#advice to a young leftist

[thebibliosphere]

Whenever I get a particularly nasty message, I always check to see if they're following me first. Nine times out of ten, they're not. But they're also, unfortunately, the same people who feel entitled to send me multiple messages in a row, most of them heavily steeped in the language of moralization and purity.

Like whenever I talk about painkillers or pain management, I always get a handful of well-meaning people who are maybe new to my blog or are just young, asking me if I've tried diet/exercise/meditation, etc.

Sometimes I'll respond to them. Other times I'll just ignore them because I get those kinds of messages so often it's like white noise, and maybe part of me hopes if they stick around on my blog, they'll learn it through exposure via my incessant bitching.

When you see me responding to someone offering that kind of advice, it's either because I'm at my fucking limit or because I'm hoping it's a teachable moment and an otherwise seemingly nice person might unlearn some harmful biases.

The people who don't follow me are not interested in any kind of conversation on the subject. They do, however, feel the most qualified to tell me, someone they didn't know existed until one of my posts crossed their dash, how to manage my life, everything I'm doing wrong, and why I'm a bad person.

And for them, my disability is proof that I am a bad person because they view health as a moral issue.

If you're sick, it's because you don't exercise enough, don't eat the right foods, don't pray enough, don't do enough. They genuinely believe that if they say and do all the right things, like a Good Person, they'll never get sick.

It's their security blanket against the harsh reality that anyone is one bad day away from disability. One faulty gene, one bad infection, one bad accident away from a life-long diagnosis. And if they do get sick, it's a test. A challenge to be overcome with Willpower as they learn the True Meaning of Life.

It can never just be a simple fact of life that sickness happens. That disability exists without a moral reason.

And it's suffocating.

Day in, day out. Folks who don't know me from fucking Eve telling me I'm being punished. Not always as outright as that. They don't always use that word. But sometimes I appreciate it when they do because at least then they're being honest. They're not couching it in the softer language of leftist circles. Not hiding it behind concern.

Because the truth is, there are just as many folks who think they're liberal and enlightened who'd be happy if disabled people just stopped existing. They don't like thinking about us because it makes them think about themselves. About their own fragility and mortality, and they hate that. They hate that there's something they can't control with their thoughts and actions. That they can't moralize their way out of.

Honestly, it's a relief when people are just cunts about it because I can hit the block button, safe in the knowledge that they were never the kind of person who would see me as a person. But when it's some 20yo kid with their pronouns, orientation, and "ACAB" in their profile spouting the same kind of moralization, sometimes even with the language of eugenics, it feels like such a betrayal. Like a loss.

And perhaps if I wasn't multiply disabled, I'd have the energy to pull them back. To tell them why they're wrong and hope like hell they realize what they're doing is harmful. But then, if I wasn't disabled, they wouldn't be messaging me, so I wouldn't be dealing with it.

I wouldn't be expected to use my existence as a teachable moment to spoon-feed them compassion. But I am, and I do. When I can. Not always with the grace that's warranted. Not always with the thought and compassion I ought to. (And I don't; I acknowledge that. I'm prone to anger and off-the-cuff remarks that are hurtful too. Though I try to keep most of it to myself or save it for therapy.)

Basically, if you've made it this far through the TED talk, don't be fucking cunts to disabled people. Don't tell chronically ill people to try yoga. Don't moralize pain relief. Suffering is not noble.

You need to kill the cop and the priest in your head telling you otherwise.

And also if you're the nice people sending me nice messages. Thank you. It helps cushion all of *gestures* this.

[cutecipher]

Advice to young activists: be very suspicious of any "leftists" who worked for imperialist militaries, especially if they won't divulge what they did, people will call you paranoid for this but if you want to harden your operations against infilitration it is a necessary step

[qqueenofhades]

https://www.tumblr.com/qqueenofhades/741612605875027968/as-someone-whose-country-went-through-a-brutal

I frankly think the problem is that people who post about the "worthlessness" of the vote are a combination of people who've lived with the privilege their entire lives and thus don't recognize its value, and of people who think that doing ANYTHING that is part of the establishment is inherently dirty and needs to be avoided to maintain their ideological purity. And mixed together with an unhealthy dose of capitalistic undertones of instant gratification that they've never truly reckoned with.

Because that's what this is really all about; keeping their own hands unsullied of what they see as a poisonous system, where the establishment is inherently bad no matter what good elements are still left trying to be fixed and improved, and they want the results immediately regardless of the consequences.

As it's been said before, as horrid and evil as the fascist right are, they did their due diligence for over 50 years, putting their zealots into various positions of power year after year, decade after decade. because they were willing to go through their own hell in order to ensure that the poison trees they were planting would bear fruit, even as they have their clowns and assholes to distract the rest of us. I have never seen that kind of single-minded long term thinking in a very large majority of online types.

