#we're fighting for womens liberation remember

[nerdygaymormon]

The nation is REALLY anti-trans. It's a big part of what got President Trump elected. Don't you think the gay community would be better off if you cut the T out of LGBT? You're only bringing hardship on yourselves by associating with them.

Let me share something about queer history and gaining legal rights

The Mattachine Society, a gay rights group for men, was founded in 1950. The Daughters of Bilitis, a gay rights group for lesbians, was founded in 1955. They led what was known as the Homophile Movement, which took the approach that if we convince straight society that we're like them and don't pose a threat, then they'll give us legal rights. Members of the two organizations were encouraged to assimilate as much as possible into the prevailing heterosexual culture.

These groups held occasional protests for rights, but the participants had to be well dressed in conservative fashions, a business suit for the men and dresses or blouse & skirt for the women. Their signs had to be approved, and even the lettering on the signs had to adhere to strict standards. Always the emphasis was on showing we're upstanding, decent people, no different from you. This is known as Respectability Politics.

Guess what, politely asking for rights didn't work.

The events of 1969 is what brought change. Instead of politely asking, this was a riot, this was a fight, it was an explosion. People demanded liberation, not assimilation. They wanted to dress how they wanted, they wanted to love who they wanted, they wanted to be who they are. Trans people were there fighting at Stonewall and also in the decades since for queer rights.

The thing about progress is there's always a backlash, and we are currently experiencing this. Barack Obama was elected president, becoming the first non-white man to hold this office, and two women have been the presidential candidate of a major political party. And the backlash has been a decade of Donald Trump. Trans people were gaining legal protections and visibility in popular culture, and this caused a backlash. The thing is, these backlashes are temporary, they delay progress but they won't permanently stop it, they never do.

To quietly abandon the trans community in the hopes that the rest of queer people will be left alone is a false premise. The arguments used against trans people today were used against gay people in the past. The same individuals and groups leading the fight against trans people also are targeting gay people.

While the fight against accepting trans people is strong and has the current momentum, it is fueled by hatred, prejudice, and ignorance. If a group of people can only feel good about themselves when they're standing on top of other people, you already have them beat. They don't make rules & laws to hold down people who are losing, they try to sabotage those who are winning because it is upsetting the social order they were comfortable with and from which they were benefitting. Unfortunately, the longer the backlash continues, the more people are hurt.

Truth is on our side. Trans rights are human rights, meaning they are part of the fundamental rights belonging to every person. We all deserve to live and flourish in society. We should get to learn, work, love, and build our lives at home, at work, and in public settings without fear for our safety and survival. We fight for what is right and move forward regardless. Have hope because we won't lose if we keep moving forward.

We know the fruits of homophobia and transphobia are dead queer kids. We also know that there is no form of protest against homophobia and transphobia that is acceptable to homophobes and transphobes. Rights for gay people won't be preserved by willingly giving up the fight for equal rights for all queer people and by sacrificing an important part of our community. Remember, if we were losing, they wouldn't be so desperate to entrench a system rigged against us.

The promise of the United States is that all are created equal. Over and over, oppressed and marginalized groups have found hope in that promise and fought for the nation to live up to that ideal. Over and over, those who already had the rights and freedoms of this country, fought to keep others from also enjoying them.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, said, "We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."

Which side do you want to be on? The oppressor, or the oppressed? Because the oppressed are on the side of light and truth and eventually will win. In 20 years, will you want to say you were part of the 13% of queer voters who helped elect Donald Trump in the hopes that if he takes away other people's rights, then maybe he won't come after yours? Or do you want to be able to say that you voted for human rights, and you contacted your representatives to voice your opposition to the actions of the administration, and that you volunteered with groups which help the queer community, and that you were part of the fight against this anti-queer agenda?

[atlantis-fell]

I'm not even going to bring up the books to support my point, I can make another post on that, but my biggest problem with House of the Dragon is how they write the women. Its like they're scared that if they give the women characters too much personality agency or power, the viewers will forget they live in a sexist world. This wasn't as obvious in season one because the show had a lot going on.

Why did all of the main women with speaking lines possess the same personality of peace keepers while all of the men were blood thirsty even beyond reason? Why did we have to see Rhaenyra be disrespected to her face by her vassals lords to prove sexism is bad when in-universe they'd be executed on the spot if logic was applied in the writer's room? Why did a man have to be shown a vision by the gods to cement his support and acceptance of a woman as a ruler? Why was Alicent excluded and surprised by a coup she was actively planning for and even started the Green faction for in the absence of her father? What do you mean Alicent had to be ousted from influence by the men to realize she propped up monstrous power hungry incompetent men in usurping Rhaenyra?

Even in s1, we're deprived of seeing Rhaenyra's individual influence and power at court (retinue, input, favor) since she's always in this state of desparation to make her a sympathetic underdog because the writers dont trust the audience to accept a multi-faceted woman protagonist (powerful, vulnerable, confident, rageful, ambitious, etc), which makes all of the men in her life saviors in some way. Why do we need a prophecy to be relied on so heavily to empower Rhaenyra to rule vs the simple fact that she wants to defend her birthright and her enemies are willing to destroy the peace, the kingoms, and themselves before letting that happen?

Remember in Game of Thrones s1 - s4 where we had a group of well written women characters with distinct personalities, motives, and storylines with complexity that didn't rely on being disrespected by men 24/7 to prove their agency and power was limited due to social confines of gender? Catelyn was comfortable in the patriarchal mold for gender while proving to be a politically savvy, knowledgeable, and active influence in the war. Melisandre was a Preistess whose dedication to fighting for humanity in the Great War was so pure that it made her do horrific acts directly and indirectly despite being on the "right side." The calculating, clever, and manipulatitive Margaery and Olenna of House Tyrell are the true rulers and planners of their House - a direct foil to the tyrannical callous & aggressively patriarchal Lannisters - who truly loved their family and desired their security despite being driven by advancement. Cersei Lannister, a narcissist who desired power and absolute control above all else, malicious and incompetent, hateful at the confines of her sex, and haunted by prophesy. Daenerys is a princess but had to fight for every bit of agency she had and realized she had to halt her ambition and her family legacy to liberate others. I say this to say this was all written under patriarchal societal conditions.

