pimpedbutterfly

[pimpedbutterfly]

average us republican bill: The 'Powerful Angel Blessed Love Peace And Smiling Babies Bill' provides 1 trillion dollars in funding for death camps and makes it a felony offense to cast satanic curses on soccer moms. voted in by every republican and john fetterman

average us democratic bill: The 'Affordable Sensible Moderation And Financing Bill' gives multinational corporations a 3% tax cut for buying carbon credits from tesla and allows the Senate Budget Analysis Comittee to convene biyearly on whether shutting orphan crushing plants could reduce the deficit. fails in the senate because joe manchin refuses to vote for it

average us bipartisan bill: The 'Security of Our Defensive Homeland Safety and Securtiy Act' gives the president a big red button that kills a hundred brown people at random every time it's pressed. if you complain about the button the FBI come to your house. passes the senate 99-0

[pimpedbutterfly]

All you stupid bitches had to do was vote for Kamala. Oh my GOD.

[pimpedbutterfly]

Why does everyone seem to want everyone to be healed and perfect and always working on healing and healing and healing. Shut the fuck up !!! No one can be a perfect person without flaws I'm tired of seeing stuff implying that thoes of us with hardships and mental problems and disabilities just need to 'heal' more from our 'trauma'. I hate this rhetoric so much

[pimpedbutterfly]

every time massive wildfires break out in Israel, I just remember that the JNF (Jewish National Fund) has been planting non-native pine trees in Palestine for decades now. The JNF has been using greenwashing to disguise the colonial origins and aims of its organization. Sometimes, the trees are planted directly on top of depopulated Palestinian villages. These pine trees, being non-native to Palestine's environment, are very flammable. Just a couple things to think about while we look at the news of these wildfires.

[pimpedbutterfly]

i have interesting conversations sometimes with people who frame questions about psych abolition as "what will xyz look like in the post-psych world" or "how will antipsychiatrists make sure that mad people get their needs met once the psych system is destroyed" and so on.

it reflects this fairly common idea I've encountered, mostly by people who are newer to antipsych ideas, who believe that psych abolition is going to happen as some sort of single event, as this discrete moment where later, we'll be able to point to it and say this is where everything changed. That there will be one point where we deinstitutionalized or decriminalized drugs or got rid of restraint or whatever accomplishment it is. and to be fair, there are some of those watershed moments—I could point at Basaglia and the democratic psychiatry movement, the movimento antimanicomial, the Socialist Patients Collective, and a few other sticking points of psych resistance throughout the past couple hundred years. it's not like there aren't moments where there is such a monumental shift that it makes sense to classify it with a Before and an After.

part of this mindset makes me consider how so often in antipsych spaces, we (rightfully) focus a lot of our energy on highlighting the extent of the violence that occurs on the whole continuum of psychiatric care. it's hard to find words to express the horrors of solitary confinement, restraint, institutionalized sexual assault, confinement, coercive drugging—the list goes on and on. When we're so often dismissed with rhetoric telling us that we are broken/unsafe/mad in need of cure/removal/confinement—it feels desperately, urgently needed to shout as loudly as we can that the violence we are surviving is real, that is is common, and that it should not happen to anyone, regardless if we're incarcerated in prisons, jails, psych wards, or residential treatment facilities.

and at the same time, I think that sometimes we forget that even amidst the overwhelming layers of harm and abuse, there are still so many ways that psych survivors are already, every day, exhaustingly fighting back. it stands out to me that in every psych ward i've ever been locked up in, that there is always a parallel world of in-jokes and advice and rituals and fantasies and histories and community norms completely separate from the understanding of any of the psych professionals who think they run the place.

So often when I talk about the violence of psych incarceration I talk about the harm of being removed, disappeared, and cut off from the world; at the same time, there is always a simultaneous lively, active, and chaotic world inside built by patients that directly challenges the claims by psychiatrists that our madness makes us fundamentally incapable of participating in society. The patient-world in the psych ward might not be coherent, it might not be anywhere close to a utopia--but it is a world built by the psychiatrized, for the psychiatrized, taking the hostile conditions we are placed into and shaping the parts of it we can reach into something all our own.

