tar-and-feathered - Tumblr blog

[tar-and-feathered]

Take it from someone who has done progressive activism in real, not-just-online ways and also knows a ton of people for whom that's like, their job, and has also lived in red, purple and blue states (Texas, Michigan, Maryland, Massachusetts): activism is much, much harder to do in places where the law and the politicians are actively hostile to your politics. As such, it is not a replacement for voting. You have to vote. You shouldn't just vote, but you should vote and do the other things. This is why everyone who is actually serious about activism that actually does stuff is telling you to vote.

I get really frustrated by the argument on Tumblr of "voting is just one step, it's not the only thing you can do!" because I can never tell if that person is saying "your activist credentials aren't hurt by voting, you can still do all those other things!" - which is true! and good! and some people need to hear it! - or "it's just one of many types of activism that you can do, it's one option" - BAD. It is not. It is the foundational step. You can't really do all that other stuff, or can't do it as well and as effectively, if you don't have the infrastructure in place that you create by voting in the right people and voting out the wrong ones.

This is especially weird given that the Republican Party is increasingly flirting with the idea of violent retaliation against peaceful protesters - and that our history is replete with examples of that happening when they did it in places with hostile politicians, e.g. the civil rights movement in Southern states. Yeah, that imagery ultimately helped them, but it's not the 1960s anymore, we don't have three TV channels everyone watches, you can't guarantee that the people who most need to see it will, or without it being filtered through a bunch of bullshit demonizing the protesters. And a lot of people died or were otherwise hurt in the process, and their lives should matter to you. And a lot of how we ultimately defeated that was because the federal law forced Southern states to comply with all that. Because the people in the federal government making these decisions (like LBJ) were open to the cause of civil rights - which was one of the reasons that civil rights activists made voter registration so key to their efforts in 1964! It wasn't a thing that the activists in those states were able to force on racist, hostile politicians in places like Alabama without help from other people they voted for in the federal government.

There are lots of dedicated activists in Texas who want to help women there get abortions in every way they can; they still could only do so much once it was totally banned there, once Roe fell, and now their work is largely focused on helping Texas women travel out of state. The nationally-celebrated abortion clinic where I lived in Austin had to close and move to New Mexico after the Dobbs decision. Who is in power matters. The laws they pass matter. The way you do something about that? You fucking vote.

Likewise, a lot of this website and the broader left-wing Internet seems to acknowledge that trans rights are way worse in red states like Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, etc. than in blue states like on the West Coast or in New England/the Mid-Atlantic, or even in purple states with Dems in power (e.g. Michigan, Minnesota, Arizona, Pennsylvania). Same with reproductive rights. Okay, why do you think that is? Do you think the activists in Michigan or Massachusetts just care more than the ones in Montana? Or do you think it perhaps has something to do with who's passing laws? And why do you think this pattern holds so consistently in terms of whether that state is run by Democrats or Republicans??? In Michigan and Arizona in particular, they got where they are specifically because voters rejected extreme Republican policies en masse.

Voting comes before everything else. It is not just "one of many options." That's like saying that, say, showering is optional as long as you moisturize or something. Or brushing your teeth is optional. No, those are foundational things for cleanliness; the other stuff is on top of that. You need voting to make your activism work.

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Are you hitting joe rogans cbd cart I found on the floor at a garage sale

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*bleeding to death because the paramedics can’t break the windows to get me out of my stupid fucking truck* heha well at least i dont have to worry about the friggin Zombie Apocalypse… awesomesauce 😎

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I think some people forget that some literature and some media is meant to be deeply uncomfortable and unsettling. It's meant to make you have a very visceral reaction to it. If you genuinely can't handle these stories then you are under no obligation to consume them but acting as if they have no purpose or as if people don't have a right to tell these stories, stories that often relate to the darkest or most disturbing parts of life, then you should do some introspection.

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have you ever wondered how snakes piss?

no, never

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I've said this before but truly the #1 fastest way to make me block you and disregard any opinion you have about sex is by making clear that you do not have any understanding of the difference between consensually negotiated bdsm and sexual abuse. like sorry you're a clown, go honk your nose about it somewhere else because I'm not discoursing with you about something you don't understand

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Wait a minute, you're telling me that when presented with similar situations at different points in time, you will think and act differently based on factors such as who else is around or your mood? Your feelings and opinions change occasionally as a result of the passage of time? IDK, I think you have some sort of disorder. Normal people have a static sense of self, or so I've been told. I have a disorder, you see.

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Assad Zaman as Armand INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE | 2.04

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"queerplantonic just means friends" well I dont know about you but if I bought a house with one of my friends, we took each other to visit our families on holidays, sleep in the same bed, and committed to sharing our lives to each other, I believe most people would assume that's a result of romantic feelings.

hence why there is terminology to describe that kind of relationship in the absence of romance. thank you.

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NISH & GIAN HOTEL PORTOFINO (2023) | 2.02 - Alliances

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I’ve only seen a handful of doctor who episodes but I’ve come to the impression that the show is simultaneously very good and very bad. Not “oh these episodes suck but the next few make up for it,” but as in, in the very act of being good, it is also equally bad. It’s an impressive harmony. The goodness cannot exist without the badness.

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This is not the first time this has happened either:

[Jul 16 2024] Berlin police is arresting children at pro-Palestinian demonstrations, in what activists say is a shocking escalation of already widespread police violence against pro-Palestinian voices. The most recent confirmed arrest of children involved the early June detention of a 7-year-old boy for allegedly hitting an officer’s helmet with his flag. In a witness statement shown to The New Arab (TNA), the boy's father said he had been carrying his son on his shoulders at a march when they suddenly found themselves surrounded by officers who lashed out at the crowd and then took the pair away to a police van. The police confirmed via email that a 7-year-old was arrested on suspicion of "assaulting" a police officer at the same protest in Berlin. Police told TNA that six children under the age of 16 were detained on June 8.   In a video posted on social media, the child can be seen screaming in a state of extreme distress while he and his father are surrounded and grabbed by 11 officers in riot gear. The father says the child now experiences anxiety and needs psychological treatment because of the incident. In another incident on the same day, a 13-year-old was handcuffed and dragged away by officers using a controversial "pain grip" after making a rude hand gesture to a police officer. Berlin police have confirmed that a 13-year-old was detained "on suspicion of insult," which is a criminal offence under German law. A few weeks earlier, on May 29, an incident was reported where two adolescents were punched in the face several times by police officers at a house entrance in Sonnenallee street in Berlin. This incident of police violence was condemned by Amnesty International Germany, and urged an investigation into allegations of unlawful police actions.