#this is definitely going to be used to fuel anti-trans hate at a time where its already rampant

[bluebeetle]

revealing that the nashville shooter is supposedly transgender, without revealing what gender they id as or any other information other than that, being a former student, and a name... absolutely evil, because it allows people to construct their own narratives and this is going to mean so many awful people blaming the entire trans community (and assuming the shooter is a trans woman bc transmisogyny)

(edit: i wrote this rly early in the morning when reading the news, see tags and notes for more thoughts ig cuz im making this unrebloggable bc transphobes r annoying)

[trutimeline]

idislikecispeople, The Most Infamous Dyscourse Blogger: Part 1.0, Rumors

idislikecispeople, also known as many names throughout her time on Tumblr (such as Adele, Kat, Mami, Samantha and Sayaka), was a former Tumblr blogger who became infamous for coining the term "tucute", among many other controversial things she has posted on her blogs. This was supposed to be one, very long masterpost about her, but Tumblr's post editor is a bitch and won't let me do that.

In this post, I'll be debunking or confirming rumors commonly spread about idislikecispeople. The rest of my posts about her will each be dedicated to a specific controversial belief she held or situations she got into. For simplicity's sake, I'll be referring to idislikecispeople as Kat for the rest of this post and future ones.

Rumors

Kat Coined the Terms "Truscum" and "Tucute"

Verdict: Partially True

Kat coined the term tucute, but she did not coin the terms truscum or transmedicalist.

Here's a screenshot of Kat's original definition of a tucute:

Transcript:

What is Tucute?

What does tucute mean?

Tucute is basically just the opposite of truscum, it’s a term and community for trans, nonbinary, and/or non-cis individuals created to separate anti-truscum from truscum and to serve as a safe place from truscum and from cis people, where they believe that being trans requires dysphoria, we do not,where they think that being trans is a medical condition, we do not,and where they deny numerous gender identities on the basis that it “discredits the trans community” we do not.

What are the prerequisites to be a part of the tucute community?

You have to be trans, nonbinary, and/or non-cis in general

You have to accept all pronouns and gender identities

You haveto believe that dysphoria is not necessary to be trans

You have to dislike truscum

You cannot side with truscum or believe in their ideology

You cannot misgender anyone no matter how mad they make you

You cannot be an ableist whatsoever

Did you invent the tucute community? Why?

I indeed did coin the tucute term and community and anyone who says otherwise are creeps who are trying to steal it from me and redefine it for their own nefarious doings. I started this community so anti-truscum could separate themselves from truscum and cis people who are a part of the truscum community, it serves as a safe space from both truscum and cis people.

I’m cis, can I be tucute if I believe in your movement and want to help?

No, you can’t be tucute if you’re cis, you can only be a tucute ally, and you need to be sure to never speak for or over a trans person.

I see a lot of tucuties being just as harmful as truscum, what will you do about it?

There isn’t much I can do to them other than ask them to stop aligning with the tucute community, and of course, that doesn’t mean they will. Also be noted that truscum and cis people will pretend to be tucute just to tarnish the name of the tucute community, so tread lightly, you might be talking to a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Spread the word, use the tag #tucute and join the army today!

[A digital drawing of Sayaka Miki from Puella Magi Madoka Magica in her magical girl form, with a banner underneath her reading "Tucute 4 U!"]

(source) (source)

Kat Was a Cisgender Woman Who Lied About Being a Transgender Woman

Verdict: False

This rumor primarily comes from a post on Kat's oldest known Tumblr blog, chromaghost, where she claims that she wasn't MTF and only tagged a selfie as such because she thought that transgender people were "cool".

Transcript:

Anonymous asked: are you a mtf? i seen it tagged on one of your photos.

No lol. I wanted to post it to the tag because transgender people are cool :3

(source) (source) (source)

However, Kat addressed this post and made it clear she very much was a transgender woman multiple times on her later blogs. This claim can also be confirmed with nude photos Kat posted online, which I don't feel comfortable spreading, so you'll just have to trust me on that one. I also don't feel comfortable directly encouraging you to go and dig up those nudes, as most of her nude photos were either taken when she was a minor, spread without her consent and/or were uploaded because people pressured her into posting nudes to "prove" she was a transgender woman.

Transcript:

Anonymous asked: you bound with ace bandage in one of your selfies. i don't know what to think about you anymore. according to some people you're a 27 year old cis woman scamming us, but you say you're a 22 year old trans woman. i want to trust you but i don't know if i can. i'm sorry.

Rest assured I’m not 27 years old lol. What you’re referring to is a less than graceful ~art piece~ we did (”Playing a Boy” or something) on deviantART when we were 16/17 (?) and really ill-informed. I ask you to not take that as how I stand currently – as I have learned so much more since, and I have a penis and I was designated male at birth because of it (feel free to purchase a passcode to our nsfw blog to see for yourself). At the time we were developing breast tissue but still had to appear as a ‘boy.’ Don’t bind with Ace bandages, kids, it can damage your rib cage, something we didn’t know at the time.

(source) (source)

Transcript:

[A picture of two prescriptions, estradiol and spironolactone, both prescribed to Adele Sheffield.]

grandtran still gonna think I photoshopped it or what

(source)

Transcript:

Anonymous asked: In other words, you aren't gonna cough up the pics because you know you can't fake that shit because you're actually cis. Cool. BTW why do you keep changing your story about the blog, and if the blog was run by you when you were in denial about being trans because of self hate, why were the pics tagged mtf and you were constantly saying trans people were cool?

