#i am enraged by the racism

[sequencefairy]

Ya know, I was gonna be done. I spent hours yesterday talking friends off ledges when people were harassing them for being excited about the watcher announcement, or when their anxiety ballooned while watching the never-ending fucking tide of absolutely entitled morons kept piling on and on and on and spreading baseless bullshit every where.

But like, I cannot be done.

Because I am just so fucking disappointed. I'm so fucking sad to be sitting here watching people writhe with glee over the reactions to the announcement, and fill their little vengeful mugs in anticipation of watching the fall of a fledgling independent media company they are literally standing around lighting matches to throw onto the pyre.

Y'all make me sick.

You profess to love these guys, to want to see them succeed, to enjoy the stuff they make for you. You beg and demand and scream for more time with Ryan and Shane and bitch constantly during periods of the year when it's not Ghost Files or Puppet History time. You complain to anyone who will listen about how this is a betrayal, as if they're your fuckin' friends who you know personally.

News flash, they're not. They never were. You're parasocially attached to the plush puppet and the guy who sticks his hand up it in a way that is detrimental to your critical thinking skills and you know what? Fucking don't subscribe to the streamer. Who fucking wants you around anyway?

I would bet American cash money that none of you have EVER had to sit with your staff in a meeting and figure out how you were going to keep your company afloat. That none of you have ever had to decide to take a risk like this, in this kind of economic climate and be cautiously excited about what it might mean for you and then to have this absolute viciousness being the response.

I'm really sorry that for some people the price is just out of their reach. I completely understand wanting to join in on something and being unable to because of the money. The amount of times I've had to say no to doing something fun because I just didn't have the cash is not a small amount. It sucks. It really sucks.

But you know, the emotionally mature response to not being able to afford something is to be like, well is there a way that I can save up for this? Something else I can cut out? And if the answer is no, then, unfortunately, sometimes, you just have to be left out. This is a fact of life.

Do you people also get bitchy with artists who charge commission prices that mean they can afford to live?

The comparisons of Watcher to non-network television streamers are laughable. Like, Watcher is absolutely not on the same level of operating profitability as other streaming services. They are an independent production studio that gives a shit about making content that they like to make and taking care of their employees and the other people who are associated with them. And in order for them to continue to make the stuff we like (Ghost Files, Puppet History, et al), we're gonna have to buy-in.

Seeing people say with their full chests that they should just fire people? Are you fucking hearing yourselves? Who should they fire? Their queer employees? The people who write and do sound and edit? The people who make Ghost Files or Puppet History look the way it looks? The people who are the reason the shows work?

And, I'm sorry, but if you think that the solution here is that they should just ... make worse shows, I don't even know what to say to you at all. Sorry that Steven and Ryan and Shane wanna do more than lifeless unsolved copies for the rest of their lives. Go watch fucking unsolved if you want that, watcher has always wanted to do more, do better, make bigger things. And you know what? They are for sure allowed to do that.

I am also utterly enraged by the racism. I cannot even imagine what it's like to be any Watcher employee of colour today, watching the hate and the cruelty roll in. Y'all are just fucking mean, and gross, and I hope you all walk on legos in the dark in bare feet.

Everyone who is acting like this is some fucking personal betrayal needs to go smoke a bowl or do a bong rip and chill the fuck out.

[joesalw]

it absolutely sickens me and enrages me how almost no one who criticizes taylor seems to mention the brazilian girl that died during one of her concerts. i am not saying it was her fault because it wasn’t, it was the venue’s, but the way she handled it was disgusting. the way no one says benevides’ name and talks about her story are disgusting too tbh. it stinks of racism and xenophobia.

she even lied about ana passing out 'before the show' when it was literally during her performance. still can't believe she'd gone so low to avoid any accountability for her fan's death...

[local-hellhound-steals-spaghetti]

I just want to clarify that I've read your posts and your answers to questions and I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment of the situation, my reblog is only meant to bring more information into the dialogue and point out the racism and microaggressions taking place while using your animal conservation as a shield.

I realized once I posted my reblog it may seem like I am targeting you specifically I am not, as screenshotting the amount of discrimination I have been weeding through ever since this post has enraged me as someone from a "lesser developed country" myself.

I wish you well in your endeavors, and I'm sorry your well intended message is being hijacked by racists.

Hi thank you for reaching out! Looking back I would definitely have re-wrote that post and definitely do some more research before posting it.

I do see some really nice habitats there too and I know that there is a genuine care for the animals despite the questionable handling - I didn't want to imply that the reason for the poor handling was purely because of country, poor welfare happens regardless of country, even with animal welfare laws in place.

Sub cultures and cultures with the zoo itself are usually what I've found to be the most detrimental to welfare. When I was brought in to help improve welfare and training for marine mammals in two different facilities - one in the Pacific Islands and another in a "western" modern facility - both places had their own major issues with lack of education/up to date knowledge, relience on outdated practises and cliques that formed as a front against any attempt to change things.

This was quite surprising to me considering the company I worked for in the western facility definitely had the resources and the money but had simply gotten stagnant and stuck in the "this is how we always do it."

