#Pittsburgh leftists

[onsomekindofstartrek]

Last night I was too busy, explaining to an intelligent adult leftist that Trump would hardly get someone to shoot him in the ear with a live firearm, to even process the political implications of the assassination attempt.

Seems like half the left all over the facking country just independently jumped to the conclusion that:

You can reliably graze someone from a distance with a firearm — to which, as someone who has won a local target shooting competition before*, I say “haha good fucking luck.” Like legitimately do you think hitting the edge of a target is easier than hitting somewhere in the inside? If so, do you understand… basic concepts?

Trump would be brave enough to have someone fire at him with a live weapon (fat chance)

Someone agreed to this knowing they would most likely be shot dead in the attempt

No one in Trump’s inner circle prevented him from having some kid shoot at his head with a rifle

The Secret Service were either not in on it somehow despite being around Trump all the time, or were in on it and went along with it despite being answerable to the federal government?

And shot the assassin anyway? Or are you claiming that was a fake body?

Like sure, I have no trouble believing that the kid, a registered Republican, wanted to make Trump a martyr. There have been stupider motives in the history of shooting guns at presidents; for fucks’ sake, Reagan was shot by a stalker who wanted to impress Jodie Foster, and Garfield was shot for… charitably, for “reasons.” Actually look up Charles J. Guiteau, that shit is wild.

So if you mean “false flag” in the sense that a Republican shot him for Republican reasons but wanted to make it look like a liberal or leftist had shot him… I guess it’s not conspiratorial or even that unlikely from the facts? The fact that he made a small donation to a progressive group almost makes me feel like he meant people to find that and say he was a liberal, but I’m not sure if the timeline makes sense there, unless he planned this a long way in advance.

But either he acted alone or he acted with conspirators of the type that are fairly normal in this kind of crime. The idea that Trump and some 20-yo from the Pittsburgh area conspired to pull off the trick shot of the millennium is conspiratorial thinking of the highest order and it doesn’t help anyone.

[lacefuneral]

"FUCK YOU if you voted third party YOU CAUSED THIS!!"

me when i don't understand:

what the electoral collage is. even if harris received the most votes by civilians, that doesn't matter. in 2016, clinton won the popular vote, but still lost the election. she had less electors, resulting in a trump victory. we, as united state citizens, do not directly choose who runs the country.

that trump received millions of votes more than all third party votes combined so even if the united states was a direct democracy (which it is not) everyone who voted third party voted for harris, it wouldn't have even made a dent against trump

that gerrymandering exists. each state is broken up into voting districts, and the total from each district determines the result of the election. the shape, size, and amount of districts can drastically affect the results of an election. in my state of pennsylvania, essentially only the districts that directly encapsulate a major city resulted in democrat-majority vote. the rest of the state, broken up into tiny pieces in the rural areas, all came back with republican-majority.

that if leftists are truely to blame, wouldn't these blue areas in swing states like mine actually be red? because in left-leaning areas, especially regions like philadelphia and pittsburgh, there is a lot of palestine activism? a lot of socialists in these areas, due to history of labor unions and present issues like poverty and police brutality? my district remains blue. i, or any pennsylvanian leftist, is not responsible for the swathes of red districts that exist away from urban areas. these are regions harris failed to court, and trump managed to charm. recall where trump's assassination attempt occurred and where he later returned: butler county. that region is red on the map. harris wasted her time campaigning only in our cities, which leans blue every election. it's the outer regions that are "purple." those are the ones you need to court. full of a mixture of conservatives and wish-washy moderates that "don't follow politics."

that the united states as a whole is leaning farther and father right due to radicalization. anti trans legislation, the repeating of roe v wade. have you been watching the news the last couple of years? not to mention that polls show that the US is greatly dissatisfied with the biden administration due to various factors, including skyrocketing cost of living. disgruntled moderates want change, so they flip conservative.

that harris was not elected as the nominee. she was not who democrats voted for. she was an emergency replacement candidate. and the platform she ran on was "i'm indistinguishable from biden", which alienated moderate voters who wanted something different.

that harris is a woman of color. racism, misogyny, and misogynoir exist in this country. especially at this period in time. moderate voters are less likely to vote for a candidate who isn't an old white man unless that candidate brings something to the table that appeals to them. harris failed to do so.

