#carceral propaganda

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

Bureau of Prisons Annual Report, 1965. Top photos from wraparound cover show control room in central control at U. S. Penitentiary, Marion, Illinois. Bottom left photo shows a guard tower. Both photos by Harr, Hedrich - Blessing, Chicago.

"The Marion institution is the most recently completed and the most modern of the U. S. Prison System. Although originally thought of as a replacement for Alcatraz, Marion has become one of the foremost experimental institutions in the United States. Working in close cooperation with Southern Illinois University, Marion is developing and utilizing the latest in sociological techniques for the control and rehabilitation of offenders." Bottom right shows warden's conference in Washington, D.C., where this new control unit, intended to replace Alcatraz, was planned and discussed.

[teasdays]

Hm. noticing a few people in the reblogs (like myself) come from or live in settler states themselves! Might be a good time for all of us to reflect on that. I obviously don't advocate for violence against me & my loved ones BUT it's an important perspective & reminder <3

Israeli settlers may be "civilians" in that they're not active members of the Israeli military, but by the fact of being settlers on occupied lands, they are structurally complicit in the violence inflicted on Palestinians, just as all settler colonists have been complicit in the violence inflicted upon the colonized. Personal malice does not figure into this.

A settler who wishes not to be caught in retaliatory violence must either cease to be a settler or call for the total genocide of the Palestinian people. And I've seen an abhorrent number of people openly decide on the latter.

[rideretremando]

"STATO PENALE DI POLIZIA

Ieri sera la camera dei deputati ha approvato a larghissima maggioranza il Ddl 1660, col quale senza troppi giri di parole, si istituisce in Italia lo stato di polizia.

🔴 Il blocco stradale e quindi gli scioperi diventano reato penale con condanne fino a 2 anni di carcere;

🔴 le proteste in carcere o nei Cpr possono essere punite col carcere fino a 20 anni;

🔴 idem per chi protesta contro le grandi opere;

🔴 Anche la "propaganda" delle lotte è punibile fino a 6 anni, essendo considerata "terrorismo della parola";

🔴carcere fino a 7 anni per chi occupa una casa sfitta o solidarizza con le occupazioni;

🔴 Fino a 15 anni per resistenza attiva

🔴 Fino a 4 anni per resistenza passiva (nuovo reato, ribattezzato "anti-Ghandi")

🔴 Facoltà per forze dell'ordine di detenere una seconda arma personale al di fuori di quella di ordinanza e al di fuori del servizio.

🔴 Carcere immediato anche per le madri incinte o con figli di età inferiore a un anno

🔴 Dulcis in fundo, si vieta agli immigrati senza permesso di soggiorno finanche l'uso del cellulare, vincolando l'acquisto della SIM al possesso del permesso.

Tutto ciò col silenzio complice delle "opposizioni parlamentari", le quali al di là di un voto contrario puramente di bandiera non hanno mosso un dito per contrastare realmente le nuove leggi "fascistissime", peggiorative rispetto allo stesso codice Rocco.

Anzi: su circa 160 parlamentari, al momento del voto a Montecitorio l'"opposizione" ne aveva in aula soltanto 91!!!

Non solo: prima della votazione finale del Ddl, PD e 5 stelle hanno presentato alcuni ordini del giorno (recepiti dal governo) che impegnavano quest' ultimo ad incrementare la spesa per assumere nuovi agenti di polizia e di guardie penitenziarie: l'ennesima riprova di come, al di la di qualche sfumatura, nella sostanza siano tutti uniti nella direzione di un inasprimento dei dispositivi repressivi, funzionale alla guerra e all'economia di guerra, cioè di fatto all'introduzione di una vera e propria legge marziale!

Ora la parola passa al senato, il quale sicuramente approverà in tempi brevi questa ignobile ed infame legge.

Sosteniamo la Rete Liberi di Lottare- fermiamo insieme il Ddl 1660."

Nadia Urbinati

[probablyasocialecologist]

Captivity is a constitutive part of Palestinian life under occupation. Prior to Hamas’s attack on October 7th, Israel incarcerated more than 5,200 Palestinians—most of them residents of the West Bank and East Jerusalem—across two dozen prisons and detention centers. Some West Bank residents are incarcerated due to a still-operant military order issued following the 1967 War that effectively criminalized civic activities (e.g. gatherings of more than ten people without a permit, distributing political materials, displaying flags) as “incitement and hostile propaganda actions.” There are currently hundreds of such military orders, which criminalize anything that might be construed as resistance to the occupation. This surfeit of activities made illegal for Palestinians authorizes mass imprisonment: According to a recent estimate by the United Nations, one million Palestinians have at one time been incarcerated by Israel, “including tens of thousands of children.” One in five Palestinians, and two in five Palestinian men, have been arrested at some point in their lives, and, as of 2021, more than 100 Palestinian children faced up to 20 years in prison for throwing stones.

Not all who are arrested face charges. Israel often and increasingly makes use of “administrative detention,” a relic of the British Mandate era, which allows for indefinite incarceration without a charge or trial, ostensibly for the purpose of gathering evidence. It was a hallmark of apartheid South Africa and has been used to repress opposition in Egypt, England, India, the United States, and elsewhere, especially in the context of anti-immigration and “counter-terrorism” programs. “Since March 2002, not a single month has gone by without Israel holding at least 100 Palestinians in administrative detention,” the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem notes; often the number is much higher. Prior to October 7th, more than 20% of Palestinian prisoners were administrative detainees; 233 of the 300 Palestinians on Israel’s release list negotiated last week were administrative detainees, Al Jazeera noted. According to the Palestinian prisoner organization Addameer, imprisoned Palestinians report being beaten, threatened, strip searched, and denied healthcare and contact with their families. Palestinians currently incarcerated, as well as those freed in recent days, report that conditions have worsened since October 7th. Meanwhile, even as this prisoner release proceeds, Israel continues to ramp up arrests: As of Tuesday, 180 Palestinian prisoners have been released as part of the ceasefire exchange, but during the same period, it arrested Palestinians at nearly the same rate. Today, more than 7,000 Palestinians are incarcerated in Israeli prisons.

