#socialism is defiance

[queerclarkkent]

say it with me now - not having FULLY socialised healthcare is intentional, so that poorer people spend their scant cash on basic healthcare, in order to work and survive and buy more basic healthcare - and anything else not covered is just an excuse to let poor people die, and to make us too tired and weak and sick to fight the fuck back against the rich twits in power who can afford this - same with controlling food, and purposely not banning unsafe chemicals in food, and unsafe food preparation and distribution - they want our money, and they want us sick. Speaking IS power. Banning tiktok in the states is, and was, about banning speech between the masses. And the 'bring it back' schtick for however long they will (they being the governments and large corporations, primarily in the North-western hemisphere) is about coddling people in false security until they can find another reason why it is 'unsafe'. We have the uneducated running countries, who are going out of their ways to make us sick, and tired, and uneducated. (Consuming too much of this sort of media WILL make us too tired to fight back, so take frequent breaks before restarting). Medicine being for-profit, or charged in any capacity is INHERENTLY UNETHICAL. Having unsafe food (harmful chemicals, such as those like red 3) being distributed is INHERENTLY UNETHICAL. Allowing farmers to suffer in poverty is UNETHICAL, as is companies purposely producing waste en masse instead of distributing it cheaply amongst the desperate. Using religion to codify power is inherently UNETHICAL (such as the evangelical ideas prevailing in the American government, even against the teachings of the religious texts, which support socialist ideals, and saying that a Bishop showing empathy is somehow evil). Having wealth concentrated in a small body of people is a fucking Oligarchy. Many of us do not live under the democracies we so happily proclaim we are. And it is Unethical. The rich are a selfish breed. Do not trust them. They are turning the United States into a new Gilded age, where anybody but the insanely rich, and the frankly insane, suffer.

If ANYBODY says 'your body, my choice', that gives you free rein to punch them. If someone's a Nazi, fucking call them a Nazi. And, if you think someone is trans (and they aren't out), or if you think they're stealing essentials, or if you think they are in the country illegally? No, you fucking don't. Speech is Power. Use it accordingly.

They don't want us speaking out against genocide. They don't want us speaking out against the rich and powerful. They don't want us speaking out against our bosses. They don't want us trying to end homelessness. They don't want us growing our own food. They don't want us to have healthcare. They don't want us fighting for our own lives and they don't want us to say anything about it.

[justalittlesolarpunk]

Advice for Turtle Islanders

Hey everyone, I’m aware that I’m very privileged to live in a country where the government are like, regular level shit instead of Trumpian, so I wanted to help out people living in the so-called USA however I could. Here’s my advice for what it’s worth - I don’t have experience living under an authoritarian state but I have studied history and been paying attention to what everyone has been saying in the past few weeks, so I thought I’d offer some of my suggestions for how to keep yourselves and your neighbours safe going forward. It’s hard to know what to go so far as to suggest, since it’s just so unpredictable what might happen over the next few years. But in the interests of predicting every eventuality, I hope you’ll overlook any particularly outlandish suggestions. Hopefully it won’t get as far as some of these actions imply, but it’s always better to be prepared than blindsided. You don’t have to do all these things. Just do what you can, and remember you aren’t alone

-Join a labour union, go to meetings, and be prepared to strike

-Attend protests even if you think they won’t do anything. But bear in mind you will increasingly risk arrest and police brutality. Dress unremarkably, don’t take photos at protests and DEFINITELY don’t share them online

-Call your senators, congresspeople, governors, state legislators, mayors and city councillors. Continually bother them and kick up a fuss about even the smallest thing you disagree with. It’s important to keep government busy so implementing evil legislation is harder

-Set up or volunteer with a community fridge/kitchen or homeless shelter

-Knock on your neighbours’ doors and start getting to know them. If they are safe people, build relationships of reciprocity and care with them

-Read. Expose yourself to as many ideas as you can, but especially political theory, queer storylines and other subversive texts. Some recommendations:

