#especially at the moment with all the violent media rhetoric and legislation

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

having complex feelings about gender stuff recently but i don't really know how to put it into words. some of it is about the self-erasure that becomes necessary when you try and talk about medical misogyny you've experienced as someone who isn't a woman but who is perceived by the world as one. some of it is about no longer feeling connected to female-centred stories of a kind you used to enjoy as a teenager because they always feel alienating but also not liking your own emotions about that because you should be able to enjoy stories that weren't written for you, it's just that they don't feel like stories that even allow space for you to exist in. but shouldn't men be able to enjoy women's stories too? but you're not a man. but you're not a woman. but the stories are about and for people who look like you but you're not one of them. but you would have been them if you lived in those worlds because nobody would have seen a difference, and that's viscerally uncomfortable, and impossible to enjoy--

and some of it is about looking for stories you could exist in and only finding stories that are profoundly unrelatable because they're only ever about characters who knew they were trans since puberty and had access to transition care in their teens and you didn't figure it out until adulthood and also that's not legally available in your country so that would never have been on the cards in the first place. or people who figured it out in adulthood but they're so certain and they're so ready to take risks and they'll change the world for a chance to become themselves because they know what they're aiming for. some of it is not being sure what you want but knowing you'll always have to be certain about it enough to fight for it because you're not going to get it any other way. some of it is not wanting to be an activist, not wanting to agitate, not wanting to have to resist every goddamn second bc you're just trying to exist in the world, but the only way anyone will ever give you a modicum of what you need is if you put all your energy into the struggle for it--

some of it is about feeling an ongoing tether to the experience of being a woman in a bad way but no tether to the experience in a good way and there's a weird kind of mourning in that, and a self denial, and an inability to reconcile your own contradictions in a way that feels comfortable. some of it is about feeling pressure to experience gender differently and to opt in to something else if you're going to opt out of what you were given but you don't want to do that either. and a lot of it is constantly self-policing your own emotions and thoughts and being convinced you're doing it all wrong somehow because you see other people being so free with their genderfuck, so unencumbered by expectations, so easily able to get it right for themselves and other people, and you're still misgendering yourself half the time in your mind because you don't even know what the right words would be at this point when you still have scars shaped like being a girl even though you're not a girl and you can't talk about them without doing yourself another piece of damage

like. i am who i am because i was thought a girl and maybe because i thought i was a girl and maybe i still don't understand why i'm not a girl but in my not-girlness i no longer feel i have any access to any kind of womanhood that doesn't hurt but i don't want to police myself out of femininity just because it isn't all that i am anymore

[elysisticism]

Dear Queer Kids: It Doesn’t Get Better

The news cycle from the past few months could break your heart, over and over and over again. It consistently spits out stories of our community’s most painful incidents of directed hate, in violent and gory detail. And there’s a new one every time you turn around.

Lately, the theme has been transphobic fear mongering and increased restriction on an even more vulnerable subset: trans youth. The vitriol has always been there, it just wasn’t always so blatantly acted upon, especially so close to home. The hate speech has moved from whispers behind closed doors to shouts in the street, to the mouths of our politicians, to the ink spilled out on our legislation. The consequences are dire: suicide, assault, murder.

This pride month, as I reflect on the past year, I remember the tragic assault and subsequent death of Nex Benedict, a 15-year-old non-binary student just trying to use the school bathroom. I am reminded of my days as a queer and trans kid. It has been over a decade since I was stuck attending public school, but I vividly remember the uncertainty, the fear, and the hopelessness. When my carefully built scaffolding of adult queer life is stripped away, these are the emotions that remain.

At that time, there was a popular campaign, mostly by out gay celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres (we didn’t have a lot of visible trans adults back then) featuring them assuring queer kids, from their mansions, sports cars, or Hollywood sets, that it gets better. I remember the sentiment ringing quite hollow. When you are so immensely vulnerable and in pain in the very present moment, it doesn’t help hearing that it will get better in some far-off imaginary future. We didn’t know if we’d survive until then.

Now, reflecting on the last ten years from a vantage point above the chaos of teenage life, it would still ring hollow. You need to know that it doesn’t get better – it gets different.

As a non-binary teenager, one of my biggest hurdles wasn’t hate, it was invisibility. It may be because of my privilege as a less feminine, middle-class white kid, or my propensity to people-please, stay quiet, and focus on academics, but I was rarely a victim of deliberate and directed transphobia or discrimination. This doesn’t mean that those teenage years were easy for me. Invisibility comes with its own set of hardships: constant misgendering, gaslighted excuses for why it was ‘too difficult to understand,’ and a reputation as the ‘weird kid’ ate at me each day, nibble by nibble. Illegibility shielded me from targeted violence, but it also shielded my true self from the world. From underneath the covers, I could peak out at a world that was barely beginning to accept cisgender gay couples, and pretend to be asleep (deny my truth and project myself as girl) when the wrong type of attention was drawn, dreaming of a time when it would get better, and I would be recognized for who I am.

Slowly, the transgender community has gained societal awareness through campaigns, media attention, and the hard work of queer activists. However, not all attention is good attention. With an increase in general dialogue surrounding the transgender community has come an increase in hateful dialogue, misinformation, bigoted rhetoric, and violent actions. To be clear, the hate is not new: gender non-conformity has been seen as unacceptable for generations of Western society. However, the hate has evolved and gained traction amongst those who can use it for their own gain.

