#to scare the republicans of course

[q1mblrrd]

In honor of trump coming into office I've decided to make a new gender because I want to piss Republicans off

I made the flag myself and im calling it pictogender. Pictogender is a gender in which someone feels that their gender is best reflected through images/photos/or clips of film. They might have Pinterest boards or other art boards that describe their gender. This gender is a Nonbinary/Agender spec and falls under the Neurogender categories, but is not exclusive to Neurodivergent people.

Fuck trump and fuck the Republicans, I'm going to Pinterest.

[steal-this-idea]

I can't imagine the fucked up shit Biden would have to do and plan in the next few months to get Republicans to fast-track a Constitutional Amendment overturning this decision and officially making no one above the law because that's probably what it would have to take

Please read the last two paragraphs of Justice Sonia Sotomayor's dissent to the recent 6-3 decision granting presidents absolute immunity:

Looking beyond the fate of this particular prosecution, the long-term consequences of today’s decision are stark. The Court effectively creates a law-free zone around the President, upsetting the status quo that has existed since the Founding. This new official-acts immunity now “lies about like a loaded weapon” for any President that wishes to place his own interests, his own political survival, or his own financial gain, above the interests of the Nation. The President of the United States is the most powerful person in the country, and possibly the world. When he uses his official powers in any way, under the majority’s reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution. Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon Immune. Immune, immune, immune. Let the President violate the law, let him exploit the trappings of his office for personal gain, let him use his official power for evil ends. Because if he knew that he may one day face liability for breaking the law, he might not be as bold and fearless as we would like him to be. That is the majority’s message today. Even if these nightmare scenarios never play out, and I pray they never do, the damage has been done. The relationship between the President and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably. In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law. The majority’s single-minded fixation on the President’s need for boldness and dispatch ignores the countervailing need for accountability and restraint. The Framers were not so single-minded. In the Federalist Papers, after “endeavor[ing] to show” that the Executive designed by the Constitution “combines . . . all the requisites to energy," Alexander Hamilton asked a separate, equally important question: “Does it also combine the requisites to safety, in a republican sense, a due dependence on the people, a due responsibility?”. The answer then was yes, based in part upon the President’s vulnerability to “prosecution in the common course of law.” The answer after today is no. Never in the history of our Republic has a President had reason to believe that he would be immune from criminal prosecution if he used the trappings of his office to violate the criminal law. Moving forward, however, all former Presidents will be cloaked in such immunity. If the occupant of that office misuses official power for personal gain, the criminal law that the rest of us must abide will not provide a backstop. With fear for our democracy, I dissent.

[finchandthebard]

The "tiktok ban" should scare you and here's why.

Rant made by an autistic, history-loving, chronically online American tiktok cosplayer. Please let me know if I've gotten anything wrong and I will edit the post.

Reblog to spread awareness!

This is not just about Tiktok, and it's not about national security. The Tiktok ban is wrapped up in the "Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act" which has the ability to ban any foreign website or app that the United States government sees as a threat to their "democracy." Not only that, but if the gov't didn't want China to gather data, then they would ban things like Shein and Temu (the latter which they advertised during the Super Bowl), which collect similar data that Tiktok does. If they wanted to prevent our data being stolen in general, they would ban companies like Meta, which monetarily supports the Tiktok ban and had to change their name because "Facebook" was associated with the largest data leak in history.

The documentations of the Tiktok court interrogations prove how incompetent our government is. Repeatedly asking the TikTok CEO Mr. Chew if he's Chinese while he repeatedly assures them he's Singaporean. The officials being concerned that they can't find Singapore on a map. The officials then being confused why the app would be able to have access to their wifi because it needs wifi to load.

The possibility of the US buying Tiktok exposes a greater issue in America: monopolies. The Sherman Antitrust Act was passed in 1890 that restricted the activities of large companies known as monopolies, which started out as small companies and would either buy other companies or buy the factories which produced all their materials. This eliminated competition in the market and gave the monopolies almost full control of quality and prices of items, and it was considered very anti-American at the time. Since the US already has multiple major social medias, including Facebook (Meta), Instagram (Meta), Threads (Meta), X (formerly Twitter), Snapchat, and Reddit, adding Tiktok would mean that nobody could compete with the US in the social media market. This makes them a monopoly, and it's incredibly dangerous.

Banning Tiktok breaks several American trademarks. A) the Republicans banning Tiktok are very concerned about their second amendment right to own guns, but they seem to not care about the first amendment right to freedom of speech and press, which Tiktok delivers. Of course there are app guidelines, but for the most part you have fairly uncensored political and ethical commentary like no other social media. B) the only other countries that have banned Tiktok are either heavily demonized by America or are direct targets for American propaganda (ex. China), which really doesn't make the ban look good. C) banning a social media for the purpose of censorship is a trademark of communism, which Americans are INCREDIBLY wary of.

