#so its hard to convince them when they are being bigoted

[transmaverique]

amab and afab, if they were used as shorthand for the actual full phrases that they signify, with emphasis on the "assigned" part, and an understanding that they are enforcements of normative (ie, dyadic and cisgender and binary) sex, would be like. really useful. but people took the terms and started using them as shorthand FOR normative sex instead of the ENFORCEMENT OF normative sex. so when other trans people (almost always dyadic trans people) ask for your agab they are almost always asking for your Original Genital Situation. your starting point, so to say. and the reason FOR asking is also almost always bc they are trying to also enforce a certain kind of normativity within queer spaces (which is stupid bc being queer is inherently non-normative but here we are). like, you cant be a lesbian if you're ftm, bc you ARE m, so if you ARE a lesbian, then that means you're lying about some aspect of your identity. does that make sense?

it is always always always incredibly.... i do not trust dyadic trans people that use cagab terms, even moreso than i do not trust dyadic trans people that just use agab terms. agab is also coopted intersex language, but the "coercive" part of cagab SPECIFICALLY refers to medical "intervention" of intersex characteristics, such as "corrective" surgeries and hrt. i am deeply fucking suspicious of any dyadic trans person that uses those terms exactly the same as described above, even moreso if they do so bc "all gender is coercive".

like. yeah. that's true. but you use these terms to erase and overtake intersex discussions on the medical abuse of intersex infants. and i cant help but wonder why you would feel the need to do that.

[arabian-batboy]

Its disturbing how Zionists are trying to so damn hard to convince the world that Palestinians are currently on a huge raping campaign on innocent women and girls everywhere, even though there are literally ZERO evidences so far of ONE case of a Palestinian raping or stripping any civilians (and I mean real evidence, not bigots saying its true on twitter), they simply willed it into existence by merely saying it over and over again and thinking that's enough to make it into a real concerning fact

But do you know what has been proven as a legitimate fact for decades on the other hand? Thousands of Palestinians men, women and children being systematically violated and raped on a regular basis by Israeli settlers with no consequences or sympathy from the international community.

Like we literally have videos of Israeli soldiers on camera laughing about how many Palestinian women they have raped and multiple photos and videos of Palestinians being stripped naked and beaten by soldiers. Right now there's even a video of Israeli soldiers pissing on a dead naked Palestinian man on twitter which isn't being shared around or talked about half as much as much that one video of one Israeli woman allegedly being "stripped" to a bra and shorts, even though it has already been debunked by now that she was already wearing just a bra and shorts when she was captured and that neither she nor any other Israeli hostages have suffered any kind of sexual abuse by Palestinians (as you can see by how good they're being treated in this video)

It's really remind me how White supremacists in Europe have started this propaganda that Muslim refugees shouldn't be allowed Asylum because they're here to rape European women and that rape rates in Europe will sky-rocket by their mere existence, even though again, there are zero evidence of refugees committing sexual crimes (or any crimes) on a higher rates than local citizens. In fact, in some European countries and the US, it has proven that Muslim-majority neighborhood actually have the lower crimes rate compared to their counterparts.

One thing is clear here, it seems that it doesn't matter where they live, all White supremacists (especially Zionists) have the same exact trick when shit hits the fan and its: claim that "savage brown men are coming to rape your delicate white women! So you need to kill them before that happens!" each time the people they're oppressing are standing up for their human rights.

-

Palestinians made a document that contains templates for letters to US, UK, & Canadian politicians, media outlets, and companies in relation to current events in Palestine as well as petitions & other resources. If you live in any of these countries then please select a template, edit it to your preference and send according to the instructions on the relevant page.

Here is a link to it (please share it): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-RUOHHiEtr7uoclQgWN-tCWOihnHIp5hym89aNePi_E/mobilebasic

Aside from that, please protest, support the BDS boycott and spread awareness as much as possible.

[curioscurio]

Why we have to start being nicer to eachother:

I know it sucks and is hard, but I think we really do need to start treating techbros and incels and our fellow humans with a bit more compassion, empathy, and understanding before we jump to bad faith interpretation. Especially when seeing a bad take online used as bait for arguments. We have to give other people the opportunity and knowledge to think for themselves, and make the choice to become a better person on their own.

"Hold on! Why should I be nice to people like that? THEY'RE the ones who are being bigoted to US!"

Well, I'll try and answer that question below! I ended up writing a lot, so check out the "read more" if you're curious. At the end of the day, I'm not an expert or a professional on human behavior, so keep that in mind. This is just something I've been thinking about based on my own past experiences.

Conspiracy theorists, the far right, gun enthusiasts, and even MAGA's all operate on the belief that modern society hates them for who they are. They think the entire world is against them.

And, looking at the kind of hate rhetoric and harmful ideologies they talk about; the cruel acts of casual and extremist violence that stem from that community, it easy to see why the world has turned its back on them. Right?

It makes you wonder: "Why are they like this?"

The easy way out is to simply hold on to the belief that they are behaving this way because they are bad people. Bad people do bad things, after all.

But when the world turns its back on a group of people, those people turn their backs on the world. They will naturally gravitate towards whichever group of accepting humans they come across first. Whoever validates their feelings and makes them feel accepted and safe instead of rejected and fearful.

The far right preys on young men who don't know know any better because they are never treated any better. They have influencers, exactly like Donald Trump, that make you feel safe. They also are lying to these people and using their fear of rejection to control them.

It's very similar to how the Church will help you out and feed you if you're homelss... as long as you join the church and donate 10% of your earnings to "God." (The churchs bank account. )

That is to say, people don't usually pop out of the womb with these prejudices and fears programed into their heads. It's something that has to be taught to them by somebody else. Their parents, the church, their school, their friends, youtubers, etc.

"So, what do we do? How do we save future and current generations from being sucked into this hateful spiral of far right bigotry?"

"How do we help our conservative parents, who we know love us but are absolutely convinced that they need guns to keep their families safe? How do we help our Trump Train family members who used to be loving, compassionate, people?"

Well, you're not gonna like the answer. We have to start being nicer to everyone. We have to be nicer to incels, dude bros, techbros, Karen's, and yes, even your average Republican voters. We have to show them compassion and empathy when they're expressing their fears, without immediately attacking them for it. We have got to prove to them that there's a place for them to come back to.

Their fears are being taken advantage of by a system that benefits from pitting the general population against each other. If we're too busy fighting eachother, we can never join forces and fight the system.

And so it turns into a self-sustaining system of fear and reactive lashing out. They start believing that everybody is against them, except the few people who understand. Until the only safe place left for them is the Q Anon message boards. Quite literally an orobourous of hate.

"But Curio! They literally want us dead! These people are violent and irredeemable!"

Many of them are. So many of these people are groomed into believing that the only way they can keep themselves safe is by killing anything they think has caused them harm. It's an intentional system maintained by those in power to control those who are not.

Some of them, however, are just normal people who got in with the wrong crowd or are too young to know better. Some people were never given the chance to be better.

"So, what SHOULD we do? Be nice to our oppressors? Let them get away with hate crimes and bigotry?"

No. But we DO need to stop thinking of "them" as this massive malevolent demographic who have no souls and are inherently evil. The majority of these people were lied to and manipulated and groomed into these beliefs.

We have to try harder to stop ourselves before we start calling them names and attack them, regardless of if they deserve it or not. We have to engage with them on good faith. Learn about WHY they believe conspiracy theories and why it stems from fear.

"Why? What will this help?"

Because you're quite literally showing them that there's another option available for them to take. You're showing them that, if they do change their minds and want to change their behavior, that you are a safe person to approach with these thoughts. You have the power to create a space for them where they're allowed to think for themselves without punishing them for it.

Once you create that connection, it's like you're showing them another road in life they can explore. They now can see a new future for themselves. A future where their kids start talking to them again. A future where they're not terrified of being humiliated for being soft. A future where they feel listened to.

And that's all. You just have to give them that chance. It's not your job to change their mind, or to tell them that they're wrong for thinking thoughts. In fact, trying to do just that will usually encourage them to double down.

But what you CAN do is build an environment where they have the OPPORTUNITY to change their mind. You can be kind, empathetic, and educational. Be patient and listen and have a respectful conversation with them.

