#2014 umbrella movement

[alpaca-clouds]

The history of Solarpunk

Okay, I guess this has to be said, because the people will always claim the same wrong thing: No, Solarpunk did not "start out as an aesthetic". Jesus, where the hell does this claim even come from? Like, honestly, I am asking.

Solarpunk started out as a genre, that yes, did also include design elements, but also literary elements. A vaguely defined literary genre, but a genre never the less.

And I am not even talking about those early books that we today also claim under the Solarpunk umbrella. So, no, I am not talking about Ursula K. LeGuin, even though she definitely was a big influence on the genre.

The actual history of Solarpunk goes something like that: In the late 1990s and early 2000s the term "Ecopunk" was coined, which was used to refer to books that kinda fit into the Cyberpunk genre umbrella, but were more focused on ecological themes. This was less focused on the "high tech, high life" mantra that Solarpunk ended up with, but it was SciFi stories, that were focused on people interacting with the environment. Often set to a backdrop of environmental apocalypse. Now, other than Solarpunk just a bit later, this genre never got that well defined (especially with Solarpunk kinda taking over the role). As such there is only a handful of things that ever officially called themselves Ecopunk.

At the same time, though, the same sort of thought was picked up in the Brazilian science fiction scene, where the idea was further developed. Both artistically, where it got a lot of influence from the Amazofuturism movement, but also as an ideology. In this there were the ideas from Ecopunk as the "scifi in the ecological collaps" in there, but also the idea of "scifi with technology that allows us to live within the changing world/allows us to live more in harmony with nature".

Now, we do not really know who came up with the idea of naming this "Solarpunk". From all I can find the earliest mention of the term "Solarpunk" that is still online today is in this article from the Blog Republic of Bees. But given the way the blogger talks about it, it is clear there was some vague definition of the genre before it.

These days it is kinda argued about whether that title originally arose in Brazil or in the Anglosphere. But it seems very likely that the term was coined between 2006 and 2008, coming either out of the Brazilian movement around Ecopunk or out of the English Steampunk movement (specifically the literary branch of the Steampunk genre).

In the following years it was thrown around for a bit (there is an archived Wired article from 2009, that mentions the term once, as well as one other article), but for the moment there was not a lot happening in this regard.

Until 2012, when the Brazilian Solarpunk movement really started to bloom and at the same time in Italy Commando Jugendstil made their appearance. In 2012 in Brazil the anthology "Solarpunk: Histórias ecológicas e fantásticas em um mundo sustentável" was released (that did get an English translation not too long ago) establishing some groundwork for the genre. And Commando Jugendstil, who describe themselves as both a "Communication Project" and an "Art Movement", started to work on Solarpunk in Italy. Now, Commando Jugendstil is a bit more complicated than just one or the other. As they very much were a big influence on some of the aesthetic concepts, but also were releasing short stories and did some actual punky political action within Italy.

And all of that was happening in 2012, where the term really started to take off.

And only after this, in 2014, Solarpunk became this aesthetic we know today, when a (now defuct) tumblr blog started posting photos, artworks and other aesthetical things under the caption of Solarpunk. Especially as it was the first time the term was widely used within the Anglosphere.

Undoubtedly: This was probably how most people first learned of Solarpunk... But it was not how Solarpunk started. So, please stop spreading that myth.

The reason this bothers me so much is, that it so widely ignores how this movement definitely has its roots within Latin America and specifically Brazil. Instead this myth basically tries to claim Solarpunk as a thing that fully and completely originated within the anglosphere. Which is just is not.

And yes, there was artistic aspects to that early Solarpunk movement, too. But also a literary and political aspectt. That is not something that was put onto a term that was originally an aesthetic - but rather it was something that was there from the very beginning.

Again: There has been an artistic and aesthetic aspect in Solarpunk from the very beginning, yes. But there has been a literary and political aspect in it the entire time, too. And trying to divorce Solarpunk from those things is just wrong and also... kinda misses the point.

So, please. Just stop claiming that entire "it has been an aesthetic first" thing. Solarpunk is a genre of fiction, it is a political movement, just as much as it is an artistic movement. Always has been. And there has always been punk in it. So, please, stop acting as if Solarpunk is just "pretty artistic vibes". It is not.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk, I guess.

[crimethinc]

As demonstrators gather outside this week's Democratic National Convention in Chicago to protest the Democratic Party's continuing support of genocide in Gaza, it's a good time to revisit earlier anarchist mobilizations against the conventions.

In the years 2000, 2004, and 2008, anarchists around the United States converged on both the DNC and the RNC, asserting an anti-capitalist and anti-state position in political discourse and exerting pressure against the capitalist and militarist agenda that both parties share. These mobilizations helped establish countrywide networks and precedents. For example, the organizing against the Republican National Convention in St. Paul in 2008 produced the St. Paul Principles, a framework legitimizing a diversity of tactics, which helped resolve conflicts between pacifists and proponents of direct action.

There is a direct line of historical transmission from the convention protests to the George Floyd Uprising of 2020. A year of organizing for the 2008 mobilizations under the umbrella of Unconventional Action produced chapters around the country. UA in the Bay kept organizing after the conventions, and participated in the revolt when Oscar Grant was murdered, setting a precedent for the movement against police and white supremacy that burst into the public consciousness in 2014.

A full history and evaluation of the 2008 mobilizations:

https://crimethinc.com/texts/rncdnc

[literaryvein-reblogs]

May i have some advice on writing a trans-masc character? Like internal and external conflict and how to tackle them properly?

Writing Notes: Transmasculine

Transmasculine

A term used to describe people who were assigned female at birth but identify with a masculine gender identity more than a feminine gender identity.

This term is not interchangeable with trans man, although trans men may identify as transmasculine.

Can also be used to describe gender expression or as a gender identity in its own right.

“This term includes non-binary people, gender fluid people, genderqueer people—anyone assigned female at birth whose gender falls in the more masculine range,” Jo Eckler, PsyD, a licensed clinical psychologist based in Texas and author of I Can’t Fix You—Because You’re Not Broken, said in a 2020 interview with Health.

“The term transgender is often used as an umbrella term that encompasses anyone who does not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. So trans men and transmasculine people are both transgender.”

Transmasculine is an adjective sometimes used to describe transmen, as in “transmasculine activist.”

Matthew Heinz (2016) uses the term ‘transmasculine’ to: "loosely describe people who were assigned to the female sex at birth, who do not perceive this sex designation to be an appropriate representation of their gender or sex, and who may identify as AFAB (assigned female at birth), affirmed male, bi-gender, boi, boy, FAAB (female assigned at birth), f2m, F2M, female-bodied man, female-to-male (FTM), guy, M2M, male, male-identified, male of centre, man, man of transgendered experience, man with transsexual history, new man, non-binary guy, trannyboi, transboy, transfag, transguy, transmale, transman, transmasculine, or transmasculine-leaning."