The facility in the Pacific stagnated because of the culture too - but lack of resources and consistent funding was a huge factor in attempting to improve things (I had to buy enrichment for the animals out of my own pocket so that was fun lol)

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that the post was never suppoed to be implicating the fact that the zoo was in Thailand for the reason for poor handling.

And, you can see on my blog, I have been singing the praises of multiple facilities in Asia. I'm highly critical of any intense handling of exotic animals, especially in the US. When autonomy and the ability to leave the interaction is taken away for an animal, the interaction is more likely to become dangerous or cause stress to the animal.

But anyway I appreciate you letting me know your thoughts and I do not support any of the people leaving any sort of racist generalisation about South East Asia on that post. Especially because it is tourists coming in from western countries that are some of the biggest drivers for animal welfare issues in Thailand - such as the Tiger Temple.

If westerners were truly so "englightened" on animal welfare, there would be no profit gained from tourists participating in unethical animal experiences. But its not exactly shocking to see this, especially from Americans, who also actively participate in exploitation of exotic animals in their own country (the exotic pet trade is a nightmare there).

Anyway culture and people are complex and so are perceptions of animal welfare - thank you again for sharing your thoughts!

[yasmeensh]

Book rant? Anthropology, apes, and racism discussion.

I started reading a book titled "Bonobo Handshake" by Vanessa Woods. I picked it up because a) I want to learn more about bonobos since my knowledge of them is minimal. b) the author had interacted with bonobos in person so it's an interesting perspective to read. c) the book had positive reviews.

I was not expecting the author to start off telling us about the 'discovery' of bonobos in this way.

W-what do you mean, in Belgium? The author makes it clear that bonobos live in Congo and she gives us a few examples of local bonobo lore. Meaning, people in Congo know the bonobos very well. Way to go to give a colonizer the credit??? wtf. In this perspective, she is letting us know THAT was the moment when Bonobos entered western science, which is true. But I was really hoping the author would give it a more holistic view than this, but it seems she really believes in this??? And let me tell you, from what I am picking up between the lines, she ONLY accepts western science. Here is an example:

This is the page that confuses me immensely. I don't know if she is trying to come off as sarcastic or not. She sets out for us that Takayoshi Kano is the star of Bonobo research, but in the next paragraph says there is no one studying Bonobos. "there was never a Jane Goodall or Dian Fossey for bonobos." UHM NO? YOU JUST SAID THERE WAS???

[highlighting and writing over a picture of the page (32) since it's a library book and I can't write on it.]

She says Japanese researchers are responsible for all we know on Bonobos, but then starts talking about de Waal's zoo discoveries in detail, and they seem pretty minor compared to Kano's work with wild bonobos. She did point out that scientists don't take de waal's observations seriously because it's from a zoo, but she doesn't remedy that by telling us if it can be supported by Kano's work or not when compared. Kano is ignored. He does have one book available in English, so it's not like we can't ever learn about what he observed. you said western mainstream media don't want to listen to a man who only spoke Japanese??? UHM. You are too??? Why did you jump to de waal? If it's a book about bonobos, then please give Kano a little spotlight and tell about his research. (I actually want to read Kano's book now but I can't find a borrowable copy of it. It's a complicated long loop to get one. But it's possible T-T!!!!)

I very much dislike her tone in 'oh it's the Japanese that tell us about bonobo'. It is as if no one is actually researching them at all. They are 'foreign' so it doesn't count. Meanwhile, if it's a white person's discovery, it is humanity's. But if it's someone else theeennnn well we are not sure if it's actually real :/ Not until a white person observes this can we really put this into humanity's archive of knowledge. Otherwise, whatever they learnt is not very important or worth talking about.

I'm not gonna drop the book, because it does get me thinking about stuff and that's what I read books for. I guess it reminds me of University days, of how irritated I get when we are assigned a problematic reading to pick apart and present to class. I hope I'm not picking this apart too much 😭 I'm not sure if I'm enraged and reading too much into it. I might be totally wrong. idk... I think I need to join an anthropology book club to have people to talk with about this. Only way for now is to share on the internet and maybe a discussion starts. Want to see what others think of this (especially if they read the book).

[jackoshadows]

The Return of Ta-Nehisi Coates

A decade after "The Case for Reparations," he is ready to take on Israel, Palestine, and the American media.

It is in the last of these long, interconnected essays that Coates aims for the sort of paradigm shift that first earned him renown when he published "The Case for Reparations" in The Atlanticin 2014, in which he staked a claim for what is owed the American descendants of enslaved Africans. This time, he lays forth the case that the Israeli occupation is a moral crime, one that has been all but covered up by the West. He writes, "I don't think I ever, in my life, felt the glare of racism burn stranger and more intense than in Israel."

He was astonished by the plain truth of what he saw: the walls, checkpoints, and guns that everywhere hemmed in the lives of Palestinians; the clear tiers of citizenship between the first-class Jews and the second-class Palestinians; and the undisguised contempt with which the Israeli state treated the subjugated other. For Coates, the parallels with the Jim Crow South were obvious and immediate: Here, he writes, was a "world where separate and unequal was alive and well, where rule by the ballot for some and the bullet for others was policy." And this world was made possible by his own country: "The pushing of Palestinians out of their homes had the specific imprimatur of the United States of America. Which means that it had my imprimatur."

