#another person asked me what protest rally was

[mynameisbillandimaheadcase]

...

[inkskinned]

there's a video on instagram of a man kicking his partner's door in. the top comment is (with over 4 thousand likes): "how about you tell us what you did to make him that angry?"

barring emergency, nobody should be kicking anybody's door in. many of us lived in houses where it was always, somehow, an emergency. there is a strange, almost hysterical calm that comes over you in that moment - everything feels muted, and you almost feel, however incongruently, like you should be laughing. you are living inside of "the emergency." oh my god, you think. i am now a fucking statistic.

there is another comment with 2.8 thousand likes: "if this was a woman doing it to a man, nobody would give a shit."

do people give a shit now, though?

barring emergency, the door should remain standing. the emergency should be panicked, desperate - "i'm coming in there to protect you." many of us know what it feels like when the emergency is instead "i'm coming in there to get you."

1.5k likes: "and yet you post this for notes. glad to see being the victim has become your whole personality."

hysteria is a word connected to womb, from greek. what you're experiencing is so senseless and inhumane that you (a rational creature) try to find any ground within what is irrational and cannot be explained. one of the most frustrating things about staying in bad situations is that we also lie to ourselves. we also ask ourselves - wow. what did i do?

women can be, and often are, also abusers. abuse is not gendered. abuse is not just a "straight person" problem. abuse does not have a face or figure or sexuality. you cannot pick an abuser out of a crowd. an abuser could be actually anybody.

and then so many people rally behind the man kicking the door in. here is something nobody should be doing, right? you want to ask every person that liked that first comment: do you ask this because you side with him? do you ask this because it helps you feel safe from this ever happening?

in some ways, you're weirdly sympathetic to the top comment, because it is the same logic you see frequently. the idea is that the average, normal, sane person doesn't just break down a door. doesn't just shoot up a school. doesn't stalk and kill women. doesn't threaten sexual assault. doesn't run over protesters. doesn't shoot an unarmed black person. doesn't scream at underpaid walmart employees. doesn't just "lose it". something had to have happened, right? because the default (white. straight. cis.) - that is someone who is always, you know. "sane."

(right?)

on a podcast, you hear a sane, normal, rational person. "if you piss me off, i'm going to need to hit something. sorry but i'm not apologizing. that's just who i am that's how it is." his voice almost sounds like he's laughing.

you think of the door, and how you were almost laughing behind it, too. ironically, every real emergency in your life has almost felt peaceful in comparison. fire, car accident, flash flooding - these felt quiet, covenant to you. you'd stood in all of them, feeling them pass over and up to your chin, never actually overwhelming.

but when the door was coming down, you had felt - is there a word for that? there has to be, a word, right.

surely one of us has figured out the word for that, i mean. it's such a large fucking statistic.

[swolesome]

What if I told you that the antidote to Islamophobia isn't Antisemitism?

CW for this post (you have seen the title.) I feel like this shouldn't need explaining, but merciful Brigid, some of the shit I have seen. It's time for Led Tasso to come out. I'm not Jewish, let's just get that out of the way first, but my position on Palestine is largely informed by Jewish people who have been protesting for decades about the horrific treatment of Palestinians being done by a settler colonial state appropriating their religion, culture, language, and trauma. Fascist governments weaponizing fear and hiding behind religion is a well known tactic, and the fact that so many people have put this readily available information from their minds, specifically in this conversation, speaks to how incredibly pernicious antisemitism really is. I'm treading lightly here because as someone who's not Jewish, it really isn't my place to explain the cultural complexities, trauma, or general experiences of Jewish people. But if you haven't seen those discussions crossing your feed, you should be looking inward and asking why. Because if you're not invested in Jewish voices right now (or in general), that's a red flag for the kind of rhetoric you've internalized and the struggles you take seriously. The position I can speak from, however, is one of being committed to challenging all forms of systemic violence and oppression. So from that stance, and I cannot stress this enough: If you are fighting for some at cost to others, you are reinforcing oppression. It is wild to me that "Nazi" has come to mean "The worst thing a person can be" without recognition of the fact that the ideology is inherently antisemitic, that this is its centrepiece, that Jews are the number one target. This separation is, once again, an example of how insidious this brand of hatred really is--blatant erasure of the way Jewish people are uniquely targeted. I know a lot of trans people follow me, so here's a fun fact: You know the "Doctors are transing our kids to damage fertility rates!" conspiracy? You can thank antisemitism for that, too! It's literally just a rebrand of the Great Replacement conspiracy, which is modernized "protection of Aryan bloodlines." The most recent chapter of "My Life as A Bigot" by Joanne Klan Rowling isn't just another gleeful display of her hatred of trans people, it's another addition to the laundry list of antisemitic beliefs and talking points she's been peddling for years. The Charlottesville "unite the right" Nazi rally was spurred on by the removal of confederate statues and anti-Black racism. What is it they were chanting, again? Anyone remember? Any of this ringing a bell? OH RIGHT. "Jews will not replace us." So many other forms of systemic violence are steeped in the poisonous rhetoric of antisemitism. Acting like this isn't the case damns our Jewish siblings who need us while weakening our understanding of the oppressive forces we're fighting. "One struggle" includes all of us. The fact that the Likud government uses accusations of antisemitism as a cover for their violence should make you more diligent about condemning antisemitism, not less. Because letting them weaponize something that is already so widespread and destructive makes it that much harder to dismantle.