I mean, last night I received an anon scolding me about how I was "driving away young leftists and liberals" by whatever I was saying on Tunglr dot hell (which has consisted almost in its entirety of forcefully telling them to vote, to not be antisemites, and that yelling at a cancer hospital wasn't going to magically awaken more people to the Rightness of your Cause and actually backfires on the cause you're claiming to help). And while the urge to do a forensic and deeply salty response was Strong, I reminded myself to do the smart thing and block it. Which I did, but also I'm still wondering how, if these precious snowflakes are indeed "driven away" by someone telling them to vote and not be antisemites, then yeah, we're doomed. It was also entirely likely that this was the usual version of "not a threat-threat" wherein if I don't stop telling people to vote on Tunglr dot hell, apparently this might cause the entire moral continuum of the universe to collapse and it will be my fault. Sorry if I haven't been always totally nice about it, but after eight years of dealing with this bullshit nonstop, my patience is now deeply limited.

Anyway, my point here is that if this is actually what we're dealing with, wherein they will blow right past the most basic of advice about how to actually do something and not just get short-term Moral Good Person Cookies out of it, coming from someone who actually agrees with what they want to do and the changes they want to see in the world, in order to focus on This Personally Made Me Feel Bad :(, then yeah. We're doomed. On the other hand, as scolding anons on Tunglr dot hell are again, hardly representative of the actual state of things, it likewise should be taken with a healthy grain of salt.

[golfylester]

re socially conscious phil post:

not specifically instances where he corrects dan, but he also commonly mentions aro/ace ppl when he discusses relationship advice, etc. from what i remember phil also uses they/them for ppl of unknown pronouns more commonly than dan (eg. during phan prix of bday stream) but this can very much be a lapse in my memory lol. imo phil definitely seems as if not more socially conscious (at least in their online depictions) than dan in the way that he thinks his words through more when touching on sensitive subjects and recognizes how even his phrasing can be impactful (which probably is part of the reason why he refrains from lingering on these issues as a whole) whereas dan often makes comments on a whim for humour.

(which is why they should have a podcast where they would have ample time to fully discuss such issues and their thoughts) (i am begging)

(also sorry if this was long, just wanted to lay out my thoughts 🥲)

Yes! Thank you! These are great examples. Yeah Phil isn't perfect either, but he often thinks about how his words might come across more than Dan. some people seem to believe that he doesn't have strong political opinions which I don't think is true. He's said that he doesn't feel like it's his place to speak on things that he's not an expert on and I think that's a pretty smart move. Sometimes Dan will talk about something he only has a surface level understanding of and end up saying things that are a bit insensitive. Like how he keeps saying that the world will be better when all the old people die. There are a lot of old people who are trans, queer, poor or leftist who are just as marginalized by the current system as young people. And a lot of young people are bigoted capitalists who are contributing to the destruction of the planet.

There was also that time when he accidentally retweeted a carrd that had links to a fundraiser for a militant Russian extremist group, thinking it was for Ukraine. He took it down after an hr and then didn't bother to post a better one when Phil did. I'm still a bit annoyed at him for that ngl. It wouldn't have taken him very long to verify his sources before posting.

I also don't like how he keeps equating "woman" to boobs and vagina and "man" to penis. It seems a bit inconsiderate of trans people.

Before any dannies coming running to my inbox to defend him, I'm aware that he doesn't do it maliciously and that he genuinely does care and tries his best. I also know that he talks a lot of shit just to be funny. That doesn't mean he's above criticism. Especially when he's making himself out to be an activist and advocate for the LGBTQ+ community. No one is saying he needs to be perfect. He just needs to think more about how his words might impact others.

[odinsblog]

Jimmy Dore, Glenn Greenwald, The Young TERFs, Briahna Joy Gray, Matt Taibbi and many many other prominent “leftists” have turned the corner and are straight up regurgitating right wing talking points—from antivaxxer & anti-masking bullshit, to pro-TERF bullshit, to thinly veiled antisemitism, to pro-Trump, to pro-Putin & anti-Ukrainian propaganda. Practically indistinguishable from Republicans.

By the way, without even getting into Putin’s time as a KGB agent and all of the political adversaries and journalists who he has jailed or had poisoned or assassinated, Putin has ALSO unleashed some extremely harsh anti-LGBTQ laws in Russia. It’s not funny and it’s not anything to be belittled and made light of.

SN: And before any tankies try to derail this by pointing out how homophobic America is, nobody is denying that fact. But if homophobia and transphobia is wrong when America does it, then it’s also wrong when Russian does it. Be consistent.

Honestly, I cannot take anyone seriously if they take a blathering clown like Jimmy Dore seriously. It’s no different than taking financial advice from someone who gets their financial advice from Grimace.

