#ur not being a bigot! ur just actively supporting one!

[scamshan]

y’all are so fucking useless

[goodgirl4daddy4evr]

Okay folks so a woman and major organizer in the local kink scene assaulted me in a public restaurant in front of other ppl back in May 2024 and I lost all my friends. They all decided being connected with an assaulter was more valuable than our friendships. I've been working on building new support systems since then. I decided that while I'm working on my foundations, I will not be engaging in sexual intimacies IRL or online until next June of 2025. Happy Pride, am I right? So I'm posting for me, I'll chat non sexually if I feel like it, and I'll respond to erotica asks if I feel like it.

Do not try and get sexy with me, I do not care if we have in the past. Past consent does not demand future consent.

If ur not respectful of this or do not understand this 📵

If u miss this and try anyway 📵

If I wanna be sexy, rn it's just for me, okay? Be proud of me for even opening myself up to this at all. This is my space, I will do what I want with it.

Hi just some warnings and general info about the blog. There is sexual content about so minors/no age in bio will be blocked.

Some kinks that you may be interested in knowing may lie ahead:

bioessentialist ideology

misgendering kink (afab enby-> cis afab)

patriarchy kink

breeding kink

orientation play

religion kink

black supremacy kink

bimboifcation

dd/lg

infidelity kink

intox kink (weed, nothing else)

general dominance/submission dynamic

bondage

exhibitionism

cuckcake content

some very light cnc, I'm more into playful campy scenarios than forceful ones

If any of these things bother you please take care, including blocking if that's what's best for you.

I'm not really going to be posting/rb-ing anything other than text posts. This will mostly be an erotica blog with the occasional sfw spicy pic.

Things that I will not engage with and would prefer you leave alone:

adult diaper baby lovers (abdl)

anal play (giving or receiving)

blood play

degradation

breastfeeding/lactation kink

candle wax

guns, knives, other sundry weapons

sadism and pain play

watersports and scat

human toilet

human furniture

self harm

weight gain/fat fetishizing

Some things to know if you'd like to chat:

Identify your age somewhere

I will frequently be medicated if I'm online

This is a new side blog, the blog I follow from ends in 1003

Send me an erotica prompts as asks! If it turns me on enough, I'll write something up!

I'm in EST in USA and I have the freedom to leave the chat whenever. I'm usually just busy or going to sleep if I leave

I'm actually nonbinary and pansexual but I'm super into the idea of "being fucked into a straight woman" but uh, don't be a bigot

Don't be a bigot. It'll get you blocked

I'm far more leftist than most usually consider "politically correct" and I'm quite secure in my self attachment so I won't be "converted" to whatever ideology or religion you're peddling. Actual fascists will get blocked

I love praise and affirmative dialogue, spicy or not. I like support and being supportive in return

FRIES consent is everything. Freely given. Retractable. Informed. Enthusiastic. Specific.

All people have an innate human dignity and should be treated as such, so if I don't feel like you're understanding that it ain't gonna vibe

If you wanna do any chat where having me submit interests you, we should negotiate while not actively horny

I'm solo polyamorous so I'm not looking to actually help people cheat. That's wrong. I just really dig the fantasy of it

In case it wasn't clear, I'm absolutely not a raging bigot. I'm a pretty chill bimbo stoner commie interested in the liberation of all people. I just get really horny fantasizing about certain power dynamics real and imagined. But I prefer exploring them in safer pre negotiated settings. Also here in my text posts. There will be the occasional thirst trap too, not gonna lie, but it's mostly erotica here.

[midwestemokilledmygrandma]

Actually I think having to be apolitical, especially for the sake of health, is the opposite of privileged and I'd even go a step further and say it's ableist to demand they be politically active.

Not everyone has the capacity to focus on politics, protesting, donating to fundraisers, sharing videos because they, like you, have their own lives and struggles to deal with. And if they're a individual with a condition or disability that requires more attention for them, they should not be shamed for focusing on themselves.

A lot of them do care, they still have morals, and them trying to the survive their own problems is not a dig at other problems and especially political ones, even if what is affecting them is politically caused.

No offense to you, but you can't shame someone into political activeness by shaming them for being inactive.

And furthermore, belittling people that aren't politically active isn't going to help aid the people you want saved or wanted their lives improved; Shaming apolitical folks isn't going to help that family fundraiser, or protest that one bigot, or demand change for a bill or law... It just makes you look like you care more about shame than about aid.

You do your thing, others are just trying to getting by and you biting at them doesn't remove the wolf amongst the sheep...

disabled people are incredibly effected by politics, in some ways more than lots of other minority groups because they are seen as people who don't have capacity or can't fight back for themselves.

there is a difference between being apolitical (not caring about politics) and not being able to engage in every single political issue due to your own health and priorities.

everyone can only do what they can do and some people can obviously engage more than others and I'm not shaming anyone into doing or not doing anything the main thing I said was it was a red flag to be apolitical (in relation to trans people I've seen on dating apps)

arguably a lot of the disabled people who do still care about politics you are describing are not people who would describe themselves as apolitical?

there are lots of ways to be political and politically active including just being engaged and aware if that is the limit to what u can do/what u devote ur time to.

I just think you are generalising the capacity of disabled people to be political too much and also generalising what I think it means to be political.

a lot of the most politically active people in my life are physically disabled or neurodivergent. are they always going to demos? not necessarily tho disabled people definitely can if the demos are accessible. but they are informed. Also a lot of disabled people fighting for their own lives, fighting for support and accessibility and benefits are politically active in the sense of fighting for change.

as I said you can only do as much as you can do and that is fine but u seem to be implying that being political is a privilege and being apolitical is not privileged.

anyway "being political" is an unbelievably vague and meaningless term. it is just a red flag for people to go out of their way to describe themselves as apolitical or to not care at all about politics.

