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Who are some good political writers who are queer, POC, and/or women?

I've read a decent amount of theory and the like, but I'm ashamed to say most of it has been written by straight white guys. However, I did very much enjoy Racism without Racists by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva.

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Tell me about your TTRPG character(s)/campaign(s)!

TTRPGs count as gaming, right? So tell me a little about what you have going on!

I'm currently in two DND 5e campaigns.

The first one is a homebrew setting, but still pretty standard as far as DND settings go. All the usual races. My character is Velena Zausek, a level 3 half-drow draconic sorcerer. Her backstory is that her drow father escaped the Underdark when he was young, then he and her human mother went on to start a successful weaving business. One day a badly wounded man stumbled into their town and they gave him shelter, fully expecting him to die. But he miraculously recovered, and then he claimed to be a dragon in disguise. As thanks, he offered them a boon: He would ask his dragon god to bless their bloodline. Thinking he was just nuts, they accepted and thought nothing more of it... until Velena hit puberty and started growing scales and setting things on fire.

When she reached adulthood, Velena inherited the weaving business but was bored to tears by it, so she decided to set out to be an adventurer. She and her buddies just finished fighting some drow who were about to sacrifice people to perform a ritual, and I suspect we'll try to figure out what their whole deal was as our next move.

Oh, and one of the party members is a draegloth (drow monster thingy) who took one look at Velena and decided she must be in charge lmao. Velena didn't initially realize this, but upon figuring it out she is so uncomfortable with it. I'm loving roleplaying it.

The second campaign is set in the Old Margreve, though I believe the DM just borrowed the setting and isn't planning on using any of the premade stuff otherwise. This campaign is newer, so I have less to say about it, but it seems really fun so far. Amusingly enough, we're following what seem to be drow through the forest, so drow are possibly the bad guys in both my campaigns.

My character is a Tabaxi swashbuckler rogue named Wind on Water. He just hit 4th level, and if anyone has any suggestions for feats, that would be appreciated. (I already have Alert.) He doesn't have as much of a backstory as Velena, but he grew up dirt poor in a big city and is adventuring to make money for himself and his brother. He and one of the other PCs are con men who were hiding out from their last heist when they got roped into this adventure. Their game was that his companion would steal from nobles, then Wind would "catch" him and turn him in for a price before freeing him. Kind of like The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, if you've seen that.

Both Velena and Wind are a blast to play, but for very different reasons. Velena is my first DND character, so she's a lot like me because I figured that would be easier to roleplay. With Wind, I wanted to try something harder, so he's not much like me at all.

But enough about my bullshit. Tell me about your bullshit!

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ADHD/autism/etc. and justice sensitivity
  • Probably due to my own childhood experiences, it makes me very upset to see an individual or group persecuted because they are doing something or are something that is not harmful in any way whatsoever but have been arbitrarily categorized as unacceptable.

    Holy shit, MOOD. I cannot stand people insisting that harmless things are bad just because they're weird/they're gross/they make them feel bad somehow. Especially from leftists like myself. They should know that that feeling is exactly the same feeling that drives conservatives to hate queer and kinky people.

    When I see banal evil, or wrongdoing committed out of apathy and selfishness, I want to shake them and explain to them that they are deteriorating the social fabric and ultimately creating problems for themselves through sheer stupidity.

    Right? Even if you don't care about anyone but yourself, YOU ALSO BENEFIT FROM THE WORLD BEING A BETTER PLACE. And you can actively contribute to that!

  • ADHD/autism/etc. and justice sensitivity

    ADHD and autism are both strongly correlated with justice sensitivity. If you need an explanation for what that is, here's a quote from this article:

    >Justice sensitivity is the tendency to notice and identify wrong-doing and injustice and have intense cognitive, emotional, and behavioral reactions to that injustice. People who are justice sensitive tend to notice injustice more often than others, they tend to ruminate longer and more intensely on that injustice, and they feel a stronger need to restore justice.

    Do y'all experience this? If so, how does it manifest?

    For me, I can't see injustice and do nothing. Failing to stand up for my beliefs makes me hate myself, and I'll usually do it even if I know it's a bad idea or I'm surrounded by people who disagree--if anything, I feel more compelled to do it then. Since some of my beliefs are wildly unpopular, this often winds up in me feeling ostracized, rejected, and depressed.

    I don't know what to do about this. I can't just not stand up for what I believe in--it's clearly the right thing to do. But it's a deeply unpleasant experience I keep repeating. I'll choose standing up for my beliefs over not being hurt if I have to, but that doesn't make it fun.

