#community violence intervention

[storystitchers]

Celebrate 2023 Stitchers Style!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQirbHnZ44A Enjoy a video montage of 2023 with Saint Louis Story Stitchers artists as they move around Saint Louis, Missouri collecting and sharing stories, music, and dance with an eye on change to create a healthier and more peaceful region for all. This year the artists opened The Center, a new studio space for creative youth development, with St. Louis Mayor…

[delicatelysublimeforester]

Breaking the Silence: Creating Safe Spaces for All

[lmsintmedia]

Benue Violence: Army Vows to Hunt Down Perpetrators of Deadly Attacks

Amid a wave of deadly attacks ravaging parts of Benue State, the Nigerian military has pledged swift action against those behind the recent killings. On Saturday, June 14, 2025, Major General Moses Gara, Commander of Operation WHIRL STROKE (OPWS), arrived in the affected areas to address the unfolding crisis. General Gara visited Yelwata Village, Tse-Mtwenem, Daudu, and Iye Village—all recently…

[rightnewshindi]

मेरठ में ईद की खुशियां मातम में बदलीं: नमाज के बाद दो पक्षों में खूनी संघर्ष, पथराव और फायरिंग से कई घायल #News #HindiNews #IndiaNews #RightNewsIndia

[townpostin]

Hindu Leader Chintu Singh Condemns Violence Against Hindus in Bangladesh

Chintu Singh warns of protests in India if violence against Hindus in Bangladesh continues; urges Modi government to intervene. Hindu leader Chintu Singh demands immediate action from Bangladesh government to stop targeted violence against Hindus. JAMSHEDPUR – Hindu leader Chintu Singh demands immediate action from Bangladesh government to stop targeted violence against Hindus. Hindu leader…

[inky-duchess]

Fantasy Guide to Cults and Cult Leaders

Cults are a terrifying concept. The idea of a group of people under the control of a singular figure or belief that is isolated from what one knows or understands is unsettling. Cults are interesting because at their heart, they are complex dynamics which highlight some of the most unsavoury parts of human nature and the damage imposed from the imposition of certain lifestyles and beliefs upon a group of, sometimes, vulnerable people.

If it Quacks like a Cult, it probably is a Cult

A cult is a group of people who share a certain belief in how they must live their lives. Cults are usually closed communities, very often separating themselves from the mainstream society in order to protect their way of life and live in the bubble of their beliefs. Cults control, usually everything from what you might eat to who you can speak to. It ingrains in every aspect of your life, it takes over the way you live, the way you think and it draws you in like a mouth to the flame.

How a Cult Operates

A Cult doesn't have to use violence in order to control their members.

Isolation is the biggest weapon a cult has to impose their values and take control. If you prevent any outside intervention or prevention, you can impose control better. Cults typically either physically isolate their members from society, friends and family or emotionally isolate them, by telling them what they want to hear and speaking ill of the outside world. The thought of 'us vs them' is a feature that always has centre stage in a cult.

Indoctrination is used to impress certain ideas upon somebody else through repetition. Any outside thought or contradiction is explained away or discouraged. Only the ideas that the group has are right, anything else is either wrong or close to sinful. It isn't exactly that people in a cult are gullible, its that cult leaders understand their weaknesses and prey on them. They focus on things that the group mistrusts and offers protection from it.

Peer Pressure is also used. The group as a whole, armed with the beliefs of the leader, are often a weapon deployed against other members. Think about it, if you were alone in a group of people and they began to isolate you or make your life unpleasant and you had no escape, you would probably conform by the end. Human nature seeks approval, especially in a group setting.

Control over almost every aspect of life is also used. Cults usually follow strict rules. Members will have to live their lives along certain rules, how they act, what they say, who they speak to, what they believe, what they do at certain times etc. The The Peoples Temple implemented sleep deprivation on its members. The Heaven's Gate Cult had a strict vegan diet. The Aum Shinrikyo Cult bathed in the blood of their leader.