[vyachki]

Jk rowling was not "cancelled on the spot" shes been spouting crap for years that pisses people off and naturally collected a large amount of haters. Her amateur writing and many strange plots in her books have been heavily scrutinized by critics. Extreme stereotyping, racism, homophobia, writing weird shit about children on twitter, the whole thing with the elves who loved being slaves is weird as fuck, aids metaphors etc. Everyone knows she's annoying. She's hated by transphobes ands trans people alike. Young people hate her and old people hate her. Harry potter fans hate her. Even many of the movie cast hate her. She's a bigot. She doesn't care about people like you. why are u falling over yourself to defend her honestly its so pathetic and we can see right through you. I'm sure you never really gave a crap about the books or who wrote them until you became a radical bitch. You just love her because she hates trans as much as you. That's all you have in common. Shes not a feminist, shes not fighting for anyones rights, she doesnt spread any important information or have any educated opinions. Her new books and movies suck. All she does is sit writing drivel and spreading hate which sounds a lot like you. No wonder you admire her so much. Honestly i bet if Kim Yo Jong or someone came out as a terf and a radical feminist u would all start fanning over her and convert to her ideologies bc u have no back bone or brain and the only thing u care about is worshipping ur chronically online terf cult, making up shit and hating trans people who have nothing to do with you. News flash! Your radical feminism isn't any more radical than what normal ass women have been talking about for generations. All the issues are already included in normal feminism, it's just the same except: you ignore big issues (especially those involving minorities and women of colour), act horrible and rude to everyone, isolate yourself and most of all, devote your existence to being transphobic. It's like a cry for help or something. You're ruining your life by being a bitch. and noone is going to feel sorry for you. Mental illness innit. 🤣 - Sincerely a happily married cis white woman. Get a life.

Oh my god this is so funny, did you copy and paste this from somewhere or did you really type all of this out for me?? I am blushing🤭

People will always have a lot to say about JKR and that's okay, she's a famous female author who owns a billion dollar franchise—people are going to talk shit on her name and some of it may be true, and some of it may not. With the way now that people deliberately skew what other people say (e.g. "JKR wants trans people deaaaaad!!!"), take a lot of shit you see from non-sources with a grain of a salt.

Regardless of the discourse & semantics you want to engage in, biological sex will still be real, women will still face sex-based oppression, and same-sex attracted people are still being erased in favour of "queer" activism. It is not hate to call that out. But it is very condescending to say all this to a detransitioned trans woman / homosexual man since I am still dysphoric, but I am not a victim nor will act like one because of it.

I made this blog to support detransitioners & same-sex attracted people, and to call out lies I was told by the trans cult during & after my transition. I really don't need "happily married cis white women" lecturing me about gender ideology that you never lived. Thanks though!

Sincerely, a "radical b*tch"

[confessions-of-a-doormat]

i think a lot of things i’ve seen in certain types of activism comes from this situation of anger but also powerlessness. and i’m not talking about people directly affected by an issue. i mean people who are unaffected, who are completely separated from it (and may even take some part in perpetuating systems of injustice) who see horrible, awful things. and they get really upset, justifiably. then they realize that after awareness is widespread, if they don’t have financial means, there’s not much else actual action they can do.

so they fight, hard. posts and protest, some of which do help, but some of which don’t have any real goals. i’ve seen and been to helpful protests, ones that aim to do something, pressure a very particular group of people in power, ones that often work. i’ve seen and even been to others, where the main purpose is to be angry, to stand against something. and i’ve seen some that get so caught up in anger instead of support that they end up doing more harm than good.

i know it sucks to feel like u can’t do more. but u can find ways to help in a better way. u can engage in advocacy that doesn’t insist on revenge, u can engage in advocacy that may be quieter, but will help more people.

if there’s already widespread awareness for an issue, you can:

- financially give to official organizations that provide physical aid, legal support, etc. for the people you’re fighting for (or unofficial people, but i recommend verifying or creating a simple process to verify it’s not a scam or a bot. i say this because i’ve been tricked before and i don’t want others to be)

- donate materials needed! a lot of social justice groups need stuff other than money too, and often offer a list of things that can be donated

- find what u can do locally. not just a protest with no stated reason but a protest or action with specific goals. what policies in place in your area are actively hurting the cause you’re fighting for? can you phone/e-mail elected officials to let them know how important this cause is to you and that they need to help this cause to gain your support?

- educate! yourself and others. and NO, DO NOT FOCUS ON EDUCATION THROUGH UNSOURCED INFOGRAPHICS. i’ve seen so many with misinfo or info that cannot be fact-checked because they provide no sources. educate urself on the history of the issue your fighting for. try to find information from unbiased sources, or else multiple points of view so u can use it to create ur own perspective. this also helps ensure you know what ur talking about and that people know the main causes of the issue, the best ways to help, and what people affected by it need.

- be kind. i’m sure you know, at least tangentially if not directly, people being personally affected by this issue. offer support and an ear to listen. help them to feel safe and loved. please.

also a note that if ur trying to convince someone on a different side of an issue than you or who u don’t think is fighting hard enough, hate and anger is not the way to go. people can be bigots, and sometimes it’s not worth it to put ur energy into educating them. but if u think someone is doing things accidentally or being ignorant or just has never had a chance to research other points of view outside their own, try to greet them with understanding. hate and anger pushes people away and farther into a direction they shouldn’t be going down. from what i’ve seen, people most change their mind through respectful conversations. ask them why they feel a certain why or why they haven’t been helping. offer ways for them to learn or ways to help that are achievable for them if they’re struggling in some particular way.

i think too often social justice issues become a chess game to those unaffected, and it’s hard for people to understand this is real life, and that everyone involved is a real person. today my indigenous studies prof was talking about the ways some outside people try to solve issues in her nation without realizing the complexities to it and how some solutions are plain hurtful, and many won’t work without tools and feasible alternatives to what’s currently going on. she talked about wanting people to just learn to listen to lived experience and help in a way that has a plan and actual positive results. it’s all too important to our future to consider what happens beyond the now.

[voxxphantasma]

fucking hell can d/ream/smp fans Stop Fucking Interacting with me already im so tired of u guys go the fuck away

[mueritos]

I'm yet another suicidal person who has had to struggle with mental illness and... Idk. I know the difference between someone telling a bigot (someone who has probably told a lot of gay teens to kill themselves) and someone telling me (a gay trans person) to kill my self

In fact, I don't think the bigot who said I should go through electroshock therapy because he thought that I was crazy had the best thing in mind when he said that. I think honestly he wanted me to off myself, I have no reason to believe that this dude really believed shocking my brain a lot would turn me cis and straight except for being very stupid

I've never told a single person to kill themselves, I'm not saying you should, but if a bigot is attacking someone and they defend themselves, you don't go "uh uh! No no!" And slap their wrist while the bigot is still punching. You fucking PUNCH the bigot and then teach them how to better defend themselves in private, where the bigot can't see

Idk if this makes sense. Sorry

No you make perfect sense. Its the one of the reasons why im not convinced about and im gonna be upfront and say that I Do Not Care how a marginalized person responds to people who want us Dead. I dont! And i also cannot bring myself to, because again, I dont have it in me. If you want to show compassion, go ahead! If you want to tell them fuck off or that you want to staple their nipples to their eyelids, go ahead! Im not going to police marginalized people’s responses to active real life harm.

