#and when it’s not it’s sexism or classism or ableism or antisemitism

[thenonbinarydetective]

People on fanon batfam tumblr: I’m gonna stir the pot *just says something racist*

[doberbutts]

beginning to really feel like the ubiquitous hatred of men IS inherently tied to racism. just look at the things people point to as why PoC are "scary" and it's usually because of a perceived proximity to "mannishness" and all that entails. it's getting harder and harder to not see a desire to protect the "fragile and feminine" as inherent to whiteness and white supremacy especially when taking into account how femininity is defined. like even setting aside how casting All Men as inherently dangerous or threatening will ultimately cast men of color and other marginalized men as these things, thus reducing their access to spaces, safety, resources, and rights. but i just can't convince myself that "all men are bad" isn't inherently rooted in racism itself, not just a consequence of racism because it might hit men of color as collateral

when you consider then also how in fundamentalist and evangelical christianity (and just christianity in general) male desire is seen as inherently evil and to be regarded with suspicion, the erection is the work of the devil, etc., and how core to white supremacist culture that christianity is... idk this isn't very coherent but i hope it makes some sense

i just really think systems of race require gender segregation to operate as they do and so any reinforcement of ANY gender segregation is going to ultimately further racist causes

Well, my belief is that all oppression circles back onto itself like a giant ouroboros. White supremacy, patriarchy, ableism, classism, all of these hook back together in both obvious and also very subtle ways. I was talking with a Jewish friend last night about how I don't think I've ever heard an antisemite speak that wasn't also antiblack. Including black antisemites. I don't think I've heard an antiblack person speak that also wasn't filled to the brim with sexism. I don't think I've heard a sexist person speak that wasn't also ableist. I don't think I've heard an ableist person speak who wasn't also classist. And I don't think I've ever heard a classist person speak who wasn't also antisemitic. They're all connected. Every single one. Most homophobes are deeply misogynistic, most misogynists are also transphobic, and so on.

I think this also hooks directly back into the theories of intersectionality and CRT, because for so long we have stagnated discussing how these are all completely separate and individual social phenomena when really most of the time where one stinks they all reek. These are all systems upon which society has built itself up in layers, and the reason it's so difficult to fix is because they are all hooked into each other and so you can't wiggle one piece free without toppling the whole tower. The tower still has to come down, but it's sure as hell going to put up a fight getting there.

[awkwardandeccentric]

So I actually like how Blitz’s and Stolas’ prejudices are written. It feels a lot more real and like something they have to work on and overcome.

Too many stories have their protagonists just completely unaffected by the world around them. “Damn, racism is a problem? Well that’s bad! Someone as good as me can’t be racist!”

Which…oh my god. Now that I’m typing it out, does explain so many antis. Literal child shit.

But anyone of a marginalized status can tell you that’s not how it works? Even the bestest best boy will internalize racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, antisemitism, Islamophobia, ableism…all the -isms. You can’t “good person” your way out of being affected by your culture.

As an autistic person, I still get annoyed when people don’t make eye contact. Because I’m making the effort to mask, damn it, why aren’t you putting in the effort to hide something shameful like I am? And then I have to take a moment to remind myself that autism isn’t shameful and eye contact (or lack of it) is morally neutral and culturally relevant.

And when media portrays bigotry and prejudice as The Thing Only the Bad People Do and not a series of systems, behaviors, and thoughts that divide people based on arbitrary characteristics, it feels disingenuous. People that may have some unfortunate opinions on things, like “rap music is bad” and “gay people are fine when they’re not being cringey about it” and “men shouldn’t cry” (*coughStellaStanscough*) will never look inside themselves if they think of these systems as “The Good” and “The Bad”

[breadsoda]

If you're a self proclaimed "Christian" who won't call out racism, sexism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, antisemitism, Islamophobia, classism, ableism, xenophobia and any other form of bigotry and discrimination, you're not a very good Christian. If you endorse any of those forms of discrimination, I'd say you're not a Christian at all. Be a kind person and call out bigotry when you see it. It is unacceptable in truly Christian spaces.

[whatbigotspost]

Been thinking about how I've heard/read a bit of discourse percolating recently that's advocating for queer/lefty people to move away from words that Christofacsist type fundies weaponize against us like "normal" or "lady."

I am almost always going to be on the side of people who are counter culture, "freaks," "weirdos," whatever...I have been called these things in the cruelest of ways as long as I can remember, typically alongside homophobic, misogynistic, ableist, and fatphobic slurs. In my home growing up, the role of "lady" was pushed on me with so much sexism. Being relegated to the space of "weird girl" by 3rd grade by my peers traumatized me AND it put me in a position to end up making lifelong, incredibly important, foundational, and supportive friendships that saved me.

