discourse-parakeet - Tumblr blog

[discourse-parakeet]

Any thoughts on the Russian-Ukraine stuff or would you like to keep your opinions to yourself?

There is literally nothing I need to say in this situation.

I am watching and listening, and helping where I can. My opinion is irrelevant in the face of much more difficult things real people are facing.

I've seen many Russians make statements online apologizing on behalf of the country - cursing it, cursing Putin, cursing the government, and tearfully explaining how disgusted they are by it all, and how ashamed they are of being Russian.

I understand the urge, I really do, but the problem is that it ultimately does nothing. No matter how hard you punch yourself, your friend's wounds will not heal. That's not how it works.

At the moment, all anyone can do is:

Listen and read instead of posting - and think critically about which sources you get your news from (US media tends to be sensationalist, and Russia media is largely propaganda). There's also tons of misinformation online, and I've been trying to avoid posting/reblogging anything that I cannot 100% confirm as true.

Help out those directly affected by events - but be mindful of scams! Paypal and venmo is not available in the Ukraine, this is true. BUT - many Ukranians, especially those who have lived or live abroad are able to use it through connecting overseas banks or cards, and they CAN channel that money to family. It's ultimately YOUR responsibility to fact-check this before you reblog anything asking for donations. Be mindful of what you spread.

Keep informed and don't just spread fearmongering images/fatalist threads. Ukranians are currently trying to stay safe. Poland has opened borders to everyone with a Ukranian passport and suspended VISAs, and there is talk of other neighboring countries doing the same. They don't need more tweets about bombings. They don't need your jokes about WWIII and being drafted.

Ultimately I'm taking a seat and doing as much as I can, but the last thing you all need to hear is my casually uninformed opinion - or ANYONE'S uninformed opinion. Tweeting about current events does not make anyone an expert in foreign policy. If you're wondering what you should do - sometimes, the answer is 'nothing'.

Sometimes, not causing any extra damage through misinformation is the best thing you can do.

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when someone is a christian they are not constantly asked their position on the holocaust the transatlantic slave trade the extermination of native americans or any of the thousands of atrocities committed by christians so why do muslims get asked about terrorism and jewish people about israel and are grouped in with specific bad people while christians are not required to explain themselves??

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Pulling the the old discourse blog back up to air out a random, probably unpopular opinion I have- here we go!

I won't speak for/over trans women but personally as a trans man, I do not mind at all when people (yes, even cis people) headcanon cis women fictional characters as trans men. You don't even need a good canonical reason to support a suspicion or theory. I do it all the time. It is one of the more harmless ways to interact with fiction, it is specifically about how you personally see and relate to a character, it can be your own AU. And it's fine. Tifa Lockheart can be a trans man. Bubblegum princess can be a trans man. Ibuki Mioda can be a trans man. These aren't characters I personally headcanon as such, but it's fun to consider and it is harmless. Any trans man could have at one time presented or been mistaken as any sort of woman, many are. I was a little goth girl in my early teen years. Now I'm a man. granted, this is how I personally choose to describe my experience and this shouldn't be assumed of others. But I do know others who feel similarly. It's a real and valid facet of many trans experiences. Why not allow yourself to imagine that represented within fiction.

I personally think the same for fictional cis men characters being headcanoned as women. I can't speak from my own lived experience there, so I won't. But I feel many similar principals apply.

Of course it's always good to consider why your headcanon is what it is, and weigh the possibilities of fetishization or stereotype or misogyny and transmisogyny.

I just think that there is still *some* enjoyment and fun to be had in interacting with fiction.

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Go Girls Go! | First Dyke March in Washington DC, 1993

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normally, this is the type of post i would put on my side blog, but i think i want to make a point that people actually see. feel free to unfollow for this i guess, but please finish reading before you do.

i'm gonna start out saying this. i am pan critical. please, if you're pansexual or pro pan, don't stop reading this. just listen for a second, with an open mind. i used to be pansexual, actually, and after that, when i realized i was a lesbian, i was just a supporter. however, the more research i did, and the more bi people who were critical of the label i listened to with an open mind, my preconceived notions stopped lining up with the facts i knew.

i'm gonna let you in on a secret: nobody who's "panphobic" thinks pansexuals aren't lgbt. nobody! well, that's a bit of a generalization, but what i'm saying is thats not the argument.

one thing i want you to know is that if you are pansexual, you and your experiences with sexuality are valid. the only issue i and many others have is not the people, but the label.

it's been covered in many posts before, and in some of my own, but the tl;dr of it is that the label itself not only has a problematic past, but a problematic present.

there have been a few different definitions of pansexuality. in order to prove my first point that there is no fundamental difference between bisexual and pansexual, i'm going to go through the most common ones i see in order of use and briefly go over why they perpetuate biphobia and transphobia, and i will link to some sources explaining stuff in more detail, and probably better because i am not an expert, nor am i bisexual. i am operating off of the information that trusted articles and bisexuals have shared. bisexuals, please feel free to correct me if i present any innacurate information or it i mess up my wording, and feel free to add on if i missed anything!

