thatstormygeek

[thatstormygeek]

Also to be clear if you put the new Harry Potter show on my dashboard I will be unfollowing and probably blocking you. JK Rowling is responsible for the death and pain of too many trans people to count in my country and I cannot tolerate her new way of trying to gain cultural and financial power in any way shape or form.

[thatstormygeek]

Despite what some adults seem to think, teenagers are fully human. And some of them read as intensely and keenly as if their life depended on it. Sometimes maybe it does.

Ursula K. Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea's postface

[thatstormygeek]

One thing that occurred to me is that people often move when they're young. Democrats are saying we want young candidates, but then when young candidates are in a different life place, that becomes an attack line. We want young candidates…but not that one. I think you said something about that online, and it really resonate with me. Like, if you want young candidates—young people move. Young people usually aren't in the place that they were born, or often aren't in the place that they were born. If you want young candidates, you have to be ready if they haven't spent every moment of their life in the place that they're running. And if you want young candidates with political experience, if you run for office—state representative in a lot of places get pennies for a salary, and you essentially have to quit your job if you want to effectively campaign. And so you're taking a huge risk. So that means that it's just something that's kind of reserved for people that can afford to do it. And it's similar with federal office. You know, I had to quit my job because it's a conflict of interest, and also campaigning takes a lot of time and a lot of effort. This was your job for Media Matters? No, I was freelancing for Mother Jones, and for other place and doing my own videos— but I had to demonetize my platforms because I wanted to make sure that all of my campaign videos were accessible and didn't have ads on them. And so my only streams of income are my savings, which is not income, it's just the money I have. And that was already cratered by my lease break fees moving here. So all that was left was my Patreon, where people give me $1 to look at pictures of my cat. So I’ve been depending on Ben to pick up a lot of the slack, which is a lot to ask of someone's partner. And you can take a candidate salary if you're not incumbent and you're running for federal office, but that's calculated by half of your average income over the last five years. Five years ago, I graduated from school into COVID and was making essentially $0. So we calculated what I would get, and it'd be like $20 a day. Which wasn't even worth it with the costs of all these other hurdles we'd have to jump through. And if you're making, like, $32,000 a year for the last five years, you’ll end up making $16,000. If you have a family of four, that’s the poverty line. It's just completely unsustainable. Which means that running for Congress is something reserved for people who can afford it.

And additionally, you know, Democrats are spending $20 million trying to make a new Joe Rogan in the lab. And first off, Joe Rogan listeners are 40-year-old white dudes. They're not young men. If you really want to reach young men—part of this is that our society punishes them for vulnerability, gives them no community and makes everything so isolated for everybody. And right-wing figures online like Steve Bannon saw that and capitalized on it before anyone. But young men just want what everyone else wants. They want a safe life where they can afford housing, groceries and health care, and their loved ones can do the same. And I think being worried about a draft, whether or not it's going to happen, but being worried about its existence, being cognizant of that, I don't think it's ridiculous to be worried about it, to be scared. And I had some people that were like, “Blah, blah, blah, that’s so unrealistic.” If you're just immediately writing off those concerns, it's no wonder they don't trust you. ... But as far as like national figures, it's one of these things when I was setting up the campaign infrastructure, I'd call different places, and as soon as they knew there was an incumbent [Jan Schakowsky, who eventually announced she was stepping down], whether or not she was running again, no one knew, but as soon as they knew that, they hang up the phone. And of course, that changed after we raised 200k in like 24 hours. But there's a consequence for running a primary challenge. Even though my race wasn't about primarying Schakowsky. It was about thinking that we need more competitive primaries and we need people in Congress who understand how to fight the far right. This is about trying to help the country and help the party, and to do that, we need change. And it's up to leaders and the people behind them to figure out whether their egos or actually winning and actually making a difference are more important.