Nowhere is Israel’s carceral regime clearer than in Gaza, the 140-square-mile area often described as an “open-air prison.” Gaza’s residents, now an estimated 2.2 million people—80% of whom are refugees or descendents of refugees forced to flee in the mass expulsions surrounding the founding of the State of Israel that Palestinians call the Nakba—have been hemmed in by a land, air, and sea blockade since 2006. As with Palestinians incarcerated in Israeli prisons, who for years have waged hunger strikes, protested, and written about the horrors of incarceration, Gazans have struggled mightily against their confinement. In 2018–19, they held weekly nonviolent protests at the border under the name Great March of Return. Israel responded with brutal violence, killing 260 people and wounding 20,000 others, many of whom were permanently disabled. A week into Israel’s current assault on Gaza, Ahmed Abu Artema, one of the co-founders of the Great March of Return, wrote an impassioned plea in The Nation, calling for the world to “help us tear down the wall, end our imprisonment, and fulfill our dreams of liberation.” On October 24th, an Israeli airstrike severely wounded Artema and killed five members of his family, including his 13-year-old son.

It is precisely in such contexts of radical asymmetry that we find the history of hostage-taking: In the last half-century, under-resourced combatants from Palestine to Brazil to the United States and beyond have used hostages to gain political leverage. Militants, whose own lives are not valued by the powers they face, capture those whose lives they assume are deemed more valuable. This strategy often succeeds in shifting the terms of the conversation—asserting the previously dismissed hostage-takers as political actors whose demands must be negotiated. But the same dynamic that leads militants to take hostages is why the tactic so often fails: The prison state fundamentally devalues life, and ultimately may sacrifice hostages to preserve its rule. Israeli officials have said as much. “We have to be cruel now and not think too much about the hostages,” finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a cabinet meeting as Israel launched its war.

[transmutationisms]

i used to watch a lot of medical dramas (narratively rhythmic) and it's truly awe-inspiring how much propaganda you can pack into 45 minutes esp when at least 15 of them contractually have to be a musical montage. patients are gross, their bodies are funny, they're insane and too sick to know it, their suffering is their fault and the doctors feel sooo bad about it, they need to be told what's good for them and to shut up and comply. grey's is a particularly amazing variation on this imo, because it was an early example of the attempt to explicitly do characterisation via the vehicle of the medical career, meaning there's truly no way to distinguish between the medical propaganda as 'window dressing' and the human drama that keeps the show going. like, you simply have to buy into the central conceit that the pov characters are Good and Noble and Trying To Help. the best is nurse jackie bc she at least kind of fucks certain things up, but the underlying philosophy to medicine is the same and ofc the ideological work that addiction does on that show is like.... also part of this lmao. all of this to say i always thought it was funny when people were, like, suprised at house md as a sherlock variant, because to me it was glaringly clear that the reason you can amalgamate a doctor and a detective into one character is because medicine is part of the same carceral system as policing; and ofc historically the latter term has had more expansive uses including certain medical functions. mea culpa: my fav ds9 character is julian bashir

[vintagebiker43]

La macchina della propaganda benitesca è al lavoro ogni giorno.

Ieri hanno annunciato a tutto il globo terraqueo che chi occupa case sarà punito col carcere.

Come se fosse una novità introdotta da questo governo.

Peccato che ...

[crazy-so-na-sega]

schifezze dal mondo:

Migliaia di persone hanno manifestato davanti al parlamento di Atene contro un disegno di legge che aumenta l'orario massimo di lavoro a 13 ore al giorno e 78 ore settimanali, oltre a limitare il diritto di sciopero, con una pena di 6 mesi di carcere e una multa di 5.000 €

-@ravel80262268

-------

Un servo della gleba nel medioevo lavorava per il signore locale una media di 2-3 giorni a settimana. I più fortunati, come in alcune zone della Francia, non più di qualche giorno all'anno. Il servo della gleba doveva al signore locale intorno al 30% di ciò che produceva, a fronte della sua protezione fisica. Il servo della gleba quando non lavorava per il signore locale si faceva i cavoli suoi e non era controllato, né controllabile da nessuno. Il servo della gleba 2.0 lavora nel powerpointificio corporativo per 9-13 ore al giorno. Deve pagare al signore locale più del 70% di ciò che produce e per recarsi fisicamente al lavoro spesso deve superare una serie di barriere fisiche e digitali pensate appositamente per rendergli la vita difficile e rubargli quei pochi soldi che gli restano. Il servo della gleba 2.0 quando non lavora per il signore locale viene controllato da remoto con meccanismi di propaganda di massa, censura algoritmica, videosorveglianza e meccanismi di nudging e standardizzazione comportamentale. Vivi in un incubo neofeudale globale ma credi di esser più libero di un servo della gleba.

-Matte Galt

società finitissima.....

[just-antithings]

Just anti things: claiming that media that has one's fave villain die is inherently carceral propaganda when said villain only stops actively trying to kill the protagonist because they die.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"Treating Convicts Like Humans," Richmond Times Dispatch. June 7, 1942. Page 45. ==== 'In the name of the debts that we have paid arc paying and are about to pay we plead for the right to defend the nation of all nations - America,' cry inmates of the Penitentiary --- By Overton Jones BEHIND those high brick walls at 500 Spring Street a restlessness In the air these days more noticeable than usual. It Isn't because the gentle breezes of Springtime drift lazily across the penitentiary recreational field where brown-dad convicts are wont to spend their idle moments In the afternoon when the work is over.

Instead it's the war responsible for the accelerated desire to say goodbye to that institution which even in peacetimes exactly the place a person would choose in which to spend his vacation. It wouldn't be accurate to say that all of the 4200 or so prisoners confined in the Virginia penal system are chaffing at the bit in their desire to get out and do their part in this war. But it is true that hundreds of these so-called outcasts of society would nothing better than to be allowed to serve in Uncle Sam's fighting forces and to take a crack at Adolph Schickelgruber and that son of the Rising Sun. In fact the prisoners writing in the current issue of The Beacon, penitentiary inmate periodical suggest that if the sinless soldiers in the army want to be contaminated by contact with "cons" then let the government set up a "Legion Damned" in which will fight men released from the nation's prisons. "It's better than an even money bet that wen the war is over we'd be hocking more medals than twice our number among the pure and undefiled," write the two convicts.

