#disabled people and lgbt people and immigrants and WOMEN

[letters-to-lgbt-kids]

My dear lgbt+ kids, 

I’m thinking about the right words to say about the US election, and I just can’t find them. 

I would love to give you some words of hope and comfort and encouragement. I would love to give a passionate speech that shines some light on this dark day - but I can’t. 

I’m not feeling optimistic today. I feel absolutely punched in the gut. They elected the rapist. They could’ve elected the first woman president, and instead the rapist won. The guilty-of-34-felonies, misogynistic, racist, queerphobic rapist won. I’m not even from the US and I feel terrified. 

I’m thinking about the people over there. The queer people, the women, the people of color, the immigrants, the disabled people, all the people who were targets of the hate that fueled his election campaign.

I’m thinking about the people who lost loved ones to preventable causes because of him, and about the ones who still will, and I feel my stomach turning. 

I’m thinking about the victims of sexual violence and I think about all that therapy talk of healing your inner child and I wonder how the fuck we are supposed to do that when we see abusers become the most powerful men in the world. 

I’m thinking about my long distance best friend, a lesbian enby of color, not from the US but from a country that’ll definitely suffer from the effects of this election, and how they fear for their life and how I don’t know how to comfort them because I fear for their life too. 

I’m thinking about growing up in Germany and learning about our horrible history, and how as a kid it was absolutely unthinkable that someone like Hitler would ever be voted for again, and if we could travel back in time, all of us would’ve stopped him. Wouldn’t we? 

I’m thinking about my uncle who congratulated me to my coming out and then, at the very same family gathering, proudly told us he is voting for a Nazi party because “Hitler was right about some things” and how I went home and cried my eyes out. I’m thinking about all the people in the US who feel the same pain with their family members right now. 

I’m thinking about you. And maybe right now that’s all I can do. 

I love you. Stay safe. 

With all my love, 

Your Tumblr Dad 

[theoi-crow]

The humans in Greek Mythology are the mega rich and powerful:

In my college classes people are often shocked when I tell them my favorite part of Greek mythology is the gods themselves and I'm not a big fan of the humans.

99% of my classmates prefer the humans in mythos, especially the ones that stick it to the gods like Sisyphus and feel bad for humans like Kassandra and Helen who have been wronged by the gods because "they're just like us." My classmates and teachers hate the gods and don't understand why anyone in modern times would want to worship such violent and selfish beings whenever I point out there are still people who worship them. They hold onto the idea that people in mythology embody the human experience of being oppressed by terrible gods and fate and we should feel bad for them because "they're human just like us" but they forget that the people in Greek Mythology are NOT just like us. They are more relatable to medieval royalty, colonizers and ultra rich politicians who make laws and decisions on wars and the fates of others, especially the poor and the very vulnerable.

Every hero or important human in Greek Mythology is either some form of royalty or mega rich politician/priest-priestess (of course this is with the exception of people who are explicitly stated to be poor like the old married couple in the myth where Zeus and Hermes pretend to be panhandlers). All of them have an ancient Greek lifestyle more relatable to Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, and especially to British royalty during the British empire, than the average person.

All of them.

Odysseus, Patroclus, Theseus, Helen of Troy, Kassandra, Diomedes, Agamemnon, Perseus, Hercules, Aeneas, Paris, Any human who has a divine parent or is related to one, etc. Although sometimes the story omits it, it is heavily implied that these are people who own hundreds or even thousands of slaves, very poor farmers and the tiny barely there working class as royal subjects.

They are the ones who make laws and whose decisions massively affect the fates of so many people. So no, they can't just be forgiven for some little whim, because that little whim affects the literal lives of everyone under their rule. By being spoiled they've just risked the lives of thousands of people and possibly even gotten them killed like when Odysseus' audacity got every single slave and soldier in his ships killed or when Patroclus as a kid got upset and killed another kid for beating him at a game. (A normal person wouldn't kill another person just for winning a game but royalty and those who think they're above the law do it all the time, plus the class status of the child wasn't mentioned but the way he didn't think he'd get in trouble implies the kid was of lower class, possibly the child of a slave or a foreign merchant.)