Yeah I’m not gonna do something for y’all and get nothing in return except more doubt from you, you see how one sided that kind of request is? Also its technically considered sexual harassment, just because its on the internet, you’re a coward (whats your username btw?), and you think I’m cis and you want me to prove time and time again to you that I’m dmab doesn’t justify sexually soliciting someone when they’re not comfortable in being solicited – for free no less.

At first I genuinely had no memory of that blog, it was only active for all of 2 months and for some reason I moved onto a new email and new tumblr, and I haven’t the foggiest why. As for the whole “me claiming to not be ~mtf~” I don’t have any memories from that time, I can only assume it was a lot of dysphoria fueled self-hatred and wanting to be seen/pass as a cis girl lesbian.

If you’re really gonna solicit nudes from a trans woman (a second time) as they do sex work to try and stay on their feet without offering anything in return just so your transmisogynistic ass can get off to trying to tell me my dick is fake isn’t classy at all. I perish the thought of what you’re parents would think of this behavior from you. But yeah, feel free to send some money to my paypal so I can get the gender markers on my records changed because that’s gonna cost a lot apparently, and I’ll definitely send you the dick pics you want. :)

(source) (source) (source)

Transcript:

[A picture of a a hospital bracelet on Kat's wrist. The patient's name is Adele Sheffield and her sex is labeled as "M".]

(source)

Kat Lied About Having Diabetes To Get Money From Tumblr Users

Verdict: False

This doesn't need much commentary from me, just view the screenshots below.

Transcript:

To the people who keep harping on me buying a $15 video game for my mental health 7 MONTHS ago “with my donation money,” well, here you go, some proof, links and screenshots provided

So for everyone spreading misinformation about me spending $15 on a video game for my mental health, here’s a full list of reasons why there is no way, shape, or form I spent my paypal money on it:

Yes, I spent $15 of my own money after selling one of my possessions, not denying it:

[A screenshot of a Tumblr post by Kat where she shows off a copy of Fall Out: New Vegas, marked with a price of $14.99. The date of the post is marked as July 21, 2014 at 06:28.39 PM.]

Be sure to look at the date, July 21st, 2014 6:28 PM. Now lets look at my first donation post asking for help:

[A screenshot of a Tumblr post by Kat where she asks for donations to be able to afford insulin because she has no insurance. The date of the post is marked as July 20, 2014 at 08:14.00 PM.]

Hmm, one day before the purchase of said game, July 20th 2014 at 8:14 PM. Now, I’ve never heard of a video game store — much less a non-chain video game store accepting payment for video games in the form of virtual Amazon gift cards, have you? Oh, but you’re gonna say, “well you bought the game with your paypal donations anyway!” Well, here’s exhibit C:

[Another screenshot of a separate post made by Kat where she is also asking for donations to be able to afford insulin. The date of the post is marked as July 23, 2014 at 12:27.46 PM.]

Again, looking at the date of this posting which is the original donations post, you can see it was posted on July 23rd, 2014 at 12:27 PM, a full 2 days after I had bought the game. Now, if there’s no way for me to use Amazon gift cards for a real life video game store, then how can I go back in time a minimum of 2 full days to give past me $15 to buy said game, hm? This isn’t even accounting for the fact that I didn’t even have my own bank account associated with it until over a week later, and it surely doesn’t account for the fact that it takes up to 5 days to transfer from paypal to your bank account. All the dates are linked to the original unedited posts so you can see for yourself, and for added measure my first deposit was on August 14th, 2014:

[A screenshot of a deposit made by Kat. The date is marked as 08/14/14.]

Oh but yeah, anti-sjs, truscum, and the like took damniwishidthoughtofabettername’s postthey used to gaslight us with misinformation and you all bought it. Tell me how I could misuse donations that I could not use outside of Amazon and money I didn’t even start receiving until a full two days later, let alone the fact that there’s no way I could have transferred said money and used it two days prior as of the date of the paypal donations post.

I hope some of y’all could reblog this and get the word out, I’m sick and tired of people buying into that misinformation that person did solely to gaslight me as a means to try and disrupt my donations drive.

(source) (source) (source) (source) (source) (source) (source)

Transcript:

[A selfie of Kat holding up a vial of Novolin to the camera.]

Hey anon, I don’t feel comfy giving you my receipts (because doxxing is a thing) but here you go, a selfie with my most recent insulin purchase. 👽

(source) (source) (source) (source) (source) (source) (source)

Transcript:

Anonymous asked: Getting desperate for money again I see. How is your fake diabetes lately. I bet your blood sugar is like 800 this time and you're still able to be alive somehow.

You got me, I’m ~totally faking~

[A selfie of Kat. In the background several items used by diabetics are seen such as insulin syringes, glucose tablets, a blood sugar tester and test strips.]

[A picture that gives us a closer look at the background of the previous selfie.]

[A selfie of Kat holding up two vials, one of Lantus and the other of Humalog.]

Gee, must be one dedicated faker, right? To have hundreds of dollars of insulin equipment and insulin itself. Hmmm… Insulin syringes, glucose tablets, a blood sugar tester and test strips.. oh and insulin, hmmmm….

Oh and because you didn’t learn from last time you don’t die instantly when your blood sugar goes over 600 lol, something anyone who studies endocrinology can tell you, and I would know, being a diabetic, having to be hospitalized numerous times for ketoacidosis where the blood sugar has been too high for too long. Things you clearly do not know and you’re just jumping on the disableist bandwagon. I have an idea of who you are anyway, just doing this for future reference.