In the present moment, hate against such a miniscule but exposed minority of the general population is a rallying point, a dog-whistle, and a distraction. Fueled by disinformation, purposeful misunderstandings, and exaggerated or blatantly false claims, transgender people have become a common enemy. To the loudest of our critics, we never were individual humans with unique actions, aspirations, and lives we are attempting to live free of violence. Instead, we symbolize an attack on the status quo and everyone who belongs to it or benefits from it. Truly, I do not believe that most people have an ingrained motive to hate our community; what they hate is the feelings of vulnerability that emerge within themselves as a reaction to societal changes beyond their control. Spurred on by certain faith leaders, politicians, and influencers, they have turned this fear into anger and have directed it those more marginalized than themselves.

The consequences of this movement are now beginning to come to fruition. Transgender youth looking to participate in sports, get an education, or merely go to the bathroom face a barrage of restrictions, discrimination, and violence. The most vulnerable members of our community who do not experience outright beatings will absorb the environment of hate that has seeped into our institutions and transform it into self-loathing. At best, self-loathing shuts tight and locks the closet door, preventing queer kids from ever experiencing and sharing their true selves. At worst, self-loathing turns to careless risk-taking, self-harm, and suicide. Simply put, transphobia on the societal level leads to trans death again and again and again.

Perhaps this age-old song of hate will decrescendo, but it will always be audible in the background of our lives. The privileged fearful will find a new victim-enemy, re-concentrate on another vulnerable group, and begin to ignore us once again. Then, just as we did after the second world war, after the government purge, and after the HIV/AIDS crisis we will quietly emerge from the shadows, take stock of our circumstances, mourn our dead, and continue to live. We will learn their new rhetoric, we will educate a new generation, and we will advocate for the most vulnerable amongst us. We will survive again and again and again.

It doesn’t get better - it gets different. Yet we adapt to this difference every time and every time we continue to survive.

But if it doesn’t get better, if the hate continues to circulate, evolving and reforming each time, why must we endure? Why should our community, and our youth, continue to subject themselves to the same violence experienced by our queer ancestors?

Queer youth of today, you must know that there is more to life than perpetual hate. The storm may rage around us, but there will be moments where you find yourself in the eye. When you finally put on that item of clothing and the mirror reflects back the true essence of who you are; when you find the group of friends and chosen family that stick with you, no matter what; when you look your partner in the eye and spark that feeling of belonging, feeling of home.

These islands of queer joy sustain us, nurture us, and remind us of why we fight again and again and again.

You don’t need to listen to those privileged celebrities in their mansions, sports cars, and Hollywood sets telling you it gets better in some distant future. You also don’t need to listen to the hate-mongering faith-leaders, politicians, and influencers. What you need, and what I know is out there for you, is a community of allies, peers, and queer elders that will assure you that you are welcome, just the way you are.

This is how we continue in the face of hate, violence, and death. We gather – in secret, in public, online, in person, covertly, in colourful displays, at protests, at memorials, out loud, and in whispers. We find each other and we hold fast to one another, we support each other, we care for each other, and we ensure our own survival.

I must tell you that it doesn’t get better. The hate never goes away. But you will grow into a community of resilience, a community of hope, and a community fueled by moments of your very own queer joy.

[sananscario]

Why isn’t Spain a democracy? 

For lovers of historical series, here is one recommendation. Hořící keř is a Czech HBO miniseries that depicts the moral corruption and the political and judiciary misery of the former Czechoslovakia during the communist dictatorship. In January 1969, Jan Palach, a young student of history, alights himself in the centre of Prague in protest against the Soviet occupation that takes place months earlier, and against the lack of freedom and prospects in a hopeless country. In order to prevent the event from triggering a widespread protest challenging the order imposed by Soviet tanks months before, some regime leaders engage in lying about the event and the circumstances surrounding it.

The three episodes of the drama then focus on the lawsuit filed by the leading character’s mother, and the subsequent trial, against the party’s high officials who have tarnished the memory of her son, and recount how the state uses various legal tricks, political manoeuvres, journalistic distortion and pressure on the environment to make the lawsuit fail and take all of this to their advantage to crack down on dissent. The series, directed by filmmaker Agnieszka Holland, shows what a dictatorship is all about in detail. Under an appearance of legality, of separation of powers, of a Constitution that defines the state as “popular” and “democratic”, which boasts rhetoric of equality and socialist values, a group of people who act arbitrarily is concealed, using all the mechanisms of the state to retain their own interests, more group than class.

Watching Hořící keř can be a good exercise to understand why Spain is not a democracy, even though it hides behind a Constitution of great principles and scarce results, an appearance of separation of powers and belonging to the club of European countries. It is not difficult to draw parallels between the Czech dictatorship of the 1960s and the current Spanish “rule of law”. We should also reread the works of Milan Kundera or Václav Havel in order to have a better understanding of ourselves. The trials against the “Catalan procés” seem to have been filmed by Agnieszka Holland, a Polish film director who is perfectly aware of what it’s like to live under a dictatorship based on fear, repression and, above all, lies. But even Pablo Iglesias himself, a moderate leader of the opposition to the regime, knows what it’s like to be watched by the political police, like Havel was, monitored by the (not so) secret services. Or it is just enough to watch the impunity of an extreme right who can physically attack citizens without having to face a judge while people who have taken part in peaceful protests, have been persecuted, slandered, fined, imprisoned, exiled or confined, without evidence, because of extrajudicial pressures (often very real), as in the case of Tamara Carrasco or various musicians or social activists.