The gods get a bad reputation for punishing the humans in mythology but, if not them, who else is going to keep them accountable when they are the law?

And whose to say the humans beneath them weren't praying to the gods in order to keep their masters in check?

Apollo is the god in charge of freeing slaves, Zeus is the god of refugees, immigrants and homeless people, Ares is the protector of women, Artemis protects children, Aphrodite is the goddess of the LGBT community, Hephaestus takes care of the disabled, etc. It wouldn't be surprising if the gods are punishing the ultra rich and powerful in these myths because the humans under their rulership prayed and sent them as they did historically.

Every time someone asks me if I feel bad for a human character in a myth, I think about the many lives affected by the decision that one human character made and if I'm being completely honest, I too would pray to the gods and ask them to please punish them so they can make more careful decisions in the future because:

They are not just like us.

We are the farmers, a lot of our ancestors were slaves, we are the vulnerable being eaten by capitalism and destroyed by the violence colonialism created. We are the poor subjects that can only pray and hope the gods will come and correct whatever selfish behavior the royal house and mega rich politicians are doing above us.

And that's why I pray to the gods, because in modern times I'm dealing with modern Agamemnons who would kill whatever family members they have to in order to reach their end goal, I'm dealing with everyday modern Achilles who would rather see their own side die because they couldn't keep their favorite toy and would gladly watch their subjects die if it means they eventually get their way. The ones that let capitalism eat their country and it's citizens alive so long as it makes them more money. These are our modern "demigods," politicians who swear they are so close to God that they know what he wants and so they pass laws that benefit only them and claim these laws are ordained by God due to their close connection just like how Achilles can speak to the gods because of his demigod status via his mother.

Look at the news, these are humans that would be mythical characters getting punished by Greek gods which is why anything Greco-Roman is jealousy guarded by the rich and powerful and is inaccessible to modern worshippers because Ivy League schools like Harvard and Cambridge make sure to keep it that way. That's what we're dealing with. These are the humans these mythical beings would be because:

In our modern times the humans in mythos would be the politicians and mega rich that are currently ruining our society and trying to turn it into a world where only the rich can manipulate wars and laws, just like they do in mythology.

Fuck them.

I literally have so much more to add about my disdain for them and I didn't even touch on the obvious ancient Greek propaganda.

[drdemonprince]

So, I (a trans guy) am kind of coming to terms with the fact that I might be more gay than bisexual after all. Where I live, the queer community is split pretty definitively between the "women, non binary and trans people" (or FLINTA*, if you're familiar with that horrible term) and the gay male community. While I have lots of problems with the former, it is kind of the community I am in, mostly because it has felt safe during my transition. It still feels safe, but not really comfortable. I want to feel like I am part of the gay male community, especially if I mostly want to date queer men in the future.

I am like, so scared of existing in any gay male spaces. When I tried being in them pre T, I felt like an imposter. When I travelled to the US a few years ago, the only place my then partner (also on T) and me were misgendered consistently was in gay bars (in a lot of famous "gay friendly" cities). All of this has left me with a sense of humiliation and not-belonging that gets reactivated every time I even think of stepping into one again, even if I am fairly certain I would not get this reaction now.

How do I get past the shame that is attached to my previous experiences and learn to actually enjoy myself there?

So, I believe that you have the order of operations wrong here. You don't get past shame and then go out to these gay spaces -- you go out to those gay spaces and then overcome (some) of your shame. And that shame may live with you forever in some form. You can still have a worthwhile life with it.

Go to the gay bars. There are many different kinds of them, all with wildly different energies and clientelle, and it is normal and boring and blase for trans guys to be at each and every single one of them.

One way that many newbies unwittingly screw up is by going to the most circuity, dance-y kinds of gay bars that tend to be filled with young, thin, rich, superficial people -- and then they mistake the meanness of that crowd for the meanness of all gays, or interpret the meanness as a sign they are not accepted by "the gay male community."

