Run Your Own Race

As I wrote in my last post, It’s The Hope That Kills, I’ve been a political nerd and marginalized person for a really long time – and I’ve been a cynical, deeply jaded one for ehhhh… the last ten years or so, I’d say.

But, fuck… it’s hard not to have hope right now, right? I mean, I guess if you’re a neo-nazi MAGA loyalist hoping to get your rocks off on stomping on everyone else’s rights, it probably stinks. But for humans, there’s magic in the air.

I watched a majority of the primetime DNC all four days. No matter what happens, it was history in the making. It was also an incredible burst of joy from the party that has all the best entertainers, artists, and orators in the world. It was like we’ve ALL been holding our breath and the party finally responded by giving us an amazing, wholesome, healthy, and uplifting space to experience joy again.

Some of my favorite takeaways…

I live in California, and we’ve been working hard to reform our criminal justice system, which has historically had some of the harshest punishments in the country. She’s walked a fine line between being tough on crime and kinder to humans, but that’s resulted in progress in many areas. She hasn’t been perfect, but that kind of goes with the territory for someone trying to change the system from the inside.

Plus, we don’t have the luxury of perfect.

The entire Walz family is a big bundle of wholesome joy. Gus Walz standing up and emotionally calling out his dad was the kind of familial bonding we’ve all been missing in our lives. The more I read about Tim Walz, the happier I am that she picked him as her running mate. We need more nontoxic masculinity on display in the world.

Speaking of families, it was also wonderful to see Kamala’s big, beautiful, blended family. Her family and Tim Walz’s family are what American families actually look like. I’ve seen a lot of families come through my spouse’s kids, and that’s what they look like. Families in America do not look like the 2.5 kids nuclear family… at least not anymore. And that’s a good thing. That needs to be reflected in our leadership.

Oh, and NO ONE’s family looks as fucked up as Trump’s. He is representative of only him. Okay, maybe him and Elon Musk, who bought a whole fucking social media platform just so he could troll his trans daughter. Talk about a fuckboy.

The party atmosphere, the raucous and AMAZING state roll call, The Chicks singing the national anthem, P!nk performing with Willow, the absolute sea of women wearing white, linking the suffrage movement to that moment… the FIGHT in the speeches, the FIRE in the hearts of delegates and politicians alike.

…there was a lot to feel hopeful about, but it’s a wary cautious hopeful.

The biggest takeaway for me is that the voice of mine that I previously thought didn’t matter DID matter. It mattered because I wasn’t alone. I wasn’t the only progressive raging at the democrats to do better, fight harder, and stop being so afraid. I wasn’t the only one writing letters BEGGING them to fight back.

I wasn’t alone.

Win or lose, I have to sit with the fact that the cynicism I’ve had for so long about my voice not being heard is healing. It’s a journey. It’s not healed yet. It’s not gone yet. The dems have let me down many times before and my cynicism is my shield against that pain, but uh… so far so good.

I will still be holding my breath until November.

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Don't believe me! Always fact-check everything you read on the internet through multiple sources. Here's a list to help.

• Snopes – A well-known resource for validating and debunking urban legends, rumors, and news stories.
• FactCheck.org – A project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center that checks the factual accuracy of U.S. political claims.
• PolitiFact – A fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others on its Truth-O-Meter.
• AP Fact Check – Associated Press journalists fact-check claims in news stories, including statements by public figures and viral content.
• Full Fact – The UK's independent fact-checking organization.
• The Washington Post Fact Checker – Known for its Pinocchio ratings, it evaluates the truthfulness of political claims.
• Reuters Fact Check – Offers a range of fact-checking services that debunk misinformation across various topics.
• BBC Reality Check – Provides fact-checking services that clarify claims seen in news stories and on social media.

In 2016, I voted for Hillary. If you read the rest of my content, that’ll be no surprise. 😉 She wasn’t my ideal candidate for a variety of reasons (mostly involving war), but she was what we had and it looked for sure like we were going to finally break that last glass ceiling. I sat there, clutching my laptop, watching CNN with excitement, and slowly but surely lost all my breath, lost all my hope, lost… everything.

I mean, look… I’ve been following and involved in politics since I was 14. I saw injustices in the world, and I believed in our ability to right those injustices. Also, as a biological female, I was told and saw from go that I would be treated poorly by the world around me. I was six when I first learned how cruel and disturbing men can be… and the trouble is, you don’t know which ones are cruel and which ones are kind until it’s far too late. That first injustice shaped me into someone who could not stand it when, to paraphrase Tim Walz, people couldn’t just mind their own fucking business.