Hope in The Dark by Rebecca Solnit

The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin

How to Stand Up to a Dictator by Maria Ressa

Anything by Marx, Kropotkin, Chomsky, Gelderloos, Freire, Fanon, Foucault, Harvey, Graeber, etc

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

The Faggots and their Friends Between Revolutions by Larry Mitchell

Pirate Care by Marcell Mars, Valeria Graziano and Tomislav Medak

No Ordinary Men by Elisabeth Sifton and Fritz Stern

Conspiracy of Decency by Emmy E. Werner

-Try to set up or join a local group in your community that discusses political or philosophical ideas, does consciousness-raising, builds connections between neighbours, provides stopgap services to desperate people, teaches people their legal rights, or some equivalent act of mutual aid or resistance

-Key in to existing activist networks for climate, racial, migrant or gender justice - attend their events, fund them, give your time

-Consider whether at some point you’d be willing to do things the government will tell you are forbidden, risking arrest, imprisonment and possibly more severe consequences further down the line. You will have to answer to your own conscience but it’s also important to try and keep safe. If you’re willing to hide people from ICE or the police, source ‘illegal’ HRT and other essential medication, lose or falsify records, help someone get reproductive care, spread forbidden ideas, graffiti or poster government buildings, hold sit-ins, occupations or encampments, key certain people’s cars, let people in or out at borders who you aren’t ‘supposed’ to, sabotage fossil fuel or military infrastructure, disrupt party conventions, withhold tax, film or take photos in places where it’s banned, conscientiously object should a draft come in, or other similar behaviours, do them quietly and carefully. Involve as few other people as possible and DO NOT in the coming days broadcast your willingness to do so. Also for legal reasons I’m joking 😉

-Pick a behaviour from the government which, if enacted, would result in you immediately leaving the country. Once they do this, get OUT. Don’t make it too small, but don’t wait until they’re rounding up journalists in the street, holding public executions or imposing military curfews either. (I’m not saying any of these things will happen, I’m just saying pick your line.) If you’re trans, this event might have already happened, in which case start the process of seeking work or asylum abroad. Do your due diligence - make sure the place you choose will be safe for people like you, and bear in mind that asylum seeking is a big step that will expose you to dehumanising bureaucracies and local hostility even in the most liberal countries

-Put together a go-bag

-Donate any money you can spare either to these advocacy groups or to people in need directly

-Be radically, aggressively kind and compassionate to everyone you meet

-If you have children or are responsible for them, talk to them about what is happening. Strike a balance between explaining to them that it’s important to stay true to our principles and making sure they know to be careful

-Take time to be with loved ones and experience moments of joy, whether this is group meals, days out, shared catharsis, birthdays, religious celebrations, making music, movie nights, whatever replenishes you and reminds you what the fight is for

-Pick an hour each day in which to engage with and respond to the news (broadcast channels, papers, social media). The rest of the time focus on your well-being, that of your family, friends and neighbours, on your job, on being kind, on your volunteering, on resisting in countless tiny ways. Unless something big and emergent is happening in which case respond and react in real time

-Seek out good news stories from your own country and the world. They are out there, I promise

-If you see an arrest or immigration raid, get your phone out and start filming. You have a right to record it

-Donate to bail and strike funds

-Spend time in nature, and learn the names of local trees, flowers, birds, mammals, fish and reptiles. Educate yourself about the natural history and ecology of your local area so you can replenish your mental health, defend your environment and remember that there is life beyond the fascist state’s delusions of total control

-Learn about and engage with your local indigenous tribes. Study their history, attend any events they put on that are open to the settler public, donate money and any supplies they might need, agitate for their rights, see if you have any land you could transfer to their stewardship, and learn some of their languages if they think that’s appropriate

-Make an effort to research and understand things that are happening abroad. The US empire thrives on isolationism, ignorance and poor education. Learn foreign languages, follow other countries’ politics, study their history, watch their films, expose yourself to their cultures and teach yourself to point them out on a map. The more you feel affinity with people across the globe, the more you are a citizen of the world and able to keep your heart safe from narratives of exceptionalism - because you’d best believe the propaganda will be targeting you too. You’re not immune to it. You have to work at resisting. Foreign news services can also help you keep a handle on what’s real if your national ones are lying to you