"hearts not parts": pansexuality is inclusive of trans people while bisexuality is not - this is completely false. it's incredibly transphobic to say that some sexualities include trans people while others don't, and it is also incredibly biphobic to insinuate that bisexuals don't like trans people. trans people are included in every sexuality.

pansexual means being "gender blind"/ caring more about personality while bisexuals have preferences - also false. this is wrong because bisexual people without preference have existed for ages. to say that they are pan instead of bi because they don't have a preference is ahistorical and biphobic. additionally, saying bisexuals only care about gender/ physical appearance is literally a biphobic stereotype. it insinuates that they're in it for the sex and they aren't committed/ they don't care about the emotional connection they have with people.

pansexual means all and bisexual means two/ two or more (most common definition i see today) - false. this is where i direct you to the bisexual manifesto from Anything That Moves: Beyond the Myths of Bisexuality (1990) by the Bay Area Bisexual Network, where it states this: "Bisexuality is a whole, fluid identity. Do not assume that bisexuality is binary or dougamous in nature; that we must have "two" sides or that we MUST be involved simultaneously with both genders to be fulfilled human beings. In fact, don't assume that there are only two genders." pansexual has always been inclusive of all genders, and this is also evidence as to why bisexuality has always been inclusive of nonbinary people. saying that nonbinary people are not included in every sexuality is entirely wrong. nonbinary people are not a monolith, nor are they some magical third gender. you can't say you're only attracted to some genders. you can't divide attraction to nonbinary people based on identity when it comes to sexuality, because no nonbinary person looks the same! please read more about this here, this explains it way better than i can.

now that i've gone through that, i'd like to point out the problematic history of pansexuality, a masterpost on what I've gone over and more by a bi person, more reading on why pansexuality perpetuates biphobia, and even more evidence.

i would recommend checking out all of these sources, as they do a fantastic job covering some of what i tried to cover in this post but much better.

now, where do we go from here? the reason pansexuality rose to popularity, in my opinion at least, is because of internalised biphobia. knowing what you know now, that pansexuality and bisexuality are in no way fundamentally different, why do you choose to identify as pansexual?

i know how it feels to have the word you use to describe your identity, which is such an important part of you, attacked. trust me, i get it. but you have to step past that and look inside yourself a little bit. that discomfort you might feel with the bisexual label? that's internalized biphobia.

i can relate to this to some extent, but obviously not in the same way. as i stated before, i identified as pansexual before i identified as a lesbian. i liked the word. it was inclusive and it had none of the negative connotations lesbian or bisexual had. later, i realized i wasn't attracted to men, so i made the switch to lesbian, but it was hard. because of all those negative connotations from society, i still feel uncomfortable with being a lesbian sometimes. and i recognize that it isn't because i'm not a lesbian, but it's because of how society views lesbians. pansexual is a relatively new term to come into popular consciousness, so it has much less stereotype surrounding it compared to bisexual.

i'm not asking you to change your mind because of one post. i'm asking you to seek out information and other posts by bisexuals, ones you may not agree with, in order to get a clearer picture. and then just think about it for a while. that's all i'm leaving you with. come to your own conclusion. all i ask is just for you to listen, and PLEASE stop acting like actual arguments are in any way similar to "exclusionism" like aphobia, truscum bullshit or making fun of people with unconventional pronouns or ways of describing their genders.

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literally who CARES if straight cis men are wearing skirts for ‘clout’!!! I want to live in a world where being gnc is desirable to them rather than one where they make bigoted jokes about it. it’s GOOD that people with the privilege to do so are normalising gender non conformity and i dont give a shit if they have deliberate political intentions or if they’re just having fun you guys are all so annoying

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britney spears has lost the court case, again, to end her father's conservatorship over her, and it makes me so fucking SAD that no one is in her corner, apart from like... britney stans that the rest of public opinion and internet treats as a joke. hashtag free britney itself started as a joke. meanwhile, she's now saying that she will not perform any more as long as her father has control over her, and still, no one seems to be in her corner. she has been infantilized since the beginning of her career, and her mental breakdown added that extra ~insanity~ layer to it all, thus turning her into someone who is treated condescendingly, with pity, with sarcasm, like a lobotomized version of her former self performing for others to make fun of her. but she is not given empathy. where is the fucking compassion?? not even out of nostalgia for a pop icon formative for an entire generation, in the full meaning of the word? who is having britney's back?? she deserves so much more.