Do not stop talking about Palestine. Do not stop speaking up against the horrors of settler colonial violence. But if you can't do this without throwing another group of oppressed people under the bus, you need to question where you learned your resistance tactics, because the company you're keeping there should disgust and terrify you.

[matan4il]

After weeks of watching the violent protests for Hamas. The defacing of monuments. Calling for genocide. Actually physically attacking Jewish people and their supporters. The outright ugliness of it all because antizionism is just antisemitism folks..

It was refreshing to see the March for Israel today in Washington. Completely peaceful, no destruction. No calls for violence against anyone!!!! I felt like, for a moment, everyone could see what the true majority in America think. America really is pro Israel, and I'm proud of that fact.

Hope you're doing well. Are the reactions to your treatments getting better? Is there any way any of us can help you and your family?

Hi love!

Absolutely this. I've been watching vids from both pro-Israel and anti-Israel demonstrations for over a month now, and the difference is very clear. I haven't seen a single pro-Israel rally where there was violence or calls for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, no "Gas the Palestinians" calls, no stomping on Palestinian flags... In fact, I've heard more than one person mentioning their pain for innocent Palestinians who have also been victimized by Hamas.

I'm also gonna make it clear that those are anti-Israel, not pro-Palestinian, protests... Because those people weren't demonstrating when Palestinians were being killed by Assad. They weren't demonstrating when Palestinians were being victimized and even killed by Hamas, and the Palestinian Authority. They weren't demonstrating for Palestinians to be treated equally, and be given full rights, freedom and dignity in places like Jordan and Lebanon. If these people only take to the streets when they can blame Israel, and when they use these rallies to attack Jews, they're not pro-Palestinian. They're anti-Israel and antisemitic.

Meanwhile, Gazans themselves ask for something completely different from westerners:

And absolutely, I believe that yesterday, they also published a survey that showed that the majority of Americans stand by Israel? One Nonnie mentioned to me there's a certain difference among younger Americans. Another sent me an article that supported this:

According to a recent Harvard CAPS Harris poll, 51% of young adults can “justify” the massacres perpetrated by Hamas, in part because their main exposure to Israel since October 7 came from TikTok videos.

This is at least in part because of social media selling a simplistic narrative, but in part also because of American universities pushing it. That's been happening to a great degree because of Qatari funding of these universities. Qatar's been responsible for this, when that state is one of the greatest human rights violators, and when it has a record of antisemitic attitudes. Hopefully, now that this funding has come to light, these institutes will stop throwing their Jewish students and moral stance under the bus in favor of Qatar's money.

Thank you for asking! *hugs* I'm still having a reaction, but it's not as bad, and I'm trying to take a lot of naps to help ride out the worst of it. And thank you also for offering help! Honestly, I don't wanna ask for anything for myself or my family. If you can donate to the Israeli Red Magen David (the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross), that would be amazing, but ONLY if you can. I don't want anyone to feel obligated, but I know that they and other rescue and different aid organizations in Israel have been working non stop, and could use any help. Thank you again! Sending ALL the love.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[yjhariani]

I just want to share a little bit of my thought and I hope that my wording is not harming anyone in any way because that is not my intention. I am speaking as a Muslim-Indonesian, but that doesn't mean I represent all Muslim-Indonesian. I am speaking about what I am seeing and experiencing in Indonesia. I am one person amongst millions.

