#i see this in leftist circles everywhere

[fleetsparrow]

You know, I think we, as leftists, do not talk enough shit about bad actors of history.

Right-wingers will absolutely talk shit about anyone and everyone who wasn't actively fascist, and somehow so many in the left have been, like, conditioned to either agree with them, agree to not challenge them, or try to compromise.

Fuck that.

We need to talk more shit about Reagan, or Nixon, or Bush, or Kissinger, or Clarence Thomas, etc. Stop making concessions! I'm so tired of milquetoast statements qualifying how X Democrat "wasn't really as great, but at least he tried" both-sidesing things to bridge some non-existent aisle.

When someone mentions Reagan, we should collectively spit on the ground. "A curse on his memory" energy!

Respectability politics gets us nowhere!

[kurohe]

Things you can do to actively participate in the revolution

Here's the list !

I know some of those will look really silly, i promise they are not. And obviously, this is not a checklist, you don't have to do everything. But they're steps that you can absolutely take if you wish to, and they WILL help.

(i am continually correcting things when people point out mistakes. Thanks everyone for your help)

(under the cut !)

1) Let's start off with a very easy one you can do right now: stop using Chrome. It's a google owned browser, and it sents all of your data towards it. Mozilla is a very good replacement, but almost anything will do, really. Also, resign your amazon prime subscription. We revolting against capitalism as a whole, and this is a good first step to not freely give em your data and money

2) Start stealing things from supermarkets and malls. I am not kidding. Little things, that aren't really monitored: a can of food, a lighter, a pair of socks. Condiments are particularly easy to hide in bags or pockets. Steal hygiene products, steal food.

Remember that you should have access to those for free, and you don't because a few rich guys don't want you to.

Additional tip: train station stores are very easy to steal from, because they're so busy. But don't put yourself in danger. Check beforehand if they check bags at checkout, look out for employees that might notice what you're doing. Don't be reckless.

(edit: imma say this, you should read up on what the risks of stealing are, for you and others. Stealing from big stores is IMO always morally right, but it is risky for many reasons. Be careful)

3) In the same line, if you see someone stealing anything from a big store, no you didn't.

4) I know a lot of people are scared of disrespecting rules. By fear of being caught, or by guilt. My advice is: start disrespecting stupid, meaningless rules. I don't have specific exemples, but you'll encounter them and wonder why you're doing that. Stop doing it. This will train you to be able to disobey autority way easier.

5) Put stickers everywhere. If you already have them, go ham. Especially on public property (lamposts are amazing). If you don't, buy them from artists or independant stores, not big brands. If you cannot afford them, remember that you can simply write stuff on an A4 paper and plaster it to walls. Or even post its !

6) Carry a sharpie with you at all time, the big black ones. If you see propaganda, scribble it out. Keep a look out for terfs stickers, maga posters, etc. Also good for getting rid of transphobic and sexist stuff written on public restroom stalls !

7) Buy locally. This means going to the market or small stores, and thrifting your clothes. If you can't for money or accessibility reasons, try trading with your friends, family and neighbours. Get communication going in your circles, and you'll realise there are a lot of things that you can simply trade with or buy from people around you. Like a jar of jam against some eggs, or a pair of socks for a t-shirt you don't wear anymore !

8) Learn how to sew. I know, that sounds dumb ! But i promise you, not only will it be amazing to trade with other people ("i'll sew back ur shirt and in exchange, you give me a can of peaches !"), corporations also haaaate when you know how to fix your clothes. Because they want you to buy more. You'll spend a lot less money if you know how to fix em

9) If you have the space and the money, grow your own food, and share it or sell it around you. Be careful, some assholes will call the FDA on you. Do that with people you trust.

Additional tip: growing vegetables and fruits can be a real nightmare. You can absolutely start by just growing some basil or mint :)

10) Organise. Join leftist groups online, even if it's just to see what's being said, you don't even need to interact. Follow creators, repost and share their content. By doing that, you'll stay informed on group movements like strikes, protests and boycotts, which you can then participate in. It's very important you're connected to other ppl and the movements that are started !

11) Unionize. I'm very sorry I don't know the exact way unions work in the US, but if you can, join one. They will help you in times of needs, especially if you're a student or a worker. If you're not sure how to do that, absolutely ask around to people you know are very active politically, around you or online. People will help.

12) Stay. Informed. Follow independant papers and news outlet. If you can afford it, give them a dollar or two. They are fighting everyday for access to unbiased information for all, and sadly, their independance means that they rely almost entirely on donations and people simply engaging with what they put out.

If you can't access those: do not get your news from TV. Ever. Or anywhere else that has been bought by the far right. Sadly, the majority of TV channels are just the worst.

And, most importantly: fact check. All of the time.

13) Share that information. Talk to those you trust and who are ready to listen to you, and tell them about what's happening. Get angry with them. Revolution stems from people coming together and realising that they're being used and profited off of. Share videos and posts relating to politics, especially informative videos.

14) Go to protests ! If you've never been, i know it can be scary. But you can stay in the middle (don't go all the way to the front, that's where stuff can get heated) and scream and walk with everyone else. You'll meet people who, like you, want things to change. Capitalism wants you to stay as unconnected to others as possible, and that's a great way to fight that.

Sometimes, there are sites that have a planning for all protests happening in a city. Look up if one exists for yours

15) Create and strenghten community. I know i really struggled with this one, because it's so vague. But here's a few places you can start:

-Go and introduce yourself to your neighbours, if you deem it safe. Give them a little gift if you can afford it, like a pack of pasta.

-Make new friends, even if they aren't deep friendships. You need connections. Online or irl, both are fine- don't stay isolated.

-If you already have community, go check on them right now. Ask your friends how they're doing, and if they need anything- ask how they're being impacted by what's happening right now politically.

16) Look for ways to fuck over the institutions in easy ways. One example that went around tumblr a lot is letting dandelions grow in your backyard, because landlords fucking hate it. If you work in retail or fast food, cheat. Accidentally forget to scan the diapers. Put in 7 nuggets instead of 6.

