#protect disabled unhoused people

[leamilea]

absolutely so fucking interesting how for 9 months so called "leftists" have been screaming "free palestine/congo/DRC" and pledged they're not voting for biden in the fall and want nothing to do with the collegiate voting system. but when biden finally drops out and kamala is running the stand, these people suddenly rush to the "vote blue no matter who" defense and collectively gaslight others into voting as the "better option." pretending as if this woman didn't build her career jailing people for misdemeanors, extending jail time for said people even when proven innocent, jailed trans women in mens' prisons, will continue to partake in the genocides--this woman will not save you or anyone.

[copperbadge]

Radio Free Monday

Good morning everyone, and welcome to Radio Free Monday!

As a reminder, I will be discontinuing Radio Free Monday in the new year, although the guide to fundraising will remain, and you should feel free to link to it.

Ways to Give:

Anon linked to a fundraiser for Stephen Campbell, who is currently unhoused and living in a tent; he has completed multiple cycle rides across multiple countries and is currently embarking on a fundraising ride from Belfast to North Cape in Cape Town, hoping to have enough to buy a small home to live in when he has completed his ride. You can read more and support the fundraiser here.

firewatchers linked to a fundraiser for peculiar-persephone, who is raising funds to move out of Alabama, where they're currently being sent to conservative relatives to avoid homelessness. They're raising funds to get to a majority-blue state where they will be protected from anti-queer legislation and be able to gain disability benefits and access medication. You can read more, reblog, and find giving information here.

idiomagic's cat SpyBoy recently returned home from several days in the emergency vet hospital, where they found out he has pancreatitis and diabetes; they're facing nearly $5K in veterinary bills with no income, as Idiomagic's husband lost his job last week and she is unable to work. You can read more and give at gofundme here or give directly via gwyndynalexander at Venmo.

News To Know:

brainwane linked to Jacob Kaplan-Moss, who is offering free digital security checkups for people and groups who are concerned about their security posture, particularly if they will be participating in political resistance; you can read more and get in touch here.

Recurring Needs:

gwydion's HOA recently pushed through a special assessment charge of $4.4K for tenants that is due in 90 days, and which ze is unable to cover in full; ze needs to raise another $1400 or so to cover by mid-December. You can read more, reblog, and find giving information here.

loversdoom is raising funds for an assessment to get help with mental health so she can be treated and remain in school, where she has a safe place to live and basic psychiatric support. You can read more, reblog, and find giving information here or give via paypal here.

And this has been Radio Free Monday! Thank you for your time. You can post items for my attention at the Radio Free Monday submissions form.

[weebsinstash]

I'll get back to posting my usual content eventually but I'm serious when I say how worried I am

I recently moved to a downtown area where there is a very visible homeless population and many of them are predominantly addicts, disabled, or people of color, all the usual targets of the GOP, and now that it's looking like Trump is the next President, all I can do is check the weather report, see that it's in the 30s outside, and have my heart ache at the idea that so many people are going to die over the next few years

People huddled in the doorways of closed businesses in the middle of the night with layers and layers of blankets protecting them from rain and windchill. People disassembling the locked doors entering my building so they have somewhere warm and dry and sleeping in the hallways or our laundry room. People sleeping in the plants in front of businesses to give them some protection from the wind and some privacy and then the very next day the only sign someone was there are the folded branches and leaves. I'm at a metro stop and a man wrapped in a knitted quilt asks me if I have any change for him and his brother and as I stop to talk to him and offer him support as someone who was once homeless myself, he asks me to touch his head and pray for him since he's a devout Catholic and still believes in the good of humanity

Even just conceptualizing how many people are going to lose their healthcare... how many people aren't going to be able to afford medicine anymore... how many unhoused people are going to become victims of violence under an administration that dehumanzies and actively hates them... how many people are going to be driven to homelessness because they're a minority driven from their home or work which project 2025 promises to make perfectly legal... my heart just fucking aches. I hope it doesn't rain again today because it's so cold we'll have snow....

[canary-prince]

Ways For US-Americans To Help If You're Abstaining From Voting

Can't vote on moral grounds, but still raring to do something? Stuck in America and unsure of how to meaningfully serve your community? Here are some ideas that I, a social worker serving house-bound citizens, can share out of personal experience. Feel free to add other ideas or links. We are not powerless.

Volunteer (these are just examples/sources of info)

Planned Parenthood needs volunteers for nearly every non-medical department

See if your state has a volunteer stewardship program, where you can help weed out invasive plant species and defend your natural ecosystem

If you have medical skills, become a street medic

Contribute to the preservation of Queer History

Put your labor towards the upkeep or repair of properties in Indigenous communities

Adult literacy is not great right now, and we're harder to lie to if we're literate; volunteer to help your neighbors who were failed by the school system

Resources to help the unhoused constantly need volunteer counselors, cooks, and someone to sort donations

The sick and elderly are very under-served, particularly if they're broke, so reach out to a local hospice to see what skills they need

Give (if you can't physically volunteer but have money to spare)

Donate to an abortion fund; this one is for Native peoples specifically

Donate to a book gifting program or book mobile; this link is for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library

Donate to preserve the histories of communities of color; this fund is specifically for preserving African American historical sites

Donate to protect the natural environment

Donate to help free those caged in prisons; this link is for the Innocence Project, which aims to challenge wrongful convictions

The arts are for everyone, but wealth gaps interfere; this fund is for art initiatives that contribute to community building, including increasing accessibility

Learn (resources that many communities have but aren't widely educated on)

Community Action Agencies: these are non-profits and private companies that act in service of their communities' human rights and quality of life. Many have utility funds, run food banks, manage emergency shelters, provide education and job skills opportunities, and participate in social activism.