As a young child, it confused me as to why skin color, religion, sex, gender, or any portion of someone else's identity and private life mattered so much to people. Why do we have to spend so much time talking and worrying and jockeying position over things that do not matter in the long run? It’s not logical. It makes no sense. It is a complete and utter waste of everyone’s time. Yet here we are, still fighting and begging for everyone to have basic human rights. That, in a nutshell, has been my lifelong set of values. That made me a democrat for many years until 2008, when I left the party and declared myself a free agent with no party.

I still vote democrat, though, because there’s really no other choice. Every part of my identity they hate. I am a biological female nonbinary transgender person. Even before I had words for all that crap, I was different and no part of the republican party represented me. So I sat there, on election night in 2016, clutching my laptop and a box of tissues, ready to watch the ceiling shatter… and then it didn’t.

Instead, something inside me shattered. To say life’s been difficult since then would be an understatement. Not all of it is directly related to MAGAts, but it certainly helped set the tone. It felt inevitable that Roe would fall. It felt inevitable that really hard won LGBTQ rights would fall. And they have. Issues I’ve worked on my whole life were being rolled back to an era before I was born. What the actual fuck?

Then Biden stepped aside and a smiling, laughing, hopeful Kamala took his place and I’ve been holding my breath since. Last night, I watched the opening of the DNC still holding my breath. They are doing many many MANY of the things I’ve wanted. Come out fighting, not holding back, telling the whole and unvarnished truth about where we are right now not just as a country, but as a planet.

But, uh, to quote Ted Lasso… it’s the hope that kills.

2016 shattered me. It’s 2024, and I’m barely put back together. What the fuck is going to happen if Kamala doesn’t win?

Jesus Christ, someone get me a paper bag to breathe into… this is gonna be a loooooooong few months.

But you just gotta keep doing it, keep moving forward, keep putting one foot in front of another. Keep trying. Keep working.

What the fuck is wrong with people? It doesn’t make your life any better to make someone else’s life worse. I shouldn’t have had to spend my entire life trying to drill that simple and basic concept into people’s skulls. It’s basic low level being a good human being shit.

I… just wanna fast forward to November. Or maybe to the next insurrection. 🤣

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Don't believe me! Always fact-check everything you read on the internet through multiple sources. Here's a list to help.

• Snopes – A well-known resource for validating and debunking urban legends, rumors, and news stories.
• FactCheck.org – A project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center that checks the factual accuracy of U.S. political claims.
• PolitiFact – A fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others on its Truth-O-Meter.
• AP Fact Check – Associated Press journalists fact-check claims in news stories, including statements by public figures and viral content.
• Full Fact – The UK's independent fact-checking organization.
• The Washington Post Fact Checker – Known for its Pinocchio ratings, it evaluates the truthfulness of political claims.
• Reuters Fact Check – Offers a range of fact-checking services that debunk misinformation across various topics.
• BBC Reality Check – Provides fact-checking services that clarify claims seen in news stories and on social media.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the strange, paradoxical world we live in. We’ve made mind-blowing advances in science and technology, unlocking secrets of the universe that would have been unimaginable just a few generations ago. We’re talking quantum physics, genetic editing, exploring other planets—stuff straight out of science fiction. And yet, alongside all this progress, we’re still stuck in the muck of ancient superstitions and rigid dogmas that should have gone extinct by now.

It’s like we’re living in two different centuries at once. On one side, we have this incredible drive to explore, to question, to push the boundaries of what we know. On the other, there’s this powerful pull back into the comforting embrace of old stories—stories that, let’s be honest, have caused a lot of harm along the way.

What really baffles me is how these two worlds coexist in the same people. I mean, there are scientists out there—people who devote their lives to the pursuit of knowledge—who still believe in a supernatural being that controls everything. And I’m not talking about a vague belief in some higher power or a love of metaphorical stories; I’m talking about the full-on, old-school idea of a God who micromanages the universe and yet somehow leaves everything up to “free will.”

How does that even make sense? How can someone spend their days unraveling the mysteries of the natural world, then turn around and surrender all that curiosity at the feet of an ancient, man-made myth?

It’s not just a philosophical puzzle; it’s a problem with real-world consequences. Take climate change, for example. We’re facing the greatest existential threat of our time, and yet there’s a whole subset of people who refuse to act because they believe God gave us this planet to do with as we please. They see environmental stewardship as a threat to their religious freedom, as if their right to exploit the Earth trumps our collective need to save it.

And then there’s the absurd connection between Christianity and gun culture in the U.S. How did the teachings of a non-violent, peace-loving figure like Jesus get twisted into a justification for stockpiling weapons and glorifying violence? The same people who claim to be following Christ are often the ones most resistant to any form of gun control, screaming about their Second Amendment rights as if the Founding Fathers were inspired by the Bible to arm the masses.