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white disabled people are some of the most racist people.

I keep seeing other disabled white persons bitching about people being critical of how the US has gone about legalizing cannabis (yknow, still incarcerating and punishing people of color but giving whites legal weed protections) because they're "dependant on it" and this is a "complete win for the disabled"

Cannabis can be a very helpful potent medicine for many, but you do not speak for all disabled people, and your comfort is not inherently worth more than black and brown persons' lives and freedoms

Call me ablest. But disability isn't a shield for racism. I no longer want to accept racism as a disabled trait

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The current discourse of cis people being so afraid of trans people independently giving themselves HRT is fucking bonkers.

When you buy "grey market" hormones from an online pharmacy they always come in sealed blister packets with the logos of reputable Indian pharmaceutical companies, which are the same companies that supply generics for Walgreens.

When you go into a doctor for trans HRT they will prescribe you based on a generalized scheme they start every patient with, usually based on public information from other clinics, see how it effects you, and then try to titrate that to you specifically over time based on how you're feeling and blood work. Basically what you would be doing on your own, sans bloodwork.

Is it ideal to give yourself hormones when you don't have access to blood tests? No.

Is it dangerous if you're following publicly available guidelines? No.

I really need cis people to understand that going to get HRT as a trans person is not like trying to get treated for high blood pressure. A lot of doctors won't do it, require months of expensive gate keeping, or have literally no experience and know less about it than the average trans person. That's if a trans person even has access to medical care at all. Every time I've moved I've had to take into account the area's proximity to doctors experienced with trans people.

Basically if you're super concerned with an informed person self medicating HRT but not concerned with people being able to buy tylenol (acetaminophen) over the counter and is way more likely to kill you than HRT, then your motives are probably just rooted in transphobia.

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Gay USA (1977) dir. Arthur J. Bressan Jr.

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Stop saying terfs started "queer is a slur" please for the love of god i am begging you. Reclaiming it for yourself is fine but it is still literally a slur and all you're doing is diluting the definition of terf to mean "any person who has holds the 'bad' opinion in lgbt discourse".

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also not to be a freedom-hating commie on main or anything but i'm thinking about the logic of "trump is turning this country into a fascist state, so we need to get him out of office, so you need to vote for this other guy. you are not allowed to vote for anyone else, you must only speak positively about him, any criticism of him will be deemed a conspiracy against him, making jokes against him can get you flagged or removed from the internet, you must accept his policies at face value and not suggest change regarding them, and if you break any of these rules, you will be regarded as an ambiguous foreign interferer and a threat to the spirit of the country. ...you know, to fight fascism."

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i hate the way all discussion on here of the obvious grooming in radfem circles gets centered around some weird “so you should feel sorry for people who want you dead” shit

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dude posts a vid of himself dancing in a skirt to a song and suddenly people are lashing out against it and this is supposedly woke or something

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if you live in california please vote no on prop 22 to waste the 186 million dollars uber lyft and doordash spent to keep exploiting their workers

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U dont have to pretend to care about us poor mentally impaired white gays to back up your lack of a point

"Trolling" doesn't remove power from white supremacist groups, once again, it doesn't take much deep thought to realize that is pretty obviously a very bad idea. You can reclaim a slur, you can't take the name from an active neonazi white supremacist hate group and make it a good thing. It just looks like you're allying yourself with said hate group.

If we wanna take power from hate groups, we stand on the front lines and defend those who can't defend themselves. Not "haha wouldn't it be funny to put a pic from pride in the tag without considering the consequences"

I mean really about as smart as when people flooded the blm tag with black squares, super helpful and useful. definitely helped solve systemic racism

what the fuck is going on

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Do me a favor and fucking never tell people of color to shut up about neo nazis ever again.

Are you incapable of thinking critically? Were you dropped on your soft spot as an infant? I mean it.

Proud Boys are a neonazi, white supremacist, fascist group. Their ideal world is one where they've beaten every person of color to death. That's what those people stand for. And recently our president refused to disavow them and hate groups like them, and even embolded them by telling them to "stand by" which they're not using as a slogan.

Why, with any amount of thought and consideration for the thoughts, feeling and safety of people of color... Would white gay people think it's remotely okay or even smart to try and claim "proud boys" as their own term to make it Not Such A Bad Term :)

The point fagricultural makes is a very important one: this confuses the message of what both the gay community and the proud boys are about. People will look at this and some will see it as white gays somewhat accepting proud boys among themselves, and some will see it as proud boys being accepting of gay people and therefore "not so bad" because of course the feelings and safety of people of color- particularly the black and jewish communities targeted by this hate group- come last in the minds of these men and apparently in the mind of a person like you.

what the fuck is going on