-Run for school board, union rep, a welfare or campaigning role on your college campus or in your place of worship, or some other small-scale local post where you can make a difference

-If you’re in a position to do so, see if you can help marginalised people receive cheaper services through your job, volunteering or advocacy (for instance offering discounted rates if you run your own business)

-Learn first aid, cooking, and basic clothing repair, and teach these skills to others. Use them to help people with relevant needs

-Pick your battles. Sometimes you might have to let smaller things slide in order to make a bigger difference later. Other times, the small things will be the thin end of the wedge and you’ll want or need to take a stand

-Wear a mask and try to keep up to date with your vaccinations

-Be ready to mobilise your community to protect vulnerable people or places from vigilante attacks, especially if there’s a mosque, immigration centre, lgbt venue or abortion clinic in your neighbourhood

-Download the Signal app and Element software. Get a VPN. Turn off ‘learn from this app’ in your phone’s Siri settings for every app. Leave your phone at home if you’re protesting or doing anything else spiky. Put it in the fridge or at the other end of the house if discussing things you don’t want overheard. Assume you are under surveillance most of the time

-Carry narcan

-Get a library card and take out as many books and DVDs there as you can, use the internet there, stay warm there, really make use of the public service. You can even offer to volunteer there if you have time

-See if you can access academic and scientific papers somehow, and make an effort to read at least one over a semi-regular period of time. This will help with the education mentioned above, as well as keeping you in touch with the truths which your government is so eager to suppress. Lots of downloads also helps an academic in their career, which will be very valuable now that so much of their funding has been cut

-Pick up your neighbours’ groceries or prescriptions for them, drop them off at/pick them up from medical appointments, watch their kids, bail them out and cook for them

-Quit twitter. Use BlueSky instead if you want but don’t assume you are unobserved there. Consider quitting Facebook and Instagram too if you can - Supernova offers a vaguely similar user interface to insta if you want to keep up with friends and continue sharing pictures

-It might help your sanity to start keeping a diary or journal, detailing your emotions and experiences and keeping an eyewitness record of your government’s behaviour. If you do this, though, consider keeping it in a secure hiding place or writing it in code. Perhaps send a copy securely to someone outside the country, but only if you can do so safely, and be ready to destroy it if you think you’re in danger from its discovery

-See if you can get involved with or start a movement for community green energy in your local area

-If you have any garden space, try to plant and grow a bit of your own fruit and veg

-Get trained in non-violent direct action and in self-defence

-Save as much money as you can. You never know when you or someone else might need it

-If it’s accessible to you, consider getting a therapist to talk through the difficult experiences and painful emotions that are going to come up in the next few years. But be careful - make sure you trust the professional you use and that your conversations are as private as possible. Even if both of these are the case, be considered as to how you phrase things

-Walk, cycle, or take public transit whenever possible

-Make art! Paint, draw, sing, play instruments, write stories or poetry or lyrics or plays, act, dance, collage, sculpt, whatever frees your heart and keeps it your own

-Donate individually or through orgs to sex workers, domestic violence survivors, Romani and Traveller individuals, and other people at risk of precarious housing and/or income

-Educate yourself about Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Paganism, Indigenous Spiritualities and other non-Christian religions

-Carry a spare scarf to offer to a hijabi whose hijab might be torn off by vigilantes

-Offer court support to friends and neighbours

-While you still can, source and distribute as many binders, packers, breast forms and pairs of tucking underwear as possible

-As much as possible shop with small local independent businesses, and follow consumer boycotts

-Consider eating less meat. Ignoring the environmental and ethical implications of the meat industry, deregulation is likely and this means many food safety standards will be scrapped

-If you can afford it, get an air filter for your house and a water filter for your tap

-See if you can file lawsuits against government bodies or big companies for violating various laws and rights

-Make sure the disabled people in your community can access spaces, services and transit, that they have enough money for necessities and for disability aids, and that there’s an evacuation plan for them in the event of flooding/fires/a tornado/vigilante violence/government violence

Stay safe out there everyone. Look after each other, keep your head high and your heart soft, and survive.

