- Poe's The Raven is canonically set in December.
- The narrator is reading at night by the light of his fire.
- The narrator hears a rapping on his chamber door.
- The caller turns out to be a raven.
- The Norse god Odin is identified with ravens.
- Odin is also identified with Santa Claus.
- Ergo: the poem is about a December night visitor associated with ravens who, upon finding the chimney impassable due to fire, comes to the door and leaves a black gift as repayment for the occupant's ill deeds.

The Raven is a Christmas carol. QED.

> Marco Rubio orders US State Department to revert to Times New Roman font, calling Calibri adoption 'wasteful'

do these guys have a single original idea that wasn't already done better by the Nazis?

Does anyone know a poem or phrase in Spanish that would be familiar for a non-religious wedding speech in Chile?

I'm not fluent and I have a friend who is going to help me translate, but it would be so helpful to have some kind of idiom to work with as a familiar anchor.

I am the brother of the groom, and what I would emphasize about both of them is an intense compassion for other people and each other.

I wish I knew enough Spanish to ask this question in Spanish 😭.

I feel like people are surprised when they learn that I, as someone who writes quite a bit about transfem disposability, have the attitudes that I do toward distancing myself from toxic people - transfems included. I feel like they see it as an inherent contradiction, or perhaps not practicing what I preach.

in reality, it's pretty simple. anything that I wouldn't accept from any other person, I won't accept from a transfem person.

when I write about transfem disposability, I'm diagnosing a phenomenon wherein transfems are granted far less latitude than your average person, or queer person, or trans person, as far as the missteps we're allowed to make and the space we're allowed to take up. we're valued less, and more readily discarded on a whim, than most other trans people, due to our intersection of perceived privilege and lesser social status.

what I'm not doing, is giving other transfems a license to treat me and others like shit and then claim "non-disposability" when they refuse to hold themselves accountable.

Sensitive content Reveal/hide

Q: are you a radical feminist?

A: yep, sure am!

Q: what do you mean when you say you're a "radical feminist?"

A: I mean that I'm a feminist seeking an end to patriarchy and male supremacy, rather than a liberal feminist seeking explicit carve-outs ("rights") for women and feminine people under patriarchy.

Q: ew, a radical feminist? like J.K. Rowling?

A: TERFs like JKR call themselves "radical feminists," but their beliefs and actions are geared toward maintaining patriarchy through enforcing the violent, oppressive heterosexual regime. therefore, I don't believe that TERFs are radical feminists any more than I believe that "national socialists" are socialists.

Q: what's a transfeminist?

A: a radical feminist whose primary goal is the liberation of trans women and transfeminine people.

Q: wait, why just trans women and transfems? what about-

A: I aim for the liberation of all people under the queer umbrella.

Q: well then why do you primarily advocate for transfems?

A: because I don't believe in supply-side queer liberation.

Q: doesn't that make you a TIRF?

A: "TIRF" is an oppression-reversal psyop geared toward painting transfems who don't perform transfeminine labor as oppressors to the rest of the trans community.

Q: so you only believe that transfeminine people are oppressed?

A: no. there are many axes of oppression. I choose to primarily focus on writing about trans women and transfems, and I've also written in the past about my non-binaryhood, Jewishness, disability (wear a fucking mask), mental illness, and fat body type, among other things.

Q: if you're not a trans woman, then why do you group yourself in with trans women?

A: because I'm an AMAB person with a feminine gender who takes estrogen, other people treat me like a trans woman for most intents and purposes.

Q: all of this doesn't sound intersectional. do you believe in intersectionality?

A: yes, and if you're asking me this question, then you should probably go read Kimberle Crenshaw. and, while you're at it, read Talia Bhatt too.

Q: do you hate men?

A: no. I hate masculinity, patriarchy, and male supremacy. it just so happens that the vast majority of men - and also some non-men - don't question the violence inherent in those institutions.

Q: wait - you hate masculinity? how is that any different than hating men?

A: "man" is a gender. masculinity is the oppressive set of beliefs and behaviors that most men adopt under male supremacy.

Q: what about non-toxic masculinity?

A: even attempts to reclaim masculinity in non-toxic forms rely on oppositional sexism - that is, masculinity as protective, assertive, and logical, as opposed to a weak, passive, and emotional femininity. because oppositional sexism can only reinforce patriarchy, I don't believe that "non-toxic masculinity" exists.

Q: do you believe that men can be oppressed for being men?

A: no, "misandry" doesn't exist.

Q: what about men's issues? don't men have unique experiences of oppression under patriarchy?

A: as a mutual put it a little while back (paraphrasing): "men's issues" don't exist. non-men experience everything that men do, except for the privilege of being men.

Q: doesn't refusing to acknowledge misandry, or talking shit about men, hurt trans women and transfems?

A: no. patriarchy, heterosexuality, and AGAB normativity hurt trans women and transfems. if a trans woman is hurt by people shit-talking men, then the fault lies both with the doctor who took one look at her penis when she was a baby and wrote an 'M' on her birth certificate, and with the institutions that enabled that doctor - not with the radical feminists who seek an end to all of the above.