It is especially important for people with privilege to step up and be those kinds of diplomats. People who are able and willing to look past the surface bigotry to address the scared humans underneath. People who can do this without endangering themselves or their community. This may be other cis straight white people who can get away with bringing these topics up gently, without triggering reflexive defensiveness. Who then have the patience to gently educate them and steer them towards a better path.

"But Curio, I can't do this. I've been hurt too many times by these people, and doing this would cause me significant mental distress."

Then don't. You're not obligated to be the better person for every situation and circumstance. Nuance must be taken into account. You don't have to be nice to every troll or ragebait Twitter post. I certainly don't want you to put yourself in a situation that causes you emotional, physical, or mental harm. Hell, you don't even have to give them the time of day. It's your own responsibility to make the judgment call regarding your health.

But people simply won't change if there's no room for them to change. And some people have the power to make that room for them little by little.

"I've tried everything. I've begged, cried, been nice, and shown them that we won't reject them. They won't change their minds no matter what."

And that's also ok! It can happen. When you give people the opportunity to make choices for themselves, there will always be people who still choose to believe the system they were groomed on. They can do that because thats free will, baby. There will still be people who will not change their minds and who will actively choose to become more radicalized.

And it's sad to see. But you also have to respect that sometimes people aren't ready to change at the same time that you're ready to help them change.

But you should try to do it for all the young men and children who are being taught by their parents that White Genocide is real. You should do it for the parents who love their kid so much, but are so terrified when they say they're transgender because they don't know what to do. Because they know the world will not treat them fairly or are afraid of ruining everything.

You should do it for your 10 year old nephew who watches Andrew Tate because their mother doesn't give a damn enough to check what kind of YouTube videos their kid is watching. You should do it for the depressed and hurting teenager who thinks they have no option left but to buy a gun and shoot up their school, because no ones listening to them. You should do it for the tradwife who's alone and hurting after her conservative husband cheated on her and left her with nothing; because she thought she would be the exception.

"...How do you know this will work? What if you're wrong, and nothing changes?"

I don't! I'm just a random person on the internet. I dont know who might read this. It's just my opinion.

But at least, at the end of the day, you tried your best to be a good person to another human being, and I don't think that's such very a bad thing. For me, I'm going to try because I don't want to lose my father to that kind of environment. I want to be able to have a normal conversation with him again.

There's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for.

[britcision]

I’m pretty sure the people bitching about not giving money to tumblr are the same ones who complain when AO3 or wikipedia ask for donations, so I’m just gonna clarify something

Running a website is not free

Even if they made no changes and did only maintenance, they still need to pay for server costs, expert programmers for when something goes wrong, storage (although frankly storage is cheap as chips these days which is nice)

They need to keep up with the capabilities of new tech like improvements to web browsers, never mind their own apps keeping pace with old and new tech developments

Backwards compatibility (being able to run the updated app on old tech) is a massive problem for apps on a regular basis, because there are people out here using an iPod and refusing to update software

There’s a reason every few years apps like Animal Crossing will issue an update that breaks backwards compatibility and you can only play if your phone is running more recent software

This shit costs money even before you look into the costs of human moderation, which I’m not exactly convinced is a big part of their current budget but fucking should be if we want an actual fix for their issues with unscreened ads and reporting bigots

Ignoring that it’s apparently illegal for companies not to actively chase profits, running Tumblr is expensive

And advertisers know we fucking hate them here

They’re still running ads, which we know because they’re all over the damn place, but half the ads are for Tumblr and its store

Other ad companies know we are not a good market, so they’re not willing to put the money in

Tumblr runs at a $30 million deficit, every year, because hosting a site is expensive

They are trying to take money making ideas from other social medias because they’re not a charity; they need to make enough money to keep the site going

If you want tumblr to keep existing, never mind fixing its many issues that require human people to be paid to do jobs like moderation, they will need money

Crabs cost $3

One crab day a year can fix the deficit and hammer home for Tumblr that:

A) we do want to be here and want the site to keep going

And B) they do not need to do the normal social media money making strategies we all hate

They need a way to make money if you want the hellsite to exist, because we live in a capitalist hellscape and cannot all be AO3

If they think they can make enough to keep running without pulling all the tricks we hate, they have no reason to pull said tricks

But they need money

And a way to make money

And if we can show them we can do that, there is a significantly higher chance they will listen to us, the user base they need money from, than if we don’t

Tumblr isn’t perfect, or anywhere close. They need someone to actually screen the paid ads they put through, they need to take the transphobia, antisemitism, and bigotry seriously

These Are Jobs That Will Cost Money

People Need To Be Fucking Paid For Their Work

Tumblr Is Not Run By Volunteers For Free And Nor Should It Be

Paying People Is Good Actually

So if you wanna get all high and mighty over $3/year, by all means, go spend that hard earned cash elsewhere

Good luck finding a perfect and morally pure business to give it to though

Being a whiny negative asshole isn’t more appealing just because you’ve put yourself on a moral soapbox, it just means the asshole is a little higher up

For all the whining about “all the new updates are terrible this site is unusable”…. It’s one fuck of a lot more usable than it was in 2017, 2018, 2020

And yeah, it’s going back down and most of the newer ones have been fucking annoying and I would also like them to stop

But it got up somehow and that means it could do that again

Hope is more fun than edgy nihilism

August 1st is a good and exciting day to summon a crab army

[fernlessbastard]

ok hot take. we all hate capitalists. I know. I do too. I really, REALLY hate capitalists.

that being said C!Quackity is the definition of a capitalist. like in a fully "I made the money, I deserve it because I took the risks." "its not my fault that some people dont work as hard as I do." "las nevadas is a company, the only government is the corporation which Quackity owns." way.

he is sat RIGHT at the bottom right corner on the political compass, and he is not budging. obviously, thats not to say hes a homophobe or a racist or generally a bigot, but hes very much a land hoarding, greedy, individualistic, profiteer type guy.

him and wilbur have gotten into several arguments about this, as with pretty much all of the ways Quackity runs his goverment, and shots have been FIRED.

I think the main argument from wilbur would be: "was it your fault that you were homeless after you ran from schlatt? do you really belive that youre the only person who has ever needed to run from financial abuse?" and "if it hadn't been for my policies about taking in all we can feed, then you would have starved to death in the woods. according to your philosophy I should have told you to piss off because you wernt profitable."

and then quackity responding with: "you change your ideology like youre a kid playing dressup, dont act like youre better than me because you woke up and decided that being a marxist suited your situation best, you just want something to argue about." and "you only took me in BECAUSE I was profitable. maybe not through labour but you would have used me as a bargaining chip any day of the week."

anyways, they've both been heads of state and both of them are well versed in political science and economics, which leads to both some very fun conversations and some less fun arguments. (wilbur might enjoy it a little)

ok so yes I agree with that take in the context of the smp, but it's also important to point out that minecraft "capitalism" is what those capitalists who want to convince you it's good claim capitalism to be. Food is abundant, shelter has little requirements to be functional, you can literally just dig a little into a hill and you're set, and then make a farm from things you can find anywhere. Anyone can mine, anyone has access to anywhere that isn't already someone's exact base, food is easily accessible and renewable, etc etc.

What Quackity's doing is he's actually providing a luxury service which isn't at all necessary. And Las Nevadas deserves to earn a profit from people using its facilities, cause they've been carefully and deliberately made to provide entertainment. Quackity doesn't have monopoly on food, shelter, land, resources, etc. Anyone could make their own small version of LN if they had the want and time to. So it isn't fair putting cQuackity in the same box as idfk bezos or musk, cause in cQ's case it's deserved, earned, and not a monopoly that causes everyone but him to suffer. Translating that into real life is just simply much more difficult than taking it at face value

As a sidenote I think that while Quackity is like that on the outside, he still wouldn't ignore someone needing help. Like, he's definitely got that built up resentment of "I had to work for all of this so hard, I've gotten through so many hardships. Why should someone else have it easier??" but then when the push comes to shove he's still end up helping, even if just a little bit.

