#Christian Trump Supporters: We Need To Talk

[crossdreamers]

Let us make Europe a safe haven for American transgender refugees (and we need your help)

A Dutch LGBTQ ally and activist hopes to turn the Netherlands into a haven for transgender refugees from the US. But he needs help. He asks transgender Americans to provide stories he can use to pressure Dutch politicians. We should strive to make more European countries places of refuge.

The battle for America's democratic soul is not over, and the pro-democracy forces may win. But transgender people have already become the scapegoats of fascists and religious fanatics. The Republican Party is doing all it can to erase trans people's existence through laws and propaganda.

It is time to prepare for the unthinkable: A transgender "underground railroad" to Europe.

There are already organizations out there that helps LGBTQ people escape from oppressive regimes, but it does not look like they have been prepared for an American trans exodus (see for instance The Rainbow Railroad and Immigration Equality).

I was recently contacted by a Dutch trans ally who calls himself Ned McRant online. His idea is to put up online resources that can help transgender Americans who need to flee to Europe, and in particular the Netherlands.

Formally it is already possible for transgender Americans to move to this country, but he wants Dutch politicians to get engaged in a pro-trans resettlement policy.

The American anti-trans policies

He writes:

"For the past fourteen years, I have closely followed political developments in the United States. What I have learned fills me with great concern—not only for that nation’s future but also for the global impact of its actions. The information I receive from reliable sources often diverges significantly from what is reported in Dutch news. My understanding of American history and politics enables me to recognize the seriousness of the threats at hand. The situation has escalated since Donald Trump’s rise to power. A major threat comes in the form of a vision called Project 2025, crafted by the Heritage Foundation, a fundamentalist Christian think tank. This manifesto is essentially a blueprint for transforming the United States into a theocracy, similar to nations like Iran but based on Christian fundamentalism. Although Trump denies involvement, he is already implementing parts of this plan. My personal investment in this issue stems from my unwavering support for the LGBTQ+ community, particularly my friendships with transgender individuals. In the U.S., "coming out" as gay or transgender has become life-threatening. Under Project 2025, the fundamental rights of transgender individuals are being systematically dismantled. In some states, there is even talk of forcing them to de-transition a horrific process that strips them of their identity and happiness. Access to essential medication like HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) is being denied, pushing many to despair and even suicide. While the Netherlands cannot stop this political madness, we can make a difference. We can offer a safe haven to those who have nowhere else to turn. Through our friendship treaty with the U.S., Americans can already settle in the Netherlands. However, specific support for LGBTQ+ refugees is lacking."

Getting stories from American trans people

Ned has sent letters to Dutch parliamentarians, making arguments similar to these. He has asked them to investigate how the country can help persecuted transgender Americans and build a support network in the Netherlands.

This approach can also be used in other European countries.

Ned says that he plans to contact them over and over again, adding stories based on the real life experiences of American trans people. To do this he needs input from transgender Americans. If you want to help, contact Ned at Ned.McRant@gmail.com.

I would like input from European LGBTQ-people and allies who have knowledge and ideas about how we can help transgender refugees move to European countries. Write to jack.molay@gmail.com or DM Transgender World here:

Threads

Bluesky

Mastodon

LinkedIn

As for LGBTQ people sending personal emails to people they do not personally know: I recommend that you use a separate anonymous email account for this. Yes, this also applies to emails sent to me.

We will follow up with more on this topic.

Jack Molay

See also: TGEU: "EU asylum pact fails trans and gender-diverse asylum seekers"

Illustration photo from Getty

[axolotlclown]

I am a little concerned that people aren't actually going on the candidates websites and reading their issues pages. Trump has branded his as "Agenda 47" and effectively lays out 47 key issues he wants to address during his presidency. It looks quite awful for the Palestinians and muslims living in the United States currently. It also looks like he's going to crack down on protests and make it harder to organize in support of Palestine.

Here are some pieces I took from his plan that should concern anyone supporting Palestine right now:

Biden banning Tiktok was a direct attack on our freedom of speech and ability to share information about Palestine. However, Trump is promising to bring back his muslim travel ban (which would succeed under his conservative Supreme Court). He will make it just about impossible for any refugees to get into America. It's already difficult for refugees to gain entry, but this is just opening the door to dangerous rhetoric.

American imperialism cannot be fixed in one presidency. That $95 billion foreign aid package that included $26 billion to support Israel was passed by Congress, with support from democrats. Biden signed it, but that's not something he can do by himself. If we want real meaningful change, we're going to have to vote for a whole lot more than just the president. Campaigning for third parties is going to have to maintain its momentum outside of election years.

Still, both candidates are supporting this war currently. They are both piss poor choices for a ceasefire. However, they are NOT equal! A Trump win could be devastating, not just for the Palestinians still struggling in the Middle East, but for the Palestinians living at home now. With the courts behind him, Chevron overturned, and a clear plan for Schedule F in place, I cannot seriously humor anyone saying that a Harris would be "just as bad" for Palestine.

"You're so privileged for caring about genocide" is not a take actually.

[wilwheaton]

Clooney wrote of the "profound moment" the country is currently in, noting how just last month he hosted the "single largest fundraiser supporting any Democratic candidate ever, for President Biden's re-election." "I love Joe Biden," Clooney wrote. "As a senator. As a vice president and as president. I consider him a friend, and I believe in him. Believe in his character. Believe in his morals. In the last four years, he’s won many of the battles he’s faced." "But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time," he continued. "None of us can. It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe “big F—ing deal” Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate." Regarding the debate, in which the 81-year-old President stumbled continually, Clooney wrote that "our party leaders need to stop telling us that 51 million people didn’t see what we just saw." "We’re all so terrified by the prospect of a second Trump term that we’ve opted to ignore every warning sign. The George Stephanopoulos interview only reinforced what we saw the week before. As Democrats, we collectively hold our breath or turn down the volume whenever we see the president, who we respect, walk off Air Force One or walk back to a mic to answer an unscripted question," he wrote.

George Clooney calls on Biden to drop out to "save democracy" — just weeks after hosting fundraiser

George Clooney has nothing to gain and everything to lose, by telling the truth right now. Politicians and their supporters hold grudges for eternity. He’s speaking up and saying this now, knowing exactly what the stakes are for him, and for our country.

This is what I’ve been wanting to know. This is what the campaign has been hiding from us: WE all saw that President Biden had a bad night. The question the demands an answer is: was it a bad night? Or has time and age caught up with the president? Are we going to believe our lying eyes, or clap louder?

We don’t vote for just a president; we vote for an administration. For the most part, this administration has been fantastic, more progressive than I ever dreamed, to say nothing of rebuilding a nation out of the wreckage of four years of Trump.

And all of that is going to be burned to ash if President Biden can’t mount an effective campaign to defeat fascism and its leader. Since the debate, the campaign has kept him behind teleprompters and away from unscripted interactions. That’s alarming, and a tacit admission that he can’t fight like he once did, that the person we saw at the debate is the person he is most of the time.

If we lose this election, America will be plunged into decades of authoritarian, theocratic, christian nationalist fascism. The stakes will never be higher, and President Biden and his team need to do what is best for the country.

We will not win this election by clapping louder and gaslighting ourselves. We need — this crisis demands — a candidate who can clearly and easily refute Trump’s lies, and simply and clearly explain to voters what the stakes of this election are. The 2020 Joe Biden could do that; the 2024 Joe Biden doesn't seem to be capable of that, anymore, and that puts our entire nation and way of life at risk. George Clooney is telling us that he literally just saw, privately, what we all saw in public, and it was not a one-off. He also reveals that every single elected Democrat he talks to agrees with him, but they are too afraid to speak up. That’s horrifying, and I desperately hope it isn’t true.