AND

I also have no interest in letting said Christofacsist type fundies or the equally as bad (but pretending not to be) mainstream republicans or centrists define what these words mean for the rest of all time. If I want to own the word "lady" and define it by the opposite of what "ladylike" meant when I was growing up, I'm going to. My version of "lady" will be fat, queer, ADHD riddled, full of anxiety, fairly unfeminine, and "ugly," but also kind, community oriented, collectivist, expansive, and nebulous. And I don't think that the word “normal” is so irredeemable or specific enough to the fundie usage that I just want to abandon it either.

This is a situation where I think a both/and approach is needed. I’m not gonna use normal like they do AND I’m going to redefine normal as what I know it to be: someone who respects others’ basics humanity, dignity, and bodily autonomy, someone who believes in helping others and general kindness, someone who doesn’t abuse or harm, someone who has the common sense to at a bare minimum, acknowledge how the axis of oppression like racism, transphobia, homophobia, antisemitism, ableism, classism, etc., are harming those who are cast as "other."

It's not fucking NORMAL to push policies that make other people's identities illegal. It's not fucking NORMAL to personally benefit from other's suffering. It's not fucking NORMAL to agree with White Supremacists.

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

I have a bunch of thoughts related to your recent post on lefty antisemitism, but I don't want to dump a big long thing in your inbox - let me know if you want me to send it, other than that just know you're not alone trying to wade through the messiness of it all.

I know leftist antisemitism is alive and well, I know Jewish perspectives/experiences/identities are not valued, and I know there’s a load of misinformation out there when it comes to the conflict (though honestly, I don’t trust info from any side because everything is propaganda at this point). But I listened to a podcast episode (Joyous Justice - a Jewish racial justice podcast hosted by a Black & Cherokee Jew) that was a bit of a gentle kick in the pants.

To summarize some of the key thoughts: There is antisemitism in lefty spaces because there is antisemitism EVERYWHERE - and racism, sexism, transphobia, classism, ableism, and the like. Leftists are not immune to these things. And so when someone like me says “well I’m not going to engage with some progressive cause because I’m bothered by the antisemitism” it’s like, anyone else of another marginalized identity could have the same excuse for not participating because they will inevitably run into someone who is being shitty about their identity. It’s good that we have ways to process these harmful experiences, and we should try to hold people accountable, but it’s not a good idea for our self-defensiveness to stop us completely from engaging.

I’m not solidly feeling any of this right now, but I am trying to sit with it in the discomfort.

Hi there,

Look, I definitely see where you're coming from and where this podcaster was coming from at least in theory, but I don't agree.

Leftists absolutely have all the same problems any other group has, and obviously we all have to work on our biases and movements all the time to try and root these things out.

This is different and goes beyond that though, because the brand of anti-Zionism that is mainstream amongst American goyische leftist movements and individuals is deeply antisemitic as a part of the cause. Anti-Zionism as an intra-Jewish discussion need not be [internalized] antisemitism, and there are plenty of ways that one can critique specific actions of the Israeli government that are proportionate, fair, and necessary (yes, even as an outsider.)

However, calls for the literal dissolution of the entire country without a thought or care for the safety and well-being of the affected Jews or the Jewish people as a whole, combined with a deep suspicion (and frequently outright hostility) towards Jews who bring up antisemitism (especially as it pertains to rhetoric around Israel) and then adding your regular run-of-the-mill antisemitism on top, are common and accepted in leftist spaces. In short: antisemitism isn't just one unfortunate pimple amongst many other expected blemishes on the face of modern leftism - it's actually frequently taken up as one of the causes of leftism. This form of antisemitism is seen as social justice, and so arguing against it is seen not for what it is (begging for people to add even a little nuance and critically examine a belief system that leads them to call for the genocide of half the Jewish population worldwide) but rather as arguing for whatever terrible thing they want to paint Israel as this week, whether or not it's true and whether or not such a label could just as easily be applied to groups and nations that they will give a pass to.

Meanwhile, most of the goyim arguing in support* of Israel are frequently right-wing conservatives whose other views on human rights and moral progress I find rather repugnant and who frequently utilize standard conservative talking points about Israel's more strident critics to attack them on other levels. For example, I cringe basically any time I see any right-wing critique of, say, the very real antisemitism of Cori Bush or Rashida Tlaib, because I just know it's gonna be racist as hell.

(The * is because I don't honestly classify a lot of this as support for the Jews, so much as a handy vehicle for their anti-Arab racism, Islamophobia, and unfair painting of all Palestinians and/or Palestinian rights movements as terrorism. I would also be remiss if I didn't say that the same is frequently true of certain batches of leftists whose anti-Zionism is more of a handy vehicle for antisemitism than genuine, thoughtful, and helpful advocacy for Palestinians.)