But let’s not fool ourselves. Spain has never been a democracy. Right now the masks are falling off. The so-called “Regime of 1978” was the continuity of Franco’s regime by other means, although 20 or even 30 years ago we probably wouldn’t have made this statement. The difference is that at the moment dissent against the regime is much more consistent and widespread, and that is why the dark forces of the deep state are abusing repression in order to defend themselves against those who question an increasingly fragile status quo. We simply need to examine how they have reacted since the turn of the century to the pressure of those who claim historical memory, the interesting (and still poorly and badly analysed) police infiltrated and violently repressed 15-M, the emergence of a force like Podemos (counteracted by the State operation with Ciudadanos), the substitute bill submitted by independence parties, and the growing emergence of a new republicanism. Decades ago, in the 1980s or 1990s, arbitrary repression was just as unfair, though to a lesser extent and impact than it currently is. To give an example, in 1981, holding a pro-independence banner in Barcelona resulted in dozens of detentions and mistreatment by the police. The same thing happened in the days leading up to the 1992 Olympics, when dozens of political activists were imprisoned and tortured on fabricated charges. Recently I have been reading the draft of an interesting memoir Joan Martínez Alier, an intellectual and professor of ecology (and an anti-Franco dissident) who was arrested that same year for preparing a campaign to condemn the indigenous genocide during the Fifth Centenary festivities.

Spain is not a democracy. Next, I am going to give some reasons that reinforce this.

1. The current regime was originally flawed by an imposed monarchy

It is no secret that the continuity between Franco’s regime and the Constitution was personified in the Bourbon. A Bourbon shielded from criticism and the law who enjoys unsustainable impunity based on indications of questionable family behaviour, professional incompetence, lack of neutrality, and growing evidence of tampering with government or expressing sympathies for the far right. It was a legal continuity dictated by Franco’s own law of succession and the dictator’s will. The Constitution itself served to regulate the chaotic legislation of Franco’s regime, incorporating most of the content of the Fundamental Laws. The imposed monarchy secured the permanent leadership of the State by avoiding a referendum, which, based on the revelations by former President Suárez, would have been adverse. From a legislative and political point of view, an attempt was made to preserve the brutality of the dictatorship and to cover up its crimes, in particular through the (self-)Amnesty Law. In other words, with respect to the balance of power between war winners and losers, the regime of 1978 is an update of the regime of 1939. The failure to repair and to prosecute war crimes (and criminals) is very indicative of what happened next. The main obsession of “democracy” was to keep the power, the influence and the privileges of those sectors that benefited from Franco’s regime intact. That is why the repressive bodies were left untouched, especially the armed forces, the police and the judiciary, but also the church or the media.

2. There is a flagrant absence of a democratic culture

The damage caused to Spanish society after four decades of dictatorship was so profound that it determined its regenerative capacity. Repression to the very foundations of dissent and order through fear produced generations of Spaniards, as Jarcha’s song said, who were obedient even in bed. Sociological Francoism, which came to believe that the precarious welfare propaganda was the result of the regime’s development, turned out to be a brake on the prosecution of the Francoist crimes, the “Spanish Holocaust”, in the words of the British historian Paul Preston. In a way, the submission of the Spanish population to the escalating regression of recent years, and their support, by action or omission, for the repression of the Basque Country or Catalonia illustrates the extent to which authoritarianism has been internalised within society itself, becoming more and more like the fearful and mistreated peasants in Miguel Delibes’ The Holy Innocents. The electorate’s behaviour, supporting those who demand more nationalism (Spanish nationalism, of course), more repression, more regression, despite the high unemployment rates, precariousness and poverty, is a good barometer to explain how internalised the country’s hierarchical world view is. But also, the idea that democracy is a mechanism for majorities to impose themselves on minorities is also a sign of the degree to which authoritarianism is installed in the subconscious. Democracy serves to manage conflicts on the basis of pact and compromise, seeking consensus and making mutual cessions to reach solutions. But this does not seem to be happening.

3. Unsubtle mechanisms of censorship and the silencing of dissent

As it happened with the Czechoslovak dictatorship, it is risky attempting to dissent in the face of repression in Catalonia, in the Basque Country, or questioning the impunity of Franco’s crimes. There are dozens of mechanisms of repression, not always subtle. Here are a few examples. During the anti-Catalan demonstrations following the return of the documents of the Generalitat from the Salamanca archive in 1995, the few journalists in the local press who understood the motives of the Catalans had their media pages closed forever. Many of those who questioned the repressive policy in the Basque Country were prosecuted for “apology of terrorism”. Judges, like Garzón himself, who tried to investigate the Franco regime’s crimes, were expelled from the judiciary, as were so many others who dealt with sensitive issues. Six lads who attended a demonstration in Madrid in support of the October 1 referendum are being prosecuted. Some of the events organised in support of the independence supporters in the state have been banned (unlike the far right’s events). MPs such as Joan Tardà were unable to lead a normal life in Madrid because incidents in which they were reprimanded or threatened due to their republican ideas were frequent. Members of the military who have dared to report their superiors’ Francoism have been dismissed. Journalists who have exposed corruption scandals are being harassed by mafia groups or by the police forces themselves. To be a dissident in Spain, when the interests of Franco’s heirs are targeted, is a risky exercise… as with those who backed Jan Palach’s mother in her search for justice.