It’s like they’re so caught up in defending their “freedoms” that they don’t see how they’re just trading one kind of submission for another. They’ll kneel at the altar of their religion, their guns, their chosen leaders, all the while claiming they’re the ones who are truly free. But what kind of freedom is that, really? It’s freedom as long as you stay within the lines they’ve drawn, freedom to conform, freedom to not think too hard.

The saddest part of all this is the missed potential. We have such a short time on this planet—just a handful of decades to live, to love, to wonder at the incredible world around us. When we let these old stories, these rigid beliefs, satisfy our curiosity, we stop asking the questions that really matter. We stop exploring, stop looking deeper, and in doing so, we cut ourselves off from the very thing that makes us human: our ability to wonder, to seek, to imagine something better.

I can’t help but think about all the progress we might have made, all the discoveries that could have been ours, if we hadn’t been so bogged down by these outdated, divisive ideas. The real tragedy isn’t just the harm these beliefs have caused—it’s the futures we’ve lost because of them.

But here’s the thing: it’s not too late. There’s still time to choose curiosity over dogma, exploration over blind faith. There’s still time to build a world where questions are encouraged, where imagination is celebrated, and where the stories we tell ourselves are ones that lift us up rather than hold us back.

So let’s start asking those questions again. Let’s refuse to settle for the easy answers. Let’s embrace the wonder of the unknown, and in doing so, let’s create a future that’s worthy of the potential we’ve always had.

Because in the end, it’s not faith that will save us—it’s the courage to question, to imagine, to explore. That’s where our true freedom lies.

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Don't believe me! Always fact-check everything you read on the internet through multiple sources. Here's a list to help.

• Snopes – A well-known resource for validating and debunking urban legends, rumors, and news stories.
• FactCheck.org – A project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center that checks the factual accuracy of U.S. political claims.
• PolitiFact – A fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others on its Truth-O-Meter.
• AP Fact Check – Associated Press journalists fact-check claims in news stories, including statements by public figures and viral content.
• Full Fact – The UK's independent fact-checking organization.
• The Washington Post Fact Checker – Known for its Pinocchio ratings, it evaluates the truthfulness of political claims.
• Reuters Fact Check – Offers a range of fact-checking services that debunk misinformation across various topics.
• BBC Reality Check – Provides fact-checking services that clarify claims seen in news stories and on social media.

Today, I’m turning up the volume on my frustration and righteous indignation. You know what really grinds my gears? Small-minded, prejudiced folks who think they can dictate what others should or shouldn’t do on their own damn property. So, buckle up, because I’ve got a story to tell.

Last month, I put up a pride flag. Not just for Pride Month, but as a year-round declaration of love, acceptance, and the celebration of the LGBTQ+ community. Enter “Karen,” my next-door neighbor and her husband, the same charming individuals who racially harassed my landscaper. Yeah, those delightful specimens of humanity.

Apparently, Karen’s husband had an issue with the pride flag, but his gripe was about seams, of all things. Like, seriously? Seams? Nice try, buddy, but we all know what that’s really about. Spoiler alert: it’s not the seams. It’s the rainbow, the inclusivity, and everything they can’t stand to see celebrated.

Then, it got better (sarcasm, if you couldn't tell). Karen herself got put on the HOA board. Cue the eye roll. Now, I'm all for community involvement, but not when it’s someone who’s just waiting for a chance to push their narrow-minded agenda. I overheard her complaining about us not flying an American flag. Well, guess what, Karen? This country has a lot of work to do before I ever fly that flag. I’m talking about a deep, soul-searching kind of work. So, until then, the pride flag stays.

I can sense the anxiety creeping in, wondering what kind of petty nonsense Karen might try to pull now that she’s on the board. But you know what? Bring it on. I’m ready. California Civil Code 4710 is on my side, protecting my right to fly whatever flag I damn well please, and no HOA can touch that.

So here’s my promise: now that Pride Month is over, it’s Wrath the rest of the year, baby! That flag isn’t coming down. It’s staying up, a beacon of defiance against bigotry and hate. If Karen or anyone else wants to make an issue of it, they better be ready for a fight, because I’m not backing down. Not now, not ever.

This is more than just a flag. It’s a statement, a stand, a refusal to be silenced or shamed. It’s a reminder that love is louder than hate, that inclusivity is stronger than bigotry, and that we’re here, we’re queer, and we’re not going anywhere. Plus, given that I’m on the young end of living in this retirement community, anyone mad about our pride flag will probably just have to die mad about it.

So, to Karen and anyone else who has a problem with my pride flag: take a good, long look. This is what resilience looks like. This is what pride looks like. And if you can’t handle it, that’s your problem, not mine.

Here’s to flying our flags high, not just in June, but every damn day of the year. Because pride doesn’t end when the month does. It’s forever. And so is my wrath against hate and ignorance.