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    Reddit CEO slams protesters as "landed gentry," says he'll change site rules
  • if MODERATORS are landed gentry, what the fuck does that make rich bastards like him?

  • The woke left!
  • as a woke leftist, i hate tankies because y'all aren't leftists in any meaningful sense. the only difference between you and libs is which countries whose atrocities you justify.

  • The woke left!
  • i've read marx. at precisely no point does he say anything justifying the various atrocities state capitalist countries have committed. i think he's wrong about some stuff, but even if you accept that his word is gospel, tankies are still just people who took leftist principles as an excuse for the imposing the kind of brutal authoritarianism that leftists are supposed to be against.

  • Is it okay to own a car in a rural area?
  • Exactly. Blaming individuals for systemic problems never gets you anywhere. If you can reduce your car dependency, sure, do that, but don't beat yourself up if you can't.

  • Who are some of your favorite socialist writers?

    I'm a huge fan of David Graeber. Bullshit Jobs was part of what radicalized me, and I read it whenever I'm feeling isolated and misunderstood by an unjust world. He gets it, man. His other works are amazing too, and I'd highly recommend them all to anyone interested in socialism. I'm still heartbroken that he died so young.

    Peter Kropotkin is another beloved author of mine. I'm not an ancom, but A Conquest of Bread is a great introduction to anarcho-communism, not to mention being beautiful and inspiring.

    Who do y'all like to read?

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    Anarchist Memes @lemmy.ml balerion @beehaw.org
    Don't mind me, just posting some anti-tankie memes.
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    Anarchist Memes @lemmy.ml balerion @beehaw.org
    A helpful diagram illustrating the differences between tankies and liberals
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    Hi any dropout subscribers here?
  • Not a subscriber yet, but I might become one after I finish Fantasy High.

  • Anarchist Memes @lemmy.ml balerion @beehaw.org
    One of my favorite anti-tankie memes
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    DAE dislike the term "neurodivergent" as applied to ADHD?
  • That's a fair perspective. However, the counterpoint I've often heard from autistic advocates is that autism is only a disability on allistic terms. If everyone communicated in a way autistic people understood, it wouldn't be a disability. This could be completely wrong, of course, but it's what I've heard argued.

    I don't feel like this is the case with my variety of ADHD. I feel like even if the world tried to accommodate my ADHD traits, I'd still struggle quite a bit.

  • Anarchist Memes @lemmy.ml balerion @beehaw.org
    I made a shitty meme. Please enjoy.
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    I picked up this shirt at the Salem Witch Museum in October.

    Wore it and immediately got a dude telling me I'd "pay for that on Judgment Day." 10/10, have worn again.

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    kids these days *shakes head*
  • tag yourself, i'm crisis actor

  • So what made yall figure it out?
  • I think I figured out I was bi when I was around 12? I don't remember exactly what spurred it, but the first female fictional character I remember thinking was hot was Franziska von Karma. God. She's the ideal woman.

    And tbh I'm just now starting to wonder if I may have more going on than just "cis chick" gender-wise. I'm pretty sure I'm a woman, but I might also be something else? Uhhhh if anyone has resources for figuring out if you may be multigender, or just wants to talk to me about it, that would be appreciated lol

  • DAE dislike the term "neurodivergent" as applied to ADHD?
  • I agree with you that "I have a mental illness" shouldn't get a horrified reaction anymore than "I have an illness" does. It's a shitty stigma we should try to break down.

    Yeah, the toxic positivity is a big part of what I'm referring to here. I've been deeply disappointed to hear my fellow leftists say things like, "Under socialism, you wouldn't need your ADHD meds! You're not disordered, you're just living in a capitalist society that doesn't value you!" Which, while it's true that living in a capitalist society makes things much harder on people with ADHD, I don't think it's true that none of us would struggle or need meds under a better system.

    I totally understand why you identify with the term neurodivergent. It really does seem to be the best term that exists for people like you.

    Go ahead. I'm perfectly down to have a discussion.

  • DAE dislike the term "neurodivergent" as applied to ADHD?
  • Perhaps. My only real exposure to either has been through social media, so that's what my thoughts are based on. But I do feel like even if you divorce it from the neurodiversity movement, the word "neurodivergent" is to "mentally ill" as "differently abled" is to "disabled": an unhelpful and somewhat idealized version of a more appropriate term. Though that specifically applies to it regarding ADHD, not every difference in neurology, as I said.