But there are some conservative voices that do have genuine support for Jews and are pro-Israel in a way that is more nuanced and doesn't just use it as a tactic. And when I see that, and especially when I hold it up next to leftist comrades who would never in a million years advocate for policies that would wipe out half the world population of another minority group but will happily repeat those talking points against Jews as if it were a social justice cause, it makes me question the validity of everything else they're saying.

And so I re-run that calculus on every social issue I'm passionate about, to see if maybe I'm on the wrong side of it, and every time I conclude I'm still very much not. So then I go back to the drawing board and reconsider Jewish history, identity, and peoplehood, and the conclusions I've come to about Zionism from those things, only to return to the same position I was in before. I've heard the arguments. I've actively sought out and considered the other side on this issue, hoping to understand something new, and each new source I read solidifies my opinion.

So then I'm stuck with concluding that my best option is to seek out like-minded Jews and when outside allies or work is needed, just kinda go into it accepting that a significant portion of the people I'm necessarily aligning myself with for other important causes would likely leave me and mine for dead under the right circumstances, and view that as good and right and just.

And while I don't let that change my voting behavior or advocacy at a practical level, it also doesn't change the fact that it fucking hurts and that I'm morally right to be angry about it.

[nonebinaryleftgender]

Hey there! This here is my introduction post! so everyone can know me before following. Minors please don't interact! Let me know if I'm following you and you are a minor so I can unfollow!

My basic infos:

Name: Kaz

Age: 29yo

Location: Brazil

Languages: PT-BR and EN

Pronouns: Avoid pronouns, use my name instead

Gender: Trans masculine non binary

Orientation: Demisexual and demiromantic (though I often say I am basically aroace with very few exceptions), very sex favorable

Relationship: Ambiamorous, in a monoamorous relationship since May 2021

Main interests:

Biology (mainly zoology, ecology, and conservation)

Gaming

Game Dev

Animal keeping/husbandry (pet pics and stories under read more with light tw of animal death and rescue situations)

My stances:

Anticapitalist - I believe in a fully money-less society, moved by empathy and/or compassion, where we take care of each other, because everyone is deserving of a good life no matter what

Anti-bigotry - including, not not limited to: racism, xenophobia, sexism, misogyny, queerphobia, transphobia, transmisogyny, exorsexism, homophobia, lesbophobia, biphobia, panphobia, acephobia, arophobia, amatonormativity, classism, elitism, ableism, religious discrimination, antisemitism, supremacism, nazism

Free Palestine - I am against all kinds of genocide, and I believe in punching back against oppression

Anti Generative AI - It's theft and harms the environment

For now that's all I can write, maybe later I'll add more stuff here!

Open the read more for pet photos!

Ciri, my calico cat who I rescued from a car's engine in Sep 2020, quickly bonded to me. She is a literal baby and nurses on her own tail (second photo). She literally saved my life and is the reason I work so hard! I want to give her the best life possible!

Buda (DMH color point) and Biscui (DSH void), brothers of the same litter, bonded with each other. Their status as "my" cats is debatable as I don't think my mom will allow me to take them with me when I do move out, but they live in my heart nonetheless

Niko, a love bug who loved belly pets and showering with the humans. He lived from Fev 2021 until Dec 2021. His life was so short because the rescue didn't inform us of his FeLV+ status, so we only found this out when he had too many complications from it.

Pixel, my corn snake, adopted out to me because he had some bone deformities as a hatchling and would be culled, but ended up growing healthy and strong!

Anansi, my mystery species tarantula, adopted out to me because the previous owner got bored of her and was going to release her outside if no one wanted her. I had her for almost 5 years. In Oct 2024 she passed away from old age and her body was donated to my university to be preserved and used in education.

Noir (black and white), Blanc (beige and white), and Wolfy (all beige). Noir and Blanc were brothers who were "feeder bin rescues", as there was no pet rat breeders in my city, but they were given to me for free after the breeder learned they would be pets. Noir was a love bug who followed me around the room and learned several tricks, Blanc was more chill and chose to hide among my shoes or clothes to nibble on everything. Wolfy came some months later when a pet rat breeder accepted sending him from a couple of towns away. He made it his life mission to be impossible to photograph without being held at gunpoint 😅 They all passed away in different months of 2020.

Toddy (boxer) and Kira (viszla mix), my parents dogs. Kira came from a very bad situation, so she and all her siblings were rescued at only 1.5 week old by a family friend. Toddy was rescued at 3 weeks old as he was byb and his mom had health issues that lead to her being unable to nurse and then passing away less than a month after birthing.

Baby is the only pet from my childhood that I was able to find photos as of now. She was gifted to me on my 4th birthday and grew up with me until she passed of old age in Dec 2016.

