reduceharm

[reduceharm]

wish i had more energy to manage this blog but unfortunately i just don’t rn.

[reduceharm]

I'm begging other trans people to read an ounce of Black Feminist or Decolonialist Feminist writing. I'm on my hands and knees and begging you. I promise you, I promise you, there is so much more to Feminist theory than anything you have picked up from White/Radical/Pop/Liberal Feminism I promise you. Read There Is No Hierarchy Of Oppressions By Audre Lorde. I have a link to the PDF right here you can read it for free. Take my hand I can't do this alone (thanks glass beach). Peace And Love On Planet Earth.

[reduceharm]

friendly reminder that you don't need any diagnosis or disorder to adapt your routine to accommodate you! sit down in the shower. brush your teeth and wash your face in the shower. bring a chair to the kitchen while you cook. use unscented products. your routine should be built for you.

[reduceharm]

Some things to note when you're discussing Palestine and Israeli apartheid in the coming days/weeks/months (not a complete list but will update as I have the emotional energy):

Do not refer to what is happening in Palestine as a "conflict" or "war." These words imply a balance of power that does not exist. Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have no military, no control of their borders, no control over their access to resources like electricity, water, and medical supplies, no freedom of movement, and, most importantly, they do not have the most powerful government in the world funding them.

Israel is an apartheid state. Refer to it as such. It is based in a settler colonialist system that actively recruits and funds people from the Jewish diaspora to move into homes on stolen Palestinian land. Since the formation of the state of Israel in 1948, 42% of the West Bank has been illegally settled while 86% of East Jerusalem has been stolen for settler use. Under international law, the expansion of these settlements is illegal. Israel has faced zero repercussions for their actions. Hold them accountable in your speech.

Do not refer to the Israeli army as the "IDF" (Israeli Defense Force). Palestinians refer to them as the "IOF" for a reason--Israel does not need to defend themselves from civilians who have no military. From 2008 to September 2023, over 3,800 Palestinian civilians were killed by the IOF. There is no need for oppressors to defend themselves--they are the ones on the offense at all times by the nature of their positions of power.

Remember that decolonization will not be a peaceful process. Do not condemn a group of people who have been brutally colonized, ethnically cleansed, and displaced from their homes for 75 years for fighting back against those oppressing them. This post concisely explains why the violence necessary for decolonization will never match that of the violence necessary for the sustained process of colonization. You cannot break free of a violent system with nonviolence. When Palestinians attempted peaceful protest in 2018 on the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, they along with clearly marked journalists, doctors, and medics were shot and killed for their actions. Oppressors will maintain their power status by any means necessary; the ongoing genocide of Palestinians is proof of that. Decolonization requires violence because colonization itself is an inherently violent system.

Zionism does not equate to Judaism. Do not let Zionist propaganda fool you into believing that condemning the Israeli government is in any way antisemitic. The Israeli government does not represent the views of all Jews, even those who are Israeli citizens. Governments should always, always be criticized and held to account for their actions. Israel is no exception to this rule. Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism. Anyone who tells you otherwise is weaponizing true Jewish oppression and suffering as a means to gain support for a violent, racist, apartheid government.

[reduceharm]

what so nazis don't deserve to die?

Genuinely - no. I don't think there is a single human being on this Earth that "deserves" death. Period. End of sentence.

I especially don't think anyone deserves to die on the basis of politics. I think to turn genocidal rhetoric back around on the genocidal is deeply ethically and morally bankrupt.

There have been many, many successful cases of people deradicalizing from hateful ideologies and those people are incredibly important because they in turn help deradicalize others.

I don't believe anyone is beyond growth and I think humanizing others is one of the first steps to getting them to humanize others in return. I put my personal focus and care into helping people escape abusive cultures, like the kinds that bigoted ideologies create.

I do also think that no one is obligated to forgive a former bigot. I don't think their victims need to engage with them in any capacity. I understand the mistrust and don't blame anyone for it. However, that does not cancel out someone else's entire future life.

A deradicalized former nazi who is actively teaching people what the radicalization pipeline looks like so they can avoid it is infinitely better than a dead nazi that just opens the door for more bodies.

