#Autonomy

[insomnialya]

"If you don't want to have any sex" Nope, even If you don't want to have sex at the moment or you rarely want it, you don't have to "compromise"! You never have to. Consent can't be a compromise. Consent is always freely given.

Have sex only when you want to and as much as you want, and if the other person doesn't accept your right to autonomy, it's not a safe partner.

Don't trust people who push you to "compromise" when it comes to consent. Your need for safety and your autonomy will always be more important than the other person's sexual needs.

I feel like too many consent-related posts focus too much on giving and getting consent, and not making sure that people feel comfortable not consenting. We talk too much of consent as if it is a given, as if you just have to ask and then you’ll get it. 

like, there are so many things that boil down to “before you have sex, ask for consent” rather than “don’t assume you’re about to have sex unless you know for sure that the other party/parties want to, and even then they could change their minds”.

Which is just really unhelpful. The whole point of consent shouldn’t be “you should always ask for it and then you can have care-free sex”. That still assumes that you’re going to have sex, when the whole point of asking what people want to do is that it should be possible to say no.

Consent and dissent are both equally valuable. It’s OK if someone asks you if you want to do something, and you say no. And whether you say no for today, for a week or forever, it’s all fine.

Because you know that there are going to be people who think they’re so ~progressive~ and so ~feminist~. when they ask their partner(s) if they want to have sex, but then won’t be able to handle the word “no”.

[rikaklassen]

Originally reposted from Cohost. Drawn by @cherryinthesun.

[biophonies]

when I drew this comic 3 years ago I had NO idea how far it would reach. I'm happy to finally share a corrected version with proper abbreviations, and even MORE state names of indigenous origin ♥️

however, the goal of this comic was to inspire people to do your OWN research on indigenous history. To question everything we have been taught, and everything that has been pointedly left out. This erasure, this “forgetting”, of history is not just of the past… it is happening now. - Across so-called Canada, the US, and US-occupied islands, native women are victims of murder at 10-12x the rate of non-native people, and are the most likely to go missing without being searched for by the law. - Native reservations have the highest rates of poverty in the US, with over HALF of tribal homes with no access to clean water (with more joining this list by the year) - Native people are 6-10x more likely to be unhoused than the rest of the population, and native teens suffer suicide rates higher than any other demographic. This list of modern day genocide goes on (thank you for compiling @theindigenousanarchist <3) and yet take a look at those environmental stats!

Native people manage to do SO much for the planet as a whole - thanklessly - and with all this stacked against them. Don't even get me started on kin fighting in south america. Could you imagine if there was help? #landback is resistance to genocide, and it is the key to saving our warming earth.

So look into it and the other hashtags, cuz a cartoon goose ain't a substitute for a proper education. Love to my grandparents who always kept a map of tribal territories of turtle island on their wall, to speaking on our Tsalagi & Saponi heritage. Love & solidarity forever, happy research, and happy #indigenouspeoplesday

LANDBACK.ORG

(Also, if you care to support the artist, I'm publishing a book ! and writing another - a fantastical afroindigenous graphic novel - that I post exclusively about with tons of other art on my patreon.)

[only-knives]

people hate self diagnosis because it provides Mad people with autonomy.

self diagnosis goes against the idea that psychiatriac professionals have unique knowledge - knowledge only obtainable by someone who has studies for years, specifically from a removed & outside perspective to any individual's Madness: even if that student, themselves, is Mad.

self diagnosis goes against the idea that Mad people are inherently incapable of telling their own story - that any ways in which they do communicate, express themselves, etc. is tainted by their Madness and thus unreliable.

self diagnosis says "i know my own bodymind better than anyone; i live here. this is my life. i get to define my experiences." self diagnosis holds self compassion. self diagnosis holds self empowerment.

diagnosis is typically something "given to" Mad people. in psychiatry's eyes, diagnosis is something to describe us that we must have, yet can never attain for ourselves.

so even though self diagnosis takes from the boxes that psychiatry has prescribed, it is still a rebellion. it may not be The Solution to freeing Mad people from psychiatry - but it still means something. to me, at least.

[crazycatsiren]

If a disabled person tells you to not touch them, it doesn't matter what your intentions are, whether you believe they're struggling with something, whether you think you're trying to help. You respect personal boundaries and bodily autonomy, end of story.

[texaschainsawmascara]

glitterfingersss on ig

[inkyrainstorms]

One of the things Ford would deal with his physical difference:

Medical malpractices.