[spider-xan]

There is nothing wrong with not doing Dracula Daily during its real time run this year or falling behind and only catching up now, etc., but I am begging people who are only coming into the tag after the run has ended to please actually take the time to read through the tag or find someone who regularly posts in there and has posts tagged on their own blog to read through before complaining about how wow, I can't believe no one has written about the sexism, racism, xenophobia, antisemitism, ableism, classism, queer subtext, etc. in the novel just bc you haven't seen anyone post about these things two weeks after the run ended, especially if you're going to act like everyone was either too stupid to notice or too bigoted to care, as while we can definitely debate the degree to which the fandom as a whole cared about each one in comparison, people absolutely wrote many, many posts about every single one of these topics in one way or another, but those commentaries were written in response to the e-mails in real time, which is why you're not seeing them now, and of course posting has slowed down when the run has been over for weeks.

[walkingdeadbitch]

˚♡ 𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐁𝐄𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐆! ♡˚

❝ 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐌𝐄 ❞

❥• This blog will contain 18+ content, and I'd greatly appreciate minors not interacting with said content - specifically the smut.

❥• I mainly cater to a black/bipoc and plus sized audience when I write, but anyone can read. Some mediocre art may appear, so prepare to be jumpscared. 

❥• I write for fem, gn and masc folks, but usually an afab!reader is my default for smut. I’ll have no issue writing from an amab perspective after some practice, so please be patient. 

❝ 𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒/𝐋𝐈𝐌𝐈𝐓𝐒 ❞

❥•𝐀𝐛𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐞 𝐧𝐨 - racism || colourism || anti-blackness || homophobia || transphobia || anti-lgbtqia+ rubbish || sexism || ableism || classism || xenophobia || islamophobia || antisemitism || fatphobia etc.

❥• 𝐈 𝐰𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 - non-con/rape || incest || peadophillia || beastiality etc.

❥• For a more in depth look on this, check out my 𝐑𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐨 post ♡.

❝ 𝐒𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐈 𝐖𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐑 ❞

— 𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐞𝐥 𝐌𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬 [𝐑𝐳 & 𝐎𝐠] — 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐬 𝐇𝐞𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐭 — 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐡𝐦𝐬 𝐇𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐫�� — 𝐕𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐒𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐫

❥• Mtba...

© 2022 deadbitchwalking. Please refrain from copying or reposting my works ♡.

[ladyimaginarium]

yknow what, to add onto this blog being multipurpose ( a mixture between personal, rpc, vent, queerness, alterhumanity, plurality, indigeneity & occultism, among other things!! ), I'll& be using this as an academia / writeblr / langblr / studyblr / studyplace blog, too, especially considering that is a big step for me& considering I& dropped out of college a few years ago due to mental health reasons, so I'll& be taking a mental health class, the Be There Certificate under the Born This Way Foundation which was founded by the queen Lady Gaga herself, hopefully in the future taking online free yeshiva classes & I'm& also taking free university classes bc we stan indigenous students in quote on quote "higher education" striving for education in post-secondary educational institutions that were never created for us in mind, particularly because so often academia is inaccessible to natives, especially disabled & neurodivergent natives !! we're building nations & the revolution will be indigenized !!

with that said, though, as much as we& love the academia aesthetic, imma& just say this now. to anybody who's an academic who ends up looking here: do NOT come here expecting to only see a bunch of content exclusively related to staple white academia movies & poets & writers & philosophers like william shakespeare, edgar allan poe, h.p lovecraft, j.r.r. tolkien, jane austen, sylvia plath, oscar wilde, sappho, etc. or studying van gogh's art or learning latin or listening to mozart, vivaldi or tchaikovsky, particularly where cis white men ( & sometimes cis white women ) are idolized uncritically, which isn't to say that there won't be any european works being studied here nor that they don't have their place at all bc ofc they do, it's just that i& see this so often & because of that we& intend to incorporate international world history & world literature into our& decolonized curriculum. only studying white european cultures doesn't make you an academic, bc academia, music, art, architecture & literature have existed for millennia all around the world outside of europe. you also won't be seeing any glorification of parts of the aesthetic with roots in the obsession over white/pale skin, ivy league & old money worship, the glorification of the 1%, putting cis white academics & oftentimes white eurocentric academia on a pedestal while blatantly ignoring other underrepresented cultures ( & even when poc are represented it's primarily east asian i.e han chinese, yamato japanese or korean or generally lightskinned aesthetics ), antiblack racism, antinative racism, antisemitism, islamophobia, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, queerphobia, classism, ableism, sanism, oppression & discrimination.

it's also important to note that in our& academic studies we& will be using etuaptmumk which literally translates to two-eyed seeing in mi'kmawi'simk which essentially means learning to see from one eye with the strengths of indigenous knowledges & ways of knowing, & from the other eye with the strengths of western knowledges & ways of knowing & learning to use both these eyes together, for the benefit of all, as envisaged by elder dr. albert marshall.

here's a preview of our& studies so far, with some of our& names being censored for system safety reasons:

[fruit-kick]

link to pfp // link to header // dreamwidth: lotusburned // mastodon: stardropped

[Image description: a banner with the word "Introduction" in a bubbly vintage font. the background is a picture of a neighborhood. there are orange dividers on the top and bottom. /END ID]

🍂 This blog doesn't follow a specific theme, I just reblog things I enjoy and post stuff I've made sometimes!