(edit: been told that it's very risky for walmart workers to not scan things, so beware.)

17) Engage in art. MAKE art. Music, shitty paint drawings, craft, anything as long as you're being creative. Share it. If you feel like you can't do that, then support artists. Make a point to look up cool illustrations, and new music. Go to the cinema.

If you're an artist currently in an underpaid office job, please, by the love of god, be creative during office hours. You're underpaid, they do not deserve your full time and attention. Take 30 minutes to write that snippet you've been thinking about.

(and actually, if you're underpaid at all: do the minimum required. So that you can't be fired, but that's it. Any more effort is not worth it. Companies will never be thankful for what you do.)

18) Look up books that your state banned, and go read them. You can get them secondhand, or as pdfs online. (if anyone needs ressources, i will glady look for and share them.)

And, actually, read books in general if you can. Yes, fanfics count !

19) Seek education. There's a lot of youtube channels out there talking about educational subjects in a fun way. Some things the rich assholes who run the country specifically don't want you to learn more about are: biology, history and archeology, social and economic sciences. GO LEARN ABOUT THOSE.

The people in power don't want you to be educated. It's why they eviscerated the education system.

20) PIRATE. I cannot stress this enough, anything you can pirate (that isn't from small, indie creators, except if you absolutely can't afford it) do it. Download music illegally, torrent movies and games. If you want access to academical studies and papers, some writers will give them to you for free if you email them about it. There are also ways to go around paywalls.

21) Don't fall for the traps of "progressive brands". Lately, i've seen a lot of praise for Ben and Jerry's for openly supporting lgbtq rights and being globally anti-trump. They are still a brand. Avoid buying from any big names when you can. That being said, if you have to, check beforehand which ones and what their history is. Some are more evil than others.

Additional tip: a lot of brands you see in stores are actually owned by bigger brands. One prime example of this is Nestle, who are fucking evil, but they own a shitload of other big names. Be careful what you buy.

22) I hate to say this, but be prepared to defend yourself. Revolutions are never peaceful. You will get in danger. If you can, get in ok physical shape. If you can't, buy a gun. (Remember Alabama has a 99% acceptation rate, you can get one in 10 minutes.) I hate firearms, but the enemy will have them too. Arm yourself.

If none of those are available options to you, please, make sure you have someone around you that will be able to protect you, or a place where you can be safe. Whether you are disabled, a minor, or anything else. Don't put yourself in more danger than is necessary.

23) Last but not least, be kind. When someone cuts off a woman speaking, interrupt and give her the floor back. Shame those who think it's right to say bigoted shit in public. Listen to those around you. If you can't act, then remember to always have empathy for the homeless, for drug users, for immigrants. Understand they are people just like you. You are not immune to propaganda and prejudice, no matter who you are. Always question yourself and your biases.

(if you've read this far, please repost. We need this to reach as many people as possible)

I want to remind you that you're not alone. I know things seem hopeless, but the simple fact that you're reading this is proof it's not. I don't live in the US, but i'm supporting you as best i can from where i am, and sending you strenght.

If you have any questions, do ask away. I'll end on this image that's very dear to me:

[ladyshinga]

I keep being told to "adapt" to this new AI world.

Okay.

Well first of all, I've been training myself more and more how to spot fake images. I've been reading every article with a more critical eye to see if it's full of ChatGPT's nonsense. I've been ignoring half the comments on stuff just assuming it's now mostly bots trying to make people angry enough to comment.

When it comes to the news and social issues, I've started to focus on and look for specific journalists and essayists whose work I trust. I've been working on getting better at double-checking and verifying things.

I have been working on the biggest part, and this one is a hurdle: PEOPLE. People whose names and faces I actually know. TALKING to people. Being USED to talking to people. Actual conversations with give and take that a chat bot can't emulate even if their creators insist they can.

All of this combined is helping me survive an AI-poisoned internet, because here's what's been on my mind:

What if the internet was this poisoned in 2020?

Would we have protested after George Floyd?

A HUGE number of people followed updates about it via places like Twitter and Tiktok. Twitter is now a bot-hell filled with nazis and owned by a petulant anti-facts weirdo, and Tiktok is embracing AI so hard that it gave up music so that its users can create deepfakes of each other.

Would information have traveled as well as it did? Now?

The answer is no. Half the people would have called the video of Floyd's death a deepfake, AI versions of it would be everywhere to sew doubt about the original, bots would be pushing hard for people to do nothing about it, half the articles written about it would be useless ChatGPT garbage, and the protests themselves… might just NOT have happened. Or at least, they'd be smaller - AND more dangerous when it comes to showing your face in a photo or video - because NOW what can people DO with that photo and video? The things I mentioned earlier will help going forward. Discernment. Studying how the images look, how the fake audio sounds, how the articles often talk in circles and litter in contradictory misinformation. and PEOPLE.

PEOPLE is the biggest one here, because if another 2020-level event happens where we want to be protesting on the streets by the thousands, our ONLY recourse right now is to actually connect with people. Carefully of course, it's still a protest, don't use Discord or something, they'll turn your chats over to cops.

But what USED to theoretically be "simple" when it came to leftist organizing ("well my tweet about it went viral, I helped!") is just going to require more WORK now, and actual personal communication and connection and community. I know if you're reading this and you're American, you barely know what that feels like and I get it. We're deprived of it very much on purpose, but the internet is becoming more and more hostile to humanity itself. When it comes to connecting to other humans… we now have to REALLY connect to other humans

I'm sorry. This all sucks. But adapting usually does.

[alpaca-clouds]

I have this opinion that makes me quite unpopular among feminists. And this opinion is, that I think we need more male representation in media.

"What?!" I hear you say. "But most characters in media are already men!"

And that is correct. However... My point is less about the number, and more about the quality. Because here is the thing: While most people in leftist circles will be able to call out bad female representation, bad BI_PoC representation, or bad queer representation... They are for the most part not able to call out bad male representation.

And... Well, how do I say that? Bad male representation is everywhere. We just kinda talk about it the wrong way, rather than through the lense of representation.

Let me talk about something personal. I am a trans man. Yet... It took me until 2021 to realize that I am a trans man.

