I’m So Bloody Proud Of This

The UK government has got a survey on about reform of the disability benefits system, and has kept mega quiet about it presumably to keep responses down.

Please can we spread this? People who can fill it in: "Our approach must be informed by different views and opinions, particularly those of disabled people and people with health conditions."

This system has killed tens of thousands of us. Odds are they'll ignore the responses the same way they ignored the GRA consultation, but...

someone reading this has the need and ability to schedule an appointment with a doctor and has not scheduled it

someone reading this might not even realize they are experiencing symptoms of treatable illness

someone reading this thinks everyone else is exhausted or in pain or numb or uncomfortable or struggling every single day

someone reading this has gotten mad at people in their life for saying they should talk to a doctor

someone reading this is scared of the worst case scenario, so they refuse to even try

someone reading has a treatable condition that may get worse the longer they wait to get that treatment

someone reading this has a condition that is relatively easy to diagnose and treat, if they would just talk to a doctor

someone reading this can still be saved, if only I could say the right words this time

hey

Discworld is an interesting beast in the age of ACAB. Like, the city watch books are a story about police and the way in which a good police force can help and protect people. Which would make it copoganda. And I'm not going to say that the City Watch books are completely free of copoganda, but they also do something interesting that fairly few stories about heroic police officers do, and I think it has a lot to do with Samuel Vimes. A lot of copoganda stories like, say, Brooklyn 99, are perfectly capable of portraying cops as cruel, bigoted, and greedy, but our central cast of characters are portrayed as good people who want to help their communities. The result is that the bad cops are portrayed as an aberration, while most cops can be assumed to be good people doing a tough job because they want to help protect people from the nebulous evil forces of "Crime". The police are considered to be naturally heroic. Pratchett does something very interesting, which is provide us with Vimes' perspective, and present us with an Unnaturally heroic police force. In Ahnk-Morpork, the natural state of the watch is a gang with extra paperwork. It's the place for people who, at best, just want a steady paycheck and at worst want an excuse to hit people with a truncheon. Rather than be an army defending people from the forces of Crime, the Watch is described as a sort of sleight-of-hand, big burly watchmen in shiny uniforms don't stand around in-case a Crime happens in their vicinity, they stand around to remind people that The Law exists and has teeth. The Watchmen are people, when danger rears it's head, their instinct is to hide and get out of the way. When faced with authority, their instinct is to bow to it out of fear of what it might do to them if they don't. Carrot is a genuine Hero, but his natural heroism is presented as an aberration. Normal Cops don't act like Carrot does. The fact that the Watch ends up acting like a Heroic Police Force is largely due to the leadership of Sam Vimes, but Vimes himself is a microcosm of the Watch. The base state of Sam Vimes would be an alchoholic bully of an officer, one who beats people until they confess to anything because that makes his job easier. Vimes The Hero is a homunculous, an artificial being created by Sam Vimes fighting back all those instincts and FORCING himself to behave as his conscience dictates. Vimes doesn't take bribes or let his officers do the same because, damnit, that sort of thing shouldn't happen, even if doing so would make things a lot easier. Vimes doesn't run towards sounds of screaming because he WANTS to, he forces himself to do so because somebody needs to. It's best summed up in Thud “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Your Grace.” “I know that one,” said Vimes. “Who watches the watchmen? Me, Mr. Pessimal.” “Ah, but who watches you, Your Grace?” said the inspector with a brief little smile. “I do that, too. All the time,” said Vimes. “Believe me.”

In the hands of another writer, or another series, this exchange would be weirdly dismissive. To whom should the police be accountable to? Themselves, shut up and trust us. But from Vimes, it's a different story. Vimes DOES constantly watch himself, and he doesn't trust that bastard, he's known him his entire life. The Heroic Police are not a natural state, they're an ideal, and ahnk-morpork only gets anywhere close. Vimes is constantly struggling against his own instincts to take shortcuts, to let things slide, but he forces himself to live up to that ideal and the Watch follows his example. Discworld doesn't propose any solutions to the problems with policing in the real world. We don't have a Sam Vimes to run the NYPD and force them to behave. We don't have a Carrot Ironfounderson. But it's at least a story about detectives and police that I can read without feeling like I'm being sold propaganda about the Thin Blue Line.

a piece i excavated from my 2022? files... it was either redo it from scratch, or post it as is, so here we are... i profoundly love a wizard of earthsea and am due for a re-read

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZTdQuxw52/

I think I found my new favorite rabbit hole. This voice actor does Shakespeare scenes in a southern accent and I need to see the whole damn play. Absolutely beautiful

Planning for a flight now consists of planning out how to document the legal violations the airline is inevitably going to commit.

The New York Times did a piece titled 100 Small Acts of Love and these are some of my favorites 💕

What do you think Tolkien's Dwarves' religion looks like?

like Terry Pratchett’s, but taken seriously.

…i may have put way too much time into this

I just got a car and started driving again so I was thinking about some safety things for D/deaf/HoH drivers. One huge concern is the possibility of being pulled over and encountering the police.

I have a magnet similar to this on my car in case of that situation

I also keep a notepad and pen in my glove box with my insurance card and registration. I keep everything is in one place so I won’t have to reach around and look like i’m searching for “something”

—-

I also found this article with more information—

https://www.aarp.org/health/conditions-treatments/info-2016/deaf-driver-safety-police-kb.html

AARP

Deaf Driver Safety: How to Deal With the Police - Health

Drivers with hearing loss should be extra cautious when pulled over by the police, as a recent tragedy in North Carolina reminds us. We have

Too many deaf folks have been killed by police, already. Stay safe!

(Hearing people are encouraged to reblog)