🍂 My current fandoms are Reverse 1999, Blue Period, Camp Camp and Saiki K!

🍂 My ask box is open to those curious and I accept basically anything, its just open for fun!

🍂 Note that I reblog some things for awareness but it doesn't mean that I personally experience those, if you dont want someone out of an experience reblogging your post, then please let me know and I'll gladly remove it! <3

[ID: orange divider. /end id]

🍂 I tag things as I go along this blog so if for example, I tag "unsanitary cw" today, I might've not tagged a post with unsanitary subjects yesterday. the date beside the tag is to let people know when I added that tag so they don't scroll past that date on my blog :)

🍂 Mentions are tagged as of 10/8/2022

🍂 Implications are tagged as of 10/24/2022

🍂 Tags are formatted like "subject (mention/implied) tw/cw". mention/implied are in parenthesis to indicate that they're also tagged when mentioned or implied

[ID: a banner with the words "Current Tags" in a bubbly vintage font. the background is a picture of a sunset. there are orange dividers on the top and bottom. END ID]

#🍊fruit.posts🏀

#🍊fruit.draws📙

#🍊fruit.edits🧶

#🍊animal.time🦀 • 9/12/2022

#🍊fruit.rants💥

#stimmy • 9/29/2022

personal tag for my favorite stimuli

#dont rb

posts i dont want anyone reblogging

#reblog

#self rb • 12/17/2022

for my own posts that i've reblogged

#positivity • 9/13/2022

#bigotry (mention/implied) tw • 9/7/2022

general tag for any form of bigotry

#ableism (mention/implied) tw • 9/7/2022

#queerphobia (mention/implied) tw • 9/7/2022

general tag for any discrimination against queer people

#transphobia (mention/implied) tw • 10/23/2022

#transandrophobia (mention/implied) tw • 10/23/2022

#transmisogyny (mention/implied) tw • 10/23/2022

#amatonormativity (mention/implied) tw • 10/23/2022

#bodyshaming (mention/implied) tw • 10/2/2022

#racism (mention/implied) tw • 9/7/2022

#colorism (mention/implied) tw • 9/7/2022

#xenophobia (mention/implied) tw • 5/2/2023

#misogyny (mention/implied) tw • 9/7/2022

#classism (mention/implied) tw • 9/7/2022

#residential schools (mention/implied) tw • 10/1/2022

#antisemitism (mention/implied) tw • 2/15/2023

#sexism (mention/implied) tw • 4/24/2023

#drugs (mention/implied) tw

#death (mention/implied) tw • 9/7/2022

#cults (mention/implied) tw • 1/5/2023

#violence (mention/implied) tw

#substance abuse (mention/implied) tw • 12/18/2022

#eating disorder (mention/implied) tw • 12/18/2022

#murder (mention/implied) tw

#pedophilia (mention/implied) tw • 11/4/2022

#blood (mention/implied) tw • 10/5/2022

#cannibalism (mention/implied) tw • 9/28/2022

#suicide (mention/implied) tw • 9/7/2022

#injury (mention/implied) cw • 9/7/2022

this is for wounds and such, so like an obvious scratch or bruise. doesnt apply to a video of someone falling off the stairs and ending up completely unscratched or scars so keep that in mind!

#gore tw • 10/16/2022

#flashing lights cw • 9/7/2022

#jumpscare cw • 9/7/2022

#eyestrain cw • 9/7/2022

#suggestive cw

#explicit cw • 9/7/2022

#unsanitary (mention/implied) cw • 9/7/2022

#rape (mention/implied) tw • 9/16/2022

#sexual assault (mention/implied) tw • 5/2/2023

#abuse (mentioned/implied) tw • 12/11/2022

#unreality

im not sure if I'm tagging this one properly so do let me know if something needs to be tagged/untagged! i tag this for posts that talk about fictional events or situations as if theyre real, and i do it for religion and other beliefs such as that. so ARGS, posts from x timeline, shifting, etc

[ID: an orange divider. /end id]

byebye!

[hypomanicsatanicpanic]

cw abuse, cults

In Chicago, I used to organize in a group that used an Alinskyist model. This model emphasizes "constructive" conflict and a top-down hierarchical structure. It was exceptionally abusive in practice.