Part of this was, because I grew up in a very conservative catholic household and I did not learn about trans being a thing until 2011. But even when I learned that it was a thing, I thought I was maybe non-binary or something, even though my first thought was: "Oh, so I am actually a man!"

Why was that? Well, simply put: Because I looked at my frame of reference for "what is a man", which largely did consist of media representation, and was like: "Nah, that is not me." While I cannot be stoic, I will not be stoic to that degree. I do not like to use violence to solve problems. I do not like to drink. I am not the active force in many situations. And I am just not at all like most of the male characters I have encountered in my life. And given that I grew up without many male family members still around, or much in terms of other male role models... Well...

So, what changed in 2021? The answer is actually pretty simple: Castlevania. Because the show gave me Alucard and Hector, two male protagonists who I very much could identify with. Especially Hector. That useless man? He is me!

But then I realized, how little we have in terms of characters of that kind. And it is not a whole lot.

Usually we do talk about the "standard model for a main character" in terms of toxic masculinity. Which is fair. Sure. But I actually do also think that it is an issue of representation. Mostly, because, well...

Representation is very much an issue of a) normalizing the existence of a group to the audience, and b) allowing people outside the normative societal standard to see themselves in media. And I would argue that right now, men, who do not fit in with masculine norms, are also very much underrepresented.

Sure, there are a few shows and movies here and there. But in general? Nah, we do not get to see much of that.

We do not get to see a whole lot of men, who are just a bit weak. Or men, who like things that are considered feminine. Or submissive men. Or men, who in their stories really are just the damsels in distress.

And honestly: We do need more of that. We do need more of that in a way where the media does not make fun of it.

Men can be more than just stoic heroes and assholes. And I think it would help men, too, to see other kinds of role models.

[intern-seraph]

Hey, sorry if this is a weird question but. I was wondering if you knew of any blogs specifically for responding to/arguing against leftist antisemitism? I want to be a good ally to Jewish people, but also I Am Not Immune To Propaganda and sometimes I just don't quite notice the implications, you know?

There's been a few posts going around recently, where there's screenshots with the water filter, and someone responding to them like "yeah this is actually pretty fucked up for x and y reasons". Those have been really helpful because, while some of them are much more obviously antisemitic, some of them I'm not sure I would've noticed, and now I'm a bit better educated. That's the kind of thing I'm looking for.

Again, sorry if this is a weird question, and I hope you have a good day!

none that i'd recommend tbh? i feel like laser focusing on something can get to the point of seeing it everywhere, and there's also a risk of becoming reactionary abt it if that makes sense. the blogs i do rec are mainly other jews' blogs, especially the ones you've prob seen me rb from.

my main rec for recognizing leftist antisemitism is familiarizing yourself with antisemitic tropes. some of the most common ones you'll see:

Blood libel: Originated in medieval Christian Europe, spread throughout Afroeurasia and persists today. The accusation that Jews kidnap gentile (Orig. Christian) children to do nefarious things (Orig. and still relatively commonly "blood rituals" or "taking their blood to use in making Matzah") with. You'll see this often alongside "Jews rule the world" antisemitism.

Jews rule the world/Zionist-occupied government/Evil Cabals: What it says on the tin. If you see some shit about how "Oh isn't it SUSPICIOUS how many billionaires/millionaires/rich people are Jewish?" or "The ZIONIST-CONTROLLED MEDIA is suppressing this!", that's a variant on this canard.

Khazar theory: Antisemitic pseudoscientific theory that Ashkenazi Jews aren't ackshually descended from the Judeans who were forcibly exiled from our homeland, but instead descended from Turkic Khazars who converted to Judaism. Easily disproven by actual genetic studies that show that uh yeah all ethnically Jewish folks, Ashkies included, are descended from common ancestors that originated in the Levant. Also Yiddish is derived from, y'know, not Turkic languages. There are definitely Khazar Jews, but they make up a small number of an already small population. Variants you'll probably see of this are basically anything saying that Ashkies are somehow less Jewish than other Jews, that we're all White People (Jewish connection to Whiteness is Complicated) who have no connection to the Levant, How Could Ashkenazim Be From There When Some Of Them Are BLONDE?, etc. Shit like that.

stalin shit: a lot of modern leftist antisemitism has its roots in soviet antisemitism, which used "zionist" as another word for "jew" in order to pretend to not be antisemitic. people still do that today. if you see a post where "zionist" can be replaced with "jew" and it reads word-for-word like a classic antisemitic trope, well, you know. don't trust anyone who stans stalin (or modern russia to be honest. tankies (derogatory)).

this is non-exhaustive ofc. here are also blogs i recommend blocking asap (with / in their names to inhibit name-searching); they're all in the same far-left antisemitic atrocity apologist circle (i.e. assad stans, putin stans, holodomor deniers, uyghur oppression deniers, CCP stans, houthi stans, etc):

her/ita/gep/osts (north korea stan, which is fucking insane. beloved tumblr funnyman who implicitly blames jews for the actions of the israeli govt in multiple gross posts and has targeted multiple jewish bloggers, prompting mass harassment)

ko/ms/om/ol/ka (nasty character all around. claimed she was banned for being pro-palestine, it's actually prob because she's been reported before for being a fucking racist antisemitic freak lmao)

tx/tt/le/ta/le (ew)

bre/nda/nic/us (happily antisemitic. homophobic too, as a treat i guess)

blo/g/lik/ea/ne/gyp/tian (egyptian nationalist. don't ask her what happened to cairo's jews. makes nasty posts that outright state that jews should feel guilty for current events ON JEWISH HOLIDAYS.)

whe/nma/gic/fil/led/the/air (infamously antisemitic. block.)