Your country may follow in suit. Because of America's influence as a global superpower and an ally to many other major powers, America banning Tiktok would likely lead to a domino effect in other countries.

The rich get richer. There is a concept called social darwinism, in which it is the rich's beliefs that the poor must fend for themselves without the help of the government in order to make a living - "survival of the fittest." Tiktok contributed around $14.7 billion USD in 2023 and $24.2 billion in 2024, and it supports around 224,000 jobs [source]. The actual Tiktok website says in 2023, they contributed $15 billion USD in revenue and supported 7 million US businesses [source]. Without these jobs, there could be in increase in homelessness, debt, and sickness due to withdrawals (if you're incredibly addicted to Tiktok) and lack of quick dopamine hits (due to the rapidfire nature of the algorithm).

Remember that the president is not your friend !! Many of the political figures rallying to support Tiktok right now, such as President Biden, initially voted for the ban. President Biden is likely supporting now so that Trump won't get credit for it, and future President Trump is likely doing it for brownie points among younger generations.

The Xiaohongshu migration exposed the American government and its lies. The stories from American 'Tiktok refugees' about the questions from native Chinese on the Xiaohongshu / Rednote / Redbook app (considered the Chinese mixed of Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook) posed a lot of conspiracies and realizations about the American government. The Chinese actually own their homes, they have lower food prices than we do, and they have a slim homelessness rate. Whether this is true or not, it has greatly influenced how we see ourselves in the grand scheme of the American oligarchy, and that is not something that can be suppressed with an app being banned.

Tiktok is not totally Chinese! The CEO is Singaporean, as I've already stated, and there are multiple headquarters in the US, with the main one being in Los Angeles.

In conclusion...

Whether Tiktok is banned or not, whether permanently or not, no matter who saves it or rallies against it, remember that it is harder to scare and control someone when they are in a group. And if you think this was interesting, I'd love it if you could reblog to show some support and inform your friends as well. <3

THIS IS NOT RIGHT VS LEFT❗️IT'S UP VS DOWN❗️

[catboybiologist]

Yay I'm going to get all Political and angry again.

So pretty much every trans American is probably aware of the Sarah McBride situation at this point, but here's the bullet point summary if needed for anyone else:

Sarah McBride gets elected to the House as the first transgender member of Congress in US history.

Republicans predictably flip their shit. They pass internal rules of conduct that prohibit trans people from using bathrooms of their gender and stating that bathroom use is defined by AGAB. It obviously singles out McBride, but I believe there are trans staffers that are also affected.

McBride issues a statement that she will abide by these rules, and pretty much only use the bathroom directly associated with her physical office. She issues a statement saying she "wasn't elected for bathrooms" and will instead fight in issues that matter, with a milquetoast criticism of Republicans for wasting time on this.

Many trans Americans are predictably scared and disappointed by this, especially because this internal house rule is being used as a blueprint for more extensive laws, including a likely ban on trans people in gendered bathrooms in all federal land and buildings (including, notably for me, national parks. Which breaks my heart, but that's a different rant.)

There's been a lot of disappointment and criticism of McBride over this. The general leftist reaction has been criticism. There's lots of people that have expressed disappointment or rage, including Erin Reed, and also more "personality" type people like Vaush and Jessie Gender.

Now.

I'm disappointed too.

But. And please keep reading before chewing me out for being an apologist.

I think we can all understand that McBride is in an impossible situation. If she fights this too hard, then it vindicates the Republican rhetoric that Dems are crazy trans obsessed leftists. But there's a fear that this will only lead to more infringements of rights for trans people. McBride is completely stuck, and is a junior, freshly elected member of Congress who is trying to figure out how to make her voice the most effective.

I am so, so fucking tired of rights being ceded one by one. So I'm disappointed. But yeah, I understand McBride's statement.

But there's just one tiny. Eeny weeny. Minor. Itty Bitty question having over all of this. Just one little concern.

Where.

The fuck.

Are the rest of the Democrats?!?!?!?

There is a PAINFULLY fucking easy solution to all of this. McBride needs backing, solidarity, and other people to speak for her. If she's worried about her voice being effective, and being branded as the crazy trans representative, then step the fucking up, you spineless liberal slimebags.

AOC is the only one that I know of that has expressed any real opposition or anger. Her statements are getting aaallll the airtime.