Initial one-to-one meetings there were treated less like short agitations plus an ask, but as a tool to get new members to divulge their deep traumas so that they could be leveraged later on. It developed a kind of trauma bonding between organizers that felt really good at the time but would always come back later to bite you. Unwillingness to divulge this type of information either in private or in front of a crowd was always treated as resistance to be overcome, a wall to chip down, rather than a boundary there for a reason. Folks who resisted were just seen as "not ready to be radicalized," and we were encouraged to leave them be. So, in effect, the group preyed on victims of systemic and personal abuse, just like a cult.

My first "major" role in this organization involved planning a huge event. That was the first and only time I've ever gotten stress hives, because the cost of failing felt so high. Going to a one-week training they hosted was intensely awful. One of the exercises from that training that I remember best was an impossible group roleplay - we were divided into teams and told to take different organizing strategies to get what you wanted from the situation via compromise. Both teams came up with totally respectable strategies that would likely have worked IRL, but the moderate harshly criticized the whole group by "playing by the rules." Multiple people cried in sessions during the week because of the intense power games the moderators played with them. It triggered a really terrible month long depressive episode in me, and at least three others I knew ended up in going into inpatient mental health treatment as a result of attending that week long training.

Running on trauma and anger also meant that the organizing we were doing was running on pure anxiety, which left all of us burned out and retraumatized over and over. It was also financially unsustainable: summer organizing ran on unpaid internships (I went hungry for a summer to be able to do this). You were pressured to spend less time at your real work or side jobs to give more time to the cause. You were pressured to give slightly more money than you felt comfortable donating, because we were "funding our own liberation." You were pressured to ask friends and family for twice as much as you expected them to be able to give, in case they said yes. You were shamed for not meeting unrealistic targets that you were pressured to set for yourself.

And there was no care or mutual aid within the group. There was no accountability for ableism or antisemitism, no accountability for sexism or classism, and there was no accountability for the fact that the lead (read: paid) organizers were all Ivy-educated white folks. I was personally fired from being an administrative assistant for disability-related reasons. I went hungry again.

Failing to live to the group's impossibly high expectations meant "agitation" from people you thought of as your friends, who then used your trauma against you to push you back in line. People didn't quit because your fellow organizers were your friends, and to leave meant to be cut out.

Leaving was like leaving a cult. To this day I don't regularly speak to anyone I knew from that organization. Only now, when people are starting to come out and call out the abusive tactics on social media, am I getting even close to comfortable re-engaging when any of them.

I guess the most fucked up part of this, to me, was that these tactics often got really amazing short-term results. They got many progressive aldermen elected to a Daley- controlled council. They had multiple policy victories, including preventing fracking for many years in IL. Even if they rapidly burned through organizers, they won. Which meant a lot of us stuck with them and perpetuated the same abusive tactics and continued thinking we were doing the right thing.

It's been a real fucking trip trying to organize with the union I'm currently fighting to build, while doing my utmost to break away from those tactics, to process what was done to me, and what I've done. My current group uses a much more democratic, much less abusive/consumptive model, but I still am always questioning everything and still perpetually worry that I'm recreating this abusive cycle (though I'm doing everything in my power to do things differently this time). I want to apologize to those I hurt with these tactics during my past organizing life, but I'm not sure if it would cause them even more harm to reopen that wound. And ultimately the apology is for them, not for me.

[lovenotesuggestions]

☠🐷🕹

☠ Something that angers you

A lot of things tbh. The fact some people are insanely rich whilst others starve, lack of universal access to basic things like food, shelter, clean water, and healthcare, capitalism in general, racism in all its permutations, sexism, toxic masculinity, classism, ableism towards physical and mental disability/illness, homophobia/biphobia/biphobia/lesbophobia/ace and arophobia in all forms, transphobia/exorsexism/truscum/terfs/intersexism, fatphobia, anti-sex worker sentiment, religious bigotry like Islamophobia and antisemitism, nazis, climate change…

I could probably go on for a while but I suppose it can be summarised as “people being selfish dicks and/or not respecting other human beings when they could literally just be nice to and respectful of others” 

🐷 Junk food you can never get enough of

Jam-filled donuts are a big one, and blondies and red velvet cake. Basically any kind of cake. I have a big sweet tooth so I could keep eating cake forever. But I also really like fruit, especially cherries, mango, and cantaloupe melon 

🕹 Video game you are currently playing

I’m playing the Sims 4 at pretty much any given time, and I’ve been playing Detroit: Become Human recently too - I finished my first playthrough on totally pacifist mode, and now I wanna do a full genocide run even tho I’m a total sap and can’t even stomach choosing the mean dialogue options in video games lmao

Get to know me

[badrowboats]

I'm sorry you feel that way - it is in fact possible to be happy, only happiness looks different for everybody. Also, spoiler alert, but other places in the world have much higher minimum wages, and statistics show that those countries have many happy people. America isn't the world.