4. The impunity of Francoism

The Regime of 78 was built to safeguard the old order of 39. As the Falangist Antonio Labadie explained in 1974 when faced with the uncertainty of the changes to come, “we will fight tooth and nail to defend the legitimacy of a victory that today is the heritage of all the Spanish people”. And, given what we have seen, the bunker got away with it. Not a single Francoist has been judged. Despite the fact that Spain is the country, after Cambodia, with the highest number of missing people, the state has only obstructed any policies of memory and reparation. The Valley of the Fallen continues to be a place of pilgrimage for the far right, where the ethos of violence and fascism are spread. In fact, fascism is legal in this country. Democracy was never used to extradite dozens of internationally hunted Nazi criminals, such as the Belgian León Degelle, following 46 requests from Brussels. He died peacefully in 1994. In addition, following the 1977 (self-)Amnesty Law, dozens of crimes committed by the far right or cases of torture carried out by the police have either remained unpunished or been systematically reprieved. It is clear that a democracy cannot be built in such a way. After all, the lives of many Spaniards are still affected by the crimes of Franco’s regime which the Transition was unable to put right. Without justice and equality, no democracy is possible.

5. A systemic and protected corruption

Linked to all this, it has to be said that Franco’s regime worked, above all, towards granting impunity to the benefactors of 1939, and this resulted in a free pocketing of money, turning the whole of Spain into the spoils of war of the Francoists. Corruption, protected through privileged connections with power, which was systematic under the regime, continued during the so-called democracy. Unlawful enrichment, through contacts with the highest echelons, particularly through a promiscuity between political, economic, legal and administrative powers, continued without excessive problems. The Nóos case, for example, is a great illustration of how influence at the highest levels made it possible for certain protected elites to use public funds as ATMs. But, above all, the culture of impunity was set up in such a way that the nepotism and the endogamy existing in the judiciary, diplomacy, high administration, and revolving doors, with an IBEX 35 full of pro-Franco sagas, turned the State into the assets of a few families. To top it all off, the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the Franco regime do not even blush when they display master’s degrees and university degrees that we all know are fake. This is the kind of deep-rooted “you don’t know who you’re talking to” in Spanish daily life.

6. Poorly pluralistic media

Spain is the country where facts and the media narrative have no connection, even beyond ordinary lies. The Spanish press often explains how the facts should have happened along the lines of a political party. The following statement, written by Georges Orwell during the Spanish Civil War, could be applicable today. “In a deeply divided society with no democratic tradition, information is a mere trench“. In recent decades there has been a shift from a generalised functional illiteracy, which was the result of the lack of educational policies during the Franco regime, to a media illiteracy, promoted by the mainstream TV channels. The Franco regime created a propaganda model mainly based on the audiovisual information monopoly, which could not be renovated during the constitutional stage. Nowadays, there is an oligopoly in which the big media are connected to an endogamous economic power where large media groups broadcast the interests of the authoritarian elites. We have seen this in recent years, when, for example, not only the Basque nationalism has been criminalised because of their highly consultative and deliberative debate structures, but also the 15M or the Catalan independence movements which originate from a highly organised, self-managed and profoundly democratic and plural civil society, but which the media potrays as a blend between North Korea and Leni Riefenstahl, based on the harshest possible media manipulation, and fuelling hatred in similar terms to Yugoslavian television in the months leading up to its dramatic disintegration. Over the last few decades, television and the media have been working to convey an image of a homogeneous Spain that does not correspond to reality, concealing, for instance, the 10 million Catalan speakers in the state, shutting away Euskera or Galician, or making up facts that should fit together with one’s own prejudices, as Orwell said. And we all know that without a free and pluralistic media, there can be no democracy.

But even those uncomfortable and dissenting voices have been silenced, and those who, through meticulous research, have brought uncomfortable truths to the table have been sanctioned. Journalist Xavier Vinader was persecuted and forced into exile after exposing the dirty war in the Basque Country. Recent investigations into the fake academic titles of PP leaders, the Bar España, corruption networks or the abduction of children by institutions related to the regime have given the authors quite some grief, making them worthy of a Pulitzer award.

7. A political police and, worse still, the inability of Spanish society to react

The revelations about the Spanish police tracking and monitoring Pablo Iglesias is the tip of the iceberg. The forces of law and order seem more concerned with carrying out actions of discredit and siege against the opposition and dissent than with prosecuting the many varied crimes committed by those in excess of power. Many people are unaware of these various actions, involving the fabrication of false evidence to discredit Mayor Xavier Trias, the illegal persecution against Catalan independence, the inexplicable role (as in not allowed to be explained) of the secret services in the Jihadist terrorist attack in Barcelona in August 2017, the actions to damage public health and many more scandals that have not prompted the slightest reaction from Spanish public opinion. These actions have even benefited from a television boycott, despite their remarkable audience and authenticity. In Spain there are several Watergates every year, and very few people react. And that is unlike a democracy. It is appalling that, as in the case of Jan Palach, the police are used to prevent people from reacting, to maintain an order that quite clearly goes against the common interest.

8. Almost total Francoist control in key institutions

This is obvious in the genealogy of the state elites and in the Catholic Church (which, unlike what happens in the rest of the world, is neither being investigated nor prosecuted for abuse, child abduction, exploitation, etc.), the IBEX 35 companies, the judiciary (where judges who “poke their noses where they shouldn’t” are removed without hesitation), the high-ranking officials, the army, the security forces, as well as the complicity with a far right that seems to enjoy strange immunity in spite of hundreds of criminal acts (unlike peaceful activists).