  • US's Blinken says no to any Ukraine peace deal that doesn't include total Russian withdrawal
  • I already said that not everything Palestinians do to fight back is good or justified. I believe attacks on the Israeli government and military are at least potentially justified, but no, random Israeli citizens should not be killed. But even unjust violence on the part of the Palestinians does not change the position of victim and aggressor here, any more than the brutality that some Native American tribes exhibited against European colonists did. And what do the actions of surrounding nations have to do with Palestinians? Besides, I'd say the oppression of Palestinians goes far beyond what anyone could possibly consider reasonable safety measures. Frankly, you sound like an American conservative talking about the "invasion" at the southern border.

    Genuine question, because I literally don't know this: Is the green in Israeli-occupied territory natural green that comes from good tending, or is it artificial green like all the grass in Las Vegas? Should it be there or is it a massive waste of water turning a desert into an unnatural and unsustainable oasis? And if it's the former, could the lack of green on Palestinian soil be because of the bombings and destruction of infrastructure/social frameworks that could support greenery?

  • DAE dislike the term "neurodivergent" as applied to ADHD?
  • I'm not necessarily saying that ADHD doesn't come with benefits. I'm just saying that, for me at least, my ADHD's shittier aspects undermine the benefits it gives me.

    For example, I'm quite creative. But I don't create much. Why? Executive dysfunction. I've wanted to be a writer my entire life. But I just don't have the discipline (or executive function, call it what you want) to make it work. I've had the same novel idea for a long time. Wanna know how many words I've written? Zero. I've got a bunch of scattered, sometimes contradictory notes about the characters and setting, but I can't make myself sit down and compile it all, let alone plot out a coherent story. I've tried writing without planning or outlining beforehand, and it works insofar as it gets words onto the paper, but at the end of it I'm left with a disaster that needs copious editing and no energy or interest in doing it.

    I wrote a couple novels when I was a teenager. They will never see the light of day because after writing them, I never got around to making them into something decent, and now I'm no longer interested in the projects.

    Even on meds, I just lack whatever it is normies have that makes them select a project or skill to work on and then follow through with it until they're satisfied. The one and only creative thing I've ever been able to stick with is crochet, and even then, I took a six-month break from it and only picked it back up on a whim. And I only stick with crochet because it's easy and mostly thoughtless; I won't be able to do consistently anything that requires sustained mental effort, especially sustained mental effort.

    Admittedly, I probably could write more consistently if I had some kind of outside force making me, but where do I find that? I both need structure and avoid it at all costs because it feels so suffocating. I could maybe get an accountability buddy, though I hate having to be accountable, but I doubt that would be enough. I fear the hell out of failing out of school, but if my dad doesn't sit down with me and help me study, I just won't do it half the time. Even with the meds. Even knowing my future depends on it. Even as a 27-year-old adult. Even knowing my dad is paying good fucking money to send me to school. My brain simply hates doing things. Hell, I even procrastinate on things I love.

    What good is a writer who doesn't write? I know I'm worth more than what I produce, yes. But still. The world could have my works, but it probably never will, and that depresses the hell out of me.

    And none of this is even touching on rejection-sensitive dysphoria. RSD makes normal life events like breakups and failure into soul-crushing catastrophes. I've tried repeatedly to kill myself in part because RSD ensures things that happened years ago still hurt just as sharply as they did in the moment. There are some things I will simply never get over, and I just have to learn to numb the pain enough to keep living. Call ADHD a gift all you like, but the truth is that a healthy person's brain should not try to kill them over every bad thing that happens.

  • US's Blinken says no to any Ukraine peace deal that doesn't include total Russian withdrawal
  • And none of that matters even one single iota to a Palestinian child who's just been shot in the chest. Go ahead, go up to a grieving Palestinian family and tell them, "Well, I'm oppressed too." So what? So fucking what? Having been displaced and oppressed doesn't magically make it okay for you to turn around and do the same thing to others.

    I don't have a problem with Jews living in Palestine if they don't displace the Palestinians. But that's exactly what they're doing. Jews, like anyone else, should be free to live absolutely anywhere on Earth without fear. But they have no right to inflict terror on others. No amount of oppression could possibly justify that.

    As for why recency of claim matters, I don't think it's necessarily that important, but I was making a point. However, you could make the argument in the case of Native Americans that they're still quite tied to the lands they live(d) on and often care for those lands in a way colonizers don't, and therefore their presence is important for environmental reasons. You can't really make the same argument for Jews and Israel.