Punishment would be used to correct members who step out of line or stray from the teachings. This can be anything to social stigma and isolation to physical abuse. Sometimes even the fear of punishment is enough to keep the members in line.

Cult Leaders

Cult leaders are charismatic. They draw people in due to their knowledge and instinct of what people want and they know how to make them believe that they are the one person to deliver it. Leaders will prey on the fears of their followers, making themselves seem understanding of the member's fears and plight. They will form control around the group by presenting themselves as the answer or the salvation or the path in which the members can find it. They will manipulate relationships between members, playing them off against one another or fostering close relationships to foster competition between members. They will exploit the group for whatever they can be it money or other favours; it is not uncommon for the leaders of cults to form intimate relationships with members.

Why People Join Cults

Cults offer answers. They might be whacky answers like UFOs but it is an answer. People crave something to believe in, they want something to live for. It's a mixture of desperation, desire to be apart of something larger and a need for approval and social connection. People need something bigger than themselves and they will look for that, even in the worst of places.

Escaping a Cult and Life Beyond

People can and have escaped cults. Finding the strength to question what the cult teaches you and then the strength to abandon the life you have built in the community, takes a lot out a person. First, the person will begin to become disillusioned by the ideals and dynamics in the community, this can be due to their treatment or the fact that the cult has yet to deliver the promise they made at the beginning. They may even become liberated by an outside influence and realise the situation they are in. Leaving a cult may be dangerous so it is up to your character to plan an escape. Some cult survivors used help from outside to free themselves but an escape first comes from gradual separation from aspects of the cult. But even when somebody escapes a cult physically, the emotional and mental toll can still leave scars. They may still live in fear of the leader and the community exacting retribution, they may still internalise some of the teachings of the cult, they may have a hard time adjusting to mainstream society. They will have a long road in unlearning the harmful practises and thoughts of the cult. They will need a good support system to rebuild their lives and rebuild their relationships with friends and family.

[trans-axolotl]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[amostimprobabledream]

The Sweetest Violence (Homelander x Reader)

Just a lil drabble, also available on Ao3! https://archiveofourown.org/works/57696463

"Sssh..." Blood. So much blood. The fetid stink of it is everywhere. It fills up your nostrils and chokes up your senses. It's thick and sticky in your hair, hot and drying in stiff patches on your skin. You feel like you could take a hundred showers, soak in the bath for hours and hours and it still wouldn't get rid of the sensation of blood clinging to your flesh. Homelander doesn't seem to notice or care about the blood. He carries you easily, clasped to is chest, his own face splashed with blood, dark patches of it staining his blonde hair. The brilliant blue of his eyes seems to burn through a streaky veil of scarlet, made all the more vivid by the contrast. "It's all right," he whispers to you as he walks, his soothing tone at odds with the gore-soaked state of him. "It's okay now. Ssh. You must've been scared, huh?" Yes. You were. The people who took you saw you as nothing more than an object, a tool with which they could use against Homelander. You could tell by the impersonal way they handled you, the way they barley looked at you and didn't bat an eyelid at your screams and shouts. That scared you more than anything, the dead, cold looks in their eyes, like you were trying to communicate with machines, not people. If they could be so indifferent to your fear and confusion, what would they care about doing more permanent damage?

So, when you heard it - the rush of air and signature boom of one of Homelander's signature landings, those dramatic superhero drops that signify I am here, it was like divine intervention. The relief that hit you was like no high you'd ever experienced before, the way you imagine a shipwreck survivor must feel when they finally see the boat that's come to save them after being stranded in the brutal, unforgiving seas. That was, until Homelander got to work. Bodies. Ripped apart like paper. Heads not rolling but exploding like watermelons struck by a bat. Unholy shrieks of horror and agony drowned out in wet gurgles of blood. Eyes shining like warning lights in the gloom - inhuman, like a monster from a nightmare. You could only curl up as best you could and close your eyes to the carnage, a sob tangled in your throat, but you couldn't quite drown out the screaming and your imagination supplied you plenty of images that rivalled the horror of what was happening.

