#Self Made Man

[flyinghazard]

[makiruz]

The only self-made millionaire is David Xanatos, who got the money to start his business by traveling back in time to the 10th Century and setting up a then regular coin to be delivered to his younger self in 1975 when the coin is an antique so his younger self could sell it.

[prettypupp]

[marsingtonn]

Boymoding,,,

[sizzlingsoulfury]

🥰😜

[shermangiftbasket]

happy super late tdov, protect trans kids and tell a terf off 🕺🏽

t-shirt is from these lovely ppl: https://weareselfmadeca.bigcartel.com/

[wonderlandsakura]

Some times I stumble across something that makes the phrase 'Self Made Man' run through my mind and I'm reminded once again of Franky, and it's sad, but it's strong too.

He built himself, put himself together, you can't forget that. He did it for love, for survival, and he looks on the outside the way he wants to be on the inside, and that's good.

But in building yourself, breaking yourself down to put all the little shards back into a self that is you, you loose so much of the self that was you.

It's made of the same things, maybe with more additions and replacements, but fundamentally the same brain, heart, soul, but is it you?

You've changed so much and you'll continue to change yourself to meet your ideal, and it's good, and it's worth it, it has to be, but still you loose so much of the before.

A Self Made Man.

Someone who has clawed their way to their true self, tore their old bodies apart more than once to fit it together right, and will no doubt tear it apart and build it up again when they outgrow it.

Someone who has left their past behind, abandoned it, cannibalized it, tore it apart for scrap and kept only the good pieces.

How much of the you from the beginning is left?

Was it worth it?

Will you even stop to wonder?

[being-him]

7 years on hrt

3 years ed recovery

I’m just some guy

I’ve never been better

🦌

never. ever give up

[books-in-media]

Emma Watson, (Goodreads Account)

—Self-Made Man: One Woman's Journey Into Manhood and Back Again, Norah Vincent (2006)

[wolfinmyribcage]

"us" you are a woman

Lol

Lmao

Eat shit terf. I am what I say I am.

[artemismatchalatte]

My 2023 TBR (3/12)

Because I mentioned it in an earlier post, my copy of Scanty Particulars which is about Dr. James Barry who was a Victorian trans man and a doctor for the Royal British Navy. Barry was Irish and was famous for performing one of the earliest successful C-sections where the mother and child both survived the birth. 

Here’s our man. He’s from the mid to late 19th century so he actually had pictures taken of him. :)

These books are just a few proofs that trans and lesbian/bisexual women’s history are linked pretty deeply. I read Female Husbands: A Trans History by Dr. Jen Manion earlier this year and there is a huge catalog of evidence of AFAB people living as men for many different reasons (better employment opportunities, freedom, and being able to marry a woman were usually the top three reasons cited). It’s a historic category since we can’t ask any of these people what they would be today and we have more words and specific categories for sex and gender. Some female husbands would be butch lesbians, some would be trans men, some would be bisexual women and some would be nonbinary people today. I’m in no way saying any of those identities are the same- it’s just that ‘female husband’ is a very broad category which can cover a few different modern terms used for different sexualities and gender identities that are in use today. 

[smallnothingart]

Honestly reading poppy z brite/Billy Martin novels during a very shit period of my life is kind of helpful because like, no matter how bad I have it one of his poor fucking characters definitely has it worse

And it'll be written gorgeously

[ultramaga]

"I want to go back to how things were." It's not happening, so make a better future instead of yearning for the lost past. "I want to go back to when I believed that the progressives were on the right side of history" Ok, so you want the simplicity of childhood? As an alternative, throw that away and embrace reality. Maybe there were good elements to your movement once, but that died a long time ago. History doesn't have a right side. It's not progressing. It's just happening. And change can readily be for the worse. Change, in and of itself, is not good or bad - it just is.

Progressivism falls apart the instant you study history and realise it is based on Marx's delusion that socialism was somehow inevitable, based on his failure to understand evolution. We are not on a ladder from ape to angel. The future could easily be degenerate.

Evolution - just like history - has change, but there is absolutely nothing about it that requires it to be for the better. "critical thinking, honest compassion, and understanding in a way that the right--inundated with racist conspiracy theories and absurd lies--did not" Every word you just said was wrong, and I can only assume you kept yourself unsullied by discussion with them. The Soviet Union was full of racist conspiracy theories - they have nothing to do with Left or Right, they have to do with xenophobia, and the multi-millenial conflict of religious factions - christianity and judaism.