a-si/ent-/ecli/pse ("Happy Holocaust Memorial Day")

ara/bia/n-k/nig/ht (extremely and openly antisemitic kid. just, like, don't engage)

nat/ive/ne/ws (tweet screenshots aren't news. loooooves spreading disinfo and misinfo)

ap/as-/95 (part of the tankie committee)

les/bia/nch/emi/cal/pla/nt (i think she's a jew but she's, like, the tankie tumblr pet jew istg. she's also an asshole. girl they will gladly turn you over once you outlive your usefulness 😬)

other advice: anyone who claims to be "anti-zionist NOT antisemitic" who only ever fixates on jews and jewish orgs instead of the christian zionists who vastly outnumber the entire jewish population is lying, they're antisemitic (whether they realize it or not). houthi stans generally are stupid jew-haters who would rather support the ethnic cleansing, racism, misogyny, antisemitism, and chattel slavery party than possibly say that Someone Who Rejects The Enemy(tm) is, yknow, not morally pure. people who are abnormal about ashkenazim are generally abnormal about non-ashkies, too, but in a different and still nasty way. if someone claims that "everything was fine before the Zionists(tm) attacked", they are wrong. do some research on the history of jewish life in the region and it's very clearly wrong. if someone says that they're tired of jews and jewish feelings and jewish safety being a focus, they probably don't feel particularly kind things about us in general. fact-check claims. screenshots aren't news. people who are okay with widespread civilian death/suffering in one direction probably only desire vengeance more than anything else, which does nothing for anyone and is a net loss. anyone baying for blood is suspect, anyone without a concrete solution/plan beyond "burn it down" is not going to do much constructive work in terms of delivering justice.

[burning-sol]

You know, I've always felt that the discussion around CWs for food was a bit strange because, "food is everywhere, how do you avoid FOOD, you need to get over it," is weird when you remember that literally anything could be triggering and it's not your place to tell someone to get over their issues just because you personally don't understand it. But I was too cowardly to bring it up because it's one of those opinions that make me worry I'm going to lose the respect of people I know.

I looked up discussions of it and read through the comments of reddit posts and it was very easy to find people with valid reasons to be triggered, including two instances where the person in question struggled with binging which is its own eating disorder and a part of bulimia nervosa. Someone else just found it gross and has misophonia, which is also a valid reason for wanting a content warning I think. There's plenty of reasons people could want a content warning for food other than being the stock character of anorexia.. Who, if we're being real, is not going to be FIXED because you made the oh so bold decision not to put a cw for food. Like, at worst you could definitely trigger some sort of negative reaction from a pwAnorexia you didn't forsee happening, and you will likely never know about because people don't tend to make a habit of discussing all their issues online.

Like, yeah, maybe some people find the content warning itself to induce negative thoughts, but what makes THAT group take priority over the other? What does it say about you that you're inadvertently siding with the Right who likes to argue and poke fun with the argument, "you can't put a content warning on EVERYTHING, that would be ridiculous!! There are no content warnings in real life!"

People also just make a lot of conflation between the online and offline world like... "Well if you see it in real life, you shouldn't need a comment warning online," when the two are completely different contexts. Even just in framing, food in real life isn't inherently framed to look appealing unless purposefully displayed that way, whereas the majority of photos of food are made to be tantalising and trigger a completely different reaction. We don't have offline equivalents of cooking content (TV broadcasts of cooking are even MORE easily avoidable than those online) or of mukbangs in our daily lives. Food online is an entirely different kind of way of interacting with it than in your offline life.

And people DO get triggered offline by things by the by, people DO struggle in their offline lives, and maybe they just prefer to have control over their online lives where it's possible to have accommodations. One time I was out with friends, and obviously I didn't have a content warning for mirrors in real life, nor do I ask for one, but it still severely freaked me out to see a mirror and I was cowering away from any reflection I COULD. I would much prefer NOT to have mirrors all over my house except for certain designated spaces, but I can't change that due to my circumstances, so I just quietly suffer. And it's not that I don't WANT to get over my fear, it's that there's NO possible way to get over that fear if I don't have a support network to help with exposure therapy; because the key to exposure therapy is that you make the patient feel in control and safe and you expose them to whatever they're scared of in amounts that they can handle. You are not a professional, you are a rando on the internet.

Maybe we shouldn't have to keep circling back to the, "you don't have a right to talk over people with triggers," thing just because of the superficial change as to WHAT thing is being trigger tagged. I trust people to know what they want tagged. This shouldn't be a hot take amongst leftists. You shouldn't find some kind subconscious, righteous enjoyment in flaunting that you don't get triggered by something that others do. Please.

[transwolvie]

I do not have complete fully formed thoughts on this but I think that a lot of the supposedly hard-core left still shows SUCH a weakness for reactionary politics and a longing to "return to tradition" as soon as we're talking about old USSR art and stuff.

Like people lose their mind over the USSR art in this double whammy of salivating endlessly over what is ultimately just traditional advertising art that was, even at the time, outdated—other places had moved onto much more abstract art movements while the USSR was still sticking to a very traditionalist model, which is why a ton of their PSAs look like they're Russian repaints of the art you'd see in 50s and 60s catalogues that had hired Leyendecker.

Secondly, and I find this point more revealing of the fact that a ton of ppl online, including leftists, especially on Tumblr, are white suburbanites..... people are always ALWAYS complaining on these posts that the USA doesn't provide fun or "useful" PSAs like the USSR did which like....literally what are you even talking about? Not only do I see those Pass It On campaign PSA billboards all the time, but there's tons of PSA billboards in my area about HIV/AIDS and STI testing, etc. Like whenever I see people talk about America not having PSAs funded by the government I just think they probably live in suburbia and thus don't see as many billboards everywhere.... TRUST ME, the USA still funds PSAs. You're just far removed from the intended audience for them. Also, would you actually like that? For government PSAs to be MORE plastered everywhere? Think of what you're asking for, especially considering that if we did have more US PSA content it would ultimately spiral into anti drug shit lbr.

But the art thing is really what I find especially telling cuz like..... it's a right wing talking point to specifically mock modern art and talk about how it's a "CIA controlled movement," when the reality is that abstract art was being pitched against the USSR's traditional art because there was a desire to contrast and fight against highly traditional aesthetics at the time. And also it clearly didn't work because people are still absolutely drooling over the traditionally painted handsome young men in USSR posters lol

Like ppl are just gotten to in such a telling way by old school realistic art, and it's a sentiment that's still very alive even in leftist circles, to just oooh and aahh over a pretty painting instead of engaging with art that is challenging or something other than pretty

[iphnh]

The Pendulum Effect

In the church I was raised in, we were taught that anger was a bad emotion. We had to treat everyone with unconditional love, as Jesus did. And anger we felt had to be reserved for sin.