That it was complicated, he now understood, was "horseshit.""Complicated" was how people had described slavery and then segregation. "It's complicated," he said, "when you want to take something from somebody."

What matters to Coates is not what will happen to his career now — to the script sales, invitations from the White House, his relationships with his former colleagues at The Atlantic and elsewhere. "I'm not worried," he told me, shrugging his shoulders. "I have to do what I have to do. I'm sad, but I was so enraged. If I went over there and saw what I saw and didn't write it, I am fucking worthless."

The first inkling that Coates might want to write about Israel came around the time he was leaving The Atlantic. He was partly spurred by criticism he'd received over a passage in "The Case for Reparations" in which he cited reparations paid by the German government to the State of Israel after the Holocaust as a potential model. "We did an event when 'Case for Reparations' came out, at a synagogue in D.C., and I remember there was a woman who got on the mic and yelled about the role of Palestinians in that article," he told me. "And I couldn't quite understand what she was saying. I mean, I heard her, but I literally could not understand it. She got shouted down. And I've thought about that a lot, man. I've thought about that a lot." It hadn't occurred to him that Israel might itself be in the debt of a population that it had oppressed, a blind spot that remains a source of regret to this day. "I should have asked more questions," he told me. "I should have done more. I should have looked around and said, 'Do we have anybody Palestinian who's going to read this before we print it?'"

On the ground in the occupied territories, he saw the segregated roads, the soldiers with their American-made weapons, the surveillance cameras, and the whole archipelago of impoverished ghettos. "I felt a mix of astonishment, betrayal, and anger," he writes. "The astonishment was for me — for my own ignorance, for my own incuriosity … The betrayal was for my colleagues in journalism — betrayal for the way they reported, for the way they'd laundered ethnic cleansing, for the voices they'd erased. And the anger was for my own past — for Black Bottom, for Rosewood, for Tulsa — which I could not help but feel being evoked here."

One of his first encounters with the Israeli state is a soldier stopping him on the street to ask him his religion, a confusing question for an atheist. It becomes clear that if he does not give the correct answer — "Jew," "Christian," anything but "Muslim" — he will not be allowed to pass. "On that street so far from home," he writes, "I suddenly felt that I had traveled through time as much as through space. For as sure as my ancestors were born into a country where none of them was the equal of any white man, Israel was revealing itself to be a country where no Palestinian is ever the equal of any Jewish person anywhere."

In Coates's eyes, the ghost of Jim Crow is everywhere in the territories. In the soldiers who "stand there and steal our time, the sun glinting off their shades like Georgia sheriffs." In the water sequestered for Israeli use — evidence that the state had "advanced beyond the Jim Crow South and segregated not just the pools and fountains but the water itself." In monuments on sites of displacement and informal shrines to mass murder, such as the tomb of Baruch Goldstein, who gunned down 29 Muslims in a mosque in 1994, which recall "monuments to the enslavers" in South Carolina. And in the baleful glare of the omnipresent authority. "The point is to make Palestinians feel the hand of occupation constantly," he writes. And later: "The message was: 'You'd really be better off somewhere else.'"

By the time Coates returned to New York, Palestine was his obsession. Right away, he began sending work and research to group chats of various friends. "You wake up and Ta-Nehisi has overnight written four different walls of text and posted three different e-book screenshots and highlighted things," Ewing told me. "We have probably talked about Palestine pretty much every day since returning." Later that summer, just after he returned to the U.S., Coates introduced himself to the Palestinian American historian Rashid Khalidi at Columbia, who invited Coates and his wife to dinner to discuss his trip. "I think he felt that he had been conned," Khalidi told me. "And I think he felt he had to — I don't think atone is the right word, but make up for what he had mistakenly believed." So Coates began his education in earnest with Khalidi guiding him through the literature in a running dialogue that lasted months. It was a process not dissimilar to his preparation for "The Case for Reparations": Coates leaned on friends, family, and experts, Jews and Arabs and others, to stress-test and expand his ideas. "He's a very public learner," Ewing said.

While The Atlantic has certainly published some dissenting views in these areas, the central pillars of its perspective are unshakable. In November 2023, as Israeli forces were beginning their decimation of Gaza, Yair Rosenberg predicted that a new moral authority in Israel would rise from the rubble of Netanyahu's failures. Amid news of Israel bombarding schools and hospitals, the magazine's April cover story, by Franklin Foer, claimed that the left's sympathetic response to the October 7 attack had augured the end of "a golden age" for Jews in America. In May, in an article quibbling with the U.N.'s estimate of the death toll in Gaza, Graeme Wood wrote, "It is possible to kill children legally, if for example one is being attacked by an enemy who hides behind them." When Hamas murdered six Israeli hostages in late August, Foer wrote a wrenching obituary for one of the victims, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, treatment that is rarely afforded to Palestinians who have been killed in the conflict. And as student protests against the ongoing assault on Palestinian civilians took hold across the U.S., The Atlantic applied a full-court press: The demonstrations were "heartless" (David Frum), "oppressive" (Michael Powell), "threatening" (Judith Shulevitz).