[not-gray-politics]

anyway the americanized version of 4B is just a repackaging of terf ideals and we should call it what it is (I don't have enough context about korean culture/history to pass any judgement on the original movement; this post is specifically about the most recent version of the movement that's been gaining popularity in the U.S. since the election.) I support boycotting misogynistic industries and cutting off toxic people, especially when they vote against your rights, but if your response to this is to start talking about the inherent evil of men and cutting off all men in every circumstance when about 53% of white women (the vast majority I see making 4B content recently) also voted trump. I think your focus is in the wrong place. The call is coming from inside the house. Divorce that shitty husband who's been exploiting your labor, break up with that boyfriend who doesn't respect you, stop talking to that relative that's celebrating your loss of reproductive rights, stop supporting that business with a trump sign on their property, absolutely. I will always encourage you to find people who support and care about you and to build community and safety for eachother. But don't turn around and hang out with women who advocate for the exact same right wing bullshit with a coat of pink paint and call it "4B". Don't rely on terfs who think you're inherently weaker and dumber and will always remain less powerful than men. They do not actually care about advocating for your rights, they only care about hurting the right people and keeping you afraid. They'd vote against you in a heartbeat if it meant hurting a trans woman, they probably already have. They shout about girl power, sisterhood, womens' solidarity, but they do not believe we can overcome misogyny in any meaningful way. There's a lack of faith that we can ever prevent the root causes of misogyny, that men will always be inherently predatory and unable to control themselves around women and have power over us and there's nothing we can do to stop it or change it, so they believe in bandaid solutions like segregation to "protect" us, (inadvertently placing the responsibility on women to make up for mens' actions, which is my primary issue with 4B, not everyone has the choice to just "avoid all men" or "avoid toxic men" or "not have sex/children/etc.";) instead of advocating for meaningful activism and change so that no one needs protecting. They're not feminists, they're defeatists. It's a belief in mysogynist dystopia, and you should know by now how I feel about dystopia. (It's a tactic to drain your motivation, keep you from imagining a better world, and keep you complacent. Always resist dystopia.) They will not be there for you when it matters. Remembering the intersectionality of these issues is so important right now. You cannot advocate against trans rights, gay rights, poc rights, disability rights, or fat liberation and then say you advocate for womens' rights. Racism and misogyny are historically intertwined. Fatphobia and racism and misogyny are historically intertwined. homophobia and transphobia and misogyny are historically intertwined. ableism and any form of eugenics are DIRECTLY linked. Half the shit we hear about any of these minority groups is just a recycled antisemitic talking point. To the bigots in charge we're all the same. If you're not a white, cishet, financially powerful able-bodied man, they want you to be subservient and fall in line. We share the same fight; for our dignity and for a better future. It's equal rights for all or none, you can't separate them from eachother. If they're coming for one of us they're coming for all of us sooner or later.

[danwhobrowses]

One Piece Chapter 1136 - Initial Thoughts

And we are back

I say it's been a long time every time but this time it has indeed been a long time XD but finally One Piece is back

so let's not waste time and see what Oda has for us for 2025 properly

Spoilers for the Chapter, Support the Official Release too

Yamato's dud of a cover story continues, bringing Holdem to a TOTALLY MYSTERIOUS hidden base which has a familiar helmet and cat face on it

At the very least we're being enticed by seeing Who's Who's cat harem again

We pick up with Luffy, enjoying the meat and dining with Jarul, who notes the difficulty of accruing the meat - Luffy shows his appreciation to Stansen and Hajrudin for getting it

Seems the Land of the Dead realm is commonly misconstrued as regular Elbaf because humans tend not to make it far enough to the Sun Realm, often turning tail and running

Usopp's doing what he usually does at parties, well one of two things, this one is lying and regaling the giants over his 'defeat' of Oars

His other thing was singing btw

The giants admire Jinbe's unique appearance as he notes how there are a diverse range of looks in Fishman Island

A kid says they want to see a mermaid, which Sanji endorses, but he's of course soaking up the adulation of Giant women too

Brook also gets asked about himself, so he decides to answer through song

Nami and Zoro remain cool and chilling, but remark that they're surprised that many giants haven't seen the world - since they assumed them all to be pirates

A very beaten up Rodo emerges, apologizing to Nami (and Zoro but he calls him 'this other Straw hat') for his treatment of them before

Gerd seemed to have kicked his ass to get him to fork out an apology, but in a thought bubble he's kinda into it

Zoro says there's no harm done...because Usopp stopped him from causing harm

Zoro had to do a badass threat, but I can't take it seriously with those god ugly goggles XD

It at least intimidated Rodo, who is reprimanded for not even checking their bounties before picking a fight

'Don't hold back next time' DEAR GOD GERD YOU'RE SAVAGE!