In this worldview, it becomes very difficult to articulate why something bothers or annoys you. because nothing is supposed to bother or annoy you. You're not supposed to feel anger--unless you're directing your anger at something sinful.

This worldview creates a pendulum effect. On one end of the pendulum, people become doormats and ultimately never form expectations or boundaries for others. because unconditional love means having no conditions, which means having no expectations or boundaries.

On the other end of the pendulum, people begin to see sin in everything that bothers or annoys them. because that was the only (church-approved) reason something could bother or annoy them.

While these two behaviors seem like opposites, with one side acting as a doormat and the other side acting as god, the two behaviors are intimately linked. Like a pendulum, the more force applied on one side, the more force created on the other side.

I think a lot more can be said about christian theology in theory. but this is what I observed about christian theology in practice: telling people to suppress their anger (unless it's directed at sin) can create an environment where honest communication does not exist. Where it is impossible to casually talk through something that is bothering or annoying you.

In some liberal/leftist circles, a similar practice is preached. In these circles, sin oppression is the only valid reason to be angry.

Whatever you think about that teaching in theory, let's talk about what it looks like in practice. In practice, the same pendulum effect occurs. On one end of the pendulum, people make up all sorts of "sins" "oppressions" to explain any discomfort or annoyance they feel. On the other end of the pendulum, people lose their expectations and boundaries for (those they believe are) the oppressed.

In radfem circles, we easily identify this trend among libfems. We point out how trans identified men will make up an oppression in order to justify their anger toward cis women. We point out how women in libfem circles lose their expectations and boundaries for these trans identified men, believing them to be oppressed.

But I want to talk about the pendulum effect in radblr itself. What I notice in radblr is an inability for us women to express our grievances with each other.

On one hand, we have people saying (or implying) that our grievances with each other are not worth discussing and that we should only ever express our grievances with men.

On the other hand, we have people saying (or implying) that their grievance with X behavior is actually worth discussing because it is a form of oppression.

For example, I see opposite-sex attracted (OSA) women attempting to talk about how hurtful it can be to see women mock OSA women. Radical feminism is ultimately a critique of marriage/motherhood, so jokes about marriage/motherhood are going to be everywhere on radblr--but some people can be extremely mean and nasty about OSA women who are married and/or mothers.

When OSA women attempt to bring up the meanness and the nastiness, some of them end up framing critiques of marriage/motherhood as a form of oppression. I think they do this because they know framing something as an oppression is the only way they're allowed to bring up a grievance. But their analysis often stretches too far (and implies that lesbians oppress straight women), and so gets mocked. And so OSA women's grievance about the nasty comments never gets properly addressed.

To give another example, I've also seen people say that OSA women who put their man above everything, even their own children, should not be judged because these women were ultimately being abused and any judgement of these women is ultimately victim blaming. And so grievances about OSA women who put their man above everything never gets properly addressed either.

We should be able to talk through what bothers or annoys us without having to frame our annoyance as a form of oppression. And we should be able to talk about our grievances with other women without being told to ignore it and direct all grievances toward men. Otherwise, we'll be stuck in the same pendulum effect that exists in churches and libfem circles.

[mightyflamethrower]

Idiocracy has arrived

April 10, 2024 1:54 pm Robert Zimmerman

Over the last few days the conservative press has been having a field day making justifiable fun of a number of Democrats and leftists for exhibiting incredible scientifict ignorance, an ignorance so profound as to be mind-boggling.

First, after the unusual 4.8 magnitude earthquake centered in New Jersey on April 5th, a Green Party senate candidate in New Jersey, Christina Amira Khalil, immediately tweeted, “I experienced my first earthquake in NJ. We never get earthquakes. The climate crisis is real.” The mocking on X was so great she quickly deleted the tweet.

Then, in an incredibly embarrassing segment of the television show, The View, one host, Sunny Hostin, showed off her complete lack of any scientific knowledge when she claimed that the earthquake, the solar eclipse, and even the normal arrival of the cicadas every seventeen years (which she thought happened every hundred-plus years) was evidence that climate change was real.

Finally, to top off this stream of utter empty-headiness, during an eclipse event in Texas, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee gave a speech of such stunning incompetency and lack of knowledge you have to wonder how she can figure out how to put on her clothes each day. This quote has been most often used to ridicule her:

Now those [the Sun and Moon] provide unique light and energy so that you have the energy of the moon at night, and sometimes you’ve heard the word full moon, sometimes you need to take the opportunity just to come out and see a full moon is that complete rounded circle, which is made up mostly of gases. And that’s why the question — the question is why, or how could we as humans live on the moon? The gas is such that we could do that. The sun is a mighty powerful heat, and it’s almost impossible to go near the sun. The moon is more manageable.”

It is worth reading her entire speech, however, in order to get the full flavor of her lack of knowledge or her incomprehension of some of the most basic scientific facts. For example, later she says “Today will be the closest distance that the moon has ever been in the last 20 years. Which means, that’s why they will shut the light down because they will be close to the Earth.” Then she adds, “That the solar system is bigger than us, though there are solar systems and there are systems that are smaller than the Earth.”

I doubt she has the slightest understanding of any of this.

Though all of these idiots are leftists or Democrats, and the right has had a lot of fun making mincemeat of them over their dumbness, the problem really isn’t confined to the left. For example, consider the high number of local governments, controlled by both parties, that declared states of emergency because of the eclipse, fearing panic and car accidents. These government officials feared they would not be able to handle the large number of tourists, nor would people know what to do when the eclipse occurred.

Or as Chicken Little screamed, “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!��

That such people hold important positions in our political and cultural world, and still hold those positions after exhibiting such foolishness, speaks very ill of our entire society, not just those on the left.