[coffeeman777]

hi pastor kreg! i have two questions.

can you explain the Isreali-Hamas war a bit? because the news and the media are so conflicting about everything. I know its not a black and white issue, and on the one hand, I agree with Isreal in the fact that they were the ones who gave up their land for the Palestinian people in the first place, and Hamas attacked first. I understand that the Isreali government feels like it has to push back harder than it ever has before, because it is such a small, young nation, and they KNOW that their persecution will not stop because the Bible (both old and new Testments) say so (not to mention that there are a slew of countries whose agenda is to destroy Isreal). but on the other hand, there is so much news about Isreal doing horrific things, like rumors of death camps and hurting civilians. and that Hamas, the terrorist organization, is not the same as Palestine, but Palestine has also *allowed* them to take over their country politically, economically, and socially. I just don't know what or who to believe, and what other gray areas I need to consider in my choices.

i keep getting asks to support Gazan refugees. like on the one hand, OF COURSE I support all of the civilians who have nothing to do with this! but by giving them support, whether financially or just by posting about it, I support ALL of their agenda to free Palestine, which I am pretty sure in don't agree with, but I'm not positive yet. so far ive just been not answering these asks but they're getting harder to ignore, especially when a lot of my mutuals do support Palestine. not in a ultra crazy way like most do, but they're just reposting some of the expose stuff.

im just having a hard time with answers (cause a lot of these people don't know what they are talking about) and wanted some sort of advice. thanks.

Heya!

So, I'm very much on Israel's side in this whole thing. To state it simply, Hamas has been attacking and killing innocent Israelis for decades. Their goal is the complete eradication of Israel. Hamas isn't interested in peace or a two state solution; they want Israel gone, wiped off the map.

Hamas terrorists are cowards. When they attack Israel, they run and hide behind women and children to prevent Israel from retaliating. They whine and cry to the leftist media about how horrible Israel is and generate ridiculous anti-Israel propaganda. So many times, desiring not to kill innocent civilians and being under the weight of intense pressure from the international community, Israel has backed off and let Hamas go. Hamas then regroups, stockpiles weapons, makes new plans, and attacks Israel again. This cycle has been going on for as long as I can remember.

On October 7th, Hamas invaded Israel and butchered a huge number of innocent Israelis, raped many Israeli women, took a bunch of hostages, and even shot and beheaded Israeli babies. This was by far the worst Hamas attack in recent history. Israel said enough is enough, we're taking Hamas out and rescuing our people who were kidnapped. Hamas has done the same thing they always do, but this time Israel isn't backing down. And they shouldn't. Israel has a right to exist in their own land and defend themselves.

Israel is doing everything they possibly can to save civilians in Gaza. All the stuff you hear about death camps and the like is completely false. If Israel wanted to kill everyone in Gaza, including civilians, they could easily do it. They could glass the whole Gaza strip if they wanted, kill every living thing there. But they haven't done that, and they won't. Israel has continually put their own people at risk to provide help to the Palestinian civilians. But they're committed to bringing Hamas down. They have to be.

It is heartbreaking that innocents have died in this conflict, but their blood is on Hamas, not Israel. Even after everything, Israel has offered numerous ceasefire agreements to Hamas, but Hamas has rejected them all. If Hamas would release the Israeli captives and surrender, the fight would be over tomorrow. But Hamas won't play ball. Israel has no choice.

I don't believe anything I hear in the news from leftist outlets. I don't believe the horrible things they're saying about Israel, because in my experience, it's always half truths spun to make Israel look bad, or else just outright lies about what's happening. The same sort of tactics the leftist media uses to discredit and attack conservatives here in America.

As for supporting refugees, if it can't be done without also supporting the anti-Israel propaganda, then I wouldn't do it. Seek the Lord about other ways you can help.

I hope this post is useful to you. My personal conviction is to stay on Israel's side and be a blessing to the Jewish people as much as possible. I think this is the correct position for all Christians to take.

Take care, be blessed!

EDIT:

I apologize, I forgot to make a correction. I'm not actually a pastor, just an ordained minister. The difference is that, while I have credentials to preach and teach, I'm not serving as the head of any congregation of Christians.

[butchbarbieagainstterfs]

https://www.tumblr.com/butchbarbieagainstterfs/739968701455073280/i-was-a-terf-when-i-was-16-17-im-almost-20-and?source=share

I'm the anon who sent the original ask! I appreciate that there are people backing me up against these radfems who deny the grooming allegations, but I thought I should give my own thoughts.

First of all, that radfem with the pineapple in her profile picture went mask off by using "queer" and "groomer" in the same sentence. Real classy equating homosexuality and trans identity to an ideology.