And great point because its something that I fell back on in the time reading what yall have to say and thinking on it: punching up is NOT the same as punching down. Marginalized folks will ALWAYS have far less support than those who oppress us, and punching up in defense, in exhuastion, or in retaliation will NEVER amount to the scale of harm that has been caused when oppressed punch, kill, maim, and incarcerate our communities.

Normalize focusing on ur communities, yrself, and your communties’ wellbeing and protection. Like i cant believe the discourse, are u guys seriously gonna make a callout post for community members who engage in de-arresting, who engage in protection of their own communities, who beat up and silence bigots? Because knowing how chronically online some folks on this site are, yea I can already imagine the callout posts being made.

I’ve been in IRL spaces where our survival and wellbeing DEPENDED on excluding, gatekeeping, and barring bigots and liberals out from our spaces. Sometimes this includes literally being honest and telling people to FUCK OFF! And i know there are lots of other communities who do far more to ensure no bigot, fascist, or abuser enters their spaces. Online respectability politics will never translated into IRL because you cant just block or mute bigots. You need to make them scared.

So yea. Thanks for bring this up cuz it def helped me solidify my thoughts on all of this.

[queerbobbysinger]

like to compare to jkr (whose work i do in fact boycott): JKR is one of the most well known terfs on the planet. she is one of the wealthiest authors on the planet. i think it is worthwhile to try and reduce her influence precisely because she is incredbily influential. she is using her platform and her money consistently, directly, to support bigots. i do not think that by refusing to give her money, i am holding her accountable, because frankly she is and will always be wealthy. the goal is to reduce the harm she does, by hopefully discouraging others from following in her footsteps. 

meanwhile, misha, jensen and jared just.... dont fucking matter. like their opinions dont matter, while they are far more wealthy than me, theyre not at all wealthy in the scheme of things. they are, as people on this site constantly point out, D list actors. walker may well be cop propaganda, but it is critically panned cop propaganda that, by the looks of it, no one is bothering to watch. misha is a well meaning liberal who is now going to? be a presenter on a food show? jensens doing the best out of all of them but like hes still not someone who has much in the way of real world influence imo. they only matter to us because theyre actors in a show we watched as teenagers, and i honestly think its worth taking a step back and asking why you care. 

like yeah, sure, instead of giving money to cons or J2 fans could give money to charity! but equally you could spend the time ur arguing with con goers online taking part in some form of activism that would have a more meaningful impact. 

like is this really something its worth it to put our collective power towards? is it?

things like pressuring the ppl running conventions abt things like questions being blacklisted, thats worthwhile, getting mad at jared and jensen for the shit they say makes sense, but fighting with fans who do fandom shit you personally disagree with? its a waste of everyone’s time.

[rudystree]

i wanna just preface this ask by saying that i am not one of those people who hate on elaine unnecessarily. i do dislike her, very, very much but please do not loop me in with the death threat sending, family threatening haters.

if u love elaine, it is ur right to do so and i respect it. but i hope you’re not one of those people who then turn around and say that you’re an ally and unequivocally support BIPOC and the LGBTQ+ community. because the truth is that a lot of us ARE NOT the elaine haters that do the ugly things i mentioned above. but a lot of us do get a little sick to our stomachs every time we see someone idolizing and “stanning” someone who’s done what she has done. so although i respect that you’re passionate about certain issues, i just want you to understand that you are contributing to a culture that harms us, even if it is in a very small way.

well i appreciate you not being a death threat hater lol but uh, wtf?

i would agree with you if elaine was someone who still used offensive language and showed any sign of being racist/homophobic/etc. in which case i wouldn’t support her whatsoever. but she doesn’t. she actively supports those communities and so do i, so no, we are not harming anyone here.

by your logic no ally should be a fan of chase either. so madelyn can’t be an ally either. or jd. or madison. and by your logic all of elaine’s close black and queer friends are also harming their own communities? and by your logic, i can’t be an ally to minority communities if i like someone who used to not be before they educated themselves? because trust me i’d have a very tiny pool of people to choose from. if my mom used slurs before i came out and then she realised how harmful that was, i can’t let her ever support me or what? that’s just not how the world works. hate is learned and can be unlearned. please move along and direct this energy to the fans of actual open and proud bigots with a platform and influence thank you

[chikkou]

I've been wanting to look into Stein's Gate, but I don't know much about it. What about it makes you think it's bad?

its just got mid 2000s anime syndrome, i.e. lots of uncomfortable fanservice with underage characters and creepy jokes that arent funny LMAO

in particular theres one character whose arc is especially interesting to me. i really dont want to spoil it if ur planning on watching it because i am unironically fascinated by it, but a VERY short summation is that this characters arc ends up being one of the most bigoted depictions of an lgbt character ive ever seen, and ALSO one of the most empathetic depictions of an lgbt character for its time that actively tries to understand the characters plight, take it (fairly) seriously, and make it seem valid to the viewer. like simultaneously.

it is very confusing cause its just so fucking terrible and fetishizing and extremely poorly written but like... by the end u really do get the impression that the writer was TRYING to be supportive and just failing hard as fuck. its like the exact opposite of misa from death note - in that case, they were trying to write a flat one note fanservice character, and accidentally made an incredibly unique and complex one instead because of their own inconsistency. the character arc in question is very much the inverse of that LMAO

[whitehairedanimeboyfriend]

hey just so you know theres a dumb as fuck callout post saying ur transmisogynistic

yeh, i'm aware. i'm trusting people will have two braincells to rub together and see that the claim is bullshit. as for the people that fall into mob mentality? i don't want to interact with them anyway.

you know the real reason that i was called out? it's because I blocked someone, quietly, silently, and without pop and circumstance. i didn't call her out. i didn't make a big deal out of it. I just hit the block button.

hours after I did this, the callout post appeared. so, because this person has no respect for someone's boundaries, she decides it's time to turn the mob against me. isn't that petty?

she's done it to several people, and here's the thing: she banks on the fact that no one will do the same to her. that we won't sink down to her level. that the rest of us are decent enough to not name names, and not come after people.

The thing is she's right! We aren't like that. I have no interest in doing that to another human being. So if she wants to hang around with people that actively misgender, send rape threats, and harass transgender people who are minding their own business, let her! Let her stew in her own toxicity. I'm in a community that supports me, that hears me, that validates me. Sounds like she's in a community with a bunch of vitriolic, hateful bigots that take glee in saying the most vile things imaginable. You won't believe some of the things this person and her friends have said to me behind the protection of anonymity.

So who's the real loser here?