There is no singular gay male community. There are in fact a wide variety of subcultures with their own beauty standards, stylistic choices, interests, and norms. And there's a lot of cliquishness and mean girl behavior among people who have decided they are high rank in any particular small subculture, don't get me wrong. But you don't have to believe in any of it. They're just coping with their own history of marginalization and rejection by trying to become a new ruling class within their own tiny pond. You can laugh it off as the work of kind of sad, small thinking and just enjoy yourself and talk to people who are not assholes.

So, go to the leather bar. Go to a pup night. Go to an old-timers bar filled with gays over 60 (they will be nice to you and buy you drinks, I promise). Go to a gay bar that's casual and nerdy, with arcade machines and pub trivia. Go to a drag bar on a weekday night and meet some of the newer queens who are still trying to find their chops. And yes, go to the DJ sets and dance clubs all you like, but don't let what a few snatched bitchy 22-year-olds (or insecure former twink 42 year old real estate agents) get you feeling insecure. They're doing that shit because they are insecure.

Bring a friend. Talk to someone who seems nervous and alone on the side of the dance floor, too. Wear an outfit that will get some compliments. Nurse a drink at the bar and trawl grindr to see if anyone seems worth talking to. Join a dungeon or a gay running group. Attend a gay men's support group at your local lgbt center. Meet a ton of people and just get yourself out there, and quickly you will realize that your mind has wildly over dramatized how much you stand out or how much anybody cares.

Fat gays, disabled gays, older gays, Autistic gays, nerdy gays, poor gays, Black and brown gays, immigrant gays, they all feel like they do not belong and are not welcome too. Find them and be kind to them and hold onto them. Notice who is nice and warm with you, but also don't read into it too much if some people are just neutral. Eventually you will figure out what you like doing, which spaces you enjoy inhabiting, and who you want to be there with -- and then you'll have some fun.

[gryficowa]

What do Zionists, blue MAGA and radical feminists have in common? If you show their hypocrisy and how they really don't care about people's lives, they will use profanity and sometimes use the R-word (Insult against people with disabilities)

It just shows how their hatred is strong, but they pretend they care

Zionists? They pretend that they care about Jews

Blue MAGA? They pretended to care about immigrants, LGBT+ people and Gaza

Radical feminists? They pretend that they care about women from Afghanistan and Iran when they are Islamophobic trash who ignore that the majority of those they defend (over 90%) are Muslim women, and then they will start bullshit that you shouldn't worry about Gaza because it's over 90%. professes Islam (So yes, it doesn't make sense, as you can see, because the percentages show absurdity…)

These three just have so much in common… They are hateful pieces of shit with no brains, because how else can you explain that you give them evidence, or there is a lot of it, and instead of accepting it, they start insulting you?

Harris shows years of support for Israel? Blue MAGA will start insulting you and making excuses

Will you make posts confirming genocide? Zionists will start publishing texts about anti-Semitism (And then they will attack another Jew anyway, because he does not support genocide like them)

Radical feminists will get evidence that trans women are not that much better at jobs than cis women? You know they're going to talk shit about patriarchy (Because apparently considering women inferior to men in the past didn't serve as something against women and their rights…) and about how trans women are bad (Because so what, that many cis women are rapists? But a woman can't because she doesn't have a fucking penis! What don't you understand, you stupid leftist?)

These three are simply disgusting people, their hypocrisy and internal hatred will only show if something doesn't go their way

[quitblamingnarcissism]

I've witnessed countless examples of children, women, LGBT people, poor people, physically disabled people, neurodivergent people, people of color, and immigrants talking about the abuse they suffer on a regular basis from society as a whole, only to be told that they're lying, they're overreacting, or they deserve it.

I've witnessed countless examples of police officers, the military, landlords, corporations, rich people, and others with power getting away with enormous amounts of obvious abuse because they're good at using propaganda. And any attempt to give them less power is met with fear that society would fall apart.

But slap the "narcissist" label on the exact same patterns, and everyone suddenly realizes how abusive it is. And that's because people love being the hero who defeats the bad guy but hate analyzing their own actions to prevent being the bad guy themselves.

If you believe in "narcissistic abuse", you're not genuinely concerned with helping victims and holding abusers accountable. You just want a convenient scapegoat so your actions and the actions of people with power who you support are never scrutinized.