This is not meant to be an exclusive list of the identity labels transmasculine individuals may create or select to describe themselves, which vary greatly in meaning and usage (Bhanji 2012; Diamond & Butterworth 2008; Norwood 2012; Spencer 2014).

The Transgender Emergence Model

Created by counselor and social worker Arlene Istar Lev in response to the lack of a theoretical framework to guide work with transgender clients in therapy (Lev, 2004).

The framework is comprised of 6 stages and is linear in structure, but allows for fluidity or movement between stages.

This model was one of the first attempts to create a model to describe the transgender identity development process.

Stage 1: Awareness

This stage is often marked by distress as the person comes to terms with a range of emotions and thoughts

Stage 2: Seeking Info/Reaching Out

Outreach for support and knowledge regarding gender identity

Connections are made to other transgender people to learn about their process and to discover additional supports

Stage 3: Disclosure to Significant Others

Disclosing one’s transgender identity to significant people—partners, family, friends, etc.

Developing additional support networks and navigating the challenges and responses of disclosure

Stage 4: Exploration: Identity and Self-Labeling

Exploring the numerous iterations of gender and becoming comfortable and owning the gender identity that is right for the individual

Stage 5: Exploration: Transition Issues / Possible Body Modification

Exploration of gender confirming interventions such as hormones, top or bottom surgery, and exploring specific expression of gender

Self-advocating and the ability to navigate gender identity and expression as one, while also challenging the world to acknowledge and respect one’s identity

Stage 6: Integration: Acceptance and Post-Transition Issues

Transitions begin and may be ongoing—hormones, hair removal, etc.

Acceptance has been acknowledged and the individual is living life having integrated and synthesized their gender identity

An example of a transgender person who has reached stage 6 might be a transmasculine college student (assigned female at birth) who begins taking testosterone and undertakes chest reduction (top) surgery in order to live full time as a man.

LIMITATIONS OF THIS MODEL

It focuses solely on gender identity development.

It does not offer a unified theory of sexual and gender identity development, even though these two aspects of identity are often intertwined and students may experience development of both simultaneously.

Stage Model on Transgender Identity Development

One of the first developmental models for transgender identities posited by Devor (2004). Within his model, Devor describes 14 linear stages in which the individual can progress through in order to develop a sense of identity pride.

Stage 1: Abiding Anxiety

Stage 2: Identity Confusion Regarding Originally Assigned Gender and Sex

Stage 3: Identity Comparison of Originally Assigned Gender and Sex

Stage 4: Discovery of Transgenderism

Stage 5: Identity Confusion Regarding Transgenderism

Stage 6: Identity Comparison of Transgenderism

Stage 7: Tolerance of Transgender Identity

Stage 8: Delay Before Acceptance of Transgender Identity

Stage 9: Acceptance of Transgender Identity

Stage 10: Delay Before Transition

Stage 11: Transition

Stage 12: Acceptance of Post-Transition Gender and Sex Identities

Stage 13: Integration

Stage 14: Pride

Broadly, this model posits that individuals begin the developmental process by experiencing anxiety and confusion over their gendered behaviours and compares them to others with the same assigned sex.

Similar to other models, the individual attempts to seek out greater belonging within the transgender community to affirm and accept their identity, however prior to doing this they may wish to make adjustments within their interpersonal environment so that they’re surrounded by individuals who are also accepting of a transgender identity (disclosure of identity may also follow from here).

The last stages of Devor’s model explore the notions of transitioning from one gender to another, and end in pride of identity.

That is, in order to re-affirm an individual’s identity with their gender, they may seek to transition from one gender to another, in either (or both) a social or physical sense, in order to fully accept and feel pride with their gender identity.

LIMITATIONS OF THIS MODEL

Although Devor’s (2004) model posits a comprehensive approach to transgender identity development, he clarifies that there could be multiple pathways within the model that transgender individuals can progress through.

Moreover, he notes that this model will not fit every transgender person or other gender-diverse individuals, such as those whose gender identity falls outside of the binary of male and female (for a discussion on other TGD development models, see Diamond et al., 2011).

Some aspects of Devor’s model might be applicable to these individuals, such as initial confusion and comparison of identity, whereas other stages (such as the transition stages), might be only applicable to the binary concepts of male/female gender-diversity.

However, an adaption of these transition stages within this model for gender non-binary individuals might be acceptable (e.g. these individuals might still transition from a binary gender identity to a non-binary gender identity from a social and cultural perspective).

Given the scarcity of research on the identity development of gender non-binary identities, future researchers should consider how models, such as Devor’s (2004), are adaptable to other gender-diverse individuals.

On Media Representation & Portrayals

Media rely on stereotypes to tell stories, especially when the topics deal with novel representations. At issue is the limited number of transmasculine characters, along with outdated tropes.

According to Dry (2019), Hollywood is still “figuring out what to do with trans male characters.”

Billard (2016) credited the invisibility of transgender men to the lack of shock or intrigue given to transgender women.

In its depictions, television teaches that young transmasculine characters are less scandalous than transfeminine characters, which is understandable given the more acceptable “tomboy” over the “sissy.”

New Amsterdam (2018) does a significantly more thorough job of explaining the transition of a transmasculine character than other medical dramas, which often focus on the surgical aspect. In the episode, transgender youth Shay’s parents describe how depressed he had been and how after he socially transitioned, he started smiling and making friends.

Heinz (2016) explained traditional transmasculine narratives in the following stages:

emergence of trans consciousness,

severe distress,

treatment of the condition, and

resolution of the distress and “integration into normative society” (p. 104).

The severe distress aspect is likely presented in 2 forms: others’ judgments and one’s own perception that they need to be “fixed.”

The “wrong body” trope, according to Halberstam (1998), describes an error of nature “whereby gender identity and biological sex are not only discontinuous but catastrophically at odds.”

Heinz (2016) added, “If one is trapped in the ‘wrong’ body, then one’s condition needs to be ‘righted’” (p. 89), which then leads to the third stage of altering the body through surgery and hormones.

This “wrong body” trope is mainly found in older series, such as The L Word, Degrassi, and The Fosters.

It no longer appears after 2015.

Instead of “wrong body,” Ian Harvie jokes in his comedy special, “I just feel like this was the right body. I just made some modifications to it.”

Interdisciplinary artist and film-maker Jules Rosskam (2010), ponders whether the system of representation itself precludes an ‘ideal’ trans representation in the media:

"Perhaps we can agree that we will not expect one person, one film, one story to represent the vastly different, extremely complex and beautiful variety of our lives. And, that no matter how much we disagree or dis-identify with the version of trans being represented, we must not engage in practices that attempt to silence certain voices, in order that ours be heard."