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Don't believe me! Always fact-check everything you read on the internet through multiple sources. Here's a list to help.

• Snopes – A well-known resource for validating and debunking urban legends, rumors, and news stories.
• FactCheck.org – A project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center that checks the factual accuracy of U.S. political claims.
• PolitiFact – A fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others on its Truth-O-Meter.
• AP Fact Check – Associated Press journalists fact-check claims in news stories, including statements by public figures and viral content.
• Full Fact – The UK's independent fact-checking organization.
• The Washington Post Fact Checker – Known for its Pinocchio ratings, it evaluates the truthfulness of political claims.
• Reuters Fact Check – Offers a range of fact-checking services that debunk misinformation across various topics.
• BBC Reality Check – Provides fact-checking services that clarify claims seen in news stories and on social media.

I know some artists are having a rough time out there because of AI, and I'll state up front that I don't think it's ethical to steal someone else's style and label it your own or to sell under their name. I use AI for spot illustrations infrequently, and I've never had a need to steal or borrow something as particular as style. I've also been compensated by Adobe for using some of my microstock to train Firefly, which is the AI I use most often.

I'm a Jack-of-all-Trades, and built a 30 year career on being able to learn or do anything I needed for a task. I can code. I can draw. I can read complex white papers about how AI learns and understand a lot of it, okay maybe about half of it, but the point is I've been on both “sides” of this debate professionally at some time or another in my life, and I've gotta say...

There are a bunch of artists out there that need to get a grip.

This is going to be an exercise in tough love. If you can't handle a little Gen-X dose of truth in your fucking trick-or-treat bag, get off my doorstep.

Glaze is ridiculous and harmful to artists, not AI. It was cracked minutes after it was shown to the world, and that's hyperbole, but not a lot. What's crazy about that is I saw the AI art forums and sites throwing out tools to unGlaze images well before this Zurich research paper on the topic was released last month. The feeling was the same amongst the pro-AI crowd… Glaze is just going to lead to a false sense of security, leaving artists feeling doubly like their work is protected AND like they’re somehow being covert warriors in a technological war against a shadow army of bots that can somehow be “poisoned”.

You’re already fucked, and many people tried to warn you that this could happen for many years, but y’all didn’t listen. When social media companies started rolling out updates to various terms that allowed them access to whatever you give them, y’all posted about it angrily on social media, but then… continued to use social media. The same thing goes for literally every type of company out there… bitch about it, but keep giving them money… and corporations paid attention. They now know they can just wait and y’all will forget how angry you were and go on using the thing anyway.

This tactic works everywhere for everything. The outrage only lasts as long as the algorithm picks it up, then it fades away and everyone continues using the same things they complained about while saying they “don’t have a choice”.

You have a choice. You always have a choice. Everyone has a choice. You chose the easy way out, and this is the price for that choice. You wanted quick and easy access to an audience that is constantly fed a scroll of “content” that keeps them hopelessly addicted for hours on end, so you sold your soul and made an excuse. Now you’re tied up in the algorithm and trying to get out… and there’s no way out.

There was a chance. Consumers ‘vote’ with their dollars. You could’ve made Twitter, Facebook, DeviantArt, allllll of these places, develop terms that protected your work, but you didn’t. You made the choice between walking away and staying, and a vast majority of you stayed. I desperately want to have empathy, but having lived through this era as a web developer, all I can develop is a bitter scoff. Wake the fuck up. You clicked ‘Accept’ without reading, you whinged when someone told you what you agreed to, but then you just kept using the product because you benefited.

And now you want the rest of the world to save you. Good luck with that. I don’t know, maybe stop whinging into the wind and making excuses for using the services that steal from you with your consent, and actually do something?

My whole career in tech – of every engineer in tech – was punctuated by many, many, many updates to technology that required I relearn everything I did and do it differently. The fast pace is one of the reasons I like it so much. There was always some new, interesting architecture or library or technique to dig into, which kept me interested, kept the work from being too dull, and kept me on my toes.

I did bitch about it a lot in the moment, though. There was a time in the 90s where those of us that hand-built website for people were displaced by WYSIWYG editors and cheap online templates that required very little technical expertise. Many anxious tears were shed in forums and mailing lists. Work dried up overnight. Designers had to adapt or they died out. I had friends who just… disappeared… went into whole other fields. So I understand the fear and the anxiety, but if you want to make change you have to stop whinging on social media, and you have to start doing the things that actually make change. The hard things.

Leave social media. Refuse to use any service that doesn’t explicitly protect your data. If you start using a service and they change their terms, stop using that service. Yeah, it’s going to be difficult and you’re going to have to rethink what you do, but that’s the only thing that makes shareholder-held corporations listen.