Rodo backtracks, but he does note that all Giants dream of being the 'next Sun God' and rule the world

I suppose this is why we've seen him and Loki claim to be it

Zoro is interested in the mention but the other giants argue over Sun God Lore

Some say the Sun God's not a ruler, some say they're a god of Liberation, others Destruction, and others more Laughter

Luffy asks Jarul about it, it seems the conflict is because of translations (I see you Oda)

The 'Harley' texts were passed down through Elbaf's generations, written in an archaic language

As for the name I'm afraid I'm at a loss, it sounds like a reference but I don't know to what

According to Jarul however, the world has ended twice and Nika was central to both instances

I wonder if that means the world has flooded twice, or simply that a great era ended? Because Nika and Joy Boy both seemed to have fought in a great war

We see a Giant's depiction of Nika which is more Luffy-like, with Jarul's description, the world leaders fear them because it's a bringer of change, for destruction or liberation

Luffy remembers Bonney mention Nika and connects that this is why people keep mistaking him for Nika, he dismisses a connection though

Hajrudin, Goldberg and Stansen note that they do all look up to Nika though which leads Jarul to mention Loki

Loki also aspired to be Nika, which is what Jarul suspects is why he killed the king

Oh Luffy, 'so he's a good guy?' is not the thing to ask of the man you saw chained to a tree in the Giant's prison freezer box

Seems Loki has some prophecy to him too; Harold was foretold to be slain by a son (classic mythology that), also after his birth the royal horse died

Loki was born around the same time as Big Mom's Semla rampage which killed Jorul, then a year later the Queen died

Loki then killed and befriended a lot of the beasts in the Realm of the Dead at 10 - which he did allude to in earlier chapters - releasing some unto the villages

He's also depicted a bit older burning down a village and laughing, which is the most Norse Loki we've seen OP Loki look

Loki used his hierarchy as a prince to do what he wants, and then he killed the king - his statue obscures his face though which is unusual, something to make note of

Jarul's head injury is from the fallout of Loki's patri- and regicide

Oh, and Shanks was the one who helped capture him six years ago, he was out at sea during this time

I wonder if Shanks beating Loki was one of the turning points into making him a Yonko? It at least explains his friendliness with the Giants

Luffy gets excited to hear Shanks again, and is told that he was here a while ago, but his whereabouts are unknown

Zoro seems pensive about all this

Oh, it seems that he is privy to Luffy's deal with Loki, pulling Luffy to the village outskirts to note that he's likely deceiving him

Luffy defends himself by saying he wanted to know where Shanks was - which Zoro exasperatedly notes he's told him repeatedly - and will be pissed if he was lied to

Seems Loki offered Luffy intel on Shanks including his whereabouts for freedom, Luffy does ask Zoro how he can be sure if they've never met, which Zoro concedes he doesn't, but public opinion isn't high on him

Nami also pops in, seems it's the original trio off on a secret adventure

Also Rodo's here, her new man slave, to steer the ship

Zeus has to remind Rodo of the pecking order though; Zeus is slave 1, Sanji is slave 2, so he's slave 3

It seems Zeus gave him a bit of lightning too since his hair is all poofed

Rodo tries to connect with Nami over how they're both navigators, but is quickly rebuked again

Nami feels bad about leaving the party early, but Rodo notes that they party has fallen into a drunken stupor

They roll up to the Big Stein Castle, where Nami's true colours of stealing treasure comes into light - Rodo claims he has 'bad vision' when asked if the giants would mind anything going missing

It seems our hooded figures have met up with Loki and he's laughing loudly (Doga ha ha seems to be his laugh)

Ohhhh, the hooded figures were offering Loki a position among the Gods Knights

Loki refuses though, he doesn't wanna be a Celestial Dragon, calling them scum, so it seems like he has a line

Shanks but maybe not Shanks asks the other about intel

Oda's being shrewd about hiding half his face, can't tell if there's scars or not

Our other figure notes that all informants got swept up by a giant crow (I suspect that means all of Rodo's diorama were WG spies?)

Our other hooded figure is Gunko, a God's Knight with heterochromia eyes and her sleeve unravels like a ribbon, I'd suspect she has a ribbon-like fruit that may be similar to Diamante's

Still woman it's the fucking winter realm put on some pants!

A giant wolf comes to Loki's aid and is quickly subdued and hung by the neck by Gunko

Shanks but Not Shanks asks if bartering the wolf's life will make him change his mind, but Loki refuses

'It's okay to grieve and rage, but a warrior never kicks and screams in the face of death' - it's a hard line, with honour to it, but Loki would definitely not like Usopp with this mantra

but also despite being this honourable Loki still intends to destroy the world

A good chapter to come back to, which continues to shift Loki's status in limbo.

His backstory seems malicious but the omens aren't exactly his to be burdened with. He has some loyalty and honour to him, enough to oppose the WG, but we can at least tell why he doesn't like Shanks. It's a mixed territory, kinda like Crocodile really: he's bad, but he has ally potential too. Good to get some Nika lore too, explaining all these claims to being the Sun God and being more understanding towards the Gorosei's reasonings for being frightened of Nika.

It was assumed but now we can confirm that Gods Knights are here, which will be a way to gauge their strength against the crew, they need to be powerful if the Revolutionaries are wary of them.

Still, more splitting of the crew is ominous, and being at the Big Stein castle is likely to show Gunko's handiwork to Luffy, Zoro and Nami at the least. Seems Rodo will be here to stay too, we'll see if he can redeem himself because I think we'd all rather have Hajrudin coming...or Ripley or Gerd XD We've still not seen that shadowed guy either

For now it's a casual reintroduction to Elbaf's plot for 2025, we're on the cusp of the chaos unfolding, but soon it will all hit the fan

[persephonesprose]

films and literature and nonsensical thoughts of 2024

the year was full of demons. art was not one of them.

literature that made me understand being human

On Keeping a Notebook by Joan Didion ★★★★★

"We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget. We forget the loves and the betrayals alike, forget what we whispered and what we screamed, forget who we were." No one will understand why I need a journal, why I can't go a day without putting my thoughts down on paper, better than Joan herself. I fear forgetting, but I think I fear never having that piece of myself somewhere in the physical world more.

Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon ★★★

Every now and then, reading a YA novel becomes something magical. I don't know why fifteen year old me didn't read this when I was gifted it. But I'm sort of glad to read it as an adult, because of how it views life and risk taking and the act of living.

films to watch at three a.m.

Frances Ha: ★★★★1/2

I watched this and was sent into an existential crisis at 5am. In a good way. The love I have for something so simple to say "it's okay to be where you're at even if life sucks." is unmatched. I'm terrified of growing up because I think I'll do it wrong, but this film taught me to love the mistakes just as much if not more. I could write an essay about this and I probably will.