[popculturebuffet]

MGADD: The Gatekeeper Review: The Masterpiece Shelved by Disney's Cowardice and Transphobia (Comissioned by WeirdKev27

Hello world I have arrived... because Disney has done something so monumentally stupid and offensive, even for them. I genuinely wish I was talking about this episode under circumstances that weren't "Disney showed what it really thinks of queer people... again", but if it weren't for a brave animator mentioning it off hand and the episode leaking soon after, I wouldn't of been able to.

The short vision since i'm sure most of you reading this know what's going on but to recap: thursday night an animator on Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Derrick Malik Johnson (Thank you The Mary Sue for recording the names), mentioned that an episode of the show was shelved due to "Which party won", while a poster on reddit, superootoro backed up the story. Both posts have since been deleted because the mouse clearly got upset this story got out.

Their also likely not pleased the episode ITSELF got out soon after thanks to disney fan Owlphibia. How they got it I don't know, and someone on the crew definitely supplied it.. and I applaud our anonymous hero. If a company isn't going to make something fully available for audiences to see, there is no shame in leaking it anyway. I felt that way when I thought Scooby Doo and Krypto Too was never getting released and reviewed it last year. and still want someone to escape Warner HQ with copies of Batgirl, Scoob: Holiday Haunt and Coyote Vs Acme.

We'll get into the episode shortly but needless to say it's focus on an openly trans character who outright states she's trans with a bigoted asshole who tries to move goalposts as the villian made it clear WHY Disney shelved the episode indefinitely, with Johnson claming they said it was due to who won the election. That said the presence of the beyonder, who disappears early into season 2 and the redditor saying the episode was meant for early season 2 makes it clear this is just an excuse: They shelved it, waited to see which way the country turned, then formally dumped it the second it was clear they MIGHT get heat from the new president over this rather than stand up for what's right.

Their response... does not help. Disney CLAIMS the episode was shelved not banned and their PROUD OF THE DISCUSSIONS IT BRINGS AND OF THIS SHOW WE JUST CANCELLED. NO FOR REAL. I doubt this will actually make it go away and making the tweets making accusations go away, thank alvis for screenshotting, just makes it more clear that no, they just wanted to shelve an episode that frankly and honestly talked about a trans child's struggles with no metaphors about brooklyn being trans: her transness is why the villain hates her and why the episode happens. It happens because a woman is a bigot, and Disney coudln't handle that. They can handle when the bigots an immortal definitely religious man but we don't say that or a super soldier from another dimension, where the subtext is blatant and what it's calling out is blatant, but Disney still has deniability. But when someone wants to tackle queerness openly and honestly.. they run.

It's a pattern for them. They cancelled owl house because its main romance is between two girls. They are oddly and throughly convinced that Lightyear failed not because it's a tonal mess that tries to squeeze buzz light year's cheesy good world building into a darker hard sci fi story that it doesn't fit in, but because two women kissed, and were so paranoid about that that they tried to make Inside Out 2 straight as possible by making the girl Riley has a blatant crush on older than her.. which.. it just makes it a crush guys. Thank god their so bad at this

And of course the piece de resitance before this: Firing openly queer black man and show runner for X-Men 97 Beau Demayo for both wanting his show to actually tackle prejudice instead of just rubber stamping it and being openly sexy on his socials when.. tha'ts his right, thent rying to frame him as an abuser, allegations that ONLY sprung up long after the show had already aired and only when they tried to bar him from showing up at an awards ceremony for an episode he fucking wrote.

Disney is not a good company on most days. They fuck up at least once a year from their implicit support of the don't say gay bill, to the owl house debacle to writing off a ton of shows for tax purposes. I love the CONTENT they fund, I love the card game ravensburger made with their properties, I love the creative stories many an animator has made. But I don't love them. Not anymore and probably not in the foreseable future. I love the stuff peopl ehave created under them but it's become clear Disney has become desperate, greedy and souless. While all companies struggle to be represnetive it's disney who shows their ass the most. Wether it's saying "first gay character evah come see" for characters who were there for a minute so it could be cut from china, banning pride flags, or not letting an alien we can all tell is gay just.. say she is when everything around Penny implied it. Let her fuck a duck disney christ.

I'm so.. tired of this. I've been at this for almost 6 years. I've been covering disney this whole time, starting with ducktales reviews and while I haven't been covering shows as they come out for a variety of reasons, I have kept a firm eye on them. And they just, keep fucking up. They dont' care about queer people. They haven't evolved AT ALL since this half assed tweet Alex Hirsch mocked back when twitter was relevant

And this should be spammed to them because my god. This is a fuckup of monumental proprtions. And it hits personally as I fear for my trans nephew in this colder, worse world we're entering. He may be 14 but he would've appricaited this and so would the many trans kids who just need someone to say: your okay you matter. That's what this episode was trying to do.. and it got shuttered.

The only good news is the pressure MIGHT get disney to actually release it. MIght being a strong word. Last i checked you could find the episode on internet archive, but I'd find it where youc an while you can as Disney is likely going to be doing everything to cover their ass

And that dear friends is one of the main reasons for covering this episode: Disney might try to bury it as deep as they can, so I want a full record of it. To show the content and context of it. The other is to judge the episode on it's own merits. I'll say right now: this is an excellent episode and it deserves to be released. But it's important to get into why: why this episode is good, why it deserved better and why this SHOW deserves better. Moon Girl was canceld recently and if anything this story draws more attention to somethign Disney likely thought they could do quietly and to the show from people who haven't watched it or may of given up after season 1. It's important to me as a critic and person to look at this work for what it is and not just what disney has done to it: a well done story that takes a side character and makes her a star, while also being bonkers in the conkers in a way that absolutely works. Join me under the cut won't you as I break down this tremendous episode.

The episode begins with the volleyball team at lunella's school gearing up for a regionals match. I'd honestly forgotten about these guys as their main spotlight episode for season 1, Goodnight Moon Girl was one I kinda half payed attention to as I wasn't a huge fan of the gimmick.

Looking back on the ep though it's easy to see why they gave the team's captain, Brooklyn, her own episode: she's funny, has an entirely relatable rivalrly with her sibling, and was open and welcoming to lunella. IT's easy to see why Lunella is now the team's eager hydration technician and casey is preparing the half time show. It also shows off the series tight continuity: They tend to bring back characters you wouldn't THINK come back, or if needing a side character using one of the casts established friends, with the volleyball team also playing a supporting role in the dance episode that chronologically comes after this. Brooklyn and co are pumped and ready for the other team whose team name I forgot but is mostly a threat thanks to their leader and her mom/coach greer.

Greer is played by Amy Sedaris and look the show had me at Amy Sedaris plays the main villian. I forgot just how good she is at being evil and her comedic energy nicely offsets just how.. nasty this person is.

While i'm not hiding that Greer turns out to be awful a touch I like is that the episode does for a second: Greer seems like a hypercompetivie hellicopter mom, but offers orange slices and is nice and cordial to everyone. It seems like it was just a bait and switch and given how the show goes, had this episode not been banned, you'd be expecting it to simply segue into some problem for Lunella that leads to her doing a science.

Instead the problem is entirely Greer and it starts simply because Brooklyn and her best friend Tai, who was previously established as non binary, something the episode makes sure to point out again later. They just joke and laugh reminscing about playing soccer together back before Brooklyn transitioned, with Brooklyn being happy she's not on the "boys team".

Unfortunately for her, Greer hears this. And just like that a switch flips: the animation is exagerated and it's clear this bitch is immediately nettled. It telegraphs a problem trans people in general face: that just saying your trans immediately makes some people target you. That just an offhand mention can lead to someone trying to make you miserable simply for being YOU. It's one of MANY reasons the targeting of trans kids disgusts me and i'ts something the show portrays chillingly well this sudden.. entitlement to decide who a person is based on their body. That because you can't get past it, this kid has to suffer. I"ve seen it, I hate it, and the show does it well and Sedaris does it very well, using her usual comedic energy to make a character whose utterly loathsome, yet in such a skincrawlingly real way. Greer is far from a subtle character.. but transphobes tend not to be. While her tactics are for the most part not over the top, her bigotry is portrayed as loud and hateful as we've seen from the right. (Not to give the democrats a pass given the sheer number who want to throw trans people under the buss for the party's systemic issues that caused the election loss, but the right are far more vitrolic and operatic about their transphobia, like Elon Musk deadnaming their daughter and making up a story about them being intrested in women's clothing.. only to get utterly wrecked by his daughter pointing out he was never around for her as a child. Given how fragile elon's ego is and how terminally online he is, zinging him on his own platform does way more damage than anything else could possibly do.