Someone asked me if I speak up for Palestine simply because I was an Arabic major and it pissed me off a little because what happens in Palestine right now should have been public knowledge by now and if you're not caught up, I'm just going to assume you live under a rock or you don't have Muslim friends (which is impossible if you're living in Indonesia).

Indonesians always have a very special bond with Palestinians. Even on a national level, Indonesia as a country always have a very special bond with Palestine.

Every time we learn about our declaration of independence in 1945, the first thing taught about the follow-up of it is that Palestine is the first country to acknowledge and admit Indonesian independence. Not only that, Indonesian citizen being majority Muslim is also another factor why we have that bond.

Our government is always supporting Palestine and Palestinians. Even they go as far as sacrificing our country not being the home of a very big international football event because we don't want Israelis who participate in that event stepping into our land. Mind you, that is a very big sacrifice seeing that a lot of Indonesians are football fans and the football scene in Indonesia has been rough the last few years, even a lot of people showed their disappointment of that decision.

Indonesia is probably one of the countries where it's safe to support Palestine and not safe for you to do otherwise. We don't ever do protest regarding anything that happens in Palestine. We do marches and call it Aksi Bela Palestina (Support Rally for Palestine). We don't call it a protest because the government has been and always be supporting Palestine, which is exactly what we want.

The only time I have to worry when I speak up about Palestine is when I go to social media for example here because I know that most of the people reading this post (if any) probably won't be Muslims, Indonesians, or Muslim-Indonesians.

However, despite all that, we still have a lot of things we should do better at as mentioned in this post (I added a little bit of what I had in mind regarding this issue). A lot of Indonesians still could not differentiate between Jews and Zionist government. A lot of Indonesians still generalised Israel as a whole as Jewish and that led to antisemitism discussed in said post.

Just recently, I saw videos of Indonesian promoting the boycott of "Jewish products" which is very, very wrong because they're not Jewish products, they're products whose developers support the Israeli government. A lot of Indonesian see the support towards Jewish people as supporting the Israeli government.

A lot of Indonesians, despite all of our identities are around unity in diversity, still aren't as united in diversity as it seems. There is a lack of Non-Muslim Indonesian support regarding Palestine because in the past, we always say that this is a religious war. That's why usually only Muslim Indonesians are showing their support for Palestine. Even then, some don't speak up because they thought it was too political.

As a Muslim Indonesian who grew up with an extended family of Non-Muslim Chinese-Indonesian, I witness not only the hesitation from one end to support Palestine or Middle Eastern in general and the hesitation from the other end to support Non-Muslim Indonesian, especially Chinese-Indonesian for very different reasons. It always breaks my heart to witness both and being in the middle of it.

I sense that Non-Muslim Indonesians hardly ever speak up about Palestine because they thought they aren't allowed to or can't say anything about it because it's a Muslim thing. Which is bullshit, by the way, because it's a humanitarian crisis and they shouldn't hesitate to speak up about it or even feel worried that someone is going to call them out if they speak up.

It's gonna sound silly, but Muslim supremacy is a thing here. At least I call it that because that's what it feels like to me.

However, lately I started seeing little by little the support of Non-Muslim Indonesians on Palestine. Even though they mostly only post watermelon emojis on Instagram, but at least that means they start learning about Palestine and started asking question. We recently finally use the name Jesus Christ in our national calendar instead of the Islamic equivalence that is Isa Al Masih and I don't see the harsh resistance from Muslim Indonesians that usually happened if the government is supporting other religions that are not Islam.

I hope these changes don't stop there.

Today, Indonesians are marching in support of Palestine. If you're around and are able to, come. If you still see it as a radical, extremist movement, ask questions or read some books. This rally is not the same as 212.

This is not for any religion. This is for Palestine. This is for humanity.

Free Palestine 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸

[alex51324]

So what does this mean for the election?

If you're now wondering how Trump's felony conviction--all 34 counts!--will affect the Presidential election, I recommend this article from Vox, and this one from 538.

