#abolition now

[statementlou]

Liams toxicology report is so sad :( the hotel employee needs to go to jail

I really couldn't disagree more with this actually, I don't support putting people in cages and I certainly don't see how that would help anyone at all. Just as I wished for Liam to have the opportunity to access the grace and care that would have allowed him to get to a place where he wasn't hurting anyone, I wish for that hotel employee to live in an economic system where they don't need to procure drugs for rich people to get by, and I don't think punishing them for what happened will help anyone any more than I think punishing Liam legally would have helped anyone, or that the ways he was punished did help him or anyone else.

[theremina]

An adoption abolitionist’s plea:

Don’t say your for-profit artwork has been “adopted”.

Don’t advertise your portraits with cutesy phrases like “Isn’t Uwu Smolbean Rag Doll Doodlybunz peachy keen? Adopt her today for just $299!”

Don’t call buying an inanimate friggin object “an adoption”.

Doubt I’ll be heard by many. But I’ll keep saying this stuff til kept people who claim progressive and leftist values begin to comprehend that countless millions of actual living, breathing people in this world have been bought and sold as infants or children and it AIN’T FUCKIN CUTE.

[riverthemessiah]

there is no such thing as a good cop. not even your relative/loved one. fuck em all.

Cops are trained to be bad. Anyone who insists on being good is not welcome.

[blackpearlblast]

five days until the state of georgia is scheduled to execute willie pye

[trans-axolotl]

i have interesting conversations sometimes with people who frame questions about psych abolition as "what will xyz look like in the post-psych world" or "how will antipsychiatrists make sure that mad people get their needs met once the psych system is destroyed" and so on.

it reflects this fairly common idea I've encountered, mostly by people who are newer to antipsych ideas, who believe that psych abolition is going to happen as some sort of single event, as this discrete moment where later, we'll be able to point to it and say this is where everything changed. That there will be one point where we deinstitutionalized or decriminalized drugs or got rid of restraint or whatever accomplishment it is. and to be fair, there are some of those watershed moments—I could point at Basaglia and the democratic psychiatry movement, the movimento antimanicomial, the Socialist Patients Collective, and a few other sticking points of psych resistance throughout the past couple hundred years. it's not like there aren't moments where there is such a monumental shift that it makes sense to classify it with a Before and an After.

part of this mindset makes me consider how so often in antipsych spaces, we (rightfully) focus a lot of our energy on highlighting the extent of the violence that occurs on the whole continuum of psychiatric care. it's hard to find words to express the horrors of solitary confinement, restraint, institutionalized sexual assault, confinement, coercive drugging—the list goes on and on. When we're so often dismissed with rhetoric telling us that we are broken/unsafe/mad in need of cure/removal/confinement—it feels desperately, urgently needed to shout as loudly as we can that the violence we are surviving is real, that is is common, and that it should not happen to anyone, regardless if we're incarcerated in prisons, jails, psych wards, or residential treatment facilities.

and at the same time, I think that sometimes we forget that even amidst the overwhelming layers of harm and abuse, there are still so many ways that psych survivors are already, every day, exhaustingly fighting back. it stands out to me that in every psych ward i've ever been locked up in, that there is always a parallel world of in-jokes and advice and rituals and fantasies and histories and community norms completely separate from the understanding of any of the psych professionals who think they run the place.

So often when I talk about the violence of psych incarceration I talk about the harm of being removed, disappeared, and cut off from the world; at the same time, there is always a simultaneous lively, active, and chaotic world inside built by patients that directly challenges the claims by psychiatrists that our madness makes us fundamentally incapable of participating in society. The patient-world in the psych ward might not be coherent, it might not be anywhere close to a utopia--but it is a world built by the psychiatrized, for the psychiatrized, taking the hostile conditions we are placed into and shaping the parts of it we can reach into something all our own.