[starlightseraph]

comrades, don’t kill yourselves.

i know that shit fucking sucks. all of it.

think of all the people in seemingly hopeless situations around the world and throughout history. all the people for whom the world is or was literally ending. all the people who stared down the barrel of a gun or watched as a bomb fell to the ground and who still chose to have hope.

so many people have been in far worse situations or had more immediate tangible threats breathing down their necks.

i’m not saying this to mean that you don’t matter, that your struggle is insignificant.

i only mean that if hope persisted then, hope can persist now. many times before has someone hoped against all hope, fought against all odds, and won.

think of the children who dug through the rubble in hiroshima, in iraq, in korea snd vietnam, and all those who are doing the same in gaza right now. who braved gas and bombs and guns to walk to school in ireland. somewhere in their hearts was a flicker of unlikely hope, one that kept them trying, kept them from falling to the ground silently. we’re not anywhere near that. if they can have even the tiniest amount of hope, then so can you.

the election of one alt-right lunatic over a centre-right genocide funder is not the end of the world. as in, the world will literally keep spinning, the human race will keep existing, and someone somewhere will always be good and worthy of fighting for betterment and even one person like that is cause enough to keep hope alive.

yes, this may bring disasters for women, for queer people, and for the material conditions of many, many within the united states. if only for the abject shameless incoherence of it all.

but there is good. somewhere, in someone. there is hope, as there has always been, from the beginning of time, through plagues that wiped out villages so thoroughly that no one was left to bury the dead, through wars and evil that seemed all encompassing and never-ending.

if you live in the imperial core, i promise that this isn’t the end, and it isn’t as course-of-history altering as you might think. in the aforementioned far worse conditions, which were largely created by the united states itself, people organise, they protest, they laugh. the turn of america ever farther right would have continued regardless of who won. if you truly want change, you cannot achieve it within the us framework. you cannot imagine that voting would save you. it won’t. it may stall, but that’s about it.

the world still spins. human hearts continue beating. we continue to fight and to struggle against a system that made these our only choices, for a revolution, for a better world. it is always possible.

[britneyshakespeare]

wait james somerton sounds a lot like some people on tumblr when they start spouting off about queer history or supposed controversies within it. is that where you guys are getting your stuff? is it james somerton brain poisoning?

[finalgirlsamwinchester]

David Simmons, “There’s a ton of lore on unicorns too”: Postmodernist Micro-Narratives and Supernatural in TV Goes to Hell: an Unofficial Roadmap of Supernatural

started writing this mostly as a reflection on the above chapter from TV Goes to Hell. the show from its initial outset is based around a particular formula. the brothers often rely on a postmodern patchwork of stories to 'solve' their monster-of-the-week. on this show, everything can be real all together, all at once: from alternate myths and histories, to movie monsters, to urban legends, cultural gods, and folk tales. this cultural melange gets 'tamed' through the frame of the show's monster-of-the-week format itself, where everything gets solved to fit a singular narrative: identify the monster, find a way to defeat it, and successfully eliminate it (there are rare exceptions to this formula: bugs is the standout)

there's a tension between the characters' research, drawing from unofficial sources, local legends and civilian accounts versus the show's format demanding, in a sense, that fear of the unknown (really a fear of difference) be conquered through the simplified logic of its formula. unofficial sources and beliefs become incorporated into an official narrative, so to speak. they gain legitimacy and authority through our heroes use of them, not the other way around. magic is evil when a witch uses it, but somehow the rituals and spellwork our heroes use to defeat them don't count. you feel me. and that same logic applies to what monsters count as real and what doesn't. on this show, everything becomes real when our protagonists are able to see it and kill it.