[fdelopera]

Wow, you idiot, that is a lot of words for saying that you don't know what the fuck you are talking about.

First of all, yes, Hamas is in the business of slaughtering Jews.

I will refer you to Hamas' own charter, in which they quote one of the most violently antisemitic parts of the Hadith:

The hour of judgment shall not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them, so that the Jews hide behind trees and stones, and each tree and stone will say: 'Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him,' except for the Gharqad tree, for it is the tree of the Jews.

But on top of your regurgitated word salad, in which you went out of your way to personally attack me, a queer Jew, you had the fucking AUDACITY to write this:

Hamas have expressed condolences and solidarity with Jewish people in the wake of actual antisemitic attacks, such as the Tree of Life synagogue shooting

You stupid fuck, I was in Pittsburgh during the Tree of Life synagogue shooting. My shul was a block away. My community went through that terrorist attack.

Hamas 1000% did NOT express any condolences or solidarity with the Pittsburgh Jewish community.

Hamas did not express ANY sympathy for the eleven Jews who were slaughtered by the far-right white supremacist Christian, Robert Bowers.

Hamas and their supporters fucking CHEERED when our community was attacked.

I have screenshots of what Hamas supporters were posting online after the Tree of Life massacre, and they were all celebrating that eleven Jews had just been murdered.

You know who did express solidarity with us? The Pittsburgh Muslim community.

The Pittsburgh Muslim community expressed condolences and solidarity with the Pittsburgh Jewish community.

Not only that, the Pittsburgh Muslim community pooled their resources and raised over $100,000 to help Tree of Life build a new synagogue.

You STUPID FUCK, what you've just admitted to is that you are CONFLATING the Pittsburgh Muslim community with Hamas, a TERRORIST ORGANIZATION.

HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE THE PITTSBURGH MUSLIM COMMUNITY OF BEING MEMBERS OF HAMAS, YOU IGNORANT FUCK.

The fact that you think Hamas expressed ANY sympathy to our Pittsburgh Jewish community after the Tree of Life massacre, and the fact that you have just accused the Pittsburgh Muslim community of being members of Hamas, all goes to show that you are utterly out of touch with reality.

You are the dumbest fuck I have come across all week, and that's saying something, since it's the week before the US elections, and my white supremacist neighbor has just put up a massive Trump banner in his front yard.

But honestly, your Tumblr banner says it all:

Yes, dumbfuck, you are in crisis mode.

And yes, you no longer know what to do with your life.

So instead of getting off the internet and taking some time to figure out what to do with your life, you instead decide to harass me, a Jew who went through a terrorist attack, and vomit a bunch a word salad and lies on me.

Great job, goy! Great fucking job. Now go get blocked.

The very worst thing about the “activists” who misunderstand and misuse Zionism is they’ve taken a word and a movement coined by a minority who have been oppressed and persecuted for thousands of years to describe their hope and desire for freedom from that persecution and self determination in their ancestral lands - a right that all people should have - and twisted and distorted it to mean the most evil thing they can possibly think of. And even with the knowledge that the vast majority of Jews are Zionist in some fashion, they still have the absolute audacity to go “I don’t hate Jews, just Zionists” and happily and gleefully spout shit like “Zionists kys” or saying they would be happy if all Zionists died horribly, and they deliberately use ‘Zionist’ instead of ‘Jew’ to give themselves plausible deniability and to put anyone calling out their rancid behaviour on the back foot. They know damn well what they’re doing. Just say that you want another Shoah and be done with it. At least that would be honest.

It’s despicable. It’s cruelty beyond belief. And, it goes without saying, it’s rancidly antisemitic.

[acertainmoshke]

This is more personal than I usually get on this blog, but it seems to have turned into my main account now so I'm going to say the thing because I need to put it somewhere.

Over the past few months, there has been more than one person in my town using the public comment opportunity at the city council to go on antisemitic rants. Because of this, there is now a proposal to add a specific definition of antisemitism to their toolkit so that they know how and when to shut down this form of hate speech, just as they already know to for others already listed.

There is a vote this week to add it or not.

There are expected to be 100 people there in opposition, I expect both Nazi-leaning and leftists who claim it's a waste of energy to protect Jews like you want to protect everyone else.

100 people is twice the entire membership of the local synagogue.