9. The hegemony of its symbols

No. The Spanish flag, the anthem, the monarchy, or certain traditions are not the symbols of all Spaniards, but the symbols of the Spain of 39. There has been a policy of imposition and appropriation of symbols that do not seek consensus, but the staging of the victory of Franco’s regime, to the point that a large proportion of a coward and self-conscious left is adopting them as their own. The most logical would be to reconsider a new symbolism that should be debated and agreed upon. But this is not the case. The discomfort of radically anti-Franco societies such as the Basque and Catalan do not accept them. And it is much simpler to claim one’s own than to try changing those that represent a rather non fraternal Spain and so hostile that it does not hesitate to be the chromatic and musical complement of the “a por ellos” pack. (Translator’s note: The military police leaving from cities all over Spain to stop the referendum vote in Catalonia were seen off by crowds gathered with Spanish flags and chanting “Go get them!”). It is no secret that a significant part of the national cohesion is manufactured based on the external or internal enemy. But this identity is toxic, based on hatred and despise. And hatred and despise are the feelings that feed dictatorships. A democracy seeks agreement and consensus. No one should be afraid to create new symbols accepted by all, but a territory and society should also be structured on the basis of new agreements.

Unfortunately, the unionist vision of Spain represented by its excluding symbols will end up dissolving it, because, after all, the exhibition of the Spanish flag is a way of resisting an agreed solution, that is, a democratic solution.

10. Catalonia and the sham trial

The analyst Joe Brew, in his studies on audiences and social networks, highlighted the scarce interest that the trial against the independence leaders in the Supreme Court is generating among the Spanish public opinion. The analyst Joe Brew, in his studies on audiences and social networks, highlighted the scarce interest that the trial against the independence leaders in the Supreme Court is generating among the Spanish public opinion. It is obvious that for a vast majority, the shame of a televised farce in which the sentence has already been written, the testimonies of the accusation openly lying, witnesses and key evidence of the defence are vetoed, renders a public image of Spain similar to that of Saudi Arabia. Yet few voices are raised in the face of such injustice. In a way, the trial against the Catalan leaders is a supreme act of prevarication, not only from an administrative point of view, but, especially, from a moral point of view. In dictatorships, everyone keeps silent in the face of injustice. In democracies, a conflict as serious as the Catalan one would be dealt with through dialogue, always uncomfortable, always difficult, always unsatisfactory, but much more practical than causing an irreversible break that will end up turning against those in power.

Conclusion

Surely, this article will generate some indignation among those who prefer to live in a state of oblivion. Like Josep Borrell, Minister of Foreign Affairs, many will shout their heads off, claiming that Spain is an exemplary democracy. But as the proverb goes, “tell me what you brag about and I’ll tell you what you lack”. The authorities of the communist Czechoslovakia never grew tired of describing paradise on earth, the best of all possible worlds that their democratic and popular republic represented. So why should they attack those who defended the honourability of the young Jan Palach’s gesture? Spain is not a democracy. It won’t be until the toxic Franco heritage is shaken off; that of the institutions, but even more importantly, the one that still permeates the subconscious of millions of Spaniards.

Author: Xavier Diez

[lagomorphlore]

Just posted this on my personal facebook, I’m waiting for my conservative family to dive in and attack lol:

(cw: discussion of gun violence, hate crimes, the president, etc)

The horrific shooting in Alexandria is anyone's worst nightmare. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. I hope that legislators might use this moment to push for greater restrictions on gun ownership and that nothing like this happens again. But, unfortunately, if trends continue to hold, we will continue to experience tragedies like this one regularly. Already in 2017, America has experience 157 mass shooting incidents, and close to 7000 gun related deaths. (http://www.gunviolencearchive.org) Gun violence affects all of us, regardless of political opinions or political party alignment.

However, both gun violence and hate crimes do not equally impact every community. In the wake of this attack in Alexandria, I've already seen dozens of posts and memes criticizing "leftist extremism" and "violence from the left". Alex Jones of InfoWars wrote, "We have been warning for months that the mainstream media’s hysterical anti-Trump narrative and the left’s insistence that Trump is illegitimate will radicalize demented social justice warriors and prompt them to lash out with violence. It looks like that’s exactly what happened today. The blood is on their hands." (https://www.infowars.com/leftist-gunman-shoots-republican-…/) Donald Trump Jr. retweeted a post with similar implications. (https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/874978675556593664)

There's no denying that the Alexandria shooter was anti-Trump, and anti-Republican, and that those sentiments directly impacted his decision to commit horrific acts of violence. But it is inaccurate and irresponsible to report as if there is a general trend of acts of physical violence committed by "the left" against pro-Trump groups.anti-Republican, and that those sentiments directly impacted his decision to commit horrific acts of violence. But it is inaccurate and irresponsible to report as if there is a general trend of acts of physical violence committed by "the left" against pro-Trump groups.anti-Trump, and anti-Republican, and that those sentiments directly impacted his decision to commit horrific acts of violence. But it is inaccurate and irresponsible to report as if there is a general trend of acts of physical violence committed by "the left" against pro-Trump groups.

