I go to take Mac (Asian water monitor) out for a tour and since he’s sopping wet I want to towel him off. My boss gave me a towel with the Minions on it for this task.
So when I’m first taking him out he freezes. I’m thinking, “okay, is he stuck?” and help him down. Then I see he’s clamped onto the towel.
Eh??? Did someone wipe up rat juice with that towel? I thought it was clean. He won’t let go. I holler for my boss. “Oh sorry I forgot.” Forgot what?
“He hates the Minions. He always does that to this towel.”
So I’m explaining to the tour trying not to keel over laughing the reason we can’t take Mac out is because of his hatred for the Minions.
He eventually let go for a cockroach but that was a good 10 minutes of latching and whipping the towel. I feel you, man. I hate them too.
A while back a ton of people saw a video of a turtle with a straw stuck up its nose. I was one of them. It was very sad.
So when places started proposing we ban plastic straws, I was like…
“Yeah! Fuck straws!”
But then the disabled community spoke up and tried to inform everyone that plastic bendy straws are essential for people with various health issues. Without them, people might end up having to make the choice of whether or not they can consume liquids in public. And that really sucks.
This community put a lot of thought and research into this and was unable to find another material that could be a suitable replacement in every circumstance.
They proposed a system where you could just ask for straws rather than places giving them out all willy-nilly. This would still reduce the use of plastic straws significantly without screwing disabled folks.
I assessed this new information and…
I CHANGED MY DAMN MIND.
*gasp* “The Frogman is a flip-flopper!”
Naively, I figured most people who consumed this new information would do the same.
But it ended up being a mixed bag of mostly sullen disappointment.
As I read the comments on various articles I noticed a weird phenomenon where people magically transformed into materials scientists.
Disabled groups thought long and hard about this. These groups did some great in-depth research. And all these groups pretty much came to a unanimous consensus that there are currently no satisfactory alternative solutions. They also found that plastic straws are actually a drop in the bucket of our waste issues. Furthermore, the “straws on demand” solution would make that drop pretty frickin’ tiny. The overall risk to turtle noses would go way down.
Despite seeing these conclusions thoroughly presented to them, people would think about the issue for about 30 seconds and be like…
“Okay, but what about paper straws? What about reusable straws? What about this? What about that? I have a metal straw that works great! Surely that will do!”
These internet dunderheads actually believed their 30-second brainstorm would come up with a sufficient solution that has not been thought of yet.
As if the entire disabled community is going to be like, “We did all of this research, spent all of this time looking for alternatives, committed all of these resources to spread our conclusions, BUT WE NEVER KNEW ABOUT PAPER STRAWS! Thank you, kind stranger! You have single-handedly solved this dilemma!”
I just have trouble wrapping my head around the kind of ego one must have to think they could solve an issue like this with an internet comment.
What makes it worse is some of these “what about” comments would be replies to actual disabled people. These sudden experts in the science of materials would start suggesting straw alternatives. And these disabled folks, who are probably exhausted and at their wit’s end, must decide if they should give these individuals explanations of why these genius suggestions won’t work for them.
“I know you aren’t feeling well, but can you do all of the research for me so I don’t have to spend 2 minutes googling shit?”
And when you try to tell these people they are being ableist and kinda shitty, they act like a wounded animal. Suddenly they are the victim. THEY WERE JUST TRYING TO HELP! Not trusting people who live with these problems is the height of privilege. And forcing them to make their experiences relateable while remaining calm and polite is exhausting.
Then someone made this amazing chart that couldn’t possibly make it any easier to comprehend.
And people were still responding to it with…
“OKAY, BUT WHAT ABOUT…?”
In conclusion…
IT’S OKAY TO CHANGE YOUR DAMN MIND.
Also…
YOU’RE NOT AS SMART AS YOU THINK YOU ARE.
(Unless you actually are a materials scientist and you are developing an alternative as we speak.)
@sirfrogsworth thank you for this, and for perfectly encapsulating what this whole experience has been like as a disabled/ill person who a) recently found out using a plastic straw greatly reduces my neuralgia pain and risk of aspiration, b) talked about it on the internet and c) has been living with relentless hate email, and redundant “but have you tried…” comments ever since.
And thank you for thinking about the subject with critical compassion and changing your mind, and being open enough to talking about the fact that you changed your mind. I think some people think changing their mind means they’ve made some sort of moral failing sometimes, and would rather continue to be wrong/hurtful but feel right, than actually address their own behavior and question their motives.
So thank you. Again. For this and the *barks internally* caption, it’s a mood 😂
We have a cat. Still testing names but he’s responding to “Mochi” well. As you can see, he’s a bit of a chunky boy and will have to be on a diet and exercise regimen for a while. But he seems to be doing well and likes having an entire bedroom to explore, instead of just a 3×3 foot cube.
He has discovered
The crinkle paper.
We haven’t introduced him to Charlie the dog yet on the advice of the shelter- first 24 hours are “sniff through the door time” and tomorrow is “hold Charleston while Kitty sniffs and explores more of the house time”. Slow introductions are less stressful and will result in better relationship later.
Updates:
Like every other domestic cat I’ve hung out with, he’s a Titty Kitty and wants to sleep on my chest
He’s a biscuit-making baby, kneading everything
even titty, but very nicely and without claws
We have done the Look-At-Eachother-Through-A-Cracked-Door Test, and Kitty hissed a bit and got puffy but didn’t run, which is about what we’d expect for day 1.
Charlie, on the other hand is STOKED about Kitty and is sitting up by the bedroom door hoping that kitty will come out to play.
A world without abortion would need universal healthcare, free 100% effective reversible birth control with no side effects, no rape, no reproductive coercion, free childcare, free education, zero poverty, no health complications or fetal abnormalities incompatible with life (and probably a few more I missed!)
Otherwise it would just be a world where people with unwanted pregnancies, unaffordable pregnancies, deadly pregnancies and pregnancies with dead/dying fetuses are forced to continue them against their will by people with zero regard or compassion for their health and well-being.
And who the hell could possibly want that?
A world without (legal) abortion would be a miserable one.
-More kids who are missing a parent because said parent was forced to carry a dangerous pregnancy to term. -Even more kids in the foster care system because people who don’t want to parent have to carry out any accidental pregnancies. -A lot of dead loved ones, who either killed themselves, had to stop taking vital medications, tried to abort on their own, or straight up died from one of the many complications that can arise from pregnancy. -More people dealing with painful and/or permanent medical conditions caused by pregnancy, against their will. -More people dealing with dysphoria caused by pregnancy. -More kids growing up in abusive households where the abusive partner uses children as a method of control. -More minors having to deal with being pregnant at a young age, and having to cope with all the problems that entails.
Those are just the ones I can come up with off the top of my head. There’s many more reasons that a person would want to abort a pregnancy, but the biggest thing is that no one should ever have to go through it against their will. Ever.
And note that I specify legal abortion. Because you could never truly get rid of it, people have been trying to terminate pregnancies since pregnancies have existed. All you’d actually take is the ability to do it safely.