They both basically say that, based on polling data, Trump might see a small drop in support: most people who are capable of being driven away from Trump already have been, but there are some who were saying in polls in the last few weeks that if he were convicted, they'd re-think their support for him. One of the polls discussed by 538 found 16% of Trump supporters said they'd "Reconsider" their support, and 4% said they would no longer support him. Another poll had 11% of Trump supporters saying a conviction would make them "less likely" to vote for him.

Both articles go on to explain that what people say in a poll about what they'd do in a hypothetical situation doesn't necessarily match up with what they actually do when that situation arises. The people they asked may have felt embarrassed to say out loud that they were planning to vote for a convicted felon, but Trump has about 5 months to create a narrative where they can feel like that is a normal and OK thing to do.

Bottom line, they say, crazy as it seems, the conviction definitely doesn't take Trump out of the running, but it could end up being a factor in a close election.

Personally--and, to be clear, this is just me speculating--I am going to be very interested in whether any more-or-less spontaneous pro-Trump protests arise over the next 24 hours or so. Like, obviously Trump is going to have rallies and shit where he tries to whip his groupies into a frenzy about this, but do actually care enough, at this point, to organize anything on their own?

[eretzyisrael]

by Ben Kawaller

I went to my first Free Palestine protest this month. I’ll start with the good news: at no point did I, a poster child for the Ashkenazim, feel unsafe. Sure, one of the speakers, Frank Cardenas of the Peace and Freedom Party, drew cheers and applause with the line, “Do I condemn Hamas? Hell no!” But he also assured the crowd that the current conflict was not about Jews versus Arabs, but about colonizers versus the colonized. Not having colonized anyone lately, I managed not to take it personally. 

A co-production of the Los Angeles Movement for Advancing Socialism, the East L.A. Brown Bears, the L.A. County Peace and Freedom Party, and an organization called Centro CSO, the demonstration on November 4 attracted maybe two or three hundred participants and began with a series of mostly Latino speakers at Boyle Heights’ Mariachi Plaza. It then migrated across the L.A. River to the steps of City Hall, where there was more shouting into megaphones about the need for both a cease-fire and the destruction of Israel. 

There was also a call for an alliance between Palestinians and Chicanos, who “face harassment, violence, and murder by the occupying forces of LAPD. . . and other police departments.” Lost in the fervor, of course, was the detail that the “occupying force” in Gaza is not Israel, but a gang of Islamists who would have happily slaughtered every merry Christian at this gathering. (The situation in the West Bank, I maintain, is another story, and it sure would be nice if we could say with a straight face that Israel’s current government has pursued nothing but peaceful coexistence with its Palestinian neighbors.)

Decolonization was the word of the day, and there was much talk of a “one-state solution” that would turn over all of Israel to the Palestinian people. I asked some folks what this would mean for the Jews of Israel, and responses ranged from the evasive (“I don’t think it’s for me to guess”) to the delusional (“Before Israel became a nation, everybody lived peacefully side by side”) to the blithely genocidal (“The Jewish people in Israel [will] always have to look over their shoulders because. . . the hatred that Palestinians have for them is justified.”).

Look, no one said decolonization would be easy, but what’s the alternative, trying to live in peace? 

Peace, it would seem, is for suckers. What’s hot right now is “liberation.” What’s really righteous is to promulgate a fundamental loathing of anyone belonging to the “oppressor” class. 

It’s a mindset attractive even to the upwardly mobile. I spoke, for instance, to a CalTech engineering student who confidently asserted that a “global intifada”—by which he meant the overthrow of capitalism—“is a desire shared by all working people across the world.” What would that look like? “It’s gonna look bloody,” he shrugged, as if describing a traffic jam.  

The sixties this is not. Remember “make love not war”? That ethos is evidently far less appealing than the chance to cosplay as a revolutionary and give voice to bloodlust.

I would like to think that those ostensibly standing for “peace and freedom” are capable of rejecting the allure of such bitterness and rage. And there are doubtless people—there must be—organizing for Palestinian dignity who aren’t playing in that sandbox. 

But I didn’t meet any of them that Saturday.