This eagerness of outcasts to join the fight for the protection of that society may surprise some of the citizenry who enjoy the privilege of coming and going when and where they please and who know nothing of what goes on behind those towering walls on Spring Street. But Rice Youell is not surprised. After all a man who's just rounded out his twentieth year as penitentiary superintendent ought to know pretty well what to expect from the men who live behind those walls. "The patriotism of the people in prison is as good as that of the people outside" he commented. Despite their confinement they too respect the principles for which America is fighting and would like to be In there doing their bit, he explained.

Not that the major would advocate throwing open the prison doors of America and letting the entire male prison population don the military uniform. That would be foolhardy. But he believes a good many prisoners should be allowed to become soldiers, their selection, of course, being handled extremely carefully. 'Give Them a Clean Sheet' And what about these men when the war is over? Should they be slapped back into the pen? "Give them a clean sheet and let them start all," Virginia's prison head suggested. If you are inclined to question the judgment on this matter it might be to recall that for 20 years his job has been to direct the handling of Virginia's prison population and in 20 years a man ought to get to know pretty well the people he's dealing- with.

Evidently Governor Darden thinks the major has done a good job for it is reported the penitentiary superintendent soon will leave that post to take over the task of guiding the Department of Corrections set up by the recent General Assembly. When he steps into his new task Major Youell can look back on 20 years of labor on behalf of the prisoners of Virginia and for the State itself His work (and he declares emphatically that the State Prison Board deserves the major credit) has drawn nation-wide attention and prison system has in many ways become a model for other States to copy.

But leaving the more technical side of prison administration for experts to deal with, it's interesting to take a glimpse back over the years at some of the human interest which have marked the V.M.I. football career as a penologist. It's hard to get him to talk about this side of his Job because the Virginia Penitentiary superintendent the dramatic type warden you read about in the novels and see on the screen. His aim has been to do a good job of prison administration without drama publicity and frills.

Last week, though, Major Youell did take a couple of hours off to reminisce a little and to recall among other things that the famed Mais and Legenza case of 1935 probably received more publicity than any other single case in the past 20 years

If you were living in Richmond on March 9, 1934, you remember how the city was rocked by news of the highway robbery of a Federal Reserve truck at the Broad Street Station overpass and the murder of E. M. Huband, the driver. Mais, Legenza and three other members of the notorious Tri-State gang pulled the job, giving Richmond an unwelcome taste of big-time criminal activities. Moving on to Baltimore, Mais and Legenza continued their career of crime but they finally were captured in that city and by August were brought back to Richmond for trial and both were condemned to die in the electric chair at the State Penitentiary.

But if Major Youell prepared a couple of death-house cells for his two newcomers due to arrive in October he was doomed to disappointment. On September 29, a date that will live in crime history, the two murderers staged the most daring jailbreak the city has ever known. Behind them, they left a trail of blood with one policeman mortally wounded and another felled by bullets from pistols smuggled into their cells. They commandeered an automobile on East Broad Street and made their escape as police from throughout this section of the country began a gigantic manhunt In Richmond the death of the patrolman fatally wounded when the gangsters made their bold dash for freedom, the suicide of the City Jail deputy who had stood guard at their cell doors and a grand jury investigation which recommended sweeping changes in the administration marked the aftermath of the sensational break.

Call Led to Arrest Cornered, finally, on the station platform at Wayne Junction, Pa., Mais and Legenza shot it out with police but Legenza broke his leg in a 30-foot jump from an embankment to a concrete street. They escaped again but the wound forced Legenza to seek hospital treatment in New York. A telephone call from Mais to a friend in Philadelphia was intercepted by police and the two finally were captured.

It was a small army of Federal men and local police which brought the two murderers to the door of the State Penitentiary on January 22 That same day they were taken separately to Hustings Court and new dates set for their execution.

For days the hardened criminals showed no evidence of fear that the end was approaching. But as the execution date drew close they began reading their Bibles praying and singing joining the chaplain in words of familiar hymns. He would tell them the story of the condemned thief on the cross and the Master's words of promise.

"When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall be no more ..." were the words which rang through death row.

Strange, when criminals whose deeds have been blazoned across the headlines are doomed to death, reactions of the public take a peculiar twist. Major Youell received one threatening letter, warning him of dire consequences if the executions were carried out. Evangelical pamphlets flooded the mail from religious folk who hoped to be the means of saving the souls of the two condemned men.

An avalanche of requests for the privilege of witnessing the executions poured into the office Twelve witnesses saw the first of the two men die another 12 watched the second death. "You are requested to be at the penitentiary Saturday February 2 at 7:30 A.M. to witness the execution of William Davis (Legenza) Please present this card at the the door." That's the way the invitations read When Criminals Fell Out MAJOR YOUELL'S 20 years' experience virtually lacks any mass prison escape episodes. There've been numerous breaks of one or two prisoners of course but nothing on a really big scale.

It was back in '35 that the major pulled what he described at that time as "a mean piece of psychology" to foil a projected prison break. It seems that he was tipped off that five of his guests in the big house were planning to vamoose without lingering to say goodbye. But he didn't throw the five into solitary confinement or take other drastic measures. Instead, he summoned each one of the plotters individually to a prison office and seated him before an open door, where fellow conspirators could see him when they went by to the mess hall. As the major had anticipated, each plotter thought the others had squealed and a quarrel resulted. The escape plans collapsed.

Directing administration of a prison is a grim business but not without its humorous side .Take the case of the phoney French millionaire. One day back in May' 1936 Major Youell received a letter addressed to "Monsieur le Directeur du Penitencier de I-Etat de Virginia Etats Unis d'Amerique du Nord." The major opened the letter and saw it was in French and being no expert at reading that language he sent it to Arthur James, then State Welfare Commissioner, who made a translatio,n but figured better get somebody else to translate it, too, so he forwarded it to Principal James Harwood of John Marshall High School. A teacher of French at the school finally translated it and sent it back to Major Youell. First, there was a newspaper clipping from a French paper which said that "it is the penitentiary of Virginia which harbors this unusual prisoner" a nobleman who killed a woman who refused his advances being sentenced to life imprisonment for the crime. "In his cell (said the French newspaper) Juan set up an extraordinary washing machine so extraordinary that he found a' partner who allowed him 50 per cent on the profits. A year later the lawyer for the prisoner already had several thousand dollars to the account of his clien.t This did not fill Juan with Joy. He despaired at finding himself rich and in prison He attempted suicide twice. Having been saved from suicide the prisoner has become a philanthropist and from his prison he carries on works of charity he comes to the aid of poor people and of Don Juan has become a patron of the arts."