So Greer goes to tell coach Hrbek, Luna's reluctant science teacher and loveable jock, that Brooklyn was biologically a male. Not her terms but fuck her for that. I like how greer just tries to imply it.. she won't come out and SAY Brooklyn's trans: just because transphobes aren't subtle dosen't mean they don't try to do this doubletalk bullshit. Hrbek nosells it just blinking condescndingly and when she dosen't get it telling her bluntly yeah he knows and tells her in no uncertain terms Brooklyn is a girl and she's playing.

He then slips on an orange because life is not kind to this man: like he dosen't get injured a lot but he is stuck teaching a concept that while giving it his best, he's not good at and dosen't like teaching. And now after doing something genuinely heroic, standing up for a kids right to be who they are and telling off a bigot, and only likely not saying fuck off because a crowd's present, he gets hurt. Poor guy. True hero

With the only adult out of the room Greer tries every bullshit tactic in the book to get Brooklyn disqulaified and I love her reactions: no coach, player coach. Her pride flag pads are ones she got from the store. Her bottle.. has water. Greer tries every bullshit thing but you get the sense this isn't the first, and sadly probably isn't the last time, some asshole has tried to disqualify brooklyn based on her gender.

In the locker room getting ready the rest of the Squirrels have picked up on what's going on. Lunella is upset and want sto do something but can't, but it's telling both Brooklyn and Tai try and brush it off. Tai outright tells them not to mentoin their non binary or Greer might explode and Brooklyn shakes it off just.. used to it. And it's fucking sad that a child whose 14 at most, the same age as my nephew, just has to be.. used to it. That people will hate you and try to unperson you just for being what you are. It's part of why this episode being delissted is so frustrating: the message is told well and it's one trans kids need to hear. It's why representation matters: that little voice that says "you are not alone". As a bisexual seeing bi characters makes me happy as their not common even now. While we don't share a gender, Luz being bi on loud house and the show making sure that was clear felt nice. It felt good being seen. That kids after me won't have to struggle with these feelings and just see someone and go "That's me.. that's what I am" and it's so fucking terrible Disney coudlnt' see past their already overflowing wallets to understand that, that the only chance the episode has of release is because they fucked up.

Since greer can't rules lawyer or bully a child out of competttion she goes with plan b: a magical key. Yeah another good reason to cover this one and something that understandably won't get as much coverage? This episode is fucking bonkers. While greer is a well written villian.. she's also a TERF who bought a magical key at a yard sale. No really the beyonder recaps how she got the key. It's not the first villian whose done that on the show, and I do want to someday meet the villian who hosted that yard sale, so it still works in the shows mythology. It also hope the show has had some rediculous villians: Living hair , a symboite tha'ts an online troll, lady stitlman at home. The show is serious when it needs to be this episode included, even the living hair episode had a serious aseop on the racisim black women get about their hair and the internalized racisim that creates. But the show isn't afraid to get weird so while a karen with a magical key she what bought at a yard sale is defintely the weridest foe lunella's faced, it's still within the realm of posisblity for this show. And definitely the marvel universe as a whole. I mean spider-man's rogues include a nazi made of bees and a stegasaurs man, both of whom I hope lunella fights if we get a season 3.

So Greer locks them in the locker room which turns into an escape room/death trap where they have to find keys. Thankfully Brooklyn's awful little brother loves them, so they have an edge and she shoots down lunella just.. mcguivering their way out. It's also intresting to have a super villian fight.. where lunella ISN'T in costume. She's just her normal self, and still just as competent and the only reason she dosen't break things right away is that everyone involved , particularly their leader, assumes they have to play this game fair. And given how in most death games breaking the rules usually kills you it's an easy assumption.

Our heroes do solve the puzzles well, and we get a great joke with Kai whose excited by the lava... and one of their teamates shouts "no it can kill us stop that".

That's a suprising thing I found with the episode: it is REALLY funny. I forget how funny the show can be, and this ep might be it's funniest as Casey, Luna's bestie and sidekick, is forced to stall like a motherfucker as she gets the sense something is wrong.. I mean opening the locker room to find no one there is a good clue. And yes Casey dosen't figure out this is supervillian stuff till near the end but it's done resonably: she can probably get the hint Greer's done SOMETHING but assumes she just locked them in another room or tricked them or something. You know standard school setting vilian shenanigans. Not "This terf tiger mom happens to have a magic key she found at a yard sale. Casey HAS seem some shit at this point, I mean one of the episodes in this very season not long before this was suppposed to come out is her and lunella having to travel inside the dinosaur whose also one of their best friends. But usually the villians on this show wear a costume. Even the gentrifying assholes from season 1, while wearing suits still had super tech and a very obvious black and white motif Lunella should've seen as a red flag. Greer for all intensive puproses is just a bog standard transphobic karen. You just.. can't plan for "turns out she has a key from a super villian yard sale." It's like "a giant obese monster from another dimension who literally needs raitings to lives kidnaps you to star in his shows or else". It's certainly plausible given how weird the marvel universe, but no ones ever really prepared for Mojo that hasn't met the floating fat man. Who for those who aren't freebasing x-men regularly is entirley real. I made none of that up

He also made chibi clones of the x-men called the x-babies. Look it up.

Point is no matter how fucking weird a characters life is, they can still be surprised. So Casey instead decides to stall. Stall as if her life depended on it which.. it dosen't but a lot of other kids do. So she makes up a tradition where they have to do THE WAVE before a game. And I love both her hammy calls to do the wave and the mascots gradual exhaustion. Best gag of the episode.

Let him Rest. Eventuallyt he poor guy collapses, but luckily Devil comes in as Casey called him over and tells him to vamp. Vamp like he's never vamped before. Vamp as if, in her words "Your mariah carey opening for beyonce". And he does... and while he sounds about how you'd expect him singing to, like he's gargling the marbles he ate this morning, everyone loves it. Because it's a singing dinosaur.

This comedy is just... fantastic. The shows humor dosen't always land, but this is it at it's best: silly, over the top, yet grounded in the characters; Casey using her natural ambtion and improv skills and Devil using the voice Satan gave him to sing to a souled out crowd. It's good stuff and nicely helps with the tension of the a plot, with the two cutting back and forth, i'm just not doing that because I don't gotta.

Speaking of which we get a nice musical montage of our heroes bravely solving the puzzles. And they do, passing all sorts of shit to do, opening the final door.. only to find the game's reset.

And here it is: the episodes signature scene. Out of all the cut stuff from the episode, this is the bit i've seen the most on social media, the bit I saw before I even saw the full episode. The speech that helps make what Disney did SO much worse and helps tie this all together.

Brooklyn realizes the hard truth: because Greer dosen't consider her a girl, she has to quit the team as in Greer's warped eyes, her playing at all is against the rules. It's a metaphor that's blantat as it is heartbreakingly accurate: Society always keeps moving the goal posts for queer people. No matter what you do, no matter how hard you try to fit in or just be accepted, there were always be people who will just not care and will keep trying to shove you back int he closet because what you are is inconveint to them. if it dosen't exist to THEM it dosen't and they will keep making your life harder to try to break you down, to try and get you to quit.

I'm Bisexual. Mentioned it before in this article, and have never been shy about it. But it's also a side I struggle to explore sometimes. Growing up in a society that didn't even seem to have a word for what I was and already horribly awkward with women, I FEARED my bisexuality, convinced myself I wasn't. In hindsight.. I didn't want another thing on top of my autisim and anxiety for people to judge me for. Even now I don't try to date.. I mean part of it is i'm broke and have issues, but I realized as I wrote this article.. part of it is fear. Fear of rejection, fear of someone trying to change who I am, fear of getting beat up for being who I am.