Area Agencies on Aging: Non-profits that serve elders (and non-elderly disabled citizens) in a designated service area. They primarily offer services to prolong independent living (free or low cost in home care, meals on wheels, home safety modifications, and Medicare guidance) or help with transition into assisted living.

Habitat For Humanity: They aren't just in disaster zones or on foreign soil; they have local US chapters that provide critical repairs to families in need. They repair roofs, address barriers to access, and perform electric and plumbing work.

Durable Medical Equipment Loan Closets: Communal sources of vital medical equipment including wheelchairs, walkers, canes, hospital beds, shower chairs, and more. May be able to provide incontinence supplies or diabetes supplies. Rarely but sometimes provide oxygen.

Non Emergency Medical Transportation/Alternatives to Mass Transit: Transportation for elderly, disabled, cognitively impaired, and low income citizens to help them reach medical providers, dental care, physical therapy, and eye exam appointments. Can also provide transit to shopping centers, the grocery store, religious events, cultural events, and polling stations. Offer door to door services for the housebound. IF YOU HAVE MEDICAID, YOU SHOULD NOT EVER BE PAYING FOR THIS. MEDICAID IS OBLIGATED TO MAKE SURE YOU REACH ANY AND ALL MEDICAL APPOINTMENTS.

Legal Aid Clinics: Sources of pro-bono or sliding scale legal advice and representation.

[covid-conscious-and-silly]

please wear a mask in public if you are upset about the election results. if all of you have are surgical masks, it's better than nothing, and you can find masks that will protect you and others better here (guide courtesy of mask bloc seattle)!

this does not end because the election is over. action does not end because a new person is in office. quite honestly, i would be making this post regardless because neither side of this false dichotomy is doing nearly enough to address everything going on.

but if you have ever wanted to go beyond "you do you" and actually be a support and ally to disabled and immunocompromised people, wearing a mask in public is a way to do it. you will also be protecting your siblings of color, queer and trans siblings, unhoused siblings, and multiply marginalized siblings! all of those groups are at a higher risk of developing long covid. wearing a mask is an act of solidarity with all groups of marginalized people.

to those of you who are already doing so, thank you. to those of you who are even more worried about your future, i am with you. i hope the silver lining to all of this is that people will realize this time that just voting every four years isn't enough. we need to act more for each other. we deserve to show ourselves and each other more compassion. this is not the end.

[chronicallycouchbound]

Internalized Ableism As Means For Unhoused Survival

We need to dissect the cultural context of homelessness as it relates to disability. I’ve spent most of my life unhoused, while also being a disabled person who didn’t have a clear understanding that I was disabled, and both of these experiences had huge impacts on my experiences of ableism, especially internalized.

It needs to be understood that it’s not always rooted in internalized ableism for someone to not identify as disabled, especially regarding physical disabilities. Including choosing to hide disability, pain, or weakness. It also includes choosing not to use mobility aids or other assistive devices that could, in theory, be helpful for their day-to-day life. Instead, they grit their teeth through the pain or find alternatives to manage. This is akin to (and may overlap with) autistic masking.

Being on the streets comes with a culture that allows for strength to often guarantee safety. The ability to physically defend yourself, carry your belongings, withstand harsh weather, use survival expertise, etc. are often necessary skills. Showing weakness is vulnerability. Vulnerability allows for situations where you are more likely to be targeted because attackers can recognize your difficulties and take advantage of them. This danger is amplified if you are a part of other marginalized groups.

When I was a young queer and trans person growing up on the streets, my homelessness was inextricably linked to those experiences. If I were to seem like I was disabled, I was putting myself in a more vulnerable position. Once I started using mobility aids on the streets, I experienced significantly more dangerous situations than I had before. I faced more direct physical violence and threats as a result of it. It wasn’t just me fearing that I might face judgment for being visibly disabled, it was that I was facing real-world repercussions, both within the unhoused and housed community. I was targeted by housed people frequently due to the inherent publicity of unhoused experiences.

Unhoused people spend significantly more time in public. As a currently unstably housed person, but housed nonetheless, I have the privilege of privacy for my pain. I can crawl in my apartment freely without anyone literally kicking me while I’m down. I can scream, I can sob, I can dissociate, I can do whatever I need to, with or without aids, and not face violence from the people around me.

I also have access to more supportive aids just by having housing. I now have in-home care attendants, something that was impossible without a home. I have a bed I can rest in at any time. I have a microwave for hot pads. I have a bathroom. I have electricity. I have food. These things were never guaranteed while unhoused and disabled. Unsurprisingly, I have significantly fewer emergency room trips, unmanageable flares, missed doctor appointments, etc. now that I have even unstable housing.

When you have more time in the public eye, there are more opportunities for facing ableism and houseism from the general populace. Those two experiences intertwined, and being chronically homeless, led to me having to navigate internalized ableism as a survival skill because there was a direct link to the ableism I faced daily.

