Month: February 2017

blackraincloud:

aegipanomnicorn:

schizotypal-hippy-fiend:

cordolia:

theysbian:

Unpopular opinion that shouldn’t be unpopular: anti-bullying programs in school that don’t address the root causes of bullying – which are almost invariably larger forms of bigotry and oppression like racism, ableism and homophobia – are completely useless and ultimately futile.

kids get bullied, frequently, because they’re “weird”. but it just so happens that the traits society calls “weird” are overwhelmingly related to poverty, minority religion or ethnicity, neurodivergence, non-straight sexuality, and gender non conformance. 

funny, that.

“Maybe you should stop being ‘weird’ and start acting in a way that makes other kids like you”

In my Not-So-Humble-Opinion, the reason teachers, principals, parents, and their ilk turn a blind eye to bullying, and/or play lip service to tolerance, is because

They agree with the bullies that their victims deserve it.

It’s as if they recruited the schoolyard bully to be their child soldier, enforcing the power structure of the privileged status quo while keeping their own hands clean.

This is absolutely true. But if you work in a school and can afford to risk constant daily harassment by parents and admins, report that shit for what it is.

When you SWIFTLY AND IMMEDIATELY write up the kids for this behavior, write EXACTLY what it is they were doing: race/religion/disability/gender DISCRIMINATION based harassment.

Add “bullying” if that’s your school district’s trigger word that means the administration MUST do something about the behavior detailed in your write-up…

But ALWAYS write down that it was harassment/intimidation/assault targeting a student’s [oppressed identity] status.

Because then you create a paper trail of the school’s failure to create a safe learning environment free from discriminatory harassment.

Giving the abused students and their families copies of documents with words like “Discrimination” and “harassment” and “unsafe environment” gives them MUCH better ammunition against the school.

Expect retaliation. Keep kids’ safety your primary goal. But if your school and district aren’t COMPLETELY shit, you’ll see some results.

Or you’ll get fired. Or you might have to quit because the district IS top-to-bottom shit and you are unable to make life safer for you OR the students.

In which case, make copies of all your records and leave them EVERYWHERE from the school board & superintendent to the bullied kids and their parents.

Then file an unsafe workplace environment complaint and quit.

batter-sempai:

teressabee:

darthmelyanna:

ekjohnston:

ironychan:

Thousands of years ago, somebody looked at a flock of sheep and went, “well, they aren’t cold.”

Guys. Guys.

It’s so much better than that.

So once upon a time, goats and sheep were essentially the same animal, and all of them had hair. Now, you can do some stuff with hair, but you can’t do a lot, so mostly sheep/goats were kept for meat and milk.

Except then a mutation showed up, and some of the sheep/goats had WOOL instead. And someone realized that 1. you could spin that shit, and 2. then you could WEAVE that shit, and 3. IT GREW BACK.

Generations of selective breeding ensued. Two visibly discrete species emerged, one primarily for meat and milk, and the other primarily for wool. They also have different behavioural characteristics, because independence was not helpful in a sheep, so it was bred out of them. Sheep remain one of the few non-draft animals that we farm even though they are not delicious.

The most similar part of sheep and goats that remains today is their skeleton. On an archaeological dig, you find THOUSANDS of bones and bone fragments that can only be identified as “sheep/goat”. It’s incredibly frustrating, but also kind of hilarious after you’ve spent enough time in the sun.

ANYWAY, human beings have always been smart and surprisingly good at changing nature because they want a sweater.

The entire knitting community needs to hear this.

Oh man I’m so glad I can add this to my arsenal of responses to people who say all GMOs are made of poison.

Oh my god so THAT’S why the Chinese word for goat and sheep are the same word, they used to be the same species. Despite being Chinese I’ve been confused over this for years. Thank you so much.