Fundamentally, psych abolition is about what we are doing Right Now—it doesn't require us to wait for the End Of Psychiatry before it becomes real. I know psych abolition is possible because it already exists—I find it in the corners of psych wards, where intimate conversations are hidden from the view of cameras. I find it every time someone hides meds under their tongue, sneaks in contraband, and refuses to go quietly into restraint. I find it every time a group of friends gets together to do informal suicide watch so that no one has to call mobile crisis and the cops, fundraises to build a new peer respite, and creates a hotline that doesn't do nonconsensual interventions from cops/licensed professionals with the power to incarcerate.

I know psych abolition is possible because every fucking day, there are already people fighting back and making abolition real, even if only for a little while. My allegiance will always be with the psychiatrized, the mad, those who are labeled under many different pathways that end in "deviant," who remind us that there is a path towards resistance because it is a path that is already happening.

[pimpedbutterfly]

if you look into the history of biopsychiatric research you will often find a tension between the search for new drugs and the search for a biological cause of specific disorders. often, as soon as a medicine is found that performs slightly better than placebo in one clinical trial, its workings are then retroactively explained by a “new insight” into the workings of the disorder (see the dopamine theory of schizophrenia, or the lithium theory of bipolar disorder). describing the disorder as resulting of a specific imbalance in brain chemistry helps legitimize the existence of the diagnosis; describing the drug as correcting that imbalance helps sell it. discussing lithium, johanna moncrief says: “without it the treatment for mania and schizophrenia would appear indistinguishable (as they more or less are), the justification for diagnosis would be undermined and the whole disease-centred conception of modern psychiatric drug treatment would start to look fragile.”

both of those processes often develop in parallel to each other in a process that is famous for poor methodology and unreplicable results. often the same drug is presented in various new ways (“we know it works, we just didn’t know why until now!”, rinse and repeat) - or sold for a different diagnosis (while still asserting its disease-specific action) to keep the sales up, by funding new studies so that anyone pointing out this pattern can be dismissed as ignoring scientific progress.

[pimpedbutterfly]

Very solid take. The only fruitful discussion concerning sustainability and consumption based pollution I've heard of, was in a bid to make apparent the continuous transfer of the most polluting segments of production to the non-imperial core. As such, we can distinguish between countries whose main contribution to emissions comes from production and those that pollute through consumption, as a result of "greening" (shipping out) their production. It makes apparent global inequalities and the hypocrisy of carbon neutral goals in Europe for example.

However, even in this case, the consumption lens takes away from considering industries and production processes under capitalism as a unified whole. It would have sufficed to point out that offloading pollution does not make an industry sustainable and that this process is beneficial only to the imperial core.

Even in this case though, consumption is not viewed at an individual level or as a segment that is not directly linked to production.

discussions about sustainability largely have to be in the realm of production, not consumption. while curbing wasteful consumption habits is important, issues of unsustainable goods can only be solved by literally producing less of them. this approach immediately resolves most issues with individualist, moral 'consumer activism' - for instance, it doesn't matter if you personally eat meat or not, but, factually, we need to significantly reduce the size of the animal agriculture industry if we want the earth to remain habitable. whenever you discuss this, a million scratched satisfascists start acting as though we intend to just take away their treats and replace them with nothing - as if the removal of personal automobiles doesn't go hand in hand with the redesigning of cities around walking and public transit, as if the removal of one method of production doesn't mean its replacement by another. the two main errors here, of the treatlerites, and of those who forget that socialism is supported by the people only because it improves their real conditions, should both be avoided.

[pimpedbutterfly]

Well let's hear it. Why won't they talk about Israeli crimes, genius?