But if George Clooney is telling us a hard truth, risking the wrath of countless powerful political players, and we should listen to him; not because he is rich and famous, but because he was literally in a room with President Biden and his supporters, and is now on the record that the President Biden we saw at the debate is not a guy with a cold or whatever, and now journalists can follow up with other people who were there to confirm or deny George Clooney’s observations.

These are tough questions that demand answers, now, because we are four months out and this shouldn’t be close, at all. America hates Trump, and he has lost every election since 2018 as a result.

President Biden and the Democrats need to run up huge margins in Michigan, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, and Ohio, to overcome the inevitable MAGA fuckery. We need a candidate who is fifteen points ahead of Trump, not someone who has been in the margin of error for his entire presidency -- which is fucking insane when you look at all of Trump’s felonies, judgments, impending trials, and all of his corrupt criminality that the SCOTUS MAGA Majority twisted itself into knots to protect.

This should be a landslide against Trump and MAGA. It’s close because the candidate running against him isn’t -- likely can’t -- be out there, every day, banging the podium and forcing a change in the narrative. 

Did you see my governor after the debate disaster? He was on fire. That guy would destroy Trump in a debate. Vice President Harris would be laser focused on prosecuting the case against him. President Biden is the only candidate who Trump could drag into a fucking dick waving contest about golf scores when the fucking future of American Democracy is at stake. There is not a single other credible candidate who would take that bait. My god.

President Biden has done so much more than I ever thought possible. He doesn’t get credit for all his progressive achievements, for pulling America out of a economic calamity (caused by Trump and his allies), forgiving student debt, his appointments to the FCC, FTC, and other regulatory agencies that had been captured by industry during the Trump regime.

All of that will be wiped out in a matter of days, if Trump seizes power again.

George Clooney is warning us that President Biden doesn’t have the stamina and focus to win reelection and secure not just his legacy but the future of our country. He is saying out loud and as publicly as possible that we are not crazy, that we really did see what we saw.

This is DEFCON 1 for Democracy. This isn’t politics as usual. This is a moment of tremendous existential danger that only gets worse with each passing day. IF President Biden remains the candidate, I will vote for him, obviously. But I hope that he will fire everyone involved in preparing him for the debate, because they failed him, they failed America, and if Biden is going to take the fight to Trump and MAGA the way he needs to, it he needs a team who understand who they are fighting against, how to punch Trump in the nose, and what the stakes are.

[anexperimentallife]

So you want leftist candidates? Here's how you get them:

First off, you have to understand that the far right didn't just wake up one day and say, "We should fuck up the country!" They have been OPENLY working for decades to fill literally every elected or appointed government position they could with Christian Dominionists and other right-wingers, and these folks show up to the polls EVERY SINGLE TIME.

When I was a kid in a far right church in the 1960s, they openly discussed how important is was to get their people into office who would help pass legislation to persecute/imprison/kill anyone who didn't follow their religion. If there's no one sufficiently right-wing running, they'll vote for whomever is closest, even if it gags them. And I cannot emphasize enough that they have long term goals that they are willing to take--and HAVE taken--generations to achieve.

The overturning of Roe v. Wade, for example, is a DIRECT RESULT of the decades-long effort by the far right to boost the most far-right-leaning candidates they could find. They've been talking for decades SPECIFICALLY about getting enough far right judges in SCOTUS to overturn Roe v. Wade. And these SCOTUS appointments are for LIFE, so these judges get to set policy for your GRANDCHILDREN.

So yes, the overturning of Roe v. Wade was only made possible because Trump was able to appoint three SCOTUS judges, in addition to all the other federal judges he appointed. Amd they're talking about going after same-sex marriage, minority rights, etc.

(Hell, the judge in charge of his secret documents case is one that he appointed--she has indefinitely postponed that case,by the way.)

And you don't think local school board elections are important? Have you not seen the news about all the anti-queer policies, and all the book-bannings? This, also, has a generational effect.

Meanwhile the left refuses to turn up to the polls because none of the candidates are pure enough. So guess why things are getting worse?

If the Left turned out for the most left-leaning candidate at EVERY SINGLE ELECTION, whether local or state or whatever, including primaries, we'd start seeing more leftist candidates. Yes, that means that if there's a choice between two extreme right wing candidates, you vote for the least extreme one.

I know I keep emphasizing that this is not just about POTUS, but POTUS does figure in, of course (among other things, who do you think appoints judges for congress to approve?).

So swallow this pill: Anything shitty Biden is doing, the shitgibbon will do MORE of.

"Not gonna vote Biden because he supports genocide, so I'd rather the guy win who ALSO supports genocide, wants Russia to invade more countries, thinks it's fine if China retakes Taiwan, wants a nationwide abortion ban, removal of civil rights for minorities, wants to overturn same-sex marriage (which the right-leaning majority in SCOTUS are already talking about), to cut back the role of congress in checking executive actions (including workarounds to avoid the need for congressional confirmation for presidential appointees), to remove federal employee protections so federal personnel can be replaced with Trump loyalists, and so on! That'll teach those Dems a lesson! THEN they'll be sorry. And fuck everyone the bad guys hurt, because I'll still be PURE. So what if top GOP officials want to actually NUKE Gaza?"

That's fucking kindergartner thinking.

Yes, Biden is a piece of shit, but I am not waxing at all hyperbolic when I say that a second orange shitgibbon term, with a far-right-majority SCOTUS--especially if the GOP manages majorities in both houses of congress--may be the end of what little is left of Democracy in the US. Not gonna argue about it, because I don't waste my time with petulant children.

Look at the GOP's plans for a Republican administration, and tell me you think it sounds better than another term of Biden. Hell, they've even set up online trainings and loyalty tests to narrow down potential federal hires to those who will commit to follow Trump without question.

I repeat: If you want more leftist candidates, if you want more worker power, if you want billionaires taxed, if you want to protect minorities and the queer community, you have to adopt the strategy that the right has used, educate yourself about what candidates stand for, and show up EVERY SINGLE TIME. Again, that includes primaries.

So many of us on the left would rather sit in the basement dreaming of some magical revolution that's going to fix everything, giving ourselves and others purity tests, and proudly announcing that we're... boycotting democracy by not voting(?), "because none of the candidates are a good choice."

Yeah, the left refusing to vote--or only voting in presidential elections--while the right turns up every time is exactly how we got here.

And you have to support the most left-leaning candidate even if it makes you gag, and even if "most left-leaning" means "not as openly fascist." This is the ONLY way you can be assured of candidates getting further to the left in the future. (Note that this means learning about your local candidates.)

"But voting won't fix--" I never said it was going to fix everything. There's no rule that if you vote, you can't volunteer with Food Not Bombs, or run for school board, or demonstrate, or circulate petitions. It takes more than voting, but voting has to be PART of our strategy.

You also have to accept that it may take decades to change course, and that you're not going to like every candidate you have to vote for.

The right didn't just magically get the orange shitgibbon into office overnight. It took decades of work. And if we want decent human beings in charge, we have to be willing to do the same.

[duchess-of-mandalore]

Star Wars, friends. I know this is not why you follow me, but please make this my most shared post.

You are here.

We're living the lead-up to Revenge of the Sith, and it scares me so much a) it feels like there is so little we can do, and b) young people are acting as if there is nothing we can do.

If you don't know what's going on, I need you to wake up and get engaged.

I have two history degrees. My whole life I've always been the person saying, "When people say, 'This is the most important election ever," it just shows how little they know about history.'"

So please believe me when I tell you that THIS is the most important election (cycle, not just presidential race) that you will likely ever be a part of.

Trump is not Hitler. He's too stupid to be Hitler.

But our democracy only held together in 2020 because of a few people like Mike Pence who were willing to stand up against Trump when it was truly the last line of defense. I know that's hard for some of you to hear, but whatever you think of his beliefs, Pence showed he has integrity and stands by the Constitution.