This Beautiful Fantastic: ★★★1/2

I ended the film in tears. Good ones, but still tears. If there was ever something to show me that love and change are all things that make you so human it's beautiful, then this would be it. But I mainly loved it because it reminded me of my grandpa.

The Greatest Hits: ★★★★

If a movie could devour a heart, this one did exactly that to mine. Grief is that one human emotion I've never allowed myself to feel. And music is the escape that gets me away from it. Until they looped them together. Grief is love and I understand that a lot more now.

Colette: ★★★★

I spent the whole movie rooting for her to murder her husband. And in all honesty she should have been allowed. I knew very little about Claudine, yet after this I want to feast on her works as if they were fine dining. They probably are.

On the Basis of Sex: ★★★1/2

Now more than ever we have to remember what women fought for, the equality and liberation we deserve. The film made a fire burn in my chest. Rage at why we're still fighting the same exact fight decades later.

Good Will Hunting: ★★★★1/2

This film has haunted me for years now, but I've never actually sat down to watch it. I'm glad I did when I was in my twenties. Because this is a film to rewatch when I'm thirty and forty and fifty. I think as time goes on I'll see a different way each time.

The Jane Austen Book Club: ★★★★

Oh the joys of getting to sit and yap about Jane Austen with wine and good friends. Not to mention falling in love. I think films that feel like revisiting a worn out novel instantly hold such an appeal.

Moulin Rouge: ★★★★★

If we didn't have tragedies, how would we understand being human? I've cried to lots of films, have found comfort in the layers of grief. But this one took my breath away. I'm ashamed to say it's taken me too long to finally watch it in full, but I'll never see life the same way after.

albums to play in the kitchen at midnight

On The Inside: Gotts Street Park

Special love to the song Got To Be Good. Would recommend dancing by the fridge light to this.

Songs For No One Vol. 1 & 2: Victoria Bigelow

It's soft and lyrical and invades your soul without even trying. I recommend to be listened to with wine.

The Death of Summer & Other Promises: Etta Marcus

Every song of hers opens me up like I'm getting prepped for an autopsy. She picks at my heart and expects me to be okay afterwards. Definitely 2am existential crisis songs.

[tobiasdrake]

The final confrontation!

Y'know, it's hard to disagree with Magneto when the humans hate us so much that the Americans and Soviets put aside their differences and agreed to turn the Cuban coast into glass to kill us.

Magneto, of course, Returns to Sender these missiles but Xavier immediately advocates for mercy.

Sometimes I think these movies don't want you to like Xavier. Like. We all agree that's a fucking dipshit thing to say to a Holocaust survivor, right? Xavier set himself up for a sharp and much-deserved comeback. Why would you say that?

Xavier then starts a fight to protect the ships full of armed soldiers trying to exterminate our race.

Magneto overpowers Xavier, so Moira comes in with a gun.

And one of Magneto's deflected shots goes straight into Xavier's spine, paralyzing him.

Magneto Force Chokes Moira with her own goddamn dog tags holy shit. And then Xavier drops the line.

But. Like. That's extremely debatable.

On the one hand, it was Magneto who deflected the bullet that hit Xavier's spine.

Then again, it was Moira who fired the bullet at Magneto to be deflected.

But also, it was Magneto threatening the humans' lives that provoked Moira and Xavier to start fighting him in the first place.

But also also, Magneto was retaliating against the humans trying to carpet-bomb our race out of existence.

There's not really any levels of blame beyond that? So in the literal sense, Moira did this. Charles refused to practice shooting guns at Magneto back during the training montage, even though Magneto asked him to. He couldn't control his deflection trajectory; He never got to practice.

But in the larger sense, the humans did this. They started this fight. They tried to slaughter us all. If Magneto had dropped the volley in the sea, they probably would have just fired another. They back down because he nearly wipes out both fleets with their own missiles.

Using their own missiles, Magneto threatens the fleets so badly that both captains start delivering the stock We're All Going To Die Here quotes to their men. They never try to fire a second volley.

In the X-Men vs. American and Soviet Naval Forces fight, Magneto's show of force is what wins the battle.

Then Xavier goes home and proclaims himself to still be CIA at heart.

Moira has to tell him to stop thinking of the X-Men like mutant cops. Then Xavier mind-wipes her and we close out Moira's story with this line.

This movie is weirder about women than I remembered. This is literally the last word ever spoken about Moira in the film. I guess it's meant to explain why she's a doctor in Scotland instead of a CIA agent in The Last Stand?

While Xavier's ruining Moira's career, Magneto breaks out Emma.

Because he's sad that Xavier left him and wants a new telepath to replace him. Though the way he delivers this line suggests he's probably just being coy. Magneto loves to chew scenery.

The more likely reason he broke Emma out is because liberating his fellow mutants from human confinement is his thing. He doesn't need a reason to fuck with the CIA. He's cool like that.

[starstuffandalotofcoffee]

I threw down pretty heavily with SURJ this year, and also wasn't particularly happy with their post-election analysis. I'm not necessarily looking to move orgs, but I'm curious what the takes on the WFP/Move On call were. I'm in the contacting them to see if I can get the recording, but I'd also love to get your deeper opinion.

the recording of the mass call is here (I couldn't recall the coalition name while drafting that post and was in a rush to get to something and probably should have waited). I will admit I was not in like, a great headspace to remember details, and I had to drop off early, but I have signed up for my local meeting which is tomorrow (check your area! there's links on the same page). It focused a lot more on community building and tangible plans put in place and a lot less about Our Fellow White Women coming from educated lefty white women in Brooklyn who only have access to other educated lefty white women in Brooklyn. I also think that it did contain some useful post-mortems. I do not think it's correct to say Democrats made all of the right choices over the past 4 years but the issue is less "we have abandoned the working class" and much more "messaging is fucked, a lot of programs move too slowly, and we should have prosecuted Trump much more quickly." Like, more generally, I think that capitalism is a massive problem and is a major factor why we're at where we're at. but SURJ felt like, well, Very Online Leftists who are like "under late stage capitalism we are all fucked" and when you ask "ok what should we do about it" they're like "stop capitalism" and when you're like "ok what are the actionable steps" they're like "CAPITALISM BAD". Or to put it another way, to reference the Daniel Hunter 10 steps article, it felt all very public angsting, no action. And perhaps it was just that that call was Wednesday Night and Worth Fighting For was Thursday and they'd had another day to pause and grieve and breathe but the former just made me feel like they were wallowing and the latter was the first thing that made me feel better that wasn't pure distraction.