Secondly, both radfems seem to gloss over when I said "when I made stupid ass posts a 16 year old clearly wrote". Even if someone young and an adult agree on something on a basic level, adults typically are not interested in discussing politics with a teenager because teenagers have weird and uninformed takes about everything and if they do then it's not like they will understand the logically-sound and nuanced arguments an adult would present to them. There's no reason for an adult to deliberately seek minors and send propaganda to them other than to take advantage of the fact that they are young and naïve. Most leftist bloggers I see on here actively avoid engaging with minors because making a minor view you as a source of information and advice is inappropriate! You are not a teacher or their parent!

Like I said, radical feminist ideology believes that misogyny is the epitome of oppression so of course there will be radfems denying my experiences... they don't think women are capable of things they consider to be "male crimes" like grooming. And the fact that those radfems don't believe there's anything wrong with how these adult women were approaching me says a lot about them.

Thank you 🥰 something I’ve learned though is no matter how concisely you put something, the majority of terfs will either twist things or not want to hear it at all. It’s why I often avoid directly engaging them, especially for extended periods of time.

I do appreciate you sharing your experience and again, I’m so sorry that happened to you 💔

[fierceawakening]

So @ceanothusspinosis really likes to use replies not reblogs, even when they’re posting multiple paragraphs and even when they’re including links, which makes giving the whole context really rough when I’m on mobile. So my apologies for pulling this out like it’s everything they said but I only have so much patience for shit I can’t cut and paste.

But this is the core of the issue right here. The quote is saying that the number of people who pose an immediate risk is small, and suggests basically methods of deescalation plus some supervision to make sure the person has fully calmed.

That’s… not bad advice, if the issue is that someone is highly emotional and behaving irrationally as a result.

But there’s a lot of crime that is not that, and I think it’s a mistake to say those crimes or the people who commit crimes that are not that are “very small in number.”

Which is to me the heart of what’s going on. I think there are a lot of middle class (using the term very broadly) leftists for whom experiencing crime is very rare, the kind of thing that only comes up once or twice in their life, probably when the one family member they have with serious behavioral issues isn’t adequately supervised.

It’s very easy, if this is what you’re working from, to think that crime really isn’t much of a problem. You and your family can usually handle Cousin Jack, it’s just you thought Maude was watching him when she thought Vernon was. And anyway PRISON?! Would he even understand being there? He doesn’t hurt people, he just forgets things don’t belong to him sometimes.

This is an understandable thing to think! It’s a lot of people’s experience.

This is not the experience of a LOT of people, though. I’m going to talk about two different things in depth here and each may take a while

My major concern, as I e mentioned before, is powerful people who repeatedly harm or exploit others. I’m leery of the idea that such people will respond to “short term intensive supervision in the community,” or to “active therapeutic intervention.” I’m not a licensed mental health professional, just a case worker of various sorts over many years, but I shudder to think of the poor “therapeutic intervener” assigned to a Trump or a Nassar or a Weinstein.

So my strong suspicion is that people like this who have a vision of mutual aid and community support are compartmentalizing and don’t even see that they’re doing it. They have petty crimes in mind, perpetrated by young poor people, possibly with mild behavioral issues. Since there are good ways to solve those without prison, prison bad!

But you’ve put aside a whole massive category of crimes and of people who commit them, and aren’t realizing it because it’s not who you aim to protect.

There’s another group too though: people who aren’t powerful, but are recidivists. This can be anyone, but I have child abusers and rapists I. Mind specifically, because those are people whose crimes tend to hook into their belief system. Very often these are people who are taught that what they’re doing is right, or at least necessary. That people who say they’re being harsh or cruel are naive or silly or poisoned by liberal squishiness.

Which I don’t think is completely immune in all cases to “therapeutic intervention,” but once again I think we need a failsafe. What if the best damn social worker in the syndicate just can’t convince old Bob to put down his belt?

So again, I think the issue is likely one of compartmentalization. People aren’t sitting down and listing every bad action that falls under the category of crime, and thinking about how effective they expect health care providers in the community to reasonably be.

The existence of prison, as awful as it is, at least means society recognizes that there are some people it doesn’t know how to change.

[homokommari]

one of the cringiest leftist online discourse that was just a proof of misogyny and patriarchy living on in leftists spaces was the idea that "the left has failed men" and "young men flock to right wing spaces because the left doesnt offer good dating advice". and the source of these talking points is even more embarrassing, because it was leftists taking what some ex-incels and ex-rightwingers said as expert testimony, instead of taking it as a belief held by someone who's worldview used to consist of a lot of harmful untrue beliefs. why the fuck are you taking that shit as the truth instead of the clearly false belief they still hold onto after letting go of the more inflammatory ones like "women are lesser humans".

[asteroidtroglodyte]

Young Leftists!

Bit of advice from somebody who’s been at this for a while

The correct response to

You can’t make an omelette without cracking a few eggs!