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Am I the asshole for telling my mum she's being ignorant?

cw// racism .

I (18MtF) have a really, really good mum all things considered. She's been amazing about my transition, has gone to marches, spoke on radio, written articles and gotten into public spats on twitter (she's a semi-public figure) defending me. We live in the UK, so this is really a big thing on terf island lol. She's pretty good about mental health, and advocated in my youth aswell when I got diagnosed autistic.

Here is where it gets messy. My mum works in education for context, so is very clued in to the news and things. She's a hard-core feminist (I would probably call her a radical feminist to be honest). All of her friends are older women in education and journalism professions, and she speaks to them about feminist topics regularly. The thing is that ALL of them are white. Most of them are upper class (my parents both grew up dirt poor and had to work hard for everything they had). I have a number of bipoc friends, and there has been some weird instances of my mum accidentally breaking out the microaggressions that made me uncomfy, never anything massive, but enough to make me feel just a bit weird.

Tonight we watched the new Martin Scorsese film Killers of the Flower Moon. Often on the way home from seeing films like this, my mum and I will discuss politics and society, but I usually steer the conversation away from race because it isn't something I want to bring up with her, especially in a space where i cant exactly roll my eyes and go quiet without annoying her. However, race is a key topic in this film. Discussions were going fine, and then my mum did this weird thing I've noticed her do before. I had been explaining that indigenous women go missing and are often barely looked for because of factors of racism and misogyny, she immediately chimed in talking about a very different situation, about the cervical cancer scare in Ireland where tests for cervical cancer weren't carried out properly, but all the women were told they were clear anyway, resulting in many women suffering from a disease that could've been caught much earlier.

Normally I would just move on and engage with this, but it enraged me this time, mostly because it was an evocative film that left me with a lot of emotions and also because earlier that day she'd said something microaggressive about my girlfriend, who is black. I told her that it was obviously awful and I get she was just trying to empathise, but that it was a completely different situation because it didn't have that intersection of race and misogyny. She made some point about how she was "Sure there were people of color affected by the scandal" but I told her that that wasn't the point and that she was being ignorant. She got passive aggressive and didn't talk to me for the rest of the night.

I seriously don't know if it would've just been better to engage with her on that and then steer our conversation back to something more focused on race or to just abandon it altogether or whatever. I guess im also sick of not being able to talk about race at all with her, and feeling embarrassed bringing my friends over because I feel like she's gonna say something. I just don't really know how to bring it up because the only thing she can ever compare it to is misogyny, when obviously these are very different things, but I don't feel like this was the best way I'd gone about it.

Was I the asshole ?

What are these acronyms?

[smartkookiee]

This is the only political post I will make here for now. So if you are sick of seeing it all you can scroll on but I need to just vent.

I have been holding back from saying anything just because what happened with the US election still doesn't feel real. Except I am not surprised. I'm just enraged.

SO violently upset for myself and every person who is a minority in this country. I very rarely am angry but I have never felt rage like this. The only other time I felt like this was the last time that felon was elected.

I'm not going to sit here and deny he won. He did. That's it. The End.

I can still hate him and believe that he will cause extensive amounts of destruction to this country and the rest of the world. Then when he fulfills his most radical promises and doesn't follow up on any of his promises to lower and middle classes. I will just sit here and say we told you. We told you for years.

You chose not to see.

We had a qualified woman ready to lead this country, but racism and misogyny does run that deep in this country. It's in everything, it's everywhere. Now I don't think Kamala was perfect. I don't think all of her beliefs and policies aligned with mine, but she allowed for that space. Allowed for the space for us to believe in the same things and differ on others. She would have protected your right to do so.

Trump is not going to tolerate anyone who doesn't believe exactly what he does.

It's plain and simple.

Anyone who denies that is simply just ignorant.

All of this to say, if you voted for him Congratulations but I don't want you anywhere near my page. You aren't welcome here, no we cannot be friends because this isn't a difference about economic policies - it's basic human rights at stake.

[comicbookhyperfixationtime]

I am not Happy with how X-men '97 Handled Lifedeath

While they did remove the elements I most disliked from the original storyline (mainly the racist depiction of Africans), they failed to keep or properly represent any of the parts I did enjoy.

Storm and Forge's relationship is so flat. I understand that roughly 20 minutes is not nearly enough time to truly explore a deeply complex romance, but man is this not doing it for me. There's a distinct lack of chemistry here that makes their words of devotion ring so hollow, and a major lack of real conflict when the truth of Forge's past is revealed. Part of this is because the Adversary immediately attacks and leaves no time for he and Storm to actually break up. Part of this is because of Forge himself; he's stripped of the more complex aspects of his personality; the hubris, the need for control, the complex relationship with his Cheyenne heritage. And speaking of said heritage.

They literally did exactly what I was hoping they wouldn't do; make another Magical Native American story. I am pissed they moved Forge from his sick Ray Bradburry Hologram Penthouse/ (which would have been so much more visually interesting location with so many opportunities for cool animation moments) to the desert. Forge doesn't ride horses, Forge doesn't make his papa's chili, that's the point! The point is he's a sad broken man who cut himself off from his own people out of self-loathing, trauma and internalized racism! Forge. Doesn't. Cast spells*. Native American characters. Do not need to be spiritual. Forge is interesting because he isn't spiritual. It's the same old racist bunk. And speaking of racist bunk.