But the real story is McBride's sentiment being echoed amongst the entire party. This is absolutely some kind of official platform. The fucking grumbling, milquetoast finger waving and "well I don't like this, but there's nothing to be done! Anyways"

Of fucking course minorites are abandoning the left. The message they're sending is "we'll abandon you with the most pathetic of excuses. We don't give a shit." Trimming groups out of their support one by one.

McBride is doing the impossible calculus of trying to be the most effective on the house floor. It's an insane task for a trans woman. And yeah, she got it wrong this time. But where the fuck is the anger for her cis colleagues? Why the fuck aren't people angry and terrified for everyone that let this shit happen?

As much as people love the narrative of the line wolf resistor, resistance takes coordination, effort, and solidarity. Without that, what would McBride raising opposition even be? One representative against the hundreds of others.

And yeah, of course I didn't expect any better from the Democratic party. But you should be disappointed and mad at your representative, not just McBride.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Trumpism’s healthcare fracture-lines

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/20/clinical-trial-by-ordeal/#spoiled-his-brand-new-rattle

There was never any question as to whether Trump would implement Project 2025, the 900-page brick of terrifying and unhinged policy prescriptions edited by the Heritage Foundation. He would not implement it, because he could not implement it. No one could. It's impossible.

This isn't a statement about constitutional limits on executive authority or the realpolitik of getting bizarre and stupid policies past judges or through a hair-thin Congressional majority. This is a statement about the incoherence of Project 2025 itself. You probably haven't read it. Few have. Realistically, few people are going to read a 900-page group work of neofeudalist fanfic shit out by the most esoteric Fedsoc weirdos the world has ever seen.

But one person who did read Project 2025 was the leftist historian Rick Perlstein, who was the first person to really dig into what a fucking mess that thing is:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/14/fracture-lines/#disassembly-manual

Perlstein's excellent analysis doesn't claim that Project 2025's authors aren't sincere in their intentions to wreak great harm upon the nation and its people; rather, his point is that Project 2025 is filled with contradictory, mutually exclusive proposals written by people who fundamentally disagree with one another, and who each have enough power within the Trump coalition that all of thier proposals have to be included in a document like this:

https://prospect.org/politics/2024-07-10-project-2025-republican-presidencies-tradition/

Project 2025 isn't just a guide to the masturbatory fantasies of the worst people in American politics – far more importantly, it is a detailed map of the fracture lines in the GOP coalition, the places where it is liable to split and shatter. This is an important point if you want to do more about Trumpism than run around feeling miserable and scared. If you want to fight, Project 2025 is a guide to the weak spots where an attack will do the most damage.

Perlstein's insight continues to be borne out as the Trump regime makes ready to take power. In a new story for KFF News, Stephanie Armour and Julie Rovner describe the irreconcilable differences among Trump's picks for the country's top public health authorities:

https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/trump-rfk-kennedy-health-hhs-fda-cdc-vaccines-covid-weldon/

The brain-worm-infected-elephant in the room is, of course, RFK Jr, who has been announced as Trump's head of Health and Human Services. RFK Jr is a notorious antivaxer, chairman of Children’s Health Defense, a notorious anti-vaccine group. Kennedy's view is shared by Trump's chosen CDC boss, Dave Weldon, a physician who has repeated the dangerous lie that vaccinations cause autism. Mehmet "Dr Oz" Oz, the TV "physician" Trump wants to put in charge of Medicare/Medicaid, calls vaccines "oversold" and advocates for treating covid with hydroxychloroquine, another thoroughly debunked hoax:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2024/12/17/hydroxychloroquine-study-covid-19-retracted-trump/77051671007/

However, other top Trump public health picks emphatically support vaccines. Marty Makary is Trump's choice for FDA commissioner; he's a Johns Hopkins trained surgeon who says vaccines "save lives" (but he peddles the lethal, unscientific hoax that childhood vaccines should be "spread out"). Jay Bhattacharya, the economist/MD whom Trump wants to put in charge of the NIH, supports vaccines (he is also one of the country's leading proponents of the eugenicist idea of accepting the mass death of elderly, sick and disabled people rather than imposing quarantines during epidemics). Then there's Janette Nesheiwat, whom Trump has asked to serve as the nation's surgeon general; she calls vaccines "a gift from God."