Is

Buddy, you would not believe how many eggs you can crack and still have no omelettes.

[striving-artist]

Hi!! this is about the "we should still vote for Biden" post

Context: this is in good faith. I agree with the points you made in your addition and the post as a whole, I'm just looking to discuss it a little if that's okay. Another important bit of context— I keep up with news and politics and elections and everything, but next year's presidential election will be the first election I'll be old enough to vote in. So. Coming from a somewhat educated but also young and NOT an expert pov.

Anyways!! Now that that's out of the way.

I agree that the widespread determination not to vote for him again is harmful because if leftists and liberals aren't voting for Biden, conservatives are still going to vote for trump and get him back in office. I don't want that to happen. He is so much worse in so many ways and it especially scares me because he is very vocally transphobic. Voting Biden back in makes sense to me.

But the argument I've been seeing most is that if people vote for Democrats even when they actively assist with genocide, they'll learn that they can keep doing that without alienating their voter base, and they can do it without worrying about losing power. This also makes sense to me.

But I don't. I don't understand what else we can do. Not voting for him won't stop US aid to Israel. Wed just be trading Genocide Joe for Genocide Donald. It's not that I don't care about Palestinians— what's happening is horrible. What's happening Should Not Be Happening. But abstaining from voting to make a point to the democrats is just going to sentence us to four years under a guy who will do the exact same thing, probably worse, overseas, and commit atrocities against POC and immigrants and other minorities in the US too. It's not that I'm valuing American lives over Palestinian lives— its just that neither option will save Palestinian lives. Neither option will stop killing them.

I just don't know what we're supposed to do. I want to change things so bad but there just isn't a way to do that within the current system and in the meantime it's all just harm reduction.

Direct answers to what you asked about first before I go rambling into the bigger scope. Eternal Caveat: I am not an expert either.

Be loud. Be persistent.

Be present. Bring your friends.

Don't expect immediate results.

Here's a nice summary of things.

Contact your reps, do not lie about your residence, and don't give them an excuse to discard real constituents opinions bc you were spam calling from across the country. Contact their field offices, not just DC. Visit if you can.

Accept now that what you say today won't impact what happens today. It builds over time, and will impact months and years from now. The more persistent you are, the bigger and longer that impact will be.

Contact when you're mad, AND contact when you're thrilled. This is cross party. If you have a rep of the opposing party, and they do a thing you support, tell them. If you have a rep you voted for and they fuck up? Tell. Them.

Find advocacy groups. I love Run for Something. I love Leaders We Deserve. They can help amplify your voice. There are many. Find the one that fits you.

Lots more words under the cut.

I'll get into HOW to contact, but, I need to poke a hole in something you said. The election is a year out. There are some primary races, but incumbents rarely lose those. Bluntly? Most politicians don't think that their actions or stance about Gaza will impact elections. Americans have no long term memory for this. Shutdowns will have more impact. Taxes have more impact. A lot of young people will hold onto this, and we should make sure they hear us, but most americans aren't paying enough attention for it to matter to them in eleven months.

Sorry that's depressing af. Lets talk about best way to raise your voice so you can maximize your impact.

I'm sure you've heard all the advice about contacting reps before, Up and Down the Ballot, and I definitely know that it can be exhausting to keep going when it seems like nothing is changing. They don't hear the actual voicemails we leave, they don't read the actual emails or letters, that's their staff, but they and their Chief of Staff get counts at the end of every day with how many calls, and what people were calling about. Occasionally, staff will pass on excerpts or quotes to the elected guy, but its never a guarantee.

At the start of any major event, they get an initial ratio of calls that they translate as the people's gut reaction. Lets say they start out getting around a 50/50 split on a topic. Okay, that tells them to make their choice based on other factors, or to make their argument to their voters. But over time, that split changes, and the people that care more, that are more invested, will skew it. When it changes to 70/30 in favor, and they keep hearing that for weeks or months, that changes their math. It's telling them that the people who are more than flash-pan interested in the topic are strongly in favor. Might not have any impact this time, they may have already voted, but, it goes into their notes as a Thing That Matters to Voters.

So, great, you should contact them as much as possible. You knew that.

But, as you also know, Voicemail fills up. Emails spit back standard form responses. Even if you do reach a live human beings, they have to follow a script. Don't take that as them ignoring you. Sending custom responses to every single email is flat impossible over hot button issues. Staffers cannot randomly change their boss' stance bc you could be recording the call. Trust that they're keeping the tally, and keep calling.

I can get same day delivery from Amazon, I will not get same day change from politicians.

Also, the people who are sending mass faxes? Love that. Write physical letters too. Physical Thing Piling Up in the Office has more impact on a person than a number on a computer. Get your friends, order some pizza, write letters to every person that represents you. You'll get a form letter back. Accept that in advance. Your individual voice likely won't be heard. You are part of a larger crowd, all yelling the same thing. That shifts your rep, and as more reps shift, it puts pressure higher up the chain.

