#NeedsMoreLikes (formerly known as "All the Likes")

[GulliverFoyle]

Suburban Chicago library set to fire only African American librarian who spoke out about racial equity

In response to the idea of a hypothetical display on Du Bois, you replied, As Dubois was a Stalinist, I’d suggest trying non-totalitarians to balance out a presentation on his work. Now you’re asking why I said that’s a cartoonish caricature. Basically, as @ChuckV said, he was far more than that. I mean, imagine if a patron were to ask you (I think you said you’re a librarian?), “Who was J. Edgar Hoover?” Would you reply, “Oh him? He was a closeted-homosexual.” I imagine not, because t…

[LockeCJ]

Oh, the HUMANITY!

Because that certainly rolls off the tongue. And if you think about it, we can be pretty sure that respect and agency actually are species specific ideas. You can debate what species, sure, but all plant matter constitutes both life, and a wide variety of species. I would argue that grass, of any variety, is not deserving of respect or agency. You can plant it, mow it, step on it, whatever. It’s grass. It doesn’t care. Likewise in the animal kingdom, I have a gnat problem in my house. I don’t …

I like this.

[Nightflyer]

Missouri legislator responds to abortion controversy by slaughtering chicken. 'God gave man dominion over animals.'

I don't want to watch any videos (generally) but if this asshole didn't eat the chicken after he killed it, then he's a piece of trash. It goes against the very definition of conservatism to waste like that. Also, I'd just like to say that if I don't "have dominion" over my own fucking uterus, then words have lost all meaning and they need to come clean about finding women to be less than human.

This.

[Nightflyer]

Woman kicked out of mall for wearing Finding Nemo tank top and shorts

As much as the conservative media would have us think otherwise, this is the case. Everything in M. Atwood's novel, which was written in the 1980s, was based on actual events in human history. Sure, she combined them all into her own special dystopian hell, but the restrictions and other actions foisted upon women were all drawn from actual historical events THIS ON CRACK. It's not about the personal or the place. Privilege is systemic. It ain't about you personally or where you are from. …

This too.

[Auld_Lang_Syne]

Woman kicked out of mall for wearing Finding Nemo tank top and shorts

No, I'm not misinterpreting caution for denial. People believe racism to be monstrously bad. Therefore they don't want to accuse someone or racism without having a very high standard of proof, just like you wouldn't call someone a child abuser or a murderer unless you were really sure. Because of that, they don't recognize the obvious fact that people of colour are treated differently than white people every day. To say that race was likely a factor in this is not to say the person who kicke…

[MalevolentPixy]

Margaret Atwood and "The Handmaid's Tale"

Ahem… I've read Atwood's harrowing but excellent book, and seen the abysmal 90's film version; but I cannot yet bring myself to watch this series for the same exact reason that I couldn't watch Pursuit of Happyness when it first came out; the subject matter hits far too close to home for comfort. I had just moved out the Bay area with my own young child, and our living circumstances were looking uncertain for a hot second there, so there was no way in hell that I could watch a film about…

[milliefink]

Excellent meta-level satire.

Pence laywers up

Allow me to be a little selfish here. It is actually incredibly interesting to be living through all this. I don't recall anything quite like it. It's undeniably entertaining. It's only the destruction of the natural environment, persecution of minorities, corrupt redistribution of wealth to the very wealthy, kleptocracy, rise of bigotry, resurgence of fundamentalism, removal of support for the disadvantaged and general deconstruction of democracy that are the downsides. A small price to pay for…

[Mangochin]

A post from someone doing a good thing for others which I thought deserved some recognition.

Mormon official silences 12-year-old girl in church after she says she's gay

My trans* foster child was mistreated in exactly this way by a Mormon foster family before coming to my home. They were forced to wear a dress, attend "girls" groups, and lie about their orientation in the church. They were taken out of the state to attend a camp where Mormons tried to change their orientation. (Conversion therapy is illegal in this state but not in neighboring Idaho.) A relatively well adjusted, resilient child was turned into a traumatized, maladapted suicidal and self har…

[TobinL]

Mormon official silences 12-year-old girl in church after she says she's gay

Sorry buddy, but that crap doesn't fly. There is too high a body count and too many broken lives in the wake of your views to simply treat it as a polite genteel dispassionate discussion If your position is that certain classes of people do not deserve to be treated like human beings, or should not exist, and that your religious beliefs excuse such malicious actions, then there is no compelling reason to "tolerate" it. Not even in the spirit of civility. Moreover, there a moral obligation to …