That entry on the webpage about that medical facility, and that doctor seeing him more as a lab experiment than a person, affirms the brand. It ties well into the theme of his bodily autonomy repeatedly being violated during his life. (Which Alex Hirsch recently started properly exploring.)

People not only want his company. Others want to study him and / or take advantage of his differences.

yes! that page is always so facinating to me, and you’re right, it connects to a big theme that goes through basically Ford’s entire life: personal autonomy

between Ford’s dreams of going to West Coast Tech getting crushed (by what he believes is on purpose), him getting isolated by his peers, the medical malpractice he presumably goes through(the page ofc), Bill Cipher (which is a whole can of worms by himself) (emotional control and literal possession), his years before the portal incident are just him losing control of his own narrative.

even post-canon, there’s something to be said about Ford’s literal name being taken (with good intentions, im not bashing Stan) and twisted into something unrecognizable. he lost his home, whatever life he’d tried to make for himself— and even his name isn’t his anymore.

this all, of course, cumulates in him appearing to be very controlling. his life has been dictated by other forces for so long (bill, these hypothetical doctors, even Stanley(though he wasn’t really trying to)) that people that tried to help him(like Fiddleford) are also dismissed. he was afraid Fiddleford would steal his achievements, would undermine him. he wanted to be defined as more than his physical difference or intelligence (again, Bill and the doctors), but he sabotaged himself in the process

…Honestly, in the Martian Stan AU, Ford’s entire narrative seems to be, like in canon, him tempting to control his own story and save Stanley, even when people try to stop him. (he’s not…. succeeding so far) (i’m rooting for him)

in the martian stan au, Fiddleford is actually a big perpetrator of Ford loss of autonomy! i’ve been having a lot of thoughts about this recently, and what it would mean for him overall. Fiddleford and Bill play very similar roles here (so far) and it’s unfolding very interestingly in my outline documents

[dailyanarchistposts]

Direct action, simply put, means cutting out the middleman: solving problems yourself rather than petitioning the authorities or relying on external institutions. Any action that sidesteps regulations and representation to accomplish goals directly is direct action—it includes everything from blockading airports to helping refugees escape to safety and organizing programs to liberate your community from reliance on capitalism. Here we present a step-by-step guide to organizing and carrying out direct action, from the first planning stages to the debrief at the end, including legal support, media strategy, and proper security.

There are countless scenarios in which you might want to employ direct action. Perhaps representatives of despicable multinational corporations are invading your town to hold a meeting, and you want to do more than simply hold a sign; perhaps they’ve been there a long time, operating franchises that exploit workers and ravage the environment, and you want to hinder their misdeeds; perhaps you want to organize a festive, community-oriented event such as a street party. Direct action can plant a public garden in an abandoned lot or defend it by paralyzing bulldozers; it can occupy empty buildings to house the homeless or shut down government offices. Whether you’re acting in secret with a trusted friend or in a mass action with thousands of people, the basic elements are the same.

[l3st1b0urn3s-707]

Hoid's now in Scadrial!! The vaporisation didn't go as Retribution had planned, apparently Hoid had a plan in case that happened, I guess that's what you have to do when you piss off most of the shards of Adonalsium. Anyway, I loved the references to the era 2 of mistborn, Ulaam's also there, which sounds very fun. Hoid did say that he won't be able to return to Roshar in a long time, because of Retribution, but also because Autonomy's planning weird things on Scadrial (and having read era 2 I know what he's talking about, that's so exciting!!). My favourite part, tho, was when Hoid admitted he, in fact, would care if Roshar got destroyed and that he loves the people there, contrary to what he told Dalinar in Words of radiance. Love the character development there.

[schizoidvision]

🔤 Schizoid Words: A Guide to Understanding 'Autonomy'

Definition:

Autonomy refers to the ability to make decisions independently and maintain control over one’s actions, thoughts, and emotions. It involves self-governance and freedom from external pressures or obligations. In psychological terms, autonomy is essential for personal development, identity, and emotional well-being.

The Schizoid Experience…

For individuals with schizoid dynamics, autonomy is not just important.... it is often central to how we navigate relationships and the world around us and can feel necessary for our survival. Emotional closeness, social obligations, or expectations from others can feel like a direct threat to our sense of control. Maintaining autonomy allows us to protect our internal world and avoid the overwhelming demands of emotional involvement.

Emotional Self-Sufficiency: We often prefer to meet our own emotional needs rather than rely on others.