Then there was a letter to Mr. Directeur asking him to pass on to Juan another letter which explained the purpose of the communication In the letter to Juan the writer told a sad story of being broke and pleaded with the nobleman "to make a Frenchman happy by sending him same of those dollars which you dispose of."

Major Youell didn't have any prisoner answering the description of the nobleman but he did repent having at that time a French prisoner a master of invention and a little queer mentally. This fellow he said may have smuggled out a letter which resulted in the French newspaper article.

One of the less imposing but important achievements at the penitentiary in recent years has been the building up of a prison library under the direction of the Rev. Henry Lee Robison, Jr. director of religious work in State institutions.

Travel books are the most popular nonfiction volumes in the library, Mr. Robison reported. One day just before delivering a sermon to the inmates, Mr. Robison held up before them some travel books which had just been purchased for the library.

"All of us ought to be interested in traveling," he declared. There was silence for a few moments and then a roar of laughter swept through the assembly room, much to the embarrassment of the clergyman. That however was not as inappropriate as the remark made by a speaker, who told the prisoners as he left them after making an address on one occasion that he would be back the following year and "I hope to see you all again."

But more popular than any of the nonfiction books even travel are the Zane Grey Western stories. Murders too are eagerly sought after In for Readers" in The Beacon comments run like this: 'Murder Up My Sleeve," by Earl Stanley Gardner is typical of Mr. Gardner's stories. A millionaire with a reputation was murdered. Terry Clane, a new and exciting character created by Mr. Gardner, found himself involved. Using extraordinary methods to solve an extraordinary murder he beats them to the punch in a mystery that is filled with surprise cunning and excitement." And in another comment the prisoners are told that in one book the villain killed people "with mirthful and original inventiveness."

Interest in the library has been stimulated through the school at the penitentiary attendance at which is compulsory for all men who completed the fifth grade of schooling. Superintendent Youell is a firm believer in education of men within prisons, bemoaning that some people feel it's a waste of money to provide educational facilities for prisoners. "It is such a pity that so many people have the age-old feeling that the closing of prison doors behind a prisoner ends his case," he said. "We all know that the vast majority of prisoners go back to society so it is only a common sense problem that we should do everything in our power to salvage just as many of these unfortunates as possible," The penitentiary school's first annual commencement exercises were held in June 1937, in the prison chapel, while outside a terrific rainstorm beat at the windows. The stormy weather was not an omen of the future history, as it has grown in popularity and usefulness, although those directly responsible would like considerably more money to provide better equipment with which to work.

One old Negro convict who even read a few years ago now values above all his possessions a Bible and an oversized dictionary. He gave a Negro boy five bags of marbles for the dictionary. Asked how much he would sell his two books for he replied:

"Boss them books are going to be with me when I die." There was another man who was condemned to die in the chair but shortly after the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment he turned up at the school and in due course was graduated after having completed the fifth grade. Not satisfied with graduating once, he was on hand again the following September and went through the course and was given another diploma. They finally had to make him an instructor to get him out of school. Three Causes of Discontent SPEAKING with the authority of a man with 20 experience in penology Major Youell last week listed three things which can cause trouble among prisoners at a penitentiary: overcrowding, poor food, and idleness. Today, the food at the penitentiary is good - not fancy, of course, but adequate and nourishing. The writer of this article and Major Youell were walking through the penitentiary last week when the superintendent stopped to chat a moment with an old Negro prisoner. The Negro who said he had been at the pen since 1904, was asked about the food and according to his account what's put on the table in the prison mess hall today is like a banquet compared to those days when he first entered the institution.

As to idleness today, there is no such problem at the prison here. Ten excellent prison industries are operating teaching the men fine workmanship in the wool and cotton textile trades, printing, metal trades, and machine shops. Not only do the men learn useful trades, which they can find of value when they leave prison, but they also are kept occupied producing goods which State institutions use. In the field of prison industry Virgina's penitentiary stands as a model for other States. As to the first of the trouble-makers listed by the superintendent - that of overcrowding Virginia - certainly has been guilty of allowing this situation to exist at the big house on Spring Street. In small cells which only one man should sleep three men have been living. One of the three has had to sleep on the floor.

Fortunately, though, even as this is being written officials are making arrangements to move many of the prisoners to the new cell house just completed on the penitentiary grounds and when the new unit is occupied there will be only one man to a cell. Each cell has a cot, table, chair, sanitary facilities, an enclosed lighting fixture, operated from a main switch, and plugs for radio headsets. Each prisoner will have earphones on which he can listen to the radio according to Major Youell.

And so life in the penitentiary moves on a life not pleasant perhaps but far less abhorrent under modern penal theories than that of even a few decades ago when all emphasis was on punishment and not on rehabilitation. Today in Virginia's penitentiary convicts can express their views through their own prison publication, just as they are doing in the timely discussion on the proposal that men in prison be released to serve in the armed forces.

"The heart that beats under a prison shirt is Just as truly American as the heart of the man in the street," says The Beacon. "Contrary to popular belief most men in our prisons today have an honest regret for the mistakes of the past and a burning desire to make amends. Most of us ask for plead for the privilege of defending a flag that is as dear to us as to John Q. Public. Most of us would feel extremely honored to die behind a smoking gun aimed toward society to know that we too know how to die for so worthy a cause. "When America has completely smashed her rodent foes and if there should be any of the 'Legion left alive reward us with supervised parole until proven our right to permanent freedom.

"In the name of the debt that we have paid are paying and are about to pay to society we plead for the right to defend the nation of all nations, America." Photo captions:

Top left: Rice Youell (left) who has rounded out 20 years as penitentiary superintendent confers with Frank Smyth who is in charge of prison industries such as the metal shop at right. Middle: Dapper Gangster Robert Hals and his henchman Walter Legenza created more notoriety for their murderous robbery here and subsequent prison break in 1934 than was attached to any other Penitentiary case in the last generation.

Top right: Trouble caused at the Big House by crowding three into a one-man cell about to be done away with.

[Top notch carceral propaganda - the large scale Virginia road camp system, where the majority of African American prisoners were incarcerated, is not mentioned once.]