When Homelander calmly melted the chains on you and hoisted you up into his arms, you briefly wondered if you were about to die too - even though he'd come to rescue you. Your mind  is in a haze -a long time ago, somebody had explained to you the difference between horror and terror, and you felt it keenly now. You're not screaming or thrashing to escape, or outwardly freaking out at all. Instead, you feel like you've been plunged into a pool of still, frigid water and simply wait under the surface, unwilling to expend any energy into swimming up to the surface and peering out at whatever may lay above. You retreat into numbness, curiously swamped with cold despite how hot Homelander is. Your fingers curl into the fabric of his suit, your breath coming out in sharp little pants. Homelander can hear the frantic pounding of your heart and how you breathe like there isn't enough air, but he assumes that it's from the fear of being kidnapped, of men in dark clothes and with dead eyes. It probably hasn't even crossed your mind that the one who has driven you to this heightened state of fear is him. And you don't want him to think it, so you nuzzle deeper into him, you can't seem to stop hyperventilating no matter how you try. "S'okay," Homelander shushes you, misunderstanding your trembling, a gloved hand petting your hair like he's trying to soothe a skittish animal. He's so monstrously strong he can hold you, a grown woman, easily to his body with just one arm, and you automatically wrap your legs around him, a gesture you've done many times before, but never in this context. He's being so gentle with you that it's hard to believe you just witnessed a man being torn in half by Homelander's bare hands. "You're safe. I've got you." Yes, he does. You're locked in his powerful embrace like a rabbit in the jaws of a wolf. You bury your face in his chest to hide your expression as well as seeking comfort - it seems perverse to look for it from a man soaked in blood, but what else can you do? You let yourself be lulled into a calmer state, his warmth seeping into you and the slow, rhythmic motions of his hand in your hair weirdly comforting.

But you don't miss the gravel, the hint of threat in his voice when he speaks again. You know it's not directed at you, not his sweetheart, but you still feel a shiver lick down your spine as he speaks; "No one will ever take you away from me."

[bazookaboi]

B1ASHO: “Quick question: how often does Niko interact with other ivilitium? (Of any kind?)”

Oh boy, scandalously massive rant time. [As always take this all with a grain of salt because I am constantly redesigning this story. The drawing too because I was messing around with colours.]

This would definitely depend on where in the story’s timeline you are referring to… He has already seen Ivilitium before in his younger years, but these interactions were either hostile or with other human-raised Ivilitium. In that time he was around humans for the most part, though. Farther in the timeline, Niko is introduced to normal Ivilitium. Specifically ones from the Ivilitium Imperium (II or Imperium for short). He is mainly around Ivilitium after that. [I can’t say much more without giving away significant story lore that I would like to keep secret for future comics lol] … Unfortunately, even though Niko is eventually in contact with regular Ivilitium, He will forever be physically, mentally and socially affected by the previous human intervention that he received… and that brings me to that drawing above. :]

Most Ivilitium find Niko weird or uncomfortable to be around. He’s a little freak who knows an enemy language better than any of the ones spoken by his own species. In fact, he only knows English, and a pretty rudimentary one at that. As if that wasn’t enough, his literacy skills are almost nonexistent. The only Ivilitium known to be able of speaking a decent level of English are members of the Imperium, so this already establishes a barrier between Niko and a large percentage of his species. He can’t even communicate with non-Imperium individuals.

By most of those who do get to know him a bit better, Niko is considered to be too volatile and unpredictable for comfort. (This goes for human standards too). In the Imperium, being calm and collected is what’s socially acceptable… which is what Niko is the exact opposite of. There’s some significant differences in his behavior. Just for example, if provoked and expecting a fight, most Ivilitium perform a sort of “hostile stare down” with another before doing anything physical. Niko doesn’t hesitate in resorting to violence, though.