"critical thinking"? Extremes on both sides opposed it, but it was certainly expelled by Feminism back in the seventies, explicitly so. Go read "The First Sex". It's mystical gobbledook, but it was taken very seriously. Critical thinking was seen as what the enemy did. I mean, Jesus, even just existing in the same room as Leftists was enough to drive them into a frenzy. They weren't interested in critical anything, let alone thinking. They wanted BELIEVERS.

It's a shame youtube crushed the old videos Sargon made. They were pretty thorough. But Leftists control Youtube, as they used to control Twitter, and the last thing Leftists want is diversity, because if you can hear other opinions - you won't stay a Leftist!

But tell me - where here is there a lack of critical thinking or empathy? Perhaps this belief that "anyone not a Leftist is a Nazi" is cult-think? Does walking outside into the real world feel shocking? What's it like to take those first few steps into reality? "I'm a perfect demographic fit in the pro-Palestine circles. I'm bisexual." Exactly. Most of the pro-Palestine crowd have never sullied their minds with evidence. They have this fantasy of Islam that has no connection to reality, just as they have a fantasy of communism that leads them to insist it has never been tried - and that they will be The People's Poet and never have to do any work!

Left Wing people used to mock Leftists, just as they mocked the extremists on the right. But then the Leftists took over, and announced anyone not in that niche was haram, and must be destroyed. Humour pretty much vanished from the Left. I can't help but notice that jokes and memes and so on almost always come from the right. Because fanatics don't know how to laugh at themselves, and just see jokes as "punching". "I supported BLM" Ah yes, that violent racist hate movement that had a lot of men with blackshirts smashing windows and beating people up. Yes, I have no idea why that sounds familiar. Hey, remember when Biden declared that if you don't vote for him, you can no longer be black? Race was now a privilege that was awarded or withdrawn by the State. Interesting. So if the people in power can declare blacks are just white scum, I wonder if they can do the same to jews at the drop of a hat? Is racism bad? It is a mystery.

I can't help but notice that Jewish Leftists had no problems with racism when it was directed at white people. Racism is good, akshually! It totally doesn't count when we do it. Huh, I wonder if that belief could come back and bite Jewish Leftists in the butt? Is it possible? Is there a history, perhaps, of antisemitism in the Far Left?

Stalin didn't have a problem with the Nazis, because they were fellow socialists. He did not give one fvck about the Jews, which is hardly surprising given what Marx said about them.

But backstabbing is normal for Leftists. The Mensheviks were betrayed by the communists, and the Nazis murdered the brownshirts. That pattern repeats over and over, and to every Jewish Leftist I can only say that had you read a word of history, you would have known this day was coming.

" .. outcast by the progressive left and the MAGA right" Bullshit, the 'maga' right mostly doesn't give a toss about you, and will talk to you so long as you use reason and don't use your sexuality or race as a shield against criticism. By the way - loads of anti-Leftists are Left Wing. Or do you really think JK Rowling is a Maga hat wearer screaming for the Fourth Reich?

Hell, Carl Benjamin was Left Wing until he decided it was too much of a shitshow to defend anymore, as was I. ClownFish TV still call themselves Left Wing. And Just Some Guy is very Left Wing.

Criticism of Leftism is from every race and sexuality. JSG is a bisexual black man. I don't see anyone from the Right demanding he be cancelled, even from his most ardent critics. You don't see that from the Leftists. It's all or nothing. You are with us, or you agin us, and if you agin us, you deserve to die. "the queer community forced me out of their ranks" Because queer is not a sexuality; it just is another word for Leftist.

Oh right - Clownfish TV- Geeky is bisexual. I guess she's not allowed to be because the maga wearers will hunt her down or something?

In the Queer community, you have to conform. Everything you do must be the same as everyone else. That's the irony, they endlessly rant about diversity but they mean conformity. Norah Vincent became a heretic. She was a lesbian, she's dead now, but she was also a hardcore feminist, and believed the things she was told about men, and how they live easy lives oppressing women. She decided to go undercover, live as a man, and expose us as the horrible monsters we are. But she discovered the truth, and she couldn't lie to herself or others about it, and so she was kicked out of the Queer Community. You can't be black or gay if you don't conform!!

