fernflower.bsky.social

Our habit when someone is permanently sick is to abandon them because they’re no fun any more, and it is killing people.

Gut punch of a story about an Amazon engineer who trusted ChatGPT-4o to manage and reduce her seizure med dosages. You'd hope someone who made it into a top engineering position would have known the limits of AI circa May 2024 www.nytimes.com/2026/10/27/w...

My political education began in Brazil, where I lived from 1989-91. I learnt that the only defence we have is "conscientizaçao": raising awareness about the relations between exploiters and exploited, and the violence that underpins them. The Brazilians have once again demonstrated its power. ✊❤️‍🔥

I think people intuitively understand that democratic candidates tossing trans kids to the wolves is not only morally repugnant but also politically ineffective, otherwise they wouldn't freak out every time someone said they weren't voting for a democrat who did this

There was a fucking hole in our planet’s *atmosphere* Like a legit, no joke, “this will unravel our entire ecosystem” hole in the world, and then we fixed it by working together across national and political lines As a species we decided, “we will survive” Let’s do that some more

If we could drop the word ‘fatigue’ from being the leading definition of #ME it would make a huge difference to the whole perception of this illness. People don’t die or take their own lives because they are fatigued. The name CFS was a political decision, a very dark decision.

As we approach the midterms, remember that the Alt National Park Service is a merch sales operation claiming without evidence to be a group of federal employees, and is not a genuine source of news about elections of any kind. Please get your election info from a local, reputable source.

Dr. Ilene Ruhoy says its time for Congress to fund the ME/CFS Research Roadmap, which aims to finally find a way to diagnose and treat Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, a complex illness that over 3 million Americans suffer from. rebrand.ly/congress-nee...

Doctors and nurses are voicing their objections. I-638 would require EVERY girl who wants to participate in sports to go through biological sex verification. That means expensive, invasive, and utterly gross examinations. Protect our kids and let them play. Vote NO on I-638

the idea phase is the easiest and least valuable part of professional creativity. read the first draft of the first Star Wars if you doubt me Great art is made in the grinding, often miserable collision between the ethereal substance of an idea and the mud and blood and friction of reality

Gary Tyler, a quilt artist who spent decades on death row for a crime he didn’t commit, now has his first solo exhibit at the Grand Rapids Art Museum

Mychal Threets shared this on Facebook. The family of the 5 year old killed in Oregon is asking for pictures of dinosaurs, sharks, and “misunderstood creatures” for his celebration of life. Artists, do your stuff!

The severe neglect of ME/CFS has been going on for several decades. All we desire is a recognition of reality and an allocation of resources in proportion to prevalence and impact, nothing more or special. What we ask now is only a proportion of that, we ask for scraps after getting crumbs.

We've lived for so long with this mythology that sure, the wealthy can be cruel. But at least the cruelty has a point. Profit! I'd like us to open our hearts to other possibilities. Power doesn't just corrupt! It can also breed truly reality-distorting levels of incompetence.

It's World Homeless Day, and I'll just say: Homelessness isn't some great unsolvable mystery. People are homeless because they don't have homes. This suffering persists not for lack of solutions, but because enormous wealth and power are invested in maintaining the very structures that produce it.

I've got the quote for this, unfortunately. "Women quickly learn that rape is only a crime in theory; in practice the standard for what constitutes rape is not set at the level of experience of women's violation but just above the level of coercion acceptable to men." - Judith Lewis Herman

Disabled people make society uncomfortable Homeless people make society uncomfortable Why? Because they’re minority groups you can join anytime People don’t want to sit with the discomfort becusss then they have to admit it could happen to them Help us build systems of support Don’t look away.

For everyone who spent #MeToo fretting “what if this goes too far?”—be of good cheer! It turns out we didn’t go too far at all! It turns out we didn’t nearly far enough! Good job guys!

Just a reminder that people don’t always realize they were raped in the immediate aftermath. It can take hours, days, months, and even years to realize you were raped, and it doesn’t make it any less true. There are many kinds of responses, including fawning and trying to appease your rapist

I don't think you get to just decide to call yourselves "Rationalists" and say you're advocating "Rationalism" and expect that everybody else is supposed to just swallow that uncritically and defer to your superior rationality. That's not how that works, even apart from the orgies and whatnot.

Only in America do they deny children free lunch while forcing them to read about Jesus feeding the hungry.

On this day in 1994, the Clinton administration's heathcare reform plan was declared "dead" by Congress. Over 30 years later, the US is still the only industrialized country without universal healthcare. This should be a national outrage.

Eugenics is the tool of the oppressor. We do not need it. We will not use it. Hate to break it to you, but this means: Mentioning “the gene pool” The concept of IQ and BMI Standardized tests “Gifted” AND “special” education Rawdogging viruses “Social Darwinism” “Effective altruism”

Here's today's column on the astonishing, ongoing mistreatment of people with #ME/CFS. Please spread it far and wide: the only thing which can break the media's wall of indifference is seeing an article about the issue go viral. Thank you. 1/2 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

As a society we must do a better job of listening to disabled people. As the incomparable Alice Wong used to say… we’re oracles. We can offer a window into what comes next for you and your loved ones. We have wisdom to share. We also know how to fight systems of oppression.

All these athletes getting paid to be the faces of gambling sites should be ashamed of themselves. This will be a terrible look in a year or two, as Americans, especially young people, waste what little money they have on these sites that make the rich richer and everyone poorer.

Listen, i may not be a football girlie but game theory-wise i will say this: the way Robert Kraft collaborated with other NFL owners to get Macklemore kicked off of Ed Sheeran's tour speaks to why Colin Kaepernick was never given another shot after taking a knee for racial justice.

Newly disabled people, I say this with love: Two things are true. 1. Your expectations for your life have been disrupted. Maybe permanently. You have the right to take space and grieve that. 2. There is life beyond that disruption. Millions of us are living it.

A Philadelphia family just bought their first home with a $10,000 first-time homebuyer grant funded by a group of Quakers It’s part of the congregation’s racial justice plan to redistribute wealth to Black residents in the Germantown area as a form of reparations

The fact that Musk himself is sponsoring so many of the anti-trans ads this cycle presents a pretty golden opportunity for Dems to point out that of course the guy who literally wants to build a gas-powered data center in your backyard wants this election to be about trans people.

Mitch McConnell disappeared for three months & kept his full salary. Disabled people are forced to prove they’re “still disabled” just to remain in legislated poverty. Folks on SNAP must re-apply and prove they’re “still poor”. Republican Senators don’t even have to prove they’re alive.

I just want to say, the fact that so many Dems are coming out and saying shitty things about trans people in the last two weeks is a case in point of what I have been working so hard to sound the alarm on. I've been so hard on each individual dem who breaks for years now. I feared this.

GO TO THE FOOD BANKS!! Without detailing every important reason behind this statement, please go to the food banks if you need them. You will not believe the quality and variety of products and services available. Food waste is a massive problem and it's wrong. If you need help, please ask.

This is shameful discriminatory and misogynistic reporting. People aren’t choosing disability to be “cool”. Young women don’t have to “prove” to you that they’re sick. Disability rates are skyrocketing because we’ve left a disabling virus rip through the population for over 6 years.

Facts! There's nothing that stops the doomscrolling dead in its tracks like "Go out & do something very direct & hands-on about the problem." And they'll pay 👏 you 👏 to 👏 do 👏 it! powerthepolls.org/creator-sara...