Our rabbi has been practically begging people to wear kippot, show up looking visibly Jewish, and at least sit there for the meeting.

This seems like the smallest possible activism, but sitting there for up to six hours late into the night on a weekday and listening to how much people hate us sounds exhausting and overstimulating. I'm still going to go.

But I'm so tired and scared and angry. Rabbi sat down with several of us today to talk about what it's like to lose leftist friends who can't tell the difference between supporting Netanyahu's actions and protecting American Jews from growing hatred. So they choose to avoid doing either.

Who remembers Pittsburgh in 2018? I remember that the next week my shul 1,000 miles away started locking their door and charging security fees to pay guards. The place here is smaller. We have a designated guy who stands in the back to watch the locked door, both to let people in and to be a warning system. Just in case.

And I'm just so tired.

[jessica-marie-baumgartner]

What a night election eve was!!!

[robindaydream]

Going to temple has been hard recently.

I attend a progressive Reform synagogue. Pronouns on nametags are common. A bunch of trans people attend regularly. They're always talking about social justice of one kind or another. And they've even openly criticized Israel in the past. They're definitely not radical leftists, honestly they're pretty mainstream liberals, but this isn't the kind of place where they're eagerly calling for more Palestinian deaths or claiming Israel can do no wrong.

When the Rabbi whom I've admired for over a year has talked about the attack on Israel, she is very clear about what was done and who did it. And she will talk about that at length in a very emotional way. She's clearly grieving and I don't begrudge her that.

But when she addresses the Palestinians deaths, if she does at all, it's fast, vague, an afterthought. Sad things are happening in that region. People are dying, from what we couldn't say. Sometimes with a vague mention of human shields. And it segues into a furious denunciation of Hamas, calling them terrorists and saying they want to eradicate the Jewish people.

And then today was the five year anniversary of the Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh. And she talked about how the shooter claimed Jewish people were seeking white genocide. And then she talked about all the protests around the world accusing Israel of genocide, and said they sounded just like him. I was at home, watching the livestream on youtube. I wanted to cry.

But it's a good progressive synagogue. And at the end of the sermon, just like every week, the Rabbi expresses gratitude that this Shabbat gathering is happening on the lands of the Duwamish people. And like every week she pledges our continuing dedication to learning about our indigenous neighbors and supporting indigenous rights.

I hate it. I don't know what to do.

[sinterhinde]

Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind, 1956

The most important work by one of America’s greatest twentieth-century philosophers, Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind is both the epitome of Wilfrid Sellars’ entire philosophical system and a key document in the history of philosophy. First published in essay form in 1956, it helped bring about a sea change in analytic philosophy. It broke the link, which had bound Russell and Ayer to Locke and Hume—the doctrine of “knowledge by acquaintance.” Sellars’s attack on the Myth of the Given in Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind was a decisive move in turning analytic philosophy away from the foundationalist motives of the logical empiricists and raised doubts about the very idea of “epistemology.”

With an introduction by Richard Rorty to situate the work within the history of recent philosophy, and with a study guide by Robert Brandom, this publication of Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind makes a difficult but indisputably significant figure in the development of analytic philosophy clear and comprehensible to anyone who would understand that philosophy or its history. (Harvard University Press)

Wilfrid Sellars (1912–1989) graduated from the University of Michigan in 1933. He taught at Iowa, Minnesota, and Yale, and was University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh from 1963 until his death. His works include Science and Metaphysics (1968) and Science, Perception, and Reality (1963).

Richard Rorty (1931–2007) authored several landmark books and essay collections, including Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature; Consequences of Pragmatism; Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity; and Achieving Our Country: Leftist Thought in Twentieth-Century America. He taught at Wellesley College, Princeton University, the University of Virginia, and Stanford University.

Robert B. Brandom is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh and a Fellow of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the British Academy. He delivered the John Locke Lectures at the University of Oxford and the Woodbridge Lectures at Columbia University. Brandom is the author of many books, including Making It Explicit, Reason in Philosophy, and From Empiricism to Expressivism. (Harvard University Press)

I'm attaching a link to b u y the text. Note: attached text is not Rorty and Brandom's 1997 edition.

http://www.ditext.com/sellars/epm.html

[beardedmrbean]

Protests broke out at the University of Pittsburgh after Daily Wire host Michael Knowles and journalist Brad Polumbo visited the school to debate transgender ideology, a hot topic on college campuses across the country. 