[thatstormygeek]

one of the most annoying feelings in ADHD is the can't-get-started-with-anything feeling. like, your ADHD is screaming you have to do something. you can't just rest, resting isn't a thing. even if you are resting, it's by doing something.

but nothing works. you try to watch something, it's not right. you can't. read? can't read right now play? nah none of these games seem fun make something? ehh, you're not feeling any of these projects right now social media? it's boring or worse right now, so... find something else it's like you're not moving but it's because you're too tense to do anything, just vibrating in place

[thatstormygeek]

liberals be like he bombed a country…. without congress approval

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[thatstormygeek]

fuck it marvel ruined steve rogers by taking a symbol of progress and sending him back to the 1950s (the decade of “traditional” values when black ppl couldn’t drink from the same water fountains as white men) for a white picket fence life w a wife he “deserved”. like they took an international fugitive wearing a dirty american flag and made him red hat coded in his appearance AND actions. and for what? for some fucked up fantasy for dudebros to self insert themselves into? “steve deserved to be happy I’d choose peggy too” maybe YOU would do that. steve, who peggy told to move on and had a whole life in the 21st century and oh idk, morals, would NOT. and bucky barnes WAS in love w steve so jot that down

[thatstormygeek]

[thatstormygeek]

Obviously it's a big country and participation varies at the local level, but we've had Green candidates on local ballots in Missouri (and we always have Libertarian and Constitution Party). So it's not true that 3rd parties just ignore local elections.

The system is set up to keep 3rd parties out. It is. The barriers to getting on the ballot are extensive. The monetary support isn't there. And then you have the intense pressure of our recent history of two parties: Red and Blue. The fact that every party beyond that is called a "3rd party" and all parties other than Dem and GOP are collectively "3rd parties" tells you everything you need to know.

I'm not saying don't try - do! Hell yeah. If running for office is something you'd (general) like to do, go for it! But...acting like 3rd parties are entirely made up of people too stupid to understand how the US political system works is unhelpful. The GOP has the power it does because of strategy, yes, but also because the US is a right wing country. It will always be easier to move right. It's difficult to stay in place, let alone move left.

And if we're casting blame, I'd say we put the bulk of the blame for lack of representation at the local level on our other major party, as the Democrats have been happy to abandon red states for decades. They decided we weren't worth their effort long ago and have blamed us for their abandonment since.

I'm glad for Mamdani and New York. I hope he wins the general. And I really hope the fucking national Democratic party wakes up. Because a lot of folks talking about replicating this are somehow not talking about how the establishment Democratic party itself threw its might behind defeating Mamdani. So we're somehow supposed to field progressive candidates in red areas that can defeat the GOP and the Dems. I'm not saying it can't be done, I just won't bank it on happening.

People are saying what happened in New York can’t be replicated. I’m in Texas and two of my six city council members are socialists (about to be 4 next election. God willing, but because the current socialist members won their races so handedly I’m not too worried) and in two years I can almost guarantee there will be a leftist in the mayoral position.

Get involved in local politics I BEG of you. Mamdani is not some unicorn. He is proof that we can make socialism a possibility in America if we work from the ground up.

[thatstormygeek]

I don't dig into the copyright debate much, but a lot of this most recent round of discourse reminds me of tipping discourse.

Tipping is shit. It's a way to offload the payment of employees to the customer rather than the business owner. It's exploitative. And it's also the current method of payment for many, many workers.

Deciding you think tipping is bad and refusing to tip in the current environment is an anti-labor position, despite the fact that tipping is a bad practice overall. The current system (in the US) is set up to require tipping to offset the inequality baked in. If you just stop tipping without changing the system, you're helping no one and harming the workers.

In copyright law, courts determine fair use in part by looking at whether the work that’s created based on copyrighted material is “transformative,” meaning it’s not a substitute for the original but rather something new. They also assess whether the new work causes “market harm,” or hurts the original rights holder financially.

Obviously that's more an aspirational statement than a reflection of reality on the ground, but it's a decent baseline look at what legal copyright means.