[MalevolentPixy]

This thread has a few awesome responses:

Mormon official silences 12-year-old girl in church after she says she's gay

I've wouldn't characterize it as a prepared speech. She was trying to express something emotional and difficult that made her feel vulnerable. Writing that kind of thing down really helps a person who feels uncertain get to the meat of what they want to say without withering from embarrassment or choking. Therapists reccommend it when a client is trying to tell a loved one how they feel. If she had read a poem she composed earlier or performed a song she made up, would they have allowed that? …

[Melz2]

Margaret Atwood and "The Handmaid's Tale"

[image] Of course he understands her work better than she does. She’s just a woman! Who cares that she herself said this: She should just shut up and let a man who has never even read her book explain to her what she was writing about. @Melizmatic just said everything I said, but far more eloquently, as usual: Um… you realize that that avatar is not me, nor anyone who even superficially resembles me, correct? Since you don’t like my avatar, I’ve changed it. NOTE: I am n…

[HMSGoose]

Ok, the teaser has me hooked, I want to read the whole book!

Man cleans and sharpens old rusty knife to better than new in very satisfying video

I've got to warn you, I've been down that road and it's risky business. For me it started when an antiques dealer made me an offer on a holster that I had aged in the same fashion you describe. I didn't feel great about it, but it amounted to a week and a half's pay at the crap data entry job I was working. More importantly, the validation. An honest $600 earned at the expense of your pride and dignity simply doesn't compare to a dishonest $600 that you earn by outsmarting people who are takin…

[MalevolentPixy]

Come on, people. This level of punning usually leads to a whole thread.

Watch a jet aircraft produce a deadly dihydrogen monoxide chemtrail

Look, we conspiracy theorists are just thirsty for knowledge. We don't want it watered down. Our voices will never be drowned out! Truth will precipitate from the clouds of scientific distortion!

Creativity deserves reward.

[Auld_Lang_Syne]

Perfect comment for the topic.

How to simulate a moon landing in your kitchen

re: How to simulate a moon landing in your kitchen I knew it! I faked the moon landing! It was me all along!

[anon68952647]

You may have saved the thread with this highlight.

Poop doping could be the latest performance enhancement craze

Basically you're seeking someone with clandestine access to a skinny person's toilet. A stool pigeon.

[Auld_Lang_Syne]

Domestic violence even impacts puppies

Hi Y'all; looong time lurker here; I've just joined for this topic. There are organizations in a number of countries/states/provinces that will house/foster pets of victims of domestic violence. They are usually sponsored by local S.P.C.A.s and veterinarian associations,and often known as "safe haven" programs. This is an aknowledgement that victims of DV often stay in abusive situations longer than they should for fear their pet(s) might be harmed and don't want to leave them behind, and tha…

[Melz2]

O.J. Simpson granted parole, could be out in October

You’re correct. It would have absolutely made a difference. When a pretty white woman goes missing I hear about it from every news outlet, it becomes a national crisis. Black women go missing all the time, and we don’t hear about it. Not just because of racism, but also because of the profit-driven nature of the media. They know that a significant portion of the approximately 76% of the US population are going to be glued to their goddamned televisions, phones, and computers generating all that…

[LockeCJ]

Student loans are really "a list of people liable to additional taxation after graduation"

What if there were some way we could directly tax people who make a lot of money more, since they obviously benefited from the systems of the society, but tax people with less income less, as they benefited less?

[ficuswhisperer]

Trump announces ban on transgender military service

You know, it’s taken six months, but I finally, fully get it. What it’s like to be living under this deplorable regime ‘led’ by a demented fuckwit who’s constantly punching down those he sees as expendable. I know this is totally not about me - cis Australian - and maybe it’s because it’s my first day off in 22 days, but I hit a wall and had to take time out today. God, I’m so tired. Exhausted, really. This foul monster is in charge of America and can’t even leave people who’ve been tormented t…

[Daaksyde]

Not sure how this crosslinking works, but this:

Student loans are really "a list of people liable to additional taxation after graduation"

That’s a sickness of our times - the fact that studying something should be done for private profit (immediate or delayed) rather than for the hell of it. Universities have been morphed, by the recruitment industry, into work training - a role they fulfil very badly and at tremendous expense for our societies. This is the root of all illnesses, this association between degrees and salaries, something completely arbitrary that perverts universities, damages research, and unloads the cost of employee training on society at large.