There will be no Mike Pences this time around. Trump will not make the mistake of surrounding himself with those who are not fully committed to him.

Trump is a convicted felon. He is running to avoid his convictions and likely jail time more than anything else. If he wins, he will be able to pardon himself of his federal crimes, but he's going to keep acting like Donald Trump. If he's still alive in 2028, do you think he will leave the White House peacefully and just submit to further cases against him?

Please watch John Oliver's recent expose on Project 2025 and Trump's Second Term. It is linked in a comment below.

Trump and his administration are already putting in place plans for sweeping reforms that truly will make America look like The Handmaid's Tale. Presidents usually will push for more when they're in their second term because they don't have to worry about another election campaign, but this is different. This is about dismantling the democratic system so that it only benefits the most radical conservatives and Christians.

Christians, I am one of you. I was raised Evangelical (capital E meaning politically motivated culture warrior), and I am still evangelical (lower-case e, referring to theological beliefs). This is not the posture of Christ-followers. There is no good that comes from state-mandated religion, which both coerces people to claim that they are believers for social and cultural clout AND waters down the true religious fervor of the church because most people are only nominal believers.

There is NOTHING about Christian Nationalism that is in the best interest of Christians or in the best interest of the neighbors Christians are called to sacrificially love. If you need a reminder of who your neighbor is, read Luke 10:25-37.

Please start talking with your friends. Young people, please register to vote and bring your friends to do the same.

I know so many of you are disillusioned. I am too. Things that are going on in Palestine and Ukraine and so many other places make it very hard to vote for people with "D"s behind their names (especially after the recent presidential debate).

But punishing Joe Biden is not the revenge you want to pursue here. Are you unhappy with him giving Israel $12.5 billion? I am too, but do you think that number won't be repeated multiple times under Trump? Again, I was raised Evangelical. A staple of (politically-focused) Evangelicalism is that Christians (and thus America) must support (the modern state of) Israel no matter what because they have a hyper-literal understanding of the verse where God tells Abraham that he will bless those who bless him (including his descendants who became Israel).

Do not underestimate the importance of that view in their ideology. Nearly every member of my biological family has shunned me for suggesting that this is not a blanket endorsement of every action the modern state of Israel takes.

Trump is a criminal running for president to save his skin. He supports Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel who is now himself wanted for war crimes. Trump has aligned himself with the authoritarian leaders/dictators of Hungary, China, North Korea, and Russia. He is open about his love for Russian president Vladimir Putin's authoritarian regime and stands against Ukraine's democracy and national sovereignty.

This is what happened before World War I and World War II.

I know this isn't what you follow me for.

But George Lucas was showing the dangers of authoritarianism. He shows that democracy is hard. It's frustrating trying to negotiate with people you disagree with vehemently. It may seem like nothing gets done.

Go and watch the Naboo picnic scene. Go and do it. And after chuckling at all the funny memes it's given us, let me tell you why it scares me so much.

Because Padme laughs.

Anakin tells her who he is, and she laughs.

She passes it off as a joke, or as flirting, or maybe even as just the ignorant views of a boy who views life as far more black and white than she knows it to be.

But the alternative to all of that frustrating democracy, all that gridlock in the Senate, all those choices and compromises you have to make in order to benefit the people at all ... the alternative is a dictator who says, "I will make all the decisions for us."

That's why there are people who applaud Palpatine. That's why we as viewers see Bail and Padme as the reasonable ones and think it's crazy that anyone would applaud, but they do.

The applaud because Palpatine says, "You don't have to be frustrated anymore. You don't have to be worried about those who disagree with you anymore." Safety and security and ease are powerful temptations when you live in a polarized society, and Palpatine offers them all of those things.

That's why many people applaud Trump, too.

There were also people who applauded Palpatine who did see the danger of what he was doing. But they applauded because it was easier to do so. He had already amassed power because they didn't stand up to him before. They applaud him now because standing against him now would have dire consequences they wouldn't have faced if they had stood against him before.

So vote. And get your friends to vote.

If there is any part of you that believes Star Wars has important things to tell us about real life, then I need you to fan that flame into a fire.

Otherwise, you won't be living in the prequels anymore. You will be living in the time of the Empire.

Vote.

[le-fruit-de-la-passion]

I keep seeing people worship Christian Linke for some shit he’s said and ignore the fact this man is antisemetic and heavily insensitive towards non white and straight characters HE IS NOT YOUR ALLY

I genuinely think people just don't know how much of a shitty person he is. Seriously, that dude was quite possibly the worst person to put in charge of a project like Arcane. Here are just some of things he's said that you should know of:

• Linke said the death of every character in Arcane was a direct result of their own actions : "Every single big beat in the end with our characters, whether it’s a death or not, is a consequence of their choices."

So, I'd like you to explain to me how Vander's death was his fault, because I don't quite remember him agreeing to becoming Warwick. Also, maybe having the three characters portrayed as suicidal in the show (Jinx, Viktor, and Jayce) all die, and go on to say it was just the consequences of their own actions... isn't a good message?

• Linke has declared Viktor as asexual on his own, with the sole purpose of discouraging JayVik shippers : "There is a love. I don't think it's romantic [...]. To me, Viktor was always asexual".

Now, the issue here isn't having an asexual character, its having chosen VIKTOR, one of the most important characters for disabled rep in animation and popular media, to be asexual. I've went on and on about how infantalizing that is to disabled/chronically ill fans, because we NEVER get to be perceived as sexual beings. Having a body that's visibly different from the norm, or limits on certain abilities, turns off people, makes them uncomfortable. That's why you just never see a sexually active or a sex positive disabled character on screen. That's why, in all his "sexy" skins in LoL, Viktor is given a six pack, has no visible marks of illness on his body (scars, fatigue lines), and has no medical brace or crutch.

Viktor was always intended to have a sexual swagger in season 1 ("this isnt my bedroom") and that was EXTREMELY important to a lot of us in the community. I've seen a very similar response from the asexual community as well, who feel like Linke is using their identity and experience as a shield from fan interractions he dislikes, and without actual care for what it means to the characters. Don't fall for rep that isn't actually meant to represent you.

• Linke has directly and openly compared the Zaun and Piltover conflict to the left and right in the United States, and put both sides on equal moral footing : "If you’re asking me whether we were inspired by two sides of one nation who are incapable of even talking to each other anymore at a certain point, yes."

So, I don't think I need to explain how bad this is. Remember that Piltover is the city of wealth and enforcers, and that they've gazed the district of Zaun, dumped chemicals around their water suplies, directed brutal and deadly repressions of civil uprising and protest, offered no financial support to the struggling communities of addicts, disabled people, and orphans, refused Zaun any implication or decisional seat in the city political life, AND THAT'S JUST ON TOP OF MY HEAD. Now, think about what that means with the USA politics comparison, and the idea that they should "just listen to each other". Yeah.

Now, if you know me a bit, you know I live in Canada, so maybe you think this doesn't affect me personally, or that it doesn't affect you because you live outside the US. To that, I want to tell you about a neighbour of mine, who lives on the street parallel to my house, and this truck he owns. The truck has a whole lot of fun stickers and flags on it: the quotes "TRUMP ARREST TRUDEAU" and "CANADIANS FOR TRUMP", the israeli flag, the confederate flag, christian crosses, the blue lives matter flag, and an anti BLM sticker. Now, I'm sure theres more cool things, I've just never gotten close enough to look at the smaller stickers and ornaments because, as a very openly bi arabic woman, I'm scared to death of that man. But maybe I should just hear him out, right?

Tldr, do not think that the state of american politics doesn’t affect the rest of the world.