[pimpedbutterfly]

the phenomenon of people talking about the cost of "AI" in energy and water while ignoring everything else they use that also spends those same things is very telling

you do not know the process behind production of the things you take for granted. you think your computer is a magic box that connects to the astral plane. you never think about the cables and servers and water cooling and electricity cost and the workers who build and maintain the infrastructure etc. etc. except for the thing you don't like and were told the cost was a good excuse for why you don't like it

you also don't think about the cost of so much more. the food you eat, the phone in your hand, etc. you just know it costs an amount of dollars at the store

this isn't about being a morally bad person for not thinking about this. this is about not getting bogged down on the supposed inherent evil of 1 specific thing you were told to hate because it's the only thing that you realize needs to be produced using material resources. and instead becoming a marxist

[pimpedbutterfly]

It's been over a year of famine, deaths, and mass exiles for over a million Palestinians that are forced into refugee camps leaving territories that used to foster their families, their communities, that they called home for centuries. The same homes that have been bombed and levelled into non-existence so that israel can colonize it.

You are fooling only yourself and other zionists by pretending it is not a genocide. The end of israel as we know it is inevitable. Palestine will be free.

It’s so weird seeing jewish people excusing genocide and supporting colonization while pro-palestine supporters act super racist towards ethnic jews. Do you not hear yourselves??? This word is literally going backwards istg

[pimpedbutterfly]

Saving this for later

There is no magic "abolish the state" button, which is why I'm an anarchist, as "when the state has socialismed enough it will just magically poof away in a cloud of smoke" is the leninist position.

That is not the Leninist position, the Leninist position is and always has been that the state cannot disappear until the material conditions for its disappearance are achieved. The withering away of the state, first outlined by Engels, is not a magic process but one that proceeds from the abolition of class and the dissolution of the bourgeoisie.

How are you going to get rid of the bourgeoisie without a state? Are you going to simply ask them nicely to leave you alone? If you are organized and if your organization is suppressing the bourgeoisie as a class, then you have created a state, you have created an authoritarian imposition on the free organization of some section of the people. If you are not doing any of this, then the bourgeoisie who you have left unmolested will invariably come to dominate you once more.

Anarchists have always played word games to get around these simple facts. There are the practical anarchists who will admit to some amount of authority, but always with the caveat that theirs is *just* authority, *necessary* authority, and that is is the *unjust* authority that they condemn. Just authority is not the State, because the State is unjust, and so if they see an authority as just then it cannot be the State. Fair enough, you can call things by whatever names you like, but if you put these ideas in practice you basically end up with Leninism. You want to create dual power? You want to abolish the bourgeois state and replace it with a democratic organ of the working class? Well so did Lenin, and now you know why the Mensheviks accused him of anarchism.

Then there are the quite impractical capital-A Anarchists, who are adamant that anarchy means anarchy and that even voluntary hierarchy and submission to democratic authority is impermissible. Whether pacifistic or militaristic, they are generally unremarkable and ineffective at their goals because they eschew most effective forms of organization as ideologically impure. Even the most advanced anarchists, the CNT in Spain and the Maknovists in Russia, were plagued by economic confusion and disorganization. Their lack of discipline led to their downfall.

If you want to read more, here are some pertinent links:

[pimpedbutterfly]

please continue to donate to my friend mohammed and his family. this family relies on us to keep sharing and circulating their campaign.

fadi is 5 years old and his hair is turning gray from fear and stress and fadi's mom mariam is pregnant! i worry for them so much. i want them safe. please donate to them, their goal is so achievable! all they're asking for are funds for medical care, food and basic necessities. (vetted)

they're currently at €18,483 / 25,500 and donations have been slow recently. please help a pregnant woman afford food and shelter amid this ongoing genocide. donate here. thank you 🥺

[pimpedbutterfly]

Psych Abolition Chat Sessions- Fall 2024

As many of you know, I have been hosting Zoom meetings for psych abolitionists or interested parties to come together, chat, collaborate, etc since the beginning of this summer. Over the last several weeks, those chats have taken the form of informational sessions regarding harm reduction on various topics. I have been so delighted to be able to share my thoughts about these issues with you all, but I'm equally excited to transition back into a more collaborative format for the next set of sessions.

Given my capacity for the semester, my goal is to hold chats similar to the first set of sessions: open spaces to discuss psych abolition + provide community for abolitionists, as well as inspiring collaborative work amongst us all. While people are encouraged to come + contribute, 'lurking' (aka camera off, no speaking) is also encouraged! Any way that you want to show up is okay- we regularly have people attend who do not engage at all, or only engage in the chat. Chat messages are read aloud by me to ensure that chat participants feel equally included in the group.