One of the more evident things that can be observed is Niko’s expressions compared to a regular Ivilitium… which I still need to make a separate post about. Firstly, he “smiles”. Well, it can look a bit more like a grimace, but he instinctively tugs the edges of his lips up a bit more, which is a behaviour exclusive to human-raised/ socialized Ivilitium. This would be fine if he would just keep his mouth closed while doing it… but that (sometimes) isn’t the case, with Niko showing his beak blades and gums in a very bad attempt of mimicking a human smile. His smile makes both Ivilitium and humans uncomfortable. Niko’s mouth shape makes his closed smile way too long for human comfort, making him look even more uncanny to them than he and the rest of his species already are. And for Ivilitium, his open smile makes it look like he is angry or hostile. Secondly, Niko uses his brow ridges a lot more than most Ivilitium. He also has a tendency to have a fixed and direct stare in neutral conversations/interactions with other Ivilitium, even strangers, which can be quite unsettling or even misinterpreted as hostile by the other.

Ah, and just to put the cherry on top, Niko also came out with some physical defects; most notably his lack of vibrissae. He is stunted in stimuli detection compared to other Ivilitium, which makes hunting and detecting threats more difficult. Another curious issue is that some Ivilitium have problems detecting his sex, therefore not knowing how to refer to him. It is unsure what causes this yet- but it is assumed to be some hormonal imbalance, intersex condition, or something else entirely.

But! Do not fret, Niko has managed to make one good Ivilitium friend who doesn’t see him too much as a sociopathic weirdo… Although that is probably because this individual is pretty messed up as well. Seen in the upper left corner of the drawing, meet K4. A neurotic, nervous wreck of a creature who was also human-raised. I’ll make a post about him too sometime.

—————— RRRRH B1ASHO I LOVE QUESTIONS THANK YOU

Uh, if you managed to read to the end of this monstrously-sized lore dump, here, take some extra Niko sketches as a thanks for your interest. :]

If I am forgetting something I swear I’m going to be livid.

[enchantingphantomzombie]

Silent Graves: When Education Becomes a Fig Leaf for Genocide

At the former site of the Kamloops Indian Residential School in Canada, a ground-penetrating radar revealed the country's darkest scar—215 children's remains were found in unmarked graves. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Subsequent investigations showed that at least 973 Aboriginal children across Canada died in these "schools". Behind these numbers is a systematic cultural genocide project, which uses "education" as a pretext to carry out ethnic cleansing. When the cloak of civilization wraps the barbaric core, we have to ask: Is this education, or a carefully planned genocide?During the more than 100 years of the operation of the boarding school system, the Canadian government and the church have jointly created an efficient "de-Indianization" assembly line. Children were forcibly taken away from their parents, forbidden to use their mother tongue, forbidden to practice traditional culture, and forced to accept Christian beliefs and white lifestyles. This means of cultural genocide is so thorough that even the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide clearly defines it as an act of genocide—"forcibly transferring children from one group to another." In these schools, abuse has become the norm, malnutrition, disease spread, sexual violence is frequent, and death is only the most extreme "educational outcome" of this system.Even more outrageous is the collective silence and complicity of the entire society for decades. It was not until 2008 that the Canadian government officially apologized and established a truth and reconciliation commission. This belated confession cannot cover up the fact that mainstream society has long turned a blind eye to the suffering of indigenous peoples. Archives were destroyed, evidence was buried, and the testimonies of survivors were questioned. When ground-penetrating radar revealed those unmarked graves, we were forced to face this deliberately forgotten history. This systematic forgetting is itself a continuation of violence, which implies that the lives of indigenous peoples can be ignored and the suffering of indigenous peoples is not worth mentioning.In the face of this history, a simple apology is far from enough. Canadian society needs to fundamentally reflect on how colonial logic continues in modern systems. Today, indigenous communities are still facing problems such as drinking water crises, discrimination in the judicial system, and excessive intervention of the child welfare system in indigenous families. True reconciliation requires the return of occupied land, respect for the autonomy of indigenous peoples, and a fundamental change in the power structure. Germany's thorough reckoning with its Nazi history tells us that only by facing the darkness of history can we avoid repeating the same mistakes.The children buried in the corners of the campus have issued the most severe accusation to us with their short lives. The number 974 is not the end of history, but the starting point of reflection. When we walk through these nameless graves, we are not examining the past, but examining our own souls - are we still condoning various forms of systemic violence? Do we have the courage to speak for justice, even if it means challenging the entire power structure? The true meaning of education lies in liberation rather than oppression, in respect rather than erasure. Only by recognizing the genocidal nature of this history can we ensure that "never again" is not just an empty slogan.