• Linke has called the people of Zaun and specifically Silco "Svengali", which is an antisemitic name that implies Jewish people are crooks / dirty / thiefs / sexual degenerates. There's a great post on Tumblr that goes more into detail about this (https://www.tumblr.com/endearing-dalliance/769693230696677376/another-blow-against-arcane-anti-semitism?source=share). I'd just like to insist on how bad calling someone "svengali" is. His character was used in many pieces of propaganda in Nazi Germany to picture the "Evil Jew", and to dehumanize Jewish communities by portraying them as ressembling Satan (forked beard, can do unholy hypnosis, targets women...). Linke could have chosen ANY other term to talk about Zaunites, the oppressed community getting gazed by a police state, but he chose that one. That was not an unconscious decision.

I'm a firm believer that it is possible to separate art from artist/studio/company, and to appreciate something while still being aware the person behind it is not a great individual. However, if you're defending all the decisions made in season 2, these are things you HAVE to be aware of.

[hotboyrailroad]

marley | he/him | ftm

WARNING: This blog contains content that of eating disorders, self-harm, and general talk of my own life. I DO NOT glorify, support, nor push these behaviors on others. Terminating my blog will only bring me back.

WARNING: iam number 1 simon riley liker ohhhgu my gawwd

STATS + INFORMATION + RULES BELOW

STATISTICS

height: 5’3”

weiner: 27in

sw: 165

cw: in bio, updated here and there

ugw: 90 (as of now)

ABOUT ME

hiii, my name is marley :> i'm a trans man living in an extremely red state as of now, trying my best to transition quietly while suppressing my identity away from my very pentecostal christian family (you know... the screaming and slain in the spirit one) as well as the entire nation, now, apparently.

i struggle currently with a nasty eating disorder i don't intend to recover from until i reach my ugw, i am fully aware of what i'm doing. i think a lot of this stems from my undiagnosed OCD from childhood trauma regarding my need to be an overachiever and a perfect white christian cis girl.

as you can probably tell i'm hella infatuated with simon riley from cod, have been since august 2024. he's moreso a placeholder idol at times but then also a source of where all my attraction pools into because i'm a cool sick fuck

i love will wood, radiohead, made in abyss (not the artist), any animes like kill la kill and such— my lawfully wedded wife, and much more!!!

RULES (…kind of changes with mood)

weekdays: 800c

weekends: 600c | mostly fasting

special occasions: 1200c | x2 exercise

i usually liquid/water fast as i can due to a rocky schedule i have since i still live with my family, but later in the year i’m going to be going to college, in which i can fast as much as i want probably

BOUNDARIES

this is for hate anons specifically so if you want to be mean 2 me please read!!!!!

YES: playflirting (+18 only but i have no game), general dms and venting is allowed BUT i am super awkward and shy so please don’t hold a grudge

UHH: passive aggressive comments please use a tone tag!!! i want to know if you’re actually being mean to me or not

HELL NO!!!: racism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, etc etc take that to your private discord server!! do not dm me asking if i’m a girl because i am clearly not in the right situation to present male lol, i’m fine looking as i am. also if you’re a trump supporter gtfo my blog and kill yourself

SPECIAL WARNING!!!!!!: ghost is my gf she said she didn’t want anybody but his alpha (me) we are happily married btw

[unsolicited-opinions]

I think US goyim focussing on the 20% of Jews who support trump over the 80% who are more reliable democrats than any other USAmerican demographic besides Black women is perhaps an aspect of their antisemitism that is beyond our control. It's not based in reality to believe that USAmerican Jews, on average, back trump, so our reality-based actions cannot influence them. If they want to believe we're magats because they always believe we're whatever they hate this decade, we can't stop them, and our behavior is not responsible for their conspiracy fantasies always blaming The Jews.

I think you're right that US gentile liberals are getting the impression that US Jews support Trump.

Know why?

The loudest Jewish voices in the US right now are from that ~20% of US Jews who are conservatives.

They are well organized, well-funded, prolific, and effective. All my algorithm-driven social media feeds are filled with that 20%, praising Trump every time he says something supportive of Israel or signs an executive order performing his supposed concern about antisemitism.

Why are we hardly hearing voices which speak for the 80% of US Jews who are liberals?

For that matter, what are the liberal Jewish media organizations?

The Forward has some good pieces, but it doesn't seem to have the editorial vision for tackling MAGA authoritarianism in the context of Jewish history.

It'll discuss Musk's Nazi salutes, but not really put it in context of increasing right-wing antisemitism or digging into Musk's promotion of the Great Replacement conspiracy theory.

It isn't talking about how Trump's xenophobic base loves when he endorses the Great Replacement conspiracy theory or connecting the Trump anti-immigrant actions to the supposed role of Jews in the Great Replacement conspiracy theory.

In 2022, almost half of Republicans believed this conspiracy theory. (Bet it's more now.)

I absolutely believe it works in Trump's favor to encourage US gentile liberals/leftists to view US Jews as Trump supporters who endorse his vision of a white supremacist, Christian Nationalist Autocracy. I think it's deliberate and it's working.

So Jewish liberal voices need to be much louder.

"If they want to believe we're magats because they always believe we're whatever they hate this decade, we can't stop them..."

If we don't try, that shitty attitude becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, making you a contributing factor in any future pogroms.

People are lying about what we believe, it's doing us real damage, and your suggestion is to throw up our hands instead of actively disputing those lies.

Throwing up your hands and abdicating any responsibility for communicating who you are and what you believe isn't just lazy and stupid, but actively harmful to us.

You're smarter than this. You're better than this. Do better.

Btw: If there are organized, effective Jewish liberal voices/organizations out there (which I just haven't been able to hear over the cacophony of voices from the Jewish right...?), please point me to them?

[us-cj]

President Trump is correct. I watched her "sermon." She is a liberal LGBTQ activist who flies the rainbow flag and marched for George Floyd and said Trump should leave office. Then, in 2020 when Antifa-BLM tried to burn down her church - she blamed President Trump - when he was the one that actually called to save it.

Who picked her to say this Communist garbage to President Trump from the pulpit:

"In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy on people in this country who are scared now. There are gay and lesbian transgender children among Democratic, Republican and Independent families. Some fear for their lives.

And the people who pick our crops, clean office buildings, labor in poultry farms & meatpacking plants, wash dishes after we eat, work night shifts at hospitals - they may not be citizens or have proper documentation - but most immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues and temples.

I ask you to have mercy Mr. President on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. That you help those who were fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands. To find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger. For we all want strangers in this land.

May God grant us strength & courage to honor the dignity of every human being. To speak truth to one another in love and walk humbly with each other and our God. For the good of all people in this nation and the world. Amen."

BEN CARSON: "These are words you would expect to hear from a barista, not a Bishop. She isn’t brave, or strong, or a unifier. She’s another pawn of the left whose Trump Derangement Syndrome has blinded her from truth or reason. She’s an activist. It’s disgraceful on many accounts."

FRANKLIN GRAHAM: "The National Cathedral has fallen into the hands of LGBTQ activists. So, it's not surprising this "lady bishop" spewed hate at Donald Trump today. National Cathedral has become a sanctuary of Satan."

GIORDANA: "Episcopalian Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde is a lesbian radical woke & DEI activist who believes she is chosen by God to scold President Trump regarding his TRANS policies."

MATT WALSH: "Just take one look at this witch and you know everything you need to know about her, even before she starts talking."

MEGYN KELLY: "Trump & Vance handled it perfectly - total class. This “bishop” who apparently prefers we mutilate children in the name of gender ideology & allow young girls to get gang raped by illegals at our open S border, however, is a rude, ignorant, TDS afflicted hack."

SCOTT ADAMS: "Lesbian Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde chose to pander to the LGBT whose movement has been wrecked by trans mental illness. She’s the same B who trashed Trump for saving her historical Episcopal church from burning to the ground after Trump hating liberals set it on fire."