    Hahaha, what? Native Americans don't have anyone calling for their extermination? They're literally still subject to a genocide, like many racial minorities in the US. They were involuntarily sterilized up until the 1970s, and they're still treated brutally by the government (and especially police).

    child sexual abuse

    I literally heard a speech in person from a Native man who was taken to a residential school and repeatedly sexual assaulted until he was suicidal while his age was still in single digits. There are people alive today who have experienced this stuff.

  • US's Blinken says no to any Ukraine peace deal that doesn't include total Russian withdrawal
  • Why does any of that matter? Why does any of that make it okay to displace the people who currently live in a place? It's their homeland, too. They have at least as much a right to it as Israelis.

    Shit, I'm for landback for indigenous Americans, and even I don't think non-indigenous people should be kicked off the land they currently live on and relocated. And Native Americans have a much more recent claim to American land than Israelis do to Palestine.

  • US's Blinken says no to any Ukraine peace deal that doesn't include total Russian withdrawal
  • If white Americans today went back to Europe and forcibly displaced the people living there, they would be colonizers. It doesn't matter that they can trace their lineage back to that location. The idea that blood links you to land is nonsense.

    Jesus Christ, how much Israeli propaganda have you been drinking? I don't know what the fuck you're talking about, but even assuming that's all true, whose fault is it that people there needed humanitarian aid in the first place? Try reading sources on Palestinians that don't have a pro-Israel agenda sometime.

    My instance disables downvotes, so I can neither downvote you nor see your negative score, but good. I'm glad you're getting downvoted. That's exactly what uncritically regurgitated propaganda deserves.

  • DAE dislike the term "neurodivergent" as applied to ADHD?
  • You are, of course, allowed to feel that way. But I'd trade my brain for a normie brain in a heartbeat. I'd still be me, just capable of taking out the trash. I see no upsides to my ADHD that aren't canceled out by the signifcant downsides.

  • US's Blinken says no to any Ukraine peace deal that doesn't include total Russian withdrawal
  • I'm sorry, how do you think YOU would behave if your homeland were colonized? You'd just politely ask the colonizers to leave until they felt bad enough for you to listen? Not everything Palestinians do to fight back is good or justified, but they're clearly the victims in this scenario.

    Half of children in Gaza are suicidal. HALF. 60% self-harm, and 80% are depressed. Are you cool with that? Because that is directly Israel's doing.

    To be clear, Israel is not a unique evil. The US and China are at least as bad. But Israel is not magically exempt from criticism, nor is it remotely comparable to Ukraine.

  • DAE dislike the term "neurodivergent" as applied to ADHD?

    Disclaimer: I have no quarrel with the mods using the term in the creation of this community. I understand why they chose it, as even if they share my disagreement with the term when applied to ADHD, there's not really a better inclusive term. "Mental illness" is really the only other option, and naming a community that would probably invite darker discussions that the mods might not be prepared to handle.

    Another disclaimer: I think the term is perfectly valid when applied to autism, as autism is not, to the best of my knowledge, a mental illness so much as a difference in processing. Being autistic is only "bad" in the sense that our society discourages autistic traits. (Apologies if this is wrong; I'm neither autistic nor especially knowledgeable about autism.)

    The term "neurodivergent" implies that there's nothing wrong with you if you have ADHD--you're just special and different. But my ADHD is an illness that requires treatment. A lot of people will tell you that the only reason ADHDers struggle is because society is set up wrong, but I don't think that's true, at least for me. Being unable to remember anything, unable to self-start, and hypersensitive to rejection would be massive problems in any world. Sure, the world today is particularly brutal for ADHDers in a way we could probably mitigate if we reorganized society to be kinder, but that doesn't mean ADHD isn't ultimately a disorder that some people need to treat with medication and therapy.

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    US's Blinken says no to any Ukraine peace deal that doesn't include total Russian withdrawal
  • Are you seriously comparing an apartheid state to a country that's a victim of an invasion? Is Israel "defending itself" when it slaughters Palestinian children?

  • People who think Lemmy is too political and refuse to join is good.
  • Tankies are just right-wingers who simp for different countries.

  • balerion balerion @beehaw.org

    fake gamer | sporadic shitposter | pro-ship | BLM | trans rights | head of the antifa PR department | 🚩 🏴

    i block tankies, right-wingers, and others with garbage opinions lol <o/

    Posts 19
    Comments 22