T.J. Jourian 🍉
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tjjourian.bsky.social
T.J. Jourian 🍉
@tjjourian.bsky.social
A writer with non-writer jobs
https://substack.com/@tjjourian
Trans*Formational Change
Consultant, scholar, coach
Queer middle eastern trans dude 🌹
Pinned
With my latest piece, I'm trying out a little flash nonfiction with a short story about a disorienting experience while looking for a hacky sack with undergrad friends
open.substack.com/pub/tjjouria...
Hacky Sack Privilege
Lindsay was the first to break through the stunned silence and confused half-smiles.
open.substack.com
Reposted by T.J. Jourian 🍉
AI advocates have warned that if every author in the class action filed a claim, it would "financially ruin" the entire industry.
Authors celebrate “historic” settlement coming soon in Anthropic class action
Advocates fear such settlements will “financially ruin” the AI industry.
arstechnica.com
August 27, 2025 at 3:53 PM
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the way I am putting every single author I know in a headlock over the next few months.
AI advocates have warned that if every author in the class action filed a claim, it would "financially ruin" the entire industry.
Authors celebrate “historic” settlement coming soon in Anthropic class action
Advocates fear such settlements will “financially ruin” the AI industry.
arstechnica.com
November 18, 2025 at 4:40 AM
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I dare you to read @thellpsx.bsky.social and @pipagaopoetry.bsky.social on their sister crip for eSims for Gaza Alice Wong and not cry llps.substack.com/p/alice-wong...
Alice Wong was Crips for eSims for Gaza, and Everything to Us
by Jane Shi and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
llps.substack.com
November 17, 2025 at 7:35 PM
✨ Chrysalis is transforming!

@drbrianarao.bsky.social and I first launched Chrysalis a year ago to support queer and trans BIPOC professionals navigating their career crossroads. We were proud to co-create a supportive community that offered clarity, courage, and confidence.
November 5, 2025 at 10:43 PM
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Friends— here it is. Updated & expanded thanks to the space afforded to me in the @therumpus.net & the guidance of the brilliant @roxanegay.bsky.social’s edits. The win centers Muslims humanity — but what does that mean in a country that rejects that?

therumpus.net/2025/11/05/z...
November 5, 2025 at 10:00 PM
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The economy, unfortunately for all of us, seems like it's going to worsen not improve in the short and medium terms.
Tariffs are consistently both one of Trump’s worst issues and the most highly salient issues for voters and I still think we don’t talk about them enough
November 3, 2025 at 12:04 AM
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November 3, 2025 at 12:05 AM
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A very incomplete list of things we wouldn't have done if we waited for the normies to care:

- abolish slavery
- child labor laws
- votes for women
- social security
- fdic
- welfare
- medicare
- medicaid
- desegregation
- women's sports
"normies do not care about this thing and so it is no use raising a stink" is imho just an excuse for not doing politics, which is the job of making normies care about something
October 24, 2025 at 3:22 AM
My @bsky.app-less friend Brian and I had a conversation recently on "What makes us... men," exploring our own shaping and reshapings of (our) masculinities and manhoods.

whatmakesus.buzzsprout.com/2454104/epis...
What Makes Us...Men - What Makes Us...
What if masculinity isn’t innate—but taught? And what happens when we start to unlearn it?In this episode, we sit down with TJ—a queer, trans, Middle Eastern-Armenian man and recovering academic—to ex...
whatmakesus.buzzsprout.com
October 9, 2025 at 8:55 PM
What integrity looks like
This was revealing. Worth reading. The basic demand is that Coates spend less time thinking/writing his true feelings and more time playing political strategist. Klein asks him over and over him to do Dem strategy; he says no, over and over. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/o...
Opinion | Ta-Nehisi Coates on Bridging Gaps vs. Drawing Lines
www.nytimes.com
September 28, 2025 at 8:17 PM
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This was revealing. Worth reading. The basic demand is that Coates spend less time thinking/writing his true feelings and more time playing political strategist. Klein asks him over and over him to do Dem strategy; he says no, over and over. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/o...
Opinion | Ta-Nehisi Coates on Bridging Gaps vs. Drawing Lines
www.nytimes.com
September 28, 2025 at 1:31 PM
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cool free tool here if you want to get quick information about a bunch of different climate interventions, along with some estimates about their effectiveness. probably good for students too
The Explorer is live. It’s free. And it’s built to help anyone — from investors to practitioners to community leaders — focus on the solutions that matter most.