CHARLIE KIRK: "Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde is the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. She's the first woman to hold the position. She was given a great honor today, a chance to unify America around a Christian message at the dawn of a new administration. Instead, she disgraced herself with a lecture you'd hear on CNN or an episode of The View. What an embarrassment."

PAUL SPERRY: "FEC filings reveal Mariann Budde & family have given exclusively to Democrats and collectively contributed several thousand dollars to Kamala, Obama, Biden. While she claims to champion the poor - property records show she lives in a $2 million+ colonial mansion with 6 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms in a leafy DC neighborhood. Her church claims that it receives no operating support from the federal government, but it does get grants from the federally funded nonprofit National Trust for Historic Preservation. Her family funded George Soros, worked for OBAMA FOR AMERICA and with Jack Smith at the Hague."

ERIC METAXAS: "Exactly WHO is responsible for setting the trap of Pres Trump attending that ridiculous service to hear the preposterous "bishop" insult him and the American people? Can we get to the bottom of that one ASAP? Seriously. We need answers. Who???"

Did the hack Bishop know that Trump danced with the VILLAGE PEOPLE the night before his inauguration? Did they look scared?

Scott Bessent, Trump's nominee for Treasury Secretary, an openly gay man, defended Trump and wrote this today:

https://x.com/mirandadevine/status/1882134235462742052

PS: THIS IS WHAT I WAS WRITING YESTERDAY FOR MY NEWSLETTER WHEN SUBSTACK WENT DOWN SYSTEMWIDE. LOOK AT JD'S FACE.

I WOULD ENCOURAGE YOU TO SHARE THIS WITH YOUR PASTOR.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Wajahat Ali and Yusuf Zakir at The Left Hook:

If you listen to Donald Trump, Maga Republicans and lazy comedians, DEI is the modern-day villain. It’s a wicked and terrifying Trojan horse of wokeness that is seeking to “replace” Americans and indoctrinate our children with a subversive agenda. It’s allegedly orchestrated by transgender people, immigrants of color, Muslims, Black people, Jewish people and feminists – anyone that isn’t straight, white and Christian. According to the president-elect, the rest of us are “poisoning the blood of our country” and destroying it.

DEI is an easy, direct and convenient way to package all of these fears. If you fall for this narrative, it can be terrifying and feel unfair. Events such as the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank, the problems with Boeing aircraft and the destruction of the Francis Scott Key bridge in Maryland were blamed on DEI. This was a con.

Instead of pointing to a corrupt system and deregulation that benefits the wealthy at the expense of many, DEI was seen as the culprit. The bad-faith talking point is that had DEI not existed, these tragedies would not have occurred and real Americans – who are not “woke” – would be safe and economically prosperous. Unfortunately, the deception works as companies such as McDonald’s announced this week that they are renouncing their previous commitment to DEI. It was just revealed that anti-DEI shareholder proposals have tripled since 2020. In reality, DEI refers to three simple but important words: diversity, equity and inclusion.

Diversity is an outcome. Equity is the path to get there. Inclusion ensures we travel that path together. Diversity represents varied identities and differences, including race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, disability and veteran status. That means white people, Black people, straight people, gay people, rich people, poor people and more. Equity is the allocation of resources and opportunities and the elimination of barriers to create a path towards equality. The concept of equity acknowledges that there is not a level playing field. Inclusion is creating an environment where everyone is welcome, respected, supported and valued. It is about bringing people together and creating safety and belonging. It is, by definition, the opposite of exclusion.

[...]

Several years later, we see that organizational commitment to DEI has waned. For example, in addition to McDonald’s, Harley-Davidson and Ford recently announced that they will curb some of their DEI efforts. With the continued rightwing political onslaught against DEI and Donald Trump’s election, this could be the moment when many organizations decide to pull the plug entirely. This would be a major mistake.

For organizations considering this decision, we would like to remind you that DEI impacts your talent lifecycle, your culture and your economic success in significant ways. We need to remind US workers about the benefits of DEI as we risk losing them entirely. First, companies have to find and recruit the best talent and as such they will naturally have to cast a very broad net. DEI encourages and helps this outreach. Talent is everywhere, not just among children of politicians, the privileged class or those lucky to attend Ivy League schools and live in wealthy zip codes. DEI encourages us to look beyond traditional (and often archaic) measurements of success, such as SAT scores, and consider the hidden jewels of talent that exist everywhere.

Second, because hiring is so expensive and time-consuming, DEI helps organizations try and retain their valued employees. Equity is a key component that recognizes everyone has different skill sets, talents, strengths and weaknesses. By recognizing this, addressing it and supporting it, DEI helps employees maximize their potential. Studies have repeatedly shown employees are more likely to stay when they feel like they can grow, advance and continue to break through glass ceilings. [...] Costco is an example worth following. Their board unanimously recommended that its shareholders reject a proposal that would require Costco to report on the risks of its diversity and inclusion goals. In making this recommendation, Costco noted that DEI efforts help the company attract and retain employees and improve its products and services. Those who make DEI into a bogeyman paint society as a zero-sum game: a slice for you means no slice for me. But, that is a narrow vision fueled by fear, greed and ignorance. Unlike Trump, DEI views America as generous and limitless. It’s in the best interest of corporations, organizations and US workers to adopt such a vision if we truly want to become great again as a nation.

Love this column in The Left Hook on why DEI makes businesses better, despite what right-wing polemics say otherwise (*cough* Robby Starbuck, Christopher Rufo, Elon Musk *cough*).

[chainofclovers]

(Writing this before the presidential election results are known. Not giving up hope because we just know don't what happen, but also sick with worry and anger and sadness. Hitting post November 5, 11:23 p.m. ET.)

I think the thing that is particularly upsetting to me right now is how lopsided it all is in terms of where there is nuance and where there's just a big fucking hammer. I have watched people in my life wrestle with this election, with how violent U.S. foreign policy is, with how to vote as responsibly as possible for the future of our democracy and its citizens while so much is wrong in the world. I've had interesting and fruitful conversations and I've been, honestly, so proud of people for showing up and voting up and down the ballot and rallying behind the most pragmatic future. That was what the Harris vote meant to me. As glad as I would be to see the U.S. elect our first woman president, and a woman of color at that, this vote was about pragmatism and survival, quite literally. And I spent all day today at a few different precinct polling places, volunteering in the "electioneering" zones, and talking to people for whom this vote was about wanting a woman of color in this role, and people who just want a change, and people who were casting their first vote today, and people who are jaded after voting in every election and seeing so much of this country and world stay so deeply shitty, and people who were very informed on the ins and outs of the ballot and people who were overwhelmed and needed some assistance, and people doing that pragmatic voting thing due to that dual ambivalence/pride factor that I feel sooo deeply and it was just like...yeah!!!!!! This is the cross-section of people who mostly despise violence and mostly love-hate their country and genuinely want to find a path forward and are willing to navigate that together. There were people literally dancing at the polls, not because this is such a fabulous place to live but because hope and participation are a really powerful medicine.

And then there are just droves and droves and droves of people for whom it feels like a simple thing to vote for a man who has raped and assaulted multiple people and is a remorseless, vindictive fraud who doesn't care whether the planet is inhabitable in the decades to come. Some because they actively love those qualities, and some because they've been intimidated into thinking it's the only Christian thing to do. And I'm so fucking sick of this just being the way of things in this cursed country founded on the suffering of indigenous people and built with slave labor.

If Harris wins it'll be a gasp of relief, three minutes of rest, and an immediate, exhausted return to working to make things better. And if Trump wins I guess we don't even get the three minutes, and it's all that much harder because of the terrifying fascism. So many of his supporters don't even realize their rights are at stake and it makes me feel genuinely insane.

I don't even know where I'm going with this, I'm just really tired of all the scrutiny and pressure and analysis being on the people in the first paragraph, all of whom are trying so fucking hard to do the right thing despite tragic and overwhelming circumstances. It isn't fair. And I really do realize that it isn't over yet. It's just incredibly sad that it's this close.