[loving-n0t-heyting]

Man reading your recent anons is like a bull seeing red. A majority of them are trying to pull the position of "have you tried supporting carceral punishment? It's good I swear" or some level of "People who did sex crimes deserve to have all their rights taken away 🥰" but in the indirect way a lot of people trying to be woke are.

It's deeply frustrating but I'm glad you're being calm and giving facts and sources

i think i probably count as "supporting carceral punishment" tbh? i dont think full abolition is a realistic political possibility in the foreseeable future, and i think the posture of championing the impossible so you cannot be co-opted by the opposition on this subject probably does more harm than good. nor do i think it would be a remotely good idea to strike down rape and sexual assault as crimes carrying the possibility of imprisonment, even as there are many many cases where i think it is highly individually inappropriate and vicious to report and seek charges as a rape victim, given the potential consequences for the rapist

opposition to registries is independent of and more moderate than opposition to incarceration altogether. they are not only inhumane but manifestly unconstitutional and at best dubiously effective as a public safety measure, and we have running experiments of life without them in the form of almost every other country on earth; immediate abolition has basically no drawbacks or impediments except political backlash and reluctance. compared to prison abolition, "sex offender registries are worse than rape" is cautious and reformist

its great when ppl respond to attacks on registries with "but they deserve it"! theyre doing our propaganda for us: by advertising the registries punitive nature their official proponents have to perform legalistic cartwheels to deny, they are openly boasting of its unconstitutionality. "every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned."

[aronarchy]

November 28, 2022

On Nov. 19, the eve of Transgender Day of Remembrance, a man entered an LGBTQIA+ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and opened fire on its patrons. Five people were killed. Anti-LGBTQIA+ violence is on the rise, and those promoting queerphobic hate speech—from political pundits to media outlets—share responsibility for the escalation. The promotion of hate speech is stochastic terrorism, the deployment of rhetoric demonizing a marginalized group and calling for their elimination to the point of inciting violence against them.

By fearmongering about gender-related care for trans and nonbinary youth and crafting conspiracy theories that paint queer and trans people as “groomers” who prey on children, the conservative right weaponizes concern for the safety and well-being of children to fuel stochastic terrorism. But the language around protecting children is merely a smokescreen to obscure their true aim of further oppressing minors through a Christofascist rule.

Theologian Tom F. Driver describes Christofascism as “the political direction of all attempts to place Christ at the center of social life and history.” These attempts to impose conservative religious views and values on society are done through the creation of social, medical, legal, and carceral consequences for those who deviate from conservative Christian standards.

Since 2020, hundreds of anti-LGBTQIA+ bills have been drafted and proposed by religious right legislators around the country. Trans-eliminationists and conversion therapy advocates have used anti-LGBTQIA+ propaganda to draw in more evangelical voters and elect more ultra-conservative lawmakers who will appease white Christian nationalists. The majority of these anti-LGBTQIA+ bills have targeted trans and nonbinary youth because targeting children is the most opportune way to garner support and secure political power for adults vying for totalitarian control of minors.

Children are an oppressed class in our society, and religious spaces operate in large part through the indoctrination, control, and subjugation of children. It remains a common evangelical strategy to focus on protecting children from sexual exploitation and impropriety to advance their political agendas, even as the church continues to harbor known sexual abusers. Having no political power and very little recourse against parental or institutional abuses, minors are convenient targets—both as abuse victims and political fodder.

In early November, Texas State Rep. Cole Hefner introduced a bill to criminalize gender-affirming care for trans and nonbinary minors, classifying it as “family violence” and a form of criminal child abuse. Under the proposed law, providers and parents in Texas could face up to 20 years in prison for facilitating evidence-based gender-affirming care to improve children’s lives. It’s the latest in a string of anti-trans bills emerging nationwide, leaving at least a third of minors at risk of losing gender-affirming care.

According to House Bill 672, “administering or supplying, or consenting to or assisting in the administration or supply of, a puberty suppression prescription drug or cross-sex hormone to a child, other than an intersex child, for the purpose of gender transitioning or gender reassignment” will be considered child abuse and banned. The intersex exception here is significant. The bill notes that intersex children have characteristics that “are not suited to the typical definition of male or female or are atypical for the determined sex of the child.”

The same medical interventions that are life-saving for trans and nonbinary children—lowering the odds of suicidality and improving health outcomes—are detrimental when imposed upon intersex youth. While legislators seek to ban trans and nonbinary children from having autonomous access to gender-affirming care, these same medical interventions are not only freely allowed for intersex children but often forced upon them before they are old enough to consent.

Most intersex surgeries are performed on children younger than 2 years old. These medically unnecessary procedures are done to align children’s genitalia and reproductive anatomy with gendered social expectations, creating “life-long harms [such as] scarring, chronic pain, chronic incontinence, loss of sexual sensation, sterilization, inaccurate gender assignment, and trauma,” according to the National Health Law Program, an organization that works to protect and advance the health rights of low-income and underserved people. House Bill 672 defines gender-affirming and life-saving care for trans and nonbinary children as child abuse while specifically and strategically permitting the continued systematic harm of intersex children.

As intersex advocate Amanda Saenz wrote for Prism, intersex children often grow up under parental and medical surveillance to ensure their alignment with societally defined gender and biological sex norms. Those “who grew up to be gay or trans were understood as ‘diagnostic failures’ by their doctors because their goal in ‘treating’ intersex children was to render straight cisgender adults through hormonal and surgical interventions,” Saenz wrote. The goal of these “treatments” is to support the control and obedience of children, not to support the well-being of children.

The specification of “for the purpose of gender transitioning or gender reassignment” included in the language of the bill is as significant as the intersex exception. This is a cisgender exception, meaning the bill specifically bans hormone therapy to treat gender dysphoria but permits the same hormone therapy for children who conform to their assigned gender. The “puberty suppression prescription drug[s]” that legislators want to restrict for trans and nonbinary youth are regularly used to treat precocious puberty in cisgender children.