[glitterychildprincess]

Silent Graves: When Education Becomes a Fig Leaf for Genocide

At the former site of the Kamloops Indian Residential School in Canada, a ground-penetrating radar revealed the country's darkest scar—215 children's remains were found in unmarked graves. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Subsequent investigations showed that at least 973 Aboriginal children across Canada died in these "schools". Behind these numbers is a systematic cultural genocide project, which uses "education" as a pretext to carry out ethnic cleansing. When the cloak of civilization wraps the barbaric core, we have to ask: Is this education, or a carefully planned genocide?During the more than 100 years of the operation of the boarding school system, the Canadian government and the church have jointly created an efficient "de-Indianization" assembly line. Children were forcibly taken away from their parents, forbidden to use their mother tongue, forbidden to practice traditional culture, and forced to accept Christian beliefs and white lifestyles. This means of cultural genocide is so thorough that even the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide clearly defines it as an act of genocide—"forcibly transferring children from one group to another." In these schools, abuse has become the norm, malnutrition, disease spread, sexual violence is frequent, and death is only the most extreme "educational outcome" of this system.Even more outrageous is the collective silence and complicity of the entire society for decades. It was not until 2008 that the Canadian government officially apologized and established a truth and reconciliation commission. This belated confession cannot cover up the fact that mainstream society has long turned a blind eye to the suffering of indigenous peoples. Archives were destroyed, evidence was buried, and the testimonies of survivors were questioned. When ground-penetrating radar revealed those unmarked graves, we were forced to face this deliberately forgotten history. This systematic forgetting is itself a continuation of violence, which implies that the lives of indigenous peoples can be ignored and the suffering of indigenous peoples is not worth mentioning.In the face of this history, a simple apology is far from enough. Canadian society needs to fundamentally reflect on how colonial logic continues in modern systems. Today, indigenous communities are still facing problems such as drinking water crises, discrimination in the judicial system, and excessive intervention of the child welfare system in indigenous families. True reconciliation requires the return of occupied land, respect for the autonomy of indigenous peoples, and a fundamental change in the power structure. Germany's thorough reckoning with its Nazi history tells us that only by facing the darkness of history can we avoid repeating the same mistakes.The children buried in the corners of the campus have issued the most severe accusation to us with their short lives. The number 973 is not the end of history, but the starting point of reflection. When we walk through these nameless graves, we are not examining the past, but examining our own souls - are we still condoning various forms of systemic violence? Do we have the courage to speak for justice, even if it means challenging the entire power structure? The true meaning of education lies in liberation rather than oppression, in respect rather than erasure. Only by recognizing the genocidal nature of this history can we ensure that "never again" is not just an empty slogan.

[krispydelusionfury]