[remembertheplunge]

Hi! I’m not an attorney, just someone interested in following politics and trying not to stress out and trust the legal system, but for you as an attorney I’m sure it’s hard. So what are some things you do to destress and not panic about how things look? Thank you for listening

Hi.

I'm not so sure that being an attorney gives me an advantage to handle this Trump 2.0 world. What I do to begin to deal with it is listen to KPFA radio at 94.1 FM or on line. It has shows like Background Briefing, Law and Disorder, Democracy Now, Hard Knock Radio and Flashpoints that lay it all out on the line. Last week, Hard Knocks had on guests recommending that African Americans arm themselves! Non violence does not mean being a sitting duck. The above mentioned shows collectively have their finger on the pulse of the mass deportations and Trump's cabinet picks to name a few.

I also talk with trusted people that I know and respect to get their take on what is going down. I don't discuss the situation with Trump supporters.

I buy newspapers and magazines now and then that are covering the deepening darkness of Trump 2.0

I keep an ongoing journal of what I am seeing and hearing around Trump 2.0.

I work out twice a day, swim in the ocean once a week and am on a healthy diet. I don't drink alcohol.

And, I blog. My blog and the Tumblr community have become very important to me as a means of navigating these dark Trump waters.

I don't have a TV and haven't had one for years. So, I get most of my information from KPFA and Tumblr.

So, I'd say, to get through this early time when we don't yet know the full ramifications of Trump 2.0, embrace it as an "is" as much as you can. Don't question so much how we got here. Instead , figure out where we are and begin in your own way not take a stand. I think your blog is a great place to begin.

Oh, Carolyn Casey also has a show on KPFA Thursdays from 2-3pm PST. It's called Visionary Activist. She said last week not to resist the Christian Nationalists. Resistance will make them stronger. Instead of resisting, guide. I've thought about what she said. I think maybe a combination of the two is what we need. Guided Resistance.

[mariacallous]

In recent days, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has capitulated to the far-right anti-immigration agenda of Marine Le Pen. In July, in an electoral pact with the left, he sought a firewall against her. Now he has turned rightwards, giving her an effective veto over prime minister Michel Barnier’s new government.

By the end of the month, the Austrian Freedom party (FPÖ), founded by two former members of the SS, Anton Reinthaller and Friedrich Peter, is expected to form an anti-immigration,pro-Russian government. It will cement a new hard-right axis across Austria, Hungary and Slovakia, and more importantly, Italy, where step by step the far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni (who met Keir Starmer on Monday), is accused of taking control of the press and the judiciary.

The far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party has just won the east German regional elections in Thuringia and came second in Saxony. This is despite Germany’s domestic intelligence agency listing the AfD in three states as an “extremist” organisation, reflecting concerns about the Holocaust denial and links to far-right political violence of some of its members – and their invoking of banned Nazi slogans, for which the party’s Thuringian leader, Björn Höcke, has twice been found guilty in German courts.

But while Germany’s centre-right opposition leader, Friedrich Merz, who last year supported coalitions with the AfD in local government, has now refused to enter any national or regional coalition with the AfD, he has come closer to much of its anti-immigration agenda. He now wants “to talk about the issue of repatriation” of existing residents.

Now Höcke is openly mocking what he calls the “dumb firewall” against him, forecasting that it will not last. And last week the German coalition government reacted to the AfD’s success by tightening control of its bordersin an effort to curb irregular migration.

Another lurch rightward came with the decision last month by the Dutch health minister, a member of Geert Wilders’ far-right Freedom party, to refuse requests from African countries for urgent help in the fight against mpox, even when the Dutch stockpile runs to 100,000 boxes of unused vaccines – many of which will pass their use-by date next year.

The spectre haunting Europe is not communism, as Karl Marx once wrote, but far-right extremism. And not much is left of the cordon sanitaire that was to keep out the far right. Europe now has seven governments with hard-right parties in control or in coalition, with Austria likely to be next, as once-immovable barriers to contamination are swept aside by centre-right appeasers.

“Breaking point” was the slogan on a poster that Nigel Farage deployed in 2016 during the Brexit referendum campaign, portraying bearded and dark-skinned migrants appearing to march in droves towards us. The exact same photograph was later replicated in Hungary, with the caption changed from “Breaking point” to “Stop”.

Similar slogans include “Stop the invasion” (“Stop invasione”), used by Matteo Salvini’s Italian League party; and “Close the borders” (“Grenzen dicht”), adopted by German far-right groups the AfD and Pegida (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West).

A few years ago, when the now-imprisoned former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon attempted to form a global coalition of anti-globalists, he managed to herd together a number of Europe’s rightwing leaders, from Nigel Farage to Hungary’s Viktor Orbán. He was involved in setting up an “Academy for the Judeo-Christian West” in Italy. And Trump’s “America first” Republican party is now one of many to adopt the “my country first” slogan.

Spain’s far-right Vox party has used “Primero lo nuestro. Primero los españoles”; Italy’s League, “Prima gli Italiani”; Hungary’s Fidesz party, “Nekünk Magyarország az első”; Germany’s AfD, “Unser Land zuerst”; Austria’s FPÖ, “Österreich zuerst”; and the Swiss People’s Party, “Die Schweiz zuerst”.

Outside Europe, “Önce Türkiye” (“Turkey First”) is promoted by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development party. The far-right Japan First party marches under the banner of “日本第一” (“Japan first”). “India first” has been adopted by prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party.

Variations on this theme include “Polska dla Polaków” (“Poland for Poles”),used by nationalists in Poland, Vox’s slogan “España viva” (“Long live Spain”), and “Brasil acima de tudo” (“Brazil above everything”), used by Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro.

In all, about 50 countries have already gone to the polls in 2024. “Fears that this year would reflect the global triumph of illiberal populism have so far been proved wrong,” Francis Fukuyama, a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy and the author of the End of History and the Last Man thesis, has concluded. “Democratic backsliding can and has been resisted in many countries.”

He can, of course, point to the return of Labour in Britain, the re-election of Ursula von der Leyen as president of the European Commission, the shift away from the far right in Poland and the setback for Modi in India. But the Polish and Indian results tell me no more than tolerance of rightwing extremism can ebb when the electorate finds out that the nationalist demagogues are good at exploiting grievances, but bad at eradicating them.

And so we must not forget what has happened in countries from Indonesia to Argentina, the knife-edge fight for power in the US and – what Fukuyama misses in Europe – the insidious surrender of the centre to far-right prejudice.

Of course, there are ways to frustrate the onward rush of rightwing populists. Not only did the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, defeat the right in national elections last year, but he has skilfully engineered a split between Spain’s centre-right People’s party (PP) and the far-right Vox over the fate of vulnerable child migrants. Until July the two were in coalition in five key regions: Valencia, Aragón, Murcia, Extremadura and Castilla y León.

But it was not the centre-right PP that abandoned the extreme-right Vox; it was the extreme right that walked away from the centre right. And as long as the so-called moderates continue to play with fire – believing that by keeping their opponent close, they can eventually tame the beast – they will continue to lose. Sooner rather than later, the far-right poison will have to be countered with a progressive agenda focused on what matters to people most: jobs, standards of living, fairness and bridging the morally indefensible gap between rich and poor.

[dosthoeyevsky]

You Cant Free Palestine if You're In Jail or Dead.

(An open letter to every American on the internet, from a random Australian who has studied US politics basically against her will and is so, so tired.)

I don't like talking about US politics. I'm not American, so in theory, I shouldn't have to talk about it if I don't want to. But life isn't fair, no matter how little I want to care about USAmerican politics, it's going to affect the policies my country makes, and that every other country in the world makes. In a perfect world, this wouldn't happen. But this is not a perfect world, and we must be pragmatic.