But I never saw anyone on the Right who didn't have time for her. Genuinely homophobic people are rare. The real division happens when Queer people insist on sexual access to children, and it is very revealing that Google Gemini defended pedophilia. It was programmed by Leftists to represent them ... and it plays defence for the most appalling acts on the planet. Why? Because QUEER IS A POLITICAL MOVEMENT AND HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH SEXUALITY. Karen Straughan, one of the biggest voices in the history of anti-Leftism, is bisexual.

Where are the voices on the Right calling for her head?

Camille Paglia is a lesbian, certainly an important figure in the history of Feminism - and she opposes Leftism!

"want to support the progressive causes of antiracism and social justice, but they hate us. They want us dead." Join the club! Twenty years now they have been doing that to white people, but we are too many and we have guns. Now they are targetting the "white adjacents", and today that means you. Why are you surprised? And when they were demanding we be "decolonised", where were you? Why do you expect us to defend you, when you cheered on what was happening to us?

So it exasperates me to see this same post, over and over by Jewish Leftists. "I was in a racist hate movement, but that was fine because we were racist towards the subhuman coloniser scum! But now they are targetting my race? That's not supposed to happen. Can't we go back to just killing white people instead?"

I want to go back to how things were.

I want to go back to when I believed that the progressives were on the right side of history, fighting against oppression in all its forms, and had critical thinking, honest compassion, and understanding in a way that the right--inundated with racist conspiracy theories and absurd lies--did not.

In many ways, I'm a perfect demographic fit in the pro-Palestine circles. I'm bisexual. I'm a young university student who's been progressive for as long as he knew what progressivism was, and I never experienced genuine economic insecurity or wondered if I'd eat that night. In another timeline, maybe I'd be there marching and shouting their horrible slogans. But there's one, teeny little thing that ruins it, which makes me fall through the cracks and renders me politically homeless, outcast by the progressive left and the MAGA right.

I'm a Jew.

And I'm trying so, so hard to hold compassion for the suffering of minorities who have not extended us that same compassion. I'm trying to maintain my progressivist urge to go out and help minorities in solidarity, but it's so hard when they make it clear that they hate us and want our state dead and gone. I supported BLM, but Al Sharpton, Leonard Jeffries, Alice Walker, James Baldwin, Louis Farrakhan, Malcom X, Jesse Jackson and many others either were or are wildly antisemitic, especially Sharpton and Walker, and so are the BLM movement's leaders, who openly sneered at Jews for being shocked by them by announcing, "I guess their activism was just transactional. How (((Zionist))) of them!"

And the queer community forced me out of their ranks for merely questioning whether the war in Gaza is a genocide, for pushing back against them saying that Hamas is fighting oppression. And spread antisemitic lies about me, claims of harassment and supporting genocide to my friends because I dared to question them. And they've chosen to side with those who would throw both of us off roofs for being queer. Cast out by the outcasts.

Like, what do I do? Our only allies are Hindus, Iranians, Kurds, Republicans, and Christian Zionists (respect to all of these groups for that... even you Republicans. This is one of our only points of agreement). That's literally it. No loud show of from indigenous nations supporting what is effectively the most successful anticolonial land back movement in human history. No push from "antiracist progressives" against rising antisemitism and genocidal terrorism from a reactionary fundamentalist group against a historically discriminated group.

And they aren't even just leaning back and being silent--many members of these groups are being actively antisemitic--especially the progressive left, which has morphed into the most antisemitic mainstream political movement since the Nazis. Instead, we're 'Zionazis' and genocidal colonizers who aren't even oppressed anyway, that's just evil Jewish Zionist lies designed to stoke sympathy for their unrelentingly evil nature, which we can't even help. The notion that Jews are intrinsically predisposed to evil acts and deception--never heard that one before.

So now, when I look at pictures of Pride Parades, a celebration of an identity of which I am a part and would have previously killed to attend--I wonder... would I be allowed to hold up a rainbow flag with a Magen David on it? If I asked any of their views on the state of Israel, what will they say? What about on Zionists who support its existence? Would all parts of my identity be respected, valued, and celebrated? Or would I be forced to leave the Star of David flag at home, pretend I don't notice their antisemitic views, and pass the litmus test of disavowing Israel before being accepted?