[vampireqrow-moved]

hey so I agree with a lot of the stuff in your post about the transphobia involved in the origin of the pansexual label, but I just have one question: what are the actual impacts of people with good intentions calling themselves pan? If you don't hate pansexuals and consider them bi, why type up a paragraphs long manifesto on the harms of the origin of the label if it means the same thing in the way that most non transphobic people (your audience) use it? a lot of identities can be used in transphobic ways (like bi and lesbian and anything really) and plenty of valid identities from problematic roots and evolve over time as people use them differently (queer, transsexual). so how is a person with good intentions using a not-perfect label in a way you don't like a threat to the community? if someone is using the label pan transphobically, wouldn't their bigotry exist independently? if pan people do not act in transphobic ways besides using the label pansexual, realistically what is changing if they call themselves bi beyond holier-than-thou aesthetic activism? plus, a blog on the internet isn't going to get everyone to stop identifying as pansexual, especially considering multiple prominent celebrities ID as pan. so why spend all that energy quibbling on semantics because some bi people use a slightly different word when you could be worrying about Literally anything else? just feels like you want to find something to argue about lol. extremely disappointed that I had to break a mutual

im going to respond to each thing you bring up chronologically- im not trying to nitpick or prioritize certain things you say ill just forget things if i go out of order and i dont want to miss something important. ALSO! i will be typing less formally (like keysmashes and shortening words n stuff) in this response than my og post bc its 1am as im starting to type this so im tired but i want to be clear that i am like. taking this seriously and im not like. mocking u in anyway if it could read that way?? i hope not but just in case anyways here it goes!

in terms of actual impact people with good intentions identifying as pan: honestly im not  sure the full scope of the impact this has, so ill only be speaking to what ive personally seen which might not be all. but like... id argue my younger self has good intentionals iding as pan. i wanted to support trans people, even if i didnt understand a lot of the nuance involved. as a result of this, i developed a sense of superiority over other bisexuals and a mentality that bisexuality was a primitive and lesser sexuality. that mentality is harmful, and although im not sure if it affected bisexuals around me (of which there are many most of my friends are bi ajfjfjf) its still a harmful mentality and can easily hurt people even if i specifically didnt. also using it even with good intentions, which i know many people have, still spreads and further normalizes a label that imo can not be separated from its transphobic origins. this effect is not as extreme as other forms of transphobia and biphobia by A LONG SHOT. the bi community faces a lot of other issues but that doesnt mean this one isnt worth addressing if that makes sense?

if i dont hate pansexuals: ik this is part of a larger point which i will adress but i specified this in my post bc i see a lot of other posts that are negative towards pansexuality have "i hate pan ppl" somewhere in it or a close equivalent. i do not shame these ppl for their anger, i just wanted to be clear i think a lot of pan ppl are bi ppl with good intentions choosing a label they dont fully understand based on a misunderstanding of bisexuality.

why write a paragraphs long manifesto on the harms of pansexuals origin: ok 😭😭 the real reason here is that im literally just bad at summarizing. like thats literally it. i also like talking, its a bad combination. plus ive been thinking abt this for like. over a year im not even kidding and just like i have a lot of thoughts and figured if i was going to bother making my own post instead of rbing someone elses that i might as well get everything i wanted to say off my chest. ALSO BTW i literally got an ask like a week ago that was several paragraphs long asking me to explain my thoughts on why pan was harmful and some other stuff so like. this is partially responding to that and partially just me wanting to air my grievances ? idk if thats the right expression 😔😔

why write the post if my audience of people who identify as pan arent doing it in a transphobic way ? again sorry i didnt really understand the phrasing so i hope this is a vaguely correct summary!! um but like... again imo i think pan cant be separated from its transphobia and like. again imo iding as pan is like. a transphobic action/choice? obviously one transphobic thing does mean someone necessarily is like officially a Transphobe (it CAN be depending on the action but i dont think that applies here) but that doesnt mean there arent problems with what they did. this is like very complicated, but like. someone doing something harmful without the knowlege that its harmful doesnt make that person a bigot by any means it just means they didnt know. and i feel thats the case here? a lot of ppl (myself included until recently) know next to nothing abt pansexualitys origins so a trans inclusve sexuality might seem like a safe and good bet just because they dont know too much abt it, and like? i cant hate those people cause that was me for 5+ years and djgjfjdj you just dont know what you dont know!

basically i think iding with a transphobic label is inherently a singular transphobic action that doesnt make the person transphobic by itself, but is still a transphobic instance.

a lot of identities can be used in transphobic ways like bi, lesbian, etc.: this is true and a point i attempted to make on my original post, but i might not have clear enough. my issue with pan is specifically that it is a transphobic response to a preexisting identity. lesbian isnt an attempted trans inclusive indentity that replaced an identity that already existed (which have many trans ppl identifying with the og label). transphobes can use whatever labels they want, but transphobes using a label vs a label having a transphobic origin is very different. bigots use inclusive and supporting language for their bigotry all the time but language that originated with that bigotry is worse.

many valid identities stem from problemstic origins (like transsexual and queer) but the words evolve: ok my paraphrasing is a little weird there. anyways. the thing here is that. those are slurs. reclaimed slurs that can be empowering to many people, yes, but slurs nonetheless. reclaiming a slur is taking a harmful word and wearing it as a badge of pride. first off, pansexual is not a slur (ur not implying that in anyway just. saying) and it isnt being reclaimed when people dont treat it as having harmful origins. transsexual is the way some people identify but ppl acknowlege its a slur and originates from transphobia. ppl love to act like queer isnt a slur, which is an issue in and of itself, but just. factually it has historically and is currently being used against ppl with the intent to hurt them. pansexual isnt on the same level as these and other words like the f slur, d slur, etc. pansexual originates from trans and biphobia WITHIN the community and not outside of it, and most pansexuals dont see themselves as reclaiming the title because they dont think anythings wrong with it in the first place. and reclaiming it just seems unnecessary considering its history? theres no empowerment from using pan as a label as opposed to queer or transsexual, and it just divides the bisexual community for no reason.

how is a person using a not-perfect label a threat to the community? ok i dont think its a threat but still an issue if that difference makes sense? id like to reiterate a few things ive said before, but for me personally, it made me look down on bisexuals and see them as lesser, and it made people around me see pan as the "trans inclusive" sexuality as opposed to bisexuality, and basically its usage just leads to further biphobia. is this the worst of biphobia? no!!! but its still biphobia and why not attempt to target and minimize that? i have no way to singlehandedly stop biphobia, but my post might get through to my friends who id as pan and that small thing is better than nothing.

if someone used the pan label in a transphobic way, wouldnt that bigotry be different from people using it not transphobically?: someone claiming all bi ppl are transphobic and only pan is the acceptable label is obviously a lot worse than someone iding as pan and saying bi/pan solidarity but again, the second isnt not an issue because the first one is a bigger issue, its just a smaller issue in comparison. i wouldnt say the bigotry is different, one is just worse than the other, but it still has the same problems.