Advocate for better privacy laws. Start paying the fuck attention to all the shit you were ignoring right up until the point where it started affecting you. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has been raising flags and trying to get people’s attention since 1990.

Advocate for better copyright laws. Despite what people seem to think, copyright laws don’t automatically protect the creator. If the copyright isn’t registered, it can’t be brought as a case in federal court. You only have state courts and mediation at your disposal at that point. If the work is done for hire at another company, that company owns the copyright, not the creator. Even if the creator correctly registers the work and takes the case to federal court, they have to be able to afford the legal support. On the flip side, copyright trolls have developed entire businesses who abuse copyright law as their main source of revenue.

Learn about technology. Honestly, I see a lot of memes saying that AI artists need to pick up a pencil or have the courage to learn to draw. I worked in every type of engineering department during my time, and I can guarantee I know more programmers who can draw than I know traditional artists who know anything at all about the technology they use every day. All of the information about how learning models work is available online, open source… and at various learning levels… yet, misinformation on how it works is super thick on the ground. You need to know how the shit you use works, even if it’s just broad strokes.

The bottom line to the whole thing is that technology is always going to evolve, and it's going to disrupt every industry at some point. AI is just the latest in a long line of advancements that have changed the landscape for artists, just like digital photography changed it for film photographers, or digital publishing changed it for print.

Instead of wasting energy trying to stop the tide, we need to focus on how to ride it. That means learning, adapting, and advocating for ourselves in intelligent, proactive ways. It means understanding the tools and technologies we use, and it means being vigilant about our rights and how we protect them.

Stop relying on the old models that no longer serve us. Stop complaining and start strategizing. Use the tools available to you to create new opportunities and new ways of working. Understand the risks and protect yourself accordingly. But most importantly, take responsibility for your choices and their consequences.

It's a harsh reality, but it's the only way forward. The world isn't going to go back to the way it was, so we need to figure out how to thrive in the world as it is now. That means being smart, being informed, and being willing to take the hard steps necessary to secure our futures.

So yeah, some artists need to wake up. But more than that, we all need to step up. It's time to stop being passive and start being active participants in shaping the future of our industries. It won't be easy, but nothing worth doing ever is.

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Don't believe me! Always fact-check everything you read on the internet through multiple sources. Here's a list to help.

• Snopes – A well-known resource for validating and debunking urban legends, rumors, and news stories.
• FactCheck.org – A project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center that checks the factual accuracy of U.S. political claims.
• PolitiFact – A fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others on its Truth-O-Meter.
• AP Fact Check – Associated Press journalists fact-check claims in news stories, including statements by public figures and viral content.
• Full Fact – The UK's independent fact-checking organization.
• The Washington Post Fact Checker – Known for its Pinocchio ratings, it evaluates the truthfulness of political claims.
• Reuters Fact Check – Offers a range of fact-checking services that debunk misinformation across various topics.
• BBC Reality Check – Provides fact-checking services that clarify claims seen in news stories and on social media.

Like most everyone in the United States who has ever visited a politicians website ever, I’ve been inundated – INUNDATED – with emails by democrats begging for money. I am not a democrat, I am an undeclared independent sort, which started around 2010, when I ditched the dems for not doing their job.

Just to refresh anyone’s memories… Obama was in office. I ditched the party because when it had a super majority, it completely blew the opportunity to make real and lasting change. They could have replaced RBG. They could have codified bodily autonomy as part of the constitution. But they didn’t. Instead, Obama tried to make nicey nice with conservatives who can’t be reasoned with, and here we are…

Four years of Trump. Probably four more to come.

The loss of bodily autonomy.

The loss of a progressive supreme court.

The loss of actual, meaningful gun control.

Lots of losses. Obamacare is a big gain as far as I’m concerned, but even it was watered down by the time it was passed because the democrats didn’t have the stomach required to just ram it down their throats.

So I left the party. Total inability to do their fucking jobs.

Of course, though, that doesn’t mean I get a vacation from voting for them. Only idiots abstain from voting or vote for the other guy as a protest vote. I’m locked into voting for democrats because I only ever have a choice between a party that wants to strip me of every freedom I currently have and… democrats.

But I won’t give them money. Fuck that. They’re going to have to earn that shit.

They need to stop expecting loyalty while delivering mediocrity. It’s time for them to stand up and fight like our rights depend on it—because they do. The moment they restore our bodily autonomy and show they have the backbone to protect our freedoms, then and only then, will they see a dime from me.

Until then, they can keep begging. I'm done rewarding incompetence and cowardice.

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Don't believe me! Always fact-check everything you read on the internet through multiple sources. Here's a list to help.