also: Judith LeBlanc was a smart choice. I feel better today for having gone to my synagogue and talked to old left-leaning Jewish people. I think you need to spend time with people who can say "the steps backward are unacceptable, and also, I have gone forward once and I will keep doing it and I know the work might not be done in my or your lifetime and we still do it." I also think it's a key point in coalition building to have the former head of the Communist Party given an equal platform as Jamie Raskin and Pramila Jayapal and Leah Greenberg. (I also found Ash-Lee Henderson to be a fantastic host/moderator here; again, I think SURJ's mission isn't inherently bad in theory but it really does turn into a lot of Liberal Urbanite White Woman (and sometimes men) self-flagellation. Like...you should not make women of color do the work, but you should fucking listen to them instead of talking forever about how bad and sorry you are about other white women.)

[nastrond-skelly]

Remember kids

Israel is a puppet of NATO made to keep a hand in the middle east.

When the state was created they didn't even want holocaust survivors there because they thought of them as weak.

What is happening in Palestine is called an ethnic genocide through deprivation of resources and repeated bombing of infrastructure and civilian buildings supported by NATO, not "self defense".

Hamas has literally nothing to do with Isis, they're two completely different organizations.

If you're Jewish and support the liberation of Palestine you're not a self hating jew, you're a well informed human being with some fucking empathy.

The palestinians authorities have stated multiple times that when the stolen land is returned to the Palestinian population no Israeli civilians will be harmed or asked to leave the country, they will be free to leave if they wish but no such things will be forced upon them.

The image of Palestinian soldiers western media depicts is a gross dehumanization of people who are just fighting for the lives of their own people, the idea of them as women-hating gay-burning children-decapitating terrorists is some shit Israel made up to get centrists and liberals to support them.

If you feel guilty for having believed in Israel's bullshit in the past, don't, no one is immune to propaganda, i believed the russian federation was a communist country until i was 16 for fuck sake, we all fall for this shit when we're ill informed, even more if you live in countries like America when they barely tell you where Europe is.

[strawhatsufi]

look i got news for ya as a real yank hater. the most important ideological figure for america-haters? ibn laden. straight up. nobody since ibn laden has inspired that level of unity in the islamic world against its common enemy. he was mostly motivated by the situation in palestine. he considered afghanistan to be the only country with the sharia form of government that he was fighting for.

the islamic emirate, without sacrificing any of the progressive ideas in terms of the liberation of the islamic world from foreign imperialism, fought the united states and won. it did this entirely under the well-argued legal reasoning of its religious scholars. those "sectarians" you're scared of, the islamic fighters, jihad believers? they're paying attention to that.

they're not saying "the IEA betrayed us because we're fighting for free markets and resource privatisation". they're looking at afghanistan's developmental model as something they might want to do once they're in charge, because they're not a bunch of yankbrained dipshits who are caught up on culture war shit about women in scarves and whatever, they're people who grew up in a rough neighbourhood being bombed by America and whoever else every fifteen seconds, and worked with what they had laying around ideologically after decades of genocidal occupation destroyed everything in their country that could give them a better idea of what's going on. yes this resulted in unfathomable human pain and suffering. that's why they're trying to put an end to it by not being at war anymore. because they, unlike you, want to see a free and sovereign middle east that is not entirely dictated by the foreign policy interests of war of terror imperialists while you sit a world away and cheer for your favourites.

you're the ones who spent twenty years saying you were going to "bomb the middle east into the stone age" and now you want to complain that they're not as ideologically developed as you! you, the big genius of the world

you might not like syrias interim government but when you remember that syria is a country with people living in it, people who are a part of a broader integrated world, and not just a tool for the foreign policies of rival powers, you understand the actual socio-historical position it's in and what's expected of it, and then and only then do you have anything to say about it worth listening to.

muslims want to be free and sovereign and not at war. understand that. that is the main thing going on right now.

[argyrocratie]

"Lola: It all began for us in the early days of 1971. A woman friend invited us to a meeting of the Women's Lib Movement ["MLF" in French]. The whole group went, but the boys had to stay in the café next door. Three of us walked in, plus that friend. We started by saying:

-Sorry, but, as far as we're concerned, we live as a group with boys, some are gay, others aren't totally gay, and we'd rather not be separated from the boys who fight these battles.

-We stand for gender-non-mixing.

-OK then…

I wouldn't say we were pleased. Then we took a look at ourselves: "Shit, see how badly dressed we are, don't we look down and out!!…" As a matter of fact, we did look like tramps compared to all these young women. And then we heard absurd statements such as "I am a Lesbian by political choice", until one of us, me probably, cried out:

-And not for pleasure, you idiot !?

Some time later, we heard about the birth of the FHAR [the Homosexual Front of Revolutionary Action]. Of course we rushed in headlong. We went there with our bunch of friends, we threw ourselves body and soul into this struggle: what attracted us was that it was not a homosexual liberation front, but a homosexual front for revolutionary action. We thought the same about Women's Lib: it's positive for groups to organise for specific causes, provided the specific is not there to stay, provided it eventually merges into the general revolutionary course - remember we believed revolution was round the corner. We were sure the existence of Women's Lib was important and positive, if it worked as a specific tool within a broader range of activities, i.e. if it was gender-mixed. Similarly, we thought the existence of the FHAR was important and positive, if it was also gender-mixed.