And the fears I have I need to deal with, the reality I deal with.. is multipled twentyfold for any trans person. I have trans relatives. I won't get deep into details on the ground i'ts not my story to tell, but what they've faced is heartbreaking. What my nephew has had to put up with just for existing is fucking devistating. It's a bleak world that just wont' let them be who they are without a fight because the idiots who can't accept it have the power and some of those who have the power to stop it.. turn a blind eye. Again a good chunk of democrats were all too quick to try and throw trans people under the bus when Kamala didn't say hardly ANYTHING about trans rights. The knives come out easily and quickly and someone's personhood simply dosen't matter the second it makes your life harder. It's why these guys hate prounouns and trans people: They see just wanting to be who you are as entitlement, as a lot to ask.. when .. it's not. It's not hard at all to ask. It's not hard to treat someone with dignity.

In my case.. it was thanks to, ironically enough tv. It was the summer after high school, I was bored and had a lot of spare time so I watched a lot of the canadian teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation. And while degrassi is far from the most subtle show or free of mistakes, when it came to queer rep it had a solid track record, slowly evolving with the times. As such this is the first show I saw with actual trans representation: a character whose out as a trans man, adam torres, and has to deal with the metric ton of bullshit kids STILL face, while also having plenty of story outside it, from his friendship with best bud eli to his marveling at his brother Drew's poor life choices. Adam wasn't a token, wasn't just a prop for trans stories (Though this being an early 2010's teen drama he both had a TON of stories about being trans and perscuted against and was played by a cis actress. Again not exactly free of mistakes), he was a fleshed out human who just wanted to be who they were. It helped me see Trans people exist, and accept it easily.

And that's why this episode being pulled.. fucking bothers me. Because realizing she can't win, Brooklyn breaks down, blaming herself for what's simply truly isn't her fault. It's Tai who naturally steps forward, pointing out she CAN open up to them and that when Tai came out as nonbinary.. Brooklyn supported them. It's not selfish or being a burdern to let others help you.. and it's easy to support others. to lift them up and accept who they are and defned them against dickheads who say otherwise. The most heartbreaking part is the simplist as brooklyn laments

"How many doors do I have to break down before they stop locking them"? And given disney put one up themselvfes.. it's galling. Btu the message.. persisits: support is easy, and support matters and you are not alone. It's okay to let others carry you sometimes, and it's not a burdern or drama to vent about shit this frustrating.

The other message is an important one as the republicans no doubt prepare to lock more doors... sometimes... playing by the rules dosen't work. Bigots simply will make more to try and keep you from playing. Sometimes you just gotta say fuck it and say fuck them. Fight. Don't play civlity politics, don't play nice, tell them to fuck off.

So our heroes do smashing reality and reealizing things are fragile in this reality: it's held together only so much.. and thus they start breaking it.

Back outside Greer's key starts to glitch and Casey finally gets it.. as does Greer's daughter whose HORRIFIED at what her mom did. That she wanted a fair match. And so did greer.. but only by her rules. GIRL POWER.. no really she says that. I love they just make her a TERF outright and the way amy sedaris says it just shows how hollow that statment is when you won't accept ALL WOMEN.

Her daughter also isn't having this shit and steals the refs whistle, not letting this start till EVERYONE is here. Luckily it's time for the shows ocne an episode beautfully animated musical sequence. This time using all sorts of pride colors and some really nice looking sprites. I lespecailly love them taking the menus of an rpg battle system and breaking out of the frame with it. Really fun stuff and of course we get the shot almost everyone has used and I'm no exception. Brooklyn in front of a pride flag, using a trans flag volleyball to smash her way out.

So our heroes are free, and with the key obviously glitching the Ref, whose mostly just been.. done this whole episode, gets the picture and Brooklyn, not being stupid, uses those soccer skills she mentioned to smash the key while Greer's escorted the fuck out. I mean granted the ref should also.. call the police or shield or somebody as several woman were kidnapped, but given it was in front of a large crowd AND this is the cellphone age i'm sure someone did. But it's just as statsifying Greer is left making hollow threats to get the ref decertified as the door slams in her face. Now she's locked out and that door should neve ropen again.

So Brooklyn and head.. rival team girl... whatever her name was, shake hands. Also kev sugggested they end up going out and I like that. Mostly because i'm pretty sure greer would fucking melt and then all the children everywhere would sing.

So we end on Brooklyn spiking. We don't know who won or lost.. and it jus tdosen't matter. What matters is Brooklyn got to play the game.

The Gatekeeper is excellent. Strong contender for my best of the year list which fast approaches as my backlog

Piles up as usual.. i'll manage most of this. But this episode is fantatic and wether you've seen the show before or not, watch it. It's excellent, and I hope to god the pressure from it makes disney actually release it on disney + next batch. I'm still not 100% they will hence doing this.. but as long as we keep the pressure up it could happen. And who knows, we could even get a season 3. Why not shoot for the moon? Thanks for reading and just remember "I'm pulling for you we're all in this together"

[thepatchworksys]

ppl be normal about alters having different opinions from the rest of the sysyem. harmful ones. radqueers, bigots, pedos. whatever! the system cant control that. no it doesnt reflect on the rest of the system. and most of all its not weird or uncommon.

But hey, you might ask: why? why would your mind form a racist alter?

its a good question! the brain tries to help us cope in a lot of weird ways. An alter can form as a stress response, its the brains way of "helping". But it can be bad help because the brain is far from perfect.

Heres an example: Jamie has did, she is having intrusive thoughts about sexual assault. its horrid and she cant deal with this anymore! -> brain splits to cope -> this new alter has thoughts of sexual assault and enjoys those thoughts and fantasies. the new alter doesnt believe sexual assault is wrong, so they can handle the thoughts- unlike jamie, who was disgusted and horrified.

Another example: Silas is gay, but he is having a hard time coping. His parents dont accept him. -> brain splits to cope -> this new alter is very homophobic. they try to convince silas to renounce being gay, so he can become straight and not struggle as much. They also agree with the systems parents when they front, negating conflict.

Another nother example: Lucy is healing from her trauma, she grew up in a cult and has osdd. However, she feels deeply uneasy - her new life is safe but different and unfamiliar. She is deeply homesick and feels guilt for it. -> brain splits to cope -> Lucys new alter is a cultist. They become a xenosatanist and join a "faux online cult" in the radqueer community. It feels comfortable and familiar to be in a 'cult' again.

Those are 3 examples of alters forming with harmful mindsets. Traumagenic alters form as a result of trauma as a way to cope- But that doesnt mean the coping mechanism is healthy.

As well as this, alters are identities. You may view your alters as their own people or as parts of 1 people, but either way alters are identities based around personalities, traits, and opinions. Just like any singlet, they will pick up their own opinions which might be harmful, because they have their own identity!

Example: Julia and Yuki are a system of two. Julia is very pro trans! However, Yuki has started spending some time on reddit and has been exposed to TERF ideals. Yuki is convinced and agrees with them, because like anybody, Yukis opinions can change and be swayed by her environment. Julia is upset and disagrees, but the terf mindset aligns with Yukis morals so she believes it.

Its not Julias fault that Yuki expressed autonomy and free will. Yuki's mind was changed by an outside force and Julia couldnt control that. The only thing Julia can do is try to convince Yuki otherwise but she cant force it.

This isnt to say its ok to have/act on these beliefs- im just saying that it is not a moral failing of the system to have a harmful or bigoted alter, and there are tons of valid reasons why. So please please be nice to your sys friends. Their alters harmful opinion doesnt mean the whole system shares it. The sys is probably doing their best, you just have to support them along the way.

[metalheadsforblacklivesmatter]

Fatphobia liberation month

Part of fatphobia that makes it so malicious is the fact that society teaches us that fatness is a choice.

You can't choose your skin color or the sex that you were born as or even being born disabled.

And liberals will even agree that you can't choose being born gay or trans (though conservatives disagree).

But through marketing and diet culture and food pyramids and a thousand videos a day shoving random information down our throat about what is and isn't "healthy" food. "Carbs aren't healthy, fat isn't healthy, seasonings aren't healthy, preservatives aren't healthy, fruits high in sugar aren't healthy, protein isn't healthy".

Because society thinks fatness is a choice, it validates this idea that fat people are less worthy, and aren't good enough simply because they "choose" to be fat.