Like "Bidenism," Trumpism is a fragile coalition of people who thoroughly and irreconcilably disagree with one another. During the Biden administration, this resulted in self-inflicted injuries like appointing the brilliant trustbuster Lina Khan to run the FTC, but also appointing the pro-monopoly corporate lawyer Jacqueline Scott Corley to a lifetime seat as a federal judge, from which perch she ruled against Khan's no-brainer suit to block the Microsoft-Activision merger:

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/judge-rules-for-microsoft-mergers

The Trump coalition is even broader than the Biden coalition. That's how he won the 2024 election. But that also means that Trumpism is more fractious and off-balance, and hence will be easier to disrupt, because it is riven by people in senior positions who hate one another and are actively working for each others' political demise.

The Trump coalition is a coalition of *cranks*. I'm using "crank" here in a technical, non-pejorative sense. I am a crank, after all. A crank is someone who is overwhelmingly passionate about a single issue, whose uncrossable bright lines are not broadly shared. Cranks can be right or they can be wrong, but we're hard to be in coalition with, because we are uncompromisingly passionate about things that other people largely don't even notice, let alone care about. You can be a crank whose single issue is eliminating water fluoridation, even though this is very, very stupid and dangerous:

https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/the-fluoride-debate

Or you can be a crank about digital rights, a subject that, for decades, was viewed as by turns either unserious or as a sneaky way of shilling for Big Tech (thankfully, that's changing):

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/18/greetings-fellow-pirates/#arrrrrrrrrr

Cranks make hard coalition partners. Trump's cranks are cranked up about different things - vaccines, culture war trans panics, eugenics - and are total normies about other things. The eugenicist MD/economist who wants to "let 'er rip" rather than engage in nonpharmaceutical pandemic interventions is gonna be horrified by total abortion bans and antivax. These cranks are on a collision course with one another.

This is on prominent display in these public health appointments, and we're very likely about to get a test of the cohesiveness and capability of the second Trump administration, thanks to bird flu. Now that bird flu has infected humans in multiple US states, there is every chance that we will have to confront a public health emergency in the coming weeks. If that happens, the Trump public health divisions over masking, quarantine and (especially) vaccines (Kennedy called the covid vaccine the "deadliest" ever made, without any evidence) will become the most important issue in the country, under constant and pitiless scrutiny, and criticism.

Trump's public health shambles is by no means unique. The lesson of Project 2025 is that the entire Trump project is one factional squabble away from collapse at all times.

[genderkoolaid]

I don't know if I am upset over this for no reason but I really hate how some people are acting like just because someone lives in a 'blue' state means they'll never face bigotry or hardship. As if the outcome from the election won't embolden the already bigoted people in these states. I've faced bigotry here in the blue state I live in. I am still visibly trans and transphobic people still exist here despite it being a 'blue' state. I feel like I should be allowed to be scared. Like, I'm not saying those in red states can't mind you - I just think it's weird to act as if just because a statr is 'blue' means bigotry isn't a thing there. Idk if I'm not understanding whatever is being said or not. It just feels bad to see people insinuate that.

No I fully get what you mean. I also live in a blue state, but I live right near a very red area of it and even in my county (which is pretty blue) there's a conservative presence. We got a few victories in the election, but my county has been a lot more split than I'd like. I have to walk by an aggressively (like. absurdly) pro-Trump house when I'm going to work. A Moms for Liberty member is currently winning our local Board of Ed election. I had to watch explicitly transphobic attack ads and then see that nearly half of my county voted for the person behind them.

People forget that just because the state is blue, doesn't mean everywhere in the state is blue. Sure, the big cities have a strong liberal presence and leftist groups... but not everyone lives in the big cities. And then the Republicans in blue states have a massive victim complex and feel even more justified in their hostility.

It's still a degree of privilege to have state-level support, of course. I also have family in red states and I worry about them. But a state being collectively blue doesn't necessarily translate into people's local communities being supportive. Even big liberal cities still have racist, classist, queerphobic violence.

[thingstrumperssay]

In case I didn't make this clear enough, I'm going to be voting for Biden again in November. The fact that I have to explain why to some people makes me sick.

If you've read anything from Project 2025, you'll know that republicans don't want you to have any rights. They want to ban interracial and gay marriage. They want to ban all forms of contraception. They want to ban women from having rights. They want to get rid of social security and medicare.. Well, there's about 920 pages listing everything they want to get rid of that you can read yourself.

Yeah, of course I'm pissed off over Biden's response to Israel committing genocide against all Palestinians who are still trapped in Palestine.

But really think about it for two fucking seconds- Trump got impeached the first time for trying to take weapons away from Ukraine. Now that the Supreme court that he packed made it legal f him to be a fucking monarch if he gets elected again he won't only stop aiding Ukraine, but he'd turn around and give those weapons for Russia. At best he won't be doing anything with Israel because he'd be too busy sucking off his buddy Putin. At best you'd be trading one genocide for another. And nobody will stop him because he'll have total presidential immunity until the day he dies.