Some disabled people on the streets, especially if they can’t hide their disability, feel more pressure to present themselves as inspiration porn. Inspiration porn panders to ableist narratives about disabled experiences, and can even give you an edge while panhandling. It also acts as a protective factor, there’s a mindset that if you’re not held back by disability, then you are not disabled. Thus, your disability cannot be exploited by others, and you are just as strong as a physically abled person. It’s something we do because we have to in order to survive, whether or not we’re conscious of the ableist narratives we’re feeding into.

There are times when I have to choose to do actions that are more harmful for me, such as presenting as more abled, for my immediate safety. I have to weigh the risks, and often, the risk of being attacked is far greater than the risk of falling, fainting, or being injured. This is not internalized ableism, it isn’t subconscious, it is for protection. Presenting as disabled is difficult enough, but when other marginalizations are added to it, it is exponentially more dangerous. Even more so than it is for me to not use aids or to not accept help at times.

If I wasn’t able to be recognized as disabled, I was granted more privileges akin to those my able-bodied peers automatically receive. If a bathroom wasn’t accessible for me, but I did my best with it instead of asking for accommodations (which is often seen as being picky, needy, or ungrateful) then I was more likely to be allowed to use that bathroom again. The same goes for couch surfing at a friend's house, needing to carry everything I own up three flights of stairs, if I didn’t mention that it was difficult for me or said no to help, then I was being a good guest by not making my hosts uncomfortable. Making concessions like this whenever I could gave me more access to safety.

When my disabilities became more serious, and I wasn't able to keep making concessions, I would fall in that bathroom, I would faint on the stairs, and I immediately was more unsafe. I couldn’t hide my disability anymore, the choice was taken from me. No amount of pandering to abled people would make me able to do those things anymore. For me, that felt like a personal failure. I had been told my whole life that I could and should push through my disabling symptoms and conditions, and I took that as fact. Not being able to do that was a heavy and horrifying feeling for me.

It’s taken years (and is an ongoing process) to find safe enough spaces where I can ask for help. Where I can freely use mobility aids, show my actual pain, wear braces, wear compression garments, cry, rest, and otherwise exist as my disabled self without being harmed. It’s taken equally as long (and is still ongoing) to find grace within myself and advocate for the accommodations I need and actually use them. I still struggle with the pressure to feed into inspiration porn, something that the cripple reclamation movement is focused on deconstructing. I struggle with accepting help, asking for help, or even looking like I might need help. But I also recognize that beautiful things can happen when I get what I need.

It heals internalized houseism to be dismantling my internalized ableism, and vice versa.

Unhoused disabled people are allowed to be weak. Unhoused disabled people are allowed to cry, to scream, to be in pain, to ask for help. Unhoused disabled people are allowed to be human, just like everyone else.

[yuri-for-businesswomen]

its so funny that the first article in the german constitution (grundgesetz) is „human dignity is untouchable“ (die würde des menschen ist unantastbar).

like is it dignified to have over 600.000 people unhoused? is it dignified to have over 100.000 prostitutes, probably more, of whom around 90 % are women and 60 % are immigrants? is it dignified to treat immigrants and refugees as second or third class citizens? is it dignified that more than 8 million people earn even less than minimum wage which is barely enough to live off as it is? is it dignified to let thousands of refugees die at the eu borders every year - which germany has a huge responsibility for? is it dignified that single mothers in germany are most at risk of poverty, while abortion is illegal, and prostitution is not, and the german government tries to raise fertility rates? is it dignified that germany is the hotspot for sex tourism and fetish parties? is it dignified that we have europes biggest brothels, one that is five stories high, and only men are allowed to enter as „customers“? is it dignified that 300.000 people with disabilities in germany get a little more than one euro per hour working in so called behindertenwerkstätten? is it dignified that immigrants have so little rights they are exploited on fields, in homes, hospitals, butcheries, construction work, etc, paid less than minimum wage, working overhours, often developing health issues, being abused, because their german employers know they wont report it? is it dignified that nurses are underpaid and overworked because hospitals and other care facilities are privatised? is it dignified that german corporations rake in billions in profit from moving their production abroad and violating human rights? is it dignified that volkswagen produces in the uighur camps in china? is it dignified that prisoners get exploited by private companies? is it dignified that cops get away with harrassment, humiliation and violence because there is no independent control? E T C

whose dignitity is really protected bro?

[lastoneout]

If the core of your activism isn't a deep, profound love for vulnerable people then like...idk what's the fucking point? I fight terfs because I love trans people. I fight nazis bcs I love jewish and romani and queer and disabled people. I fight racism because so many people I love aren't white. I fight ableism because I love the disabled and mentally ill. I fight fatphobia bcs I love fat people. I fight classism bcs I love poor people. I fight oppression because I love humanity, and I firmly believe that we all deserve a better, kinder world.

And so should it turn out that some facet of my activism is hurting more people than it's helping I want to know so I can stop and reevaluate if such actions are actually worthwhile or if there's something else I could be doing to help. Progress will probably always have some collateral damage, but we should care about minimizing it as much as possible bcs I don't want to hurt vulnerable people while trying to fight for them.

Telling bad people to kill themselves does not make the world a better place. It isn't a substitute for deplatforming, or being aware of dogwhistles, or protesting, raising money or charity, volunteering, educating yourself and the people in your community, voting in local elections or showing up at city council meetings, just giving some cash to an unhoused person, or doing things that actually make our spaces safe for the people who need our help. All it does is hurt trauma victims and the mentally ill. And tbh it will probably get your account banned, which is what the bigots want. You're silencing yourself FOR them. So why not stop doing it and start doing something that will actually make positive change.