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 ⚜ More: Writing Notes & References

If drawing from personal experience isn't possible, more important than all of this research is to speak with and listen to transmasculine people in our lives. Hope this helps with your writing!

[goodgriefnd]

How Common is Neurodivergence?

[image id: poster of "How Common is Neurodivergence?.” There are 12 circles and five small images: an image of a brain, speech bubbles, an infinity sign, a person reading, and a person surrounded by arrows and balls. Each of the 12 circles has a percentage representing how common a particular form of neurodivergence is written in Open Dyslexic font. Full transcript, more information, and references under the cut.]

More Information

Forms of neurodivergence represented here are focused on neurodevelopmental disorders.

These percentages are representative of percentage in general population and do not reflect percentages within neurotypes which are often higher due to co-occurrence being the norm, rather than the exception, within neurodevelopmental disorders; for example, 33-45% of people with ADHD will also have dyslexia (Butterworth & Kovas, 2013), whereas only 10% of the general population are dyslexic (British Dyslexia Association [BDA], 2023).

Certain neurodivergencies are often underrepresented and under-reported, so the percentages are likely to be higher; for example, one study suggests that rates for FASD in the UK may be as high as 17% (McQuire et al., 2019).

Some of the neurodivergencies represented here are umbrella terms and percentages given are representative of all forms of neurodiversity belonging to that term; for example, SpLds include dyslexia which is at a rate of 10% (BDA, 2023) and dyscalculia which is at 3-7% (Haberstroh & Schulte-Körne., 2019). Tic Disorders at 1% are another example here, as this is inclusive of Tourette Syndrome which is at 0.6%, and around 1 in 5 individuals exhibit tics at some point during childhood (Cavanna et al., 2017).

______________

Transcript in Full

1% Intellectual Disability

10% Language Disorder

4% Speech Sound Disorder

5% Stuttering

7.5% Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder

1.7% Autism

5% ADHD

10% Specific Learning Disorder (SpLD)

5% Developmental Co-Ordination Disorder (DCD)

3-4% Stereotypic Movement Disorder

1% Tic Disorders

3.6% Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD)

______________

Sources

American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th Ed., Text Rev.).

Arvidsson, O., Gillberg, C., Lichtenstein, P., & Lundström, S. (2018). Secular changes in the symptom level of clinically diagnosed autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 59(7), 744–751.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). PsychDB. (2022, November 29).

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD). PsychDB. (2022, May 19).

Butterworth, B., & Kovas, Y. (2013). Understanding neurocognitive developmental disorders can improve education for all. Science, 340(6130), 300–305.

Cavanna, A. E., Coffman, K.A., Cowley, H., Fahn, S., Franklin, M. E., Gilbert, D.L., Hershey, T.G., Jankovic, J., Jones, M., Leckman, J.F., Lehman, R., Mathews, C.A., Malaty, I., McNaught, K., Mink, J.W., Okun, M.S., Rowe, J.A., Scahill, L.D., Scharf, J.M., Schlaggar, B.L., Stewart, E., Walkup, J.T., Woods, D.W.. (2017). The spectrum of Tourette Syndrome and TIC disorders: A consensus by Scientific Advisors of the Tourette Association of America. Tourette Association of America.

British Dyslexia Association. (2023). Dyslexia. British Dyslexia Association.

Dyspraxia at a glance. Dyspraxia Foundation. (2023).

Haberstroh, S., & Schulte-Körne, G. (2019). The Diagnosis and Treatment of Dyscalculia. Deutsches Arzteblatt International, 116(7), 107–114.

Ketelaars, M. P., Cuperus, J. M., van Daal, J., Jansonius, K., & Verhoeven, L. (2009). Screening for pragmatic language impairment: The potential of the Children’s Communication Checklist. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 30(5), 952–960.

May, P. A., Baete, A., Russo, J., Elliott, A. J., Blankenship, J., Kalberg, W. O., Buckley, D., Brooks, M., Hasken, J., Abdul-Rahman, O., Adam, M. P., Robinson, L. K., Manning, M., & Hoyme, H. E. (2014). Prevalence and characteristics of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Pediatrics, 134(5), 855–866.

McQuire, C., Mukherjee, R., Hurt, L., Higgins, A., Greene, G., Farewell, D., Kemp, A., & Paranjothy, S. (2019). Screening prevalence of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders in a region of the United Kingdom: A population-based birth-cohort study. Preventive Medicine, 118, 344–351.

Norbury, C. F., Gooch, D., Wray, C., Baird, G., Charman, T., Simonoff, E., Vamvakas, G., & Pickles, A. (2016). The impact of nonverbal ability on prevalence and clinical presentation of language disorder: Evidence from a population study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 57(11), 1247–1257.

Polanczyk, G. V., Willcutt, E. G., Salum, G. A., Kieling, C., & Rohde, L. A. (2014). ADHD prevalence estimates across three decades: an updated systematic review and meta-regression analysis. International Journal of Epidemiology, 43(2), 434–442.

Polanczyk, G., de Lima, M. S., Horta, B. L., Biederman, J., & Rohde, L. A. (2007). The worldwide prevalence of ADHD: A systematic review and metaregression analysis. American Journal of Psychiatry, 164(6), 942–948.

Prevalence and Therapy Rates for Stuttering, Cluttering, and Developmental Disorders of Speech and Language: Evaluation of German Health Insurance Data. (2021). Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 15(645292), 1–13.

Social (pragmatic) communication disorder. PsychDB. (2021, March 29).

Stereotypic movement disorder. United Brain Association. (2022, August 8).

Wren, Y., Miller, L. L., Peters, T. J., Emond, A., & Roulstone, S. (2016). Prevalence and predictors of persistent speech sound disorder at eight years old: Findings from a population cohort study. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 59(4), 647–673.

UCL. (2013, April 19). Learning disabilities affect up to 10 per cent of children. UCL News.

[mariacallous]

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Ram temple in Ayodhya in the key northern state of Uttar Pradesh in January in hopes it would earn him a massive victory in the national election that concluded in June. That didn’t happen—at least not to the extent that Modi, his Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and their ideological fountainhead Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) expected.

In what has widely been described as a shock result, the BJP won merely 240 seats in the 543-seat parliament, after setting a target of 400 seats. Modi has formed a government but only with support from other parties.

Like any election result, the outcome had multiple causes that will take time to fully sort out. But one thing is already clear: Modi failed in his long-running bid to homogenize India’s Hindus across castes and cultures and consolidate their vote for his political benefit.

In 2014, Modi came to power on the back of religious nationalism and security issues, and he continued that trend in 2019. This year, in the absence of any urgent security threat from regional rival Pakistan and rising concerns over unemployment, inflation, and authoritarianism, Modi banked on the RSS’s homogenization strategy.