Even if RFK was a viable option, not enough people will vote for him anyway. But he's an anti-vaxxer and a sexual harasser, so he's not even a good option anyway.

Republicans are hoping that you'll forget what Trump's supreme court did to your rights and focus on Israel long enough to get Trump back into power.

Not enough people are scared shitless by this.

[socialistexan]

"bUt It'S aBoUt PrOtEcTiNg KiDs!!!"

It wasn't. It never was. And y'all fucking fell for it, because of course you did.

I'm so fucking scared. This is going to kill so many trans people, and they know it. There's 125,000 trans people in Texas, and Republicans and terfs want to kill us all.

We've been telling y'all this would happen and y'all called us alarmist and said we were overreacting. But here we are, they're banning it for adults now. I never want to hear "I don't care what you do as an adult, I'm just ~~protecting kids~~" from a transphobe ever fucking again. Fuck you.

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

not gonna lie friends election anxiety is absolutely kicking my ass right now. The worst part is I live in a red state so I know my vote won't count for shit (I'm gonna vote anyway, of course, but still). I hate this stupid broken electoral system where the popular vote doesn't matter (my state is only red because it's been gerrymandered to hell and back, there are more registered democrats here than republicans). I'm scared of losing my testosterone prescription, I have medicaid-based insurance so it would be among the first to go, and I just couldn't afford it otherwise. I'm scared for my family members who are living here without becoming US citizens (and aren't white to boot). I'm scared of seeing hatred spike like it did after the 2016 election.

[marxistlesbianist]

How do I stop getting more and more terrified of the upcoming Trump administration. I know on a material level Harris would not be much better but every new cabinet pick and headline makes the liberal in me scream and cry, I'm a trans woman just starting her transition and I'm scared I will never become the person I want to be. I'm scared it's too late for me. I need a Marxist perspective, what do I do?

Unfortunately marxism cannot provide you with any way to avoid fear as such, but this does not mean it is useless here. Marxism as an analytical method helps us to see the social/economic mechanisms affecting our lives as they really are, rather than as the quasi-divine forces which liberalism supposes them to be. I and many others have found that looking at the world in this more grounded manner has the effect of lessening our anxiety, but how you react to this vision of material reality is still up to you.

That being said, here is a rough outline of a marxist outlook on the US political economy to–day, which might help you to ground through the anxiety of the election results:

The US empire is an empire in decline. This is not the fault of any single politician, but of the inherently unstable ground on which capitalist economies are built. Capitalism necessitates constant market growth, and with nearly the whole world already captured by the US economic order, this is an increasingly impossible demand to meet. As climate change worsens the third world countries exploited by the US are pushed to either drown under ceaseless natural disasters, or revolt against the economic system distroying their ecology—in both cases the US hegemony is weakened and our great empire dies by a thousand cuts. The only way to avoid economic crisis is to move away from the capitalist mode of production all together, but bourgeois politicians will only ever offer us incomplete solutions to the problems they have created.

Fascism is the liberal response to economic crisis. Throughout the history of the 20th century, we have seen that even the most socially progressive liberal “democracies” have morphed into fascist monstrocities when the capitalist economy is threatened. Voting in ostensibly progressive candidates without seriously challenging the political economy won't save us--as the people of Germany learned when the liberal chancellor Hindenburg appointed Hitler as the head of state after beating him in the election. This happens because fascism is at its heart the imperialist system turned inwards; when the German bourgeoisie were no longer able to sustain their economy by exploiting colonized countries like Namibia, they revitalized their economy by building a more advanced version of the Namibian colonial state at home.

Because the system is already collapsing in on itself, the primary task for us to organize toward is not challenging the system as it is, but building something better in its place. Of course, the task of defending our movement will necessarily bring us into conflict with the current bourgeois state, but we must remember that the point is not to oppose our enemies but to defend our friends. Even if a socialist president were elected to the white house, their dictates would only mean anything if there existed an organized body of workers prepared to exicute the plan inspite of bourgeois sabatage. Conversely, a sufficiantly large and well organized body of workers would be capable of building socialism in the US no matter what Washington says.

For trans women, the state of affairs following Trump's election is fundamentally no different than it was before November 6th. For 250 years the US government has been hostile to our existence, and yet there are more of us living out of the closet now than there ever have been in this country's history. The liberties which the republican party now threatens to deprive us of were not given to us by liberal politicians, but won inspite of them by the masses of our trans elders fighting tirelessly for themselves and their children—and for so long as we continue the struggle we have inherited, the bourgeois state will never be able to defeat us. Of course, much of this history of struggle has been obscured by the liberal order trying to co-opt our movement, but it is still there to be discovered. (If you only know about Stonewall, I highly recommend you read about the history of STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries), an organization founded by some of the trans women who lead that riot.)