So, where does that leave us if we want them to literally hear Our Words? In person events.

Congress goes back to their districts pretty often, and (most) have public events. The closer to an election, the more they have. Show up. Politely, professionally, show up, and ask questions. Dress business casual if you can. Those events tend to be filled with older, more conservative constituents. Bring your friends, and choose who has the best speaking voice/prepared speech. Practice it, bring notecards. If any of you get handed the mic in a town hall, pass it over to that guy. (staff might be annoyed about this)

And look, I badly want to light things on fire until people listen. But I also know that doesn't help. Same reason we cannot scream or yell or threaten when we call/email/etc. If you start cursing at a staffer or a representative they are (often) allowed to hang up. They will dismiss you. It gets counted differently than if you said your piece in full.

It's a continuation of why protests that turn violent get dismissed so easily. "oh, they weren't there because they cared, they just wanted to steal/loot/burn." Screaming insults takes your message of 'constituent offended and angry about politicians actions' and turns it into 'shouty idiot we should ignore'

Again, it sucks that this is the case, but, to put it into scale with the internet: its the same as blocking someone. If you show up in my inbox with a real question, I am very here for it. If you show up and call me a 'libtard cunt' I just ignore it. Politicians do the same.

Older, but a nice overview on talking to politicians

Politicians want to stay in power. It is rare for someone to take actions in office that they know will see them lose their next election. Liz Cheney did it. Kinzinger did it. McCaskill did it. They're outliers. For most of them, they'll bend their morals to keep their seat. If the whole of their district is screaming for them to support A, even if they personally want B, they're gonna vote for A.

Now. ----------

Broader picture response. I'm sorry that this is your first election. My first was Obama in 08, and its been downhill ever since. But even then, I didn't like McCain's policies, but I respected him. That stayed true btw. You don't get to have that. You're starting with a rematch election that is simply exhausting to live through. My current consolation is that I don't think Biden will make it through four more years, so the VP will matter.

Some things to point out that, honestly, won't make you feel better, but might make things easier to swallow.

Joe Biden is not cackling in the White House and gleefully sending money with the hope that more Palestinian children get murdered. He just isn't. He isn't doing what we want, but that level of comic book evil isn't a thing in reality.

Calling him Genocide Joe is a product of the Trump era. It sounds like a trump insult. 'little marco' 'crooked hillary' 'lying ted cruz' You can hear it, right? It's tabloids and its trump. Don't do that. Don't reduce the opposition, or even your reluctant allies, down to a single trait. It is the start of dehumanizing someone, which becomes dehumanizing a group, which, you guessed it, leads to genocide like we are seeing in Gaza. It's how Trump started, its how he continued, and its how he is escalating.

Same reason you shouldn't say that Israel is doing this, or that Jews are doing this -- that flattens the group down to an action. Plenty of residents of Israel oppose this. Plenty of Jews oppose this. The people of Israel are not attacking Gaza, the Israeli government is. And even then, Bibi is not officially attacking Gaza, only Hamas. It's flagrant bullshit, but they're saying it as a veneer of acceptability.

You can simultaneously hate someone, and understand that they are a person with internal complexity and reasoning. You can hate the actions that a government is taking without assigning the guilt to whole nation.

Again, not to be bitchy or repetitive, but Bibi is taking the actions of Hamas, and laying the blame on all Gazans. Trump takes the actions of a few people and blames every immigrant. Don't do that. It's easy, its comforting, and its a trap.

Can't find a great source or article about how Trump changed political language so Dems use radicalized tone too, but this one is okay.

Next ------

America is not as strong as we pretend we are. It was already a waning power, and the Trump admin took a sledgehammer to it. It's improved with Biden, and a lot of the world is hoping we bounce back, but it's not the universal thing it once was. Lots of countries have nukes. Why would other countries listen to us when we legit look like our government might collapse at any moment? Maybe, maybe, fifty years ago, the US could have bullied in and demanded a stop to things. We can't now. Neither can Russia or China, actually.

We can bribe people, we can undermine countries and governments the way we did in South America, we can push and prod and beg, but we do not have the ability to throw weight around and immediately win.

Its scary and confusing for americans, bc we're raised on this idea that we can kick in any door and force a change. We can't. We shouldn't.

Far more likely than the US supporting Israel with this shit, is that we're telling them to stop and Israel is not listening. Since the remaining global authority of America is built on the idea that we have authority... I don't know, maybe its as simple as that. The US can't stop them, so we're pretending that we're allowing it and trying to fix it in the background. The Biden admin has done similar before. It usually works better than public demands.