The Ram temple was built on a site long disputed with Muslims, where a 16th-century mosque stood until December 1992, when a group of Hindu nationalists razed it to the ground allegedly on the BJP’s provocation. Experts said the BJP had envisaged the temple would instill pride in Hindus, feed their Muslim animosity, and bring them under the Hindu umbrella to choose Modi.

Even though, by and large, the Hindu community seemed to have been pleased with the inauguration of the temple, that didn’t translate into votes for Modi across the Hindu hierarchy. Instead, the results exposed the weaknesses of the homogenization exercise.

Hartosh Singh Bal, an Indian journalist and the executive editor of the Caravan, said there is “diversity in Hinduism” and the election results prove that it can’t be “papered over by directing attention and hatred outwards” toward Muslims. This election proves that “Hindus are not a monolith” and that “various segments of Hinduism have a successful chance of taking on the BJP,” he added in reference to tactical voting by lower castes in Uttar Pradesh against the BJP.

Karthick Ram Manoharan, a political scientist at the National Law School of India University in Bengaluru, said that in Tamil Nadu, a state in southern India with the second-biggest economy in the country, the BJP did not win a single seat out of a total of 39.

“Hindus are the absolute majority in Tamil Nadu, but they still mostly vote for the secular Dravidian parties,” Manoharan said in reference to local parties that have emerged out of social movements opposed to an upper-caste Hindu order that the BJP and RSS have been long accused of nurturing and propagating.

In March, just a month before voting began, I witnessed saffron-colored flags expressing support for Modi’s party jutting out from rooftops and windows in tightly packed homes in western Uttar Pradesh. Some people I spoke to said that BJP workers had decided to adorn the neighborhoods as they pleased, but underneath the flag-waving, a large-scale discontent was brewing over a lack of employment opportunities.

The upper-caste youth seemed confused, if not yet disenchanted, with Modi and in the absence of industry and strong local economies once again mourned the loss of government jobs to affirmative action. (The Indian Constitution reserves almost half of all state jobs for people from lower castes and others who confront a generational disadvantage and historical discrimination.)

Meanwhile, Dalits, who sit at the bottom of India’s Hindu hierarchy, in hamlets nearby who depend on the quota for their dignity and livelihood were quietly recalibrating their options. The mood was starkly different from 2014 and 2019 when I visited some of the Dalit-dominated parliamentary seats in Uttar Pradesh. Back then, Dalits I met were upbeat and decisively pro-Modi. They said they supported him since they believed that he might raise their stature in the Hindu hierarchy.

But 10 years later, they suspected the BJP was plotting to weaken the constitution, the only assurance of rights for marginalized communities in a country where upper-caste Hindus continue to hold social capital and economic power.

Recent comments by BJP leaders that if Modi won 400 seats, he would change the constitution spread anxiety among lower castes that the party intended to scrap the reservation system. The BJP repeatedly denied this, but the suspicion that it is first a party for upper-caste Hindus is deep-rooted among lower castes, and experts believe the comments were part of the BJP’s political strategy.

“They were testing the waters to see what would be the reaction,” said Sushil Kumar Pandey, an assistant professor of history at Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University in Lucknow and the author of Caste and Politics in Democracy.

“The opposition picked it up and campaigned on it, telling people a change in the constitution could mean losing your livelihood, your jobs,” Pandey added. “That worked at a time [when] people were also scared of privatization” and in government-run sectors.

For Dalits, it was about more than jobs. The Indian Constitution is nearly worshipped by the community and celebrated en masse on the birth anniversary of the Indian intellectual who wrote it. B.R. Ambedkar was no fan of Ram and advocated against the caste discrimination inherent in Hinduism all his life, even converting to Buddhism when he felt there was no escaping caste-based prejudice. While he couldn’t annihilate the caste system, he ensured that the constitution offered lower castes a quota in government jobs to gradually uplift them.

In his honor, and as an ode to the progressive document, Dalits sing songs in praise of the constitution and hail it as the upholder of their dignity in a society where they continue to be belittled. Any change to the text was unacceptable. “Their cultural identity is linked to this book,” said Ravish Kumar, a journalist and the host of a popular YouTube news show.

In the south, too, there was a fear of culturally being subsumed by a Hindi-speaking upper-caste elite. Indian federal units, or states, were defined in the 1950s on the basis of language, and to this day south Indians identify themselves on the basis of the language they speak. The Ram temple had no resonance in the southern states, particularly in electorally significant Tamil Nadu, with the highest number of seats regionally. Tamils were wary that the RSS’s homogenization agenda would drown out their cultural ethos and impose a secondary status on the Tamil language.

Manoharan, the political scientist, said that in Tamil Nadu, it was “not so much religious but fear of cultural homogeneity” and “a language policy which will give importance to Hindi speakers over Tamil speakers and upper-caste Tamils over other backward castes.”

In a state where “88 percent people come from so-called lower castes” and “69 percent have jobs under affirmative action through a special act,” people were also extremely worried that the BJP may “water down” the employment quota promised in the constitution, Manoharan added.

The southern Indian states have a longer history of resistance to upper-caste domination, a higher literacy rate, better economies, and a tradition of secular politics. While the BJP maintained its tally of 29 seats from the last election, it is being seen as a poor result considering the inroads the RSS has made in the south.

For instance, in the southwestern state of Kerala, the RSS has more than 5,000 shakhas, or branches, second in number only to Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state—yet “despite the fact that the RSS has thousands of training grounds in Kerala, they are unable to get influence,” said K.M. Sajad Ibrahim, a professor of political science at University of Kerala. “That’s because while religion is important, communal harmony is more important to people here. BJP tries to create tensions, and that doesn’t work here.”

The BJP managed to gain one seat for the first time in Kerala, but that isn’t being attributed to its ideological success or expansion of homogenization project but to the winning candidate’s personal appeal. Suresh Gopi, the winning candidate, is a popular movie star.

In many states in the Hindi belt and even in the south, the BJP did well. The upper castes and urban voters are standing firmly behind Modi. Kumar, the journalist, said it would be foolhardy to dismiss Modi—and the bigger Hindutva, or Hindu nationalist, forces backing him—just yet. He said Hindutva hasn’t lost and only faced a setback. “The BJP was trying to dominate caste politics with Hindutva,” he said, “but the election result shows that dominance has cracked.” However, he added, “it has only cracked—the ideology still has wide-scale acceptance.”

Everyone else Foreign Policy spoke to concurred but added that Hindus are far too diverse to be homogenized. Manoharan said the results exposed the weakness of the homogenization agenda and its faulty premise. “Hindutva’s aim for homogeneity is confounded precisely by a structural feature of the religion-culture it seeks to defend—caste,” he said.