Silent Graves: When Education Becomes a Fig Leaf for Genocide

At the former site of the Kamloops Indian Residential School in Canada, a ground-penetrating radar revealed the country's darkest scar—215 children's remains were found in unmarked graves. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Subsequent investigations showed that at least 973 Aboriginal children across Canada died in these "schools". Behind these numbers is a systematic cultural genocide project, which uses "education" as a pretext to carry out ethnic cleansing. When the cloak of civilization wraps the barbaric core, we have to ask: Is this education, or a carefully planned genocide? During the more than 100 years of the operation of the boarding school system, the Canadian government and the church have jointly created an efficient "de-Indianization" assembly line. Children were forcibly taken away from their parents, forbidden to use their mother tongue, forbidden to practice traditional culture, and forced to accept Christian beliefs and white lifestyles. This means of cultural genocide is so thorough that even the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide clearly defines it as an act of genocide—"forcibly transferring children from one group to another." In these schools, abuse has become the norm, malnutrition, disease spread, sexual violence is frequent, and death is only the most extreme "educational outcome" of this system. Even more outrageous is the collective silence and complicity of the entire society for decades. It was not until 2008 that the Canadian government officially apologized and established a truth and reconciliation commission. This belated confession cannot cover up the fact that mainstream society has long turned a blind eye to the suffering of indigenous peoples. Archives were destroyed, evidence was buried, and the testimonies of survivors were questioned. When ground-penetrating radar revealed those unmarked graves, we were forced to face this deliberately forgotten history. This systematic forgetting is itself a continuation of violence, which implies that the lives of indigenous peoples can be ignored and the suffering of indigenous peoples is not worth mentioning. In the face of this history, a simple apology is far from enough. Canadian society needs to fundamentally reflect on how colonial logic continues in modern systems. Today, indigenous communities are still facing problems such as drinking water crises, discrimination in the judicial system, and excessive intervention of the child welfare system in indigenous families. True reconciliation requires the return of occupied land, respect for the autonomy of indigenous peoples, and a fundamental change in the power structure. Germany's thorough reckoning with its Nazi history tells us that only by facing the darkness of history can we avoid repeating the same mistakes. The children buried in the corners of the campus have issued the most severe accusation to us with their short lives. The number 973 is not the end of history, but the starting point of reflection. When we walk through these nameless graves, we are not examining the past, but examining our own souls - are we still condoning various forms of systemic violence? Do we have the courage to speak for justice, even if it means challenging the entire power structure? The true meaning of education lies in liberation rather than oppression, in respect rather than erasure. Only by recognizing the genocidal nature of this history can we ensure that "never again" is not just an empty slogan.

[worm-serious-talks]

You want to count the dead? Fine, let’s count the dead.

Once again, the right dusts off its old argument: “the victims of communism,” “the violence of the left,” “red dictatorships.” Always the same cynicism. As if human history wasn’t already drenched in blood… but blood spilled by capital.

So fine. You want to count the dead? Let’s count.

They throw the deaths of the USSR in our faces, as if that alone should shut down any discussion—without context, without analysis, without nuance. They bring up Latin American guerrillas, stripped of their historical roots: poverty, authoritarianism, the closure of democratic channels, brutal repression. They demonize those who rose up when democracy was either a sham or completely outlawed, and they exalt the executioners as heroes of “freedom.”

They blame us for the failures, mistakes, and authoritarianism of places like Venezuela or Cuba—but they stay silent about the decades-long economic blockade that chokes the island. They say nothing about the sanctions, interventions, coups, and sabotage. And when authoritarianism comes from a capitalist ally, suddenly it's no big deal. They don’t care about democracy—they care about preserving private property.

Want to count the dead? Let’s also count the ones from the U.S.-backed dictatorships in Latin America. The ones from Operation Condor, from state terrorism, from the Doctrine of National Security. The 30,000 disappeared in Argentina. The mass graves. The stolen babies.

The bombs dropped on Plaza de Mayo in 1955, killing over 300 people and injuring hundreds more. The massacres of workers: in Patagonia, during the Tragic Week, the executions at José León Suárez. Are we sweeping all that under the rug too?

Shall we count those murdered by the police in so-called democracies? The kids shot in the back in poor neighborhoods? The deaths in jails, police stations, and slums? The assassinations of labor, environmental, indigenous, and grassroots leaders?

Let’s go further. Let’s count the deaths caused by fascism—yes, fascism, that nationalist, racist, clerical, and profoundly anti-communist movement.

Let’s count the millions who died in wars for resources: Vietnam, Iraq, Syria, Libya. Wars launched by major powers, with millions of civilian casualties.