Nor is these failures seen only in the political or entertainment world. The inability to think critically or with forthright intellectual honesty is now seen everywhere. For example, this week the American Library Association (ALA) released its list of what it considers the “ten most challenged” book titles in 2023, books it considered banned or censored. The problem was that more than half the books were those advocating the queer lifestyle, and the challenges to them almost all came from parents who did not want their little kids exposed to such porn in their schools. No books were banned, parents simply wanted the books out of elementary school libraries.

And yet, the head of the ALA was unable to recognize this very important and completely legitimate distinction.

“In looking at the titles of the most challenged books from last year, it’s obvious that the pressure groups are targeting books about LGBTQIA+ people and people of color,” American Library Association President Emily Drabinski said in a statement accompanying the list. “We are fighting for the freedom to choose what you want to read,” Drabinski added. “Shining a light on the harmful workings of these pressure groups is one of the actions we must take to protect our right to read.”

For Drabinski, who is a proud advocate of Marxism and the queer agenda, any disagreement is censorship, blunt and simple. It is impossible for her to analyze any dissent with any nuance.

And yet, she is the elected head of the foremost organization representing the nation’s libraries. What does that tell us about the nation’s librarians, and their ability to think critically or with intellectual honesty?

Then there was the long op-ed published yesterday by a senior business editor at NPR, Uri Berliner. He has been at his job there for 25 years, but he now considers the place a failure as a news organization, close-minded and unable to report the news with any competence.

An open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR, and now, predictably, we don’t have an audience that reflects America.

To conservatives he states the obvious: NPR has become entirely focused on reporting only news that fits a very narrow and extreme leftist viewpoint, and as a result, it is now listened to by only a very small segment of Americans. Everyone else has been driven away by its partisan intellectual dishonesty.

He cites for examples NPR’s reporting on the Trump-Russian collusion, the Hunter Biden laptop, and the origin of the COVID virus. In all three cases the network accepted the accusations of the left without question: Trump won his election by working with the Russians, the laptop was disinformation and a fraud, and anyone who said COVID came from a lab was a wild conspiracy theorist who should be ignored.

Yet, when all three of these accusations turned to be wrong (there was no collusion, the labtop was real, and COVID almost certainly came from a Chinese lab in Wuhan), NPR refused to admit error and correct its reporting. Instead, it made believe it never happened, reinforcing this denial by generally refusing to cover the scoops that proved its reporting was wrong.

Once again, these examples are on the left, but once again, there are no consequences. Being intellectually dishonest to a point of absurdity, in a way that is plainly obvious, carries no penalty. If you get into a position of power today in America, you can pretty much say or do anything, with little fear of retribution.

From Idiocracy: “But Brawndo’s got what plants crave. It’s got electrolytes!”

And without consequence, this ignorance and arrogance of the ignorant will only grow. If you are wrong you need others to tell you bluntly that you are, and you need to be forced to listen, or else go elsewhere because of your inability to correct youself. This is how you teach people the necessary humbleness required for them to improve themselves.

Instead, our culture now teaches them to punish anyone who criticizes them. In such an atmosphere, our culture can only become even more ignorant and foolish at all levels, across the entire political spectrum.

Unless something changes very soon, this elegant, prosperous, but very complex technological society is going to collapse. It will become like the moronic society of the movie Idiocracy, where stupidity rules and critical thinking is entirely impossible.

If we aren’t already living in Idiocracy already.

[ovisiphorus]

Too many of what counts as “hard hitting political posts” in left adjacent circles (and everywhere else but I’m a leftist, so I’m speaking specifically) are just someone posing a highly specific bugbear of theirs (like someone disagreeing with a take about a show they like/loathe) and posing it as a pertinent issue.

Don’t get me wrong, small things can be indicative of greater trends, but it’s now very painfully obvious whenever I see someone share a post where the OP is just CLEARLY pissed off at a particular thing that annoyed them.

It’d be funnier if that wasn’t what most posts ppl share about current events were based off of or included!!!

[papirouge]

That poster is onto something - I do think there was some bigger player making sjw content to weaponize in politics. However, moids like Steve bannon who did do that didn’t think this through enough where you radicalize angry men so much they turn on them eventually. The quote “the man who mounts the tiger dares not for dismount it” is true here. They took the power of sjws and anti sjws, radicalize them then realized they (low level rightoids) can’t control it. It causes chaos which I believe was exactly what the high level elites wanted. The anti NWO rightoids and political conspiracy theorists practically gave the elites exactly what they had wanted - a quick and easy way to destabilize societies. I think also that’s why they didn’t create a world ending virus, just covid. It was enough to cause disruption but nothing like we were pre programmed for (ie zombie apocalypse) they didn’t need that. We were already fractured

You're right on the money anon

For people who see conspiracy EVERYWHERE, Conservative for sure seem to ignore how much of the 'woke' movement is actually a psyop which aim is to breed even more horizontal chaos and divert the masses' focus off their real enemy (NWO elites)

I mean look at them taking the bait at every Black washed stunt (I successfully avoided any discourse or post about that Black Cleopatra movie lol). Not one moment any of them ponders where the end goal of it ultimately lies on.

When a crime happens, the first thing to think about is WHO profits off it. Well, applying the same logic to the wholle 'woke' thing, anyone with eyes can see that in the end of the day, it does NOT benefit the demographics it pretends celebrating and promoting.

The way companies have been using Dylan Mulvaney bred even more transphobia. Those Black washing movies made people direct their anger at Black people when not a single of us ever asked for a Black Ariel or Black Cleopatra movie and gave them even more opportunity to spit their foul racism on social media..... I'm not saying racists didn't exist and that a fringe of White people will ALWAYS seethe at non White (and Black especially) getting more visibility, but it definitely bred a radicalization that wasn't there to begin with.

Society has never been more divided. Even in Christian circles, dissing "leftists" as the ultimate source of evil in society has become too common.

And what's crazy is that Jesus precisely warned us off about not letting our heart get hardened. He knew exactly what he was doing.

