today in ‘i wasn’t actually expecting this, but i really should have expected this’: i do a lot of visa application invites for people for work, and the passport first page for just about every country i’ve seen has clear, black text printed on light/white background with maybe some simple pastel-coloured designs. and for the first almost-three-decades of my life, i was happy in the naive belief that all passports around the world were similar; that one day all countries of the world gathered in Geneva or wherever and formed a Passport Design Committee where they all agreed on the general aesthetics for passports worldwide.
then, about two weeks back, i saw an american passport for the first time, and it straight up has a giant-ass flag, an eagle, a fucking ear of corn, and the first line of the constitution on it, the text is on glaring multicoloured backdrop, and while i was caught off-guard by it, it is also completely in line with its country of origin, and also i feel like this tells me everything i need to know about america as a nation.
…American here and I really shouldn’t be surprised to find out that nobody else in the world does this and yet every single fucking time
Jfc that’s what our passports look like?!
(Also that’s wheat not corn)
Man this doesn’t even get into the fact that the eagle’s eye fluoresces under black light.
So does the Statue of Liberty on one of the back pages iirc.
The US passport, for anyone who hasn’t seen one, is pretty wild. EVERY PAGE is like that, with different ‘Americana’ images throughout. It also goes west to east, so it starts with totem poles of the pacific north west, and progresses through the desert of the southwest, the buffalo on the plains, Mount Rushmore (I had a visa affixed to the Mount Rushmore page so George Washington is just peering over the edge of the visa sticker all shifty like, looking like a Kilroy), agricultural fields, steamboat on the Mississippi (iirc again, I’m doing this from memory, I’m too lazy to go get mine), and eventually the Statue of Liberty. The final page is the FUCKING MOON. WITH THE AMERICAN FLAG ON IT. It’s an artist’s conception of the 1969 moon landing, obvs, but it really feels like they’re saying the moon is the 51st state or something.
When I was living abroad, people were always shocked at how colorful the US Passport is. I once had to show it at a large bank after my debit card had been compromised, and all the bankers wanted to look at it. Every page has some ~inspirational~ quote on it. I told them some of the pages glow under black light and they got out their pen lights for checking money and just played with my passport for a while, looking at all the glowy stuff and all the pictures.
I have yet to encounter another passport half as EXTRA™️ as that if the US of A.
Other countries passports aren’t colorful and extra??? I probably shouldn’t be surprised but I am
From what I’ve seen most European passports are very light pastel designs on each page which are also extremely intricately lined and multicoloured to make counterfeiting difficult (same as bank notes, but More), but the colours are extremely subdued, and the designs also tend to be like, local plants and wildlife, landscapes, maybe some landmarks or historical figures. Definitely some hidden holograms. But again, subtle.
They do tend to be intended as patriotic representations of their issuing country, but not quite to SCREAMING EAGLE RED WHITE AND BLUE levels. This would be like if a UK passport had the queen gawking on every page from different angles.
adults are always talking about how “kids will do anything to get out of school” and okay, first of all that’s not true, but I think we really need to ask why that idea holds so much sway.
children’s brains are hard-wired to take in new information and acquire new skills. consider, for a moment, just how thoroughly our society had to fuck up the concept of education for it to be a normal thing to assume kids are universally desperate to avoid learning.
couple things here:
multiple things can actually be bad at the same time
I’m 32
couple more things:
Little kids really aren’t equipped to work full time without damaging their physical, mental, and emotional development and health, and when you play the “but adults work all day!” card you sound like a nineteenth century textile baron.
Highschoolers can easily be “working” 40+ hours a week, between school, homework, and extracurriculars and/or part-time work, and still hear this smug “:/ wait til you get to the real world sweaty” rhetoric all the time.
The original claim here wasn’t even “school is too hard,” it was “school is failing to perform its most basic function,” which is different.
from an adult point of view:
– When my work day is done, it’s done. I don’t need to spend hours each night to study or do homework.
I was told by my professors that Kitty Genovese was a 28-year-old unmarried woman who was attacked, raped, and brutally murdered on her way home from her shift as manager of a bar. I was told that numerous people witnessed the attack and her cries for help but didn’t do anything because they “assumed someone else would”. Nobody intervened until it was too late.
Now… is it likely that people overheard Kitty’s cries for help and ignored them because they thought someone else would deal with it? Or, perhaps, did they ignore her because they knew she was a lesbian and just didn’t care?