👉 Explore today: www.drawdown.org/explorer

@globalecoguy.bsky.social

#DrawdownExplorer #ClimateSolutions #ProjectDrawdown
September 28, 2025 at 7:48 PM
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My body is still weighed down with weakness, and my soul feels as if it is being torn away piece by piece. The massacre I am living through has not only stripped me of my strength, but has also shaken my roots, I have become unable even to shape my pain into words i want just keep my family alive 💔😔
We are in urgent need of protection and a safe place to live. We’re raising support to help us escape danger and rebuild our lives in safety. Every contribution, no matter how small, brings us one step closer to security and hope. 💛
kindly give :
#BringRuaaHome #SafetyForRuaa #HumanitarianAid
Project Bring Ruaa and Her Family to Safety
I'm helping my friend, Ruaa Naji, raise funds to help her family survive.
chuffed.org
September 28, 2025 at 8:11 AM
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BREAKING: Starbucks just announced a $1 billion restructuring and will close 59 unionized stores — nearly 10% of union locations.

It includes the Roastery in Seattle, one of its busiest shops.

CEO Brian Niccol made $100 million in four months last year.
September 25, 2025 at 2:13 PM
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🇮🇹🪧 NEW: Italian dockworkers have struck again. On Sept. 24, grassroots unions USB and Cobas blocked the Maltese-flagged, Greek-owned tanker Seasalvia from docking in Taranto, where it was set to load 30,000 tons of crude oil at ENI’s refinery for Israel’s military aviation fuel needs before…
September 25, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Does anyone else feel like they enter a corporate Twilight Zone on LinkedIn where the "real world" doesn't exist and everyone is just 'blessed' and 'honored' to share their latest badge for sitting in front of a computer for 6 months?
September 25, 2025 at 1:58 PM
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September 24, 2025 at 2:35 AM
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I've said it before, but I think the current spree of memekillings is the product of an ideological transition. It's hard to parse because it's rapidly evolving. It's clearly derived from far right precursors, but it hasn't progressed to coherence yet.
I actually think it's off base for the descriptor of these angry young white men who think violence is cool and/or funny to be "non-political." They are making rape jokes and saying racist things and wanting to sow chaos. That's literally the Alex Jones, Steve Bannon playbook.
@kenklippenstein.bsky.social with the receipts, actually talking to the shooter's friends.

Surprise! Not the left, or even MAGA. Another white kid who spent countless hours online and "was an edgelord who wanted someone to get blamed … to rile people up.”

www.kenklippenstein.com/p/the-ice-sh...
September 25, 2025 at 3:38 AM
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I've written about this a half-dozen times since 2015, because it continues to be relevant that the alt-right originally weaponized irony and memes in order to 1) spread extremism without consequence and 2) cultivate all these semi-ironic violent extremist edgelords foreignpolicy.com/2025/09/15/c...
September 25, 2025 at 9:48 AM
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September 24, 2025 at 11:39 PM
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The anti-trans right heavily praised Gordon Guyatt as the “godfather” of evidence based medicine.

He worked for SEGM and was responsible for their GRADE reviews.

Now he disavows them, says evidence supports transgender youth care.

Great coverage from Henry carnell.
For years, medical professionals and transgender advocates have been saying the "Society for Evidence-based Gender Medicine" was not following the principles of evidenced-based medicine.

Now the "godfather" of evidence-based medicine is leveraging the same claim against them. (1/)
Trans health care "skeptics" lost a key ally—now they're having a meltdown
The godfather of evidence-based medicine on rejecting anti-trans "misuse" of his work.
www.motherjones.com
September 23, 2025 at 7:04 PM
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These are enforced disappearances under international law and should be reported to the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances immediately: www.ohchr.org/en/special-p...
September 23, 2025 at 6:41 PM
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Awful and dangerous to hear the Mayor echo the transphobic bigotry coming from the Trump administration. It's completely at odds with the values of our city and another reason why his single, disgraced term in office cannot end soon enough.
September 18, 2025 at 3:50 PM
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Last week, Israel targeted and massacred 34 newspaper reporters in Yemen.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, it was the second deadliest attack on journalists ever recorded.
Israel attack on Yemeni newspaper was second deadliest on journalists ever recorded
Press freedom group says ‘brutal and unjustified attack’ is deadliest since 2009 Maguindanao massacre in Philippines
www.theguardian.com
September 20, 2025 at 7:58 PM