Hate, disdain, contempt have never trendier online. I mean, Christians are now calling some churches "woke" for not going hard enough on targets that are highly encouraged to dunk on (LGBT+, BLM, Liberals, etc.). Where's Jesus mercy and love in all of this? Instead of being a light in the darkness of the world, Christians/church community actually highly engage into worldly hateful behavior.

It honestly makes me glad I never belonged in any church congregation and learned to walk with Christ alone ; not cruel pharisees engaging in worldly chaos.

[leftovergasoline]

As someone who reblogged a few "leftist antisemitism" posts a while back, I want to give a warning and some advice. The topic of antisemitism within leftist circles is an important one to discuss. Whether due to religious or ethnic biases, many leftists do hold prejudices towards jewish people. That is undeniable. It is one's duty as a leftist to develop intersectional bonds by unlearning those prejudices.

When reblogging posts calling out leftist antisemitism, however, you need to check for understanding. Is the post criticizing antisemitism, or antizionism? How does OP define "Zionism"? The need to secure Jewish self-determination is important. It's a must in Europe, North America, and everywhere else where Jewish people are attacked and oppressed for their religion. Israel, however, is a state in which the concept of "self determination" is PREDICATED on GENOCIDE. That is unacceptable. In terms of Western politics, Israel serves as an extension of Western imperialism. It is a settler colony, just like the United States. A majority of Israelis may be Jewish, but hatred against Israel is not antisemitism. It is a natural reaction to the violent occupation of a state that seeks to eradicate the native people of its land.

When you see posts tagged "leftist antisemitism", look for these things. Is OP actually spreading awareness for the oppression of Jewish people, or are they intentionally conflating Judaism and Zionism? If they use phrases such as "Jewish self-determination", your guard should be up. This is a good message, but it is used to propagandize Israeli occupation and paint Palestinians and their supporters as antisemites. I will say once again, Jewish people should be safe everywhere. We need to fight constantly to ensure that. A settler colony that commits genocide against native people is not the answer.

[ms-demeanor]

You know why that redfish graphic works so well?

It plays on both superiority and guilt.

Leftists generally speaking know that there is always some kind of awful bombing going on in the world. We know that there are drone strikes and flybys, we've read about the children who grow up afraid of a clear sky.

Yemen is actually a great example. Yemen is something that I see discussed almost exclusively in leftist circles, and Saudi Arabia's use of US-manufactured bombs against civilian populations in Yemen is one of the things that leftists have been yelling about for most of a decade. So on an abstract level, if you were a leftist and you saw that graphic, you probably felt two things:

1) Superiority: "I *DID* know, at least in a general and abstract way, about the other people getting hit with airstrikes yesterday. I *HAVE* talked about US imperialism in Somalia; god, does anyone remember when the military was getting all high and mighty about Somali pirates who were the result of a political environment the US helped to create? I remember! And we're still bombing them! And nobody cares! And Biden just said he's not going to do anything to get justice for Khashoggi so we know he's just going to keep selling arms to Saudi Arabia! Fuck! I'm going to share this so that other people remember too, because I didn't forget but I know my aunt Tilly on FaceBook wasn't talking about Syrian refugees last week like she's talking about Ukranian refugees this week."

2) Guilt: "Oh god, I was so wrapped up in what was going on in Ukraine that I *didn't* hear about the 37 airstrikes in Yemen in the last two days [that may or may not have actually happened in the timeframe described] or hear about Israel firing on Damascus. The eurocentrist media has an excuse but I don't, is this because of pro-white bias? Am I more concerned about what's happening in Ukraine than Somalia because the refugees are blonde, just like the reporters are saying? That's horrible! I'd better share this as a reminder to myself and to other people who maybe got caught up in the eurocentrism. It's important to remember that war everywhere is bad, this isn't especially bad just because it's white people on the TV."

I think this is actually a really interesting weaponization of identity politics. The graphic is suggesting that if *RIGHT NOW* you care more about an invasion that is creating literally millions of refugees overnight then you're forgetting about all the people around the globe who are suffering. It's why redfish is also responsible for one of the supercuts of journalists talking about white, blonde refugees. Those journalists absolutely said those things, and those things are repugnant, but you want to make sure you're not repugnant in the same way as the journalists in the clip so you share the clip, or the map with the other drone strikes, instead of possibly investing too much time into talking about Ukraine specifically. If you're talking about Ukraine specifically, you're not condemning war everywhere.

Anyway. This is your reminder that if an infographic or a video clip or an article makes you immediately feel rage or guilt or frustration it was probably *specifically constructed* to get you to feel that way so that you would share or react without taking a moment to think about the information being presented to you.

Also: this is a chaotic time. If you are sharing any news or information you ensure that it has at least one (though preferably all three) of the following visible somewhere on the post:

A clear source that you are familiar with

A date

A link

If a post sharing purported information about an ongoing crisis doesn't have any of those things, don't share it. If you want to share it and it doesn't have any of those things, go find those things for yourself before you hit the reblog button.

It *DOES* take a hell of a lot more effort to use social media when you're doing those things, but it also limits the reach of mis/disinformation and will help you personally to get better at recognizing when a clickbait headline is supposed to short-circuit your thought process or when an infographic is trying to prey on your guilt instead of your rational understanding of the world.

[nedlittle]

hey! I liked your piece about the twitter spreadsheet. I generally agree with your observations and conclusions but I'm additionally concerned about the internet dogpiling it's received recently—a problem in its own right. were you aware the list was by a 20 year old girl? and that she clarified she's not saying no one should read them/they should be censored; her intentions were more along the lines of awareness-raising.

obviously she's echoing the "ur fave is problematic" tumblr trends, which I agree are an offshoot of puritanism cloaked in pseudo-leftist terminology, and the reasons on her list are mostly dumb and badly-written. but she's also 1 young person doing this (on what she thought was an account with only a few hundred booktwt followers) when i think lovers of books and literature everywhere still have a lot of reckoning to do with the systemic issues in fiction. wish we could've collectively just not given her list oxygen, because now she's gone viral, doubling down, getting harassed, and locking her account, which seems worse than having a 20-year-old social justice performance phase and then just... maturing out of it like a lot of people.

so yes she's wrong, but twitter (+ the rest of the internet) has gotten so outraged about her list when often the same communities don't do enough about very real issues of racism in fiction, or transphobia in fiction, or other minorities expressing their discomfort. it seems to me like she's just become the internet's scapegoat for channeling all the frustration in the air about purity culture's resurgence towards one lone target.