You come up to me, say I'm less worthy because I'm born with a vag. I'll tell you fuck off with that shit because it's stupid to tell me I'm unworthy because of how I was born. But because society has a million (unhealthy) ways to lose weight. If you go up to a fat person and say the same thing, some fat people have truly internalized diet culture, and because of that they think that their weight is something they control and that they just aren't "trying hard enough". And it makes it that much easier to convince them that they aren't good enough because of who they are.

Some people can lose the weight, but some people that's just how their bodies are, and is equally as bigoted to tell them that they're less valid for it. In fact, it's more malicious because society works so hard to try to tell them its something they can control when in truth it's really not as easy as you make it sound.

(Even if they are capable of losing the weight, you're still an asshole for telling them that they're less than for being fat. I'm just saying it's cruel how we convince fat people that they can lose the weight and they're less deserving because they haven't tried hard enough when any naturally skinny person knows that it's absolute bullshit.)

-fae

[headmasterseverussnape]

Fun theory time (which I thought up at 1 Am..)

What if Salazar Slytherin wasn’t actually a bad person and it was all a conspiracy by the other founders?

1) It is possible he was a researcher. He could’ve dabbled in the dark arts to understand it and see its potential positive uses, but the other founders believed it to be too dangerous so they didn’t agree with it, keeping some distance from him.

2) He might’ve not known of the Basilisk’s powers? Was the snake even that well known before the got it? Probably not. He likely got it when it was a hatchling. Plus, he’s a parseltounge and was its caregiver. Snake’s learn who their handlers are and don’t attack them because they’re the ones the one that is feeding them. Which means it’s very much possible both of those factors made it to where he wouldn’t have been harmed ever. The chamber of secrets could’ve just been its enclosure and wasn’t meant to be opened without him around as it was a venomous snake and he was its handler. He probably told the other founders about it which is how they knew of its existence. They also probably changed the bathrooms around or put it over the chamber after it was made. Making it hard for Salazar to get to the chamber because it was in the girl’s restroom. So, the basilisk likely starved. Since it was starving when the chamber was finally opened it went after students.

3) What if Salazar was actually a Halfblood. His father being a pureblood, his mother a muggle. His father hooked up with a woman while drunk, she had Salazar but sadly died in the process. Salazar’s father married another woman, a pureblood who he already had an arranged engagement to. They pretend like Salazar was a pureblood to keep their family blood status from being “stained” and didn’t let him speak out. Then when he was older and ‘could’ speak up about it, he felt like he couldn’t or shouldn’t because of all the pureblood supremacy and his reputation as a great wizard would probably decline. As in that time people likely believed only pureblood wizards could be “great”.

4) What if it was all started because of a love triangle? It is possible that Salazar and Godric were both bisexual and got into a relationship at some point. One of the other founders were probably jealous of their relationship because they liked Godric. I’m going to say it was Rowena. After a couple of years of dating Godric he finally felt like he could tell him of his secret. However, since he kept quiet about it for years while they were dating, Godric felt betrayed as it was a HUGE secret that was kept from him. Rowena convinced Godric (with the help of Helga) that Salazar was likely keeping more secrets from him and lying to him about more things. Rowena was the one that decided to manipulate Godric and she made Helga back her up. Salazar and Godric ended up having a messy breakup, Godric later got into a relationship with Rowena. They forced Salazar to leave Hogwarts. Since telling people that Salazar was actually a Halfblood that would make him out to be the victim (which he actually was) especially since there was progression in inclusivity the wizarding world (and Hogwarts). So, they made him out to be a blood supremacist and bigot who created the chamber of secrets for the basilisk to kill students who weren’t “worthy”. Since he already dabbled in the dark arts, there was the incidents with the Basilisk and students it wasn’t very hard for the other founders to make him out to be the villain. Rowena and Godric eventually broke up and got with other people. Salazar also got with someone else hence the Slytherin Heirs. Godric still felt betrayed by Salazar so he held animosity towards the house he created which eventually rubbed off on the students. Creating the house rivalry between the two. Salazar could never set the record straight because he was known to be a dark wizard, handler of the basilisk that killed students and liked cunning, ambitious, etc traits which he used for his houses sorting. So, no one would’ve believed him if he tried to explain. Especially since the other founders were already popular and well liked while he never really was.

[moontheoretist]

Civil War as an Autistic Showdown

I just realized that me relating to Steve when it comes to my past awful behavior and beliefs that he also displays in the movies is a direct result of autistic traits. More specifically, the so-called “strong autistic sense of justice” that isn’t a “sense of justice” per se, but in essence it’s an idea of “what we perceive as justice” or “what we perceive as unfair” which can be on point or can be completely screwed into very bad direction.

I was taking the idea that Steve is autistic under consideration all along, but now, when I noticed several autistic people talking about our sense of justice not meaning we are always right or morally good, gave me the confidence that I wasn’t wrong in my approach to that trait. I used to be a bigoted person. I used to be an abuser who didn’t even know they were abusing people, because abuse was so normal to me due to my family giving me an idea that abuse is care that it was just hard to notice that me trying to police other people out of “care” in order to make them fit better with the society and struggle less was just abuse. I also had an inflated ego and sense of myself. From one side I saw myself as humble and mediocre, but from the other side I saw myself as someone who was very close to being perfect and working for becoming the perfectly good person.

Spoiler: I wasn’t. And I can see the same behavior in Steve. That’s why I’m so critical of him. Because I went through all this bullshit before, and I know that he isn’t right, that he needs to change. The issue is that to snap out of it is not so easy. People just telling you that what you do is bad when you strongly believe that what you do is just, will simply mean that you will dismiss everybody until the time your brain is ready to accept that you were doing wrong all along.

And that can take years without any strong wake-up call like the one Tony got in Iron Man 1. Tony went years doing bad things and either not realizing or not caring that he did bad things, because as far as he knew he was doing something just and fair as it was what his father and Obadiah taught him. That making weapons and selling them is just because it protects the country and its soldiers (Rhodey being a military man himself and his belief that they need Tony’s weapons only reinforced it), and it doesn’t matter what anybody else says.

Tony was lucky to get the wake-up call, even thought what happened to him was horrific, and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. Still, he needed that wake-up call. He needed to shift the paradigm and realize that he was in the wrong. Steve also needs that, but despite many opportunities in the MCU, Steve never actually got a proper wake-up call. Fall of SHIELD was one of those opportunities, but for reasons established before in the First Avenger, instead of waking him up, it only radicalized him more and convinced him more that what he believes was right and that everything else is wrong. The Civil War arc was another moment like this. After what happened in Leipzig (Rhodey’s injury) and in Siberia, he should have realized that what he believes is not entirely right, but MCU never allows him to. Then another opportunity was Infinity War just after Avengers lost to Thanos and realized how truly hopeless they all were, and once again he doesn’t realize that he was in the wrong, because after Endgame he comes back to his past, which to him is a safe space, where he is always right, nobody except Peggy or Bucky challenges him and even when Peggy does, she is always on his side, while Bucky is no longer there to be a pain in his ass (not to mention that MCU abandoned Bucky’s initial role as pushback to Steve’s idiocy from the first scenes of the First Avenger and made him into another yes man). So yeah, I guess we can see Civil War as a War between two autistic men, from which only one realized that their “sense of justice” was screwed.

That this trait isn’t some magical superpower to spot bullshit.

That it can be as good as it can be bad.

[caffeineandsociety]

Every single bias and bigotry is perpetuated by convincing even many of their most fervent holders that they don't hold them. Ironically, it is in part the knowledge that bigotry is bad that helps to perpetuate systemic inequalities.

Why?

Well, the logic is simple. Bigotry is bad. Basically everyone knows that bigotry is bad. The baseline is to agree that bigotry is bad. To say otherwise is shocking. Upsetting. No one wants to be that guy. A lot of them know the paradox of tolerance/the nazi bar problem and thus will agree that the solution to dealing with A Racist or A Misogynist or whatever is to ostracize them because their bullshit does not fit in polite society.