The anger directed against the topic of discussion, "Should transgenderism be regulated by law?", turned into fear as a "loud explosion was heard and felt in the debate room," according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 

"The explosion prompted Pitt to send an emergency alert to students about a ‘public safety emergency,’" the newspaper added. 

UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH’S LGBTQ TASK FORCE MAKES DEMANDS, INCLUDING TRANS-INCLUSIVE HEALTH CARE, HOUSING

Even after the debate over transgenderism concluded, the protests reportedly continued outside. Some "chanted, yelled, played drums and cowbells and held LGBTQ flags as police urged them to clear off the streets." 

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette also reported that "[o]ne protester set fire to a cardboard cutout with Mr. Knowles’ face on it."

Knowles retweeted a video of students protesting on the University of Pittsburgh’s campus on his official Twitter account and also shared articles and posts about the event, held Tuesday night. 

Polumbo took to Twitter to address the agitators on campus directly. "[T]o the protestors who tried to interrupt and shout down the event, set off fireworks in the street, and reportedly assaulted 4 cops… grow the hell up." 

The protests and possible explosion at the University of Pittsburgh were the latest in a series of controversies at the school that have received national attention. 

The University of Pittsburgh’s LGTBQ task force posted several demands for the university to implement, including expanding housing and health care to transgender students.

"These centers need to not be buried deep in an org chart. LGBTQIA+ staff hired NEED to have some level of autonomy over collaboration, programming, and resource sharing. No more of this BS departmental/division gate keeping," the task force wrote in a post on Instagram.

Athlete Riley Gaines also made headlines after she visited the University of Pittsburgh’s campus back in March. A 12-time All-American swimmer, Gaines called out the chaos at University of Pittsburgh as many activists tried to prevent her appearance at the college.

Gaines — who became a national figure when she objected to trans swimmer Lia Thomas participating in women’s sports — pointed out the double standard that conservative speakers face on leftist college campuses. 

"When Dylan Mulvaney comes to UPitt, he gets paid $26,000 from school funding. When Riley Gaines comes to UPitt, she gets protested, threatened with violence, and attempted to get the event canceled by students, faculty, and lawmakers," Gaines tweeted. "Something tells me Im doing something right," the swimmer told her over 500,000 followers on the platform. 

The University of Pittsburgh directed Fox News Digital to the following statement on its website about the incident: "On the evening of April 18, 2023, an Emergency Notification Service message was sent alerting the campus community to an incident happening outside of O’Hara Student Center. There were several groups gathering, including guests arriving for a speaker event and counter demonstrators in the vicinity. In addition to several devices which produced significant smoke, an incendiary device was thrown in the direction of officers, triggering the message. As the situation evolved, several buildings were temporarily closed and visitors to residence halls restricted as a safety precaution. Throughout this, these details and additional information were regularly posted on emergency.pitt.edu throughout the evening, until such time as an all clear could be issued."

[hayquetenerpatience]

BATSHIT CRAZY DEMOCRAT COMES TO REALIZE THINGS ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM WITH HER PARTY

I'M VOTING REPUBLICAN TO PROTECT MY LIBERAL VALUES Rona Kaufman October 27, 2024

This November, I will vote for those whom I believe will fight the hardest to protect democracy and Western civilization.

I am a lifelong Democrat, a feminist, a progressive, and a Jew. I marched to Take Back the Night and canvassed for the Sierra Club in college. I volunteered with a domestic violence shelter as a young lawyer. My children and I donned pink p***y hats as we chanted at the 2016 Women’s March in Washington, D.C. I held a “Jews for Black Lives Matter” sign at a BLM rally in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood. I took a group of teens to protest the killing of Antwon Rose in downtown Pittsburgh. I became a foster mom during the pandemic. Last summer, I shared my home with a family of Muslim refugees from Afghanistan.

I’ve supported only Democratic candidates for president. I posted a Clinton/Gore sign in my bedroom window before I was old enough to vote. I attended an Al Gore rally in 1996 at the University of Delaware. I volunteered to get John Kerry elected. I contributed to Barack Obama’s campaign. I dressed up in a pantsuit and took my kids with me to vote for the candidate I thought would be the first woman president, Hillary Clinton. In 2020, I voted for Joe Biden.