[johnnyrobish]

Trump Now Hawking $47 T-Shirts With a Fake, Photoshopped Mug Shot of Himself

It seems Donald Trump and his merry band of grifters have been working overtime, tirelessly trying to cash in on the former President’s indictment.  First, by having sycophants like Lindsey Graham and Rudy Giuliani hit the airwaves and beg MAGA followers to “Please send Donald Trump money!”  Now, after his arrest on 34 felony counts, the Trump money machine is now offering “Not Guilty T-Shirts” to those who make a $47 donation or more.  The tees sport an idyllic photoshopped mugshot pic of the former President.  Meanwhile, MAGA luminaries such as George Santos and Marjorie Taylor Greene showed up at the Manhattan Supreme Court to protest Trump’s arraignment, with Greene comparing Trump to Nelson Mandela and Jesus.

Soooo, it sounds like yet another grift is up and running.  Soon, we’ll have MAGA half-wits sending in all their beer, cigarette, and lotto money to this “billionaire.”  My, my, its Christmas in April.  Now, as far as the Jesus comparison goes, I don’t seem to recall Jesus ever telling his Disciples, “Now, go out and rough up protesters” and that He would “pay all their legal fees,” but what’ll I know?  I mean, where’s it read, “I bid thee, go forth and fuck up those damn Scribes and Pharisees.”  And, who knew that “The Passion of Christ” was all about nailing pornstars?  

The funny thing is, the folks showing up for these Trump rallies are some of the same folks who are really pissed about kids getting “participation trophies,” and yet they continue worshipping a dude who finished “second” in a friggin’ two-person political race.  Hell, I even read they’re claiming Trump is 6’5.”  Oh, hell yes!  Sure he is - if he’s standing on a pile of his indictments or on top of one of those boxes of classified documents he’s been hiding.

You know, Trump supporters love to claim he’s has accomplished more than any other President, and I have to admit they may be right.  After all, 34 felonies is one helluva lot of accomplishments, and it sure looks like there’ll be even more of these “accomplishments” coming down the pipe soon.  Why this has poor Fox News hosts popping Xanax like breath mints.  In all fairness, Trump did work hard to deregulate big corporations whilw he was president.  You know, like railroads and banking.  How’d that turn out?  Perhaps we should ask residents of East Palestine, Ohio, or investors in Silicon Valley Bank for that answer.

If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve just read, please consider joining me at:

[hjellacott]

Dear TRAs,

I know to say I hate trans people, to say I want them gone or dead, or that I harass them or bully them is what you need to tell yourself to feell better and justify your hatred. You need to fit your own narrative. But for the sake of sincerity, you're wrong.

I've always been in the LGBT community. Even before I considered myself part of it, I grew up in the world of the arts, surrounded by gays and trans people. The amount of cis, straight friends I have are actually a minority compared. I have butch female friends, genderfluid, nonbinary, and a few trans, some of which are physically transitioning. I've spent years seeing the fight between TRAs and feminist burst, seeing the social divide, living everything from within the LGBT community and yes, sometimes arguing with my friends due to different views. But I have never, ever in my life, rejected the chance to participate in some act pro LGBT (marches, protests, rallies, political elections), never stopped campaigning for the LGBT collective, and never, ever, had an ugly word towards anyone for being gay or trans. My friends have always known they could call me and tell me they were transitioning or something, and I'd never do anything but support them. So when six months ago when of my oldest friends, that I'd always thought of as a gay man who liked to crossdress on Halloween, told me he was a she and her new name and everything, the first thing I did, after showing her my full support over the phone, was say "tell me when we can have a drink together".

We live in different countries, but we managed. And when we sat together, I asked her, "did you always know?" She did. She spoke of how she'd been so afraid of saying she was a girl from the age of toddler, and once her brother came out as gay, she decided that if she did as well, while living as a boy, it'd be "almost" right. But now she's in her late 20s, and she wants to live her truth. So I told her, sincerely, that anything she needed, I'd be there. And that if she chose surgery, she should call me up to let me know so I could bring her chocolates and things while she recovered.

I don't worry about her transitioning because I know this is what she's always wanted, for more than twenty years. I know it's not something she saw in school or the internet, a trend, or something she's entering without lots of therapy and support from her loved-ones.

But I'll tell you a different case.