And it's okay to be angry. It's important to be angry! And no one is arguing that you have to be nice to nazis or racists or fatphobes. They should be deplatformed. But god all I'm fucking asking is for us to care more about helping the oppressed than we do about dunking on bigots online for clout points, especially when said dunking causes real, measurable harm to marginalized people. There are better ways to dismantle the power bigots have garnered, ways that don't make progressive spaces hostile for vulnerable people.

Wouldn't you rather minimize the harm you do to the vulnerable than bulldoze over them in your quest for a better world? Aren't you fighting to protect them? Aren't you showing up because you care about them and want them to have a future? Isn't it all about love in the end??

I just...why is this so hard to grasp? I've never felt more confused. I thought we were doing this out of love. To minimize human suffering. To help people. But I guess that was just me being naive. Sorry.

[quill-of-thoth]

Other things to do before January, for yourself: Get any vaccines you need. Secure long term birth control, your hormones, your psych meds, to the utmost extent that you can have a stockpile of those. Connect to your friends off social media, in less public settings, and start getting legal and political information from places other than google and social media. We, as random queer people on the internet, will not be under fire first, personally at least. Laws against discrimination and corruption will be under fire first. Regulation and consumer protection laws and rules. Privacy rights, whether medical or your phone and internet activity. Disability rights, and the rights of the incarcerated or unhoused. Show the fuck up for something other than fandom.

[is-the-owl-video-cute]

Canada is on fire and Americans are getting mad at us for the smoke in their country.

👍 helpful.

You get that this level of smoke in effected areas is actually a severe public health issue, right? That this is actively harming people? That it’s weird to frame this as being fussy and entitled Americans complaining about a bad smell or something and not thousands of people being trapped in cities with air that burns and poisons them as they breathe?

No one is blaming the concept of Canada for this, but smoke can kill or permanently disable people just as fire can. Acting like a continental tragedy is a pissing contest between countries for who has it worse is weirdo behavior.

Yeah, healthy adults are probably going to be okay as long as the smoke doesn’t persist for too long, but those aren’t the only people living in those areas. In the urban regions in particular there are scores of unhoused people who may not be able to get masks to protect themselves or go inside where air may be filtered.

Yes! Obviously! This is affecting Canada more severely! No one is saying it isn’t, but getting aggravated with people just because they’re upset at the fact the air isn’t breathable isn’t rational and it’s certainly not helpful.

[nocturnal-heliotrope]

We have two months give or take to get a lot of work done, to pressure remaining blue politicians, and to bolster our safety nets to protect the most vulnerable among us.

Many people can't leave their state or their country, many people will be stuck exactly where they are now, so those of us in safe places need to stop wallowing in our own self pity and start looking for ways to build these networks and community and to make sure none of us get left behind in the coming years. Bureaucracy is a slow moving beast so we will have time. Not everything will happen at once. Some stuff may never happen at all. But a lot of bad stuff has happened, been happening, and continues to happen both here in the US and abroad. It is our responsibility to fight back. Trans and queer rights were won by fighting back. The civil rights movement was won by fighting back. Womens rights were won by fighting back. Disability rights were won by fighting back.

No one has ever handed us our rights out of the good of their hearts.

I saw someone earlier say that people have been surviving and fighting American oppression as long as America has existed. We can't forget those who have been trampled in the history of our country and who continue to fight for the rights of all of us with little thanks from many of us.

The absolute most important thing we can do right now is build community and strengthen coalitions. The absolute worst thing we can do is point blame, flight each other, and give up. Defeatism will kill us long before any policy can.

It is our responsibility to our siblings of color, especially black and indigenous folks, our queer, intersex, trans, and gender non conforming siblings, our disabled siblings, those of us who are at risk of or are already suffering from reproductive control, deportation, homelessness, addiction, incarceration, institutionalization, those facing poor conditions on reservations that are likely about to deteriorate further and those in the rest of the world, especially the global south, who had no vote in this race. All those who have been suffering at the hands of this regime long before the first term, who are under the boot of American imperialism, militarism, criminalization, and have lost so much.

The less these labels apply to you the more critical it is that you maintain your composure and get to work. If you have money to spare, reach out to mutual aid funds; if you want to get involved, find local community organizing groups; if you have kids, teach them to be kind and compassionate and always approach others with respect and understanding. If you can do so much as bring something warm and maybe some money or food to an unhoused person in your community, you will make that community stronger.

Now is not the time to argue and tear each other down for what happened. The more we can inoculate ourselves against despair, the more we can fight back. The reality is that over 71 million votes were cast. Many of those people had no real understanding of what that vote stood for. Many were misguided in one way or another, and won't understand the ramifications until it affects them directly. We need to build stronger communities so that type of understanding becomes innate.

We will get through this but only if we work together for a better future.

[mswyrr]

^^ Well said. I delayed reading it because I didn't want to engage with it for a while - and, once I did, even though Collins had earned so much trust from me with her handling of Katniss and Peeta's disabilities, I was still wary. So I actually highlighted every instance where she wasn't writing him according to ableist tropes.

Yes, at 18 he's been shaped by Capitol indoctrination at school and in his family and in the media. He sees with those lenses. They come easily and automatically to him. But he also connects with people as people and realizes - oh, the District kids are just kids?? And they're being starved and hurt? I know what it's like to go hungry... This is wrong. Why should Lucy Gray have to sing just to get food? I'll get her some, even though I don't have enough.