[ritchiepage2001newaccount]

Project2025 #CorpMedia #Oligarchs #MegaBanks vs #Union #Occupy #NoDAPL #BLM #SDF #DACA #MeToo #Humanity #FeelTheBern

JinJiyanAzadi #BijiRojava YPJ: Women’s Protection Units [UPDATES]

The YPJ is an acronym whose translation means “Women’s Protection Units.” It is the all-female brigade of the YPG, the armed forces of the Syrian region of Kurdistan, known as Rojava (meaning Western) Kurdistan…

RELATED UPDATE: 'I want to make the YPJ a household word,' says B.C. woman in documentary on Kurdish female militia

RELATED UPDATE: Saving the YPJ, saved by the YPJ: Kurdish women’s feminism, agency and intervention in Syria

RELATED UPDATE: Fighting for more than survival

https://news-decoder.com/fighting-for-more-than-survival/#comment-31972

RELATED UPDATE: Yazidi woman held by IS for 10 years freed by Kurdish fighters in Syria

RELATED UPDATE: WATCH Near Gaza, Kurdish All-Women Militia's Anti-ISIS Op: What Makes 'YPJ' Force Special | Syria

RELATED UPDATE: 'The source of the YPJ's strength is the paradigm of Leader AP0'

RELATED UPDATE: Kongra Star: We want to bring the Rojava Revolution outside Northern and Eastern Syria

RELATED UPDATE: Former YPJ fighter Çiçek Kobanê among Kurdish prisoners moved without consent

FURTHER READING:

[sawthatmountainburn]

I haven't watched the barbie movie and don't really plan to, I just have a problem with some arguments people have been making in its defense, as they are weak arguments regardless of what piece of media they're defending. specifically it's the "this is just feminism 101 for kids, it doesn't have to be a whole manifesto!" type of dismissive arguments.

first of all, if a movie is marketed as feminist and the fanbase praises it for its feminism, people who go see it will have certain expectations based on their own idea of feminism, since feminism is an umbrella term for different ideologies whose common trait is that they want rights for women. who counts as a woman, what specific rights they should have and how we should get them are all points of contention, without even getting into intersecrionality just yet. (very broad generalization, also some leftist feminists disagree with the 'rights' framing) there's only so many grains of sslt you can take, before you decide this is just too far away from what it was presented as and clearly, many women feel this way about the movie.

second of all, regardless of how a piece of media is marketed, it is always fair game for critism, whether that be from a feminist perspective, an anti-racism perspective, a leftist perspective or whatever else you can come up with. to demand that people simply not bring up these critiques because it's ruining people's fun or it's not that serious (but still serious enough that you call people misogynists for criticizing it?) is blatantly reactionary. it's the same thing angry geek boys do when you point out their funny little sci-fi and fantasy shows have weirdly few POC in them. you can say a criticism is in bad faith or based on a misreading of the text (I've seen this about the gynecologist scene, for example), sure, but what I'm seeing more commonly is just a total dismissal of these critiques and perspectives, as if the movie simply isn't subject to it for whatever reason.

expounding upon this, the "feminism 101" part of the argument is similarly reactionary. to reiterate what i said in my last reblog about this, the way people talk about this movie gives me the impression that it's way more suited to the ~2012-2014 pre-gamergate era of tumblr feminism, when people said stuff like "eyeliner so sharp it could kill a man" and feminist criticism was treated as more of a checklist of good and bad tropes. we're almost a decade past that era, with many events that changed the political and pop cultural landscape in the meantime, so what was passable back then might not be such now. we've talked extensively about intersecrionality, issues of race have been brought up time and time again, especially in light of the BLM movement and anti-Asian racism in the COVID era, queer issues have also been gaining more and more traction, etc etc, I can't and won't recap the last decade of political development. my point is, if you're a feminist in 2023 (or any other type of left-leaning politically active individual, but the barbie discourse is about feminism, so that's what I'm talking about specifically) you cannot simply ignore these issues and say multiply marginalized women will have their time, but they need to wait for the privileged women to go first. actually, it was always unacceptable to demand marginalized women support more privileged women while getting nothing in return, but it's even more obvious and ignorant in the current era, after we've been trying to make people understand intersecrionality for years.

it's also insidious how the implication is that feminism needs to be dumbed down for kids (a dubious claim in the first place) and for some reason, that dumbing down involves flattening everything to being about the most privileged women possible. why shouldn't young privileged girls learn about the issues that face their less privileged peers face? why should girls of marginalized groups have to sit and listen about the issues facing their privileged peers, but never being given the tools to discuss their own issues? whom does this dynamic serve exactly and why is it not only acceptable to continue to exist, but it also important to so vehemently defend?

I'm not trying to tell people not to like the barbie movie, that's really not what I care about. I'm saying the types of arguments being made reveal a failure of intersectionality and a dismissal of multiply marginalized women's issues, coupled with a self-centeredness which should be unacceptable to any serious feminist. stop making excuses for a hollywood blockbuster funded by a multi-billion(!!) dollar toy company and start giving a shit about the women in need right in front of you!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

On June 21, I'm doing an ONLINE READING for the LOCUS AWARDS at 16hPT. On June 22, I'll be in OAKLAND, CA for a panel and a keynote at the LOCUS AWARDS.

#15yrsago Soviet-era punks https://englishrussia.com/2009/06/11/soviet-punks/

#15yrsago Junk science and cocaine scares https://www.badscience.net/2009/06/this-is-my-column-this-is-my-column-on-drugs-any-questions/

#10yrsago The Return of Zita the Space Girl https://memex.craphound.com/2014/06/13/the-return-of-zita-the-space-girl/

#10yrsago Bot alerts you every time the Supreme Court silently alters its rulings https://web.archive.org/web/20140613031445/http://gigaom.com/2014/06/12/clever-piece-of-code-exposes-hidden-changes-to-supreme-court-opinions/

#10yrsago Academic publisher tried to stop publication of paper on price-gouging in academic publishing https://www.techdirt.com/2014/06/12/academic-publisher-fights-publication-paper-criticizing-publishers-price-increases-profits/

#10yrsago How Hayek bred a race of elite monsters https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/06/bill-black-hayek-helped-worst-get-top-economics-ceos.html

#10yrsago Snowdenbot performs tele-diagnosis and offers aid to reporter who had first epileptic seizure https://www.tagesspiegel.de/kultur/he-is-not-alone-4821781.html

#10yrsago Apple adds privacy-protecting MAC spoofing (when Aaron Swartz did it, it was evidence of criminality) https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/06/umbrella-hurricane-apple-limits-mobile-device-location-tracking

#5yrsago Couture fashion company Vetements is selling an unauthorized €800 Pirate Bay hoodie https://torrentfreak.com/red-hot-vetements-fashion-brand-is-selling-a-845-pirate-bay-hoodie/