It's horrifying because we live in the internet age, and we are watching videos of massacres that we wouldn't have seen fifty years ago. That doesn't mean we let it slide bc we might have before, just that if this feels like its worse? That's because we aren't as separated from it as before.

And, personally, my feelings on this are complex. I don't think America should be walking into other countries and doing whatever we want. We don't get to impose our preferences or our morals on other people. Top to bottom. I don't want american evangelicals showing up in Uganda and pushing to make homosexuality punishable by death (they did this). I don't want american soldiers pushing our agenda in impoverished nations. At the same time, I want someone to step in and stop genocides and land grab wars. I want someone to bring in medicine and aid, even if they have to bribe a corrupt official to get there. I want someone to just go fix it so we don't have child labor mining for cobalt and picking acai and farming quinoa and chocolate.

But if someone showed up in the states, marched soldiers into, lets say Texas, and imposed martial law so women had abortion access, that wouldn't be okay, even though I support the goal.

Geopolitics is complex. It will always be complex. If its overwhelming and you feel guilty, take a breath. That's true for everyone.

Additions ------

I do not believe in non-violent protest as a true solution. A protest is a tacit threat of violence. It is a group showing up to say 'hey, we outnumber you, and we're pissed' That said, participating in a protest is dangerous because it can become violent, and the crowd might outnumber, but the cops has more weapons, and they're trigger happy af.

No group is a monolith. Not even That Group. Treating them like one makes it easier for their leaders to manipulate them. You make them into a tighter group by lumping them together.

Gen Z gives me a lot of hope. Also a lot of fear. There is a ton of access to info that I couldn't easily reach at your age. Then again, the trend to making everything a 30 second snapshot is terrible. Propaganda spreads so so easily online, and our parents did not set you up with the tools you need to check it.

Last. The moral arc bends towards freedom. More rights, more safety, more health, more safety. That doesn't mean it is a linear path. But when I first voted, Gay Marriage was a pipe dream. When my mom first voted, women getting verbally harassed was exciting cause at least it wasn't physical anymore. When my grandma first voted, interracial marriage wasn't legal everywhere.

Things get better. Slowly, with blood under our nails and scars from the fights we lose, things get better.

You are already doing the right thing, you are already helping by paying attention. Keep watching, take breaks so you don't burn out, and get back in the fight when you can.

[magpiecrust]

What is Red Revenge?

Basically, it's a WW2 superhero story that actually goes into alternate history instead of pretending modern day would be unchanged from the real world after all these events and despite all these supernatural and superscientific elements.

I can't think of anything to compare it to. Über? The Specialists? There is also some inspiration from Inglourious Basterds. But Red Revenge is not as gory as Über or Basterds, the aforementioned inspiration i don't mean Tarantino's voyeuristic gore. Also nobody is as OP as Über's supersoldiers. Still, it's obviously very dark.

It's supposed to become a webcomic eventually. I've seen writing advice that tells you to make incorrect quotes, playlists, moodboards, etc. about your characters to get a hang of them, which is what i'm doing on this blog. I'm also still workign on the character designs. Researching armies, history, involved real people, and the weather so your alternste history that spans over a decade is realistic is a lot of work and takes a really long time (even withiut indecisiveness and procastination). While the unrealistic elements are the point of divergence, i want the events unfolding from their presence (and other interference) to be realistic and make sense. I need to do other stuff besides research every once in a while too.

Tom Handschin/Carmine Avenger is the main character, a young german antifascist whose adoptive father Hans Leonhardt is murdered by the nazis in 1940 when they're found in Paris. Tom becomes sort of a superhero, though he's propably more similiar to the pulp characters The Shadow and The Spider. Like them, he doesn't have any superpowers. He's also autistic and gay ace, like me. I might change his name to Red Avenger.

Like The Shadow, Tom has a bunch of other people working for him. The most developed ones, whom i've already mentioned on this blog, are Emese Nacht/Pine, Horst Dießl/Crow, and Arthur Tangemann/Star. They all have single-word codenames that are supposed to look like legit surnames.

Sascha Schwinghammer, Basti Brandt, and Karl Barbier are Hans' friends and compatriots who are alive (at least for the time being), Renate Brandt is Basti's wife and Hannah Barbier is Karl's wife (Hannah, Karl, and Sascha are secretly all together). Hans, Sascha, Basti, and Karl are all disabled WWI veterans, they met during WWI, remained in contact, and opposed the nazis together.

Detlev Herr is Tom's former friend from the orphanage and a current frenemy. The frenemy thing is because Detlev joined the communist party in the late 1920s and believed KPD's narrative that all non-KPD leftists are evil. And since Tom is an anti-USSR and anti-KPD socialist...

The other superheroes of Red Revenge, besides Tom, are the generically superhuman Louisa Kinge/The Catalyst, pretty low-level psychic dhampir Miyako Hasuike/Wisteria Woman, the hydrokinetic and potential nixie Tadpole, the vampire Noah Ashford/Grey Howler, and generically superhuman Orville Holm/Freedom Fighter.