About a year ago, another old friend of mine told me he was a woman. Contrary to the previous case, that I'd sort of kind of been expecting because of the nature and personality of my previously-thought-as gay friend, this time I was properly shocked. You see, my friend is deeply autistic. He doesn't have many friends, he doesn't have too much independence, and he spends far too much time in the Internet, he practically lives in social media and video-games. None of this is very surprising if you know enough autistic people, many are like that. But I'd always known him to be a guy, he had no gay behaviour either, he'd never mentioned anything about wanting to be like a girl, and his parents and siblings were also quite shocked, because the guy is in his early thirties and very close to his family and they thought they would've seen "some" sign at least.

When my friend told me this, I was at the height of studying trans stuff. Partially because I had friends transitioning and I wanted to know what to expect and how to support them, but also because I'm a feminist and wanted to make sure my rights weren't ripped apart, to understand the politics about it all, and because I've been a psychology student for a while and my studies include these things. So I began to try to find a logical explanation as to why this had come out of the blue with my autistic friend. And I saw a pattern between my friend and many detransitioners I'd already spoken with.

Like many detransitioners, my autistic friend had never liked his looks, was immersed in the internet with not much life outside of it, was insecure, and wasn't very successful romantically nor sexually. He never had romantic success with the girls, was what is now referred to as incel (involuntarily celibate), wasn't good-looking like his brother, felt insecure in his body and insecure in his social skills. He hid online where nobody would see his real face and he drew comics. I'm not saying this is how every detransitioner believed they were trans, but I did find quite the pattern, enough to say that many detransitioners admit to have felt these things when they got into transitioning. The idea was that if they didn't like their body, due to the online and social propaganda at the moment, it must be that they were in the wrong body. In the wrong sex. And they fell into the discourse of "once you transition, everything will be OK, you'll be beautiful, you'll feel great".

This fit my friend greatly, and I knew that precisely, he'd surrounded himself with that type of speech and discourse in social media, suddenly immersed in the trans community due to I don't know what cartoon series he was watching that he said was very LGBT (perhaps one of you knows? can't remember). He'd been in a vulnerable state, he'd found a community, and he'd sought to belong to it, and also, to feel better about his body.

But nowadays, things have changed. Fortunately, he came to before he began any transition and accepted it as an odd phase. He had stopped talking with me for a bit because he didn't like that I was concerned about him and not so enthusiastic about the whole idea, and then he returned to me, explaining to me what had happened with his online community of trans friends and confessing he didn't like himself, but not because he was a boy. He felt fat. He felt ugly. So now he's dieting, catching some sunlight (was awfully pale from being indoors so much), and going to the gym. His symptoms, I am happy to report, have greatly improved. He's now the happiest, smileyest, I've ever known him.

This is the worrying difference. Surely there are plenty of people who are truly trans. It's unfortunate, because in an ideal world everyone would be born in a body they come to love (after the phases of acne and all that). But there is also a growing trend, as any quick research will show you, of many people, specially young, insecure teenagers, incel men, and people with a variety of mental health conditions, transitioning, sometimes even entire groups of friends in schools. Subsequent studies have shown that this is happening, quite often, not because there are that many people who actually are transgender, but because some people are simply male predators seeking the easy route to get close to women (they don't actually transition more than socially, and dress like a woman, and some arrests have already been made for men like this who've attacked trans women and cis women in lockers and things like that), and others are simply people with mental health problems and a huge insatisfaction with their bodies. An insatisfaction normally linked to weight and beauty, that once they transition doesn't go away (which then causes some to become detransitioners, but not all detransitioners do it for this reason and in fact there are dozens of reasons given to detransition).

What is becoming clearer and clearer, is that there's an epidemic of mental health problems. Therapists and psychologists have never been so overwhelmed, and it's not a coincidence that at the same time, there have never been so many people seeking to transition, nor so many people seeking to detransition.

And if we let politics get in the way of scientific investigations and psychological research, stop psychologists from doing their job, and force them to say only the nice part of the story, then what we're going to have, what we're having, is laws that enable CHILDREN to have transitioning surgery without having gone to a single therapy appointment. I've even heard about detrans people who said they did provide "informed" consent to transition, but that it was angled to make them believe they were trans, and that they didn't feel they were given objective, scientific information, nor told the whole truth, truth they were only discovering as they detransitioned. Many add that they didn't even known that the surgeries could cause chronic pain in their intimate areas, and that their new penis/vagina/breasts wouldn't feel so great nor be necessarily fully functional.