(source)

[hopeymchope]

Anon here who was bullied as a kid and leans conservative. Asking completely sincerely, what do you mean by the love of bullies/abusers in media being tied to modern conservtism.?Admittedly I'm moreso a moderate who happens to agree with several conservative outlooks than a full conservative. Unless you meant the ties to Trump, which I'd argue is seperate from actual conservatism. (Just to be clear again, this isn't anon hate or anything. I just want to understand where you were coming from.)

Oh god, okay, I’ll go ahead and open this can of worms. :)

You accurately guessed that when I say "modern conservatism," I really meant the post-Trump "modern American conservatism.” The entire conservative movement has been deeply co-opted by Trump and his ilk over the past six or seven years. Conservative Republicans and Fox News and the like in the U.S. have fallen over themselves to get in line with his views to the point where it now seems clear that his believers are no longer outliers to conservatism (which still seemed to be true even as recently as 2015); they're the majority of the movement. It's like when we passed that tipping point where the opposite of "literally" became an accepted definition of the word; Trump his cronies have gone from odd extremists that were doing it wrong to becoming so successful that they created the modern definition of American conservatism, IMO. 

But I do think that the building blocks of Trump-era bullying were already present in pre-Trump American conservatism, too. You see it in how they argued for decades against gay rights and trans rights (and in fact, the latter fight remains a particularly hot topic). It’s pure discrimination against those who already have life harder in our society. I could also extend this to many years of lies about illegal immigrants supposedly causing/increasing crime rates, which helps fuel racism against Latinos. Unlike many American conservative viewpoints, that one hasn’t been unique to Republicans; just look at Clinton’s anti-immigrant policies in the ‘90s. 

Furthermore, Trump’s modern version of conservatism, with all its celebration of bullying and cruelty, rose to prominence after corporations were legally emboldened in how they use their money to purchase political ads for their views and buy influence with candidates and even began to surreptitiously insert their views and beliefs into hundreds of local news programs across the nation. These are yet more ways in which the few who are wealthy use their power to ensure the rank-and-file of the lower classes will latch onto views that are against their own interests. Even this aspect of pre-Trump conservatism is, in my opinion, “bullying” at is core.

But let me step back and explain what I mean by that. Why are conservative views against the interests of the poor? I’m talking about the fact that conservatives in America have, for decades now, promoted the idea of slashing funding for social assistance programs such as welfare and food stamps and disability benefits and Medicaid. This is often argued by claiming that there are widespread liars who are cheating the system. (In reality, the last time we got an official reported number of Americans who were on government assistance, it was 52,200,000 as of 2015. In the same year, there were 71,003 cases of potential fraud reported to the government in 2020, and out of those reports, only 682 fraud offenders were identified; that’s 0.013% of recipients) At the same time, conservatives have long advocated tax cuts for the wealthy as a means of supposedly creating “trickle-down” benefits for either lower classes or, in more recent incarnations, their direct employees. (Nevermind that studies have repeatedly shown that trickle-down economics don’t work.) 

Handing out monetary gifts for those in power while taking food and necessary income from the weak and downtrodden; it’s pure bullying to me, writ large.

But these are all, admittedly, just some aspects of pre-Trump conservatism in America. There are some aspects that I don’t take issue with. There’s the desire to have more localized government and less federal governmen. There’s “peace through strength” — the conservative argument for a large and powerful military presence so as to engender fear from outside nations, scaring them away from ever attacking us. It’s another one of those views you see in both of the major political parties, and that use of intimidation could be argued to be a form of bullying. But I think that’s open to interpretation, because we could theoretically have such a military without exercising the interventionalist policies that made America into the boogeyman for so many countries. 

Finally, JUST IN CASE someone reading this would like me to justify why I’d qualify Trump as a “bully,” I guess I’ll go off on that tangent, too. But I’ll keep it under this cut. Because it seems pretty obvious?

We know Trump is a bully from how he gives belittling nicknames to anyone he considers his enemy (i.e., anyone who dares to question him, like “LIttle Marco” Rubio and “Wee Mike” Bloomberg) and celebrates and encourages violence against anyone who disagrees with him. He’s also much, much worse than a bully in that he forces his staff to sign “loyalty oaths” to him and him alone, boasts about his sexual assaults, and embraces horrific treatment of minorities and/or non-citizens, including ripping their children from their families, performing medical abuse, keeping them in concentration camps, etc. He's also a spoiled brat who claims that everything is "rigged" if he doesn't get his way. To say nothing of how 67% of his statements while in office were easily proven lies. If any of this sounds fake to you, feel free to Google it, because it doesn’t take much time to prove that it’s all true. The point is that all of these things are excused and, in many cases, gleefully embraced by his followers, who now even have an increasingly popular cable TV station dedicated to reinforcing their alternate reality.

[dear-diary-where-is-my-soul]