• Snopes – A well-known resource for validating and debunking urban legends, rumors, and news stories.
• FactCheck.org – A project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center that checks the factual accuracy of U.S. political claims.
• PolitiFact – A fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others on its Truth-O-Meter.
• AP Fact Check – Associated Press journalists fact-check claims in news stories, including statements by public figures and viral content.
• Full Fact – The UK's independent fact-checking organization.
• The Washington Post Fact Checker – Known for its Pinocchio ratings, it evaluates the truthfulness of political claims.
• Reuters Fact Check – Offers a range of fact-checking services that debunk misinformation across various topics.
• BBC Reality Check – Provides fact-checking services that clarify claims seen in news stories and on social media.

Pride month is hitting differently for me this year. It's been my favorite time of the year for a long while and the last few years have included corporations celebrating more of pride by offering us more things to buy, this year they've buckled down to practically nothing. Michael's had one little set of shelves in the aisle, and I didn't even bother to go to Target after they announced that they'd also drastically reduced their Pride coverage.

I mean, first of all, fuck corporations. The only good part about corporate pride was that it put pride in the faces of everyone. Shopping in America – fuck, shopping anywhere these days – is so... Basic Bitch. The most average of average averageness there can possibly be because average sells to the average person, whom there are more of than us precious rainbows. When corporations stuck their necks out for us, for that brief time, we were part of the Basic Bitch spectrum. Now, we’re being kicked out again, tossed aside like a bottle of Chardonnay at a basic-ass, suburban mom’s book club that just got replaced with boxed wine. We got our moment to shine, our colors displayed right next to the beige of mainstream consumerism. It wasn’t perfect, but it was visibility in the most mundane places, where even the most casual observer couldn't avoid seeing us.

But now? Now we're back to being an afterthought. It's not just about the merchandise; it's about the message. Corporations were willing to sell our flags, our pride, our existence because they saw the value in our visibility. When they back off, it sends a clear message: our pride is only marketable when it's safe and convenient for them. In a nutshell, that’s a great description for all activism in America. People only engage in a meaningful way when it is safe and convenient. Cowards.

The rainbow capitalism wave might have been flawed, but at least it forced a conversation, put our existence front and center, even if just for a season. It's disheartening to see us dropped because it reveals the performative nature of their “support.” The moment things get tough, they retreat, leaving us to fight the battles on our own again, reminding us that their solidarity was always conditional.

But you know what? Fuck that. We don't need their conditional support to validate our existence. Our pride, our visibility, our fight – it's all stronger than the fair-weather allies who only show up when it's easy. We’ll keep shining, keep being loud, keep pushing forward, because pride isn't just a month or a marketing gimmick. It's who we are, every damn day, with or without their pandering.

And maybe, just maybe, when they see that our fight doesn't need their approval, they'll realize what true allyship looks like. Until then, we'll keep doing what we've always done: thriving, resisting, and being unapologetically ourselves.

And may y’all never forget…

The first Pride was a riot. 😁 🏳️‍⚧️🧱🪟🏳️‍🌈 😘

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Don't believe me! Always fact-check everything you read on the internet through multiple sources. Here's a list to help.

• Snopes – A well-known resource for validating and debunking urban legends, rumors, and news stories.
• FactCheck.org – A project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center that checks the factual accuracy of U.S. political claims.
• PolitiFact – A fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others on its Truth-O-Meter.
• AP Fact Check – Associated Press journalists fact-check claims in news stories, including statements by public figures and viral content.
• Full Fact – The UK's independent fact-checking organization.
• The Washington Post Fact Checker – Known for its Pinocchio ratings, it evaluates the truthfulness of political claims.
• Reuters Fact Check – Offers a range of fact-checking services that debunk misinformation across various topics.
• BBC Reality Check – Provides fact-checking services that clarify claims seen in news stories and on social media.

Today was one of those days where the peaceful routine gets interrupted by a burst of unnecessary drama. You know, the kind that makes you shake your head and wonder how some people can be so oblivious to basic decency.

So, we have this monthly landscaping service. They’re fantastic—always keeping our yard in tip-top shape, which is great because let’s be real, I’m not the gardening type. Anyway, they were here doing their usual amazing job when suddenly, our downhill neighbor decides it’s time for a confrontation.

Picture this: I’m inside, trying to relax, when I hear raised voices. Curious, I peek out the window to see our neighbor yelling at our landscaper. Apparently, a bit of dust from our steps drifted toward his carport, and he was having none of it. Now, I get it—no one wants extra dust. But come on, we live in a dusty area. It's not the end of the world.

