@mrgrumpymonkey The best thing anyone can do is drawn #attention to something so that others can see, and feel sympathy, which will then #inspire people to actually help.

If you don't see something you don't know you can help at all.

I am obnoxious and can write.

I am the perfect person and I am just trying to protect my friends and loved ones.

We all struggle.

I don't want us to more so I am SHOUTING for them.

I won't stop until things are better for everyone.

@Kristian_Kiehling @salixsericea

He's deliberately provoking a worse water crisis by assuring followers there is no need to respect the existing one.

If you see things like this as intending to induce chaos and collapse that he can blame on blue policy, it seems more devious than crazy.

He's also distracting from the more structural things he's doing. There is a lot afoot. Citizens not him, need to set priorities for response.

The Chris Hayes book on attention as currency, The Sirens' Call, is out today. I haven't read it yet but will. I suspect it will have strong opinions on this kind of thing.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/217869789-the-sirens-call

In a copy of a letter…sent to lawmakers ahead of #RFKJr’s confirmation hearings to lead the Dept of #Health & #Human Services, the fmr ambassador to Australia alleges that her cousin, “addicted to #attention & #power,” has given #hypocritical advice by discouraging parents from vaccinating their children while vaccinating his own children. She alleged that his “crusade against #vaccination” has also served to enrich him.

Will they uphold a commitment to #FreeSpeech, which all of them, in various ways, espouse, or is free speech just the pretext to undoing #social, #corporate, & #political norms that might have restrained their companies from fully hijacking America’s #attention? Will they fiddle w/the knobs of their #platforms, as #ElonMusk has done at X, to produce a chaotic #agitprop machine? Or are they just happy they no longer have to pay for #DEI consultants or deal with an aggressive #FTC?

Learn about Active Listening. It's literally just listening, tbqh.
Pay attention with intent to understand, not to form your reply.

https://www.mindtools.com/az4wxv7/active-listening
https://positivepsychology.com/active-listening-techniques/
https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/wellbeing/how-to-talk-about-health-problems/active-listening

https://www.coursera.org/articles/active-listening
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_listening
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK442015/

Mutual aid just means "to help other people".
Mutual means something is 'held in common' or 'multiple parties, toward each other'. To aid someone means to help, support, or assist them.

You do not need to enjoy or 'agree' with other people to want them to not feel pain or discomfort.
You do not need to solve everyone's problems. You do not need to solve anyone's problems.

You're not their therapist, social worker, parent or carer, supervisor, auditor, personal assistant, or authority figure.
You are not responsible for what they do after you offer and give help.
Free yourself from that responsibility.
Be kind; then return to your own life.

https://www.mutualaid.coop/what-is-mutual-aid/
https://www.mutual-aid.co.uk/
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_aid

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/769258/Mutual-aid-framework.pdf
https://www.fool.co.uk/personal-finance/your-life/guides/what-is-mutual-aid-and-how-is-it-different-from-charity/
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/669047/Mutual-aid-briefing.pdf

If you have money (e.g. your income or livelihood is stable enough that you don't worry about next month's money to cover needs, plus some fun stuff that makes life worth living)

then now may be a good time to invest in local organisations.
Time, energy, money, equipment, networking, social media, cleaning, babysitting, etc.

My opinion? Focus on: youth groups, public health education, adult retraining, intercommunity outreach, and mutual aid.

Repeated small support is more reliable than big irregular donations, but 'better is always better'.

https://80000hours.org/

Staying alive, you can learn or run. You can help others, even when you don't know wtf you're "meant" to be doing.

If you need to recover in the closet to be who you are later, there's nothing wrong with you.
If you need to kick the door down to breathe, I'll kick with you. ("Together, we have great strength of feet!")

This is so fucking stupid, but fuck it. It's where we're at.

Whatever your journey of processing this and surviving it looks like, you are not weak.
Even fellow chronically ill people: your bodies are not weak.

We are surviving the utmost fuckery -- despite Seymour's directions -- while the arc of history bends to conviviality.

https://www.transtexas.org/get-involved

You may need to question dangerous situations for your own sake. (Ideally BEFORE you get near them, but please: it's not your fault if you don't realise until later.)

If no one else and no other organisation, Samaritans is probably your best bet. Otherwise, you can search online but PLEASE. Fuck, there is no general advice I can even give here.

You want "near you" / local, and f2f / in-person where you can. Unfortunately, people of same demographics are most likely to care, but this is NO guarantee, nor should it be.

If you know tech shit:
VPN is probably helpful, depending where you live and what you need to know.

If you don't know tech shit:
only ask people certain questions face to face / in person. Turn your devices off, batteries out, and in another room.
Make it a game! Like training to be a spy, yeah?

https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/

Seek community with people who feel safe:
actually warm, stable, secure, NOT upsetting, worrying, or 'wrong'. ("Oh, I want to trust them, but..." then DON'T. "But what about--" NO.
If you *need* something from them to survive or help someone else, take the risks you think you can survive the worst outcomes of sustainably. But otherwise, please value yourself and your wellbeing. If not, please value yourself because I do.)

TRUST YOUR GUT.
Yes, your gut *can* be wrong. Your gut can be racist, sexist, or otherwise shitty. It can keep you from connecting with people who mean well but can't match your expectations while trying to help.
But it's among the best advice I can give.

It's not easy to tell who is safe(r) or not; I'm sorry. I wish it were easy.

It's not your fault if you get it wrong! That's the point of being young and inexperienced: you haven't been alive long enough to experience what you need to know to stay alive and healthy(ish) yet.

You should never have to figure this out alone.

http://mermaidsuk.org.uk/

Baby queers, questioning people, and anyone else, we got you.

This sucks: it's terrifying and unnecessary suffering. This was avoidable, but for powerful people making their selfish fear into our problem.

It's not your fault, never was, and never will be. Your feelings matter, your experiences matter, and even unmet, your needs matter.

You might even say, perhaps -- bizarrely?! -- that b/Black and b/Brown (wait, does that one get the double case slash or) peoples' lives matter.

https://naacp.org/take-action