if pan people dont do anything transphobic other than id as pan then what changes with iding as bi over pan other holier-than-thou activism: its just one less person using a transphobic label? which isnt that big but it might lead to their friends stopping iding as pan and cause fewer people around them to see bi as a transphobic identity. which is small scale stuff, i wont try to blow it out of proportion, but thats still a step in the right direction and hopefully more people follow with it. its not terribly huge or lifechanging but something small that may only affect the people close to you is still something rather than nothing.

a blog the internet isnt going to get people to stop iding as pan: oh absolutely not. honestly i expected to get unfollowed/blocked more than change peoples minds regarding the pan label (im surprised i only lost two followers so far honestly) but again, someone literally asked me to do this and i wanted to be clear on my stance on the label, since in the past ive been supportive of it. im not expecting the post to get more than five likes, its more directed to my followers rather than the internet as a whole. im not expecting a large impact, im hoping to change the minds of my followers and friends who id as and support the pan label. thats it. if something bigger comes from it- great! but thats not what im aiming to do.

prev point + many prominent celebrities id as pan: the first name that comes to mind is someone im not a fan of for separate reasons but thats irrelevant. i mean im repeating myself a bit but some celebrities in the past validated and made me feel excited abt my identity as a pan person when they came out, and it justified the label to me, even when i had doubts. i have never interacted with a celebrity and do not plan to change their minds abt their identity. again, my post was for my friends and followers and maybe who ever was scrolling through the biphobia tag and decided to read my post.

why spend that much energy worrying abt the pan label instead of something else: ive spent waaaaay more energy thinking abt a singular meme i didnt like regarding my favourite rwby character so like. maybe i just overreact to things lol. maybe i have a lot of energy and since i cant talk my friends ears off abt my favourite fruits or the different voting methods i learned in my math class or what would dreams taste like, then i gotta put my energy into something. idk. i have a lot of energy and honestly? this didnt take that much. but i felt it weighing on me as my friends talked positively abt the pan label, when i felt guilty for the superiority i felt over my bi friends INCLUDING my best friend and favourite person in the world so like. i spent enough energy worrying abt it, and like. in hindsight since its been over 12 hours since posting it, im thinking abt it less. i was more worried abt feeling dishonest with my friends than actually worrying abt pansexuality, but i figured i owed them an explanation for why my feelings around it had changed.

just feels like you want to find something to argue about: okay i DO love arguing but im not pulling this out of my ass for fun. its in response to posts ive seen on my dash, asks i recieved abt pansexuality, and my way of letting people know my views have changed and why since i know at least some people are curious.

i am sorry to lose a mutual as well, and i genuinely hope things go well for you, but uh yeah thats that.

again, if people have further questions im willing to answer them i just might take a while bc i have school and other stuff 2 do but uhhh yea sorry if im clogging ur dash sjfjfkkf

[robinsversion]

Something I just realized, and why I think I was able to so easily let go of Harry Potter compared to most people, is that I dropped HP like a flea-ridden rag because I’m now so used to dropping literally anything and everything due to the epidemic of YouTubers and other public figures being exposed as pedos/predators/bigots. I was a panic at the disco fan. I was a cryaotic fan. I was a boyinaband fan. And that’s just three I can name off the top of my head, I’m sure I’ll probably think of more when I hit send on this post. I’ve been a fan of the work of so many people, and in some cases even just a fan of their public persona in general, but over the years they’ve gone down one by one, whether it was Br*ndon Ur*e’s racist and bigoted and rapey statements (none of which he’s taken accountability for and all of which he’s tried to just shove under the rug and pretend he never said them) coming to light in the public eye, Cryaotic coming forward as a pedo and then having his victims reveal that he’s a sadistic abusive asshole on top of it, boyinaband being exposed for praying on minor fans and later further abusing them once he got into relationships with them, and so countless more instances of public figure’s masks being ripped off to expose a vile face underneath. Hell, there’s many further creators whose work has definitely shaped me in one way or another, but who I’ve felt the need to drop once they were revealed to have done or said things that I am unable to continue supporting, whether being abusive to others behind the scenes or cheating on SOs or actively trying to ruin the lives of their “enemies” or developing cult-like relationships with their fanbases.

All that to say, yeah, by the time JK posted her transphobia manifesto, I had become so used to being disappointed by creators I admired, that cutting all my ties and love for Harry Potter was second nature, like a chore that I could do subconsciously. And bear in mind I was far from just a casual fan. I read all the books multiple times and watched all the movies (from the fourth one on I saw them in theaters opening weekend), had all the books (most in hardcover editions), and had all the movies on dvd. I had played most of the games, and one was even an all-time favorite right up until said manifesto. I owned a ton of merch. I was one of those people where my hogwarts house was my whole fucking personality.

But then it just stopped. It all just stopped. I dropped her, because I was well used to dropping things and creators, because I was used to being disappointed. I was used to being let down. I was used to people turning out to be shitty.

Anyway, if this even had a point in the beginning I can’t remember where I was going with it. I guess I just wanted to talk about how sad it is that finding out someone I supported is an asshole, is basically just a normal Tuesday nowadays. It was upsetting when it first started happening—at least, when it first started affecting the art and content I liked, I should say—but now, well, now I just move on almost instantly. Harry Potter was my childhood, but I cannot in any way co-sign the words and actions of such a viscous, sadistic, transphobic bigot, and no piece of content or art, let alone something so full of fault in hindsight like HP, is worth letting bigotry be welcomed into our society. I just wish everyone else who grew up with HP felt the same.

[catsconflictscopicsandchamomile]

ok so first off. I’m white so anyone who wants to come tell me to Delete This Post or just get angry @ me in my notes or dms I 100% understand and will take any and all criticism bc this is NOT my space to speak.

....I’ve seen a lot of VERY VALID TAKES around tumblr abt the Massive Juggernaut Of Violent Racist Culture that is ao3 and white fandom (esp Old White Fans) at large. I hade some thoughts, from the white side of things.

first off:

THESE TAKES ARE 1000000% CORRECT.

I, again, as a white person, dont need to stamp my validation on it, but im stating this loudly up front so that hopefully a few ppl might read further:

-

-

-

I’ve been aware for a long time of phrases like “cancel culture”, “censorship”, “puritanism”, “Fandom Is Free!!!” etc etc etc used by, to be honest, 90% or more of white fans to justify VIOLENTLY RACIST WORK and gaslight, and more often than not threaten, fans of color who speak up. White Women Tears, it’s an old ass trick.

