my fav thing in wildlife research is the concept of animals being “trap happy” meaning the same animal goes into a trap on purpose again and again after it’s caught the first time bc it was like “hey…..there was food in there and Zero (0) predators and then they just let me go in the morning…….”
on one hand it fucks up our data but on the other hand……..I Get It you Funky Little Rodents
if it were pouring rain on my walk home from work at night and I found a big metal box full of pizza and a bed where no one else could bother me and the only condition is that in the cold light of day I’d have to face a bunch of scientists weighing me and then letting me go on the sidewalk I’d probably end up in there a lot.
I just saw the phrase “whooping cough party” and I can’t… I can’t.
Okay, so here’s the thing. Whenever someone asks me “how are you still alive” my favorite
flippancy is usually “spite”, but in all honesty it’s vaccines. Spite
and vaccines.
And not just me being vaccinated, but everyone
around me too, because there are some vaccines I cannot safely have and I
rely on everyone else around me being vaccinated to avoid it.
Things
like, oh, say, whooping cough, which I actually had as a child because I
went to school with the victims of antivaxxers, and we all got super
sick and coughed so hard the blood vessels in our eyes ruptured and
every fit felt like you were going to die choking for breath.
And
tonight, a friend of mine who happens to be a mother, hauled me into an
argument on Facebook where people in her neighborhood group were hosting
a “whooping cough party” cause one of their kids got sick, and the tag
line was “come on over and get it over with lol”, and words cannot
convey how much visceral hatred I had for this person in that moment. If I could have set them on fire with my brain, I probably would.
Because I
can wholly remember sitting in bed clutching my little
chest, desperate for the pain to stop, making that horrible wheezing
sound, with tears streaming down my face, utterly convinced I was going to die if I couldn’t draw breath. And that went on for months
because even with treatment, the cough can take up to three months to
subside. And that is a horrible thing for a child to go through. I
cannot stress enough how painful and terrifying it was and my parents
for all their faults could do nothing. They’d done everything they could
to keep me safe from other illnesses. I had all my other vaccines, I
just couldn’t have that one.
And the thing is, you can get it
again, it’s not a one time deal. You can get it more than once, and
doctors actually recommend you get a booster shot for it every ten
years, and I can’t do that. I cannot protect myself from it. I rely on
other people being responsible, and taking the necessary steps to keep
whooping cough outbreaks low, and the only way to do that is through
regular routine inoculation.
And these fuckers are throwing a party??? What???
Let me be clear, it is through profound measures of willful ignorance, hubris, and yes privilege,
that people have allowed for things like measles and whooping cough to
make a come back. It is a privilege to live in a healthy society where
you can expect all your children to make it out of infancy. It is a
privilege to not die young from TB, it is a privilege that many people
before you had to suffer for and work hard to bring about, all in the
hopes that another child wouldn’t have to go into the iron lung from
polio. And through the privilege of never having had to suffer, you have
elected to do harm. You have elected to allow for the resurgence of
mumps, and measles and coughs that sound like a death rattle in the
lungs of infant children, and then you have the absolute audacity and
malice in your souls to celebrate and throw “sickness parties” because
you’d rather let your child suffer through unnecessary illness than be
vaccinated?
How dare you. You have a moral and social
obligation to protect your children and the people around you, and not
only have you chosen to wave this responsibility, but you are actively endangering others?
How dare you.
And
the thing is I know, I know in your own misguided way you think you are
doing what is best for you child. But if the road to hell truly is
paved with good intentions, I can tell you now with absolute certainty
that you fuckers have got your own burning stars on the walk of shame.
Vaccinate
your god damn kids. And get your booster shots while you’re at it. You
might just save someone’s life without ever knowing or trying.
(Note: This is not aimed at people who cannot be vaccinated or whose
children cannot be vaccinated. I know that struggle, I know it is real
and I’m so sorry other people are putting you and your loved ones at
risk.
Also yes, I know chickenpox parties used to be a thing, I
went to one of them as a kid. Thankfully there is now a vaccine for that
too! Isn’t living in the future neat!
And just so you know, if
you come onto this post telling me that vaccines cause autism, you will
be afflicted with the condition known as my foot up your ass. I will not
engage on discourse over this, there is no discourse to be had. You are
wrong. And that is the end of the discussion.)
Suddenly I understand some of my fan base a LOT better. That is Awesome.
“holy shit there is a name for it” was my reaction before I even scrolled down to the comments.
I just need to keep reblogging this because I cannot even begin to tell you how profound a feeling of YES and THIS and THERE IS A WORD FOR ME OMG I get every time I see this, and I hope it helps others too.
seriously, anytime you see a post with a comment saying “theres a name for it?!” reblog that post because even if it doesnt apply to you any of your followers could be waiting for that revelation.
[Image description: a text image which
reads: Autochorissexualism: A disconnection between oneself and a
sexual target/object of arousal: may involve sexual fantasies, or
arousal in response to erotica or pornography, but lacking any desire to
be a participant in the sexual activities therein. Commonly found in
asexual people; an analogous feeling may occur in aromantic people for
romantic fantasies. Coined by Anthony Bogaert. | Below this is an attribution to asexualityresources.tumblr.com | Description ends]
It also gets called aegosexual which is easier to say tbh but I don’t think that’s the reason it was changed
I think I read about that, somewhere.
Was the reason something along the lines of that “autochorissexualism” is what it’s called in the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual [of mental disorders])?
And for anyone who not asexual, reading this, who is confused about enjoying fantasies about sex, but not the act:
Does enjoying reading Agatha Christie mean you really want someone to get actually murdered in your town?
No?
How ‘bout horror movies (if you like ‘em)? Ever want to experience something like that?
I didn’t think so.
The enjoyment you get from imagining something is distinct (and often different) from the enjoyment you get from doing something. For some people, the difference is a lot bigger than it is for others.
If you want to hire someone to dominate you, you call a dominatrix.
Is there a word for someone you call to professionally sub?
So I’m watching a Sir David Attenborough (Natural Curiousities on Netflix), to cope withe the crushing lonliness of solo housesitting, and he’s on about Really Weird animals and talks about the origins of the pheonix- a bird that people travelling though Africa only rarely saw shrouded in the streamy mists of volcanic soda lakes (which are literally boiling hot and also extremely caustic).
And all they’d see is the occasional bit of bright red plumage and see these things bobbing in and out of the horrible death clouds coming off the lake, and naturally came up with the myth of a firebird what the fuck ELSE would be living IN A GODDAMN VOLCANO??
The Central Africans told this to the Egyptians who told the Greeks* about this mysterious animal, and they ran hog-wild with it to create the now-famous Pheonix, but-
The bird they were seeing in those volcanic lakes?
*There is significant academic debate about who told who what when (esp as the firebird myth has cropped up multiple times and been culturally exchanged many, MANY times) but the Flamingo>Egyptian Bennu>Greek Pheonix>European Pheonix chain is fairly well agreed upon.
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