Of course, there will be "violent acts" committed by people on all sides of political spectrums, but the substantial trend of violence since the election has been committed by right-wing aligned groups. Of course, this is not to suggest that ALL Republicans/Trump-voters/right wingers are violent. But if we want to be honest about the data gathered so far in 2017? The overarching trend is an increase in hate groups with right-wing, pro-Trump affiliations (https://www.splcenter.org/…/hate-groups-increase-second-con…). We can disagree on Trump's personal obligations to address these groups, but Trump himself has previously made statements that seem to support violent confrontations. (https://www.nytimes.com/…/100000004…/trump-and-violence.html) Notably at his rallies, encouraging crowds to "rough up" and "knock the crap" out of protestors, and praising days "when people were carried out on stretchers". Watch the video collection above to see more.

The Southern Poverty Law Center collected reports of hate crimes committed in the days following the election: https://www.splcenter.org/…/update-1094-bias-related-incide… I think, no matter who you are, these figures and research methods stand up to criticism. There is transparency about the validity of claims: SLPC publishes updates when claims are later proved invalid or false. SLPC also includes figures on anti-Trump crimes, committed against pro-Trump folks. The inclusion of these figures is valuable, it really allows us to compare the rates of anti-Trump hate crime incidents against pro-Trump hate crime incidents. Note that it also breaks down crimes that directly referenced Trump, and those which did not.

For a larger look at the Trump campaign and right-wing hate crimes, here's another article from the SLPC: https://www.splcenter.org/…/hate-groups-increase-second-con…

However, as much as the campaign and election of Donald Trump has energized right-wing hate groups, let's remember that he is a symptom, not a cause. Hate in all its forms existed before Donald Trump and it will exist after him too. It is too simplistic and frankly inaccurate to assign him sole responsibility for all these hate crimes, and it ignores a history of racism and extremism on the right. But his election, the rise of the extreme right, and substantial increases in incidents of hate crimes are connected! His political success is the result of decades of dog whistle racism, anti-LGTBQ sentiment, anti-immigrant sentiment, etc, pushed by the right wing media and by Republicans in Congress. But he also shares some personal responsibility for instances of violence in his base, especially in light of the violence he has personally committed (sexual assault), and the violence he has supported against protestors at his rallies.

Furthermore, on the topic of "hate" and "the (in)tolerant left"- let's just be clear that "the left" and "the right" are hugely broad categories. I'd have to write an entirely separate, long-winded, rant on racism and classism amongst Democrats, liberal elites, "White Feminism", neoliberalism etc. "The Left" is not innocent. There are Congressional Dems who are just as evil as Congressional Republicans. HOWEVER, it is simply ridiculous to pretend that there's a plague of anti-Trump violence being committed by "The Left" against pro-Trump groups. I've seen so many memes today about "the tolerant left" being violent towards Trump and pro-Trump groups. And while there are instances of hatred towards pro-Trump people, there just simply is not the same level of hate crimes and violent actions committed by "The Left" against Trump/pro-Trump groups, as there are violent actions committed by "The Right" against minorities and "The Left". This fact does not absolve incidents like the shooting in Alexandria. It does not absolve "The Left" of its own issues. It also does not mean EVERY Trump-voter is a vehement racist. However, the pointing out of certain truths around hate groups and hate crimes is not a personal attack on every Trump voter. It is pointing out a trend that needs to be addressed by people of all political alignments. But this rhetoric around "Leftist violence" and "Leftist extremism" is absolutely inaccurate when stood against the data-driven facts of hate crimes and gun violence in this country.

[eviltessmacher]

Fourteen Points to consider...

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism -

Certain political groups tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays. To oppose the political power that utilizes these symbols is to be labeled subversive, unpatriotic, and treasonous.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights -

Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause -

The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military -

Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized. Speaks for itself. Nearly 57% of the Federal Budget goes to Defense spending, while a little less than 9% goes to domestic programs and safety-net programs like SNAP, and UI.

5. Rampant Sexism -

Governments consisting of certain political groups tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under these types of governments, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy to strip the civil rights of homosexuals. Reproductive choice, pay-equality, women's rights, and other issues important to women are frequently opposed, such as abortion in the case of rape or incest. Only one woman in the RepubliCON caucus holding a chair of a committee, and then only after it was pointed out that they were all rich, old, white men. Look at the leadership in Congress, and it looks like a banker's convention. As does any RNC convention.

6. Controlled Mass Media -

  Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in wartime, is very common. Media outlets controlled by these certain groups are often misleading in their publications or broadcasts, with a slant that is intentionally designed to propagandize and manipulate the population.

7. Obsession with National Security -

  Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses. "If you oppose this, you are committing treason, and inviting terrorists from all over the world to strike at a weakened America!"  - George W. Bush speaking on behalf of the Patriot Act. “America First” as has been pointed out by several foreign media outlets, is a Fascist code having been created by American pro-Nazi groups in the early 1930s.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined -

  Governments in nations led by these certain ideologies tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions. The Greedy Obstructionist Plutocratic conservitards painting themselves as religious, moral, family value oriented, and the only party that puts God first. The Baptist and Fundamentalist churches in this country are full of RepubliCONs... Drive by a wealthy neighborhood church on Sunday and note the GOP bumper stickers.

9. Corporate Power is Protected -

  The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite. Taxes for corporations are frequently reduced or in some cases eliminated, and corporations are often granted rights that individual citizens were intended to enjoy. In other cases, the right of Eminent Domain is abused, disguised as being intended for the "public good" The Koch Brothers. DAPL. That should say it all.