Therefore, when you tell some random person that they just did A Racist/Sexist/Ableist/etc. Thing, they're likely to get defensive - because, no matter how socially condoned that thing is, because the baseline is to agree that these things are bad, it ends up coming off as "this is not a socially condoned behavior, this is not cultural and/or systemic, this is something only TERRIBLE HORRIBLE INDIVIDUALS could EVER do, get out of my bar before you drive away all the non-evil customers!"

The idea that there are levels between "absolute paragon of equality who never commits even the slightest microaggression" and "A Bigot looking to hurt people whose very presence as a person should not be tolerated by anyone" is completely alien to...a LOT of people.

It's a widespread problem, though I suspect this may be especially hard to shake in the US, because "go ahead, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, individual solution your way out of systemic problems, you can do it!" runs horrifyingly deep in our culture.

But worse than that, consider what individual biases may look like - they're usually obfuscated under one or more layers of abstraction. Plenty of people who call themselves good non-racist citizens still tend to move away from Black men on the bus - it's not because he's Black, they say, he just Looks Angry and Intimidating and Shifty. And the thing is - the overwhelming majority of people who would say things like that believe it! They well and truly believe that the "hostility" they sense in EVERY Black man they see has NOTHING to do with the fact that they're Black men!

And a lot of people who think that work in HR.

And if you call them on that bias, they will believe that you're accusing them of being UNIQUELY awful - not picking up common social biases, but the complete opposite, creating a new terrible evil idea in their individual horrible evil person brain.

This is why "racists dni" is such a ridiculous thing to put on a profile - some 95% of even the most aggressive capital-R Racists do not think they're racist; they will swear up and down that the way they treat people has nothing to do with race; the most they might admit to is "its Those People's damn culture, they're so loud and rude, I know they have the capacity to be perfectly fine people so it's not RACISM to say they need to clean up their act!" And those who will admit to it actually being about race? Keep coming up with new words for their belief system because "no, no, Racism Is Bad, I'm just, uh, a RACE REALIST!" (🤮)

It's deeply insidious how it works.

[spacevixenmusic]

Hogwarts Legecy is the perfect storm really. Many buying the game are TERFs through and through but then you have those who are... tired. Tired of dealing with a world that never seemed so political before. Tired of having to make concessions for their allyship. Tired of the world being on fire.

Nostalgia is a huge marketing tool now more than ever because of the escape it provides. What is Hogwarts Legacy but the ultimate escape to one's childhood in lieu of how crap adulthood gets? For some hollow allies, it's the straw that broke the camels back.

Here's what they tend to... overlook: Transgender and overall queer folks? They're tired too. They're tired of making concessions in lieu of any creator's considerable bad behavior towards their identities. Tired of the world being on fire because of their right to exist being an actual debate. They'd certainly like an escape from a world that seems more political in their adulthood.

But we can't easily do that. Especially when that nostalgia's been the one thing weaponized against us even outside of popular entertainment.

This is all true. Bigots spend a lot of time throwing nostalgia at us because it's an easy way for them to get a foothold in your mind. If they can convince you "things were better when you were a kid", they can more easily convince you that your childhood escape fantasy is worth keeping, even when it actively promotes and harms communities associated with its creator. It's easy propaganda, and so SO many people fall for it so easily.

It's fine to revisit things from your childhood, but for fuck's sake, keep your mind in the present. Learn to look for the things that inspired you back then and then LOOK AROUND YOU for those same things in the present. They are there, I promise you.

You can enjoy stories about wizard schools that DON'T sign the checks of a fascist-supporting bigot who openly endorses a racist and HELLA antisemitic game, you just gotta spend 5 minutes looking for alternatives.

Play Ikenfell or Mystik Belle. Watch anime like Tweeny Witches and High Guardian Spice.

IT'S. NOT. HARD.

[mitochondriaandbunnies]

I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about The Outcasts floating around my head, to the point that I'll probably do some kind of write up about it, but I am so pleasantly surprised by having watched it and so impressed by how they chose to end the series

It's not an ending-ending-- even if they knew they were being cancelled (and I suspect they did), big tv finales weren't really a thing in the same way then-- but there is a genuine attempt at an emotional wrap-up that basically says: racism is learned, and anyone can stop being a bigot and learn antiracism, but they have to be willing to put in the work, and the work is often hard and humbling and thankless

After watching the second-to-last episode, I was convinced that the last episode was going to be a disappointment, because the second-to-last episode ends with what feels like a summation-- Corey and Jemal have split up but find each other again, make peace, and then actually announce that they need to talk about their partnership at the end of the episode

I assumed maybe there was an aired-out-of-order kind of thing going on and that the last episode would be a disappointing return to the status quo

But lo and behold, the last episode of the series has Jemal and Corey behaving a little differently-- they're kinder to one another, they apologize when they start fighting (and they only really start fighting once in the episode), Corey goes out of his way to humble himself to prevent Jemal from having to do the same, they examine the ways Jemal's conception of manhood is wrapped up in violence (because it's the only way he's ever had power) without saying he's wrong, and the question that keeps getting asked-- but never answered-- "why do you two ride together?" -- Jemal answers-- privately, without the audience of Corey, and you can see he's telling the truth. The episode ends with Corey saying he doesn't feel that any town or city is "right" for him anymore, and that he's happy to be on the trail with Jemal.

Which is to say: we didn't see them talk about their partnership, but we know that they did. We see that they're choosing the hard path of understanding, that they're following through, that the status quo has to be discarded. We see that Corey understands what privileges he has chosen to give up for his friend (and what their friendship means), and that he reaffirms that denouncing that privilege is the correct choice.

I watched the first episode of this show out of morbid curisoity-- why in god's name would ANYONE make a show about a former slave and a former plantation owner working together-- came to accept that it was a product of its time but not intending harm-- it's to show us that anyone can renounce racism, but has a naiive 60's 'can't we all just get along' view of what that means-- and came out on the other side thinking-- huh. This was a show that got cancelled because it looked racists in the eye and said 'you can, and you must do better-- and you're going to lose things and status because of it, and you simply have to live with that.' It's not perfect-- it's still a 1960's Western written by two old white guys-- but I'm glad I watched it, both because it was an enjoyable ride and because it's a fascinating bit of lost TV history.

[lorbanery]

What's the point of trying to make shit in this society better? There's no fucking way, we have to burn it all down or else i've been fucking lied to for several years and i could have been doing actual good in the world. It can't just be working in the system it has to be against. It has to be

You know, I get where you're coming from. I've gotten caught up in the whole "they system will never change, there's too many people who won't let the system change, the system is too fundamentally broken to make fixing it worthwhile, easier to just throw it all out" mindset. It's tempting to approach it like any issue you might be having where the problems outweigh the benefits, like a computer that would be more of a hassle and more expensive to get repaired than to just buy a new computer.

But the government's not a computer. And frankly, the government's not really the source of all of our problems. Even if you believe that the main issue with the government is that it was founded on racist principles, well getting rid of the government isn't going to magically get rid of bigotry in this country. The government didn't create bigotry. Bigots created a bigoted government. But even when the US government was being conceived and built there were people pushing back against the bigotry. And there have been more and more people every decade doing the same.

We are miles away from the government we had in 1776. Partially because of societal changes, because people were convinced that certain bigoted attitudes were unacceptable.

We live in a country where a Black woman and a white woman are able to marry and buy a house and have kids and get divorced and then remarry two other women and vote for whoever they want.

None of those things were legal in 1776. All of those rights were fought for in long, hard battles. And it sucked and it's not right that we had to fight for any of them at all, and it's not right how many of just those rights came just within the last 50 years.

But we got them.

But now people want us to believe that that's it? That's all the change we can make? There's no possible way to push American society any further?

I'm sorry, but I can't believe that.

Not just because I, personally, have seen American society shift WILDLY left in my lifetime. Not just because my parents' generation saw American society shift WILDLY left in their lifetime.

But because there's so many people like me, like you, like everyone who wants a to see less suffering in the world, whether they believe it's possible or not. We have always existed, and at the end of the day, we're the ones who can push society further and further left, further and further into a society that cares about its other members. It's never just activists making speeches and organizing protests. It's never just politicians working from the inside.