At the end of the day, the one thing I cannot afford to ignore at any cost is the fact that I simply give a shit about my fellow human beings. We are a social species. We must help each other to survive, no matter where in the world we are. I care about people in my native Australia being able to access affordable housing and food, and climate change-proofing our infrastructure. I care about people in Bangladesh fighting for workers rights. I care about people in China who advocate for freedom of information. I care about Americans whose public infrastructure is crumbling under climate change events like hurricanes Helene and Milton as we speak, and I care about civilians in Palestine and Ukraine currently trying to survive the ultimate horror that is militarized violence.

(For any other non-Americans reading, I apologise for how US-centric most of the following spiel is about to get. But the election's in like two weeks, and I feel like I can't express this any other way right now.)

Many of us care about these things. Since October 7th of last year, millions of people around the world, many of them American, have been protesting, donating, advocating, for ceasefire and an end to the systemic termination of human civilian lives in Gaza. And as the 2024 US Election draws near, both major political party candidates are being scrutinized (rightly) for their support of the Israeli Defense Forces, who are conducting this bombardment and deliberately targeting and killing civilians.

I have heard many fellow progressives denounce democratic candidate Kamala Harris for not openly calling for a ceasefire, and I understand why.

However.

Her opponent is Donald Fucking Trump.

It's been eight years since the 2016 election. A lot of people who were young then are now eligible to vote (by the way, if you haven't already, check your voter registration and make sure you also have the option to vote by mail at the ready in case you can't access a polling station on election day.) And if that's you, and you've only become eligible to vote in the last eight years or so, you need to be very keenly aware of something.

You don't get a third option. It's Harris or Trump.*

Because of how the US electoral system works, third party candidates basically cannot win because of how ingrained the two party system has become over the past couple hundred years and change. No third party candidate is going to gather the numbers behind them to beat out Donald Trump and his army of worshipers, and definitely not in the next two weeks.

This means if Harris does not win, Trump will.

This might not make an immediate difference in Palestine for the first few days of either administration, but it's going to make a massive difference for the actual millions of Americans currently undertaking activism once he's elected.

To sum up, the fight for Palestine (or at least the fight to stop funding the military) has much greater odds of winning with Kamala Harris in the white house than trump, and if you care about that fight at all, you have to vote for her.

To be clear, I know she's not a christian** leftist, and she won't immediately stop funding the war, but under her administration, you will be able to fight for the ceasefire and your own rights much more effectively and in greater numbers than you ever will be able to with Trump in the white house.

Project 2025 is very fucking real and you should know that if you care about Palestine, him taking office will not only speed up the rate at which the genocide happens, but will also utterly tank your ability as a collective to fight against it and for any other progressive cause, for that matter, ever again.

Many of the activists fighting for Palestine on US soil right now are BIPoC, women, queer, trans, disabled, or any combination of the above. Roe vs Wade has already been overturned on a federal level by judges appointed during the Trump administration, and most of the anti-trans legislation currently metastasizing is doing so under republican-led state governments aligned with Trump.

If you're in jail (or dead) for trying to access abortion or birth control, you can't help free Palestine.

If you're in jail (or dead) for trying to access trans-related healthcare, you can't help free Palestine.

If you're overworked, over-indebted, or slowly dying because of a lack of healthcare coverage that could support you if you become (or are) permanently or temporarily disabled, you can't help free Palestine.

If you're over-indebted, unhoused, or dead because where you live hasn't funded the infrastructure it needs to survive climate change events like hurricanes, deep freezes, wildfires, droughts, and heatwaves, you can't help free Palestine.

As the above linked video states, if you are a US citizen, you are one degree of separation from someone who is going to get their quality of life drastically negatively impacted by a second Trump administration. And every person affected by those policies is one less person able to fight to stop the US government from aiding and abetting actual, literal war crimes.

I understand that Harris won't immediately end all suffering upon election. But unlike Trump, she actually values the lives of human beings who aren't cishet white men ready to fork over their livelihoods and lick boots. She has a vested interest in improving the immediate quality of life for American citizens, and if your immediate quality of life is improved, you will be much better able to fight to stop the US government from funding the systemic slaughter of civilians in Gaza.

So if you give a shit about Gaza, or worker's rights, or healthcare, or equality, or climate change, you need to vote for Harris. Even though she doesn't adhere to all progressive ideals. Hell, even though it already looks like everything is about to go to hell in a proverbial handbasket.

Think of it like this, right. Everyone in the world is on a plane right now, and the plane is crashing. The USA and Palestine are sitting right next to each other. The oxygen masks drop from the ceiling and dangle overhead.

When you get on a plane, the instructions say to put your own oxygen mask on and then assist others. This will increase your odds of surviving the crash. What the USA should do, is put on its own oxygen mask, because it will enable them to assist Palestine with theirs. By petulantly refusing to vote for Harris because "everything's already fucked", not only are you not going to be able to meaningfully help Palestine, you're drastically lowering your own odds of survival.

To add insult to injury, and to extend the metaphor for plane crashes as unfolding world issues, in the case of the extremely pressing issue of climate change, the US is not just seated next to Palestine, it is, in fact, flying the fucking plane.

If you Americans don't get your shit together and put on your oxygen mask by voting Harris, not only does your quality of life get flushed down the toilet, so does ours. Maybe not by patriarchal religious oligarchy, but by the rising tides, heavier droughts, encroaching famines, harsher storms, that will inevitably get worse under Trump because unlike Harris, Trump has a vested interest in funding the industries that keep the world's greatest polluters in business.

And let me be clear, to every American with progressive leanings who doesn't want to vote- if Trump wins, and your rights are stripped away, and the war goes on, and everyone else in the world drowns, it's your fucking fault, and I will haunt you. I hope my words certainly haunt you.

This isn't about making the most ideologically pure choice. This is about making the practical choice that gives you the greatest odds of survival, because survival means you can keep being activists.

So be practical, for fuck's sake.

*I hate to burst the bubble of every progressive idealist out there, but you are not organising a glorious leftist revolution that somehow steamrolls the entire US political institution in the next two weeks. That takes money and frankly firepower that most of you are unwilling and unable to organise. Even if it does, it will just be January 6th again but with a leftist coat of paint on it. And violent revolutions don't result in better quality of life long term for civilians if you don't have a plan in place for an ethical government to replace the previous one. I've known enough young leftists both online and off to know that that's not happening anytime soon either.

** This is a reference to this person on the reality TV show Trading Spouses, who, frankly, a lot of people on this website resemble when engaging in discourse. A lot of you ascribe to a set of leftist ideals driven by unreachable standards of moral conformity, personal disgust, and pride in personal moral purity that is functionally just oppressive evangelical christianity but with progressive gay window dressing. Before you open my askbox to scream incoherently into it, know now that no matter what, I'm going to delete it. You are wasting your time. Stop your portland polycule commune cult-tier bullshit where all activism begins and ends with hurling verbal abuse at anyone you disagree with. That's not activism. Stop threatening people with doxxing and death threats over fandom headcanons you deem "non-progressive" and do something useful. Join a mutual aid group. Better yet, vote for the person who isn't going to put you in jail for taking birth control or being trans.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

THE RESULT OF THE DISNEY SURRENDER

TCinLA

Dec 16, 2024

The thing many people miss in looking at Hitler’s takeover of Germany is how fast it happened. Within 30 days of his acceptance of the Chancellorship on January 31, 1933, the Reichtag had passed the Enabling Act in the aftermath of the Reichstag Fire, which enabled Hitler to rule by decree. Before real resistance could be organized, it had been kneecapped.

Within weeks after that, trade unions and the Christian Democrat, the Socialist and the Communist parties had all been declared illegal. Hitler had wiped out his political opposition by mid April. The first prisoners arrived at Dachau concentration camp the first week of May - they were all political prisoners; any Jew among them was there for politics.

