EY! I’m WALKIN’ ova here!

TIL two people can’t do the same thing.

Oh, did this start January 20th? That’s probably news to Gazans.

This is just for the English speaker learning Spanish Duolingo course, which I’m told is one of the best ones, so it may not apply to other courses. But IMO it was easier to pick up the majority of the beginner vocabulary in Duolingo (they’ve got the drill aspect of language learning down pat) and then spread out to other sources. I especially needed outside help with grammar because (at least when I was doing the early parts) Duolingo didn’t explain grammar very much, so there was a bit of ramming my head against a brick wall.

How long an article takes me to read depends on how many colloquial phrases it has that Duolingo hasn’t introduced me to, if uncommon words or jargon are used, etc. The dictionary app I use is pretty good and includes slang, so when I do run into unknowns it only takes a few seconds to look it up. But overall I’d say I read maybe 1/2 to 2/3 the speed I read English, depending on all the above factors. It does fatigue me a lot faster than reading English, but I think that’s a normal thing for second languages you’re still learning.

Edit: oh oops I misunderstood your last question, it took me maybe a year to start on news articles and maybe another 6 months to get comfortable with them. Totally YMMV depending on how much and how seriously you study, this wasn’t anything like full time study for me.

By the time you’re old enough to ask “why,” they’ve subjected you to enough propaganda to ensure it doesn’t even occur to you to do so.

I learned probably 90% of my Spanish through Duolingo. My reading is good enough that I can usually follow along with Spanish news articles and Spanish spoken at a moderate pace. (So almost none of it, haha) I have hearing comprehension problems with English as well though, so that’s not Duolingo’s fault.

I’m definitely not fluent, but it’s not like I wouldn’t know what to do if someone handed me a form in Spanish, either.

Overall it’s just the repetition that matters. I don’t think I would know any less Spanish if I’d spent 20-30 minutes every day for the past 2+ years using a different app to learn.

Mango Languages is available for free through many libraries and has an app.

This is what every news article about an assault or murder of a queer person used to be like in the 00s and earlier. Then after the local queer community spends ages protesting (if there was one, and who knows how many murders flew under the radar this way) maybe someone eventually gets a slap on the wrist charge.

Maybe they’ll update these stories soon, but it’s not a great sign when they’re not even discussing the husband’s account. (The other stories, not the one you linked)

According to his husband’s posts on social media, these neighbors had subjected them to homophobic harassment and threats to burn down their home before now. And when they returned to find the skull of their dog out in plain view and started to cry, the neighbor came and killed Jonathan. His husband said he blocked the shot and saved his life.

What do you fucking do about a community like that? These people don’t exist in isolation. It’s scary as fuck and a heartbreaking way to start pride month.

I’m sorry to report that a lot of American conservatives are like that IRL as well, and it’s not new. After public opinion turned on Nixon, conservative talk radio as a genre was formed to make sure that never happens again. Social media has only made it worse, if anything.

The online conservatives are just more likely to be obsessed with niche political stars and topics, but for the most part they’re drawing from the same well when it comes to talking points.

I’m not gonna read anything else you say 🥳

For anyone feeling targeted by this meme, here are some ways to help:

• Donate to trans focused charities, like Advocates for Trans Equality or the Transgender Law Center
• Support individual trans people. Surgery is expensive even with insurance due to time needed off work.
• Please god just listen when a trans person says you’ve done something transphobic. The vast, vast majority of trans people don’t speak up about every little thing because we are drowning in transphobia. Generally if someone has said something it’s because it genuinely bothered them, even if it wasn’t ’that bad’ it may be intimately linked for them to past trauma; roughly 40% of trans people meet the criteria for a PTSD diagnosis, compared to less than 5% of the general population.

Dude must smell like the inside of a vet’s office.

The Atlantic article indicates PBS executives were involved with the decision and removed it from PBS.org, which an affiliate station presumably couldn’t do.

Is POV (the PBS series) not a nationwide, PBS produced program rather than an individual station program? The Atlantic article mentioned at the end talks about POV having a trans gamer themed episode canceled because of potential backlash.

As the Trump administration intensifies its attacks, PBS has bent the knee in another way to dampen potential blowback by removing a scene in an Art Spiegelman documentary in which the graphic novelist Spiegelman discusses an anti-Trump cartoon. PBS also pulled a gaming documentary with trans themes, only to relist it after The Atlantic asked about its deletion.

Sounds like it’s not just the local station engaging in shenanigans.

Anyone who thinks the inclusion of trans people in public life is a battle worth laying down can kiss my trans ass. I’m not a bank, my donations are drawn from a limited well, and I’m perfectly fine with moving that money to a trans focused cause instead.

God dammit, PBS, right before pride month? They already took your fucking money. Why should my trans ass be donating to make up for it?

The finance class seems unhappy the US credit rating went down.

This crypto guy was definitely supposed to be dead after they were done with him.