Fundamentally, psych abolition is about what we are doing Right Now—it doesn't require us to wait for the End Of Psychiatry before it becomes real. I know psych abolition is possible because it already exists—I find it in the corners of psych wards, where intimate conversations are hidden from the view of cameras. I find it every time someone hides meds under their tongue, sneaks in contraband, and refuses to go quietly into restraint. I find it every time a group of friends gets together to do informal suicide watch so that no one has to call mobile crisis and the cops, fundraises to build a new peer respite, and creates a hotline that doesn't do nonconsensual interventions from cops/licensed professionals with the power to incarcerate.

I know psych abolition is possible because every fucking day, there are already people fighting back and making abolition real, even if only for a little while. My allegiance will always be with the psychiatrized, the mad, those who are labeled under many different pathways that end in "deviant," who remind us that there is a path towards resistance because it is a path that is already happening.

[gothra]

I’ll never forget when I was arguing with a person in favor of total prison abolition and I asked them “what about violent offenders?” And they said “Well, in a world where prisons have been abolished, we’ll have leveled the playing field and everyone will have their basic needs met, and crime won’t be as much of an issue.” And then I was like “okay. But…no. Because rich people also rape and murder, so it isn’t just a poor person thing. So what will we do about that?” And I don’t think they answered me after that. I’m ashamed to say I continued to think that the problem was that I simply didn’t understand prison abolitionists enough and that their point was right in front of me, and it would click once I finally let myself understand it. It took me a long time to realize that if something is going to make sense, it needs to make sense. If you want to turn theory into Praxis (I’m using that word right don’t correct me I’ll vomit) everyone needs to be on board, which mean it all needs to click and it needs to click fast and fucking clear. You need to turn a complex idea into something both digestible and flexible enough to be expanded upon. Every time I ask a prison abolitionist what they actually intend to do about violent crime, I get directed to a summer reading list and a BreadTuber. It’s like a sleight-of-hand trick. Where’s the answer to my question. There it is. No wait, there it is. It’s under this cup. No it isn’t. “There’s theory that can explain this better than I can.” As if most theory isn’t just a collection of essays meant to be absorbed and discussed by academics, not the average skeptic. “Read this book.” And the book won’t even answer the question. The book tells you to go ask someone else. “Oh, watch this so-and-so, she totally explains it better than me.” Why can’t you explain it at all? Why did you even bring it up if you were going to point me to someone else to give me the basics that you should probably already know? Maybe I’m just one of those crazy people who thinks that some people need to be kept away from the public for everyone’s good. Maybe that just makes me insane. Maybe not believing that pervasive systemic misogyny could be solved with a UBI and a prayer circle makes me a bad guy. But it’s not like women’s safety is a priority anyway. It’s not like there is an objective claim to be made that re-releasing violent offenders or simply not locking them up is deadly.

[mimikyuno]

BROOO THE MAFU6 TRAINED CARDS?? THE BARBED WIRE?? THE CHAINS?? WHAT IS GOING OOOON. STAY AWAY FROM YOUR MOTHER MAFUYU PLS. ALSO THE HAIRSTYLESSS MIZUKI AND THE BUTTERFLY

[dalniente]

"but if we abolish prisons, what will we do with violent criminals? should we not lock them up so they can't hurt more people?"

questions for questions. one: are there are people who, given every support and every attempt to rehabilitate, every mitigation strategy, given resources and therapy and money and time, will still choose violence? i don't know. YOU don't know. but anything is possible, and i will freely admit i don't have the answer to that yet.

but also, two: yeah, what about them? because what i DO know, and what i need you to try to understand, is that prison already does not prevent violence. the threat of it doesn't deter violence to begin with-- look around you-- and it doesn't stop violence after the people deemed "too dangerous" are locked up. they simply commit violence against other prisoners instead.

so, the thing you're concerned about losing? the ability to prevent someone from committing violence? that's already not a thing. it is not happening. the thing you're worried about losing HAS NEVER EXISTED. "but how will we stop violent criminals from hurting people" is the first thing out of anyone's mouth in response to the idea of prison abolition, but we already don't have a solution to that! that is NOT SOLVED! you can't see the violence anymore, but it is still happening! at the hands of the guards, if not these "violent criminals" you're so worried about, so the problem of violence IS NOT SOLVED by locking people up, do you understand? no one is locked up to keep them from hurting people, they are locked up to ensure they can only hurt people whose pain has been deemed acceptable.

instead of saying, "we can't abolish prisons because violent criminals will hurt people," please ask yourself: is the current violence against disenfranchised, systemically vulnerable people so much more acceptable to you than violence against the public that you will advocate against helping people, instead of hurting them?