I don't campaign against trans people having the treatments they need. I do campaign against laws making it possible for people, trans or not, and specially for children, to have life-changing surgeries with none or poor objective, scientific information beforehand. I campaign against brainwashing. I campaign against people listening to someone who isn't happy about their bodies and simply jumping to the conclusion that they're trans. I campaign against men who want to fool people and pretend to be trans in order to hurt trans women and cis women. I campaign against the erasure of scientific biology and biological sex, of the term women, and of women-only spaces. I campaign against the erasure of therapy and psychology from transitioning processes, to recognise who actually is trans and who is just going through a bad mental health phase and will regret a transition.

And you might ask, well, why the fuck do you care? Because I'm in the field of psychology, I'm in politics, this is my world, my country's laws, my society, as much as anyone else's, and I care about how it goes. I care about my friends not suffering indescribable agony due to a mental health crisis that leads them in the wrong direction. I care about my children, the children in my family, and the children in the world, suddenly becoming all trans in entire groups of friends of one class, and then regretting it and then what? what the fuck do they do? All I ask is, ENFORCE THERAPY. Make it like, the coolest trend. Let's all go to therapy before making life-changing decisions, let's not demonise therapists. And if they say what we don't want to hear, let's at least meditate it. Therapists aren't there to tell you want you want to hear. They're there to take care of you. Or would you like an oncologist to say you don't have cancer just to avoid ruining your day?

Stop demonising cricitism. Listen to others. Listen to opposing ideas. And stop this cancel culture nonsense.

[darkmaga-retard]

Back in March, Mercator predicted that IVF would become a major issue in the 2024 American election. Guess what? We were right. Five months later, a headline in Politico reads: “Democrats test a battleground theory: IVF fears can win against a ‘pro-choice’ Republican.”

Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s running mate, has already placed IVF front and center of his campaign rhetoric. He and his wife Gwen spent seven years with IVF treatments before their daughter was born.

“This gets personal for me and my family,” Walz told a rally in Philadelphia. “When my wife and I decided to have children we spent years going through infertility treatments. And I remember praying every night for a call for good news. The pit in my stomach when the phone rang, and the agony when we heard that the treatments hadn’t worked. So this wasn’t by chance that when we welcomed my daughter into the world, we named her Hope.”

(Late flash: “Thank God for IVF,” Walz told another interviewer. “My wife and I have two beautiful children.” Except it wasn’t embryo-destroying IVF at all, it turns out, but another kind of fertility treatment. “Governor Walz talks how normal people talk,” his press secretary explained.)

In fact, the Democrats are using IVF as a wedge to detach anti-abortion Republicans from the Trump-Vance ticket. IVF, the argument goes, is “pro-life” because children are created for infertile couples. Opposing IVF is cruel and anti-life. It’s a powerful argument which has traction with voters.

According to a Pew Research Center survey published in May, 70 percent of American adults believe that IVF access is positive; 22 percent are unsure, and only 8 percent say it is negative. The survey found that even large majorities of white evangelicals (63 percent), black Protestants (69 percent) and Catholics (65 percent) view IVF as a good thing.

However, not many people have thought through the moral complexities of IVF. What can be wrong with a technology which allows a loving couple to have a baby, they ask.

But there are substantial moral issues.

[starafterdeath]