Of course, none of this is to say that the situation isn’t terrifying; just that it is also manageable. You may not be able to live the life you wanted, but that doesn't mean you can't still lead a life worth living! The liberal in you screams and cries because she sees that things are bad, but doesn't see how you as an individual can make it right. Adopting a marxist perspective to see not just that things are bad but also how and why, and organizing with your class allies instead of working on your own will silence your inner liberal’s tears as she becomes obsolete. Individual Trump staff picks don’t mean much for us in our project of building a socialist movement. Regardless of who sits in office, the work before us is the same. So let’s get to work—for the revolution of the world!

Lastly, because I always found it annoying when people would tell me to "join an org" without elaborating, here is a brief rundown of some organizations you could look into:

PSL (Party for Socialism and Liberation) has the widest reach of any nominally communist party in the US. Their top leadership are largely opportunists insofar as I can tell, but the local chapters vary enough that some of them are involved in genuinely productive work.

FRSO (Freedom Road Socialist Organization) is a lot smaller, but with more genuine leadership and a strong ideological line. They are growing, and tend to be much more active in the few areas where they are organized.

DSA and CPUSA (Democratic Socialists of America, and Communist Party of the USA) are both useless as organizations, but you might still find some people there you can organize with—especially of there aren’t any better orgs in your area.

SALT (Socialist ALTernative) basically encompass the worst of all worlds in my experience, but individual experience may vary.

Even if there are no active organizations in your area, joining one and sitting in on zoom meetings is still a worthwhile step forward!

[batboyblog]

Is there any way you could put together like, an emergency positivity post or something? Some of Biden's biggest accomplishments in office? I ask this because after the debate... Well, people are spreading negativity, apathy, and anti-voting rhetoric faster than ever before, especially in regards to his response on Roe and Gaza.

again, vacation I'm tapping these out in a brief moment of peace while the kids are at the beach.

But 1. I'd tell everyone to buck up, and fight your corner, did the media react this way when Trump was indicted for crimes in 4 different cases? did they act this way when he was declared a RAPIST! in court? did they act this way when he was convicted of 34 felonies? and we don't even know if he'll end up in prison? no? then fuck off with this BS, there's one person who should drop out and its not the slightly older man who had a cold, its the rapist. And there's one way we stop a RAPIST from being President (again) we vote for the old man.

second, on Roe just briefly, Joe Biden's ability to do things on this issue without Congress is very limited, but he did two things that a Republican would not have done (indeed would have done the reverse) one he made sure that people can get mifepristone by Telehealth and through the mail, keeping the door open for medical abortion nationwide, of course this is not perfect but understand a Republican would have not done this, and so in states with bans it'd be BANNED, second he issued guidelines that the federal law that covers emergency care, the part where the ER can't throw you out with a heart attack because you can't pay, would cover abortion emergencies as well, too many women are being sent to wait in parking lots to bleed till its "their lives" at risk, how much worse would it be if HHS wasn't saying "no you HAVE TO treat them"?

it can ALWAYS be worse, always, Biden has done things to limit this damage, things a Republican would not have done, and in the case of mifepristone like would have taken steps to block access.

So you like Roe? you want abortion protected? Biden is your guy, send him a Democratic Congress, the first 100 days will see an abortion rights bill passed and him sign it, he'll only appoint pro-choice Justices to the Supreme Court. And just as a side note, he's said that, which in the past, Obama, Bill Clinton for sure, both felt like they had to say they wouldn't make that a test (while Republicans made overturning it a open test for every Justice since GHWB was President) The Democratic Party is more pro-choice than it has ever been before, its no longer scared to support abortion rights, thats a big shift, that Biden has been in the front of

[q1mblrrd]

so what are the rules on making genders cause I wanna get in on this

[hikkikoaubrey]

Please read, don't scroll pass this.

Hello, in this post I mainly wanted to talk about KOSA, as well as the "banning TikTok" bill that has also been a big problem lately. Now I know this is mainly an American issue but in the long run if these bills get passed it could lead to other places, and even then, it will ultimately effect America for the worse.

These bills aim to censor people and suppressing their freedom of speech. Literally going against first amendment of the US constitution (which is about freedom of speech)

Here are some links that will probably explain things better than I ever could, please look into them, and of course do your own research on this. (also KOSA and the TikTok bill are not the same thing) If nothing is done this could end up changing the internet for the worse.