Over and over - but if you stand up for the wrong people, you will be punished. He tries it; he protects Lucy Gray. And then he pays the price and -- somewhere along the way, he doesn't want to pay anymore. He wants to protect his family and be a winner. And you can't be a winner--comfortable and safe and in control--and stand with someone your society has designated to lose. So he chooses.

It's heartbreaking - and it is, sadly, terrifyingly, the kind of choices the majority of people make - his 18-year-old choices, that is. That moment in his life is the perfect one to write about, because it turns the eye of the story on how young people are shaped - but also, at that young stage, he's closer to the common ordinary people in any corrupt society. He's just trying to survive. It's later that his urge to win motivates him to get worse and worse and worse - no longer wanting to protect his family, in fact tossing Tigris aside, *only* wanting to win. Taking pleasure in driving people into the ground.

It takes decades of choices for him to become that person, though. And it is a creation he makes of himself. The younger person is closer to most people though.

For example, I live in a democracy, thankfully. And yet it is so much driven by what Langston Hughes called "the same old stupid plan / Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak." When I walk into work and I see the cops clearing unhoused people from the only homes and safety they have--a process that we know from studies shortens peoples' lives, hurts them emotionally and physically for no gd reason, just cruelty, just greed--living in an encampment near my work - I don't do anything. I'm afraid to. Sure, I try to donate to people who help and write letters and vote... but I don't resist directly. I'd be punished. So there's a little bit of that 18-year-old kid early in the book who knows right and wrong and yet just wants to be safe in me. And I have to wrestle with it. Because I don't want to ever forget that it's a wrestling match. That's when the perverse incentive structure starts to consume you IMO. And most of us live in societies with perverse incentive structures of some kind. Some lure that is offered to us, of feeling better than, of exploiting others, and some threats of punishment too.

To my mind, it's a good story that can make me think of feeling a pang of shame and sadness and then looking away as the cops clear people and remembering that it's a struggle, that I am not simply on the side of angels, that my society is structured around cruelty and greed and it doesn't have to be. It shouldn't be.

re: the use of trauma. I'm interested to see what Viola Davis does with the role and how Dr Gaul is adjusted in the film script - honestly, her apparent flatness was one of the things in the book I thought could be better? And in film reviews I'm reading it seems like they strengthened her. We'll see. I think she's so good at leaning into why all of this is justified because she truly believes it. And she's looking for future leaders who can truly believe it too. And, as much as she and Highbottom apply pressures to shape this youth--including that hilarious imo scene where Coriolanus naively says "people love children"--by the end Coriolanus is writing her letters and offering himself as someone who will fit that shape in order to get the rewards it offers. There's a subtle shift as that happens that is quite nuanced. And, again, focusing on his youth is so powerful because he's a being in formation, a person being created and creating himself as an adult.

There's a *reason* why Collins opens the book with this quote:

“I thought of the promise of virtues which he had displayed on the opening of his existence, and the subsequent blight of all kindly feeling by the loathing and scorn which his protectors had manifested towards him.” — Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, 1818

Though, again, the major shift of Part 3 for me is that he begins to take an active part in forming himself and he is fashioning himself to be a winner, to fit what he believes Dr Gaul and the authorities at the military school want, hoping and fearing that he won't be able to do it so well and desperately happy when the chance at rewards for doing so is still open to him. IMO Part 3 and the Epilogue aren't the end of his journey, they're the death of other possibilities and the birth of who he's choosing to become. And even he can't fully imagine where that will go as the decades pass and the choices mount up.

That is not the kind of quote you use to begin a story about someone who was born evil to begin with. The book takes 528 pages even though it's only about a few months in one 18-year-old's life precisely because it's a carefully drawn and teased out character journey, a corruption arc. As reviewer David Ehrlich put it in his review of the movie:

is Coriolanus embracing his nature or defiling it?

It's supposed to be a question, not a foregone conclusion. And I think the weight of the text itself leans in favor of "defiling" as the answer. Though it can be interpreted multiple ways (as it should be). I think the movie only lines we have from Lucy Gray in the trailer hold true: "there’s a natural goodness born into us all.” But, in one way or another, it doesn’t just stay that way, it’s a struggle. “It’s our life’s work to stay on the right side of that line [between good and evil].”

It’s a little on the nose with the themes, but I’m cool with them having her be so clear about it since apparently it’s not clear in the book I guess????

[hyperlexichypatia]

hey! ive been observing this account for a while as a person who is relatively new to anti-pysch, madpunk, and youth rights related stuff. and i wanted to ask something related to bodily autonomy. would someone refusing or downright saying they hate showering count as ones right to their own bodily autonomy? i see hygiene commonly weaponized against those who are neurodivergent or have mental illnesses and physical disabilities, that and i think hygiene has moved so far from protecting ourselves from certain viruses and diseases to "if you dont follow this specific skincare routine, buy these specific products, and take a shower in a very specific way (or use an alternative method/way that doesnt involve a shower in the first place) you're gross and should be shunned from society". i feel like our quickness to judge others who dont follow these things are may appear like they dont is connected to somethings related to consumerism and classism but i wouldnt know how to explain it as im still new to all this.

