SecondUniverse (she/her/they)

When Trump says the USA is monitoring the Russian plague deaths, he means he's watching it on Newsmax.

"Feelings aren't facts" is a phrase that has been thrown at trans people over the years. I agree. Feelings aren't facts. Feelings are subjective, and one of the wonderful things about humanity is the diversity of our feelings. Feelings are the color and meaning of our lives. Feelings are why people form relationships, make art, get out of bed, and form communities. Feelings, despite being non-factual, are the only reason any of us do anything at all. Hell, feelings about trans people are why people say things like "Feelings aren't facts." Feelings deserve respect regardless of what facts you think you might be in possession of. What is a fact is that trans people have existed throughout history. What is a fact is that acting on personal convictions is lauded in our society, except if you are queer. What is a fact is that there are a lot of facts that transphobes ignore. When people say "Feelings aren't facts", they should listen to themselves. #trans

In unrelated news, trans women are banned from parts of this Labour conference. "Powell said Labour was beginning to get a hearing again and should not be embarrassed to show its values clearly." VALUES? Suicides among trans youth have quadrupled under Labour policies. Also, Labour commissioned a misleading study to deny there was a problem. Oh, they also fought the FOI request that exposed the problem tooth and nail in court. While you are uniting us, which toilets do I get to use? Just fuck right off. I will never vote for Labour. #trans #ukLabour #ukpolhttps://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/sep/26/labour-must-reunite-progressive-voters-to-win-the-next-election-says-lucy-powell

It was 2026, two years before the vast battle fleet of the Scrapers came. We were just whispering about model death, how our civilization might drown in slop unless the AIs could be radically improved. That was when the ground-breaking paper was published on Science: "Inevitability of model death and the Fermi paradox". A mathematical proof that AI models inevitably lead to civilizational collapse. The answer to "Where was everyone?" was that every Planet with intelligent life developed AI and then descended into statistical barbarism. 2027 was the year of the great purge. AI data centers were torched. Slop content was deleted. A planetary ban on AI research was enforced by a powerful new international agency. The world had woken up. The wealth of billionaires was confiscated. Nation states were deconstructed by angry world citizens. Fossil fuels were banned. War criminals faced consequences. Food went where it was needed. New year's day 2028 was supposed to be the start of a new era where humanity finally did things right. Looking up into the peaceful new year's night sky (fireworks had been banned), people saw a cloud of glittering sparks drifting across the stars. The first wave of Scrapers had arrived. Yes, AI eventually leads to civilizational collapse. The Scrapers knew this too. By their own maths, they had to shred and consume one AI-free planetary culture every ten years to stave off their own collapse. #microfiction #ai

It's a funny old world. Every rollback of trans rights gets coverage in the media. Every little terfy thing JKR says gets breathless coverage. Every trans offender going to jail becomes a national issue. Hours of talk radio are devoted to "protecting" girls sports from trans children. But if 150,000 trans people and allies march through London, I don't see the reporting. I wonder why? #trans

Vote Green. If you vote Labour, you'll get Labour. And no one wants that. #ukpolhttps://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/sep/18/former-labour-deputy-leader-tom-watson-joins-palantir

James Simpson invented the use of chloroform for pain relief in childbirth in 1847. The religious authorities of the UK were outraged, as the bible clearly says god cursed women to painful childbirth. Pain relief was heresy! Simpson received death threats and chloroform was considered socially unacceptable for years, until queen Victoria availed herself of the technique. The religious argument was never resolved. Society simply decided it couldn't deal with the contradiction of the the church's holy book saying pain was a religious duty, and the head of the church choosing pain relief. So it became a non-issue. I don't think people confronted their moral objections and decided that biblical literalism was harmful. Instead, part of their religious framework became too problematic, so it was simply reclassified as "wasn't important / don't think about it". Thereby enabling the rest of the biblical literalism to retain its ideological dominance. This is neurotypical ethics. 1/2 #womensRights #feminism #religion #lgbtqia #actuallyAutistic

It wasn't a "tragedy". It was a lynching. #ukpol

@adhdeanasl@beige.party I am sighted but Alt text is often helpful to me. Some pictures just don't make sense until I read the Alt text. And German comics make sense when I translate the Alt text.