[reduceharm]

Saying that you come off as a zionist 'because of the way you frame Jews and Israelis' is kind of creepy when the primary thing you've been saying throughout is that violence against them by a terrorist group is bad. Saying Jewish lives are important and that Israelis don't deserve to die just for existing in Israel is zionism now apparently.

it’s bc she’s using “zionist” as a dogwhistle for “jew i don’t like” and “zionism” as a dogwhistle for “opinion about israel palestine that i don’t agree with.” which is unfortunately what’s happening with most discourse.

and the problem is, if you don’t know what the fuck zionism is, you cannot be antizionist. you cannot be anti something you do not understand. that’s why so much antizionism falls into antisemitism, because so much antisemitism relies on ignorance. if you truly want to be an antizionist, that requires doing your due diligence, reading zionist literature and educating yourself on the ideology and history, or at least just educating yourself on the basics using sources that aren’t just social media. to be an effective antizionist, you need to understand exactly what it is you’re opposing and why you oppose it.

i don’t personally identify myself as an antizionist for reasons i’d rather not go into, but i’ll give an example i’ve talked about before. political zionism is the desire for a jewish state governed by jewish people, sometimes with the added assumption of the state being under jewish law. i oppose this because 1. i don’t believe in the concept of states, 2. there are other people who live in the area besides jews who need political representation, and 3. jewish law only applies to jews, so trying to have a state that functions under jewish law essentially makes it a theocracy which i oppose.

the same applies to a lot of the buzzwords often used in this conversation: colonialism, ethnic cleansing, genocide, apartheid.

what makes what israel is doing colonialism? how is that complicated by the fact it was preceded, if not directly caused by, british colonialism? how is it further complicated by the fact the jewish people originated in that area and that there are populations of jews who have been there for centuries? do you know what the settlements are and what makes them a problem?

what makes what israel is doing ethnic cleansing? what do you know about the nakba? how much do you know about israel’s practice of denying permits and demolishing palestinian homes? how does the dramatic decrease in the number of palestinians allowed to work in israel contribute to this?

do you know what genocide means? do you know how it is different and similar to ethnic cleansing? are you familiar with the history or displays of palestinian identity being illegal in israel? are you aware of how palestinians living in israel are legally identified and how that affects their connection to palestinian peoplehood? despite the fact israel does not control gaza, hamas does, what tactics is israel using to worsen the conditions there?

can you define apartheid? can you describe the policies instituted by the israeli government that fall under the definition of apartheid?

and most importantly, can you find all the answers to these questions somewhere besides social media?

you cannot just use these words because you saw others using them. you have to know exactly what they mean and exactly how they apply to what palestinians are experiencing, otherwise your antizionism and your activism are worthless.

if you want to be an effective activist, you MUST be able to answer these questions, because if you can’t even describe the problem you will be a hindrance to the solution.

[reduceharm]

Good morning to everyone who is going to troll an oil company today 😇

[reduceharm]

Hot take nobody who's anti-para wants to hear but!!

Saying that paraphiles naturally and inherently are dangerous and can't control themselves IS csa apologism!

Divorcing someone's cruel actions by saying it's just "how they are inherently" is apologism and is used by abusers as a way to deflect blame off of themselves. If you think bad things are done because of how someone inherently is and not a choice? That's apologism and it's DANGEROUS.

[reduceharm]

youth have a right to be educated about the world regardless of what their parents/caretakers believe. youth have a right to learn accurate information about the world for themselves, including information that allows them to disagree with their parents/caretakers. we have got to destroy this mindset that everyone under 18 is essentially sentient playdough for parents to mold however they want and its violating "parent's rights" to allow their children to be educated on basic facts of the world (like that queer people exist or that america is founded on genocide) because it would mean they lose the slightest bit of control over their child's reality. imo schools have a moral responsibility to protect youth's right to knowledge and freedom of thought over their parent's "right" to control everything they know. your children should be allowed to fucking disagree with you, and restricting their access to knowledge in order to prevent that is abuse.

[reduceharm]

mannnnn until we all get okay with the idea of people needing other people to get them water/food/etc like. idk we’re just never gonna make it

[reduceharm]

failure to think about dsm diagnoses as constructed categories with histories will have people saying very bizarre things about how contemporary ones relate to one another

[reduceharm]

Been engaging with some threads on twitter blasting transhumanism for historical connections to eugenics, which may be true in terms of some of the people involved in the 50s or whatever, because it was the 50s. But you guys do realize that that doesn't make radical body autonomy or life extension bad, right? No more than the goal of curing the sick is also tainted by historical eugenics, racism etc in medicine.