Needing help with hygiene is also really stigmatized, and people are denied access to it. Lots of people who don't have clean bodies and clothes are denied access to those things -- maybe they're unhoused and don't have a working bathroom, maybe they're disabled and can't get into the shower without assistance, which they don't have -- and of course anything associated with poor and disabled people is intensely stigmatized. So yeah, stigma on not having the right hygiene is absolutely classist and ableist. Even the word "hygiene" is often used to mean eugenics. We equate "clean" with "abled" and "dirty" with "disabled." There are even studies (I'm not sure how reliable they are because I haven't done sufficient research on them) suggesting that people adopt more conservative/judgmental attitudes when there's a bottle of hand sanitizer in view.

I think what really reveals the bad faith of the whole thing is that this kind of stigma is purely about social class and not actually about cleanliness from germs. The clearest example might be how in the 1840s, Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis proposed the completely radical idea that maybe doctors should wash their hands before treating patients, and being widely denounced for suggesting that doctors could be the problem or could be dirty. The second clearest example might be the American political response to the COVID-19 pandemic -- people who had spent decades opposing the rights of poor people, unhoused people, immigrants, disabled people, people of color, queer people, etc. on the basis off "They're dirty/ they smell bad/ they're gross" suddenly pivoted to "How dare you ask me to avoid touching you or your food, wear a mask, or wash my hands, this is personally insulting to me."

Hygiene requirements are certainly necessary in certain contexts -- yes, you should have to wash your hands and wear a hairnet when preparing food, you should have to wash your hands and wear a mask before performing surgery -- but these should be things the employer provides and makes accessible.

[clavainov]

x-men and enjoyable propaganda :')

Follow me on the journey of stopping liking X-Men...

When I was a kid, X-Men was the only real story I had about people living in a state they knew was *wrong*, but so many other people refused to acknowledge was doing anything wrong because they were the tacit beneficiaries. This isn't to say that other stories along these lines did not exist, but simply that I did not organically encounter them.

I always knew there were many things horribly wrong with the world I lived in, I found adults' attempts to put a moral framework around it horrifying (who deserves to be unhoused?) and I hunted for narratives about people opposing something that was not only evil, not only bigger than themselves, but something they had to convince their peers was bad. It was about more than revolution - it was about validity, the difficulty in fighting to change something people refused to understand was evil.

You know, you're 9 years old, people are telling you that people in poverty deserve it. You're like, what? You find yourself not even knowing how to approach that argument because you're starting from such radically different worldviews and also 9 years old. Then, if you're little autistic me, then you're thinking "oh yeah, Magneto would blast these fuckers" (satisfying, perhaps a little amoral considering they are also 9 years old) or Professor X would fix them with debate (unrealistic but such a delicious fantasy), or maybe save their lives until they got too guilty to keep being bigots. Now that would be a good response!

These may not be applicable strategies but they were rational responses to the same conflicts I faced in my life, in a fictionalized context. Then, when my disabilities and queerness became more visible, and I started to attract bigotry that threatened my safety, I found fantasies of trying to subvert the status quo in X-Men. I remember reading When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr as a small child and seeing a passage about how to be a visible minority, you had to excel at whatever you were doing to prove the people who hated you wrong and give them no excuse to hurt you. I thought, huh, that's what Professor X would say, but it seems rather unfair to be forced to be a model citizen and representative of your entire demographic.

Now, whether or not X-Men actually supports subverting the status quo is a complicated question. The titular X-Men are doggedly dedicated to protecting existing state mechanisms, often at their own expense. I recently read a comic where, to my disgust, the plot resolution was that the US government simply decided to stop indiscriminately turning its own citizens into killer robots without their consent designed to commit hate crimes because someone convinced them it was morally wrong with words. Charles Xavier is, in almost all iterations, the most boring liberal ever. But... although the text is telling you that violence is wrong and you need to turn the other cheek, the metanarrative is absolutely not telling you that. The metanarrative is a tragedy about how being a liberal who does nothing wrong means you keep getting blown up by people who hate you anyway. There are 2 contradictory aims in the story:

Show that violence is never the answer and there are peaceful solutions to problems

Keep the primary conflict going forever so you can keep writing issues exploring minor variations of the same story again and again

The consequence of this, is that you have a narrative where characters repeatedly try to turn the other cheek and are repeatedly killed for it. Again and again. Across all iterations of all universes... In all minor variations of the same situations... No matter what, their peaceful approach fails. So, while the characters are saying annoying things like "violence is never the answer" and "we just have to convince them we're not evil", the metanarrative is telling you "these clowns do not have an effective strategy". This dissonance is satisfyingly ironic. Then, in later issues (in my opinion best handled in this arc) the text addresses the impact this would have on the characters and their how it would shape their actions.

This is fascinating to me, even as an adult! These are questions I want to explore! Is violence an effective tool for change, is changing public opinion, is challenging state power? What is the psychological impact of dedicating your life to protecting the people who hate you? How will your own community react to your decision to do this? Are you betraying your own people? What do you do when people just don't acknowledge your humanity even after saving their lives? Why does the burden to seek justice always fall on the victims? In the cycle of violence, is there an effective way to differentiate victim and perpetrator? Should we train our children to protect themselves against a world that hates them; is their physical safety more important than the psychological safety of not knowing how much danger they are in?