-

HOWEVER

and here’s the However:

-

The fans who do this, while absolutely racist scum.... had this “argument” handed to them on a silver platter.

by who???

by younger white fans.

because none of these Older White Fan fuckbags or their opinions could have kept the amount of respect, credibility, and loyal puppy-dog followers they have without the new growth of Younger White Fan fuckbags who don’t just go out of their way to equate their NOTP being canon with Actual Racism/ Homphobia/Pedophilia/ ACTUAL HATE CRIMES ON THE LEVEL OF KILLING REAL HUMAN PEOPLE, but ALSO

1) ignoring the role of the CREATORS of bigoted/harmful work and going after fans, who, while absolutely complacent in a fandom by participating in it... did not MAKE it

2) deliberately refuse all attempts by others outside their cults to find common ground

and 3) actively campaign for censorship of huuuuuge swaths of fan content that centers queer themes, kink, or is made by older fans, EXPLICITLY BY EQUATING THIS CONTENT TO ACTUAL PHYSICAL ACTS OF VIOLENCE

....all while having blm banners, ACAB in their bios, rt-ing fundraisers and absolutely not donating to them, donating to joke kickstarters to kill random fans, and not so jokingly calling the cops, fbi and swat teams, and sending death threats, doxxing, attempting (laughable dumb) acts of terror, and arguing for vigilante and STATE BACKED VIOLENCE against those same fans.... who, guess what, are ALSO VERY LIKEY TO BE BIPOC.

I can NOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH. saying “white fans, as a whole, and ESPECIALLY the ao3-supportive community, are active in maintaining a racist community and defend themselves by crying ‘Censorship Puritans & Death Threats Oh My’” is true. but it ignores the growing community of Im-Not-Racist-I-Have-ACAB-In-My-Bio YOUNGER white fans who are more than happy to hand that argument to the “Olds” ready to use by lumping Deeply Set Systemic Racism in with “My Fav Is OOC In This One Fic :(...”

because two groups of white people who claim to hate each other, are actually, consciously or not, working in perfect tandem to prevent any change to fandom’s racial bigotry.

-

Look:

you want to call out the “Olds” for their shit? they all say “Oh LOOK AN ANTI DEATH THREAT CULTIST PURITAN 1984 BIG BROTHER SPOILED BABY!!! ohhhh gonna tell me to Do My Taxes???” and send death threats after u.

want to call out younger whites for Not Exactly Helping? if you’re younger than * insert current Maximum Age Of Being A Good Person here * your post will b co opted by dingbats who argue that the masses of fic killing off bipoc characters in horrific ways is morally and practically the same as a 3 yr age gap between fictional adults...

...and if you’re older it’s “wowwww lmaooo look at this Crusty Old Hag I bet they * do whatever the Bad Thing of the week is * go do ur taaaaxessss arent your 3+ kids hungryyyy while you neglect them to HARASS ME, a MINOR..... oh no mODS HELP HELP IM A POOR WITTLE KID THIS BIG SCAWY ADULT IS ATTACKING MEEEEE”

-

-

-

-

TO SUMMARIZE-

OLDER WHITE CREATORS AND COMMUNITIES LIKE AO3 NEED TO BE HELD FULLY ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE RACISM THEY BLATANTLY CHAMPION. BUT THE SAME IS TRUE FOR THE YOUNGER WHITE-DOMINATED FAN SPACES THAT HAPPILY THROW MINORITIES, ESPECIALLY BIPOC, TO THE WOLVES FOR THE SAKE OF ESCALATING A FAKE WAR, OVER FAKE PROBLEMS, WITH THE WHITE FANS FOUR YEARS OLDER THAN THEM.

-

I am not going to pretend I know how to solve this. All I can say is that anyone saying “well of COURSE The Olds are Racist they support The Bad Ships(tm)”.... shut the fuck up you’re doing the same shit from a different blog theme.

...And, in my opinion??? Outside of some VERY specific scenarios that make themselves VERY obvious, the combination of Shipping and Race into a singular “Fandom Discourse” is an obviously white supremacist idea that equates real human suffering with cartoons having sex. so like. if I have any advice?

Keep Actual Racial Issues out of shipping wars, and keep shipping wars out of Race Based Criticism. YES this also includes the anti/proship BS too. If you consider a ship so tied to race/bigotry/racial caricature that the two cant be mentioned separately? mayyyybe thats not the best ship to use as ammo for P3d0 accusations and death threats agains That One Community You Dont Like.... unless.

you know.

you never cared about BIPOC fans in the first place and just wanted to sound like a Cool And Right Good Person while you sent gore pics to ppl u think Ship Wrong.

...yeeeesh that was a longer rant than I expected to write...

god, remember when Supernatural AND Voltron killed off their single WOC in the final 3 episodes but it was only ever brought up as, like, SuPpOrTiNg EvIdEnCe in the 4+ yrs of fandom outrage over 1-2 gay couples???? but yeah sure “only The Olds (cough-proshipperpedonastykinkyadultwomen-cough) are nasty stinky uglee racists” 🙃🙃🙃

[cm-sheridan-writes]

Chat Window

However it happens, it starts with putting yourself out there and hitting the Enter key. Leading up, there are several little moments on the forum, and out of the sea of usernames, a few start to stick in your memory. Eventually, you begin to keep track of their posts.

It takes months, but you realize that you’re forming a picture of a few of the users. One usually shows up in the middle of the night, active for a few hours before disappearing again. You wonder if they have insomnia, or if they live out of the country. Curious one night, you search for other posts they’ve made, digging for clues, cultural references, anything that could give you an answer. It occurs to you that someone could be researching you at that very moment, and your fingers pause above the keys. Is this creepy? Are you crossing a line? You’re ten pages deep in their old posts, though, so any wisdom from this realization is too little, too late.

You start edging into the conversation around them. It’s a fine line that you’re completely anxious of: you want them to notice you, but you don’t want to be a bother. You play with the idea of a direct message, but without any sort of context or post to reference, it feels way too vulnerable. Better not. Besides, what if they turn out to be a completely obnoxious person, or a bigot, or they reveal that they love Ayn Rand, like, on a deep and cellular level? Can you deal with that? (Memories of reading The Fountainhead for a lit class in high school may scar you a little more than you want to admit. Your instructor clearly had some sort of expectation about that book when he assigned it, but whatever it was, you cannot imagine.)

(You post something about this lit class, and Ayn Rand, and spend a few hours commiserating with most of the replies. One Rand supporter sneaks in and questions if you really absorbed the piece, and you find yourself disabling comments because the ensuing brawl is cluttering up your inbox.)