Again, we have a system that benefits corporations over people, just as tipping does. We have a system that is ostensibly set up to help the people doing the work, but (like everything else in the US) serves the interests of capital. And we have a system that certain elements want to excise without changing any of the underlying structure.

I get that this is the fandom website and that's the lens everyone uses, but this is a labor rights issue first. You'd think creators of fan works would want artists to be fairly compensated so they are more likely to create more art. But I've seen a lot of concern about the continuing ability to make works in fandom and very little concern about the property's original creators.

To be clear, I think the current system is shit. Top to bottom. But killing copyright protections without additional structural changes is not going to be a boon to fandom. Corporations will always find a way to get what they think they are due. I can't imagine these two recent decisions that AI is allowed to train on copyrighted works without crediting or compensating their authors is going to encourage more people to pour themselves out on the page.

I don't have a solution - and nobody would listen to me if I did. I would just like folks to take a more holistic look at the situation. One that extends past how it affects their pastimes or hobbies.

[thatstormygeek]

everybody was normal fighting~ *non-racist riff*

[thatstormygeek]

Try internalizing that arguing with other queers on the internet about theory is not the same as activism.

[thatstormygeek]

If you as a leftist can understand that

the Trump administration is using the concept of violence against women to oppress transgender people and strip back civil rights

AND violence against women is a real societal issue that needs to be taken seriously, especially when women's safety and autonomy is directly attacked by the same right wing politicians claiming to care about it to further their agenda

Then you can also understand that

the Trump administration is using the concept of antisemitism to perpetuate oppress activists and strip back freedom of speech

AND antisemitism is a real societal issue that needs to be taken seriously, especially when Jewish safety is directly attacked by the same right wing politicians claiming to care about it to further their agenda

Right? ...Right??

[thatstormygeek]

"the demonization of queer desires and queer sexualities is so widespread that it is necessary to defend them and amplify them" and "barging in on a post by a trans woman you don't know to comment on how you are sexually attracted to her is not ok, especially if she's specifically discussing transmisogyny" are not in fact contradictory statements.

[thatstormygeek]

This is where MAGA has succeeded, in allowing reality and history to disappear in the face of glorious denial. And it is an awful road with awful consequences. What we must do is pay attention and remember. Every day, especially in circumstances like this mayoral election, we are given glimpses into the true nature of power. Giving a creep like Cuomo your support, whether you’re a politician, a pundit, or a personality, tells us exactly who you are, as does clicking your heels and getting in line with Trump because of an illegal war your diseased warhawk heart has always desired. Here, the truth is revealed: these people are not your allies, their “principles” were never real, and, for all of the continued insistence, they do not value the things they purport to.

Former president Bill Clinton, who has been haunted by allegations since he was the governor of Arkansas, decided it was necessary to endorse Cuomo and has been campaigning for him in the final days. Perhaps no one has benefited from cultural and political amnesia than Clinton, so it should tell you everything you need to know that he’s willing to be seen standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Cuomo. Mamdani, after all, represents a total existential crisis to the Democratic Party. If he were to win…god forbid!…it would mean the ascendance of a differently-minded Democrat to a place of power. And then, can you even imagine? The party might have to actually acknowledge that their base and the American public in general wants something beyond the tried and failed Neoliberal centrism that the party has offered and been rejected because of. But it’s not just Clinton. We’ve seen Libs of TikTok sound the alarm regarding Mamdani. George Santos took some time between corruption trials to signal his support. Mamdani and his gasp desire to maybe create better public transit is such a giant threat that it’s bringing together foes from across the aisle! And what does this tell us? Simply that, in a time of rising authoritarianism, what matters most is not the relentless assault on our rights, protections, and liberties, but that no one, no matter what, is allowed to gain power if they are so much to the left of Ro Khanna. A simple victory, just one isolated victory, means the difference between continuing the same failed political project and having to deal with the possibility that some things might have to change. This is the secret of politics: all of the fighting, all of the brawling, and all of the pleasant sounding rhetoric and strongly-worded letters hides the fact that there is a political class dedicated to the wealth class and that is driving impulse behind all of this. As I’ve discussed, there has been too much money and too much violence spent on dismantling even a semblance of a “Left” around the world to allow it to have a breath or even inkling of hope. This tireless snuffing out of Leftists or reformers, which has taken the form of coups and ethnic cleansing and assassination, was about creating an environment in which there was no organized voice against the continued consolidation of wealth and power. There could be simulations of “leftist” ideas. You could have liberal party that offered little besides means-testing and targeted assistance, all the while eschewing any necessary reform or progress, but to give actual voice to what the people want is much too dangerous. This is why when “the Squad” came to power there was an overwhelming defensive freezing out by figures like Nancy Pelosi and other rank-and-file Democrats. Their victories were seen failures of the party to maintain cohesion. The members seen as intruders or infections to be dealt with. And the desire to maintain control of the party, and more importantly the billionaire donors and corporations that make up their support among the wealth class, was always more important than actually fighting battles to change things for the better. The former, after all, was the much “safer” bet.