(1.01, 'Pilot')

so a common show critique i see tends to separate the more episodic plots of the early seasons (1-3) from the more serialised grand epic narratives of 4-5 onwards. well my argument is this - nah, that impulse was there from the start! the mystery of the show was always going to dissipate, because explaining away the mystery was always a part of its initial premise. the concept that - 'the monster under your bed is no longer scary when you can name what it is and learn how to kill it' - turns into -> a fear of death? heaven and hell and everything else in between are now real, tangible places! fear over external, powerful forces meddling in your lives? demons, angels, leviathans, god himself! now all real and tangible beings! the air of horror and mystery shrouding s1-2 was never gonna last. the murky horror was always a means to a defeatable end.

(5.19, 'Hammer of the Gods')

anyways. there's an obvious mythological hierarchy in this series and it's very funny to me. all gods and spirits and monsters, even the ones predating christian mythology, fall under its ruling (white, judeo-christian) narrative authority. the postmodern embrace of multiple narratives is a ruse. all incompatible things lead to a universal truth. the show doesn't dispell the existence of differences; rather everything is to be combined, united under a totalising front, despite the contradictory nature of that impulse. this narrative then, down to its bare bones formula, is a civilising mission. civilisation barreling in, banishing fear and uncertainty from the light. and in order to stay in that light, one must submit to its complete authority. by this show's logic, uniformity ultimately requires the subjugation of difference.

[deficd]

---

[bethgreeneprevails]

Emily Kinney posting on her Instagram story today March 29, 2024. A note about missing a boat (a.k.a. exactly what’s going to happen in Daryl Dixon Season 2 with Daryl not getting on the boat). Then a video of the Eiffel Tower because she is in France now.

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

𝔇𝔢𝔰𝔱𝔯𝔲𝔠𝔱𝔦𝔬𝔫 - 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔇𝔢𝔣𝔦𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔢 𝔚𝔦𝔩𝔩 ℜ𝔢𝔪𝔞𝔦𝔫

[chimerickat]

I interviewed for a 100% remote job which would have gotten me out of working in the office (something I have had trouble going back to doing) and away from my current boss (I have found treating him like a stupid but belligerent customer is the most effective way of dealing with him).

Today I heard back that they would like to hire me, but have had to put a pause to their hiring. They hope to have a job to offer in 2-3 months.

[eclipsecrowned]

thinking about random bits of noble decorum back in the day, and how claude's aunt has to come running back to the family estate only months into claude's reign as marquis. has the family fortune been squandered? has there been some manner of disaster? what cruel fate has befallen this house?

claude, blinking, asks precisely what she's on about. why won't they let anyone into the house? why is claude shunning all but their most ardent companions and the necessary staff from the grounds?

oh. claude simply shrugs. they and their wife don't want visitors. the former marchioness nearly has a heart attack on the spot over the impropriety of it all.

[elodieunderglass]

Oh wow, this crossed my dash and that was my post addition!

Present Practice something that didn’t come easy to me either (in keeping with the topic of the post.) it was something I thought about after realising how hurt I was that my child never said goodnight to me. I would say goodnight I love you so much and do all these things and have this whole special story and they’d just complain, until I realized I had to explain about how you’re supposed to say goodnight and extra points for I love you.

I’ve realized Present Practice has recurred in my writing, indicating that it’s near the top of my mind in terms of important things I can give to the world, and once I figure out what I’m doing with this story this it’s OVER for you guys you’re getting TOLD, you’re getting kissed on the forehead:

This was where he did the only thing so far that he was proud of in this day. He did not start shouting, even though his temper was going something like What the fuck, kids, but worse. He stopped, took a minute, and remembered he'd had this whole thing where he'd wanted his kids to love him. He rubbed his nose, said, "Remind me," and his daemon reminded him: "What do we want them to actually do?"

And he said, "The bare minimum fucking acknowledgement would be nice."

And Bee said, "Have we explained that to them? Do they know?"

Which I believe is worth working on because of the very hard-won long-practiced belief that it is easier to share a lesson if you do it through a little story. An anecdote about my kids or my life or a little fanfiction. Which is exactly what you just said

Anyway thank you so much for reading one of my post additions and writing a post in which you hold up some of what I’ve said and show it to people and say “this is a philosophy” and I’m like “o shit! It IS!” And you’re like “you could apply it to other things” and I’m like “DAMN!”