You might think, then, that as a resident of Squirrel Hill, I’d be voting in the upcoming election for Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), state treasurer candidate Erin McClelland (D), U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), and Kamala Harris (D). You would be wrong.

After witnessing the horrors of October 7 and after realizing that too many Democratic Party elected officials and constituents lack the moral clarity to respond effectively to the war Israel is fighting and to the threat of Islamism, I have decided to vote Republican. On November 5, 2024, I will vote for congressional candidate James Hayes (R), state Treasurer Stacey Garrity (R), U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormack (R) — and, reluctantly, Donald Trump (R).

Most people believe that this is an important election — that its results might even determine the future of our democracy. I agree with them. And that is why, in 2024, I am voting for the party that is more likely to contain Iran and remind it and its terror proxies that America will defeat their threats to democracy and freedom; more likely to support Israel in its defensive, existential war; and more likely to protect civil rights by punishing unlawful acts of violence and anti-Semitic harassment on college campuses.

I am not voting for the party that abandoned the girls of Afghanistan and unnecessarily sacrificed the precious lives of our soldiers there. I am not voting for the party that condemns anti-Semitism on the right while excusing, and even spreading, leftist anti-Semitism and blood libels. I am not voting for the party that is equivocal in its support for Israel as she fights to defend her borders, half the world’s Jews, some of the freest Arab citizens in the world, and Western values, including democracy. I am not voting for the party that chooses appeasement as its foreign policy. I am not voting for the party that took no definitive action as anti-Semitic violence raged on college campuses across the United States.

The threat coming from Iran and its proxies (including those who support them in the West) is a threat to women, LGBTQ+ people, Jews, and other minorities. It is a threat to liberal democracies across the world. We must elect those who will not tolerate an Islamist invasion of a liberal democratic ally and who will make it clear that Islamism will never defeat Western civilization. If the United States permits Islamists to spread their supremacist, misogynist, Jew-hating, freedom-hating ideology, they will do so. While Israelis and others in the Muslim and Arab world are most vulnerable, it is only a matter of time until we are all at risk.

Islamist ideology is a poison. It is not liberal. It is not progressive. It is not inclusive.

Islamists ban girls from school (Afghanistan). They brutally murder gay men, sometimes by throwing them off buildings (Palestinians, Islamic State). They rape, murder, mutilate, and burn Jews (October 7). They kidnap non-Muslim girls into sexual slavery (Boko Haram, Islamic State). They imprison, rape, and murder women who violate hijab rules by daring to expose their hair or neck (Iran). They stone women for having unsanctioned sex or pursuing forbidden love (Taliban, Iran). They kidnap, imprison, torture, and assault women as part of their plan to relegate women to the role of bearing child soldiers for their Islamist army (Houthis).

These are the ways of the “freedom fighters” in support of whom our college campuses have erupted. Islamist leaders happily acknowledge the support they have received from progressive students. The ayatollah of Iran publicly reached out to the student radicals, stating, “You have now formed a branch of the Resistance Front and have begun an honorable struggle in the face of your government’s ruthless pressure — which openly supports Zionists.”

The United States must recognize the imminent threat posed by Islamist ideology. It must defeat Islamists when they dare to cross a democratic country’s border. If they are not stopped, they will continue to spread their vile ways in an Islamic caliphate across the Middle East, Europe, and, eventually, the Americas. They will institute the same regressive laws in other lands that they have instituted in their own.

Today, Israel is actively fighting this threat on seven fronts. If we do not ensure that Israel wins these wars and if we do not help her to defeat the threat posed by Iran soon, we risk not only the lives of persecuted people and other minorities in faraway lands but, in time, our own.

It has been heartbreaking for me to realize that the party I believed would always defend the rights of women and minorities is not interested in defending them against the Islamists. This November, I will vote for those who I believe will fight the hardest to protect democracy and Western civilization.

***Rona Kaufman is an associate professor of law at the Kline School of Law of Duquesne University.

[buttercupkg66]

Trans suspect accused of killing Pennsylvania officer was earlier released without bail by leftist nonbinary judge

Anthony Alexi "Antonia" Quesen, 25, of Pittsburgh, was taken into custody Tuesday on criminal homicide charges.