Resistance to Social Expectations: Social norms and relationship expectations can feel intrusive or burdensome.

Discomfort with Emotional Dependency: The idea of depending on someone (or someone depending on us) can feel suffocating.

Boundary Setting: We naturally set firm boundaries to maintain our space and emotional balance.

Withdrawal to Preserve Independence: When autonomy feels threatened, we may withdraw from relationships or situations.

Selective Engagement: We engage with others on our own terms, prioritizing control over how and when we interact.

Understanding the role of autonomy in schizoid dynamics helps explain why emotional closeness and social interaction can be difficult. Respecting this need for independence is key to building trust and connection without overwhelming us.

Schizoid Education Videos: Schizoid Education Videos

[brotherwifesam]

we as a society don't talk about s9 wincest enough anymore

sam feeling "worthy" of deans love again after s8, him and dean getting back into a dynamic that they haven't had in years and feeling more at home in the bunker

then realising dean has violated his autonomy in a way he could never even imagine, how much time did he spend thinking about his lapses in memory, whether there were times him and dean were intimate that gadreel put him to sleep for, how many people his hands have killed

and he doesn't even get the space he needs to process this trauma because he gets sucked back into the overarching plotline and is guilt tripped by dean

[didosmind04]

How to overcome Executive Dysfunction

Inspired by @vanillaoldie on Tiktok

First of all, who does executive dysfunction affect?

Executive dysfunction primarily affects people with mental illness or people who experienced child abuse.

What is executive dysfunction?

According to Healthline, executive function describes the cognitive skills that allow you to do things like pay attention, stay on task, regulate emotions etc.

People with executive dysfunction have difficulty developing or using any of these skills leading to things like...

Chronic procrastination.

Finding it challenging to get started on tasks.

Having a hard time keeping your space clean and organised.

Finding it difficult to manage time or stick to a schedule.

Finding it challenging to navigate frustration or setbacks.

Having difficulty following directions that involve multiple steps.

Finding it challenging to control impulses and emotions.

Executive dysfunction refers to difficulties developing or using any of these abilities or behaviors (associated with organisation and regulation).

A strategy to overcome Executive Dysfunction is Intrinsic Motivation

When you are intrinsically motivated, you engage in an activity because you enjoy it and get personal satisfaction from doing it.

According to the Self-Determination theory- the 3 basic needs for you to feel intrinsically motivated are the feelings of:

Autonomy: "The feeling of being in charge of your goals and behaviour"; You feel like you can make your own independent decisions.

Competence: "The sufficient ability, judgement, strength or intellect to accomplish a task"; You feel good at your task.

Relatedness: "The sense of social belonging"; You feel like you belong in the place you are executing your task.

How to apply Intrinsic Motivation to reach your goals

We need to overcome the insecurities we have around our autonomy, competence and relatedness.

Example: The goal is to study.

Autonomy-

Instead of thinking about how you need to study in order to pass the class or to not fall behind your classmates think about why you want to study. Remember, it's your mind and your decision.

"I study because I WANT to. I want to learn because I find the subject interesting and you like acquiring knowledge."

Competence-

Instead of thinking about all the work and effort you'll need to put into learning the study material and therefore experiencing task paralysis as a result of feeling incompetent; think about what will happen after you finish studying. View the feeling of competence as the reward for completing the task.

"I'm now smarter as a consequence of studying. The next time I need to study I'll know I am very capable and good at it. "

Relatedness

Instead of dwelling on your student anxiety or imposter syndrome focus on why you belong there in your course.

"I have passed the same exam as everyone to enter the course. I am just as capable and gifted as everyone here. I belong here. My university accepted me for a reason."

Write out your own affirmations as related to the 3 needs of intrinsic motivation when you are experiencing executive dysfunction but want to achieve a goal.

I hope this is helpful and be kind to yourself <333

Dido

Sources:

Healthline

SpriggHR

[librarycards]

anxieties over kids on the internet always come down to anxieties about youth autonomy. always. it is never about ‘safety’. it is not about ‘protection.’ it is about control, and parents’/institutions’ realization that young people are forming connections outside the purview of adult surveillance.

[positivelyatheist]

Forest Creature: You’re a person who knows everything aren’t you?

Snufkin: Little one, if you worship someone too much, you’ll end up losing your freedom.

[dailyanarchistposts]

Turbulent times are upon us. Already, blockades, demonstrations, riots, and clashes are occuring regularly. It’s past time to be organizing for the upheavals that are on the way.