Hey Diary,

It has been... almost a whole year? Idk. I’m here anyhow. I somehow got it into my head that when high school was over, I would somehow become magically no longer mentally ill. That didn’t happen, obviously. So here I am. I did a bit of digging and I think I have ADHD (Which I like to call dopamine deficiency) and also ASD (Which I like to call a pain in my ass). I’m just kidding, they’re both a pain in my ass. But at least I know what it’s called. I can kind of manage it now because I spent hours looking for management plans that work for both ADHD and Autism, and seeing what worked for me. I know for a fact that I have Anxiety (Of the social variant - possibly tied to autism) and depression (That I’ve had since age 12 - about 6 years). I thought I was over my anorexia but it keeps pestering in the back of my mind. I’m eating now, but it still isn’t 3 meals a day. It’s not ‘healthy’ meals but it’s better than nothing. I still think that sometimes I’m not worth the food. My boyfriend (The same boyfriend) is a really good cook. His food is so good. But neither of us can eat it.   I moved out for a short while, about 4 months. I moved in with my boyfriend, who moved in about 9 or so months before me, with his ‘dad’ (Non-bio, no longer dating [Boyfriends] mother). During those 4 months, I spent more than 1000′s dollars in savings not to mention my Centrelink payments, which only started during the second month [half of what my boyfriend was getting], to trying to keep me and my boyfriend alive. Which would’ve been way easier if I didn’t need to spend over 500 dollars in taxi fees because his dad didn’t know when to stop drinking. So, a little bit of extra kicked in the fucking balls, Before I moved in, I was told that I wouldn’t need to worry about rent until my Centrelink payments were sorted. But, when we move out, my boyfriend sold his bike and 650 of that money was given to his dad because he was keeping track of how long I didn’t pay rent for and said I owned it to him. Even Though my boyfriend offered 2/3 of my rent (Plus his own) every payday. We were both told that it was fine and that we didn’t have to worry about it.  He always complained about me being anti-social. Which was really fucking clear to begin with. I never said that I would be interacting with him more than what was comfortable. This was his main excuse for drinking. But, until I moved in he completely ignored my boyfriends attempts to be social with him.  He wasn’t my type of person. Conservative, mid 40′s, cis-het, white man with ASD and previous alcohol and drug use problems. AKA ‘There’s nothing wrong with the world you’re just to sensitive, men are men and women are women nothing will change that, except don’t move my living room around because that’s too much for me to handle’.  He used to scream at my boyfriend that he isn’t a real guy, but got upset when my boyfriend then put distance between them to not get any more hurt and depressed. I hated it. I can’t handle any loud noises or anything like that. It sends me up the wall with anxiety and I’m very easily over stimulated. Unfortunately, our roommate did not get over stimulated easily and really like heavy metal, which he would play unbearably loud until 2-3 AM on the weekends. He also nearly broke our bedroom door several times. He would scream insults at us through the door and while outside our window (which had a little undercover deck-type-thing, where he drank himself stupid).  Me and my boyfriend took a two week holiday up back to our home town, because my boyfriend was having stress-induced Seizures. He was having full-on whole-body fits every 2-3 days that lasted about 5 minutes (These have stopped since we moved out). Anyway, we got back home, being dropped off by my bf’s mum,( who has since very much mellowed out [about my boyfriend being trans] by having another kid, this kid is nearly 18 months old, has some kind of IBS [Unconfirmed as of yet, but he is in a lot of pain]). We put away the few bits of shopping we got, as we were band from touching our roommates food over a month before because he was asked not to eat ours (Not true, but he did use a full packet of our cheese [7 or 8 bucks per packet] in one meal that neither me or my boyfriend liked or could eat, which we were talking about to my boyfriends mother who mentioned it). He also said that we accused him of stealing and shit like that (We didn’t). But anyway, We make dinner because it was around 5;30 or so and we didn’t eat lunch. We put of a movie in the background and my boyfriend goes out for a cigarette on the deck-thing and when he comes back in he tells my that our roommate has been drinking but will stop soon because we’re home.  8:30 comes around, me and my bf are heading to bed with the same movie on in the background and that’s when the screaming starts. 20 whole minutes of our roommate screaming “FAGGOTS” to try to get our attention. During this time, we call my bf’s mum, who is still in town because she had a doctors appointment the next day, staying at my bf’s nans house. We then get up, grab our still-packed from our two week trip (day)bags, and wall ten minutes away to the shopping centre near-by and call a taxi.  During that night, our (ex)roommate texted my bfs mum basically saying that we are ‘kicked out’ and that he hates all of us. This isn’t the first time this has happened but it is definitely the last. We went back, the next day while he was at work, grabbed our other bags and a few of the essential items we wanted for the next week or so. Our landlord (ex-roommates mother) said that everything was fine to stay there until we could get it picked up within the next two months or so. She offered to pack it all up for us as well, which we accepted because neither of us wanted to go back to that house again.  We haven’t been there, or seen him since. My bf’s mother’s bf went with my brother to pick up all of the rest of our stuff a week after we left. We set back up in my home town, now both of us have been ripped away from our new doctors, our counsellors and my new therapist less than a week before my first appointment (which I now do via telehealth [phone/video calls]). This was about a month ago. me and my bf now have set up and pay for our internet ourselves and I got a disney+ subscription because I'm obsessed with feeling the safety I felt during childhood.  Anyway, I live with my boyfriend and his mum and her boyfriend and their 1 year old. Both of my parents live in this town but we’ve been in lock down and I haven’t been able to see them. I feel like I’m drowning because I don’t go outside. I used to walk with my boyfriend, but because he has several chronic health issues we can’t risk him going outside and he can not exercise as much as either of us would like due to chronic pains (And a busted knee which he has scans for in a fortnight or so). I’m in an online course, which was fully government subsidized due to the amount of people who need training or retraining after Covid-19. I really like it, and it is making me think more harshly about wanting to start a business. However, I don’t think I can do the assessments. Almost all of them seem to require me being social on the online group chats, and it fuels my social anxiety so much I didn’t do anything to my course for a whole month. And this whole thing was a way to help me get rid of those feelings, but I still don’t know what to do. How do I word it to the teachers? I haven’t talked to any of them before and it might seem like I just don’t want to put in the work in the social aspects of my assessments because I don’t have a diagnoses.  This sucks. I can barely sit my ass down and read through the work as it is. Then I start thinking about how I'm 1 quarter of the way through this course and haven’t brought myself to do a single assessment. Then I freak out over how much I’ve done (or haven’t done) and don’t end up doing the work. 