[gacha-incels]

you can see more than a few similarities between the “original gamergate”, the DOA “gamergate 2” and what’s been happening with the misogynist men freaking out about 🤏 in South Korea. This time the western gamergate incels hate “woke” and “cultural Marxism”, before this it was “SJWs”. In practice their hatred is targeted on the same groups no matter what the year. In SK it’s “megal femi/ feminists” (megalia feminists) and “PC” (politically correct). These men pretend to care about things like “ethics in gaming journalism” or “extreme misandrist feminists”, the topics are smokescreens they use to legitimize their violent hatred of women, minorities, lgbt, the disabled, etc. as shown above with the quote from the Discord chat. I think the shock for many people regarding the Korean incel situation is that the companies they target very often will grovel and beg for their forgiveness, thus validating the delusion of some radical feminist boogeyman placing secret signs in gacha games or cartoons.

for the western gamergate men, their white supremacy is also a huge factor. They form communities and shape their own identities based on hatred and fear.

The “threat” in this case of “gamergate 2” is Sweet Baby Inc.

From the way social media is set up now, it’s easy for these men to rapidly fall into extreme echo chambers. They are angry about the hardships of life and are champing at the bit to direct that anger at an easy, identifiable cause. Can’t find a job? It’s too hard to recognize and understand the force and destructive nature of capitalism, it’s not a concrete thing you can attack right now and they have typically already been indoctrinated to believe anything criticizing capitalism is some scary evil communist ploy. So they turn their ire to an easily identifiable group, like immigrants attempting to live and work in the US. Why are these people trying to escape their countries? Don’t think about it! Can’t get a girlfriend? Surely it can’t be that you need to improve yourself, socialize and not see women as conquests? No, it’s the fault of those damn feminists! Of course these are flippant simplifications of issues that can be studied and analyzed in regards to society, family, religion etc and how propaganda from these sources can beget the type of male who is primed for indoctrination as well but I’m trying to be brief. A lot of this hate and fear also comes in tandem after any type of hard won victory (no matter how small) for any demographic these men are not a part of, they see it as some catastrophic loss of power because they are so used to absolutely everything being made for them or in their power. They think society runs “correctly” because they hold absolute power, so they push back (often violently) on anything they deem an challenge to this. In terms of videogames, this is why they believe just having a main character who is not a white male means “society hates men”or “games are not made for ‘us’ anymore”. You can see this type of attitude emerge in Korean men as well, regarding backlash to more women entering the workforce and gaining more rights. the following is just one example-

After a short period of time, men in these spaces get so indoctrinated that actual facts are false to them if it goes against what they WANT to believe. They don’t want to challenge and evaluate their own thoughts because it’s easy to keep hating. If you’re from the US (or familiar with its political landscape over the past decade+) and this reminds you of the alt-right playbook, it’s because Steve Bannon saw the original gamergate and utilized the force of these angry males.

As the excerpt stated, these men see videogames as “a final escape for a generation of angry young white men,” essentially power fantasies that still reinforce and flatter their sense of importance over the “other”. (Of course the Korean incel demographic is not white and is not living directly in a white supremacist western society so this isn’t a 1:1. regardless that does not stop them from being racist.) In some ways this is from lack of inclusion of some demographics, in some ways it’s reinforced by having the “other” be in what these men see as their rightful place in society. So because of this, you see a LOT of these men foaming at the mouth when they believe a female character design is not “sexy” enough, because her job is not to be a character in a story, it’s to titilate the male viewer while he plays he game. She is made FOR him, for his pleasure first and anything else second. If she isn’t hypersexualized then she does not exist, she is failing the one job she has in these men’s eyes. You can see this in the way men talk about the upcoming “Stellar Blade”game from the developers of the gacha game “NIKKE”. Gaming presents this “sanctuary” for men, many eventually cutting themselves off from reality to live in this fantasy world- an act that can be dangerous for those around him.