What really got me was the way he went about it. Instead of coming to talk to us, he decided to corner our landscaper and start shouting, complete with profanities and all. Not cool. I watched for a bit, trying to figure out how to handle the situation. Confrontation isn’t my thing, but neither is watching someone get unfairly berated. And then, the neighbor had the audacity to ask if our landscaper spoke English. What kind of jerk does that? I'll tell you what kind of jerk: a racist jerk. It’s this conservative white man mindset that they own the world and everyone else should bow down to them. It’s a dangerous default.

Finally, I stepped out and asked what was going on. Our landscaper explained, and the neighbor tried to spin a tale about ringing our doorbell (which he didn’t—our obnoxiously loud doorbell didn’t go off, and my dog didn’t bark, so nice try, buddy). He then tried to downplay the whole intimidation act. Nope, not letting that slide.

I told him straight up that any issues with our hired help should come to us, not be thrown in their face with yelling and aggression. I could see him squirming, trying to justify his actions. It was almost pathetic. I made it clear that what he did wasn’t okay and that next time, he should talk to us first.

After that mess, I apologized to our landscaper for the hassle. We agreed on a small adjustment to keep the peace. Then, as if trying to salvage some dignity, our neighbor dropped off an apology note. It was a bit passive-aggressive, but at least it was something. I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt for now, but you can bet I’ll be keeping an eye on any more nonsense.

And then, to top it off, our neighbor threatened our landscaper with comments about how if he wanted to work here again, he’d better watch out, etc., etc., etc. Unbelievable. For now, I’m holding onto this as a record because let’s face it, in a world that would elect Donald Trump and will probably do it again, I don’t have much hope for a sudden decrease in drama. There's a lot more Mediocre White Man Who Thinks He Owns The World coming our way. And no matter how much I dislike confrontation, I dislike hate and racism more.

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Don't believe me! Always fact-check everything you read on the internet through multiple sources. Here's a list to help.

• Snopes – A well-known resource for validating and debunking urban legends, rumors, and news stories.
• FactCheck.org – A project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center that checks the factual accuracy of U.S. political claims.
• PolitiFact – A fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others on its Truth-O-Meter.
• AP Fact Check – Associated Press journalists fact-check claims in news stories, including statements by public figures and viral content.
• Full Fact – The UK's independent fact-checking organization.
• The Washington Post Fact Checker – Known for its Pinocchio ratings, it evaluates the truthfulness of political claims.
• Reuters Fact Check – Offers a range of fact-checking services that debunk misinformation across various topics.
• BBC Reality Check – Provides fact-checking services that clarify claims seen in news stories and on social media.

You know what really grinds my gears? The whole damn illusion that being a content creator is some ticket to freedom. It's like folks traded one master for another, only this one demands they perform 24/7. “Be authentic,” they say. “Just be yourself,” they say. But what they really mean is, “Be marketable.”

Every time someone sits down to create, there's this nagging voice in the back of their head whispering about engagement rates, SEO, and goddamn algorithms. It's exhausting. We were sold this dream that if we just followed our passions, we could break free from the chains of traditional work. But let's be real – it's still capitalism, baby, and it’s still a grind.

I see people who used to create for the sheer joy of it, now caught in the hamster wheel of likes, shares, and comments. It’s never enough. They’re always chasing the next big thing, the next follower, the next bit of validation from a faceless crowd.

And don’t even get me started on the craven influencers who’ll promote any goddamn thing put in front of their faces. It’s gross. Marketing is gross. Content creation is just advertising dressed up as art. These poor kids are acting like it's art, pouring their souls into it, thinking they’re creating something meaningful. WTAF?

It's telling that people call themselves content creators and not actors, dancers, artists, or even people. And what is content, anyway? It’s not called dancing, acting, or singing because it has components of those things, and some of those people may be very good at those things, but what they're making is content. Not art. Content. What is content? It's such a blank, vapid, empty, meaningless word. Content is just... stuff. It's junk food. It's fun and it's yummy and we love it, but it does nothing for us and often even harms us.

And for what? To line the pockets of the big tech companies who profit off their creativity while they’re left scrambling for scraps? It’s like a digital sweatshop where the currency is mental health. Yeah, it’s a bit dramatic, but so is this whole charade.

So here’s my rant for the day: being a content creator isn’t freedom. It’s just capitalism with a prettier mask. I watch people struggle to create because some algorithm demands it. Screw the numbers. Real freedom is creating because you love it, not because you have to meet some arbitrary metric.

Maybe that’s the real revolution – reclaiming creativity from the clutches of this exploitative system and making meaning, not money.

Until next time, Lotte

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Don't believe me! Always fact-check everything you read on the internet through multiple sources. Here's a list to help.