G.D.: Mixed in the sense that it was open to non-gays ?

Lola: That's right: open to all walks of life. In fact, the early FHAR supported polysexuality. At the time, we moved into a flat rue Charlemagne (in the Paris 4th district, the Marais area): lots of people would live there or come to sleep over, and the place became a sort of annex of the FHAR. This was where I met the very young man who later became Hélène Hazera. The FHAR had district committees, so we created the FHAR Marais committee. In those days, the Marais was a working class neighbourhood where you heard Yiddish on every street, we had no idea that the area would later morph into a hub of homosexual commodification. Our place became an awful mess where people debated, smoked pot, had mescaline, made love and intermingled, where the district committee held its meetings and prepared its actions. We kept proclaiming how free our sexuality was. I remember, I used to go out wearing big boots, naked under a cassock - a gorgeous dress. In short, we were engaged in permanent no-holds-barred provocation. We fucked in public places - we'd been doing it for a long time.

G.D.: What actions did you prepare ?

Lola: For instance, creating havoc in the ghetto. The gay ghetto, I mean: the specialised homo clubs. We'd go to the club door and tell the guys: "Get out of the closet !" Other actions too. One day, we heard that gay-bashing was taking place in the Buttes-Chaumont park. Some of our friends went. Suddenly gay-bashers were faced with a troop of screaming fairies - even those who weren't fairies overdid it a bit - and the homophobes got beaten up. That was fine. Bashing gay-bashers

(...)

G.D.: And what about class struggle ?

Lola: For us that was part and parcel of our life and activity… When friends happened to be working, we were involved in whatever occurred in their work-places. I personally was doing surveys. We'd become part of a sort of informal gathering of casual data-collectors - similar to what is now called a coordination - which met once a month. As all data-collectors were in intermittent employment, that gathering helped them register with the social security system, get unemployment benefits, etc. And it also provided information about the companies which mistreated us, how they tried to screw us, and how to fight back.

(...)

We acted where we worked. Unlike the gauchistes, we did not take action everywhere, we acted if we were called upon. When a friend of ours was employed somewhere and needed some help, we were ready. Wherever we worked, we were of course involved in struggles as soon as they occurred. That was our class struggle. In the post-68 situation, everything was being challenged. And as (despite our anti-work stand) we had to work now and again, we weren't inactive in the work-place.

We also did a lot of shop-lifting, we did "free check-out" actions. Often on the spur of the moment. We would decide "Let's go !", and we went. We were always on the go because our purpose was to exist as a group in order to be able to act. We helped abortions to take place, we provided shelter for very young people, one who'd run away from social services, another from a seminary, we housed various kinds of homeless guys. Daily life was a big issue.

For us, summer 71 was like an incredible Summer of Love. Anyone could land on our door-step, debate, fuck and use drugs a lot. This was when the Gazolines came into being: the following year, we marched together for the funeral of Pierre Overney, with the Gazolines dressed as merry widows. (14)

G.D.: This was 1972. The FHAR was launched at the beginning of 71, and you left…

Lola: …after about 5 or 6 months…

G.D.: …so this was all happening…

Lola: …in the blink of an eye.

G.D.: A year, at the most.

Lola: Less. Our communal life and all the rest of it… it was all in the blink of an eye"

-"Revisiting Sex and Class", On a gender-fluid childhood, May 68, women's lib, radical gays and Lesbians, identity, #MeToo, and a bit more: an interview with Lola Miesseroff

[papirouge]

Not American Christians right now telling me that Jesus in that HeGetsUs commercial from the Super Bowl is too liberal (for washing someone’s feet)/not the right way to be a Christian. 💀 my own cousin wants another crusade across Europe for God and believes that God would want us to conquer and unite believers under an army. That commercial which was paid for by conservative Christians too, triggered him so much for showing christians as weak ???

When you said that you saw a vision of three world being misled by Islam, I can see it now. A lot of christians are not listening to Jesus or his teachings, they’d rather be violent and be jihadists because they’re getting more and more crazy

Having a commercial to promote Christianity is INSANE. Especially during the satanic circus called the Superbowl. Thinking this was a good idea shows how spiritually bewildered US evangelicals are.

Those Christian crusaders 2.0 are delusional. Jesus is the sword - we're not entitled to fight and go to war anymore. We're not under the same prescription as the Israelites. Christians are spread all across the world, we don't have a kingdom/place to defend, a temple to (re)build.. Our kingdom will come when we die or after the rapture.

Those people strike me as individual unable to make any significant change in their life (they're false converts so of course they won't have any fruit of the spirit) so they cope with this powerlessness by boasting those delusional dreams of grandeur of reconquering the middle east, defeating Islam etc. Good job defeating the kingdom of satan in middle east when you can't do shit about your own country, Josh 💀

Those Christians are technically jihadist but they somehow think they're different. Sorry but Christians can't look down on Islam saying how superior and peaceful our religion is, and then turn around and threaten to establish the kingdom of our Lord with guns and bombs... Spilling blood for Jesus is a totally nonsense anyway, and any person encouraging such endeavor is not a child of God.