But getting organized doesn’t mean joining a pre-existing institution and taking orders. It shouldn’t mean forfeiting your agency and intelligence to become a cog in a machine. From an anarchist perspective, organizational structure should maximize both freedom and voluntary coordination at every level of scale, from the smallest group up to society as a whole.

You and your friends already constitute an affinity group, the essential building block of this model. An affinity group is a circle of friends who understand themselves as an autonomous political force. The idea is that people who already know and trust each other should work together to respond immediately, intelligently, and flexibly to emerging situations.

This leaderless format has proven effective for guerrilla activities of all kinds, as well as what the RAND Corporation calls “swarming” tactics in which many unpredictable autonomous groups overwhelm a centralized adversary. You should go to every demonstration in an affinity group, with a shared sense of your goals and capabilities. If you are in an affinity group that has experience taking action together, you will be much better prepared to deal with emergencies and make the most of unexpected opportunities.

This guide is adapted from an earlier version that appeared in our Recipes for Disaster: An Anarchist Cookbook.

Affinity Groups are Powerful

Relative to their small size, affinity groups can achieve a disproportionately powerful impact. In contrast to traditional top-down structures, they are free to adapt to any situation, they need not pass their decisions through a complicated process of ratification, and all the participants can act and react instantly without waiting for orders—yet with a clear idea of what to expect from one another. The mutual admiration and inspiration on which they are founded make them very difficult to demoralize. In stark contrast to capitalist, fascist, and socialist structures, they function without any need of hierarchy or coercion. Participating in an affinity group can be fulfilling and fun as well as effective.

Most important of all, affinity groups are motivated by shared desire and loyalty, rather than profit, duty, or any other compensation or abstraction. Small wonder whole squads of riot police have been held at bay by affinity groups armed with only the tear gas canisters shot at them.

The Affinity Group is a Flexible Model

Some affinity groups are formal and immersive: the participants live together, sharing everything in common. But an affinity group need not be a permanent arrangement. It can serve as a structure of convenience, assembled from the pool of interested and trusted people for the duration of a given project.

A particular team can act together over and over as an affinity group, but the members can also break up into smaller affinity groups, participate in other affinity groups, or act outside the affinity group structure. Freedom to associate and organize as each person sees fit is a fundamental anarchist principle; this promotes redundancy, so no one person or group is essential to the functioning of the whole, and different groups can reconfigure as needed.

Pick the Scale That’s Right for You

An affinity group can range from two to perhaps as many as fifteen individuals, depending on your goals. However, no group should be so numerous that an informal conversation about pressing matters is impossible. You can always split up into two or more groups if need be. In actions that require driving, the easiest system is often to have one affinity group to each vehicle.

Get to Know Each Other Intimately

Learn each other’s strengths and vulnerabilities and backgrounds, so you know what you can count on each other for. Discuss your analyses of each situation you are entering and what is worth accomplishing in it—identify where they match, where they are complentary, and where they differ, so you’ll be ready to make split-second decisions.

One way to develop political intimacy is to read and discuss texts together, but nothing beats on-the-ground experience. Start out slow so you don’t overextend. Once you’ve established a common language and healthy internal dynamics, you’re ready to identify the objectives you want to accomplish, prepare a plan, and go into action.

Decide Your Appropriate Level of Security

Affinity groups are resistant to infiltration because all members share history and intimacy with each other, and no one outside the group need be informed of their plans or activities.

Once assembled, an affinity group should establish a shared set of security practices and stick to them. In some cases, you can afford to be public and transparent about your activities. in other cases, whatever goes on within the group should never be spoken of outside it, even after all its activities are long completed. In some cases, no one except the participants in the group should know that it exists at all. You and your comrades can discuss and prepare for actions without acknowledging to outsiders that you constitute an affinity group. Remember, it is easier to pass from a high security protocol to a low one than vice versa.

Make Decisions Together

Affinity groups generally operate on via consensus decision-making: decisions are made collectively according to the needs and desires of every individual involved. Democratic voting, in which the majority get their way and the minority must hold their tongues, is anathema to affinity groups—for if a group is to function smoothly and hold together under stress, every individual involved must be satisfied. Before any action, the members of a group should establish together what their personal and collective goals are, what risks they are comfortable taking, and what their expectations of each other are. These matters determined, they can formulate a plan.