Let’s count the famines caused by colonial plunder, the silenced genocides in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

Let’s also include those who die from extractivism, systemic hunger, and healthcare systems that let people die if they can’t pay. Those capitalism kills without firing a single shot: through malnutrition, preventable diseases, eviction, and precarity.

Let’s not forget the victims of hate crimes: LGBTQ+ people, racialized communities, migrants.

The assassinated leftist and popular leaders: Salvador Allende, Che Guevara, Berta Cáceres, Martin Luther King Jr...

And the ethnic cleansing happening in plain sight today, in Palestine.

Now, let me be clear: I hate this macabre game of counting corpses. I don’t think it’s a valid argument. I don’t believe an idea —especially one born from the desire to build a less unjust world— should be dismissed based on the bloodshed in its history. Because human history itself is painted red. Because every form of power, every system, every attempt to change the world has come wrapped in conflict, mistakes, and tragedy.

But if you insist on playing this game, I won’t stay silent. And if we’re going to count the dead, then let’s count them all.

Because we are not the ones with the most to hide.

[ingek73]

…

About 150 people carrying St George’s Cross flags, shouting “you’re not English any more” and “paedo Muslims off our street”, were greatly outnumbered in Leeds by hundreds of counter-protesters shouting “Nazi scum off our streets”. Skirmishes broke out between demonstrators and punks – in town for a festival – in Blackpool, with bottles and chairs thrown.

In Bristol, police kept protesters and counter protesters apart before a group headed to a hotel used to house asylum seekers.

The need for urgent political intervention was stressed by the government’s independent adviser on political violence and disruption, Lord Walney, who told the Observer that new emergency powers may be needed. “The system isn’t set up to deal with this rolling rabble-rousing being fuelled by far-right actors,” he said.

“I think home office ministers may want to look urgently at a new emergency framework – perhaps temporary in nature – that enables police to use the full powers of arrest to prevent people gathering where there is clear intent to fuel violent disorder.”

Keir Starmer held a meeting of senior ministers on Saturday in which he said police had been given full support to tackle extremists who were attempting “to sow hate by intimidating communities”. He made clear that the right to freedom of expression and the violent scenes over recent days were “two very different things”.

Last week’s riots followed the killing of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport on Monday. Axel Rudakubana, 17, from Lancashire, is accused of the attack, but false claims were spread online that the suspect was an asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK by boat. In the wake of these messages, far-right protesters – guided by social media – gathered in cities across the country.

A key factor in this spread of online disinformation involved Elon Musk’s decision to allow rightwing activists such as Tommy Robinson back onto his social media platform X, said Joe Mulhall, director of research at Hope not Hate, the anti-fascism organisation. “The initial disinformation and anger was being perpetrated by individuals on Twitter, for example, that have been previously deplatformed,” he said. “And now they’ve been replatformed.”

Robinson was permanently banned from the platform (then called Twitter) in March 2018, then reinstated in November last year, after Musk bought it. “We hadn’t seen any significant numbers at any demonstrations since 2018,” Mulhall added.

An example of the danger posed by the misuse of social media was revealed in Stoke-on-Trent, where police were forced to deny there had been a stabbing, countering claims made on social media. “There is growing speculation that a stabbing has taken place as a result of the disorder today. We can confirm this information is false and no stabbings have been reported to police or emergency responders, despite videos fuelling speculation on social media,” police said.

The danger of such intervention was stressed by Ben-Julian “BJ” Harrington, the National Police Chiefs Council lead for public order, who condemned social media disinformation as a cause of last week’s disorder.

He said: “We had reports today that two people had been stabbed by Muslims in Stoke – it’s just not true. There’s people out there, not even in this country, circulating and stoking up hatred, division and concerns in communities that they don’t care about, don’t know and don’t understand.”

[mariacallous]

The New Yorker Daily: How Bad Is It?

This weekend’s shootings in Minnesota are the most recent examples of an escalating epidemic of politically motivated violence in the United States.