I feel like I could only appropriately answer this with that meme about you missing the point? But I don’t have that on hand so:

I’m sorry you feel that way - it is in fact possible to be happy, only happiness looks different for everybody.

I’m not here to have empty conversations about what happiness means to each individual person. Making things about individual perceptions of reality when the real conversation is about material conditions is seriously derailing for work that needs to be done, and it’s exactly the problem with what the NPR asshole was doing. I’m here to look at the way an idea/emotion like happiness gets used – a broad social trend. 

You’re also creating a semantic debate that’s maybe about “happiness” vs “contentment,” or what “happiness” really means, which is fine, I guess, but that’s not what’s happening in my post, and it’s not a real response to my post. The core of what I’m saying is that “happiness” has become a buzzword for a way of looking at the world that’s built on complacency and following a path of least resistance. Instead of changing the world, we’re meant to change ourselves to be more happy – to adjust our expectations downward and “just be happy” with what we have. But when “happiness” is used this way, the person who isn’t happy and who points out a problem – the person who refuses to put up with being sexually harassed or over-policed or paid an unlivable wage – becomes the problem. This is because 1) they won’t just be happy/grateful for what they have and 2) because they force all the happy people to have to think critically about the material foundations upon which their happiness is built, and that’s not fun. (Thus: the feminist killjoy, see, who kills all the joy by pointing out that that comedy routine isn’t funny and that actually this workplace is terrible. The problem people feel is located in the feminist, rather than the conditions being critiqued, because we were all feeling perfectly happy before and why can’t feminists just have a sense of humor?)

“Happiness” has become what some rhetoricians would call a “god term” of neoliberalism, a word that automatically carries this specific ideological baggage, no matter how much you try to use it to mean whatever you want it to mean. 

Also, spoiler alert, but other places in the world have much higher minimum wages, and statistics show that those countries have many happy people. 

No fucking shit? Almost like we need to look at happiness not as a set of highly individualized personal factors, but as the way we operate in our social systems? As though fighting to change our material conditions is more important than adjusting our expectations to meet them? This seems like it’s basically you agreeing with me, except being shitty, maybe because you don’t understand the use of the term “happiness.” 

Plus minimum wage isn’t the only factor in play here, and not even the only one brought up in my post? Structural racism, sexism, other forms of classism, homophobia, transphobia, antisemitism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, ableism, fatphobia… Those all impact people’s material realities, and my point is that – as with having an actual living wage – addressing those inequalities is the way to improve the world and the way we feel as individuals. When we are unhappy because of these structural inequalities, we should work to change the inequalities, not to be happy with what we have. Blithe prescriptions about how “happiness is possible and different for everybody” only further the idea that we need to change ourselves instead of our broken social systems.

America isn’t the world. 

Yeah, I’m pretty sure this is derailing? I’m sympathetic to feeling the over-Americanness of Tumblr, I am. (Patronizing voice: Some of my very bestest friends on this hellsite aren’t American.) But the core of what I was saying in my post – that defining “happiness” as how individuals need to adjust our expectations to meet our material conditions is neoliberal bullshit – still stands anywhere you go. It’s anywhere people talk about inequality and anywhere others treat that discussion of inequality as more of a problem than the inequality itself. (That’s the whole world and every fandom, too, btw.) 

And you know what, I am from the US, I mostly teach students who are US citizens (or are hoping to become citizens, or are citizens in all but papers), and the issue I chose as an example in my post is a major American issue that needs discussion, so coming on my post to say “America isn’t the world” is sort of…eyeroll-worthy to me? I choose a US-specific example of a universal principle (one you seem to actually kinda agree with, btw???), so you’re going to come to my asks to dismiss me for being too American?

Okay.

It turns out just ignoring a post you don’t like/understand is free. (Or go do the reading I suggested by Sara Ahmed about how happiness is a neoliberal lie. She’s not American; you’ll like her.)

[shadows-and-science-gone-mad]

I was tagged in a thing by @ridiculouslyphotogenicsinosaurus.

Firstly, I would like to sincerely thank them for doing this; I enjoy sharing with y’all but I’m crap at coming up with topics. So, thank you!

Anyway, let’s get this thing going!

***

1. Do you make your bed?

Every single day.

2. What’s your favorite number?

I’m rather partial to 56 for absolutely no reason in particular.


3. What’s your job?


I have never actually been employed. Just never had the time for it.

4. If you could go back to school, would you?


Emotionally-manipulative teachers, daily panic attacks, and copious overspending in the hopes of finding momentary distraction from how utterly miserable I was were the highlights of my time in the US Public Education System.