Since action situations are always unpredictable and plans rarely come off as anticipated, it may help to employ a dual approach to preparing. On the one hand, you can make plans for different scenarios: If A happens, we’ll inform each other by X means and switch to plan B; if X means of communication is impossible, we’ll reconvene at site Z at Q o’clock. On the other hand, you can put structures in place that will be useful even if what happens is unlike any of the scenarios you imagined. This could mean preparing resources (such as banners, medical supplies, or offensive equipment), dividing up internal roles (for example, scouting, communications, medic, media liaison), establishing communication systems (such as burner phones or coded phrases that can be shouted out to convey information securely), preparing general strategies (for keeping sight of one another in confusing environments, for example), charting emergency escape routes, or readying legal support in case anyone is arrested.

After an action, a shrewd affinity group will meet (if necessary, in a secure location without any electronics) to discuss what went well, what could have gone better, and what comes next.

Tact and Tactics

An affinity group answers to itself alone—this is one of its strengths. Affinity groups are not burdened by the procedural protocol of other organizations, the difficulties of reaching agreement with strangers, or the limitations of answering to a body not immediately involved in the action.

At the same time, just as the members of an affinity group strive for consensus with each other, each affinity group should strive for a similarly considerate relationship with other individuals and groups—or at least to complement others’ approaches, even if others do not recognize the value of this contribution. Ideally, most people should be glad of your affinity group’s participation or intervention in a situation, rather than resenting or fearing you. They should come to recognize the value of the affinity group model, and so to employ it themselves, after seeing it succeed and benefiting from that success.

Organize With Other Affinity Groups

An affinity group can work together with other affinity groups in what is sometimes called a cluster. The cluster formation enables a larger number of individuals to act with the same advantages a single affinity group has. If speed or security is called for, representatives of each group can meet ahead of time, rather than the entirety of all groups; if coordination is of the essence, the groups or representatives can arrange methods for communicating through the heat of the action. Over years of collaborating together, different affinity groups can come to know each other as well as they know themselves, becoming accordingly more comfortable and capable together.

When several clusters of affinity groups need to coordinate especially massive actions—before a big demonstration, for example—they can hold a spokescouncil meeting at which different affinity groups and clusters can inform one another (to whatever extent is wise) of their intentions. Spokescouncils rarely produce seamless unanimity, but they can apprise the participants of the various desires and perspectives that are at play. The independence and spontaneity that decentralization provides are usually our greatest advantages in combat with a better equipped adversary.

Bottomlining

For affinity groups and larger structures based on consensus and cooperation to function, it is essential that everyone involved be able to rely on each other to come through on commitments. When a plan is agreed upon, each individual in a group and each group in a cluster should choose one or more critical aspects of the preparation and execution of the plan and offer to bottomline them. Bottomlining the supplying of a resource or the completion of a project means guaranteeing that it will be accomplished somehow, no matter what. If you’re operating the legal hotline for your group during a demonstration, you owe it to them to make sure someone can handle it even if you get sick; if your group promises to provide the banners for an action, make sure they’re ready, even if that means staying up all night the night before because the rest of your affinity group couldn’t show up. Over time, you’ll learn how to handle crises and who you can count on in them—just as others will learn how much they can count on you.

Go Into Action

Stop wondering what’s going to happen, or why nothing’s happening. Get together with your friends and start deciding what will happen. Don’t go through life in passive spectator mode, waiting to be told what to do. Get in the habit of discussing what you want to see happen—and making those ideas reality.

Without a structure that encourages ideas to flow into action, without comrades with whom to brainstorm and barnstorm and build up momentum, you are likely to be paralyzed, cut off from much of your own potential; with them, your potential can be multiplied by ten, or ten thousand. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world,” Margaret Mead wrote: “it’s the only thing that ever has.” She was referring, whether she knew it or not, to affinity groups. If every individual in every action against the state and status quo participated as part of a tight-knit, dedicated affinity group, the revolution would be accomplished in a few short years.

An affinity group could be a sewing circle or a bicycle maintenance collective; it could come together for the purpose of providing a meal at an occupation or forcing a multinational corporation out of business through a carefully orchestrated program of sabotage. Affinity groups have planted and defended community gardens, built and occupied and burned down buildings, organized neighborhood childcare programs and wildcat strikes; individual affinity groups routinely initiate revolutions in the visual arts and popular music. Your favorite band was an affinity group. An affinity group invented the airplane. Another one maintains this website.

Let five people meet who are resolved to the lightning of action rather than the agony of survival—from that moment, despair ends and tactics begin.