#5yrsago In Alabama, it’s traditional for sheriffs who lose their elections to steal and waste money, destroy public property https://www.propublica.org/article/alabama-sheriffs-undermine-successors-after-losing-reelection

#5yrsago After American juvenile offenders are released, they can be re-imprisoned for failing to make restitution payments https://www.themarshallproject.org/2019/06/11/punishing-kids-with-years-of-debt

#5yrsago Majority of American millionaires support a wealth tax on American millionaires https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/12/even-1-know-they-arent-paying-their-fair-share-new-poll-shows-60-millionaires

#5yrsago Facebook execs are worried that Zuck’s emails show he never took his FTC privacy obligations seriously https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-worries-emails-could-show-zuckerberg-knew-of-questionable-privacy-practices-11560353829

#5yrsago Hong Kong’s #612strike protest movement: a million strong, leaderless, wireless and smart as hell https://memex.craphound.com/2019/06/13/hong-kongs-612strike-protest-movement-a-million-strong-leaderless-wireless-and-smart-as-hell/

#1yrago Saving the news from Big Tech with end-to-end social media https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/13/certified-organic-reach/#e2e

[importantwomensbirthdays]

Denise Ho

Singer and pro-democracy activist Denise Ho was born in Hong Kong in 1977. Ho rose to stardom as a Cantopop singer in the 90s. She had a string of hit songs in the 2000s, and won several awards. Ho came out as gay in 2012, becoming a high-profile gay rights advocate. She was an outspoken supporter of the Hong Kong's 2014 Umbrella Movement, and the 2019 anti-government protests. In late 2021, she was arrested for "conspiracy to publish seditious materials", and again in 2022 for "colluding with foreign forces".

Image source: United States Congress

[voluptuarian]

"New Turkey" Introductory Reader

I did so much research for my paper that the final product barely scratched the surface of what I've read or looked up in the course of writing it. As such, I feel like the scope of my paper is very basic compared to the depth of the issue. (And considering how quickly I wrote it, frankly I'm not that sure of its actual writing quality.)

My research topic was current Turkish politics, centering on recent policies of President Erdogan and his party, the AKP, who have dominated the country since the mid-2000s. In particular I wanted to look into the roots of, and meaning behind a sort of party motto/discourse/policy umbrella which started in 2014 when Erdogan became president and announced the arrival of a "New Turkey."

This motto has frequently been compared to "Make America Great Again," and is just as bold and lacking in specific meaning. It is also the mission statement behind much of what's happening in Turkey's social and political climate right now, so for anyone interested in what's been going on in Turkey in the recent past, or curious about where the country's current direction is leading, the "New Turkey" idea is central to everything.

Rather than just delete all my references I thought I would share them here for anyone who's interested. Consider this a bit of "New Turkey" intro. It includes most of what I used in my bibliography and some other sources I looked at but didn't get to include.

I'm including some newspaper articles here-- these are all very introductory-- they're helpful for people with no background at all on Turkey, as well as for anyone who's interested and doesn't want to go through an entire paper's worth of books and articles. All these should be accessible for most people, I think.

“Erdogan Elected Turkey’s President, Promises ‘New Era.’”

"21st Century Will Be the Century of Türkiye: Erdoğan."

"Recep Tayyip Erdogan Sworn in as Turkish President; Swearing-in Ceremony Caps Monthslong Campaign."

"Erdoğan's split personality: the reformer v the tyrant"

"Turkey, lavish new presidential palace proves divisive."

"Turkey Rages at Shoddy Construction of 'Earthquake-Proof' Homes."

(Also looking up information on the Gezi Park protests from 2013 or Fethullah Gülen and his movement will be helpful for newbies as well.)

Behind the cut is all the more scholarly stuff. I've included entries in citation form so all the info you could need is there; I've also included links to everything but I don't know how many will be accessible everywhere, or to people without accounts, or even usable (I had a couple links stop working during the process of writing this.) Hopefully even if you can't access them all through the links provided, looking up the article information or even reaching out to the author will get you access. Happy reading!

The progression and consolidation of erdoğanist authoritarianism in the New Turkey - Bilge Azgın https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14683857.2020.1764277

Bâli, Aslı Ü., 'The “New Turkey” At Home and Abroad', in Amal Ghazal, and Jens Hanssen (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Middle Eastern and North African History, Oxford Handbooks (2020; online edn, Oxford Academic, 9 June 2015), https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199672530.013.29‌

Bourcier, Nicolas. “Erdogan, the Enduring Reinterpreter of Turkish History.” Le Monde.fr, October 29, 2023. https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/10/29/erdogan-the-enduring-reinterpreter-of-turkish-history_6212761_4.html.

Cagaptay, Soner. “Making Turkey Great Again.” The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs 43, no. 1 (Winter 2019): 169–78. https://doi.org/https://www.jstor.org/stable/45289835.

Çevik, S. B. (2024). Grandiose dreams, mega projects: Ottoman nostalgia in ‘new Turkey’. International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, 21(1), e1846. https://doi.org/10.1002/aps.1846

Heper, M., & Toktas, S. (2003). Islam, Modernity, and Democracy in Contemporary Turkey: The Case of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The Muslim World, 93(2), 157-185. http://proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/islam-modernity-democracy-contemporary-turkey/docview/216437044/se-2

ERDOGAN'S GRAND VISION: Rise and Decline - Hillel Fradkin, Lewis Libby (2013)https://www.jstor.org/stable/43556162?searchText=&searchUri=&ab_segments=&searchKey=&refreqid=fastly-default%3A07607ba3d65e40f3231e2694b7b6b306&seq=2

Eissenstat, Howard. "Recep tayyip erdoğan: From 'illiberal democracy' to electoral authoritarianism (born 1953)" in Dictators and Autocrats: Securing Power Across Global Politics, ed. Klaus Larres (Abingdon, Oxfordshire, U.K: Routledge, 2021) https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003100508-25/recep-tayyip-erdo%C4%9Fan-howard-eissenstat

Cinar Kiper, “Sultan Erdoğan: Turkey’s Rebranding into the New, Old Ottoman Empire”, http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/04/sultan-Erdoğan-turkeys-rebranding-into-the-new-old-ottoman-empire/274724/

Kocamaner, Hikmet. “How New Is Erdoğan’s ‘New Turkey’?” Middle East Brief, no. 91 (April 2015): 1–9. https://doi.org/https://www.brandeis.edu/crown/publications/middle-east-briefs/pdfs/1-100/meb91.pdf.

‌McKernan, Bethan. 2019. “From Reformer to ‘New Sultan’: Erdoğan’s Populist Evolution.” The Guardian, March 11, 2019, sec. World news. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/11/from-reformer-to-new-sultan-erdogans-populist-evolution.