[ruminativerabbi]

Vulnerability

Vulnerability has a bad rep in our world. In fact, what we all long for is precisely the opposite: to feel invulnerable, impervious to incoming danger, safe and secure not only when we hide under our beds in the dark of night but when we are out and about in the world. But we—speaking of society as a whole but also of us ourselves as individuals—we may have moved a bit quickly in that regard and not sufficiently thoughtfully. Being paralyzed with fear about dangers that are highly unlikely to come our way—that kind of vulnerability is definitely something negative that all who can should avoid. But owning up to the vulnerability that inheres in the human condition itself is in a different category entirely. As this last pandemic year has taught us all too well, it is only a sign of maturity and self-awareness to own up to the degree to which we can fall prey to a virus so tiny that you’d need an electron microscope to see it at all and to behave accordingly. And waving away that danger as fake news because you don’t choose to acknowledge your own vulnerability is not a sign of courage or valor, but of lunacy born of a witch’s brew of foolishness, naiveté, and arrogance.

As I prepared myself for surgery last week, I was feeling exceedingly vulnerable. I lay in bed at night talking to my heart, asking why it wasn’t just doing its thing properly on its own, why it was intent on betraying me after all these years of me not burdening it by smoking cigarettes or consuming huge quantities of trans fat. Didn’t I deserve better? I certainly thought I did! But now that the whole procedure is behind me and I’m feeling healthy and fortunate to live in an age of miracles (and if having a non-functioning valve in your heart replaced without them having to open your chest and then being sent home the next day to recuperate doesn’t qualify as a miracle, then what would?)—now that all that is behind me, I see that intense vulnerability that I was feeling in the days leading up to last Thursday in a much less negative light. Yes, there are people who live in terror of an asteroid colliding with the Earth. (For NASA’s own statement about the likelihood of that happening, click here. We’re apparently good for at least the next couple of centuries.) But that’s not the kind of slightly obsessive vulnerability I want to promote as healthy and sane, but rather the kind that speaks not to fantasy but to reality. To the fact that our hearts are not made of steel and that our bones really do crack quite easily. To the fact that, despite all we do to suggest that the opposite is true, we are mortal beings lucky to be gifted with a few score years to wander the earth, to do whatever good we can, to leave behind some sort of legacy for our descendants to contemplate positively once we ourselves are no longer around to be contemplated in person. Feeling vulnerable because the human condition is vulnerability itself—that isn’t craziness or obsessivity, just an honest appraisal of how things are in this world we all share for as long as we do.

These were the thoughts I had in mind as I read the report in the paper the other day about people coming to shul last Shabbat on 16th Avenue in Boro Park last week only to be greeted by men gathered in front of the synagogue screaming “Kill the Jews” and “Free Palestine.” Which kind of vulnerable did those people feel, I wonder—the silly kind (because there weren’t that many hooligans in front of the synagogue, because the cops showed up almost instantly, because the bad guys didn’t actually have guns with them or bombs, and because they fled the scene once they realized how completely outnumbered they were about to become) or the wise kind rooted in a fully rational appraisal of how things are in this world we share with so many who seem to feel entirely justified in their bigotry and prejudice and who appear mostly to have no problem putting both on full display for all to admire? (For an account of the Boro Park incident, click here.) I’m hardly an alarmist who sees a pogrom around every corner. But, of course, it’s hardly an example of alarmism to be alarmed when truly alarming things happen. Maybe I’ve read too many books about Germany in the 1930s. Or maybe not.

We have entered into a new stage, a dangerous and upsetting one. At first, the stories appeared random. A twenty-nine-year-old man wearing a kippah was beat up in Times Square as he tried to make his way to a pro-Israel rally. Then, a day or two later, a group of thugs wearing keffiyehs invaded a restaurant on 40th Street and started spitting on patrons they suspected of being Jewish. Next we heard about people being attacked in the Diamond District on 47th Street, where it isn’t ever hard to come across some Jewish businesspeople or shoppers.  Two days later we were back in Times Square, this time watching footage of a Jewish man being knocked to the ground and beaten in front of the TKTS buttke where they used to sell last-minute tickets to unsold-out Broadway shows when the theaters were open.  Nor is this just a New York thing: the police in L.A. are currently investigating an attack on outside diners at a Japanese restaurant as an anti-Semitic hate crime that occurred the same day that a family of four was terrorized in Bal Harbour, Florida, by a group of men threatening to rape the wife and daughter and yelling “Die Jews” and “Free Palestine” at them. I could go on. There have been similar incidents in New Jersey, Illinois, Utah, Arizona, and several other states. And although I’m focused here mostly on American incidents, the rise in this kind of hate crime is not specifically an American phenomenon: we’ve read of similar, even worse, incidents just lately in London, in Germany, and in Italy.

The question is how to respond, not whether we should. The fantasy that complaining only makes things worse needs to be laid to rest permanently and irrevocably. (The Jewish community could learn a good lesson in that regard from Black America, where it was once also imagined that responding publicly to racism would only make things worse. It’s hard to imagine any Black citizens putting that argument forth today, yet I hear it from Jewish Americans regularly.) Nor can we allow ourselves the luxury of imagining that this dramatic uptick in anti-Jewish violence is “about” Israel. Israel’s recent war with Hamas was, in my opinion, entirely justified. I can see how people might feel otherwise, and even strongly so. But I know too much history—and specifically too much Jewish history—to indulge in the fantasy that anti-Semitism is “about” anything other than the hatred of Jewish people, Judaism, and Jewishness itself. No matter how many shows an actor appears in, he’s the same person under all of the costumes he gets paid to wear on stage.