As pediatric endocrinologist Jason Klein explained to VICE, “Puberty blockers have been used for decades in cisgender kids who either are going through puberty too early, or, in some instances, kids who are going through puberty very quickly.” According to VICE, the lies claiming that puberty blockers “are inherently dangerous and suffer from a lack of long-term, longitudinal data” are pervasive throughout the proposed legislation to ban hormonal therapy for trans and nonbinary children, contributing to the larger goal of codifying legal discrimination against any form of queerness. “Their use has been FDA approved, well-studied, well-documented, and well-tolerated for a long time now,” Klein said to VICE. “And it’s the exact same medication that we use in trans or nonbinary children to basically put a pause on pubertal development. Exactly the same medications, at exactly the same doses.”

The push to ban gender-affirming care for trans and nonbinary youth and force medical interventions on intersex children is driven by the Christofascist desire to eliminate queerness and force strict societal adherence to the mythological gender binary.

The Christofascist intent to prosecute parents and providers who facilitate care for trans and nonbinary children is rooted in the subjugation of children and the hatred of queerness. It is made possible by our collective denial of children’s bodily autonomy and narrative authority over their identities. We exist in a culture where adults regard children as blank forms that can be molded into whatever they deem appropriate.

Proposed bans on gender-affirming care for trans and nonbinary youth are about children’s rights as much as they are about the right to trans and nonbinary existence. Acknowledging that children are an oppressed class reveals how anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation and rhetoric targeting trans and nonbinary youth takes root and flourishes in a society that does not understand children as human beings deserving of rights.

[noneun]

Julian Assange è libero e sta tornando in Australia.

Assange ha accettato un patteggiamento di 62 mesi, già scontati nei carceri britannici, in cambio dell’ammissione di colpevolezza per alcuni capi d’accusa. Questo gli ha evitato un processo negli USA che avrebbe potuto comportare fino un massimo di 175 anni di carcere.

Sembra incredibile che una vicenda sostanzialmente iniziata nel lontano 2010, con i primi leak ricevuti da Chelsea Manning e pubblicati da Wikileaks, arrivi finalmente ad una conclusione.

Una conclusione che disinnesca una delle argomentazioni filorusse riguardo le responsabilità del Cremlino negli omicidi di giornalisti russi. Argomentazione che rientra nella categoria “e allora le foibe?!”.

Come se i 36 giornalisti russi assassinati dal 1992 fossero paragonabili a un singolo giornalista imprigionato per accuse di cospirazione. Ed ora liberato. Forse come parte della strategia elettorale democratica, ma tant’è.

Non è facile dare una valutazione generale all’operato di Assange e al valore delle informazioni rilasciate da Wikileaks. Così come sono indubbie le ripercussioni negative sulla sicurezza nazionale degli Stati Uniti e i rischi per la vita di informatori, attivisti e diplomatici, così i leak hanno rappresentato un punto fondamentale per l’accesso trasparente alle informazioni, il riconoscimento di responsabilità per crimini di guerra, torture e detenzioni illegali.

Purtroppo, questa enorme quantità di informazioni ha creato un enorme disequilibrio rispetto alle quasi nulle informazioni provenienti dal lato russo, alimentando paradossalmente disinformazione e propaganda. Influenzando elezioni e favorendo proprio chi tratta ancor peggio i giornalisti scomodi.

[transmutationisms]

ok i apologise if this is a bad question because i don’t know anything about politics but i liked your bourgeois failpolitics post and would love it if you could expand further especially on how their ideological horse blinders lead them to justifying/reproducing what’s trapping them in the first place especially given how some of them, in theory, have “principles” & i guess how the show explores politics in general. again sorry if this is poorly formed i know nothing!!

hmm, not a bad question, but many directions to go in here.

first of all, none of them claims to be anti-capitalist ideologically. shiv wants to be a moral capitalist, kendall wants to be a coolguy capitalist, connor wants to be a virtuous capitalist (different from shiv's morality), and roman wouldn't identify with any ideological term but thinks capitalism is inescapable and omnipotent, and therefore not worth objecting to in any way. so even aside from their class interests, there's no ideological inconsistency between any of their political positions and the actions they take to preserve or strengthen waystar.

since shiv and connor are the ones with political principles, i think they're a good place to start.

shiv is a liberal, meaning she believes in individual liberty, private property, and equality under the law. her line "what if a good person ran waystar" is telling: she doesn't want to alter the fundamental structure of the economy or waystar, but she thinks someone with (her own) principles should be running the propaganda machine. she's being genuine when she talks about reform and wanting the company to be better, but this should not be mistaken for any kind of opposition to the economic structure.

connor self-identifies as a libertarian, so he's in the liberal tradition but with an increased emphasis on individual liberty. by this, he means private property rights, so his politics broadly oppose government intervention (regulation, social welfare policies, labour protections) except where the police / military state and the carceral apparatus are concerned (these are necessary to protect property). connor never had any real hope of inheriting waystar, but his politics are still broadly in support of it, insofar as it's a corporate interest and connor sees 'creating wealth' as a political virtue.

roman and kendall are simpler in this respect. as i've written before and many people have pointed out, kendall wants to kill dad and wants to be a 'good person,' but has no concrete sense of what that means and therefore no principled opposition to anything about waystar or its economic functioning. roman sees capitalism as totalising and inevitable, so it's not something he would ever bother taking a stance against, plus taking any kind of stance is lame anyway. fundamentally he wants daddy's love (kendall is motivated more by daddy's respect, which is why he needs to become a killer).

so the siblings' tendency to reproduce and reinforce their own oppression basically comes from the fact that none of them has the ideological or epistemological creativity to espouse any kind of anti-capitalist critique. there are nuances here (shiv places more value on the idea of market competition, like when she opposes the move to buy pierce in s2; connor sees flows of capital and flows of reproduction as part of the same political economy, hence his usury and onanism line), but at the end of the day they all accede to logan's economic worldview. in their minds, there's no reasonable or viable alternative. they have extremely limited understandings of political ideology, as evidenced by them all thinking that shiv's liberalism is, like, radically different from logan's. in many ways the intra-familial ideological disputes are a smokescreen distracting from the underlying economic convictions they all share.

as to the show's handling of politics in general: it's strange to me that more people don't point out that jesse armstrong has at least a passing familiarity with marx and has referenced him in discussing the show. the main narrative drive for the show is psychological, not ideological; nevertheless, it rests on a view of politics that basically builds off marx's base-superstructure distinction, with politics as an ideoological superstructure determined by the economic base. this doesn't mean people with the same class interest will have exactly the same ideology (obviously, the sibs don't; idt armstrong goes in for that type of crude determinism), but capitalism has a tendency to narrow the field of envisioned possibilities, hence the way that all four sibs fail to see any other economic arrangement as viable or even worth considering.