A few weeks pass, and suddenly there’s a note in your inbox, and that familiar username is behind it:

One new message from snaplolcat01:

    saw ur post on ayn rand.. the comments were a trip and i read every single one. really glad no one made ME read anything by her

There’s a little flutter of validation in your chest, and you eagerly type back a response:

    Haha, yeah, the comments got way out of hand, I should have known what I was doing when I posted that. Yah, your lucky. There are a couple scenes I just CANNOT unread. If you want my advice, stay FAR AWAY from those books.     *you’re (ugh, first impressions, and that happens)

A few minutes pass without a response, and you shrug it off and click away from your inbox. As you scroll and tap and read and respond, you have a little, vague smile on your face. Being noticed is always nice. Communication is slow but constant over the next few days, whenever you find yourself near your computer and with some free time. They never seem to be on at the same time you are, but usually, you find a new response from them. You tiptoe around each other, keeping the talk to whatever latest drama is happening in some section of the forums, but you carefully reveal small pieces of yourself, and the conversation branches to news and politics, movies, and one day, when your schedules seem suddenly to overlap, favorite childhood cereals.

It’s been months, you realize, since that first introduction, and your talks would fill several dozens of pages at this point. For the most part, they still respond while you’re asleep, and one day, you say, “You’re always up so late, you must be on a different timezone than me.”

You’re up late that night, working on an essay, when one of your open tabs chimes at you. You glance up and click through, and in your inbox find:

    haha, well idk what ur schedule is but im only able to get on after school and work     i usually read stuff here til i fall asleep

The essay can wait.

    Oh, gotcha     What are you studying

The picture in your head starts to flesh out just a bit more. You find out that you two have a mutual interest in biology, though you’re in a pre-med track and intending to go into law school, while they’re doubling with computer science and interested in how this all ties in with genetics. They’re balancing a few restaurant jobs as well as a position grading for one of the professors in their department. You can sympathize with the lack of available time; you’re supposed to be writing an essay right now, after all.

    oh dude i dont wanna distract u!!!

    No, you’re fine!     I need a break anyway, my brain feels like cement

The process of sharing is natural, sometimes abundant and sometimes halts, but never feels forced. The person behind the pixels seems as flesh and blood as anyone you know “in real life”, though you’re forced to confront your growing disillusionment with that phrase. You’d scoffed at a friend in high school who had had an internet girlfriend, asking how the relationship could be real if you’d never seen them in person. The internet had been a barrier back then, and while intellectually it made sense that there was a human being on the other end of the Ethernet cord, it was like watching shadow theater play out behind a scrim. It had never made sense that someone could fall in love with what you only saw as black and white pixels on a screen.

More and more, however, you’re forced to accept that you know more about this person than you do about many of the people you see on a day to day basis.

****

    This might be a bit weird but go with me on this

    yeah?

    SO I’ve never ever seen you in real life, but it’s so weird that I know more about you than the girl in my cell bio class that I’ve been crushing on and I see her for actual hours a day     And I don’t know a damn thing about her     We braethe the same air     *breathe

    it’s wild dude     i know whatu mea n     (sorry long day, typing sucks haha)     one of my tas was talking bout th is at a party (she was hella stoned, fukin wild XD)     going on about global societies an d how we as like a people could connect so mjuch faster to somenoe acoss the globe     easier than th people we see evry day     somthing about a keyboard makes it easier     ^^^her exact words

    Whoa

    i know rt?     maybs if bio girl gave u her fb u two wopuld talk     fuck dude i gott slep     i kno my typing sucks but this is embararasing     *embasrasing     FUCK

    HAhahahaha, no worries     I should get going too (though I wanna hear more about this TA)     (I never run into any of my profs or anything at parties)

    haha highly recomend, its an EXPIERENCE     cya dude

This idea of global society sticks with you, and their TA’s comment about keyboards. A keyboard offers a backspace key, and a way to edit yourself. You’ve said plenty of dumb shit on the internet before without necessarily stopping to think through the consequences, but then it occurs to you that at the start of this whole friendship, you’d sometimes gone through ten variations of the same two-sentence message before finally deciding to send it. It was a series of self-edits and careful selection of which parts of yourself you’d wanted seen. Just like real life.

There was comfort in the distance, though. Without a person in front of you, and with the limitless communication offered by a message sitting in your inbox, you couldn’t see reactions -- or judgment. This correspondence held more personal information about yourself than some of your in-person friends knew.

****

    So I got Maya’s facebook page     We’ve been talking, and we’re going to get drinks this weekend, maybe see a movie if there’s anything good out

    YAY!     thats awesome1!!

    Thanks! :)     If we hadn’t talked about global societies and stuff a few nights ago I dunno if I would’ve gotten up the courage to talk to her. Your advice for talking via computer made it soooo much easier.

    so ur saying im resopnsible for this new relationship?     *responsible     ur welcome ;)

Drinks go fantastically, and you and Maya decide to forgo the movie and head back to her place. When you finally make it back to your computer, there are a few frantic, nosy messages.

    HOWZ THE DATE     cmon dude im dying to kno

    i can only assume ur havn massive amounts of sex rn     and im v happy for u     but i need to know

    r u alive????

You can’t keep the smile from your face, and you start to type out a response. Maya hadn’t thought it strange at all that you had an internet friend who had pushed you to finally ask her out. She’d even teased you, “Make sure to brag about me to your buddy.” The memory of that, her lips grazing your skin and her breath tickling your ear, raises goosebumps, and you shiver just a little bit. Some things just can’t be replicated over the internet, you decide, but friendship doesn’t seem to lack.

[lennyandkarlmarx]

Stacking

Cartoonist and harbinger of delusional libertarian ideology Scott Adams famously coined the term talent stacking, which later morphed into skill stacking, a popular-among-guys-with-cars-in-their-profile-pictures way of thinking about personal finance and job marketability. The theory is simplified as follows: by stacking several skill on top of each other, one can make themselves extremely desirable as an employee or business partner. Like many self-help concepts, it sounds reasonable enough, but if one has stacked the skill of critical thought, it quickly falls apart. Stacking mostly unrelated, often easy to learn skill is, at best, going to provide one hoping to turn their professional life around with a series of resume tie-breakers or elevator pitch notes that will only help sporadically and unpredictably. It’s easy to recognize that, simply placing attributes on top of each other without weighing their interdependence is a hollow exercise. Unfortunately, this is a lesson the left has yet to learn.

Identity politics is the ur struggle session of the post-Bernie left. While of course Marxist academics, organizers, and activists have been debating the roles concepts like race or gender should play in class struggle is as old as Marxism itself, it’s impossible to deny the focus this discussion has pulled over the last five or so years. While sorting sides of a struggle session into two distinct camps is bound to over simplify, it benefits this conversation to place on an imagined spectrum the identitarians on one side, and the class reductionist on the other. The former of course wants to, if not ignore class entirely, consider it just another identity to stack on top of the various other marginalized communities one could feasibly be a part of. The latter obviously wants to minimize so greatly the role marginalized identities play in capitalist hierarchies. The uselessness of thinking of these two distinct groups is obvious enough, but the problem comes from the fact that the ground in-between them is just as useless.