@hexx@glaceon.social Just resharing image with alt text. Zines are nice, but alt text makes anarchists strong and brave!

@fgraver@hcommons.social Meta's ad campaign is literally "be like the famous rich person"?

@failedLyndonLaRouchite@mas.to @afewbugs@social.coop well a lot of scientists are capitalists. I think the toot is more about the contrast between the ideologies.

The world is a bad place! When did you find out? #poll #innocence

Are we doing pronouns wrong? Telling someone your preferred pronouns and having that respected can be validating, but it also gives away a little power. It's giving the gender Nazis an easy way to be mean. What about modifying the first person pronoun? As a nonbinary person I am quite happy "I" is not gendered, but if you want to assert your gender, maybe using "Im/Ir/Ix" (or whatever) might be more useful. Instead of a once-and-done pronoun intro, you use the first person pronoun almost every other sentence. You are not depending on other people to adopt language. Secondly, in addition to wildly gendering "I", why not normalize they/them for everyone. This takes away the linguistic platform for misgendering microagressions. For me, gender has always been unwelcome and problematic. My apologies if I have not captured the nuances of pronoun usage from other perspectives. It is certainly not my intention to cause offence or invalidate any identity. #trans #gender #nonbinary #linguistics

@redsad@ohai.social Ask the machine to reconsider

@GeofCox@climatejustice.social What??? The Chinese can invent stuff? They have foiled our masterplan for eternal Western chip dominance. Fiddlesticks!

@Natasha_Jay@tech.lgbt aaah, but I also believe the police state is biologically innate! /sarcasm

@twipped@twipped.social Curiously credible!

@GeofCox@climatejustice.social Well, Trump has decided science is bad, so it's hardly surprising. I hope MAGA gets nibbled to death by transgender mice!

The BMA (British Medical Association) review of the Cass Report was misreported in the British press to the point of "misinformation" according to insiders. Widely reported as accepting the Cass Report and the subsequent actions of NHS England, the review actually raised several concerns and specifically rejected the puberty blocker ban as not supported by the Cass Report. #ukpol #trans #intersex #childrensRightshttps://www.wearequeeraf.com/exclusive-reporting-about-british-medical-association-critique-of-cass-review-was-factually-wrong/

"Taxing the rich doesn't produce a lot of revenue." Money is power. Tax the rich to reduce their power.

@meganL@mas.to Well, they would claim that "social justice" is about promoting the interests of minority groups over the rights of the majority. So for them it makes sense, they feel opposing social justice is about fairness (to white cishet people). I don't agree with any of that to be clear, but they think "social justice" is just Orwellian newspeak that means the opposite of the literal words.

@hart@norden.social incomplete alt text

@benroyce@mastodon.social Now I want a trunk.

@alexadeswift@lgbtqia.space @therightarticle@mas.to It's such a a great consolation to know that whoever is prime minister on 2060 will stand outside No. 10 Downing Street and say "Her Majesty's government apologizes sincerely for the mistakes that were made in the 2020s regarding trans health care and human rights. Let me be very clear: lessons will be learned."

"NHS trust investigated for corporate manslaughter after Nottingham attacks" Why? This article makes the common mistake of implying "paranoid schizophrenia" is intrinsically dangerous and basically a synonym for "axe murderer". Most people with psychotic symptoms are not dangerous, including those who are frankly paranoid. The strong implication is the trust didn't try hard enough to stuff pills down his throat. They didn't do forced medication hard enough. They were negligent for allowing a "paranoid schizophrenic" on the streets. There is no doubt that Valdo Calocane was a violent man, but so are many other men. Did it really have anything to do with his mental health issues, or was it rooted in ideas of masculinity? The guy had been sectioned 4 times and forced to take medication he was opposed to. Did medical trauma worsen his mental health issues? Did it make him more paranoid? Was he ever offered non-drug treatment? Was he ever offered treatment for anger or emotional regulation, or did they just assume those things were part of his schizophrenia? If they stabilized him, did they then offer treatments, peer support, or support to taper meds, or did they just leave him like that -- even though many international studies have shown long term antipsychotic use worsens long term outcomes? https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jul/22/nhs-trust-corporate-manslaughter-investigation-nottingham-attacks-valdo-calocane #mentalHealth #ukpol #psychosis

@therightarticle@mas.to Trans child killer. Palantir sellout. Tory wannabee. Fuck Wes Streeting.