[note: this article was published before the election]

Mamdani’s win is also a defeat for the gang of crooked dinosaurs known as the Democratic establishment, which went out of its way to humiliate itself in this race. A parade of elected officials, well-connected unions, and political machers, all of whom had demanded that Cuomo resign the governorship just a few years ago, stampeded shamelessly to get behind him this time around. Cuomo wheeled out endorsements from party grandees like Jim Clyburn and Bill Clinton, neither of whom has any real connection to the city. None of it mattered. Voters looked at this panoply of power and recoiled. Cuomo and his cronies were a symbol of everything ordinary people currently hate about the political class, and they failed. So did the city’s moneyed elite. Billionaires like Mike Bloomberg and Bill Ackman poured tens of millions of dollars into Cuomo’s Super PAC, which drowned New Yorkers in a vast sea of apocalyptic anti-Mamdani propaganda. (Judging by the endless number of Mamdani-bashing mailers I received, there’s a small forest missing somewhere thanks to these bozos.) The New York Times editorial board, which had vowed to stay out of the race, reversed course, warning readers to leave Mamdani off their ballots. They will all be licking their wounds this morning, and that is wonderful. Most importantly, Mamdani’s victory is a seismic defeat for the forces of anti-Palestinian, anti-Muslim bigotry. Cuomo and his backers ran one of the most nakedly racist campaigns I can remember seeing, even darkening Mamdani’s beard in one mailer to make him look more like a stereotypical Scary Muslim. And they went all-in on weaponizing his support of Palestine, smearing him relentlessly as an antisemite who would all but send the city’s Jews to the gas chambers. New York’s equally ossified media joined in, framing Mamdani’s opposition to Israel’s apartheid and genocide as “troubling” and peppering him with questions about whether he’d visit Israel as mayor. (Meanwhile, Cuomo’s decision to literally join the legal team fighting to keep Benjamin Netanyahu out of the Hague went completely unaddressed.) And it didn’t work. The voters in one of the Jewish capitals of the world said no. They sent the message that standing up for equal rights and an end to mass slaughter doesn’t make you a danger to the world—it makes you the kind of person who should maybe be the mayor of New York City. That has huge implications for the politics around Palestine and Israel more generally. What more evidence do you need that people don’t want a blank check for Israel than New York City voting for a Muslim, socialist, pro-Palestinian mayor? That is earth-shaking stuff—and, amid the never-ending hell in Gaza, it is a cause for some hope.

[thatstormygeek]

"The camp gag of the film, then, is that the film is not a gag. Queer kids face vicious abuse which is so hyperbolic, so disconnected from reality, so bizarrely flamboyantly preposterous, that the only way to accurately depict it is to treat it as a camp goof."