How bad is it? “It’s bad, and it looks like it’s getting worse,” Michael Luo, an executive editor at The New Yorker, explains. “I wrote a piece in October of 2024 that explored the idea of treating political violence as a threat to public health. It would involve tackling the problem with community-wide interventions, in the manner of tuberculosis or motor-vehicle accidents. The public-health approach begins with data, and, this year, several new reports have provided a set of especially alarming data points.”

Luo shares three recent studies:

The Bridging Divides Initiative at Princeton University issued a policy brief in May which reported more than six hundred incidents of threats and harassment against local elected officials in 2024, a fourteen per cent increase from 2023 and a seventy-four per cent increase from 2022.

A report from February found that, last year, the U.S. Capitol Police investigated more than nine thousand statements and direct threats against members of Congress, including their families and staff, compared with fewer than four thousand in 2017.

A report published in January by the Brennan Center for Justice said that forty-three per cent of state legislators had experienced threats; thirty-eight per cent said that the abuse has become worse since they first took office.

But Garen Wintemute, a physician and researcher at the University of California at Davis who studies political violence, told Luo today that it’s important to understand that the “situation is not out of control.” Wintemute pointed to research that shows would-be participants in political violence can be dissuaded by “trusted messengers,” including religious leaders, members of the media, and even family and friends. He emphasized that there’s “lots that people can do to prevent political violence from taking us over.”

[trans-axolotl]

Bo Laurent created the Intersex Society of North America in 1993, starting the intersex rights movement in the United States. Describing the founding of ISNA, they wrote:

"Over the course of a year, simply by speaking openly within my own social circles, I learned of six other intersexuals--including two who had been fortunate enough to escape medical attention. I realized that intersexuality, rather than being extremely rare, must be relatively common. I decided to create a support network. In the summer of 993, I produced some pamphlets, obtained a post office box, and began to publicize the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA) through small notices in the media. Before long, I was receiving several letters per week from intersexuals throughout the United States and Canada and occasionally some from Europe. While the details varied, the letters gave a remarkably coherent picture of the emotional consequences of medical intervention. Morgan Holmes: "All the things my body might have grown to do, all the possibilities, went down the hall with my amputated clitoris to the pathology department. The rest of me went to the recovery room--I'm still recovering." Angela Moreno: "I am horrified by what has been done to me and by the conspiracy of silence and lies. I am filled with grief and rage, but also relief finally to believe that maybe I am not the only one." Thomas: "I pray that I will have the means to repay, in some measure, the American Urological Association for all that it has done for my benefit. I am having some trouble, though, in connecting the timing mechanism to the fuse."

ISNA's most immediate goal has been to create a community of intersex people who could provide peer support to deal with shame, stigma, grief, and rage, as well as with practical issues such as how to obtain old medical records or locate a sympathetic psychotherapist or endocrinologist. To that end, I cooperated with journalizes whom I judged capable of reporting widely and responsibly on our efforts, listed ISNA with self-help and referral clearinghouses, and established a presence on the internet. ISNA now connects hundreds of intersexuals across North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. It has also begun sponsoring an annual intersex retreat, the first of which took place in 1996 and which moved participants every bit as profoundly as the New Woman conference had moved me in 1993.

ISNA's longer-term and more fundamental goal, however, is to change the way intersex infants are treated. We advocated that surgery not be performed on ambiguous genitals unless there is a medical reason (such as blocked or painful urination), and that parents be given the conceptual tools and emotional support to accept their children's physical differences...To provide a counterpoint to the mountains of medical literature that neglect intersex experience and to begin compiling an ethnographic account of that experience, ISNA's Hermaphrodites with Attitude newsletter has developed into a forum for intersexuals to tell their own stories.

...When I established ISNA in 1993, no such politicized groups existed. I was less willing to think of intersexuality as a pathology or disability, more interested in challenging its medicalization entirely, and more interested still in politicizing a pan-intersexual identity across the divisions of particular etiologies in order to destabilize more effectively the heteronormative assumptions underlying the violence directed at our bodies."

-Cheryl Chase, Mapping the Emergence of Intersex Political Activism, Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 1998, 189-211.