Anyone who is new to gacha games, I need you to understand this is how the typical male gacha gamer views an all-female cast especially- they are there to titilate the perceived male user while he “buys” them, gives them orders in gameplay and reads the story. It’s still their male power fantasy, this is why tensions are extremely high when they think a “feminist” works on the game, and/or they think a male character looks “weak” or is sexualized in the same way women are sexualized. They want a clear divide of the sexes (designs of powerful men VS very thin, highly sexualized women), and this type of design threatens that. You can read more on gacha designs here on this blog, I don’t want to rewrite that whole post here. When they think a character is not sexy enough, they will illegally mod the game to change that, you can see in this image the Genshin Impact (a game the korean incels have now dubbed as a “femi game”) character “Shenhe” whose outfits were not deemed sexy enough, so the men modified the clothing on the left (costume and original outfit) to the “clothing” on the right while also increasing her bust size significantly.

This isn’t meant to be an analysis but rather a basic overview and reiteration of some aspects that made up the western “gamergate” situation using plain language. I linked the sources for everything directly on the images. Whenever I do an actual analysis there of course will be more sources and less copy&pasting directly from them lol

[witches-come]

Thinking about this quote:

"The "unborn” are a convenient group of people to advocate for. They never make demands of you; they are morally uncomplicated, unlike the incarcerated, addicted, or the chronically poor; they don’t resent your condescension or complain that you are not politically correct; unlike widows, they don’t ask you to question patriarchy; unlike orphans, they don’t need money, education, or childcare; unlike aliens, they don’t bring all that racial, cultural, and religious baggage that you dislike; they allow you to feel good about yourself without any work at creating or maintaining relationships; and when they are born, you can forget about them, because they cease to be unborn. You can love the unborn and advocate for them without substantially challenging your own wealth, power, or privilege, without re-imagining social structures, apologizing, or making reparations to anyone. They are, in short, the perfect people to love if you want to claim you love Jesus, but actually dislike people who breathe. Prisoners? Immigrants? The sick? The poor? Widows? Orphans? All the groups that are specifically mentioned in the Bible? They all get thrown under the bus for the unborn."

In the current climate of the GOP, who can you feel compassion for? Everyone to the left of you are evil communists or RINOs. Can't like women (half of humanity) because that'll make you a simp. Can't care for POC because it's woke. Disabled people are too expensive. LGBT people are degens. Can't care about nature because of human supremacy. Can't care about religious minorities. Can't care about the Christians in the wrong denominations. Can't care about other men cause that's gay. All you have left if you want to care about someone besides you are fetuses.

Pro lifers also see fetuses as a lifeless clump of cells. That's why they speak up for them. It's the last demographic they can feel anything besides hatred for.

Also see: The pets the Haitians are allegedly eating. Blood libel can't even be about children anymore because the right doesn't care about them.

[gendeerdeer]

What is left

(A vent poem)

In this hell, we call life

What will they leave for us

We, the small, the weak, the misfortunate

They believe we are undeserving of living

Simply because we are unlike them

They want submissive and dead and gone

Because we are not like them

They don't believe we deserve to live

We, the poor, the homeless, the people of color, the lgbt community, the women, the immigrants, the disabled, and all of us who are that and more

And what will be left for us

In this life, we now call hell

(This applies to you, too! If you are any sort of minority or are discriminated against, this applies to you, too!)

[dust-and-grave]

i am so royally pissed off about how some leftist men are acting since election day. i've had multiple men this week tell me (and i've seen more telling other women) that trump has won so we need to get over it.

"he won, and there isn't anything anyone can do about it now."

"look, i voted against him too, but it is what it is. you need to get over it."

"it's gonna be a rough 4 years, but you'll live."