[bllsbailey]

Feminist Law Professor Will Vote Republican After Experiencing the Ultimate Betrayal by Dems

Rona Kaufman

As we reflect on the anniversary of the horrific October 7 attacks committed by Hamas, a genocidal terror attack from which Israel is still reeling, one liberal feminist professor in Pennsylvania has seen enough from the Left. In the aftermath of this brutal terror attack, leftists nationwide took over college campuses. The Democratic Party’s antisemitic transformation was complete. 

The pro-Hamas antics proved too much for Rona Kaufman, a Duquesne University law professor, who says after being a loyal Democrat, she’s voting Republican for the first time next month. She’s not on the Trump train, but regarding Republican Dave McCormick and James Hayes, she’s for sure going to vote for them in the US Senate and House races, respectively (via NY Post): 

“For the first time the Republican perspective is appealing to me. They are coming out strong for Israel,” Rona Kaufman, a Duquesne University law professor and past Obama volunteer, told The Post.  She said it’s because she’s both a feminist and a Zionist.  The Israel-Hamas war has divided the Democratic Party. While anti-Israel Democrats threaten to boycott Kamala Harris because she won’t commit to ending US military support of Israel, pro-Israel Democrats like Kaufman are prepared to withhold their support because they don’t believe the vice president will stand unwaveringly with the Jewish state.  […]  Kaufman’s not on board with former President Donald Trump, but she plans to vote for McCormick and James Hayes, the Republican running to unseat Squad member Democratic Rep. Summer Lee.  She can’t bring herself to vote for Harris either.  […]  “Pittsburgh is a microcosm of the betrayal of the Democratic Party,” Kaufman said.  […]  “You cannot make peace with people who’ve come to kill you,” Kaufman elaborated, but “the Democratic perspective at its core is still based in that flawed view.”  […]  … Kaufman’s daughter Naomi Kitchen served in a search-and-rescue unit in the Israeli-occupied West Bank during the latest war in Gaza. Kaufman has visited Naomi twice in northern Israel since the Oct. 7 massacre.  Kaufman said her views hardened after hearing her daughter’s experiences.  “The men threatened to rape her all the time. That’s the greeting she encountered” as a woman carrying a gun, said Kaufman, a legal scholar who’s specialized in violence against women. 

The dirty secret was that Joe Biden and now Kamala Harris needed these proto-Nazis to vote for them so they couldn’t deliver full-throated support behind the Jewish State. It’s been a mediocre, waffled mess regarding the messaging, one that Kamala can easily screw up because she’s a brain cell away from being declared mentally challenged.  

Trending on Townhall Videos

[pennsylvaniacore]

state bird: traffic cone

welcome to the keystone state :) i just collect and hoard stuff that reminds me of home. Politics will be sparse but leftist. Terfs, racists, nazis & the like will be blocked on sight.

Erie to Philly, Washington to Scranton, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, all three Frogtowns, all 124 state parks, every town I haven't seen yet, and every other inch besides. Yes, even Breezewood.

Submissions are open!

Read below the cut for content warnings, details about my tagging system, and a map of Pennsylvania counties.

Content Warning: This blog posts and reblogs a great deal of urban decay, towns and buildings in decline, and moody or liminal landscapes. I'll do my best to tag common triggers with the format #tw [warning here]. If I miss something, or if you'd like me to add warnings on something in particular, let me know!

Political posts will be labeled #rare politics post and housekeeping posts like this one will usually be tagged #chitchat n'at.

Posts are tagged by type (e.g. photography, architecture, wildlife, or traditional art) and location, with tags for the town and county where possible. Try searching for your county - if nothing comes up, send me a request. Or, better yet, submit something!

And now, a map of Pennsylvania.

[zoe248]

Why I am an Ideas Gal

Kay so I have this pitch for a video game rpg; it's set in the Post Post-Apocalyptic Post Communist revolution Pittsburgh. You play a commissar tasked with upholding the ideological thought of whatever leftist thought or decide to go your own path (though instant fail state if you try reinstituting capitalist/neoliberal ideology) In my head feels and plays very much like Disco Elysium or an old Fallout game.