The Adversary literally doesn't exist in Cheyenne folklore. Marvel pulled it out of their ass. And that's bad enough in the 80s, but in the Year of Someone Else's Lord 2024 we should know better then to misrepresent marginalized cultures like that. The Cheyenne are not wiped out, they are here and they are doing their damndest to keep their heritage alive. I can't imagine how enraged I'd be as a Cheyenne watching this. It is so damaging and so disrespectful.

The reason this pisses me off is not because X-men '97 is bad, but because its good! I am so disappointed, because up until now the show has gone above in beyond in exploring themes of prejudice. I expected better. I know they can do better. Do better.

*Well, at one point Forge was a magic user, but that didn't end up so hot for him, and if you're not going to even acknowledge that part of his backstory why keep the magic at all?

[thelesbianpoirot]

It AMAZES me how trans identifier males have become the all knowing arbiters of lgb but mostly lesbian culture. That people treat these fetishists like they’re so precious and soft while reminding women that they’ll cause harm to those who don’t fall in line. Sick. I remember back when I was in the ‘let adults do what they want to their bodies if it’s healthy’ camp what made me turn was the way they’d always say ‘you should me open to dating trans ‘lesbians and black lesbians’ as if males and us are the same. It was so disturbing and nasty and it made me furious watching non black lesbians agree and try and fight me when I spoke out against the racism. The fact that people allow racism because they don’t want to hurt these males feelings is insane and pathetic and how I know no one thinks they’re women because women could never get away with such toxicity and inanity. Idk sometimes I lose hope because part of me feels like this trend will be over in another five years, but even waiting that long seems crazy. Plus it really could go on forever because people are obsessed with men no matter what outfit or pronoun they claim 

Sweetie! You're setting me off. It enrages me beyond belief that BLACK WOMEN are being classed in the same category as these loser failure men by these fucking nutjobs. It is even worse to me when they say black butches and studs shouldn't be "transphobic" because we're "practically" men. The amount of racism I have felt from this community is just overwhelming because you don't expect it. They even seem to go to lengths white conservative don't go to. Because in order for them to justify why they are worshipping delusional men, they have to start ranking women based on least and most like men, and they have decided women they aren't attracted to, Black women, gay women, fat women, tall women, and muscular/athletic women, even poor women are Men-lite. I have heard this rhetoric from trans people and their supporters more than right wing bigots. It's nasty! It's pathetic! It's sick! And Racist. And I don't go around pulling the race card for any old mess, but if another fucking white kid from the suburbs say some dumb shit to me like I can't talk about the black FEMALE experience because it is not inclusive enough, I will fucking go off. It riles me up too because black women are the most feminine women on the planet, AND That's a bad thing! I don't know another group of women who spent more time on beauty procedures, heterosexual roleplay, and value motherhood/having kids more than us. I read a korean book "If I had your face by cha francis", about how women are going into debt for their cosmetic procedures and are willing to undergo so much pain & discomfort beauty and it sounded so much like black women everywhere in the world. And I think a big driving factor behind the huge escalation in black women's behavior has to do with how common place it is for young black women to hear this outdated evil talking point that we are more like men than any other women. This is archaic evil shit man. Despite modern gynecology being based unethical and cruel experiments done on our female ancestors during transatlantic slavery. We are the blue print for womanhood, yet ours is being called into question, weighed and measured. WE INVENTED THIS SHIT! Five years is too long, I need this trend to die out NOW! And I am glad women are taking screenshots, videos and other catalogue of evidence. When this trend dies, whether I am forty or 100, I don't need people saying it wasn't that bad, or they didn't said any of this, or that they aren't susceptible to propaganda. You're right, I do think people will obsess over men forever, and this movement is the finale form of the patriarchy, when your serial killer wears you skin and larps as you, and can now receive government benefits, special treatment and law reform for it. This is a man's world and never has this statement been more true. Men are still abusers, rapists, enslavers of women and we are now bullied into accepting them as one of us. INSANITY. How am I not stark raving mad is beyond me?

[halalchampagnesocialist]

being online esp on twitter has stressed me out so much bc not only am I making myself super hot and bothered by getting enraged by the stupid dumb takes I’m seeing from dumbfuck zionists rather than just scrolling past or setting my timeline to following only but there’s so much racism present it’s so awful

but i also try to remind myself that so many of these idiots only feel emboldened to say what they say because they’re online. i doubt they’ll feel brave enough to say half the shit they do irl. secondly that the pro-Palestine movement is growing by the day and Israel’s days are numbered and these morons are enjoying what little show of strength they have left.