The main villains of Red Revenge are, obviously, a group of nazi supervillains; their leader The Lightbearer, the robot soldier Living Inferno, speedster Falk Bernhardt Rot/Thunderlight, telekinetic Adele Siemon/The Maiden, and hydrokinetic maybe-nixie/human hybrid Romano Marchegiano, generically superhuman Byron Ashford, and sniper Jan Messer who i don't have codename ideas for yet. The Lightbearer's girlfriends Gretchen Wagner and Kreszentia Glasner might also get mentioned. I've already decided how and when all these people die, at least tentatively.

(Yes, Noah and Byron are related. There's a whole british upper class family drama with them)

(Tadpole and Marchegiano are not related. Neither are Miyako and Noah)

[mrsblackruby]

Yo potential random tumblarian taking ur time to read this Imma be real for a second. I had an epiphany I don’t really know anything about dating how do I learn more to hopefully do better so I don’t end up needlessly hurting people’s feelings. Like I need some actual healthy advice not that toxic shit.

Where can I learn Especially about polyamorous and queer relationships?

People’s experience with dating as a leftist? People’s experiences dating with mental illness? How to deal with colorists?

What should I do? I need to better understand, engage, and deal with the emotions/feelings the other party feels idk how. (This feels like something I should ask Reddit lol) I just need to be pointed in the right direction. I don’t want to hurt anyone but I’m not sure where I should even look to get some actual proper advice. I don’t think any of the romantic relationships I’ve grown up around Should be the only easy resource for me to be able to access and look up to learn about dating. And I need to find resources that aren’t trying to convert me into cishet, conservative, and a very European mentality around dating.

Stressed out. young adult realizing I don’t have my shit together like I thought I did? I’m just talking to a lot of people right now and I don’t know how to date any of them right.

*sad face emoji*

So yeah if u don’t mind dispersing any helpful advice and sharing it with me I think that’d be pretty chill of u to do dude.

[sandsunseagrapes]

need more blogs to follow

what it says in the title. if you post a lot of content in any one of the following tags (or in more than one! like a bingo) then throw this post a like and i’ll check ur blog out and possibly follow you ❤️❤️

star trek (specifically, tng, ds9, voy, or tos) [i love data, deanna, sisko !!, kira, jadzia dax specifically, o’brien, keiko, worf, jake sisko, nog, rom, quark, janeway, kim, chakotay, kirk, spock, bones, chekhov, uhura, scotty]

bridgerton (mostly interested in kathony, kate, & anthony but i’ll be happy w any content so long as it’s NOT toxic oh god im not interested in any ship wars)

writing (advice & prompts in particular)

leftist politics (centered on anti-capitalism, pro-labor, anti-racist/colonialist, pro-land back, pro-queer, pro-socialist, pro-bodily autonomy, pro people of the global majority)

i’ll add to this post if i think of more things i’m interested in following but for now that;s it

[EDIT: thanks to everyone who’s interacted w/this post i deem you all worthy *kisses your hand* except, and I should’ve clarified this earlier, I would like to ask for no minors please. nothing against y’all (i started here as a 14 yo) but just. i’m a teacher by profession and i can’t in good conscience interact w anyone young enough to be my student.]

[northern-punk-lad]

From a young leftist, how do people find protests to go to? I always look around for them but I only see them in the news after they've happened. It's fine if you don't really know, but I just thought to ask :-))

I might not be the best person to ask I live in a rural area protest’s ain’t as common here my advice would be just keep an ear to the ground look at local news and local left wing groups

[deparler]

Jesus christ. My mother was always right her advise for people to never ever drop their studies thinking they'll continue them later. When you're young u can still manage studies. there's these friends and acquaintances who are in their 30s at the moment and they keep saying how it's hard to manage (even if they're full time studying).

Managing work and studies on top of actual classes is insane I'm so exhausted and it doesn't stop there with internships in summer. I really really fucking get my mom's advice bc she didn't get an education past high school and regretted it all her life.

I will never get the chill attitude regarding studies of some people, and it's likely because their parents are highly educated. 8 think the attitude to complain about studying says it all to me about someone's upbringing or their attitude in life. I repeat it a thousand time but it's 101 in worker rights, a diploma protects your rights not to be over exploited so the diploma is everything, as much as companies try to tell u "experience" is everything. It's not. U can whore around and be beaten from one company to another no matter ur experience and it isn't going to be easy negociated for a raise without government recognized qualifications aka Diplomas. Jesus christ.

Ofc It would be privileged children that will think their special leftist take is to abolish school. Lol. You don't know the weight of a diploma do u 🫠🫠🫠🫠