I myself have lived a blessed life. Born just eight and a half years after the Nazis were murdering up to twelve thousand people a day at Auschwitz, I have hardly ever encountered real anti-Semitism directed directly at me personally. (And I speak as someone who spent several years living in Germany in the 1980s.) Nonetheless, sensitivity to anti-Jewish rhetoric and violence is the hallmark of my Jewishness, the foundation upon which my eager willingness to live my life as a public, fully-identified, and unambiguously-identifiable Jewish person rests. And that is why I am disinclined to wave away the latest series of anti-Semitic incidents in New York and elsewhere as a random set of creepy one-time events—nor would anyone describe that way who has ever read a book about the history of anti-Judaism or anti-Semitism. For people eager to dine at my table, I recommend Walter Laqueurs’s The Changing Face of Anti-Semitism: From Ancient Times to the Present Day  as your appetizer, Léon Poliakov’s four-volume History of Anti-Semitism as your main course with a side serving of David Nirenberg’s Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition. For dessert, I  recommend Deborah Lipstadt’s Antisemitism: Here and Now. I can promise you that you won’t be hungry when you’re done.

There have been encouraging signs too, of course. President Biden has spoken out sharply and strongly against the uptick in anti-Semitic incidents, calling them despicable and condemning them unequivocally as “hateful behavior.” We have heard similarly supportive rhetoric from Governor Cuomo, Mayor Di Blasio, Senators Schumer and Gillibrand. So that’s good. But will any of the actual sonim out to harm Jews hold back because of a presidential tweet or a senatorial press release?  On the other hand, there were seventeen thousand tweets disseminated by Twitter last week that contained some version of the words “Hitler was right.” Just wait until they find out that the President considers them despicable!

I don’t mean to sound unhappy that supportive, unambiguous language denouncing anti-Semitism has emanated from the highest offices in the land. Just to the contrary, I am thrilled that our leadership has spoken out so boldly and clearly. But I also don’t imagine it will matter until it is deemed just as unacceptable to speak disparagingly about Jews in public as it is—at least in all places that decent people gather and live—to espouse hate-fueled violence against Black people or Asian-Americans, or any other American minority. And that will take—at least in some quarters—a sea change of attitude that can only be accomplished through the kind of ongoing educative process capable of moving society forward. How to do that, I’m not sure. But I am sure that that is the challenge the new normal has laid at our feet. And I am as sure about that as I am that these recent incidents, for all they come dressed up as part of the Israeli-Palestinian controversy, have nothing at all to do with Middle Eastern politics and everything to do with the unique place anti-Jewishness continues to occupy in Western culture as the one remaining version of bigotry to which otherwise normal and nice people can still openly subscribe without suffering much for their views. Or at all.

[chinloopa]

I said that I was going to be done talking about this, but this is a perfect example of every point that I was trying to make yesterday - so I’m talking about it again. Because I think it’s important and nescessary. This is the problem with this kind of discourse; this is the problem with spreading misinformation. It fuels more misinformation and it becomes a “fuck trannies” shit show. So, let’s go over this again:

1.) Trans is a medical condition, it is not a mental disease. It is something that happens in utero, it is not something that happens to us at some point in our lives. A trans person was always trans, even if it takes us a while to realize it, even if it takes us a while to understand that about ourselves, it was always the case and it will always be the case. You’re born trans and you die trans there is no changing it, there is only management through treatment. It’s not something that we can change or fix, it’s not something therapy can change or fix. That’s like saying you can fix being gay by going to therapy. It doesn’t work that way. Do trans people need therapy? Sure. I think everyone needs therapy. Life is a shit show and the vast majority of us need someone to talk to and someone to teach us healthy coping mechanisms but not all trans people need to be in therapy and if they do the end goal is not to “stop being trans”, it is to be a healthier, happier, more emotionally capable person. A trans person can be healthy, happy and emotionally capable and still be transgender and still need to undergo sexual reassignment surgery. Stop with this “therapy” bullshit. This isn’t bipolar, this isn’t depression, this isn’t PTSD. Being trans is not going to be fixed by going to therapy. Going to therapy is not going to make us suddenly happy with our bodies and alleviate our dysphoria. Stop that.

2.) Trans people don’t go to an emergency room or a “hospital” to get treatment or surgery. We go to a designated surgeon who is, nine times out of ten, specifically trained to do TRANS surgeries. Most times this surgeon doesn’t do anything BUT transgender related surgeries - they are a TRANS surgeon. They don’t moonlight removing cancer on the weekends. There definitely are surgeons who do both! But predominantly people who need surgery to remove cancer go to an oncologist that specializes in that kind of cancer or in the area of the body the cancer is infecting. Trans men looking to get a mastectomy do not go to oncologists for surgery because they do not have cancer. There may be rare cases where oncologists and trans surgeons share surgery rooms and resources but specifically speaking, a trans person is not going to have their surgery cancelled “in favor of doing more mastectomies”. That just isn’t reality. A trans person’s medical health is not going to just get thrown out the window randomly because someone needs cancer removed so, oop! Oh well! Guess Jon Tranny is shit out of luck. No surgery for you! Tough Shit! No, come on. It doesn’t work that way. At absolute worst there’s a scheduling mishap and the less life-threatening case (in this case the trans surgery) is rescheduled as soon as possible. That’s it. That’s all there is to it. It’s not that big of a deal.