[lilyartemisia]

I've always been full of rage. Ever since I was a little girl, I felt nothing but disdain, disappointment above all, my rage. I grew up in a country where I was indoctrinated in an Abrahamic religion that went on and on encouraging the men and boys in my life to know that I'm nothing. The same men also within than time period sexualised my child-self for acting as children should. My child-self became enraged again, when someone who I thought was an ally, betrayed me; my own, Pick-Me of a Mum, who would often shame me for my menstruation and later, fail to teach me the ways to prevent myself from being preyed upon by other men. Other men that she would willingly throw me under the bus for, despite her and women of her generation being used as free labour and treated as nothing more than walking, living, breathing human "appliances" by men like my Dad. Another moment of child-self rage: at my maternal Grandmother, who noticed that I had rhythm, and was talented at drumming, but crushed my wanting of participating in the wedding procession that included these drums, because "You can't participate, because you are not a boy." I'm just angry. Angry at the fact that other women are ignorant of their own subjugation and how ultimately, that we are treated by boys and men. Unfortunately also, I've observed it in my own workplace where women and PoC are heavily outnumbered, I observe also, the cyclical nature of misogyny and sexism both off-and-online. To be honest, I crave the friendship of other women. Who understand my rage, my past, what is happening and continues to happen around me because I am a woman, the trails and tribulation I and we still face as a gender and continually-opposed class in even today's "modern" and "inclusive" society. I feel a loneliness in my rage, because of the opposing gender and what they say and do in online spaces during discussions and discourse, where they will gleefully dismiss, invalidate, diminish and go about justifying misogyny, their sexism and even their degrees of racism and top it all off with a Whataboutism just before leave. I wish men would just leave me and the rest of us alone, because I've had enough.

[soon-palestine]

this is in 2016.

Jewish activists have been kicked out of an Illinois synagogue for supporting Palestinian rights.

On Sunday, a conference on how to combat the growing boycott, divestment and sanctions movement was held at Temple Beth-El, in Northbrook, a suburb of Chicago.

During a panel discussion, Michael Deheeger, a 32-year-old member of Jewish Voice for Peace-Chicago, interrupted the speakers, expressing his support for Palestinian rights.

The mostly older audience responded with a staggering degree of hostility. Deheeger compared the audience to racist whites in the Jim Crow South.

“It was a throwback to pictures I’ve seen of white protesters in the South trying to uphold segregation,” he told The Electronic Intifada.

Three other activists had disrupted the conference before Deheeger – video of their action is below. “If there had been one person after me, I don’t know what would have happened,” he said.

“Unhinged”

In the video at the top of this post, Deheeger, who is filming, can be heard repeatedly declaring, “I am Jewish, I support Palestinian human rights.”

As Deheeger is carted out by police, camera in hand, one enraged person after another jumps out of their seat to taunt and curse at him.

“You support killing Jews!” says one man. “Get the fuck out of here!” says another.

Near the end, a woman shouts, “Hitler! Hitler!”

“They were so unhinged,” Deheeger said. “One guy even came up and punched me in the arm.”

The rage is striking given that Deheeger’s statement was hardly controversial. He was simply stating that Palestinians are people worthy of human rights.

“I’m not even sure if they see us as people any more when we stand up and do this stuff,” he added, referring to the hatred for anti-Zionist Jews espoused by Zionists who remain deeply invested in Israel’s colonial project. “They see us as race traitors.”

“It really just highlighted the amount of racism and violence that’s intertwined with the issue of Israel and Palestine in the Jewish community. And it’s passed down to kids,” said Deheeger, recalling his own support for Zionism when he was still in high school.

JVP-Chicago disrupted the event, said Deheeger, to show that “all these organizations claiming to represent American Jews and conflating anti-Zionism and criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism – they don’t speak for us.”

Wrong side of history

Chaired by the Republican congressman Bob Dold and Democratic state lawmaker Scott Drury, the panel at the conference included representatives from nearly every major Jewish communal organization across the political spectrum.

Dold is a chief sponsor of the Combating BDS Act of 2016, a piece of federal legislation that would authorize local and state governments to punish authorities that take measures against Israel or firms that abet its abuses of Palestinian rights.

A similar bill, which passed in Illinois last year, has been proposed in several state legislatures across the country.

Before being kicked out, Deheeger filmed this video of part of the panel discussion.

Assaf Grumberg, a former communications officer in the Israeli military now working for the Israel-funded pressure group StandWithUs, can be heard advising Jewish students to “build relationships with other groups on campus besides what you feel comfortable with.”

“If you have a friend who’s African American, who’s a member of Black Lives Matter and you’re genuinely interested in their movement then you need to go to your friend and have a conversation” about Israel, Grumberg says.

Grumberg echoes concerns raised by Zionist organizations in recent years about Palestine solidarity activists forging ties with other progressive organizations, particularly Black Lives Matter and immigrant rights groups.

Among the topics addressed in the panel were the growing efforts to push universities to divest from Israel or firms profiting from Israeli apartheid.

Bemoaning the “emotional strain” BDS campaigns have exacted on pro-Israel students, one panelist concludes that the best way to break campus divestment coalitions between Palestinians and other non-white student groups is to equate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.

The panelist was a student at Northwestern University, where the student government voted in favor of an Israel divestment resolution last year.

“The debate in our student government became not about Israel, it became about race privilege,” the speaker says.

“Senators in our student government will say, ‘we’re not anti-Jewish’ ��� but they’ll be convinced that they shouldn’t be Zionist because Zionism is a form of colonialism,” the speaker states. But “if it’s a new form of anti-Semitism then I think many student governments will not be so swayed by the tactics of BDS.”