[anthr--apology]

As the climate crisis continues to devastate the world, predominantly white men on the far-right have embraced eco-fascism. As an ideology, eco-fascism promotes “authoritarian, hierarchical, and racist analyses and solutions to environmental problems.” Eco-fascists often blame environmental problems on “overpopulation, immigration, and over-industrialization,” advocating violence towards refugees, people of color, and other marginalized populations as an environmental solution. It has recently been gaining popularity in today’s far- and alt-right movements–and, more alarmingly, even in some leftist spaces–fomenting racial paranoia about who will have the resources needed to survive the climate crisis.

Eco-fascism dovetails neatly with the Great Replacement Theory, a Nazi-inspired conspiracy theory claiming that “white people are being stripped of their power through the demographic rise of communities of color, driven by immigration.” For example, the man who murdered 11 Jewish people in Pittsburgh chose to target the Tree of Life Synagogue because of their work with the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) and wrote that HIAS was “working to ‘bring invaders in that kill our people.’” The Great Replacement Theory has its roots in a related white supremacist conspiracy theory of “white genocide” which capitalizes on white people’s fears of becoming a minority population in a country built on the genocide of Indigenous peoples and the enslavement of African peoples.

A core tenet of any kind of fascism is the belief that hierarchies are morally correct and some peoples deserve rights while the rest of us should be prevented from acquiring them. That kind of belief both contributes to and stems from the idea that humans are superior to the “rest” of nature, hence why extractivism is such an important part of fascism, and why Indigenous peoples who steward the environment based on relations of kin and care present such a threat to fascism.

Although many people might assume eco-fascism only lives in the far-right fringes of the internet, it has become alarmingly mainstream in the past few years: Tucker Carlson, who had 2021’s most-watched cable news show, has mentioned the Great Replacement Theory on more than 400 of his shows, as have Lauren Ingram and Jeanine Pirro, and many prominent right-wing radio shows and podcasts. An increasing number of right-wing politicians who hold local, state, and federal office have also parroted Great Replacement talking points and/or avoided opportunities to condemn it. There is no telling how many people have been radicalized by this rhetoric just in the last few years.  

[whileiambored]

Alright friends. Here’s the actual deal with this from a University of Pittsburgh student. See point Five for other real tangible stuff you can do :) Please don’t mind any typing errors, I did this on my phone half asleep

First: The University IS NOT hosting him. A club at the university is. This is a very very important distinction because 1. the university isn’t sponsoring the event and 2. clubs are essentially allowed to host who ever they want.

Second: We are a public (ish) university. Canceling this speaker can and would open them up to a whole host of issues regarding free speech and censorship. Universities have fought long and hard for the right to free speech (see the UC Berkley movement of the sixties). In order to uphold that right so that future speakers who may be considered controversial can also speak, this event cannot be canceled.

Third: “But this is hate speech” Tough shit. Hate speech is protected speech (see Snyder v Phelps 2007(?) as most recent). There are exceptions 1. threats of true serious bodily harm and 2. imminent incitement to illegal or violent activities. Imminent is the key word there. General this should happen is not imminent and is not exempted from protection. Whether or not you think it should be protected doesn’t matter; what matters is it is.

Fourth: Canceling this event or majorly disrupting it would feed into the narrative he is trying to create. He is telling people that colleges are radical leftist organizations that have declared open season on conservatives. I have seen multiple OpEds stating that exact thing. It doesn’t matter if it’s true, it matters if people believe it. The Daily Wire has just run the headline “leftist students meltdown over upcoming Michael Knowles event” Allowing that to be an interpretation of the events is harming our position. “But the daily wire isn’t a legit publication and they live to publish sensationalized/false shit” Oh well. They have national reach and people do read them. For a large number of people, that headline might be the only time they hear of this and that supports everything else they’ve been told. Also for people like Micheal Knowels having an event cancelled or being talked over during an event is just a feather in his cap and another alarmist talking point for the next time he talks to conservative lawmakers.

Fifth: So what can you do. If you’re in the Pittsburgh area attend the rally for trans rights outside the cathedral of learning (March 25 at 6:00pm). (THIS WAS YESTERDAY. I FORGOT WHAT DAY IT IS EVEN THOUGH I WALKED BY THE PROTEST ON MY WAY TO A MEETING)

For everyone: Support SisTers PGH they are a trans lead trans focused organization in the Pittsburgh area dedicated to providing a wide range of services to local trans people including medical referral, housing assistance, and general education and support.