I’m good, thanks.

I do miss some of my high-school friends, though.

5. Can you parallel park?


I actually have an eye condition where my fields of vision don’t overlap properly, so I can’t drive at all.

6. A job you had that would surprise people?


Again, never been employed.

That said, I have done some voiceover work for a couple of short films. Nothing on a professional level, and I did it as an unpaid favor to a friend, but it’s something I guess.

7. Do you believe aliens are real?


I don’t think you’re legally allowed to write sci-fi if you don’t.

To give a real answer, the universe is too big of a place for us to be the only living things in it. Have they visited Earth? Probably not. Are we ever going to make contact with them? Again, probably not. But, the probability of there being absolutely nothing else out there is so tiny as to be functionally zero.

8. Can you drive a manual car?


I mean, I understand the basic principle and I know all the steps. But, because of the aforementioned eye thing, actually executing those steps is a bit more of a struggle.

9. What’s your guilty pleasure?

I really enjoy Jurassic Park III* and I have never encountered another human who agrees with me. I’m starting to think the JPIII fanbase might be so niche that it’s actually just me.

*as a silly action movie that makes for a fun way to kill 90 minutes

10. Tattoos?


Nope.

11. Favorite color?


I don’t have a specific favorite color, but anything that’s mostly black or dark grey with neon highlights is just *chef kiss*.

12. Things people do that piss you off?


In terms of harmless stuff that just irks me, I don’t like it when people in front of me walk really slow (my baseline speed is a brisk speedwalk), or when people say “we need to talk” without then elaborating on what we need to talk about.

In terms of actually serious issues, I had this whole big list, but then realized that I could handily sum it all up with “bigotry.” So, yeah, any form of bigotry (racism, classism, sexism, ableism, antisemitism, islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, etc.) is fucking inexcusable, and if you disagree, please leave.

13. Any phobias?


I am utterly petrified of cars. I go into full fight-or-flight mode any time I step into a parking lot, and I sprint full-speed through crosswalks. This is probably another reason why I never got a driver’s license.

Also, I get freaked out in large crowds.


14. Favorite childhood sport?


Fencing, no question.

I also enjoy a good game of badminton every now and again.

15. Do you ever talk to yourself?


Do I ever! I talk to myself so much I often get on my own nerves.
 I have had to verbally tell myself to shut up on numerous occasions.

16. What movie do you adore?



Godzilla: King of the Monsters was such an amazing experience that it actually killed my interest in the rest of the franchise, because I know they’ll never be able to top it.

17. Do you like doing puzzles?


Absolutely.

18. What’s your favorite kind of music?


Currently, I’m really into synthwave. It gives me warm fuzzy feelings.

19. Tea or coffee?


Not particularly fond of either, but I’ve never had a tea drink make me feel physically ill before. So, tea I guess.


20. First thing you remember wanting to be when you grew up?

A Therizinosaurus.

To clarify, I was 4 at the time.

***

Given that this is a tag thing, I suppose I should tag some other people in this.

I’m going to tag @stolpergeist, @littleblueflame and @strangebandmetaphor.

[an-stoirm]

Free Comfort Readings *CLOSED*

There’s a lot going on in the world right now so I figured I’d open up free readings to help comfort people. I don’t know what else I’m capable of doing right now other than this and making sure I am kept aware of the situation going on around me.

I am constantly striving to be a better person and be a safe place/person. I want to reiterate that neither I nor this blog will not tolerate oppression, racism, xenophobia, antisemitism, Islamophobia, transphobia, homophobia, misogyny, sexism, ableism, and/or classism (or any other -isms not mentioned.) If you support any of these ideologies, than my hospitality does not extend to you.

Anyways, my Comfort Readings are open. Here are the rules:

Go into my ask box and say you want a “comfort reading”

No questions, but feel free to give me a subject or something that is troubling you and I can address the reading to that.

I cannot give readings on legal processes or health prognosis.

I can’t promise that everything will be okay. Sometimes, the best answer I may get is that it’ll be over soon or that it won’t last forever.

Use an *asterisk if you want the reading to be private

Anons are welcome, but they will have to be public

Any public readings will be tagged by #allec-attempts-divination and #allec-does-comfort-readings

Feedback is always welcomed.

I’m going to be leaving these readings up for a while. I’ll update this post when I close them -- but I’m thinking probably going to keep this open until Sunday evening. I will be taking breaks, so please be patient if I don’t get to your reading right away.

One last thing: take care of yourselves, friends, and try your best to take care of others.

Thanks <3

- Allec

Readings are now closed! I got a lot more asks than anticipated and I need to close them for my mental health haha. I’ll be answering the questions in the inbox over tonight and tomorrow!