As the audience applauds, the panelists are interrupted by Jews who strongly disagree.

Towards the end of the video, three young JVP-Chicago activists pop up from their seats to declare their support for Palestinian rights and BDS. Before they can get a word in, the crowd starts booing. A few seconds later a police officer shows up to escort the protesters out.

“As young Jewish progressives we support the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement in bringing about human rights and equality for Palestinians,” said 22-year-old JVP-Chicago activist Eli Massey in a statement following the protest.

“We are here to say that organizations like the Jewish United Fund and StandWithUs do not speak for all Jews, and on this issue are on the wrong side of history,” Massey added.

[barkboat]

I am seriously enraged at the racism I am seeing from American and Canadian Jews right now. Do fucking better

If you are upset about these six hostages dying but not the tens of thousands of Palestinians please ask yourself why

And if you try to blame ANYBODY besides Netanyahu who has refused NUMEROUS ceasefire deals that would return the hostages, then I think you need to educate yourself or stop talking about things you don’t understand

[hompunkulus]

Atrocities of Religion and Satanism as the Voice of the Silenced and Enraged

Satanism is a philosophy of self-awareness, hedonism, and self-expression. It has been around for centuries in different guises through literature, art, or politics. In no order, we have William Blake, Hellfire Club, and Bavarian Illuminati. The aforementioned were based on rationalism on one end and gnosticism on the other.

On a less intellectual and more transgressive, and even criminal level, you have the Aghori (who are still around), Thugees, Hashishan, and Snake Witches (from Japan). The Aghori eat human flesh and excrement, cover their bodies with cremation ash and chant on corpses. The Thugees were an atrocious criminal society that worshipped Kali and offered heads of their kills to her. The Hashishan were Persian assassins that were trained not only in espionage and violence, but also in poisons and psychedelics. The Japanese Snake and Dog witches were known for human and animal sacrifices and having deadly curses at hand. But none of these groups are Satanists, they are mentioned for historical purposes of the general Left Hand Path, this is to say, all Satanisms and Satanists are Left Hand Path but not all Left Hand Paths are Satanic, although the Christian hive mind would say otherwise. That all paths not of Christ are of Satan.

Today, you have transgressive groups like Joy of Satan who glorify Nazi symbolism and Order of Nine Angles who have very real ties to Far Right militant extremists and CSA, mainly through an offshot the Tempel ov Blood. These are only two known Satanic groups, though. They are pebbles on a river bed in the grand scheme of modern Satanism.

Bigotry, CSA, and human sacrifice have no place in my philosophy and practice, or in that of the majority of the Satanic community.

A Little Devil Spit

The Holy Roman Catholic Church, and a number of Christian denominations, have an actual history of genocide, CSA, and xenophobia. The early Roman Catholics converted and murdered pagans, Christian Spaniards started the Inquisition, and the Quakers hunted, tortured, and murdered men, woman (mainly women), and children for, often false, accusations of witchcraft because of the verse in Exodus 22:18 "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."

The early 90's saw a sickening amount of CSA cases coming from local churches and today we are still fighting battles against racism, xenophobia, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia within our House of Representatives, Supreme Court, and local police guided by outdated Puritan 'values'. Church and State are supposed to be seperate entities, today they are a dynamic villainy backtracking to Jim Crow and Inquisition era ideations.

What makes me a Satanist is I will, and have historically, used my voice to call bullshit when people accuse Satanism, witchcraft, and vampirism to be violent, extremist, and atrocious cults when it is clear who are the real leaders of said atrocities.

A quote that defines a big part of my Satanic belief is from the last interview with Anton LaVey, "I would say that I am a very happy man, an extremely happy man, in a compulsively unhappy world."

The doctrine of Satanism, if we learn from history and modern incarnations, is it is about intellectual discourse, carnal appreciation, and indulgence in the pleasures of life, and not about race wars or other such nonsense and ignorance.

[swampgh0stt]

I have some ideas for Mrs. Afton, but I don't think I'll ever turn these into full pieces, so here's some Afton Family WIPs. cw: racism, child abuse, internalized homophobia

Despite how she may try to distance herself from her own children, Clara knew it was useless. Garrett was only a child with no direction, having known so much fear in his short life. Her life had begun to fall apart around her, after William survived that springlock accident. She was forced to watch her husband spiral out of control, driven mad by his own agony while his mind ran away with whatever conjecture formed that day. She found herself in more fights with him, maintaining some level of composure while he shouted abuse towards her. It was too much for any woman to handle, but Clara felt so alone in it all. 

She had only moved to Utah for the sake of her husband, but there was nothing for her here. She lost him the day that metal was forced through his body, permanently scarring both body and mind. Now, she paced her home while sick with grief, worrying over her youngest son in the hospital-- with a head injury her eldest had inflicted. It was hard to keep her emotions in check, when Michael looked so similar to William. He was her first child, her eldest son-- but he couldn’t stomach the sight of him. 

