#that doesnt mean you shouldnt be angry or betrayed or fearful or mistrusting it just... means falling into those things wont help ys

[cascadianights]

People are always like "but you shouldn't need it to be you/your daughter/your wife" or "you shouldn't need some metaphor to understand" or "why are we watering this down for people" - Listen:

If I've learned anything by the (weak, watered down, unfocused) leftist reaction to the current attempted genocide of trans people, it is that very few people will act or put themselves in danger unless it DIRECTLY affects them. ESPECIALLY other minorities who are not multiply marginalized (w the understanding that can bring) but Do have a lot to lose.

That's not true for every person! Some people have a basic understanding of empathy and compassion. Some people have higher level critical thinking skills or kindness. But I hate to break it to you - all of those things (empathy compassion critical thinking even kindness) are SKILLS. They are not a given. They are rarely honed by accident. They are difficult and many times come at a cost to you to learn and practice.

People may not have these skills for a MILLION reasons, but many of them are linked to poverty and generational trauma, lack of funded public education, and living in a dystopian capitalistic society that prioritizes individualism and leaves barely any time or energy for thinking through complex ideologies unless you MAKE that time. None of those reasons are "they're just too dumb" or "they only have the capability for hate and evil."

There are people doing very bad, purposefully malicious, monstrous things - and they are still people. If we lose sight of that we lose sight of the lengths of dangers and kindness capable of EACH of us. Beyond those with real harmful intent, there are MANY MANY MANY more people who are letting themselves accept the wrong solutions to the same problems we all see. For example, many of them genuinely want to protect children! And they listened to the answers for how to do so given to them by church and state and friends.

THOSE are the people we need to make metaphors for, we need to connect with individually, we need to show how and why this will impact THEIR lives. In a perfect world where the entire American society wasn't run on "us v them" that wouldn't be necessary!!! But it is! Because they want to protect the people IN THEIR LIVES right now, not a theoretical kid somewhere else they can't imagine being anything like their own. They want to put food on the table and a roof above the heads of their family, and they have grasped onto ANYTHING that they think will let them keep providing that.

We need to show these people how easily their child could be the center of these debates. How limited a world their child will grow up in without access to information on different ways of being and existing. We need to show them how and why this will impact them, their daughters, their wives, because we need to break through that concrete wall of defensiveness, built and calcified by the words of politicians and leaders with malicious intent but hiding nothing but desperate fear. We need to make it personal, to make it real FOR THEM, to make it understandable without a college level degree of critical thinking analysis why and how this war will show up at their doorsteps too.

It's exhausting. It's hard!!! It's infuriating and invalidating and endless. But appealing to their humanity, in whatever means that must take, is the only way to thaw out those who may stand with us. Because if we stand alone, I know with every bone in my body we will fall alone as well.