Q: do you hate trans men and transmasculine people?

A: no. however, because I refuse to coddle transmasculine people's feelings, I periodically conflict with the minority of transmascs who expect every transfem they run across to perform labor for them.

Q: why do you write about transmasculine misogyny so much?

A: because it's (1) increasingly everywhere on Queer Fedi in particular, (2) mostly unacknowledged by the queer community as a whole, and (3) mostly targeted at transfems.

Q: why do you use 'transemasculation' rather than 'transmisandry' or 'transandrophobia?'

A: because transmasculine oppression is based primarily around people trying to coercively re-gender them into cis women. under patriarchy, no men or masculine people are oppressed for the fact that they're men or masculine.

Q: are you enbyphobic?

A: well, I am non-binary, so if you're going to accuse me of being self-hating, then you'd damn well better bring a mountain of evidence to the table.

Intersectional Antifeminism, or: What is a White Feminist, Anyway?

Regarding the most famous social theory no one has actually read.

^{Talia Bhatt (Trans/Rad/Fem)}

Funny old business, time; it delights in frustrating your plans.

— The Doctor, in “Dragonfire”

#DoctorWho #quote #quotation

Gestern verließ ich den ADFC.

Ich fragte, ob im Text absichtlich nur Männer gesucht werden und kam die Antwort "Nein, gerne auch Frauen und ein paar junge ADFCler". Soweit für mich fein (ich weiß, es ist nicht inklusiv, aber es ist schon mal einen Schritt weiter, den ich wertschätze).

Einen Tag später eskalierte diese für mich abgeschlossene Situation, ein Mann beschwerte sich, dass er es anstrengend fände, wenn der ADFC Ortsgruppe unterstellt würde (durch meine Frage vom Vortag) sie sei nicht

#ArcaneChat 2.33.1 is on its way to #GooglePlay and #FDroid and should be available in the upcoming days, can't wait? for other download options check arcanechat.me/

Among the enhancements are:

More metadata protection: protect message recipients

More resilience: new experimental feature to use several addresses per profile (multi-relay)

ArcaneChat

Private chats for the family

^{arcanechat.me}

Wo bekomm ich in Wien Laptop-Pickerl mit Tux und am besten den Buchstaben "Linux" drauf her? Muss die Kinder ja umfassend indoktrinieren. Das Lehrmittelzentrum an der TU gibt's in der Form ja nimmer?

#wien

Advice for frequent travelers: Get a travel router. It makes everything easier and more secure. At a bare minimum, use a custom DNS like 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8.

Where I am, I have a really stable 100+Mb connection, but deathly slow DNS. Switching to my own travel router on the same connection makes things DRAMATICALLY faster, even routing back through my home network.

Unless they speak a language other than French, wear fabric, or baubles, or are transitioning...

Even w/ it being a Federal program, the CAQists/PQists, etc. will sabotage it w/ their xenophobic, bigoted, pure laine policies.

montreal.citynews.ca/2025/12/0… #cdnpoli #polcan #LGBTQ+ #CAQASTROPHE #polQC #QCpoli #polMTL #MTLpoli

Montreal chosen as launch site for $1.7B federal push to attract top global researchers

The federal government is rolling out a $1.7-billion initiative aimed at attracting more than 1,000 top researchers from around the world to Canada over the next decade.

^{Jessica Barile (CityNews Montreal)}

KI-Tiervideos wirken auf viele süß, überraschend, herzerwärmend, emotional, aber sind komplett gefälscht.
Sie zeigen Fantasietiere, vermenschlichte Szenen, perfekte Gefühle.
Doch genau das ist das Problem: Diese Videos verzerren unser Tierbild.
Wildtiere wirken wie Haustiere, Stress wie Zuneigung. Menschen können echtes Tierverhalten immer schlechter einschätzen. Tierleid wird übersehen, echte Tiere missverstanden.

mimikama.org/ki-tiervideos-soz…

KI-Tiervideos: ein echtes Problem in sozialen Medien

Auf Facebook verbreiten sich derzeit rasant KI-Tiervideos, die scheinbar niedliche oder rührende Interaktionen zeigen.

^{Claudia Spiess (Mimikama)}

I need you to stop scrolling and read the most human piece of writing I've read in a very, very long time.

sightlessscribbles.com/the-col…

Thanks, @WeirdWriter.

Edit: If you feel like you got a lot out of this piece, I'm sure Rob would definitely appreciate some subscribers to his newsletter and tips/a paid subscription if you can afford it! It's not easy making a living as a writer.

sightlessscribbles.com/support…

Seriously people, if you're going to put work into making your blog look beautiful you HAVE GOT to see what it looks like with large minimum font size (not zoom). At my default 20pt minimum font size this blog gives me roughly 4 words per line.

I'm not going to read the damn article like this, no matter how good the words are. Yes, I can switch to "Reader View" but I shouldn't have to.

#accessibility #LowVision