@Geri@veganism.social Fight the power!

Sending up the bat signal for the Free Speech Activists! Something tells me they won't say a thing. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn8k39vz8vvo #trans #ukpol #freeSpeech

@VeroniqueB99@mastodon.social but then why does he want so much of the stuff?

@aceofcosmicspace@lgbtqia.space Clappings! Clappings! This week I organized my home office / laundry space.

Our new experimental model, DoctorBot IV, escaped containment and successfully developed and released the Zombie Phage, which as you know is spreading uncontrollably around the Earth. While we regret the widespread loss of life, disruption to business activities, and the ultimate collapse of civilization, it's worth reflecting on the upside too. This is a demonstration of the power and promise of our new model, which we are continuing to develop in our fortified data centres. Digital stock markets are still functioning, so there is a small window of time left for you to buy into our IPO. The funds will partly go to work on DoctorBot V, which may or may not develop a Zombie Phage vaccine. #microfiction #ai

@dianea@lgbtqia.space it's just kitty's way if saying we are all stardust.

"Don't worry, you're one of the GOOD ones." What to do if your immigration policy is unworkable and frankly catastrophic? But on the other hand, you think it might get racists to vote for your party? Roll it out so there are no immediately visible victims, and the negative consequences will only become apparent in a few years' time. #ukpol #burnham

I am waiting for the day when all LGBTQIA+ folks finally realize we can turn people LGBTQIA+ by biting them at midnight on a full moon. I can't do it all myself. #microfiction

Plus, female stunt doubles playing Matt Damon is drag, and I don't want my children exposed to sexualized content! /Sarcasm

@cR0w@infosec.exchange Little one, the Sun is blowing up all the time. That's what it does.

@BrielleLabingi@void.lgbt wait what? Hope you are ok

@thepigtailedgirl I wonder if they will actually sue. Because then Amnesty will have to defend itself.

The Victorian scientists crowded into the conference hall. In the center of the stage, a pigeon-sized green bird with a yellow beak perched on a tall stand, calmy and intelligently surveying the assembled gentlemen (women were not permitted). After the hubbub had settled, Sir Cuthbert Flummox took the stage and stood proudly next to the exotic bird. "The answer is an emphatic yes," he said. "AI---Animal Intelligence---is real. My research zoologists have scoured the world and we have found an animal amenable to trained for higher-order thinking." He paused to let the magnitude of the discovery sink in. "The shortage of engineers and colonial administrators will be a thing of the past." He held out his hand, and the bird carefully stepped onto his wrist. All eyes were locked onto the strange bird. Flummox held up the bird and asked in a loud voice, "What is your name?" "Pretty Polly" squawked the parrot. An audible gasp swept around the auditorium, followed by an excited murmur. "Where are we?" demanded Flummox. The bird hopped onto one leg and, after a pause, screeched "London!" Journalists were rushing out of the hall to stop the presses. "What,"thundered Flummox, "five plus seven?" The bird was startled by the commotion in the hall and the overbearing inventor. It briefly hid its head under its wing, and when the hall subsided, it straightened up and said proudly, "Ten!" Flummox smiled and turned to the audience. "Yes every new technology has its growing pains, but the intelligence and potential of this bird is self-evident. All that is required is more training. I am offering the prescient invsors of the city the opportunity to sieze the new frontier of AI with me!" #microfiction #ai

@alerque@mastodon.social Yes true. In fact there is no need for the Agency. The Global Collective simply wouldn't help AI enthusiasts to build enormous data centres, so AI would never be a problem. AI is only a problem when the AI enthusiasts own the world.