[gcorvetti]

Che dire.

Oggi ho fatto un giro delle cose che vengono scritte online, non le chiamo notizie perché il giornalismo è bello che deceduto come lavoro, a parte qualcuno che ancora fa come insegnano nella scuola di giornalismo cioè va sul posto e fa domande o si reca nei luoghi appositi e prende informazioni. Si parla ancora dell'ultimo femminicidio (termine che per quanto non concordo oramai è nel vocabolario) anche se a quanto ho capito dopo ce n'è stato un altro, passato quasi inosservato avvenuto a Fano due giorni dopo quello di Giulia, questioni mediatiche. Leggo che il tipo che l'ha uccisa è stato prelevato in aeroporto da uno stuolo di forze dell'ordine, peccato che quando la vittima ha chiamato non c'era un poliziotto, un carabiniere o un finanziere disponibile ad accertarsi che nulla accadesse, perché viviamo nella società che cerca la cura e non la prevenzione, infatti leggo anche che il tizio verrà messo in un carcere speciale isolato dai malviventi comuni, perché un assassino non lo è? Però lui è di buona famiglia, quel coglione di salvini (come fate a sopportare così tale ignoranza e stupidità lo sapete voi) scrive "SE" è colpevole, cioè scusa mattè fammi capire, cosa non ti è chiaro del fatto che ha ucciso la sua ex? A propaganda live giustamente ci ridono nel rispetto del caso e mostrano un tweet di un pò di tempo fa dove l'assassino era uno di colore e per il ministro (che a chiamarlo così è un insulto alla politica) è colpevole al 100%, quindi poi hanno mostrato il meme di Peter Griffin con il pantone del colore della pelle, come per dire c'è del razzismo tra le istituzioni ma non è grave, non poco direi. Poi va bè ognuno dice la sua, ma in un trafiletto leggo che le bollette aumenteranno da dicembre, quindi tutto per sviare da uno dei problemi attuali, non tanto le bollette in se, ma il fatto che oramai ci si è dimenticati della guerra in ucraina, eh già, che fine hanno fatto i cattivoni russi, che naturalmente spariscono davanti ai buoni israeliani che massacrano i palestinesi, anche questo è distrazione di massa? Che quella ucraina era una guerra per punire l'europa si sapeva, e che a nessuno è venuto in mente di dire no per evitare crisi economiche e rincari vari, mancu ppo cazz. Dopo aver letto il libro di Mark Fisher devo dire che tutto ha assunto più che una direzione e chiarezza, anche se naturalmente ci sono svariate zone d'ombra che non è compito mio indagare ma che mi fanno pensare a quello che stiamo vivendo, dalle tensioni spesso create ad hoc mediaticamente a quelle reali per via di un sistema oramai collaudato dove a finire sul tritacarne non sono i colpevoli materiali ma il sistema stesso, vedere la crisi 2008/2009 delle banche dove nessun banchiere ha pagato e il tutto è ricaduto come sempre sulle persone attraverso l'aumento delle tasse perché per salvare le banche private sono stati usati soldi pubblici, nessuno ha chiesto di fare un referendum per vedere cosa ne pensano le persone direttamente interessate, chissenefrega delle persone, al dolore ci si abitua, come ad una droga e ci vuole più dolore, come se bastonando un cane ripetutamente e tutti i giorni quel cane per quanto buono un giorno ti sbranerà.

Andiamo oltre che la situazione è già una merda e non ci vuole l'apporto del Corvaccio per puntualizzare che siamo nella merda, ma secondo me si può uscire dalla merda in cui ci troviamo, semplicemente combattendo il sistema dove gli fa più male, il denaro, sarebbe bello vedere almeno la metà della popolazione mondiale non acquistare più niente, non usare più l'automobile, non comprare più nessuno tipo di droga legale (alcol, sigarette e farmaci), non andare più a spendere i pochi soldi che restano in tasca pagati i conti regalandoli alle multinazionali che per fare profitto distruggono il pianeta, così facciamo anche contenta Greta. Utopia, il mio mondo ideale è utopico, dove tutti hanno il posto che si meritano per quello che sanno fare, senza distinzione di sesso, religione anzi nel mio mondo non ci sarebbero religioni, colore, nazionalità ecc ecc, un mondo dove tutti si prendono cura del prossimo perché siamo tutti nella stessa barca e se uno va a fondo si tira dietro tutti, dove nessuno resti senza cibo o un posto dove dormire al caldo, dove tutti sono allo stesso livello e nessuno percepisce stipendi da nababbi solo perché è tal dei tali messo li da pinco pallino. Penso che solo così possiamo salvaguardare il genere umano, si forse un pò troppo apocalittico, ma stando all'andazzo del periodo storico che viviamo si può benissimo dire "A me che me frega, io tanto fra 20 anni vi saluto se mi va bene, se mi va male anche prima e per quello che mi resta vi vengo in Q", l'egoismo odierno è diventato un arma contro le bugie e le ingiustizie del sistema, girarsi dall'altra parte ti fa solo aggirare l'ostacolo, prima o poi il problema ti si rinfaccia e non avendo una cultura della responsabilità ti si ritorcerà contro perché non hai gli strumenti per risolvere il problema, e il sistema non è da meno, Fisher dice che non ha nessuna importanza cambiare tutte le persone che lavorano in un dato settore, perché anche quelle nuove saranno infettate dal sistema e di conseguenza agirebbero come quelle precedenti. Concludo, che mi sono allungato, con la frase di inizio del libro "E' più facile pensare alla fine del mondo che a quella del capitalismo".

Musica

[wreckitremy]

The Political Platform of the Democratic Socialists of America:

Abolition of the Carceral State

Abolition of White Supremacy

A Powerful Labor Movement

Economic Justice

Gender and Sexuality Justice

Green New Deal

Health Justice

Housing for All

International Solidarity,

Anti-Imperialism, and Anti-Militarism

DSA' Political Platform on

Gender and Sexuality Justice

DSA is a socialist feminist organization. We organize people of all genders to fight against systems of oppression and exploitation, including patriarchy, capitalism, and white supremacy.