(20) ˋˏ🍉 jessie/jes. ⁴ ⁵⁵ 🏎️ˎˊ on X: "A 🧵of resources for you to learn and start taking action against KOSA (a trojan horse for internet censorship): https://t.co/UfSIzz5nrD" / X (twitter.com)

https://x.com/T_H_E_B_I_T_E/status/1767935486926979327?s=20

https://x.com/SoftSuperstar/status/1768404026293420072?s=20

(20) Isa Baguette 🥖🍉 on X: "America is LITERALLY becoming a facist state before our eyes and some people STILL seem to think democrats, or republicans, will fix it. There NEEDS to be a MAJOR change to the way our government works and functions, because this is NOT it." / X (twitter.com)

https://x.com/_bilaire/status/1768067681687654471?s=20

(20) MaceAhWindu 🇵🇸 on X: "The fact that they won’t try and pass an actual American data privacy bill that protects user data and instead tries to ban the apps that aren’t based in America is proof that this banning TikTok thing has never actually been about protecting citizens." / X (twitter.com)

(20) courtney 🇵🇸 on X: "we’re watching blatant censorship bc these old farts are scared & y’all are not concerned enough for my liking 😭" / X (twitter.com)

(20) Mothball on X: "Btw the TikTok ban bill passed this morning, but only in the house, We will have a chance to fight against it in the Senate. I will make a thread on it in the near future. The TikTok Ban is a different bill from KOSA." / X (twitter.com)

Might add more to this post tommarow, and will make a post about project 2025 sometime soon

[botaniqueer]

That "First the came for the Communists" poem is fine in itself, but it's also important to note that, even if they never come for you it's still important to protect other people. If you were a white ethnic German, you were safe in Nazi Germany and could live a perfectly comfortable life, but that comfortable life was earned with blood.

Nazi Germany wasn't Mordor; White Germans thrived under Hitler and had genuine gains in their quality of like, especially the poorer ones. Many of them didn't care or engage with the fact that their neighbors were disappearing because they were fine personally, and plus "those people probably did something, unlike us upstanding Germans". This apathy eventually resulted in 6 million of my people being killed, along 5 million more of many other vulnerable peoples, each of those 11 million people being someone else's entire universe and having just as vivid of an internal life as those living "normal" lives, extinguished forever.

Many of those Germans didn't belong to the Nazi party, and didn't have jobs enforcing those policies (at least not directly, since societal interactions are complex and long-winding), but as a Jew, I have about as many positive feelings towards them as I do towards the Nazis themselves and will never ever forgive them.

This long post also isn't to come down on folks who have been sharing that stuff of course, and this is more directed towards the people who have the attitude of apathy towards groups who aren't them, and who pretend nothing is going on.

For those of us living in settler-colonial states like the US and who are settlers, we are the equivalent of those white Germans. Even when the republicans aren't out being fully heinous and things appear to be okay, our standard of livings are built upon the privileging of our lives over Indigenous and Black people, and people in the global south.

In another long form post, I talk about how Americans fantasize about what they would do if they were alive during the Holocaust or Chattel Slavery, and the answer is how they're reacting now to current events. Folks who have been boosting resources and reading about Palestine would have likely been doing the same back then. And like the white Germans I mentioned, folks who pretend like nothing is happening, or who are ignoring the fact that trans folks and many others are scared for their lives right now would have absolutely done nothing then.

It's important we be the people we wished folks back then had been, and not repeat their mistakes. For us settlers in the US that means fighting against settler colonialism and for Land Back even if things are good for us personally. People deserve good living standards, but we have to learn how to do it without exacting a cost on other people.

[catboybiologist]

I'm really fucking sorry for the disk horse again and I'm shutting off reblogs for this post, but I have to vent.

I'm really fucking scared for the upcoming US election. It is looking like a strong chance that there will be a Republican House and presidency.

The US can't take that. The WORLD can't take that. I understand frustration with the Democrats. Goddamn, I really do. But more and more their strategy now seems to be "well young votes and leftists aren't going to vote in large numbers anyways, why listen?"

And yeah, I'm thinking about Palestine. Yeah, I'm thinking of Haiti. I'm not completely self centered. The Right actively wants blood. The dems are shit. The dems will not provide a peaceful solution. But the republicans are on a different, terrifying level.

And yeah, I'm selfish. I'm also terrified for me, and the people I love. I'm terrified for my medication, both for transition, ADHD, and others, that are specifically vilified by the right. I'm terrified for my career, which is dependent on federal funding. I'm terrified for the protected lands I've learned to love. I'm terrified for indigenous peoples. I'm terrified for my immigrant friends.