A reminder to anyone who wants to attend that under no circumstances may anyone contact the authorities as a result of anything spoken about during the Zoom. Free discussion of self-injury + suicidality + substance use are expected without fear of being “crisis” intervened upon. That being said, the goal of these chats is not necessarily to be a support group but more to talk about psychiatric abolition, build community, + increase knowledge.

The sessions will take place as follows

SUNDAY OCTOBER 27TH CANCELLED

Monday, November 4th at 9pm EST | 1am UTC

Sunday, November 10th at 12pm EST | 1am UTC

Monday, November 18th at 9pm EST | 1am UTC

Sunday, November 24th at 12pm EST | 4pm UTC

Also, if you would like to join the Madness + Liberation forum where we discuss psychiatric abolition at greater length, please feel free to fill out my Google Form here.

Those of you who need a dial-in number, please message me on Tumblr or send an anon + I will provide it.

For those of you interested in reading about some of our past chats, check out the links below!

Pilot Cycle [July 1 2024-July 29 2024] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Harm Reduction Cycle [Aug 19 2024-Sep 28 2024]

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[pimpedbutterfly]

107 years ago today an organized group of workers in the Russian Empire decided they had had enough of war, misery, the oppression of women, and of a corrupt democracy that had promised much and changed nothing, the Tsar still in his palaces, the workers still giving their life for a cause foreign to the working class of Europe and the world. Most bolsheviks were industrial workers, with an insufficient formal education, precarious salaries and conditions. The working class in the Russian Empire had tried liberal democracy, had seen its hipocrisy in the months following the election of the provisional government, and understood their historic goal of progressing further beyond the democracy of the landowner, businessman and aristocrat. It wasn't the first time the proletariat had attempted to take power, both worldwide and in the Russian Empire, but this time they were ready, educated, an organized enough.

The armies of 14 imperialist powers combined could not stop the will of a mass of workers that had realized their worth, their potential, and most importantly, their dignity. They no longer had to bow down to paternalism, electoralism, and the capitalists to whom they sold their labor, no armed intervention, no amount of propaganda, no adventurist distraction, could take away from that fact. This isn't a fantasy, it isn't idealistic, it's a historical fact, that revolutions are possible, have happened, succeeded, and that the opportunity presents itself sooner than most expect. The only task at hand is to organize towards it. Agitation, education, an actual dual power structure predicated on a unified will, not on voluntarism and horizontalism.

I understand the topic at hand for the last 2 days and many more to come will be the results of the US election. But the US is not the only liberal democracy that increasingly creates disappointment among the social majority. After all the posting about the various liberals that make up the US electoral environment, it is imperious that nobody falls into despair. Not in a self-care way, not in the way most left-liberals have been talking about, referring to an abstract sense of "preparing", but because of the simple necessity for this election to further erode any popular faith in reformism, whether it's Trump's reforms, Harris' reforms, Bernie's reforms, or Stein's reforms. Wallowing in despair is as useful as placing yet more stake into whoever is wheeled out next to promise even less, in what will most certainly be also called the most important elections of our lifetimes.

Return to the working class of the Russian Empire, of a fractured and hungry China, to the colony of Indochina, to the plantation island that was Cuba. And I urge you to exercise some perspective. These masses of people had suffered more than you for longer than you. Nobody's asking you to feel guilty about your economic position in the world, we're asking you to realize that, for as long as there have been modes of production predicated on the exploitation, division and discrimination of a producing class, there have always been options, better options than sinking into despondent depression. They have managed to cast off their yoke and build towards a society not based on exploitation. They're not utopias, and mistakes have been and will be committed, but they all realized and understood that it's better to commit our own mistakes, than to toil under the rational oppression by another class for any longer.

[pimpedbutterfly]

Okay so like. You know your own name as a kid, right?

You remember how it sounds, how your parents say it, how your friends say it- you learn how to spell it, and maybe even what it means and why it was given to you, and it's yours.