3.) Shut the fuck up about cancer patients being more important. No one is claiming cancer patients are not important or are less important than trans people. Just shut up about that, no one but a fucking lunatic is buying into the “us-vs-them” bullshit. No one. It isn’t reality and it doesn’t work that way. Both of these cases are equally important to the individuals we are talking about and there is no (or very little) overlap because they are largely dealt with by different surgeons, using different facilities, acquiring different funding that is overseen by different branches of medical treatment. Stop. Just ... stop.

4.) Trans surgery is cosmetic in the same ways that skin grafts for burn victims is cosmetic. In the same way that penile reconstruction for men who have had accidents and damaged their penises is cosmetic. Do not fall into the trap of “cosmetic” meaning: unnecessary. It isn’t. Trans people’s surgeries are not unnecessary and they’re not frivolant or flippant. Let’s just... be really clear about that. Because the term “cosmetic” is so easily misunderstood as “unnecessary” - you’d be doing all your trans followers and friends a huge service by simply not referring to our medical needs as “cosmetic”. It’s like you don’t refer to your down syndrome friend as “retarded”. Is it technically true? Possibly, but you don’t say that because it’s fucking rude and it carries really negative connotations. If you do this, you’re going to rub your trans friends and followers the wrong way and it will lead to discourse.

In conclusion, if you are going to spread misinformation and create a topic of discussion that isn’t based in reality or facts, that misrepresents how trans issues work, then you’re feeding into anti-trans sentiment and creating a playground for transphobia and transphobic comments. If that doesn’t matter to you, by all means... keep on keepin’ on... however, if it’s important to you to not make your trans followers feel like crap or feel like they’re being shit on universally - try not to spread misinformation and try not to foster conversations that paint trans people universally as some kind of greedy monsters who are snatching treatment away from cancer patients because we’re “more important” or some bullshit. That isn’t happening, it’s not reality and all you’re really doing is opening the door for shitty, transphobic assholes to further ostracize us on a platform where we’re already pretty much unanimously hated because we don’t follow the trender flow and buy into all of that bullshit. So... like... yeah. Can we stop all this fucking bullshit now? kthnx

SJC

[cognitivecapricorn]

Another Rant Time

Now I’m back with another rant this time there’s something more I need to get off my chest so if you are a stan or pro of any kind you do not want to read this. Also a trigger warning of language

First off, STOP USING HEADCANONS AS YOUR LINE OF DEFENSE WHEN TRYING TO “DEFEND” YOUR SHIP. Let me say it again

Stop. Using. Headcanons, which by definition are “Elements and interpretations of a fictional universe accepted by an individual fan, but not found within or supported by the official canon.” as your means to justify and defend an argument. 

Headcanons are supposed to be fun and creative and add new twists  to the fandom, but you kill all of that when you shove it down the throats of others and try to act superior. 

Prime example? “Oh hey I think [insert Naruto character here] is [gay/lesbian/bisexual/trans/aro/ace/LITERALLY ANY PART OF THE LGBTQ SPECTRUM]” <<<< this? Cool. Love it. Awesome. Fantastic!

Where it goes wrong? 

Stan Type A: Lol sweetie Naruto and Sasuke aren’t gay because canon

Stan Tybe B: Omg look at all these het shippers so madddd

Stan Type C: Listen here homophobic scum!

This is happening far too much and there’s a word for why that is:

^^^^ see this??? Learn it. Memorize it. Internalize it. 

This is the fuel that gets a lot pros to hop on the essays of those who are against the “popular ships.” This is where people are either coining themselves antis or being called haters. THIS RIGHT HERE, especially others are doing the opposite which is this!:

Seriously if I had a dollar for every stan/pro going on to a thread and trying to defend their ship just because OP pointed out facts from the canon source I’d have my student debt paid off. Like, it’s rather pathetic that as old as the Naruto fandom is, there this hive-minded mentality that states the following:

- NH is our sunshine family and our one and only sunshine family how dare you try to oppose it

-SS is the one true love and goals you are just jealous and or upset.

-Hinata is the Byakugan queen you must learn your place peasant.

-Sakura is Queen she was always the best no matter what you say.

And if you, by any margin happen to disagree with those then you are a deadman walking. You are a non-believer, you are a witch and must be put at the stake.

This may sound weird to some but it’s out there. If you know of FF.net they are famous for the “Kill yourself disgusting virgin.” Comments if you EVER write crack pairings. Let that sink in for a moment. There are people, going around the internet, telling authors (some may even be as young as 16/17) to end their lives...

And it’s honestly why many pros ad stans are hated. And its why SS/NH are also hated and why SNS his such a mixed bag(IMO).

You know they old saying of “A few bad apples spoiled the bunch.”? Boom. Case and point right here. 

Too many seem to think that it’s okay to just say what they want just because they are on “team canon” or it’s the new thing to do. Riding a bandwagon does not make you popular on ANY side of the spectrum. 

- You can still be a Hinata fan and dislike NH and Boruto

-You can still a Sakura fan and dislike Gaidan and SS

-You can still be a Naruto fan and dislike NH/Boruto while not shipping him romantically with Sasuke

-You can still be a Sasuke fan and dislike SS/Gaidan while not shipping him romantically with Naruto

-You can have your LGBTQQIAAP Headcanons.

YOU CAN. IT IS INDEED POSSIBLE I’M DOING SO AS I TYPE THIS!!!

You cannot go out of your way and try to play canon police just because YOU feel like you should defend your precious ship... No one cares about canon any more Jan...

I mean many people for various reasons hate the last, hate gaidan, really hate the ending, hell some people beautifully demonstrated flaws in the serious that have been overlooked!

