Some thoughts from Chinese Xiaohongshu users (text is translated and originally in Chinese)
Based
At the risk of destroying my notifications again, I'm back with another fundamentalist Christian translation.
A friend of mine who is studying to become a nurse mentioned that the CDC website on STI treatments had been taken down and she needed for her homework. I tried getting it myself and couldn't. I then tried accessing alternative guidelines I remembered and couldn't get those either.
She was frustrated and said "Why would they do that? Treatment is like the least controversial thing!"
And I was like "Well..."
On the less extreme end, I know lots of fundies who don't want information on STI treatments to be available because then people will think they can go sin without consequences.
The ideal sexual life in fundamentalist Christianity is to be a virgin, court and marry another virgin, and then get married and only ever have sex with that person for your entire life (and have lots of kids). And STIs are seen as proof of that because the only way (in their mind) to avoid them, is abstinence so it must be what God intended.
On the more extreme end, there is the occasional fundie who thinks that treating an STI (of someone who got it through sinning) is actually immoral because "the wages of sin is death" and that is God's design. This was not most people I knew but I certainly heard it enough.
Look, you can poke holes in this all you want but at least spare my notifications of it. Make your own post. I was in sex education on the practical and research side for a few years in part because of this specific issue so it hits close to home.
I mention it so people can know what to expect from this administration and hopefully prepare. Collect quality information especially on marginalized health conditions and be ready to spread it around. If you or a group you belong to have the equipment to run tests and treat them, stock up on supplies.
"Kill your darlings" means "if something is holding you back, get rid of it, even if it sounds pretty."
That's it! That's all it means! It means if you're stuck and stalled out on your story and you could fix the whole block by removing something but you're avoiding removing that thing because it's good, you remove that thing. That's the darling.
It does NOT mean
That you have to get rid of your self-indulgent writing
That you should delete something just because you like it (?wtf?)
That you need to kill off characters (??? what)
That you have to pare your story down to the absolute bare bones
That you have to delete anything whatsoever if you don't want to
The POINT is that you STOP FEELING GUILTY for throwing out good writing that isn't SERVING THE STORY.
The POINT is that you don't get so HUNG UP on the details that you lose sight of the BIG PICTURE.
Good grief....
Right now, you can submit a comment for consideration on the proposed changes to US Passport law that will include requiring a change from "Gender" to "Sex" on all passports and require that people identify with their sex assigned at birth.
THIS IS THE LAW THAT WOULD BAN TRANS PEOPLE FROM UPDATING THEIR IDENTIFICATION
Please take a moment to click through and submit a comment. This kind of thing is fast, easy, and is one of the many ways to show your support of the trans community to the people that need to know how many of us there are.
the fact that so many ppl view slurs and oppression as cool exclusive clubs to claim access to, tells me a lot of ppl have never genuinely experienced violence before.
Some women are conditioned to be fragile and weak, and to believe that it's a sin to outperform a man. Her feminism would involve allowing women to be strong.
Some women are expected to be strong at times when they can't. Her feminism would involve reassuring her that it's okay to not be strong.
Some neurodivergent people are raised to believe that they're too stupid to ever amount to anything. Their disability activism would involve reassuring them that they're capable.
Some neurodivergent people are raised to believe that they're smart and gifted, and are expected to live up to impossible standards. Their disability activism would involve allowing them to fail, make mistakes, be stupid, etc.
Some children are constantly reminded "you're the child, I'm the adult" in order to deny their autonomy. Their youth rights activism would involve treating them like an adult at times when they feel ready for it.
Some children are treated like adults in order to justify increased expectations or to downplay abuse against them. Their youth rights activism would involve allowing them to be a child.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to oppression. Each individual person's experience is different. Whatever trauma is caused by their oppression, the activism should focus on undoing it.