There is this trend I hate and am very afraid of where ideas are evaluated solely on their aesthetic associations and the politics of fringe advocates rather than their own merits being considered.

Same thread also attacked effective altruism, and like - I agree! There are some iffy types who have too much influence in that sphere. But that doesn't mean that the core goal of "helping people most effectively" is inherently evil or worth dismissing in all its incarnations, including those in the hands of reformists.

"Transhumanism is eugenics" scares me with its rising ubiquity as a trans woman who is heavily invested in radical body autonomy and the pursuit of better lives and health through self modification. The same goes for the rising, alarming consensus that "using resources in our environment that are available to enrich human lives", and seeking more such resources e.g. speculatively in space or whatever, is evil colonialist (??) hubris. Because exploiting resources to grow and enrich our lives is how humans exist and sustain ourselves, and outright rejection of this model of human existence is at its most extreme a call for "ecofascist" style mass genocide of the human race.

Feels like that is worse than worrying about the aesthetics of colonising Mars, a desolate uninhabited rock ball, because colonisation was bad when it was the genocidal invasion of pre-inhabited land. Like those are two different things!

Anyway, yeah, I hate the politics of aesthetic and associative moral taint that reduce the potential future to timid self-flagellation and blind fear of association with the failures of the past, resulting in demonstrably worse long-term outcomes for everyone.

Idk man, it sucks that people are like this and this is the way progressive spaces are moving. It feels like Elon Musk can pay lip service to some school of philosophy without fully understanding it even and then because he's capitalist scum (he is) we're meant to all hate it by association, because even leftists treat him like the most important dude in the world, apparently.

[reduceharm]

the thing that’s obnoxious about a lot of age gap discoruse is that it feels less about curbing out potential abuse and more the fear of getting old/being around older people, particularly when stops even being about actual relationships and just older people being AROUND younger people.

 like people saying it’s “creepy” for older gay men to go clubs that also contain younger gay men or people saying it’s “suspicious” for older people to go to all-ages concerts. which i don’t know, just isn’t a healthy way to live considering that if you actually go outside you’re going to find your self around people who are not in you’re immediate age range and your going to have to deal with that.

[reduceharm]

I think it's important to remember that wanting bottom surgery and not wanting bottom surgery are both very normal.

Transition is a deeply personal experience, you gotta do it your way.

[reduceharm]

The pop psychology idea of psychopaths and sociopaths persists for the same reason people buy into the idea of “narcissistic abuse”, and the same reason psychotic or plural killers are such a common trope. People who don’t fit into those groups find comfort in the idea that people only harm others because they’re mentally ill or neurodivergent, because it means that all they have to do is learn how to recognize those neurodivergences and they’ll be safe. If they can recognize a psychopath or psychotic person, they’ll never be murdered, if they can recognize a narcissist they’ll never be abused again. It’s an attempt to make a terrifying world feel safer

Which doesn’t make it okay to buy into or spread these ideas. Mentally ill people aren’t actually the reason the world is terrifying, and learning how to spot us isn’t going to keep you safe. If anything, it’s going to put us in danger because now everyone thinks that having low/no empathy or a personality disorder or psychosis or being plural makes you unsafe to be around. People are afraid of us, they think hurting us counts as self-defense. And I’m sorry, but your feelings of safety do not outweigh our actual safety

[reduceharm]

Actually I think we should talk about how incredibly fucked up it is for sapphic women to say shit like "I'm no better than a straight man 😔" when attracted to a woman in a way that isn't 100% pure and wholesome, or act like men's attraction to women is inherently dirty, predatory, or objectifying.

[reduceharm]

"Growing up assigned male and going up assigned female are both miserable traumatic experiences in different ways" and "gender itself is a system of control" are ideas that need to enter mainstream queer analysis.

Idk dude I just think if yr assessment of the situation boils down to "women are oppressed and men are the oppressors" yr always going to have at least a little bit fucked up views about trans women. Yr always going to think that we're like, trying to dodge accountability for being male or something.