I think you refer to a prophetic dream I got about women being attacked in what looked like a museum? I think there were leotards involved... As well as a Catholic church burning... My memory is weak, I'll have to look into my archive bc I don't remember making a link to Islam.. but other Christians indeed forecasted civil wars into Europe between Muslims and non Muslim + World War III with Russia and China allying against the USA that will eventually lose. Many argue that Daniel vision of the bear eating the 3 ribs (Daniel 7:5) is Russia literally eating up the world (domination). Russia is routinely symbolized as a bear in today's world news so it really doesn't seem farfetched

[genderisareligion]

I appreciate your Input on the whole lesbian vs OSA woman,really, Im not only crypto because of the TRAs but also because fights on the internet happen so fast and I just cant deal... Especially when its friendly fire. Anyways, not too long ago an older feminist (like, active feminist she did so mich) told me that there where always these discussions between OSA and lesbian woman in feminist spaces (and we talking 70s). And I kind of do understand it, but I also think its really sad, unproductive, and if you feel like people are talking bullshit on the web, maybe Block them? Anyways, love your attitude on this xoxo

Thanks. I didn't have a radfem dedicated blog like this for most of the time I was on here because I can't deal either lol it just becomes inconsequential to me when I try to imagine/remember that there's another person sitting on the other side of the screen and IRL would I feel like owing the random stranger all the effort? Probably not. Haven't seen official numbers on it but judging from being parked here so long and just observing the average user of this site is a white American liberal in their early 20s if that who reads fanfiction more often than actual books, so...lol no

Reading from second wavers let alone speaking to them lets me know homophobia among feminists has been a long conversation with seemingly no end. But I really wish more of us were meeting offline, to help with the realization that we're not so different. I feel it's an advantage the women's liberation movement had in the past that we sorely do not right now and it's actively hindering us from making moves. TRAs have made it so hard to organize online even that I know it's hard to do but I really encourage all of you to meet as many radical feminists and even just straight up feminists (even liberal feminists) in real life as you can and try to find common ground with them

So many women in the world don't care about feminism, not even always out of malice but because it can be so inaccessible in certain parts of the world, that I'm a huge proponent of "agree to disagree" with other feminists especially online. Like 98% of my disagreement with posts I see on here from anyone ever I keep to my motherfucking self lol. Thinking about things I've been wrong or bigoted about in the past, it almost always took someone I know/something significant happening in my actual life to change my mind on those things, not some internet stranger. So idk why so many people try so hard at Tumblr arguments

[cyarsk5230]

MLK Day: Black women, we're taking a day OFF.

Let me tell you why this is non-negotiable:

Behind every movement

Was a Black woman exhausted

Behind every march

Was a Black woman depleted

Behind every dream

Was a Black woman sacrificing

The history they don't tell:

• Coretta didn't just stand beside, she carried

• Fannie Lou didn't just speak, she bled

• Ella Baker didn't just organize, she built

• Black women didn't just support, they sustained

• Our ancestors didn't just serve, they survived

And still today:

We're the first to vote

Last to rest

First to organize

Last to heal

First to show up

Last to sleep

So today:

We honour MLK by honouring ourselves

We serve the dream by serving our peace

We carry the movement by carrying less

We lift others by lifting ourselves

We make change by making space

2000+ Black women globally know:

• Our rest isn't selfish, it's sacred

• Our pause isn't lazy, it's liberation

• Our sleep isn't privilege, it's power

• Our peace isn't optional, it's revolutionary

• Our healing isn't luxury, it's legacy

📢 To every Black woman feeling guilty about resting today 📢

Remember:

✨ They didn't fight for our freedom to stay enslaved to service

✨ They didn't march for our rights to ignore our needs

✨ They didn't dream so we could stay exhausted

✨ They didn't sacrifice so we could stay depleted

✨ They didn't rise so we could stay broken

Today, we choose:

To close our emails

To silence our phones

To ignore the guilt

To embrace the rest

To dream our own dreams

Because sometimes the most revolutionary act

Is simply saying:

"Not today. I rest."

#MLKDay #RestIsRevolution #BlackWomenRest #RevolutionaryRest #PeriodtPuh

this amazing art piece is created by Shayla Brown girl you did that thing 👏🏿

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[historicalfightingguide]

"Today on Murderhobos, our first guest episode! *Gasps, oohs and ahs*

We're joined by fantasy author, friend of the show, and noted trans historian Alina Boyden to discuss transness in history. We talk about Lia De Beaumont, the Chevalière d'Éon, one of the most famous trans women in history, and a kickass swordswoman. We also talk about the way academic historians often fail to recognize trans experiences (and trans women in particular), and why that matters.

You can find Alina and her books at https://twitter.com/AlinaBoyden

Subscribe to the show on Patreon: bit.ly/murderhobospatreon

Make a one-time donation to the show: bit.ly/donatetomurderhobos"

If you enjoy spy drama, fencing, duels or show combat, if you're interested in the history of trans folks, if you've ever wanted to know more about 'Chevalière d'Éon' or more precisely Lia De Beaumont, or Chevalier de Saint-Georges or Henry Angelo or Domenico Angelo you'll most likely find this particular episode interesting and worth a listen.

Furthermore if you specifically want to learn how to use a smallsword you may find the Smallsworders facebook group or the Smallsword Symposium facebook page useful.

Similarly this video may be a fun intro to smallsword fencing.

Honorable mention to the sparring clips embeded here.

For anyone who hasn’t yet seen the following links:

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Some advice on how to start studying the sources generally can be found in these older posts

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Remember to check out  A Guide to Starting a Liberation Martial Arts Gym as it may help with your own club/gym/dojo/school culture and approach.Check out their curriculum too.

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Fear is the Mind Killer: How to Build a Training Culture that Fosters Strength and Resilience by   Kajetan Sadowski   may be relevant as well.

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“How We Learn to Move: A Revolution in the Way We Coach & Practice Sports Skills”  by Rob Gray  as well as this post that goes over the basics of his constraints lead, ecological approach.

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Another useful book to check out is  The Theory and Practice of Historical European Martial Arts (while about HEMA, a lot of it is applicable to other historical martial arts clubs dealing with research and recreation of old fighting systems).

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Trauma informed coaching and why it matters

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Look at the previous posts in relation to running and cardio to learn how that relates to historical fencing.

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Why having a systematic approach to training can be beneficial

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Why we may not want one attack 10 000 times, nor 10 000 attacks done once, but a third option.

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How consent and opting in function and why it matters.

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More on tactics in fencing

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Types of fencers

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Open vs closed skills

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The three primary factors to safety within historical fencing

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Worth checking out are this blogs tags on pedagogy and teaching for other related useful posts.