Maybe that’s not the case. Maybe it was just a random attack. Maybe her neighbours didn’t know she was gay, or didn’t care.
But it’s a huge chunk of information to leave out about her in a supposedly scientific study of events, since her sexuality made her much more vulnerable to violent crimes than the average person. And it’s a dishonour to her memory.
RIP Kitty Genovese. Society may only remember you for how you died, but I will remember you for who who were.
this was one of the first lessons I had in psych too and we were never told about this either nor was it in any of the reading materials
I never knew this.
I also never knew this about Kitty Genovese, but I do know that, in fact, many of the dozen (not thirty-eight) people who witnessed some part of the attack (which took place after 3AM, on a chilly night in March when most people’s windows were closed) tried to help in some way.
One shouted out his window for the attacker to leave her alone, which did successfully scare the man off temporarily.
Another called the police but, seeing her still on her feet, said only that there had been a fight but the woman seemed to be okay.
And when Kitty Genovese was finally attacked in a vestibule where she couldn’t be seen from outside, Karl Ross, a neighbor, saw what was happening but was too frightened himself to go to her rescue–so he started calling other neighbors to ask what he should do. Eventually one of them told him to call the police, which he did, and the woman he called, Sophie Farrar, rushed out to help Kitty even though she didn’t know whether the attacker was gone.
Kitty Genovese died in the arms of a neighbor who tired to help and comfort her while they waited for the police and ambulance to arrive. Kitty was in fact still alive, although mortally wounded, when the ambulance reached the scene.
The man who saw the final stabbing? Who panicked and called other neighbors first instead of the police? The man who said, infamously, that he “didn’t want to get involved” because he was reluctant to turn to the police for help? He was thought to be gay himself. He was a friend of Kitty and Mary Ann’s. After being interviewed by the police he took a bottle of vodka to Mary Ann and sat with her, trying to comfort her.
So, no. I don’t think the evidence indicates that Kitty Genovese’s neighbors let her die because she was a lesbian, because Kitty Genovese’s neighbors tried to help.
(Also, going by the content of the murderer’s confession, it was indeed a random attack.)
how on EARTH was this “scientifically” studied but the details gotten so wrong and the wrong as hell conclusion published and taught in schools?!?!?! where were those scientists observation skills?! on vacation?!
How to take facts and turn them into an urban legend that gets taught in schools: Make a bad made-for-t.v.-movie about it, watch it, believe everything the movie says, annnnnnnd go! That’s how it gets taught as this supposed “scientific study.” Someone got fucking lazy.
Trump called himself a nationalist he called himself a nationalist he blatantly and knowingly called himself a nationalist fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck
At this point he could just flat out say he’s a fascist and conservatives would not give a shit
I 100% expect that’s what’s coming next.
How long until the NYT runs articles about “is nationalism actually good?” with the same false neutrality that’s helped legitimize everything else he’s done?
Can we just… normalize teens loving their parents? Like obviously you’re not obligated to if your parents are shitty, but damn, I love my mom. She’s there for me all the time and sure we have rough patches but honestly she’s the greatest. Like. We need teens to know that they don’t have to hate their parents just cause.
It must be nice to come from a nonabusive family. One that doesn’t traumatized every emotional interaction to the point where you drive away any sign of love as a form of manipulation because that’s all that you were raised with. 🤷♀️
It is.
Reading Comprehension
but loving ur parents is already normalized and its the kids w/ abusive parents that actually have to deal with misunderstandings and ignorance from others regarding this topic.
Hey there, I’m talking about the trope where it’s seen as super uncool to like your parents that was literally pushed on teens through the media since the culture shift in the early 60s. The post has nothing to do with abusive parents. I was abused as a kid and honestly if the trope where teens have to hate their parents to be cool died, then kids with actual abusive parents would have an easier time recognizing abuse this has been a psa
“if the trope where teens have to hate their parents to be cool died, then kids with actual abusive parents would have an easier time recognizing abuse”
Teen with abusive parents: I hate my parents
Teen influenced by society: Me too mine are the worst
The takeaway for teen 1: This is normal and it’s supposed to be this way
The takeaway for teen 2: My friend’s parents are like mine
The takeaway for any adult listening: All kids who complain about their parents are just being rebellious
amusedAnarchist 