I've been musing a bit on that one post that went around during the recent holiday season, to which someone added their family tradition of Present Practice. My god! Imagine actually telling kids what behavior is expected, instead of expecting them to intuit it and punish them when they get it wrong!!

Separate post because this topic is a little tangential to that, but I think it does a great job of unearthing one of our very well-hidden internal biases, which goes as follows:

Good people don't need to be taught.

A good person (in this case, a good child) shouldn't need to be told to be gracious and grateful when given a gift. A good child should just know that a holiday tradition of gift-giving is a social performance to strengthen family bonds and that personal preference or genuine reactions are secondary to that performance. A good child should just know how to value gifts, how to express thanks, how to praise and compliment. No caretakers in their lives should need to put any effort into instructing or modeling these things.

Good people should just know how to be good. If they were really Ontologically Good, their inherent goodness would simply intuitively guide them to correct behaviors. If they can't do that on their own, in a vacuum, in the absence of cues, that's a sign of their inherent moral lack.

.

.

...Which all sounds very reasonable and obvious, and surely a mistake that only fundie christian families would make! Except that people in the social justice sphere also do this all the time. It's not anybody's job to educate you. You should know this already. If you were a Good Person, you wouldn't need to be taught. You would simply intuit the correct philosophies and gravitate to them according to your superior internal moral compass.

If you were a Good Person, you would already know that everything you were taught by your family and/or background was wrong. You should have rejected it already. You should have cut off your family, your heritage, everything about your childhood and upbringing that was Bad and Wrong. You should have known it was all a lie.

If you were a Good Person, you should be able to find the correct way yourself. You should be able to seek out the proper educational resources, and distinguish them from bad advice leading you astray, and make sense of them all according to your own internal moral code.

If you were a Good Person, you would have found your way by the proper, ascetic, official channels, not by reading a comic or watching anime. You shouldn't need entertainment or art to guide you. You should just know.

And if someone can't do these things on their own, in a vacuum, in the absence of cues, that's a sign of their inherent moral lack.

[samw3000]

Syntax and Silence

© 2025 Samantha Williams. All Rights Reserved.

[brent-emery-pieczynski]

Social media age limit? If I roleplaying a pre-teen or younger, this involves removing social media. So stinking diapers as a adult-pre-teen without adult baby niceness is possible.

[primitivedisaster]

It was always that

I was there, gandalf, etc etc

I lived through not only Columbine era, I was there for the original scene/emo scene. As in, skinny jeans had not been invented, and the boys wore women's jeans to get the look, hair heat protectors were not commonly available, everyone was frying their hair, friends detained by for wearing a coat too long and carrying their band instruments, constant interrogation from all corners about if I was self-harming

And black was ALWAYS against dress code. Because it causes depression, because it makes you moody and therefore violent—all of it.

This is not new. And crucially?

It was always about this—

On the surface.

Yes, there are people who genuinely believe the styles and the video games are the cause, that the music is why someone self-harms, but often, it is about control.

And it is the most visible when this control is exerted over subcultures that deviate as far from the norm as scene/emo/punk/goth/metal and all the other subcultures where defiance of authority and social norms is part of the culture.

they're fucking banning being emo 😭😭

[ryaanross]

tag dump

❝ LIVES UNDER LADDERS AND SLEEPS WITH BLACK CATS ❞ ▐ isms ❝ THINGS HAVE CHANGED FOR ME ❞ ▐ images ❝ ALL MY FORGOTTEN POEMS ARE A JOKE ❞ ▐ prose & lyrics ❝ PRETTY . ODD ❞ ▐ thoughts & musings ❝ BOY DON’T YOU EVER LIVE IN DEFIANCE ❞ ▐ likes ❝ THERE’S A GOOD REASON THESE TABLES ARE NUMBERED HONEY ❞ ▐ aesthetics ❝ UNVERIFIED ❞ ▐ social media ❝ TWELVE PERCENT BATTERY ❞ ▐ texts ❝ ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS MUSIC TO BE MURDERED BY ❞ ▐ music

[witheredgardenparty]

I will never forgive a single one of you