• Snopes – A well-known resource for validating and debunking urban legends, rumors, and news stories.
• FactCheck.org – A project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center that checks the factual accuracy of U.S. political claims.
• PolitiFact – A fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others on its Truth-O-Meter.
• AP Fact Check – Associated Press journalists fact-check claims in news stories, including statements by public figures and viral content.
• Full Fact – The UK's independent fact-checking organization.
• The Washington Post Fact Checker – Known for its Pinocchio ratings, it evaluates the truthfulness of political claims.
• Reuters Fact Check – Offers a range of fact-checking services that debunk misinformation across various topics.
• BBC Reality Check – Provides fact-checking services that clarify claims seen in news stories and on social media.

I have this problem. I've written before about how I eschew social media nowadays, etc, etc, etc... but bad habits are very hard to drop, especially when “being on the internet and talking to people” is the one thing I've consistently done for the last 32 years of my life. However, after two years off... whenever I try to go back to any sort of community, I literally get sick and stay sick for the remainder of the day. I hate it.

Where to start...

Okay, so I check the Etsy forums in the mornings because the news always sucks and my primary vocation is a tiny business I run on Etsy. I want to know what's happening in my business world. However, I know this is folly. The Etsy forums are a barely-moderated nightmare full of angry jackals looking to tear apart anyone who asks any sort of question. The names that pop up and do the tearing apart are always the same names, too... how do these people have the time?

I don't go in there expecting people to be nice to me or expecting to see nice and kind and flowery things, either. I go in there knowing what I'm going to see, prepared to be the Jackal Destroyer. For I am an angry jackal on the internet, too... I'm just angry at all those other jackals... the ones that make everything Not Very Fun AT ALL.

But being an angry jackal doesn't feel good. My body releases a shit-ton of whatever chemical comes about when you're preparing to fight. I can feel it flooding my system. Maybe it's adrenaline because after I come down, I feel shaky and kind of sick to my stomach and a little dizzy like I do after some near miss in my car or some similar adrenaline-spiking moment.

Except in those instances there's a spike and then it falls. When I'm arguing with jackals on the internet, it's a constant flow coursing through my body, and it just keeps making me feel sicker and sicker until I lose most of my day. I'd say this was a recent development, but I know it's not... it just wasn't until recently until I experienced life without that feeling.

It's gross, too, because I feel it a little right now, even though I know anyone reading this can't respond to it and make me feel like shit with their jackal-y answer. I gotta wonder... who else feels like this every day and doesn't even know it's interacting with the internet that's causing it? Doesn't know that they can get relief by stepping away?

I mean, relief from that, but not from the very human desire to want to reach out and be a part of a community of people who will support you and be kind to you, even when you're wrong. That's the kicker, right? It's easy to be kind to people when they're right. It's hard to be kind to them when they're wrong. Even harder to be gracious when you realize you were wrong.

Which is why I think so many people are so confidently wrong about things... and I'm not talking things that contain the nuance of opinion. I'm talking about things like verifiable, factually correct concrete parts of our world that can easily be looked up on the computer in everyone's pockets. They don't want to be wrong because they don't like how it feels.

This also explains a lot about why my mom never took accountability or apologized to me when she was wrong. She was always the type of person to make emotional decisions and then to never ever ever re-examine those decisions in less emotional contexts. I've found that's a common denominator among a lot of people raised in dysfunctional families of one form or another.

I'm pretty sure it's why soooooooo many people on the internet would rather just be angry wrong jackals and lash out at anything and everyone... and what I've discovered is that even being an angry RIGHT jackal doesn't actually do any good because just like my mom, all of these folks don't want to feel the discomfort of admitting they were wrong. There's no way to 'fix' these folks, no way to get them to see reason, no way to help them understand that what they're doing is just making the whole community worse and unusable.

The only winning move is not to play the game.

That sucks.

It sucks because there was a time, some 30 years ago, when the bright-eyed, idealistic, eternally hopeful young me looked at the possibilities of the future of the internet with glee and excitement. I was weird. I was different. I could find all my weird and different people online. This was great!

Capitalism destroys everything, though. It's made people believe they never have to experience discomfort, which has just led to everyone experiencing pain. Cool. Cool cool cool cool.

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Don't believe me! Always fact-check everything you read on the internet through multiple sources. Here's a list to help.

• Snopes – A well-known resource for validating and debunking urban legends, rumors, and news stories.
• FactCheck.org – A project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center that checks the factual accuracy of U.S. political claims.
• PolitiFact – A fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others on its Truth-O-Meter.
• AP Fact Check – Associated Press journalists fact-check claims in news stories, including statements by public figures and viral content.
• Full Fact – The UK's independent fact-checking organization.
• The Washington Post Fact Checker – Known for its Pinocchio ratings, it evaluates the truthfulness of political claims.
• Reuters Fact Check – Offers a range of fact-checking services that debunk misinformation across various topics.
• BBC Reality Check – Provides fact-checking services that clarify claims seen in news stories and on social media.