“Mom…” And there he was again, tentatively reaching out to someone who should always be there for him. Michael wasn’t the same after the incident either, spending most of his nights plagued by the memory while his days were spent quiet and shaking, or in Jeremy’s company for comfort. 

But Jeremy was not here. And Clara was hurting.

“S'hui-áb.” Demon. Michael froze when his mother hissed the word at him, her eyes wild and still spilling tears down her cheeks. She turned on him with purpose, malice dripping from her lips. Michael felt his throat close, taking a step back to distance himself from his own mother. She realized her mistake and softened, but the damage was already done. “Mikey--” She couldn’t take it back, no matter how hard she tried. So Clara decided not to try at all. “Give me some space.” 

Whatever plea had formed immediately died on his lips. Michael nodded, swallowing down his pain once more as he took another step away, distancing himself physically and emotionally with every small movement. “Okay…” His voice was soft, defeated. “I’m sorry…” 

------------

Too loud. Everything was always so loud with his father. Michael favored his Mother for that very reason (even if she didn’t favor him). She didn’t feel the need to fill the air with noise and activity, perfectly content to stand in silence. He appreciated her for that and admired her strength. 

They were fighting, again. 

Michael wasn’t sure what set him off this time, but William was enraged. Clara stood her ground, her head high, dwarfed by William’s height and anger alike. Back and forth, back and forth, he stomped in front of her like a wild animal. “I don’t understand how you could say something like that!” 

“William.” Clara kept her tone even. “I am not blind. I see how you are around him, and there is nothing wrong with it-”

The elder man turned on his wife then, jutting an accusatory finger in her face. Somehow, he managed to get louder: “Don’t you dare act like there’s something wrong with me!” He spat, his face red. “And don’t act like you know me! You don’t know anything, about anything!” He reached out, ripping the necklace from around her neck. Beads flew in every direction, clattering against the floor as they scattered. “What- Did it come to you in a magic dream or something!? The fucking birds outside whispering in your ear, telling you your husbands a Queer!” 

Clara held her ground as her husband moved impossibly close, letting him spill his rage over her until finally she pulled away and walked off silently. William was left standing there, shaking, His silver eyes found their next target: Michael, who stood quietly in the threshold of the door, having bore witness to the whole thing. 

English failed the younger Afton, who trembled under his father’s glare. “O-ná kwins-hu-chet…” I don’t understand. It was enough to set William off again. 

He stormed over and seized Michael’s wrists in both hands. “What the Hell did you say!?” In his anger, William tore Michael off the floor completely, slamming him against the wall. “Keep that bullshit out of your mouth and mind your own damn business!” He shoved his son aside, letting Michael stumble before his legs crumbled and he hit the floor. Michael was too stunned for words and chose to keep quiet, staring back in wide-eyed terror. 

Clara would just order her son away in her fits of grief. William was never so forgiving. “Get up!” He reached down again, grabbing Michael by the wrist once more. The younger Afton was yanked roughly to his feet, panic finally setting in as he struggled against the stronger hold his father had. “Stop!” William spat, forcing Michael closer to get better control over the squirming teen. “I said- Stop!” His other hand wound around Michael’s neck and squeezed, cutting off his airway until the struggling boy finally relented. Only then did William let go of his neck, yanking the teen along. “Go to your room.”

[vex-verlain]

Pinned Post: 📌 Welcome

🌈 Hey there, I'm Vex. White, cisgendered lesbian in her late thirties. Intersectional feminist, fangirl, gamer, and highly sensitive introvert. Partnered to a wonderful woman (Rebel) for over a decade.

I've been part of online fandom since 1999 and frequently find myself nostalgic for the days of Web 1.0. I have a lot of ships. Most of them are m/m. You can find my fic on AO3 under VexVerlain.

YKINMKATO, ship and let ship, but also, racism in fandom is a thing. No, I don't have the answers. But fandom has saved my life more than once, and it enrages me that others have been harmed in the places I was helped.

FYI: I am not always a ray of sunshine. I have intimate knowledge (through my own lived experience and/or that of my loved ones) of complex trauma, invisible illness, chronic pain, serious traumatic brain injury, and a plethora of other distressing things. I also have a lot of thoughts re: what we owe to each other as human beings, which informs my politics. For the most part, when I'm on Tumblr, I'm here for the fangirling—but negativity (read: reality?) can creep in, so please consider this your warning.

I don't do DNI lists. People with beliefs that devastate me are welcome to follow, but may be blocked if their direct interactions with me are uncivil. We are all curators of our own online experience.

🛑 OCTOBER 2024 STATUS: vaguely lurking and booping; please feel free to spam me with boops! 🐾

^•ﻌ•^ฅ♡

Other places to find me:

vex_verlain on Dreamwidth: my journal

vex_writes on Dreamwidth: my bang/fest/exchange-related things

iconic_vex on Dreamwidth: my 100x100 icons

vex_codes on Dreamwidth: my coding endeavors

vex-verlain on Fandom vCard: my relevant links

Projects on hold indefinitely:

the Multi-Fandom Postcard Exchange on Tumblr

its annual Holiday Cheer event on Tumblr

MDZS Fans Against Hate on Tumblr

If you feel so inclined, I have a Ko-Fi.

Post last updated October 30, 2024.