The problem isn’t how one weighs race or gender or orientation or disability status, it’s the exercise of weighing them at all. Before detailing the complete lack of merit, first it’s crucial to understand that, even if it was beneficial to weigh these identities versus class, it’s nearly impossible to do so. There is amount contextualization that can accurately capture a unique human experience and extrapolate it to inform an all encompassing political ideology or economic system. Like someone adding a black belt to their accounting resume, it atomizes these economic and cultural structures to just tack them on as not just valuable information, but defining information. For example, let’s look at the racism and misogyny that tennis legend Serena Williams has experienced in her career. Williams has unfortunately been on the receiving end of racist and misogynistic language from fans, opponents, and even tennis excerpts and judges. More so, she is completely undervalued due to her gender, with a shockingly high number of amateur men confident they could score a point off one of the most successful players in history. She’s lost materially as well, with some analysis pointing to her losing points and even matches due to judgement errors that seem go against her at a disproportionate rate. Serena Williams is also worth almost two-hundred million dollars.

Does her status as a multimillionaire, so removed from the type of material consequences that could rob of her of access to necessities mean she’s not experiencing the racism of misogyny? Of course not, but is it meaningless? Is it worthy of being an area of focus? Many will say no, there are countless working class people who experience the same racism or misogyny that can’t cry themselves to sleep on a pile of money. Others might retort, and somewhat fairly so, that this racism isn’t about how it weighs on the individual, but it must be pointed out because it’s indicative of a pattern. The racism she experiences might not lead to her losing her next meal, but by using it as an example it can inform others of how many individuals might lost their next meal as a result of the same attitudes. Is that true? Who knows? The political world should make everyone wary of assuming anything is effective, on way or another. It’s so vague that the whole exercise of weighing what is or isn’t worthy of what one should be talking about and focusing on becomes meaningless. It’s also, however, useless.

Even if someone had stacked the skill to perfectly assign all acts of racism, misogyny, etc. a numeric number based on how impactful it was for that person’s life, it would still be relatively meaningless. All it would tell us is what the individual party has experienced, the extremes of which would be self-evident to most invested parties anyway. Even in aggregate, it would only tell one what again is self-evident to most invested parties: racism, misogyny, etc., do have a material impact on people’s lives. That’s not exactly front page news, again, at least to most of the individuals engaged politically on the left. What is useful though? If trying to weigh the value of these structures is meaningless, what can be done to better understand how these structure impact class?

It's hard to say, but a good first step is likely to move away from trying to turn the various points that are often referred to as intersections into math problems. That’s not to discourage empirical evidence that can determine the material impact of being in a marginalized community, but that evidence shouldn’t be the tipping point for those already on the left; leftists should already be bought into the idea that these identities are impactful, and from there the question should become: how can political policy or direct action accommodate them as needed, starting from the point of class. Healthcare is a great example here.

Bernie Sanders pushed a sort of a high tide raises all boats narrative in much of his rhetoric around his version of Medicare For All. To a degree, as many softer leftists of the rose emoji variety argued, this is true. Women, the disabled, people of color, trans individuals, etc. are all disproportionally harmed by the United States’ profit based private healthcare system, so it follows they would also be disproportionally impacted by the positive outcomes of Medicare for All or a similar universal healthcare type police. This isn’t sufficient though, as these passive benefits don’t fall on a one for one line with the ways involuntary membership in these marginalized communities is materially detracting. Universal healthcare doesn’t automatically undo all the harm the existing healthcare system does to, say, the trans community. Specific language around hormone usage, a wide variety surgeries, mental healthcare, and the lifting of certain existing restrictions or unnecessary roadblocks to transition or just on going care within this context, to start, would all be necessary to try to get trans individuals just to a zero point on the scale of marginalization faced by healthcare. Standards around physician education, best practices for trans patience in emergency situations (who to call, when, what to tell them, and in a worst case scenario, how to prevent unaccepting parents from hijacking certain end of life decisions) would like need to be added as well. None of this could occur by just implementing Medicare For All without specific, identity based language.

The response to this from class reductionists would be that Medicare For All as a policy because less desirable if it features this kind of specific language, that the reactionary nature of the United States is as such that people will be less likely to accept even free healthcare if they think or know it will help trans people. In the broadest possible sense, they’re probably not entirely wrong. It’s been well documented that white people in the United States are far more likely to, for example, support the death penalty after finding out it’s disproportionally used against people of color. While it is undoubtedly just the masking of personal bigotry by many class reductionists to heave this procedural question into the discussion, the question itself isn’t meritless. The response is fortunately fairly straight forward. The political, horserace calculations only ever work in one direction. These types of leftists only want to do the math in this one, immediate context. However, zooming out helps one understand that there’s a lot more math to do.

Hillary Clinton famously gambled that for every working class voter she would lose in the Midwest, she would gain two suburban republicans in Pennsylvania or Florida, and the Obama presidency taught us anything, it’s that one should always bet on the side of reactionaries softening and negotiate with them in good faith, which is why Hillary Clinton is now president. It should be obvious that betting on some random bigot to come around on healthcare for all if trans people or abortion aren’t mentioned is laughable. The loss of Clinton, Corbyn, and Sanders have demonstrated pretty clearly, albeit in distinct ways, that there will always be a base who will gladly posture about one issue or the next, but will ultimately reject their own class interests regardless. However, even ignoring this there’s another argument to be made here, primarily that, unlike Clinton’s very competent advisors told her, even in the unwieldy context of a political campaign, political engagement can never be measured in just raw quantitative data. For example, again to use the trans community, trans individuals tend to be, on average, far more politically engaged than their cis counterparts. It’s rarely argued in these discussions however that, by adding that specific language can help the left access an entire community of politically active people. The same can be said for many marginalized communities.

When applying for a job, it’s best to trim unnecessary information from a resume. No sales manager cares about some certificate in military history from Hollywood Upstairs Online College. Mindlessly stacking things on top of each other, assuming all of them are relevant and will inform one’s prospects is a fool’s errand. The same can be said about stacking class and marginalized identities. The goal here is to encourage a shift away from weighing various identities by deciding which ones are worth stacking, and how much they’re worth, but instead focus on an order of operations. All policy and praxis should start from class, as a pure no-one left behind measure, and work diligently to factor in specifies that target marginalized communities as needed.