It's not a tangible, physical thing, like your hair or your fingernails, but it's yours. It belongs to you.

So, like. Imagine there comes a point in life where everyone gets their name tattooed to their forehead, or something.

Could be when they're two. Could be when they're twenty. Hell, it could be when they're eighty, or ninety-nine, or whenever. But it's everybody, and it's inevitable, and it happens.

Now imagine the time comes for you, and you get up after and look in the mirror and realize they spelled it wrong.

And you have to go outside and live your life in a world where everybody is so totally used to knowing people's names on sight that not a single person second-guesses that your parents named you Susam, or Ahley, or Benjabib.

And you know it's wrong, every time you hear it, but you can choose to explain every single time- every time you're called in a coffee queue, every time a teacher picks you in class, every time you meet a new person or bump into a stranger or are greeted on the street, by children and employers and door-to-door salesmen and your fucking waitress- or you can kind of just learn to grit your teeth and ignore it.

You still notice, of course- maybe you learn to accept it, maybe you hate it every time, but whether you do anything about it or not, you still know. You know people have the wrong word for you in your head.

You know they still mean YOU, but it's not you.

So what's your solution?

Do you shrug, decide it doesn't matter, and go about your life?

Do you smear the typo over with foundation, pencil in new letters every morning?

Do you stare into the mirror sometimes and think, "wow, I should really get that fixed"?

Maybe you save up your money and get it removed, or covered up, or changed to something else. Maybe the whole damn thing was wrong, and you've been a Jacob running around as a Hailey this whole damn time.

That's the best way to explain it. It's not an easily-provable thing, or a demonstrable thing, or a feeling I can one-for-one substitute as something else-

but that's what it's like to know you're not a girl.

[pimpedbutterfly]

#CB beat up Weavile my beloved son is no longer

Weavile dropped to UU.

Triple Axel has missed for the last time.

[pimpedbutterfly]

Talk about a ‘US alternative to the Belt and Road’ is, in my opinion, mischaracterised. Near-universally, it rests on the assumption that the US’s depiction of the BRI - as a simple Chinese-imperialist counterpart to its own historical debt-trap neocolonialism - is accurate, and as such cannot actually deal with the reality of the situation.

The BRI, existing as it does in reality, has many concrete impetuses: it provides land routes for Chinese trade, avoiding western sea-power; it weakens western countries geopolitically; and it develops the global south. These last two are important. China’s specific position as a global south nation, as an exporter (rather than an importer, as with the west) means that it stands to gain from any development of the global south - the US, the world’s largest importer, has the ability to sanction or otherwise trade-restrict nations by simply importing from elsewhere. China, the world’s largest exporter, cannot develop too greatly, cannot climb up the value chain and increase its standards of living, its wages, or the US would simply move production to somewhere less developed, somewhere cheaper - which it broadly has done for low-value-added manufacturing, most cheap goods aren’t produced in China any more. However, if the global south as a whole develops, if not just China, but all the myriad exporters increase their standards, their wages, then there is no alternative, and that development continues.

It might be obvious already, but the US and China stand on opposite sides of the question of development. China stands to gain from increased development, and the US stands to lose. In fact, as the US’s extraordinary wealth is drawn from the exploitation of these global south nations, their dependency on the US and its ability to hold their economies hostage, any increase in the strength, development, and autonomy of global south nations is a direct blow to the US geopolitically and economically. Not only that, but increased development and autonomy lead to trading networks and institutions not directly controlled and managed by the US, i.e. of alternatives to the US, and when given the choice, most won’t choose neocolonialism. Any US investment in infrastructure and development would only be investing in an alternative to itself, in giving the nations it enslaves autonomy, something categorically against the material incentives of the continued survival of the US. China and the US are not simply recolours of each other - China takes the stand of the global south because it is in its material interests to do so, because it is a global south nation.

The US can have no Belt and Road of its own - which is why more funding has gone directly to ‘countering the Belt and Road’ and anti-China propaganda than to any proposed ‘alternative to the Belt and Road’. The fundamental difference is that while China can and does work towards solving the problems facing the world and itself, the US does not and cannot - because it is the problem.