As anyone who has thought about it for 5 seconds knows, mutants with super powers are a pretty shitty 1:1 allegory for real world marginalized groups. Mostly because they are dangerous and there is a rational basis to treating them differently (since you may be dealing with a small child who is shooting fire uncontrollably from their arms, or the guy who explodes all the time for no reason, or the guy who explodes once and then he's exploded). Real life marginalized groups do not pose such dangers. But not everything is literal; there's still a lot to be read into here and learned, and as someone with a stigmatized psychiatric disorder many consider dangerous perhaps I do relate to this metaphor on a more literal, if not 1:1, level... It does also help that X-Men has a very diverse cast, even if they are not always depicted in the best way.

“They’re afraid because we exist, she says. There’s nothing we did to provoke their fear, other than exist. There’s nothing we can do to earn their approval, except stop existing – so we can either die like they want, or laugh at their cowardice and go on with our lives.” -- N.K. Jemisen, saying words I wish I had read earlier, doing a better job than X-Men with a similar concept in The Broken Earth Trilogy.

But there's deeper problems than that in X-Men. There's frustrating cowardice when it comes to depicting violence, there's a dogged and tired inclination towards "what if we just politely requested that the people kicking us stopped and it worked". I was okay with that. You can read X-Men and love Emma Frost for her triage, for her unapologetic refusal to be anyone but herself or regret her morally grey actions. You can relate to Wolverine's compassion when he insists that they need to stop using child soldiers, even as you equally understand Cyclops's insistence that it's necessary because the outcome where they use child soldiers will result in overall fewer dead children. You can understand that a public figure steadfastly dedicated to being peaceful is doing a lot of good, even as you can understand why the more vulnerable members of his community may hate him for his refusal to act more directly. There's a lot to take from the text even if you don't agree with all the creative decisions.

But. Oh man. There are. Problems bigger than this.

My favourite X-Men character is Magneto. He starts off as a villain but more often than not he aligns himself with the X-Men out of a sense of solidarity and an old homoerotic friendship, even becoming their leader a few times. Magneto is a Holocaust survivor who has repeatedly lost everything due to the hatred people hold for his various identities. He goes around telling people to stop being little shits and zapping them if they do hate crimes. His general line is "I survived one genocide I will not endure another, no matter what moral line I have to cross, I will do everything in my power to stop that from happening again."

He knows that liberalism won't work. But he also tries it now and then just to be sure, because he cares more about results than ideology.

But! As I learned recently, Magneto is a huge Zionist and explicit supporter of the state of Israel. Which makes the "I will cross any moral line to stop the genocide of my people from happening again" into a very different statement, something people can link to the actions of the state of Israel which have everything to do with making more genocide and nothing to do with preventing another Holocaust. Yesterday I was minding my own business reading a comic that made alarming and tasteless allusions about slavery when Zionist Woman showed up and started talking about how progressive Israel was and how they would never do anything discriminatory unlike all the other countries :/

Yeah, fictional and goofy anti-discrimination media for children really does not have a place for supporting actively genocidal states. This introduces a second level of dissonance, but unlike before, this is just uncomfortable and impossible to ignore. Attempts are made to introduce positive Arabic characters but this is not enough and could not be enough.

It's a very disconcerting experience, to see Zionism Woman show up in the middle of your comic about the guy with knife hands and the other guy with laser eyes. All charitable interpretations evaporate. You close the comic and think about all the times the characters you like collaborate with the US military to do imperialism in fictional countries. It removes a layer of important abstraction that let you keep reading before - the idea that this was a story, removed somewhat from real life, that you could critically read and use as a vehicle to think about some issues while pointedly ignoring how it depicts others. Then you start thinking about how the organization that produced this comic also receive funding from the US military and making some horrible propaganda films. And you start wondering when USAmerican imperialism became so normalized in your mind that it didn't jump out at you as unforgiveable propaganda for a different genocide and instead became something you expect. All the things you were vaguely aware of, trying to wave off thinking about death of the author, how the problematic party here isn't even directly the author, how most USAmerican media is like this anyway, are drawn sharply into focus. You start thinking about the explicit textual agenda to avoid violent uprisings, to maintain the status quo. And you can't analyse it away because it's not vague, it's not something you can take apart and put back together in a better shape in your head. Because the genocide woman is there, and she's peering out of the page at you, grinning ghoulishly, reminding you what this comic is actually for.

[chronicallycouchbound]

About:

⌂ adult / over 25 ⌂ on/off homeless ⌂ disabled ⌂ mad ⌂ neurodivergent ⌂ queer ⌂ trans ⌂ DID system ⌂ currently precariously housed ⌂ multi-marginalized ⌂ writer ⌂ artist ⌂ zero income ⌂ mixed race ⌂ community organizer ⌂ abolitionist ⌂ pagan ⌂

Essays:

May Your Hands Always Be Loud

Sword Canes Aren’t Badass. I am.

What’s So Wrong With Having Heroes?

Unlucky: Protective Factors and Homelessness

Homeless Delicacies and Finding Unhoused Joy

Internalized Ableism As Means For Unhoused Survival

Let People On Food Stamps Eat Hot Meals

Intelligence Doesn't Equal Morality

Homelessness as Trauma: Transitioning Into Housing

Winter Solstice / Homeless Persons Memorial Day

Guides:

Unhoused Solidarity in Action (how to help out unhoused people outside of just care packs)

Coming into Disability (best for newly disabled people)

Interacting with People with Psychosis

How to Support People

Underrepresentation in Homeless Statistics

Houseism

Tags:

Original Posts - #chronically couchbound

Unhoused Joy (Story Series) - #unhoused joy

Informational - #info

Guides - #guides

Reblogs - #rb

Mutual Aid Requests - #Mutual Aid Asks

Asks - #asks

Accessibility

I’m Hard of Hearing and require captions in order to interact with any video/audio. Any videos or audio I post will always have captions.