10.  Labor Power is Suppressed -

  Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed. Wisconsin, Michigan, all of the Southern Red States being "Right to Work" (which means they can fire you for no reason, and you have no recourse)... Hmmm... I'm seeing a pattern here.

11.  Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts -

  Nations dominated by certain political ideologies tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts. The National Endowment for the Arts and National Arts Council have suffered the biggest budget cuts in their collective histories under RepubliCON administrations, and are practically at the top of the list of Boehner and Ryan's "let's stick it to the poor folks" budget agenda. Do we even know everything they want to cut, besides NEA, PBS, and all the other Arts organizations. They hate intellectuals and academics, because they know an educated population trends to vote against them.

12.  Obsession with Crime and Punishment -

  Under the leadership of certain political ideologies, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in these nations. Hmmm... There's that pesky Patriot Act again. Department of Homeland Security anyone? How about the War on Drugs that has incarcerated millions of people (mostly minorities) for minor, non-violent offenses, while the wealthy get off lightly by claiming Affluenza...

13.  Rampant Cronyism and Corruption -

  Certain political ideologies that are in power, almost always consist of groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders. Well, this one ought to be obvious.

14.  Fraudulent Elections -

  Sometimes elections are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even media assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Certain political ideologies also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections. Florida, 2004. Ohio, 2000. All of 2016. The four manufacturers of "electronic voting machines" were all huge contributors to Bush, McCain, Romney, and Trump over the last four presidential election cycles. This doesn't even begin to touch on all the new voter suppression laws that have been enacted in states recently. They claim it is to prevent Voter Fraud, but there have been no documented cases of said fraud at all, and there have been several studies that have shown that the poor and minorities are being disproportionately disenfranchised by these laws. If that doesn't scare you, then you need to move to another country.

 Any of this sound familiar?

 The Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language, College Edition, defines fascism as :

"A system of government characterized by rigid one-party dictatorship, forcible suppression of the opposition (unions, other, especially leftist, parties, minority groups, etc), the retention of private ownership of the means of production under centralized governmental control, belligerent nationalism, sexism, and racism, the glorification and perpetuation of war, etc."

All fourteen of these are examples of the principles of Fascist governments.

Note the eerie similarity to the principles of the Greedy Obstructionist Plutocratic Conservitards....

One last thought:

The GOP only wants to do one thing: Divide you by giving you a target on which to blame your problems: The other party.

They use hateful labels designed to make you believe the Democrats are bad. They attack from behind patriotism, they have no empathy for the common man, and they state that the desire to see that everyone has a chance is "welfare mob mentality".

The GOP is only interested telling you who is to blame for your problems, and making you afraid of those problems. That’s how they win elections. They gather together a group of middle-aged, middle-class, middle-income voters who remember with longing an easier time, and they talk to them about family, morality, and American values. They don’t offer any real solutions, because they don’t have any to offer. They say whatever they think their audience wants to hear, so that they can garner a little bit of local support. They make comments designed to take advantage of groupthink, mob mentality, and social proof, to manipulate elections. They badmouth the other guy. They say that he's "destroying America" without giving ANY evidence or examples of it whatsoever, when in fact, they are the ones who are destroying the wealth and power of this nation, and they manipulate the facts to suit whatever it is that they're saying at the moment. They tell outright lies, half-truths, they spread rumours, and they try to convince the population that they're just regular people, when none of them know what it is like to walk into a grocery store knowing that they cannot spend more than $50, else they wouldn't be able to pay their electric bill.

Well, people… You can’t have it both ways. You cannot demand that Freedom of Speech only applies to you, and your opinions.  Freedom of Speech is when you can stand up and defend at the top of your voice, someone else standing up and screaming at the top of his or her voice, that which you would spend a lifetime opposing. You want Freedom of Speech? Then you better start defending MY right to state my opinions and beliefs, without interference, denigration, demeaning labels, or your vile disdain. Defend that. Instead of sniping and snarling at those of us who believe in a more fair, open, and equal government, why don't you find a way to fight against those who would disenfranchise you... Geez, it's not that difficult.

[teachanarchy]

When I don’t know what to do, I turn to the Lorde. And right now, a lot of us don’t know what to do. It’s Audre Lorde’s birthday on February 18th and American Nazis have major political power and are using it to terrorize the most vulnerable members of our communities. If it would be enough, I would just tweet “Praise the Lorde, punch a Nazi,” but I am capable of more nuance than that. Especially because of my research on how Audre Lorde actually dealt with Nazis during her life.

Audre Lorde had to become an expert on late-20th-century Nazis, not only because of the daily white supremacist context in which she raised her children in Staten Island, New York, not only because of the apartheid conditions she faced as a child trying to buy ice cream in the U.S. capitol, not only because she taught police officers with loaded weapons in her classroom at John Jay College. (And some John Jay students, like Thomas Shea, went on to be acquitted for murdering unarmed children of color in New York City.) In addition to all of that, Lorde spent a significant portion of her later life living in Germany and responding to government-sanctioned violence by self-identified neo-Nazis. And she wrote about it.

In a letter to her friend, fellow poet and lesbian feminist activist Adrienne Rich, Lorde called the situation in Germany in the early 1990s “a nightmare.” In response to racist, anti-immigrant violence in the streets and in the legislature, and as a Black lesbian fighting cancer who was in Germany in order to get medical access to save her own life, Lorde tried to use every piece of privilege she had. She used her status as an American and as an internationally recognized writer to raise awareness about the persistence of Nazism in Germany and spoke about it publically during many lectures. She also wrote open letters to elected officials, including Helmut Kohl, the chancellor of Germany at the time, threatening to go on a worldwide speaking tour denouncing the German government for its fascist tendencies.