If you're taking a moral stand by not voting, or not voting Democrat, that is a choice written in Palestinian blood. And Haitian blood. And whatever other country the US has fucked up, and neglected the people of. You can take that moral stand if you want to. But you need to realize the cost.

And of fucking course it doesn't stop at voting. Don't be complicit in genocide. A vote is not complicity. As that other popular post said, a vote is choosing your opponent. And there's less terrifying opponent here.

I guess this isn't really a call to action. Argue in the comments if you want, but I won't reply. I'm just scared.

[travelingbandit]

I again wanted to voice my concern for the way that SJM readers exhibit such strong Republican tendencies and ideologies.

I was having a talk with Nightcourtqueenbee (if you’ve haven’t had the dpleasure of speaking either her, she’s certainly….opinionated). She made all the original points that IC Stans make, exhibiting how she can only show empathy for Feyre and cannot critically think well enough to sympathize with any of the other characters. She even went so far as to agree with me that Lucien was a victim of abuse and was abused for helping Feyre, but also he “should’ve just gotten out” and “should have stood up for Feyre”. She was a walking contradiction but I digress.

The part that scared me the most, and it scares me every time I interact with these people on this level, was when we started talking about SJM. Now fans have said things to me like “why would you hate Sarah she’s literally perfect” and I can write an entire essay on how this cult-like mentality is so similar to the one used in the extreme right in America today, but that’s beside the point. What I am most concerned about is the lack of empathy and ability to understand facts. She told me, just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean it’s fact. Which fine, valid. However:

When I was addressing how multiple people of color in the community, some of them my friends and others creators I follow, all explain how SJM exhibits severe racism in her books and quite literally had one of her main characters use cultural appropriation (especially as a fetish which is even more disgusting ), I was quite literally told that it’s not true and that those wings are a part of Feyre and she has every right to wear her ‘costume’. I reminded her that Feyre shifted into Ianthe as well so wouldn’t that make her also a part of Feyre by her logic, to which she basically told me Ianthe was a bitch and didn’t answer me.

The most concerning part about all of this was when I explained to her how SJM takes from multiple different cultures and religions, but closed and open practice, and mushes everything together, changing their sacred terms and bending them to her own will. I have a list by the way if you ever want to see that. As a Norse Pagan myself, I’ve watched SJM use my religion for her own devices and even use words like Aesir and Vanir, completely destroying what they were meant to be, to serve her shitty book series. There have been other fans who have told me they didn’t even know what that was until they read it through an SJM book, and when they eventually saw it in Norse Mythology, they were confused. However I’ve also had another SJM fan tell me “well I don’t believe in it, it’s fictional so why should I care because it’s not real. If we’re not allowed to use other cultures to write our books then we’ll have really boring books.” Which is so indicative of how most people need to rely on stealing from others in order to make decent content.

However the most heartbreaking thing talking to this one specific commenter (and I’ve heard a version of this before from other SJM dick riders), is that I addressed how SJM uses a creature from the Indigenous Community as a minor monster for Aelin to fight in TOG. Now this could be parallel to the Naga in ACOTAR of course (because if SJM has nothing to steal from she steals from herself), but the difference is that the indigenous community has been adamant that their SW creature should not be used. The name should not be said, the creature should not be talked about or written about. And yet despite me telling this commenter that a lot of people in this community (including my own friends) still believe in SWs as part of their religion, all this commented wanted to do was tell me that they’re fictional and why should they care because the creature is fictional.

Also just as an honorable mention of horrible shitty things Nightcourtqueenbee has said: when I addressed the fact that Feyre and Rhys were building their fifth mansion right after the war, her response was “Are they not allowed to build a house?”. And when I compared their actions to US billionaires, she was quick to try to tell me the other high lords have probably done worse. Like okay maybe, but we haven’t seen any of that. We’ve seen what the Night Court is doing.

Another honorable mention: I gave her context in the novella where Feyre quite literally says she wants to find a secretary to do her High Lady duties because she wants to have more time to screw Rhys. And her response was “So she’s not allowed to want sex?”. And the fact that she could only grasp onto one part of my explanation really showed me how low her literacy comprehension is.

My fear continues to grow in this rise of anti-intellectualism and oligarchy, and I just fear that all of these (mainly white) women will never get it. They’re quick to resort to insult immediately when they see another opinion than their own (on par for republicans), and they lack the reading comprehension or empathy to see anything past Feyre. Books and art are political, obviously. And while SJM fans don’t want to think so, books can help shape our world view dramatically. I just worry that they are so far gone that they’ll never come out again.