Sometimes, I don’t have the ability to add alt text, image descriptions, and/or plain text versions of posts, feel free to go back and add them if you’re able to and see them needed. I have Low Vision, transient blindness and visual disturbances due to some of my conditions and often require IDs myself. I try to avoid reblogging images without IDs. I try to go back and add IDs when I’m able.

My blogs are photosensitive safe. I will never post flashing lights, jump scares, or April Fool's jokes/pranks on any of my blogs.

Occasionally I post sensory-enriched/dopamine-friendly versions of posts that I have previously posted.

Boundaries

I live in the United States so my posts at times are more specific to USA policies. However, in other countries many of the same restrictions, barriers, and systemic issues exist and I hope some of my posts can be a starting point to your own research about your local government policies and issues.

Inbox is open for mutuals, asks are open for anyone else.

I don’t have a specific DNI list for this blog. I just ask that people be respectful and engage in appropriate conversation about the topics I bring up. Threats and just generally being hateful (+ unwilling to hear other perspectives) will earn you a block. It’s okay if you’re not the most “politically correct” or are uneducated— caring intentions matters more to me.

Other Blogs:

Hellenic polytheistic worship/main: @fireandfennel

System blog: @oleandersystem

Additionally, here’s my website

And here’s my cripplepunk playlist to listen to while you scroll!

And if you’re interested in supporting me and my writing, here’s my wishlist. I am unable to work and have been fighting for SSI with a lawyer since 2017. I have zero income and live entirely off of government aid. Many items I need aren’t covered by insurance or charity programs. This is the only way I am able to receive outside assistance from others without my government assistance vouchers being taken away.

[roadkillnroses]

Those who have followed me for a little bit have probably noticed that I tag deities I worship on reblogged posts that don't directly concern them. This is because it's important to me to be able to see the gods in everything. Here's a quick overview on how I sort things (in alphabetical order!)

Apollon posts are sometimes also Artemis posts if I see something that reminds me of their sibling relationship. He's the kouros to Persephone's kore, a serpent-slaying idealized type of young man. He represents plague and curing of disease. Posts about birds also go to him because crows are among his sacred animals. The sun, insight, truth, justice, and certain types of divination are also his. Ironically for a god with such protagonist vibes, I tend to think of him in relation to other deities- his sister, Kore, and especially his half-brother Hermes because they're in each other's stories and their domains are so close

Ares posts are about struggle, specifically class warfare and decolonial struggles and other mass movements. Mostly news posts in here.

Ariadne posts are about visual and tactile intoxication. For a time I was trying to see her as an equal counterpart to Dionysos, a sort of Shakti to his Shiva, but it just wasn't there. I wish I'd been able to build up a relationship with her as strong as the one I have with her husband. I have a deep affection for textiles, folk costume and embroidery and I associate her story of the ball of thread and the Labyrinth with that. So, she gets posts about clothing and design, especially ancient Minoan costume.

Artemis posts are about animals and the wild viewed from close up. Never domesticated animals, always wild ones. Also the wildness of youthful energy and mischief. Children as untamed creatures. Also lesbianism? Sometimes, maybe?

Cybele posts are for motherhood, mountains, trans ancestors (such as the galli), nature in the big general sense, and certain predatory animals, especially lions. In her native Phrygia she was often pictured with lions and eagles. She has had a number of names over the millennia, but I use Cybele just to be as understood as possible. The scholarship I've read suggests that her personal name among the Phrygians was something like Angdistis or Acdestis. Personally, I just call her Great Mother.

Dionysos posts cover a pretty broad range of things but they include certain queer vibes, madness, self-indulgence, liberated sexuality, and of course intoxication and altered states of consciousness.

Hekate posts are about secret things, night and nocturnal animals, death, protecting the vulnerable. She is the guide for those who pass in liminal spaces, unguarded paths, the places where it's unsafe to linger. Her posts and Hestia's are the most likely to be prayers to protect certain people- refugees, children, those who need reproductive medicine, the unhoused and marginal.

Hephaistos posts are largely about disability and having been through some shit. The exceptions are about crafting, making stuff. There aren't many of them.

Hermes posts are about communication, exchange, movement, travel, petty crime, freedom, and also esoterica because I acknowledge Hermes Trismegistus as an aspect of the Hellenic Hermes. Why not!

Hermaphroditos posts are about androgyny, trans bodies, and t4t eroticism. This is kind of also an Aphroditos tag, for the male/androgynous Aphrodite who was historically worshiped in some places. So consider these posts to be shared between the child of Aphrodite and Hermes and also an aspect of Aphrodite herself.

Hestia posts are about home. Housing justice, warm food, objects of comfort and security and the support of community.

Kore (Persephone) posts are about plants, usually flowering plants but also femininity/maidenhood. I don't really deal with her queen of the underworld aspect, but that may change.

Lucifer-Prometheus posts are about rebellion, questioning orthodoxy, tearing down hierarchies, and blinding flashes of insight. Anarchy as a gut feeling. Youth liberation. Elevating the abject and deposing the despotic. I am only somewhat a Satanist, but I am wholeheartedly an anarchist. Prometheus as an accuser/adversary who was gave up his freedom to liberate others is my political exemplar.