Populism, victimhood and Turkish foreign policy under AKP rule - Mehmet Arısan https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14683849.2022.2106131?src=recsys

Development of the 'New Turkey' Media Image: Substantive Aspect - N. E. Demeshko; V. A. Avatkov; A. A. Irkhin https://eds.s.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=ea94c4bc-4632-4ee4-a8c2-df8b9f5973bf%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#AN=edsdoj.

Smith Reynolds, Aaron. “The ‘New Turkey’ Might Have Come to an End: Here’s Why.” giga. https://www.giga-hamburg.de/de/publikationen/giga-focus/the-new-turkey-might-have-come-to-an-end-heres-why.

Solomon, Hussein. “Turkey’s AKP and the Myth of Islamist Moderation.” Jewish Political Studies Review 30, no. 3/4 (2019): 128–35. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26801121.

Yavuz, M. Hakan. “Social and Intellectual Origins of Neo-Ottomanism: Searching for a Post-National Vision.” Die Welt des Islams 56, no. 3–4 (November 28, 2016): 438–65. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700607-05634p08.

Media in New Turkey: The Origins of an Authoritarian Neoliberal State - Bilge Yesil https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=w3tMDAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=%22new+turkey%22+origins+erdogan&ots=iqHojS41ci&sig=KC201icwuSS6tseeNml_IFMnZWU#v=onepage&q=%22new%20turkey%22%20origins%20erdogan&f=false

Yilmaz, Ihsan. "Islamic Populism and Creating Desirable Citizens in Erdogan’s New Turkey." Mediterranean Quarterly 29, no. 4 (2018): 52-76. muse.jhu.edu/article/717683.

The AKP and the spirit of the ‘new’ Turkey: imagined victim, reactionary mood, and resentful sovereign- Zafer Yilmaz https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14683849.2017.1314763

[papuapress]

The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP)

The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) is an umbrella organization formed in 2014 to unite the various pro-independence groups advocating for the separation of West Papua (the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua) from Indonesia. Here’s a breakdown of key information:Goals: The ULMWP’s primary objective is to achieve independence for West Papua and establish a sovereign…

[yessadirichards]

Amazon show with Hong Kong protest scenes not shown in city

HONG KONG

A new television series starring Nicole Kidman and featuring scenes of Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests debuted on Amazon Prime Video on Friday, but could not be accessed in the Chinese city where it was partly filmed.

"Expats" revolves around the lives of three American women -- including a protagonist played by Kidman, who is also an executive producer -- in the former British colony in 2014, according to Amazon.

Created by Chinese-born American filmmaker Lulu Wang based on a 2016 novel, its first two episodes were listed as "currently unavailable" for viewers based in Hong Kong.

According to early reviews of the show, its penultimate episode -- set to be aired on February 16 -- includes scenes recreating Hong Kong's 2014 Umbrella Movement: a 79-day occupation of main thoroughfares to oppose Beijing's restrictive election rules.

Amazon's website on Friday listed the show's country availability as "worldwide".

AFP has contacted Amazon for comment.

Hong Kong's Commerce and Economic Development Bureau said the city's film censorship laws do not apply to streaming services.

Five years after the Umbrella Movement, Hong Kong saw fresh protests that were massive and at times violent, with demonstrators taking to the streets to call for greater freedoms.

Beijing clamped down on dissent in 2020 by imposing a national security law on Hong Kong, which critics say has affected the city's artistic and cultural freedom, and tightened censorship.

In 2021, Hong Kong also passed censorship laws forbidding broadcasts that might breach the national security law.

Censors have since ordered directors to make cuts to their films and refused permission for others to be shown.

While those rules do not cover streaming services, authorities have warned that online platforms are still subject to the national security law, which criminalises the broadly defined crimes of subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.

Episodes from "The Simpsons" that satirised the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown and forced labour in China were previously found to be missing from the Disney+ streaming service in Hong Kong.

"Expats" -- partly filmed in Hong Kong in 2021 -- sparked controversy then when Kidman was allowed to shoot scenes without having to follow Covid quarantine rules, which at the time were among the strictest in the world.

[trend-q]

周庭 （アグネス・チョウ）

2023年12月31日 周庭（アグネス・チョウ）さんは、香港の民主活動家であり、民主化運動の中心的なメンバーとして知られています。 彼女は2014年の雨傘運動において重要な役割を果たし、「民主の女神」とも称されていました。 周庭さんは日本の音楽やアニメが好きで、独学で日本語を学び、香港の民主化運動を支援するために日本語で訴えていました。2 019年には違法な集会への参加をあおった罪で実刑判決を受け、2021年に刑務所から出所しました。 また、香港国家安全維持法に違反した疑いで逮捕され、その後カナダに亡命しました。 December 31, 2023 Agnes Chou is a Hong Kong democracy activist and known as a central member of the democracy movement. She played an important role in the 2014 Umbrella Movement and was also referred to as the "Goddess of Democracy." Mr. Zhou Ting loves Japanese music and anime, taught himself Japanese, and used Japanese to advocate for the democracy movement in Hong Kong. 2 In 2019, he was sentenced to prison for inciting participation in an illegal assembly, and was released from prison in 2021. He was also arrested on suspicion of violating Hong Kong's national security law, and subsequently fled to Canada. Citations: [1] https://youtube.com/watch?v=5IFmaSDat3A [2] https://www.tachikawakeirin.jp/keiringrandprix2023/ [3] https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/special/international_news_navi/articles/qa/2023/12/07/36417.html [4] https://micro.utk.edu/m5625740/ [5] https://www.tbs.co.jp/tv/20231227_3261.html

[feelmir]

US and DPRK

On Sunday, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) launched a short-range ballistic missile to celebrate the 12th anniversary of the death of ex leader Kim Jong Il. As expected, this launch made headlines in the West while there are nothing in the news concerning the dispatch of Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group from the Persian Gulf into the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Yemen, to protect the ships transporting US modern weapons to Israel from recent attacks by Yemen's Ansar Allah rebel movement also known as the Houthis. It is worth nothing that the DPRK was born under the protective umbrella of the Soviet Union. North Korea and north Vietnam became two members “observers” of the Comecom. Taught by the history the legacy of the Korean war, North Korean leadership know very well that the International relations are governed by the force not by set of rules, by so called international law and by moral considerations. A golden rule learned by North Korean leadership, contrary to Putin’s naivety, the West will not be trusted and to deal with the Behemoth, the only language that understands is the force and the balance of power supported by very powerful military, chiefly by nuclear power. Some international events gave it the certitude that in the International arena, the big fish devour the small ones. First before all, the the Gulf war in 1991 provoked behind the scene by the US with the main objective, attacking Iraq close ally of the USSR and annihilating its rising military power, bombing of Yugoslavia in 1991 during 78 days without mandate from the UN, invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 under the false pretext, fighting Islamic terrorism, invasion of Iraq in March 2003 without  mandate of the UN, colour revolutions fomented by the US in the ex Soviet Republics from 2004 to 2014, invasion of Libya in 2011 and its destruction and the murder of its leader by NATO under the false humanitarian principles, the right to protect (R2P)and NO FLY ZONE, attempt of invasion of Syria in 2011 by Jihadists mercenaries, funded and trained by the West, and last but not least, using Ukraine as battlefield by NATO members to attack and dismantle the Russian Federation, triggering the military special operation on February 24, 2022. All these US wars of aggression against weak countries convinced the North Korean leadership that only a powerful military, ballistic and intercontinental missiles added to nuclear weapons could play a dissuasive role and protect the nation in case of US war of aggression.  