Support TransYOUnited another Pittsburgh based organization dedicated to providing resources to trans individuals.

Support the Hugh Lane Wellness Foundation, founded to support the medical needs of the LGBTQ+ and HIV communities they provide services and supports to the community.

If you are a Pitt Student, our on campus advocacy and community clubs are Rainbow Alliance (undergrad), Pitt Lambda (grad), Pitt Outlaw (law school), AQUARIUS (queer Asian student org), ADDverse+poesia (artistic expression from marginalized groups), Pitt MOGI. Please support them when they have events and fundraisers. Rainbow Alliance’s pride week stuff is happening. See their Instagram for details. I probably missed a bunch of groups, this is what I could come up with off the top of my head.

this sucks ass but what’s neat is the event is free to register for and will be capped at 300 in person registrations. pitch in and register with your favorite fake name and hopefully this idiot will walk in to a room of empty chairs. takes like 10 seconds. el oh el

edit: to be more clear, sign up with a name and email that is at least semi convincing.. they’re probably not gonna think Hugh Jass and Trans Rights are real humans who are going to show up

[mrpatrouiousachatz1993]

Why do I feel that some white so called leftists in the United States are the biggest fools? I know I am a White trans man and my politics lean more further to the left. But some of White Leftists in the US are absolutely rediclous and make true leftists looks bad and be little you if you disagree with them and point out a flaw with them or with an article they posted on social media.

Perfect example a white trans woman who was suppose to be my friend on Facebook posted the Pink News Article about Lush UK donating to anti trans organizations. Where the title was misleading and made it look like that Lush as an entire global company made the donation, when in reality Lush is one of those companies where each branch has a separate owner, with separate entities, with separate assets, with separate banks, separate prices, and the products aren’t even all the same. I pointed this out about how Lush North America donated to trans rights organizations and has even made products dedicated to trans folks for TDOR and TDOV.

For Christ sake in Pittsburgh Lush even participated in an event for People’s Pride hosted and organized by SisTers Pittsburgh which is a black and trans led non profit organization in Pittsburgh. I even shared another PinkNews Article about how Lush North America and Lush UK are separate, and the woman deleted my comments. I thought she deleted the post and read the article and realized she judged too quickly.

So than I shared posts from Lush North America espiecally from Lush Canada’s TDOR posts, and that same woman legit said I bought into the “Capitalist Kool Aid” and said Chick Fil A would make the same statement. Like really you are going to compare them to Chick Fil A. Than she makes another comment saying not to go on her posts and tell her that her “views are wrong.” When in reality I never said her views are wrong. I said that each Lush branch is separately owned and when it comes to their charity pots donations they run independently as that Nation’s Lush Branch and that Branch alone, and posted an article from the same fucking news sources the original article is from.

Funny enough some of these Pittsburgh leftists who are primarily white no matter if they are cis, trans, or non binary, gay, straight, bi, pan, queer, or ace, they will fucking shame you for “buying into Capitalist Kool Aid” but yet they themselves shop at Walmart which has been known to get their products from sweat shops, and is anti labor union, they will shop on Amazon or have Amazon wishlists, even though Amazon has a history of treating their warehouse workers like shit (and I will confirm this because I use to work in an Amazon warehouse), they will go buy big corporate makeup brands, they will go to corporate run Pride and March oh excited carrying the giant flags, they will eat at McDonalds even though McDonalds in the US is in trouble for covering up sexual harassment in the work place.

I am pretty sure there will be some of those leftists who will come on here and call me a capitalist pig, call me a fake progressive and blah blah blah. And I am sure that there will be some far left extremeists who will think I am being a trans misogynist all because I had a disagreement with someone who happened to be a trans woman. And people wonder why there are Democrats and Republicans who hate leftist. It is because you got “leftists” use the fucking internet as their platform and will go after you if you don’t boycott a company, if you didn’t vote 3rd party in the presidential elections, if you fact check them, if you don’t agree with them they consider it as you telling them that their views are wrong, and blah blah blah. I mean really. Even President Obama probally one of the most modern progressive presidents we ever had has said that cancel culture and call out culture is NOT activism.