"you'll survive."

firstly, miss me with this condescending bullshit. people who are grieving the election results, people who are scared and worried about the future, aren't waiting to hear permission from you to stop feeling the way they do.

second, the stakes are so high rn. we've just been told that there's a high chance that everything is going to take a turn for the worse for a huge amount of people. women, lgbt folk, poc, immigrants, disabled people, poor people, elderly folk. i think anger and disappointment and sadness and grief are all very valid feelings.

if your response to people feeling despair about the results of the election is to disparage and condescend to them, to deny them space to process and feel, then i really need you to shut the fuck up right now. you do not get to dictate to others how they are allowed to feel and how long it takes them to process.

it hasn't even been a week since election day, for crying out loud! if you're telling other people they need to just be okay with the results of the election after less than a week, we all would benefit if you'd stop to reflect about why that is. why do you feel safe enough to say that to someone? why do you think you get to dismiss the concerns of others? why do you think you get to dictate to others how they process their feelings?

[castielsprostate]

Why are you acting like the Netherlands haven't just won

hi anon, you chose the wrong person to say this to. please don't fucking come at me with this kind of fucking bullshit. if you didn't read my blog info, which i dont except the average pvv supporter to do (no offense), then you'd know the way i identify! woagh! and you'd ALSO know that i actually don't feel very welcome or safe anymore and that im terrified of the people around me because of the person they voted for. the netherlands did not win, they didn't win anything fucking at all if they're regressing on human rights and electing one of the biggest bigots there are. you say "nederland weer op 1" but you know who funds PVV right? you know he gets his money from russia and isreal, right? you know that he does not care about you, right? and that the regular citizen is nothing to him, right? and you know that after he comes for those from an immigrant background, he will come for the LGBT community. he will come for the disabled. he will come for women's rights. he will come for the rights of everyone except white, rich, old men. he doesn't care about the working class, and he sure as all fuck can't make true on his promises. most of the things he wants goes against our constitution, how fucked up is it that people still voted for that?

he wants to cut off immigration, including those that come here for work. he wants to then increase the size of our healthcare and our healthcare workers. quick question, who is going to work in our healthcare? we are already on a shortage, who's going to pick up what's yet to come?

he wants to build more homes, but who's actually going to build those? like, physically, who is going to put those houses together because, guess what! there's no one to do the fucking work. no one works in ANY of these professions anymore, no one WANTS to work in them either. so he would need to get funding to make schooling free for these professions, or create incentives. but where do we get that money? where would you get a billion to make med school (rough term, not really what the term is here) free for only one year? ah, i hear you say, just pull the funding from ukraine and the developing countries. well, 1.) we can't, we're legally obligated to keep paying, and if he somehow does find a way to stop the funding then 2.) we will be hit with fines from both the EU and the NATO, and maybe even the UN. and guess who will pay that, anon? it will be the working class, since he doesn't want to make companies pay more tax, so it will be you and me that pay for this.

and all that isn't even the massive impact he will have on our climate, and don't try the fucking "netherlands is only a small country, it doesn't matter what we do because the us china and russia and india womp womp" because no matter how small the step is, small steps are worth it, too.

and, may i also remind you, anon <3 dat geert wilders in zijn zielige, donkere kut hartje altijd een VVD'er zal zijn. hij is een waardeloze, racistische, homofobische, ellendige, koude oude man en dat is NIET en zal NOOIT zijn wat nederland nodig heeft.

and finally, geert wilders is NOT what the majority of the netherlands wants, it's what 23% of voters want. every other voter did NOT vote for this buffoon, and you're gonna be in those booths again in 6 to 9 months because of the incompetence of the coming kabinet because geert wilders will destroy it.

en, als laatste. stem links bij de volgende verkiezing. stem GL/PVDA of stem volt, stem op de groene partijen die WEL de begroting doorrekenen, die ons WEL uit deze crisis kunnen krijgen en die WEL om ons geven. denk niet aan de toekomst van alleen morgen, denk ook aan de toekomst van over 10, 20, 30, 40, 50! jaar. want op de manier waarop het nu gaat, is er niet meer dan 50 jaar. en dat ene jaar 0% belasting op boodschappen (wat hij trouwens ook niet kan waarmaken, de belastingdienst heeft jaren nodig voor zoiets te kunnen invoeren lmao. misschien heb je het in 2030! en daarna schiet het weer om hoog <3), is niet waard de gruwelijke dood van jou, je kinderen, en iedereen om je heen.