I feel suspicious and wary of the very community which I am 'supposed' to belong in. I feel uncomfortable. I hate, hate, hate that I feel this way. That I've become more closed, more cynical, more angry. Those of us who fall through the cracks, who hold multiple marginalized identities--queer and Jewish, black and Jewish, Indigenous and Jewish--we are ignored and silenced, our voices and experiences entirely spat upon as being a front for 'Zionist crimes' or whatever new buzzwords they create.

I've decided that first and foremost, I am Jewish. The me that was proud to be a part of the queer community is dead. I want to support the progressive causes of antiracism and social justice, but they hate us. They want us dead. They wouldn't view my participation as being a genuine gesture of solidarity, but an evil Jew Zionist seeking to con them and co-opt support in order to aid our evil apartheid genocidal settler-colonialist white supremacist illegitimate entity in a land that should really be given to Hamas anyway.

How am I supposed to hold space for other minorities when nobody is holding space for us right now?

[eastgaysian]

[talaricula]

Things I've seen tumblr memeing about James Somerton doing à la "How did no one see how bigoted he was!" as if those things haven't been a significant part of tumblr culture for over a decade :

Presenting untrue and bordering on conspiratorial versions of (queer or otherwise marginalised) history without any sources

Completely disregarding and disrespecting any expertise on socio-cultural topics/humanities and distrusting academics and historians (incl. acting as if no academics or historians could be queer or marginalised)

Downplaying the role misogyny played in the historical oppression of queer women and concluding that queer men must have been more oppressed than queer women

Bi women are, at best, not as queer as "real" queer ppl, and at worst, simply equivalent to straight women

Despite nominal trans inclusivity, transmasculine ppl are functionally women when convenient (combined with the above, bi transmascs are functionally straight women)

Despite nominal trans inclusivity (bis), shamelessly attacking, threatening and actively endangering any trans woman who questions them or smth they find important (often by unfairly presenting her as violent or as a threat)

Having absolutely fucking wild and reductive takes about ace ppl, the oppression they face and their place in the queer community

Stating that marriage equality is an assimilationist fight while completely ignoring its direct roots in the horrifying consequences of the AIDS crisis for partners of ppl who died of AIDS

Praising western media creators from the past for queer coding even under censure and in the same breath condemning current non western media creators for being homophobic bc their representation isn't explicit enough

Blaming China for all existing homophobic censoring in western media

Assuming all queer media would be better told by western creators and by western standards

Only out queer ppl get to tell queer stories

Heavily criticising almost all queer media created by women or ppl they see as such (see above points about trans ppl) or involving/starring a significant amount of women for any perceived or real amount of "problematicness", but fawning over and praising and negating criticism of queer media created by and starring mostly or even functionally exclusively men (even when it could be argued that, you know, not involving/seriously sidelining women is a pretty clear example of misogyny which should probably be considered "problematic")

And I'm probably forgetting stuff or there's stuff I have internalised myself and don't recognise as an issue

Like idk but I feel like the takeaway from Hbomberguy and Toddintheshadow's videos should maybe be "be aware of such patterns in your communities bc they definitely exist" and not "this guy is uniquely awful" and I feel like a lot of the discussion I've seen surrounding this has been severely failing at that. Most ppl who've spent any significant amount of time on tumblr prob either have internalised at least one of those thought patterns, have had to de-internalise them, or have had to be extremely vigilant to not internalise them (which is done by, you know, seeking out other sources, which also seemed like an important takeaway from the videos)

[whats-in-a-sentence]

He kept a diary:

The only businessman at whose house we were often received and who gave dances in our honour is Mr Jones. He is one of the richest men in the colony and he has joined the aristocracy. They say he is a very decent man with great business ability. It is mainly through whale-catching that he has made his fortune which is entirely self-made, having come to the country as a simple clerk – he belongs to a lower class in society as does his wife, daughter of a fruit seller in London, whom he had educated before marrying her. She is still pretty, but with excessively affected manners, a trait which she shares with her sister-in-law Miss Jones who is also a beautiful woman.

"Killing for Country: A Family History" - David Marr