How We Weigh An Octopus!

Here’s my metaphor for systemhood that I tell my singlet friends.

Imagine you’re playing a first person video game. You have the controller, you control your character. It’s a normal first person game. You are an alter, the character is the body. This is fronting.

Other people live with you. Sometimes, they come into the room and sit and watch while you play. They sometimes try to guide you, give you advice on what to do next. They don’t always agree, and they can argue with each other. Other times they scream at you that you’re doing everything wrong and you suck at this game. This is co-consciousness.

Imagine how distracting it would be for people around you to tell you what to do, or to scream at each other or at you, even if they have good intentions. It wouldn’t be easy to focus on your game, would it?

Then sometimes, something happens in the game that prompts you to hand off the controller to someone else so they can play and you get a break. This is (some types of) switching. This can be good.

Other times, someone rips the controller out of your hand or fights you for it. This is (other types of) switching. And sometimes, six other players hook up their controllers, but there’s only one character to play as. So all of you have your controllers, but you’re all trying to play the same character. This is cofronting.

Imagine how difficult that would be. Imagine how hard it would be to try and play a game while someone is trying to take the controller from you, or while six other people are trying to play too.

There are also times that nobody is playing, or you can’t decide who should play. What’s happening to the character in the game? What are they doing if no one is playing? This is dissociation. The character is doing nothing. They’re stuck.

This is the best metaphor I have come up with for being a system. It’s something a lot of people get because they’ve played games before.

*picks up ur system and shakes u all like a snowglobe and watches ur headmates fall everywhere*

[Text: This user is a broke ass college kid.]

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Altogether, I really like the way americans say "can I help you?" as a polite general one-size-fits-all stand-in for "who the fuck are you/what the fuck are you doing here/how the fuck did you get in here/what the fuck are you staring at/what is your fucking problem." Such a polite way of going "bitch what the fuck."

sometimes i forget my characters are transgender but not that they like physically are trans i just forget that thats considered like a defining quality. like i dont remember being trans is a thing. to me a boy has boobs sometimes and thats just how it is

today a small group of around 80 pro palestine protesters managed to shut down the bay bridge, which connects the cities of san francisco and oakland, for around 6 hours.

their strategy? they parked their cars in a horizontal line to block west bound traffic, and then proceeded to throw their keys into the water bellow.

joe biden is currently visiting san francisco for the apec summit.

SUMMER

The way to avoid being a celebrity dick rider is to understand that no one rich AND famous AND influential makes it in those industries without at the very least knowing where some bodies are buried, keeping quiet about some exploitation or abuse, or making friendships and connections with the kind of people who are doing the lion's share of destroying the planet. And that at a certain point, they have more in common with elites than the ordinary people who support them. And also, they're going to be an unavoidable part of your media landscape unless you disengage completely from popular culture and alienate yourself from anyone who touches it. And also, your response to a celebrity's fuckshit is never as important to your response to the same fuckshit in your own community that you have direct influence over and the ability to organize around.

Good morning Mr. Jigsaw I noticed that this trap has a time limit of 60 minutes but as per my accommodations through the school Center of Disability Resources I get time and a half on exams and quizzes is that still something I can apply to this game right now? Thank you for understanding have a nice day

No one really tells you that when you're disabled, visibly or not, you'll have to get over feeling the need to apologize for everything.

You'll apologize for

Not being able to move quickly through small doors and walkways

Not being able to eat foods your friends like, make, or want you to try.

Having to ask for help.

Asking for space and to not be touched.

Needing accommodations

Being passionate about something

Being tired

Being tired when you weren't an hour ago

Being in pain

Being in pain when you weren't an hour ago

Going outside

Not going outside

Being on disability

Having brain fog

Needing medication

Not being "nice"

Using mobility aides

Asking people to simply do their jobs

Wanting to be treated like a human

And so much more

I know I shouldn't apologize for these things. It's not my fault. But, when you've been raised in a world where your very presence is an inconvenience and worth apology, it's hard to not break out of that cycle.

Don't even get me started on the underlying feeling that your partner, family, and friends are saints for "putting up with you."

I know it's a thing I have to work though myself. It's internalized ableism that I need to fix. But it sucks that it was instilled in me and now I have to deal with it.