[sillyguy-supreme]

i think far too many of you do not realize that if the democratic party loses in november it will be because of their failure in campaigning and refusal to listen to their constituents and not because the Tumblr Leftist Furries abstained from voting or voted third party

[castielatry]

happy destiel wedding anniversary to all whom celebrate. this is the poem I wrote for @destielvalentineszine2025 and its abt how cas is down bad. and also living past your myth and how to love someone is to brave the grave anew each day

[blackpearlblast]

Upcoming US Executions and Petitions for Clemency

January 31, 2025 at 6:00 pm ET: Marion Bowman Jr. in South Carolina

February 5, 2025 at 6:00 pm CT: Steven Nelson in Texas

February 6, 2025 at 6:00 pm CT: Demetrius Frazier in Alabama

February 13, 2025 at 6:00 pm ET: James Ford in Florida

February 13, 2025 at 6:00 pm CT: Richard Tabler in Texas

March 13, 2025 at 6:00 pm CT: David Wood in Texas

March 20, 2025 at 10:00 am CT: Wendell Grissom in Oklahoma

April 23, 2025 at 6:00 pm CT: Moises Mendoza in Texas

View full list:

[trans-axolotl]

Image description: [Black text on lined paper. Text reads: Share your story with the Psych Survivor Archive. Hold the psychiatric system accountable for the violence and coercion we've survived. Make space for our anger. Grieve together. Celebrate our resistance. The Psych Survivor Archive is a forum for psych survivors to share about their experiences and be believed. You can share as much or as little as you want. Your story will be anonymously published on the website with writing from other psych survivors. The archive is open to anyone who identifies as a psych survivor, including people who survived inpatient hospitalization, rehab, troubled teen industry, partial hospitalization, outpatient programs, ABA, and any other form of coercion psych treatment. Check out the prompts, participant rights, and content guidelines. Share your story now: www.psychsurvivorarchive.com/submit-your-story]

Hey everyone. I wanted to share this here as well. The Psych Survivor Archive is looking for anyone who wants to share their story and have it anonymously published on the website, in order to create a collection of our experiences navigating the psych system. Your responses will be anonymous and can be as detailed or vague as you want. On the website, there are prompts, but you can feel free to share in whatever format makes sense to you.

This is a more informal way to participate in the Psych Survivor Archive if you are not interested in creating art for the zine, but still want your story to be heard and validated.

For me, it has felt very cathartic to write out my story, on my terms, in the way that I want to be known. I hope that the archive can offer that space to other psych survivors as well, and I can't wait to keep developing this project and offering even more. In the next couple weeks, submissions will open up for the second edition of the zine, so if you're interested in submitting creative art or writing keep an eye out!

love and solidarity always <3

[bookshelf-in-progress]

It turns out that I never research because it makes me think the details are the point instead of the story.

The story is the point! It doesn't matter if I don't have an entire world with all its history and cultural and political customs realistically fleshed out! Focus on the story and fill in the details later!

[mageofquandrix]

I have such a weak spot for gruff single fathers who love their kids so much, and who actually show love to their kids. This goes double for single fathers with sons.

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

decided to try watching Criminal Minds and right out the gate I get hit with one of THEE defining songs of my middle school years

[anarcho-masochist]

When it comes to actually participating in activism, specifically among the younger/more online crowd, there's a large portion of people who are too worried about being perceived wrong or not knowing enough. Perhaps, as if there's some secret set of rules that, if broken, will cause niche local discourse of severity unknowable even to online micro-celebrities...but overall, many are concerned about not meeting unwritten criteria to be accepted or included.

The most effective way to be excluded from an activist group, on any place across the political spectrum, is to never attend in the first place. (Or never reach out, if attending isn't an option.)