[aristeon89]

Hong Kong Activist Agnes Chow Ting Has Fled Hong Kong and Is Now in Self-Exile in Canada

Agnes Chow Ting (周庭), a prominent Hong Kong politician and social activist, announced on Sunday (December 3) that she has left the former British colony and is now in self-exile in Canada. Chow is a former member of the Standing Committee of the pro-democracy party Demosisto and former spokesperson of Scholarism. She was involved in the 2014 Umbrella Movement and the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests.…

[goh0117]

The Impact of Fake News and Propaganda on Social Media Activism: Unraveling the 5G-COVID-19 Myth

In the dynamic realm of activism and protest, the integration of social media has become both a catalyst and a challenge. As we navigate the intricate relationship between social media, activists, and the dissemination of fake news and propaganda, a pressing question arises: How do misinformation and propaganda, exemplified by the 5G-COVID-19 myth, impact the use of social media by activists and protesters? To unravel this complex web, we will explore various forms of activism, critique the concept of 'clicktivism,' and scrutinize the implications of digital citizenship. But first, let's delve into the global contexts that have seen social media emerge as a powerful tool for change.

The Global Dynamics of Activism & Protest

Activism and protest have undergone a transformation in the digital age, finding new avenues for expression and mobilization through social media platforms. From the fall of the Berlin Wall to the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, we contemplate how these historic events might have played out differently if social media had been present. Social media, as highlighted in TIME magazine in 2011, has become a powerful tool for 'everyday activism,' 'subactivism,' and 'culture jamming.'

Digital Citizenship and Civic Cultures

The concept of digital citizenship extends the traditional notions of civic participation to the online realm. In the words of Marshall (1992), all members of a political community have certain rights, and the internet, much like education, has the potential to promote democracy and civic duty. The role of media, encompassing not only traditional outlets but also social media and pop culture, becomes crucial in shaping civic cultures. The question emerges: does the internet truly afford us the opportunity to learn about citizenship and civic duty?

Alternative & Activist Media in the Digital Age

Leah Lievrouw (2011) points out that there are unprecedented opportunities for expression and interaction among activists, facilitated by new media tools. Social media allows activists to build and sustain communities without geographical restrictions, gain visibility and voice, resist dominant views, and present alternative perspectives legitimately. The concept of 'networked publics' is crucial in understanding the digital authoring and distribution tools that social media provides.

Case Study: Hong Kong Protests

Examining the role of social media and messaging apps in the Hong Kong protests provides a real-world example. The Wall Street Journal highlights how online protests facilitated and aided offline movements. The Umbrella Movement in 2014 and the Anti-Extradition Protests in 2019-2020 demonstrated the power of social media in mobilizing and organizing protests for civil rights, freedom, and democracy.

The Mobile Witness & Networked Events

The emergence of the mobile witness, characterized by eyewitness accounts through videos and photography, has become a significant aspect of protests and movements. Social media, with its ability to bring the collectivity of shared events to the forefront, has transformed how we perceive and engage with global events. From the Black Lives Matter protests in the United States to the England Riots in 2011, social media has played a pivotal role in shaping narratives.

The Infodemic: 5G and COVID-19

In the midst of these digital transformations, misinformation and fake news have become rampant. The rumor linking 5G technology to COVID-19 serves as a poignant example. A research team led by Elaine Nsoesie investigated the spread of COVID-19 misinformation using epidemiological techniques. They found that the myth of "COVID-19 and 5G" spread faster than other rumors, indicating a global misunderstanding of 5G technology.

Debunking the 5G-COVID-19 Myth

Despite the fear surrounding 5G technology, it does not cause COVID-19. Researchers emphasize the need to understand how misinformation spreads to counteract it effectively. David Starobinski, a professor at the BU College of Engineering, clarifies that 5G is an evolution, not a revolution, in communication technology. The spread of such myths underscores the importance of transparency from researchers and institutions.

Criticisms and Challenges in Social Media Activism

The article concludes by addressing criticisms of social media activism, including the concept of 'clicktivism.' While some argue that it fosters a lazy form of activism, research suggests that it has the potential to create awareness and draw attention to overlooked issues. Additionally, the notion of 'subactivism' is explored, recognizing its importance in everyday democratic participation.

Conclusion

As social media continues to shape the landscape of activism and protest, it is crucial to navigate the complexities of fake news and propaganda. The case of the 5G-COVID-19 myth highlights the need for a nuanced understanding of digital citizenship and media literacy. Activists must harness the power of social media while remaining vigilant against misinformation, ensuring that the digital realm remains a force for positive change in the world.

See you guys in the next one!

References:

Bakardjieva, M. (2009) "Subactivism: Lifeworld and Politics in the Age of the Internet," The Information Society, 25, pp. 91-104, viewed on 20 November 2023.

Dahlgreen, P. (2009) "Media and Political Engagement: Citizens, Communication, and Democracy," Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, viewed on 20 November 2023.

Ito, M. (2008) "Introduction' in Kazys Varnelis (ed.) 'Networked Publics," Cambridge: MIT Press, viewed on 20 November 2023.

Lievrouw, L. (2012) "Alternative & Activist New Media," London: Polity Press, viewed on 20 November 2023.

Massumi, B. (2009) "National Enterprise Emergency: Steps Toward an Ecology of Powers," Theory, Culture & Society, 26(6), pp. 153–185. doi: 10.1177/0263276409347696, viewed on 20 November 2023.

Tufekci, Z., & Wilson, C. (2012) "Social Media and the Decision to Participate in Political Protest: Observations From Tahrir Square," Journal of Communication, 62(2), pp. 363-379, viewed on 20 November 2023. <https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2012.01629.x>

Nsoesie, E., Cesare, N., et al. (2020) "5G Doesn’t Cause COVID-19, But the Rumor That It Does Spread Like a Virus," Journal of Medical Internet Research, viewed on 20 November 2023. <https://www.bu.edu/sph/news/articles/2021/5g-doesnt-cause-covid-19/>