafficking victims in horrible conditions.
I'm "softer" (lol) on sexwork than most marxists are, and I think it tends to be unfairly demonized, often into SWERF territory.
Of course it's not that simple or black and white, and nobody should be pressured or coerced into sex work, and it is a genuine horrific travesty that many women find themselves in because they need to make end's meet, and this is especially true among women and afab of color.
I've spoken to women who are prostitutes and who are also marxists and are genuinely empowered by their work, and have their own thoughts and perspectives that deserve respect and consideration, though since I do live in the global north/collective west, I can't even imagine how bad things are for women who are forced into it, even after reading about, especially in the global south, and the global north too.
Not that it particularly matters, nor is there likely anyway of measuring the statistics, but I'd be woeful of saying that 99 percent of sexworkers are trafficking victims.
But I don't mean to completely disagree with you, and the percentage is definitely way more than most expect.
99% was a bit of an exeggaration but over here in Belgium it is estimated that around 85% of the people in prostitution are actually trafficked into it. And then there are some people who fall into a grey area of being semi forced into it and then we have a tiny minority who do it out of empowerment.
I used to work with human trafficking victims and almost everyone of them used to be a sex worker. There seems to be this liberal fantasy in which sex work is one of the highest tiers of womens liberation but the reality is just so far removed from that, that we need to abolish this system entirely.
That being said, I am not going against sex workers who do speak up for better conditions and rights, etc. I support the sex workers struggle against the system of course. I have nothing against a free sexual spirit, I am all for it. I just do hope we, as a society, manage to move past viewing sex as labour in order to keep existing.
Are conservatives actually also libs? They're also proponents of capitalism and are idealists, but are they really just conservative liberals? I can see how they would be, cons also believe in nebulous ideas like human rights, they just don't even pretend that they should be extended to the out-group.
I don't mean Dem/Repub. I was more just curious if there was some philosophical backing, like a (even more) conservative Bentham. It didn't seem correct but I also didn't want to call a Republican a lib and have them somehow know that no no I'm wrong cus reasons. Idk
Depends on how your local roads/side walks/pathways are maintained. If the snow is cleared, e bikes work just fine, but your range will be hurt a bit. A bad headwind will also mean your range goes down a lot (wind seems worse in the winter where I am, but that could be some sort of confirmation bias). The times I've biked through Blizzard conditions/extreme wind and cold I was very glad to have the e assist on the bike. Those days are rare though, and the primary consideration in my mind is how well things are maintained the rest of the year.
That being said, a path that hasn't been cleared in days is basically unusable for any bike. Maybe a fat-tire bike could work, but I don't have experience with that.
In terms of space, I use my bike all the time so I've made space for it in my apartment.
Maybe is should ask, what type of ebike are you looking to get? There is quite a range of types. Mine is basically just a normal bike with a motor assist.
That's what I'm trying to determine. Most likely something beyond simple assist, and more along the lines of "moped that I could pedal if the battery dies"
They're "usable" to a certain extent, but range is cut by the cold and the wind on your skin is murder. Also, of course, you should never ride if there isn't sand on the ground for your tires to grip or (even better) you have studded tires - even the smallest patch of ice can be disastrous.
But you can totally do it. I got some strap on arm guards for my handlebars and my helmet has a visor to block the wind, works pretty well.
It's Kings Day in the Netherlands today. I'm against the monarchy so I'll not wear the royal color Orange when I go outside. For me it's just an excuse to go party, but this year I'm less in the mood than usual