-all the love, sjonnie, a half turk, queer faggot

[b1ackmedusaa]

yall really carry a deep hatred for black people if you think our pain must be placed aside for the benefit of another marginalized group. Y’all do it every single time without fail and always on time. Because for each movement I’ve witnessed on here you insist on excusing antiblackness for:

Transgender discrimination

Black Lives Matter (our own movement got derailed by YALL)

Covid Lockdown

Election season (yall came out yall necks for Biden especially)

Human Rights violations of immigrants (multiple times)

LGBT movements

Disability

The Women’s March (majority of speakers were Black women or were funded by Black women. I know I was there)

Looting

“Russian spam bot” scare

The list goes on

Y’all will even go so far as to derail personal life circumstances of Black pain on here that you will flat out erase it. In our faces. I truly believe God herself had abandoned you bc there ain’t no way y’all earned her love. Rot. Truly.

[dovesndecay]

There is nothing new about police enforcing racialized gender norms with deadly violence, but as criminalization and imprisonment have drastically expanded in the last decades, we have needed to respond in new ways to calls for "law and order" that sometimes pretend to operate from a concern for protecting women, queer, and trans people from violence.

We are confronted with a significant task of articulating a politics that refuses invitations to be included in laws and policies that supposedly promote the value of our lives, but actually operate to expand systems that we know target queer and trans poor people, people of color, immigrants, and people with disabilities. [These books]* contribute to the thinking on queer and trans abolition politics, helping us imagine the locations where that politics lives, the tactics it engages, the populations it concerns, the traps it aims to evade, and the stakes of its existence.

Queering Prison Abolition, Now?

Author(s): Eric A. Stanley, Dean Spade and Queer (In)Justice

Source: American Quarterly (March 2012)

These Books:*

Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex edited by Eric A. Stanley and Nat Smith

Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People In The United States by Joey L. Mogul, Andrea J. Ritchie, Kay Whitlock

Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law by Dean Spade

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

Melissa Chen: I Came to America for Freedom, but Now It’s Looking More Like the Country I Left

I grew up in Singapore, where I felt first-hand what it was like to live in a society where free speech is restricted. Social harmony is prioritized over civil liberties in Singapore's multi-cultural society, fomenting a culture of fear and self-censorship on top of legal prohibitions.

I moved to America for college when I was 17. I wanted a challenging education and a social milieu that valued the free exchange of ideas because I knew that was the only way to grow intellectually and cultivate emotional resiliency. It wasn’t until I was in graduate school that I realized that the America I had sought was increasingly resembling the conditions in which I grew up in in Singapore.

Across town from me in Boston, Harvard University had disinvited a record number of speakers, for reasons including their views on topics like immigration, Israel, and sexual orientation. Harvard’s guidelines banned “behavior evidently intended to dishonor such characteristics as race, gender, ethnic group, religious belief, or sexual orientation.” This guideline was nearly identical to what was law in Singapore.

But even worse than that, an intolerant ideology that promoted collective guilt and racial essentialism had begun to emerge. I noticed my white and male classmates were not being allowed to express opinions that addressed issues related to people of color or women. Phrases like “check your privilege” became a part of everyday conversation. This was something that I never witnessed in Singapore, a nation that was prosperous despite its faults because of its focus on the equality of all people.

After university, I co-founded an organization named Ideas Beyond Borders, where we translated and digitied texts about Enlightenment ideas into Arabic for free. We worked with translators who lived in places like Libya, Syria, Egypt, Iran and Iraq. My exposure to so many failed states led me to see the common denominators that undergirded societal dysfunction and civil conflict; many of these places were severely dogged by extremism, intolerance, and sectarianism.

Even more than my life in Singapore, this provided me with an intense appreciation for the freedoms we have here in America. Why were the students around me so focused on the problems with my white male classmates and teachers, while they largely ignored the injustices I was witnessing around the world?

And since I’ve graduated, it seems like these trends have spread through our nation far beyond the reaches of academia. While so many were focused on American culture wars, including for example asking Disney to fire Gina Carano for supposedly offensive tweets, few were paying attention while Disney made deals to film with the government in Xinjiang, China, where Uighur Muslims were being held in concentration camps. 