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And if you train any weapon based form of historical fencing check out the ‘HEMA game archive’ where you can find a plethora of different drills, focused sparring and game options to use for effective, useful and fun training.

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Check out the cool hemabookshelf facsimile project.

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For more on how to use youtube content for learning historical fencing I suggest checking out these older posts on the concept of video study of sparring and tournament footage.

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The provoker-taker-hitter tactical concept and its uses

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Approaches to goals and methodology in historical fencing

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A short article on why learning about other sports and activities can benefit folks in combat sports

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Consider getting some patches of this sort or these cool rashguards to show support for good causes or a t-shirt like to send a good message while at training.

[rametarin]

We need to remember this, at the root of it all:

The arguments between the sexes have always been a thing. They will always be a thing, barring some sort of transhumanist overlord unleashing a virus that uncodes the human genome so we're all just single chromosome mutants or something, or every sun in the universe fades out.

Capital F Feminism is not to be imagined as "women thinking for themselves/liberating themselves." That is not what it is. Feminism is Marxist Class Struggle Theory and Critical Theory (trying to use the principles of class struggle theory) through a gynocentrist (and, therefore, supremacist and biased) lens. In other words, when you strip away all the academic nonsense speak, feminism is a bunch of socialists being encouraged to think of women as a concept as these victims of living in a species where the females are, by their own definition of oppression, oppressed by males. Not objectively, not individually, but conceptually. In principle. Divorced from reality, divorced from history, demanding one to consider things on the basis of Marxist viewpoints and collectivization and class consciousness.

Technically speaking, every racist is "class conscious," because a racist cares about their class- race. So they see their own race as oppressed or threatened by other races (classes) and are looking out for #1. Does that sound legitimate? Fair? No. It's racism. Class Struggle Theory with race as class just encourages ethnosupremacism. It's not that white people are invalid and so this form of class consciousness is illegitimate, solely for white people. It's that racism and racial discrimination to or from or by any race to another, is wrong.

And when you do the same thing on sex (or "gender"), it is also wrong.

But Marxists separate the prejudices and bigotries of what they consider minorities, from majorities. If it's a collective group Marxism believes is enthralled and oppressed by their dialectic position vs. another "class" (in this case, men) then they see the oppressed as justified and never guilty of any sort of crime against what they view as "the oppressor." It fetishizes the principle of the underdog this way, and does not actually CARE about what bad blood or history exists between them. In fact, it explicitly only cares about the reality when it can underline the principle, because the bad things only matter when it's the Oppressor Class doing harm to what it sees as the Oppressed Class.

What Class Struggle Theory and Critical X Theory do is they offer a readymade enabling ethos and philosophy to ride whatever group fighting against another one to justify their Protagonist Syndrome and use a secular form of philosophical absolutism to see themselves as the transgressed and violated party, pour their passion and histrionics into it, and carry on about revolution and romantic imagery of rebuking their oppressors.

Feminism was this phenomenon expressed between male and female, choosing the female to characterize as inherently oppressed under the male sex. But it's just close enough to the very real struggles that it sneaks its way in and one can assume the fiery bluster to just be passionate delirium in support of the real, objective cause.

But at the end of the day, the Class Struggle Theorist/Critical Sex Theorist, is only in it for pushing the idea there can be no equality without socialism. It's a very reductive way to evangelize for socialism, without even mentioning socialism until there's a power vacuum that needs filling. Just as designed.

Having established this, we go a step lower in the pyramid. The Gynosupremacist that gets drawn in and attracted to this deceptive, snake oil headfuck because they're jealous, insecure and maybe even rightfully upset about the unfortunate historical state of women and femininity in any given society around the world. Perhaps not to them specifically, but upset at how women are treated elsewhere. This culture encourages women to act out their upset at the men around them vicariously by embracing class consciousness and collectivism. Randomly shoving boys their own age that may not even have had sexual thoughts yet, as a way to "get back" at the rapists and smug frat boys that break grown women's hearts, and encouraged to do so because, "that's a minority getting back at an oppressor!"

Feminism encourages this lashing out and "class consciousness", and it's why it struck the TERFs so blind when feminism decided that woman was not limited to a sex, but also extended to any feminine gender. Because Feminism is not about females, it's an expression of class struggle theory and socialist revolutionary struggle. It dressed in women's clothes, pretended to care about gendered equality, when in fact it only cared about arguing on behalf of an idea of women and demanding everybody entertain their notions of gender as class, and treat class consciousness and class struggle theory as historical realities.

Women were used by feminism, which appropriated women's rights and polluted the language in a masterful way, all while pretending to be owned by and for women. And then it threw female sexed people under the bus when they started to say, "feminism is to represent the female sex, not 'the female gender.' Where feminism dictated to them: "Feminism is for the female gender. You bio-essentialist fascist."

That vehicle is gone. The most popular and positive seeming source of organization and literature for gynosupremacist advocacy is beheaded and dead. The perfect beast we knew from the 60s to 10s is gone. It can never come back, as the very principles of Feminism have forsaken the female sex, and gynosupremacists are now without solid footing to stand on, homeless and hopeless of ever getting that kind of clout, again.

The Intersectionalist Feminism is closer to purely masked off, ideological socialism than before, and it will never have the appeal to cisgendered women that it had before. And I thank it for that. In the name of ideological purity, it has destroyed its own economic base.

As socialism always will.

And the most important takeaway from this is now that the invisible party has been accounted for and their mask fallen away, we can start having reasonable conversations about sexism and equality without constantly tripping over this socialist nonsense demanding it be considered and contribute to the conversation.

Feminism is a factory for creating misogynists. That's ultimately its sole (if not often-understood) purpose, and all it lastingly achieves in the world, especially today.

[socialistexan]

Blue no matter who, right?

Notice how many fewer of our supposed allies showed up when it was a Democrat doing this.

It goes to show that so many liberals only cared about trans rights because the people on the Blue team told them to. The second it's a Democrat bringing up transphobic legislation we're on a fucking own.