It's also people out here, in society, willing to do even the simplest thing like "treating a marginalized person like a normal human being". Like supporting it when someone proposes building another homeless shelter in your town. Like not patronizing local businesses that have reputations for mistreating marginalized employees. Like patronizing local businesses owned by marginalized folks instead. Like supporting public resources that benefit the community like your town library, pool, skating rink, parks, etc.

Because the more bigoted people see others doing these things, the more some of them realize how poorly they've been behaving. Because the more younger people see others doing these things, the more they realize that this is how a normal, healthy person engages with the community around them.

As for the rest of your message? I can't say whether you've been lied to. I don't know who convinced you that there's no hope or what their motivations were. It's entirely possible that they genuinely believed it too — like I said, I've fallen for the same rhetoric myself before. But even if they did lie to you, I'm sure that's not the first time you've been lied to. We've all been lied to a lot over the course of our lives, about countless things. Of course it can hurt to realize, and I'm not going to try to tell you that you shouldn't feel those feelings. What I am going to tell you is to remember that you've probably been lied to before, and you were probably upset about some of those times too.

But you learned about it and you educated yourself about the truth and you learned how to spot those lies so you wouldn't fall for them again.

If you've read through this whole thing and you believe me when I say that it isn't hopeless, that we have changed society before and we can continue to change society, then that's the takeaway that I want you to take from this. That there is always hope, that learning from our collective human past means learning about the good we've done as much as it means learning how to avoid the bad, and that anyone who's trying to convince you that there's no possible good left to be done is either going through a depressive spiral of their own, or is trying to make you give up.

Don't give up. Don't give up hope. Don't ever give up hope.

[wirsindkrieg]

I was glancing through blogs that had responded to my post about not being alterhuman and the follow-up about not being part of the alterhuman community, and I saw a post pointing out that there's significantly more support for people saying "if you don't use [insert label], that's a red flag", while saying "don't call people things they don't want to be called" gets no traction, and wondering why that is. I have some thoughts on that.

There's two major factors I see that play into this. First, it's really easy to fall into an "us vs. them" mentality when you're in a community that gets shit on by people outside of that community. And that kind of thinking leads to a lot of reflexive defensiveness from anyone who openly says they do not want to be part of your community. For someone who is used to constantly having to defend themself, hearing "What I am is like you, but I do not use the label you have chosen for it" can be easily twisted into "You are wrong for using the label you have chosen", often without any conscious thought involved. Combine that with the tendency for people to mostly interact with people with similar views, and that reflexive defensiveness gets reinforced and spread.

The second factor is that people really do not like being told that they have to change. It's hard to hear that you're in the wrong about something, especially when it's accompanied by being told that you need to do something about it. Add to that the natural defensiveness that comes from being in a community that gets shit on, and it just gets harder to swallow. So those kinds of things either get ignored or actively pushed back against (sometimes publicly, often privately).

(As a small aside: That resistance to being told to change is also why it's hard to convince someone to shed bigoted beliefs, especially if they can't see the harm those beliefs cause. A lot of people simply do not want to be told they're doing bad things.)

There's also another minor factor that doesn't apply universally but which still crops up around these things: "queer" discourse. There are a lot of strong feelings around the word "queer", and those opinions tend to be extremely dug in. It's a topic that ties into peoples' inherent sense of self, and to a history of abuse that's still ongoing in some regions. It makes sense that it would be polarizing.

Where the problem comes in is that a lot of the alterhuman community (at least from what I've seen) is very in the "pro-queer" camp. That is, they feel like "queer" should be used openly and broadly, whether because they feel it's been reclaimed, they feel its nature as a divisive term is desirable, or some other reason. I've seen a fair number of alterhumans openly saying that they greatly prefer referring to it as the "queer community" over any other label.

There's a lot of parallels there between the use of "queer" as an umbrella term, and the use of "alterhuman" as an umbrella term. It's obviously not a perfect comparison ("alterhuman" doesn't have a loaded history as a slur, for one), but there's enough there in common to be worth noting. Both communities get shit on by outsiders, the labels are treated as intentionally very broad, and the terms are fairly polarizing. So when someone says "Don't call people things they don't want to be called" in regards to the alterhuman label, it raises a question: Does the same logic apply to "queer" too?

If someone identifies as both queer and alterhuman, and they consider that follow-up question, suddenly that statement has asked them to change regarding two aspects of their sense of self that are likely very important to them. The other two major issues are doubled, and with that comes an extra helping of defensiveness. And so they're even more likely to ignore or push back against it.

The main reason I'm counting that as a minor issue (even though it took a lot more words) is because it's not the root cause of why things get ignored; it just amplifies the problems that are already there. But it's also an element that needs to be considered in all of this, because when it does apply, I expect it has a big impact.

To rephrase most of that in much fewer words: It's a lot easier to accept "Those people are wrong" than it is to accept "You are wrong". The bigger problem is that refusing to hear those kinds of dissenting opinions limits growth. Sometimes, you are wrong, and you need that pointed out so that you can learn from it and become a better person. But in an era where it is terrifyingly easy to build ourselves into echo chambers (sometimes without even realizing we've done it), it becomes very easy to avoid even seeing those dissenting views, let alone engaging with them.

I'm a big believer in the philosophy of "Question everything," and that applies just as much to things we already believe. If you insist that the things you believe should never be questioned, you cut off an important aspect of growing to be a better person: trimming out the things that aren't right, even when it hurts to let it go. We have to be able to make the distinction between "thing that I disagree with" and "thing that is wrong". It's a hard thing to do sometimes, but it's good for us, both as individuals and as a society. I know it's something I still struggle with sometimes, but that's how these things go. It takes time to unlearn bad habits.

So yeah. Don't call people things they don't want to be called. It's literally that simple.

[caffeineandsociety]

It's sometimes called the Tautological Templar problem. It happens with every bias, but it's especially visible with antisemitism (and antiblack racism, for that matter), because those things in particular LOVE to disguise themselves in forms that might fly under the radar.

"I am good. My every action and belief is good because I am good. Therefore I am good because my every action and belief is good. I know my every action and belief is good because I am good."

It happens a LOT when people make "anti-bigotry" a core part of their identities. Unfortunately, it's easier to call yourself An Anti-Fascist Leftist than it is to actually unpack every bigoted belief that's gotten into you from the bigotry stew we're all simmering in.

I openly admit that I am still a little bit racist even toward communities I'm part of - not on purpose, not as in, I openly and consciously think they're Lesser than others, but as in, well, I'm not immune to not noticing that a joke is racialized and shitty if the target is sufficiently abstracted, because I don't know every stereotype ever, consciously OR subconsciously - there have been antiblack urban legends that, despite having Black immediate family, I've just ASSUMED were OBVIOUSLY about rich white teenagers because I just sort of forgot that not everyone has my experiences dealing with them and yeah, that totally seems like a 17-year-old-white-boy-on-spring-break thing to do. There have been antisemitic tropes that I, despite being Jewish, didn't pick up on until pretty well into adulthood, and I had to learn the hard way, after encountering the worst kinds of people in the wild, that most people who point out the other groups targeted by the nazis AREN'T doing so as a call for solidarity the way my family did to me. I'm also not immune to things like getting frustrated with language barriers, and I wholeheartedly acknowledge the need to be careful to prevent that from turning into something worse in an environment that really, really wants that "something worse" to grow like kudzu - better to admit that it's on me, dismiss any shitty associative thoughts, and acknowledge my imperfection than let it convince me that "no, no, its not that I think not learning English is lazy, just that THIS person in particular [every single individual I struggle to communicate with] was being RUDE about it and has NO excuse". Becoming not-bigoted is a lifelong process, there's always an unchecked assumption your family made, or an assumption your family checked but forgot to tell you about because people tend to forget that people aren't born with "common knowledge" - it's never over.

The problem is that way too many people assume that the moment they decide to self-identify as A Leftist, the process IS over. They've done it. They're officially, now and forever, Not Racist, Sexist, Ableist, Xenophobic, Antisemitic, Homophobic, or Anything~!

And it needs to stop, or at least stop being so damned loud and infecting everything.

I'm just saying, Neo-Nazis and Leftists should be easier to tell apart when it comes to them talking about Jews. You know. Ideally.