So here’s how this will wrap up, honestly it’s just getting far to petty with how some are handling it, and  the whole “oh well your just an anti too soo...” 

yeah and I’m annoyed with how others are acting! Soo if there are those who can call other people retard and other derogatory and phobic words hell I’m gonna have a rant about it. If this bothered you then you should click away/block me/ scroll away now. 

[russianbossbitch-blog]

Hate Runs Deep

I am a Russian-American. I was born in the final years of the Soviet Union and my mom and I moved to the US when I was five, just after the fall of the Communist regime. 

Being brought up in the States, and particularly in hyper-politically correct Seattle, I learned, like all kids in whichever culture they grow up in, that certain things were good and certain things were bad. 

Judging someone by their skin color was bad, saying the n-word was bad, etc - you know these rules better than I do. 

However, these things were not taught to me by my parents. I learned these things from social cues.

My mother did not instruct me on the social norms of racial dialogue, as she, probably with more difficulty than me, was also adjusting to a completely foreign and new country. 

In the Soviet Union there was “druzhba narovod” (friendship between nations) as the bloc was also made up of many different peoples. However, I’m actually not sure how how the Communist ideal of brotherhood among nations played out and whether there was latent racism. If you know, please educate me. But somehow I doubt that Russia’s current political landscape and nationalistic tendencies are completely new and non-existent during the Communist era. 

Anyways, the point is that upon assimilating to American culture, I also became good at mimicking the social mores. I naturally (due to the place I grew up) leaned toward liberalism. I marched in Seattle with friends during anti-WTO rallies and I also had friends that represented different shades on the spectrum, including black, gay, trans, Latino, etc. 

So I created a persona in my mind about the person I thought I was - a liberal West coast intellectual. Often when I would visit Russia, I would argue with my friends over gay rights and racism. 

Then, three years ago, I got unexpectedly pregnant. It was an easy decision to make where to live - Russia, because I would be able to stay at my mom’s apartment there and medicine and education were free, plus my relatives were there.

Adjusting to the “old country” proved to be difficult. Living in Moscow was such a stark contrast to what I have grown used to living for the previous years in NYC. Being pregnant immediately meant I didn’t have the freedom to pick up and leave and I needed to think about long-term goals. Retrospectively, at 29, I think it was about time. 

The adjustment period lasted, I would say about three years. Only now am I starting to come out crippling culture shock and depression. 

I had many realizations along the way, which I’ll surely share in future posts, but a major breakthrough came when I confronted my own latent racism, homophobia and flat out HATE deeply rooted into the crevices of my subconscious mind. 

Coming to Russia and especially having a child triggered all of my inherited core beliefs and value systems. 

Fundamentally, these were the following: 

As a women, I am less than a man. I inherently cannot achieve as much as a man can

People of color, (mostly Black, Arabs) were ignorant and barbaric. This idea was consistently further fueled by mainstream Media. 

Gay people were inherently messed up, that one an energetic level the only correct scheme of things is a man + woman

I know this isn’t the prettiest truth to admit to. But it took me admitting these things to myself to finally break free from them. And let me tell you, it was not easy. 

I think the moment when it all shifted was when I realized how much energy I was spending on trying to figure out what the truth was on the matter. Were women inherently weaker? Were gays wrong? 

I spent so much energy on this. At times I would feel a rush of confidence, especially if I read or consumed some bit of information that would support this subconscious view, but then the feeling was fleeting and would soon dissolve in doubt. 

I yearned for a definitive answer on the matter, but couldn’t seem to find it. 

Finally, I just got tired with this line of thought and asked myself “does this really matter”? I came to the conclusion that it didn’t; that a person could do good things whether he was straight or gay, and a person could equally do completely evil things whether they were white, black, Asian, Russian, American, woman, man, etc. 

After this realization I was able to localize the feeling inside that tumbling inside of me, taking form of different thoughts and pointing its laser focus on different scapegoats, but at its core remained the same -- it was plain old hate. 

As soon as I grasped this all-consuming hateful energy within my consciousness, it was as if the spell was lifted and I finally was able to transgress and transmutate into a higher plane. I also realized that that feeling had been with me for so long, morphing and taking on different masks, but essentially always remaining the same hate that I must have absorbed as a child from my caregivers. 

The amazing thing was that after that realization, I wasn’t bothered anymore with those question. I was able to let go. 

I’m writing this not with the purpose to educate you. I’m sure you are aware of the importance of choosing love over hate. 

The reason I’m writing this is to make a point that sometimes, probably more often than not, we tend to promote an idea or concept, without fully taking responsibility for our own involvement in the perpetration of the very thing we are protesting. 

It’s much like the concept “resistance only give the thing you are resisting more power.” 

As I watch the rise on nationalism taking place throughout European countries, Trump’s presidency and the polarization of the US, Russian anti-gay rhetoric, I wonder if the only true way to tackle radicalization is to truly let go of all feelings of attachment to the concept. It just doesn’t matter. And my not caring about those things we are taught to care about so much, does not show emotional numbness, I actually believe it shows emotional intelligence. 

PS. the picture above is my husband’s tattoo. He got it when he was 14, the beautiful age when we want to belong and fight for a cause. It has been a point of major contention between me and my family and friends, who have a hard time letting go of the fear associated with the symbol. 

Needless to say, we are trying to get it removed. Anton, my husband, has changed and is more embarrassed by it now. He cannot go swimming with me and our son in public. 

If you would like to help us remove this outdate symbol of hate, we would be very grateful! 

paypal: esperansky@gmail.com