This way of looking at the world has a goal of raising awareness of racial injustice. That’s laudable. But within this conception of the world there is also a simplistic and reductive understanding of power dynamics in which oppression must always come from people seen as  white, male, western, heterosexual, cisgender, or ablebodied – and be inflicted upon those seen as marginalized – people of color, colonized or indigenous people, women, LGBT, or the disabled. 

This lens ignores the struggle against real repression globally, including what I have witnessed in Singapore and the Middle East. In doing so, it empowers illiberal, authoritarian forces, from China, to Russia, to the stirrings of Islamist groups eager to rebuild their caliphate.

All around the world, from pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong to feminists in Egypt, countless people seek the freedoms that we in the West take for granted. Meanwhile, we are undoing the ideas that have made the modern West the most progressive place on the planet, while shielding the world’s most brazen abusers of human rights from criticism.

If you care about justice for oppressed people, it’s incumbent on us to push back against bad ideas. America has problems, and we need to improve, but the center of the struggle for human dignity isn’t here. Please, let’s keep America the country I wanted to come to.

I’m Melissa Chen. Join me in defending pro-human values at FairForAll.org.

[gryficowa]

Fuck Donald Trump

And fuck Joe Biden

They both have blood on their hands, no more justifying "The Lesser Evil", no more lies that you have to choose between the two, Joe Biden is providing weapons to Israel to bomb the Gaza Strip, and Donald Trump wants to persecute trans people and kill the entire pro-Palestinian movement, they are both bad, there is no argument why you support one of them, because if you are for any of them, you are complicit in genocide

For Palestine, for LGBT+ people, for Muslims, for Jews, for people with disabilities, for immigrants, for non-white people, for refugees, for everyone affected by this fascism, we cannot let those who support them live in peace

Because if you refuse them, you will not get what security and peace is, you are a piece of shit that would vote for Adolf Hitler, just because you are bigots

People have tolerated you for too long, this is the end of your terror, you will rot together with the Zionists in a coffin and no one will cry for you

I don't believe in pure good and pure evil, but I know you are shitty people and only want your comfort at the expense of others, karma is a bitch, it will come back to you

Stop being silent, let's not stop talking about Palestine, about LGBT+ rights, about women's rights, about people's rights that have been destroyed by evil people, people have tolerated you for too long, fascism has become something natural because of you (Especially the Nazi rhetoric towards gays and trans people, which you use today), and this shit should never be normal

You have dehumanized trans people and Muslims, you are disgusting, you will pay for it all

You made something that was never supposed to happen happen again, but it was easy to blame the leftists, right? The insistent denial that Hitler was right-wing was the perfect strategy to bring back fascism and normalize it, that's what you wanted, by trying to shift the blame, you unknowingly proved it yourself

Dehumanization of minorities is the gift of fascists, you did it, Muslims and trans people, you dehumanized them and you still lie that Hitler was a leftist, it's disgusting

You censored history books because they were too inconvenient for you, and because of this, many children became fascists. If they knew what fascists did to trans and gay people, they would never have become this way, they would have fought for LGBT+ people so that history would not repeat itself. , it's your fault, you censored the truth because it was too inconvenient for you, fascism will lose (Because fascism is the extreme right, that's what fascism has always been)

You won't erase this history, Rowling will fall

Yes, these are books exploring the topic of homosexuality and trans people, the Nazis burned it because it was "Bad", they considered gays a perversion and trans people evil

For being gay and trans, you were sent to prison and later to concentration camps...

Today you vote for one of those who has the same views as the Nazis, and the other gives weapons to the colonizer so that he can kill the indigenous population…

No more censorship of history, children should know about it!

[cryptvokeeper]

you don’t wanna vote for Biden? Fine. I disagree with you but fine.

but for the love of all things good and worth living for, VOTE BLUE FOR YOUR HOUSE/SENATE REPRESENTATIVES.

if trumps gonna become president, AT LEAST make it harder for him and the Republican Party to pass laws that will make the lives of women, people of color, LGBT people, poor people, immigrants, and people with disabilities harder, if not downright kill people.