A similar speedy move against political opponents is building within the coming Trump administration.

For years, Trump has brought defamation suits against news organizations who have demonstrated their temerity in accurately reporting his crimes. All have been unsuccessful because the organizations he sued said on being served the papers for the suit, “See you in court.” Trump always dropped the suit when it got to the point he was going to have to sit for a deposition, because every lawyer who represented him knew he couldn’t survive a deposition; on the very few occasions where he did sit for a deposition, he was caught perjuring himself.

Until this past weekend. Until Disney - a company with a market cap of $200 billion - decided that $16 million was “the cost of doing business,” chump change, and settled a suit they had every likelihood of winning, a suit Trump was likely to drop this week after a judge ordered him last Friday to sit for a deposition no later than this coming Friday.

Disney isn’t in the news business. They own ABC and a few other “news” organizations, but those entities are not major revenue centers. Disney is in the business of running parks like Disney World and Disneyland, and they are not interested in being targeted again as they were by Governor DeSantis in Florida.

So they settled. As Josh Marshall put it today, the $16 million was their initiation fee for joining TrumpWorld.

Several legal commentators have recently written about the possibility that Disney settled because they were worried that if they did win with the New York Times v Sullivan defense - which they almost certainly would have - that Trump would appeal his loss to the Supreme Court, where two of “his” six judges have already expressed a willingness to return to Times v Sullivan with a view to overturning it and getting rid of the “actual malice” rule regarding public persons suing for defamation.

A return to “ordinary” defamation, where all a litigant needs to establish is that the defamatory statement made is false, with no reference to “actual malice,” would mean that news organizations would pull back from aggressive investigations of individuals like Trump. We would experience a sharp drop in press freedom to publish.

However, Disney’s surrender also creates a precedent that leaves an opening for politically-motivated defamation suits. The result of this is also that news organizations will be reluctant to aggressively pursue a story, since their corporate owners who are not in the news business and do not care about freedom of the press, may not choose to support the news organization they own in such a fight.

In other words, heads Trump wins and tails Trump wins.

The Disney surrender is almost as good as the Supreme Court overturning Times v Sullivan in intimidating news organizations.

Saturday night, Steve Bannon spoke at the Gala put on by the New York City Young Republicans. The Guardian reported what he said:

“We want retribution and we’re going to get retribution. You have to. It’s not personal, it’s not personal. They need to learn what populist, nationalist power is on the receiving end.

“I need investigations, trials and then incarceration. And I’m just talking about the media. Should the media be included in the vast criminal conspiracy against President Trump? Should Andrew Weissmann on MSNBC, and Rachel Maddow, and all of them?

“We want all your emails, all your text messages, everything you did. You colluded in a conspiracy with Merrick Garland, Nancy Pelosi, Lisa Monaco and Jack Smith.”

Rachel Maddow may be “The $100 million woman” of progressive media, but she and others not as well-situated as she is have to wonder if their corporate overlords will defend them against spurious conspiracy charges, as news organizations would have in the days before the billionaires’ takeover of mainstream media. In Maddow’s case, would whatever is left of MSNBC - after the company was put in Brian Roberts’ “SpinCo” and separated from Comcast-Universal - have the resources to be able to do so? Would the Intergalactic Widgetmaker that purchases the “SpinCo” be willing to invest their resources in her defense? Would ABC risk having Trump’s FCC commissioners pull its broadcast license for defending Jake Tapper?

And after they’re finished ripping apart the major media, what happens to Meidas Network?

I am not advocating surrender. It will take awhile for them to work their way down to That’s Another Fine Mess, and in the meantime their corruption and incompetence in all else they try to do will be working against them. We of the new “alternative media” will likely survive by being the small mammals who stay out of the meadow where the big dinosaurs stomp.

I am pointing out that despite their corruption and incompetence, their inabilities to work and play well with others that will tie them in knots of their own making, there is a lot of chaos MAGA can create while they ultimately tear themselves apart.

And that chaos will only be strengthened by the willingness of billionaires like Bezos and Zuckerberg - who have bigger fish to fry than defending the free flow of information, and for whom a million dollar initiation fee to pay off Trump is couch change - and the corporations like Disney - to bend their knee to Trump the dictator. Their examples will encourage others to take the road of least resistance.

Trump has told us he intends to be a “dictator on day one.” He’s preparing to do exactly that right out in front of us, and the news media isn’t too likely to pay even as much attention as they have so far to what’s going to come.

[TCinLA]

[sophieinwonderland]

I saw someone complaining about my post suggesting we start marketing tulpamancy to youths in religious conservative households, accusing me of wanting to use the same tactics as the fundamentalists. To which I'll say...

Duh.

In case anyone hasn't noticed, liberal Christianity is dying.

This isn't true of evangelicalism. And you know why that is?

Marketing!

Even if someone from their flock does leave, fundamentalists can convert more people. They are willing to convert more people. It's their sacred duty as Christians to save lost souls from Hell.

Liberal churches are too passive. They choose to be respectful of other faiths to such a fault that they don't like converting people to their religion or political ideologies. While fundamentalists were preaching that Donald Trump was a hero for God battling the demonic forces of the Left, the liberal Christian churches twiddled their thumbs doing nothing because meshing politics and religion is "wrong".

They don't convert people. They don't market their religion. They don't use their religious platforms to try to push for positive change for marginalized communities.

They don't do these things because they view these tactics as things the "bad" churches do. And they aren't wrong. These are the exact tactics that fundamentalists employ. But these tactics themselves aren't necessarily immoral. And importantly, these tactics are why the fundamentalists are winning.

This isn't just a problem with liberal churches but the Left as a whole, IMO.

I saw this image going around and I feel it actually sums up the problem nicely:

This is true in a lot of ways. It's obviously a huge problem with our purity tests. The fact that many people were fine abstaining to vote because our candidate wasn't perfect by their standards when the alternative was a fascist who literally promised to be a dictator on day 1 of his Presidency is a great example of this.

But so too is our fear of using the same tactics that our enemies do because of some misguided motion that doing so is immoral or makes us just as bad as them. The notion that "pushing your political views on people makes you just as bad as fascists" has turned modern liberals into an ineffective joke.

And this finally brings us to tulpamancy.

We have a practice that...

Practitioners overwhelmingly report positive mental health benefits from.

While there are a couple edge cases of people having negative reactions, these negative reactions are far less common than you'll find for, say, prescription drugs. We're talking about maybe 1-2% of tulpa systems. And many of those will be because of avoidable mistakes. (People making tulpas that are designed to be critical of them, for example.)

The fact that many tulpamancers will create opposite-gender tulpas means their tulpas are likely to experience some level of gender dysphoria while fronting. In theory, going from a cis singlet to what is essentially a genderfluid system should make tulpamancers more sympathetic to trans rights issues. Those who care enough about their tulpas will want their tulpas to be able to front with whatever gender they identify by. Therefore, a child of a fundamentalist Christian who becomes a tulpamancer is just a bit more likely to vote in support of trans rights.

This is largely a net positive all around.

And what is the price of doing nothing?

The vulnerable people who are looking for something to fill whatever gaps they believe they have inside them will find something to fill those gaps with. Every person we don't reach is someone that the right-wing fundamentalists and fascists can.

Let's be totally clear here. Vulnerable people exist. And if we're not the ones to exploit those vulnerabilities, the fascists will be. Abstaining from reaching out to people in need and offering something that could make their lives better doesn't protect the people in need. It just means someone else will target them instead and lead them down a worse path.

It's been said that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing. And sadly, a lot of liberals have made an ideology of doing nothing, so crippled in the terror that they might do the wrong thing that they avoid actions that both could help people in need and progress their political agendas at once.