Ultimately, though, she placed her faith in the people who should not be complacent, the people with people power, the people like most of you reading this. Here is what she said in her letter to Rich:

“The only real hope is the growing horror of groups of people like the healing practitioners, the small publishers, the social workers, women’s groups etc”

But she lamented how slow to action these (mostly white) people were to work together to craft an effective response:

“it takes a lot to galvanize them because in many cases they really do not believe their own history.”

By “their own history,” Lorde meant the relatively recent Nazi Holocaust. She was surprised again and again by the white German desire to believe that these incidents of racist violence, in the streets and the legislature, were somehow separate from the wide-scale use of death camps and the internment and murder of millions of adults and children based on religion, race, nationality, gender, sexuality, and culture that really happened and could happen again because of the persistence of racist nationalism in Germany.

So, in the name of the Lorde, do we believe in our own history?  

My gift to you for Audre Lorde’s birthday is an alphabetical oracle I made from a poem she wrote about Nazi violence in Germany called “East Berlin” (published in her last collection of poems, The Marvelous Arithmetics of Distance). I collected the words based on the letter they start with in the order they appear in the poem. I excluded the proper nouns so we could focus on this historical and geographic space. You can read the rest of the oracle here, but let’s start with A, B, C, and V.

A

along

accents

already

at

and

approaching

The United States also has an ongoing history of Indigenous genocide, internment, imprisonment, forced labor, racial violence linked to the rhetoric of borders. Religion, race, nationality, gender, and sexuality are exactly the ideas being used in recent executive orders and in the laws proposed and passed by right-wing Republicans. These orders and laws are creating a structure that could lead to mass death and are building on the existing historical systemic forms of oppression along the lines of race, immigration status, gender, and sexuality that already lead to death.

What does it mean for the most privileged among us to acknowledge how their understanding of reality is directly linked to a willful disbelief in the implications of the uninterrupted history of white supremacy? Do the white people who are right now comforting themselves with ideas of checks and balances and trying to bolster their faith in U.S. law to regulate imbalances truly believe there is a limit to what an entitled violent white man will do when backed by a greedy willingness to sacrifice life for profit? Do liberal white women and LGBTQ folks believe they or their children are physically safe in the homes of other white people who will tolerate a blatantly racist, lying rapist in a position of power because their distrust for white women is stronger, or because their healthcare bill was high? This is the delusional disbelief in “their own history” Lorde was talking about.  

C

cement

campcots

candles

chasm

History shows there is no limit to what white supremacist power will do. Even to so-called white people. And we don’t have to look that far back to see the impact of white supremacist rhetoric and law-making on the masses of people in the United States. Just look at how white people voted away their own social safety nets, supporting the gutting of social programs and giving leeway to corporations to chip away at the rights of workers. This lead to the forms of economic precarity that characterize 99 percent of our lives today, all because of racist stories from Republican and Democratic legislators and cabinet members about so-called welfare queens and sob sisters  in the 80s and 90s. White people dismantled social safety nets  that mostly served white people (and, in fact, that as recently as the mid-20th century, only served white people) because they imagined the laws would only hurt Black people. And they were wrong. And any of us who believe these executive orders and repressive laws will only hurt other people are deluding ourselves. Anything said by Donald Trump can and will be used against YOU. In celebration of Audre Lorde’s birthday, white folks reading this, give us this gift: Support each other in diverting the collective energy spent ignoring the very clear implications of white American history to supporting the generations-long responses crafted by the people of color who could never afford to ignore that history.  

B

be

Black

blood

by

And on that note, what would it mean for Black and indigenous communities and communities of color to remember our history in all its queerness and resourceful genius? What would it mean for those of us Lorde places her hope in—the healers, the grassroots organizers, the small publishers, the community accountable artists and scholars—to remember that we have always been here? To remember our shared and distinct histories of resilience in the face of nonstop white supremacy? I call on those of us who feel powerless right now to remember our history, to believe our history, and to call up those strategies that a whitewashed form of historical education tried to pretend never happened. Call on the sex-worker strategies, the Indigenous victories, the maroon refusals that are also our history. Believe in each other and ourselves as repositories of magic that worked, because look, here we are despite everything.  

V

visions

volcanic

vision

Tomorrow, on February 18 in South Seattle, Leah Lakshmi-Piepzna Samarasinha and I are creating a facilitated day-long retreat for QTPOC. It will be informed by crip-survival practices and dedicated to drawing on the lessons of our ancestors as far as seven generations back and activating them with the urgency our chosen descendents seven generations into the future need in order to even exist. Tonight, in the tradition of living room, warriors poet and scholar Bettina Judd is hosting a Black resilience salon in her living room, featuring my poetry, so we can remember the spaces of love and protection that make us possible. People of color, believe in our history and our survival despite history. That too is a gift.

It’s Audre Lorde’s birthday. And we live in times where you might have to punch a Nazi to save your own life. And it may be that we will have to come together in ways that Lorde never imagined, but without facing and reclaiming our history, we won’t have what we need to overcome this new and recurring fascist moment. It’s a birthday party called “face our history,” even and especially the parts that scare us, that we may transform fear into creativity, love, and action.

Thus saith the Lorde.

<3

Sista Docta Alexis Pauline Gumbs