[on a slight tangent, she was not wrong about rainbow rowell—her books contain suuuuuuper weird depictions of mixed-race people to the point that i, a mixed-race asian, have asked friends not to read her. it's absolutely an individual's choice if they still want to, but that doesn't mean it has my enthusiastic approval solely in the name of anti-censorship sentiment. i just think her books are weird, hurtful, and unhelpful.]

originally i was going to delete this since i didn't have the time or energy to engage since it seems like you just want to vent, but y'know what i will dignify this with a response.

1. yes i'm aware of the op's age. i saw the original tweet when it was posted and checked out her account. i would not have cross-posted the spreadsheet let alone written about it were she 14 or 16. that's punching down on a child. op is, by her own metric since her age no longer has 'teen' in it, an adult. at twenty, the vast majority of the population is either involved with higher education or working, both of which require you to move in adult spaces as an adult yourself whether you feel like one or not. op is 20, i am 25; we are on equal footing in this scenario.

2. nowhere in my piece do i say that she directly calls for censorship of books deemed problematic

3. upfront i am not criticizing her for going viral in an internet safety psa way. however, there are means of limiting who can and cannot interact with your tweets even if you have a public facing account.

3.5. the nature of creating something with the intent to 'educate and spread awareness' is that you post it hoping that other people will see it and go 'oh, i should circulate that through my circles so that my friends can also be educated and aware', and then it continues spreading. that's how the transfer of information works, it's unfortunate that it snowballed the way it did because i saw a bunch of big accounts on my timeline being rude about it

4. in my posts here and my piece i specifically obscured her identity to avoid further harassment and dogpiling

4.5. nowhere in my piece do i make any personal attacks on her character. i say her choice of criticisms are "weird", mention the typos (because if you're going to post a call out the least you can do is get people's names right), say the whole thing is well-intentioned but silly, and call her methodology "ridiculous" & critique the spreadsheet as a symptom of the larger trend of tiktok gen z anti-intellectualism

5. "the same communities don't do enough about very real issues of realism in fiction, or transphobia in fiction" this was like....one of my main arguments in the piece, that deplatforming virgina woolf or ayn rand won't do anything (well... deplatforming rand may, if we can get rid of libertarians) but authors like jkr and helen oyeyemi are still doing active harm without widespread reproach. i was glad to see that oyeyemi was even on the list and upset that the transphobia in one of her books was getting sidelined in favour of making fun of the typos. that's something i highlighted in both my piece and a subsequent reblog of the post i made about the spreadsheet.

6. the modus operandi of being like "hello i saw a [tweet/post/video/photo etc] about X, which is an example of issue Y, let's talk abt it' is not something i made up. this is no different than if we were feuding shakespeare scholars duking it out via academic journals

7. nowhere in my piece do i say that she is the only example of the issues i'm talking about. i say that it's part of a larger trend, and it is. the spreadsheet is a very visible example of discussion that i have seen on various social medias, among my own social circles, and regurgitated by published ya authors and grown-ass adults

additionally, this website has several pages dedicated to problematic authors, many of whom also appear on the spreadsheet. the website is correctly spelled, alphabetized, and cited, but also listed tacitus as a code-red problematic author which, like, tacitus's histories and the antisemitism rampant in those histories are integral to the way we study western history and historiography. he was also born in 56 CE. i think he's been cancelled and analysed plenty in 2000 years.

8. tacitus tangent aside, i would like to stress that neither this account nor my twitter, on which i also posted in response to the spreadsheet and which has less than 200 followers, are Big Accounts. there is a world of difference between a blue check journalist writing the same article, with her name and handle left in, and getting a substantial sum for it. the platform i publish most of my writing on pays 1¢ approximately every 12 views. my post popular article has been read about 2000 times and earned $12. thank you for your time goodbye

[commiekinkshamer]

I was today years old when I learned home births have an increased infant death rate?? Like, a significant amount. Where does this claim it’s actually as safe if not safer than a hospital come from? Cause I see that EVERYWHERE particularly in feminist/leftist circles

Edit: pls see Bellarad’s comments for more context. There are issues with the studies I mentioned above and I’m by no means an expert on this

[acti-veg]

How do you stay motivated to advocate about veganism and animal rights? It feels like to be vegan you need to be ane expert on agriculture, environmentalism, economy, biology and so much more. I know that's the case with all activisms but it gets exchausting especially when you see anti-veganism everywhere even on leftist circles. Sometimes it's tempting to just stay quiet especially considering that if you ever make as much as a small mistake and get one thing wrong they will label the whole vegan movement wrong because of you, one person.

Honestly I’d say that around 90% of the time when I’m talking to someone who is challenging veganism, they have almost no more knowledge on the topic than the general public do, which is very little. Just by having done the research and had the experiences which led you to go vegan, you will know more than most people do already. As for the rest, it really just comes with time, nobody starts out knowing this stuff. Someone presents you with an argument on a topic you know nothing about, you go away and do the research, come back to them, and never time you have those resources saved if you’re organised, and you have that surface level knowledge to draw on the next time someone brings it up. Most of the time you’re also dealing with the exact same dozen or so arguments too, just mindlessly regurgitated with slightly different wording. In terms of motivation, doing the research is part of them. The more you read about animal agriculture the more you grow to despise it, and similarly, it’s hard to forget why you’re doing this when you’re watching the documentaries, reading the books and spending so much of your time arguing on this stuff.

As well as that, I think the key thing I’ve learned is to manage your time and energy. Don’t spend time arguing lost causes, save your time and energy for people who may actually listen to you, and for creating content that wil have an actual impact. Just don’t let it take over your life; you’re no use to anyone as an activist if you burn out, so decide how much time you want to spend on it per day/week and stick to it.