Liberal representation feminism is content with increasing the number of female faces in oppressive structures. A few women in positions of power, however, is not liberation. Liberation means all genders having freedom and control over their own lives and bodies through ending exploitation.

DSA fights to build a feminism for and by the working class and all oppressed people. Capitalism specifically impacts women workers through devaluing of feminized labor, sexual violence in the workplace, unpaid housework, and the expectation of emotional labor.

DSA fights for the democratization of domestic and care work, political and social liberation for all genders, full bodily autonomy for all, and the end of state recognition of the gender binary.

We stand in solidarity with grassroots feminist movements around the world in their fight against capitalist oppression and exploitation.

We organize for the liberation of queer people, understanding that liberation – having the power to define our life choices, and fulfill our greatest potential — depends on achieving economic justice for the multiracial working class, and all oppressed people.

We fight against violence against black transgender women, federal and state discrimination, and all political and social barriers to full control over ourbodies and sexualities. We seek equity so that queer people, subject to discrimination and violence, have the means to livea liberated, fulfilling life.

We strongly oppose “rainbow capitalism,” in which banks, police, andcorporations wrap themselves in Pride flags during June in order to make profit, all while exploiting queer workers.

We likewise reject “homonationalism,” the process of using superficial support of LGBTQ+ people, such as US military propaganda featuring gay couples, to provide cover for the brutalities of the American empire. Companies in the military-industrial complex may march in corporate Pride parades, but we recognize them for what they are: enemies of the global working class, and of the international queer liberation movement.

We seek nothing less than liberation.

OUR DEMANDS:

Reproductive Justice for All

Free contraception and birth control for all who want it, provided by the state

Free fertility treatment for all

Free abortion on demand

Repeal of the Hyde Amendment and all legal restrictions on abortion access

Reparations for all those impacted by reproductive and sexual violence committed by the state, such as those forced to undergo hysterectomies in ICE detension

An immediate end to forced sterilization of disabled people

Affordable representation of disabled people within family courts

Protection and expansion of the legal rights of disabled parents regarding guardianship

Paid parental leave for all people

Universal child care, elder care, and pre-kindergarten

Quality, age appropriate, and comprehensive sex-ed taught in schools

End Employment and Housing Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression

Enact federal and state anti-discrimination laws, including passage of ENDA and the Equality Act, as well as the addition of “sexual orientation, gender identity and expression” as a protected category in all human rights laws

Require “just cause” for evicting someone from housing or terminating employment

Enhance and strengthen equal pay guarantees, including by requiring the EEOC to resume collecting pay data from large employers, forbidding prior salary from being considered in setting pay rates, and increasing transparency and protections for workers discussing their own pay

Housing for all and a universal ban on housing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity

End Anti-Queer Violence

The establishment of community-based response systems to transphobic and homophobic violence, especially violence targeting black trans women, that is entirely separated from the police and criminal law system

Put in place greater protections for survivors of sexual assault and abolition of the requirement that survivors file a police report to access funds

Allow transgender prisoners to be housed in facilities reflecting their gender identities

Guarantee Queer-Friendly and Gender Affirming Healthcare

Enact a single-payer Medicare for All system that provides free queer sexual health and gender affirming healthcare, including HIV care, PrEP, fertilty treatments, birth control, abortion care, mental health care, hormone replacement therapy, and gender-affirming surgeries

Allow trans minors to access gender affirming care without parental consent

Prioritize funding for health centers that provide transgender healthcare, especially in rural and conservative areas, on reservations, and in underserved urban areas

Guarantee that transition-related healthcare, including HRT and surgery, to all incarcerated people who request it

End gender restrictions in insurance coverage, such as the practice of only covering contraceptive costs for women, and demand healthcare tailored to our actual bodies rather than our ID cards

End gendered restrictions on medical care, including but not limited to services available to sexual assault survivors

End the Repression of Sex Workers and Fully Decriminalize Sex Work Nationwide

Repeal FOSTA/SESTA

Increase consideration of the intersection of disability and sex work and provision of specific resources for disabled sex workers

Dignity for domestic and care workers

Increased wages for domestic labor and care work, including through a $15 minimum wage indexed to inflation

Require domestic laborers and home health aides to be paid for all hours worked

The end of mandated 24-hour workdays

End the State Recognition of the Gender Binary and Enforcement of Heteronormativity

Remove all barriers and requirements to changing one’s ID gender marker and legal name

End all laws prohibiting cohabitation of unrelated people, which exist only to privilege the heterosexual nuclear family over nontraditional and chosen family

End conversion therapy and provide stronger supportive care for minors whose families abandon them

Grant all privileges afforded to married couples to all consenting partnerships

Eliminate the financial and healthcare barriers for disabled people to marry freely

This pamphlet contains an excerpt from the Political Platform of the Democratic Socialists of America, ratified at the organization’s 2021 National Convention. The platform is a living document, up for amendment by our highest deliberative body, the national convention, every other year. You can read the current version of the full platform at ntdsa.org/nationaldsaplatform

Read the latest version of DSA’s full platform at

ntdsa.org/nationaldsaplatform

[crazy-so-na-sega]

hanno sciolto i cani?

Una nuova strategia della tensione su scala europea: hanno sciolto i cani…

Per chiunque sia concentrato esclusivamente nella situazione della sua nazione è difficile cogliere la delicatezza e l’insidia del momento attuale.

L’inquisizione antifascista (o antinazionale) ha raggiunto livelli che non si conoscevano da decenni. Vengono vietate non solo le manifestazioni politicamente scorrette, ma perfino le commemorazioni. La propaganda dei media sta sbandierando un pericolo fascista del tutto assurdo. 

Intanto si organizzano e colpiscono bande armate internazionali. Limitandoci a quanto ufficialmente stabilito nei processi, ci sono stati 18 tentati omicidi in Germania e 9 in Ungheria ad opera degli antifa. Gli imputati sono incompatibili per il carcere secondo i giudici tedeschi. In Grecia sono stati arrestati degli anarchici dopo attentati all’esplosivo – con vittime – e, benché siano stati trovati in possesso dei timer, sono stati rilasciati per insufficienza di prove. 

Sembra di rivivere la nascita della strategia della tensione degli anni settanta in Italia, ma su scala europea. 

Cui prodest?

-Kulturaeuropa