Those so-called "good russians" prove once again that Ukrainians can be understood when they say "a good russian is a dead russian." Over the last weekend, those idiots went out of their way to vote abroad (no thanks to Navalny and his asinine idea that everyone comes and votes at a particular time of day to express... protest against the elections? What is this, sheep protesting the slaughter by choosing the sharpness of the cleavers their corpses are going to be cut up with later?), oftentimes traveling to a different city or a different country (!) to cast their ballots. This is why russia is hopeless, and russians are considered a swarm of parasites by everyone who's ever tasted life under the soviet occupation (just ask Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia). And it's a weird situation when you realize that people are going to judge you by what the majority of idiots hailing from your country do first, and your own achievements second. Yeah, whenever I go to a Ukrainian rally, I feel like I don't belong there because I'm a part of this swarm of parasites that they're trying to fight off. Yes, whenever I cast money into their donation boxes "на смерть ворогам", I feel like if they knew I wasn't born in Ukraine, they would just give it back to me. I think it's the right thing to do, even if some Ukrainians might not welcome it, because what else can I do in my situation? One way or another, people will treat me with prejudice because of my place of birth, and I can't really say that I'm too surprised. I've always thought being russian sucked, not just because of what russia is and how much evil it has caused and keeps causing to this day, but because of what you learn while growing up there. The way you think and the way you act are impacted by living in that hellhole, and it's always fatalistic and fueled with fear and paranoia. Your brain isn't right because you weren't brought up in the right place and you bring this faultiness wherever you go.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that all russians, even the most reasonable ones (a small handful, really), are damaged mentally in various ways as a consequence of living in the soviet union or growing up and forming as a person under the neo-stalinist regime that's been there for over 21 years now. Should it be an excuse for them to do stupid violent shit? Of course not. Should they try to defy the expectations of those who think that a good russian is a dead russian? Theoretically, yes, even if it seems futile. Practically, the majority of russians wouldn't care to, the minority of political dissidents will try and fail to, distracted by their own inexterminatable desire to take part in a Pavlovian ritual of casting pieces of paper into a box, and a small handful who have no feelings towards russia apart from resentment akin to what a victim of a kidnapping feels towards their captor will go to Ukrainian rallies and silently cast their money into donation boxes.

[oliviagardner-photographicimage]

Week 2 SDL: Can I take a photo of the Marae?

In this context, 'the gaze' means to me that only until recently, māori were accepted into coming behind the cameras and showing their worlds through the lens instead of being the subjects of other photographers' work all the time. They could finally start to tell their own story.

Portrait photography plays a very heavy role in Māori culture as it relates back to ancestral carvings that have been preserved for many generations. Portraits of deceased whanau and community members were used in ceremonies to show respect.

In the 19th century, another way Māori used portrait photography was through having pictures taken of their whanau and seeing them as much more than just keepsakes and thought of the photographs of loved ones held mauri (a life force) once the person was deceased.

Maraes are seen as a sacred space to the living and a memorial for the deceased. Maraes are much more than a meeting house - they are a place for the community to foster their identities, values, and pride within themselves and their culture.

The line ‘a loaded and contestable set of issues connected to the act of photographing in and around marae’ means that for each marae, the protocol behind photographing their sacred space is different. Each maraes protocols are decided under tikanga (marae protocol) and kawa (customs of the marae). The act of photography has consequences that are both cultural and spiritual so following this protocol is vital as a visitor/photographer.

Photographs carry mauri through the personality of the picture and who has been photographed. Once the person passes away mauri and their essence is held within the image. Mana means power and authority. It is an important concept in Maori culture because those who hold high mana are often chiefs and leaders of tribes. Through their actions, mana increases and decreases so being a good and strong role model is vital for mana to stay strong within a person.

The three thresholds are conceptual, physical, and spiritual. A photographer can transgress thresholds by not following the marae protocol behind photography and behind their general Tikanga. There are specific places for eating vs not eating, placing shoes vs removing shoes in a marae just like there are zones for photography. It is important to read the social cues and read the room so you can avoid transgressing thresholds so you don't breach tikanga.

Tapu and Noa are opposites of each other. Tapu is everything considered sacred and noa is everything common. In relation to photography, it would be important to ask what you can and cannot do to respect the tapu of the marae and its environment. Breaking of tapu can affect the mana of a meetinghouse. And the breaking of tapu can also affect the person or person beyond the marae.

Representation matters within the subject of photography because everyone deserves to show their story. In Te Ao Māori, issues of representation are often debated amongst decision makers and at the core of these debates is the responsibility to protect the mauri of the marae from potential spiritual and moral harm. Representation is shown through ancestral carvings which are considered living and sacred, and a photograph of a carving or a face is equivalently sacred.

Some pakeha photographers that are well known for their relationship with Te Ao Maori include Gil Hanly, Fiona Clark, Terry O'Connor , Sally Symes and Jill Carlyle. Their work was important to the Māori community because they photographed social and political events from the Māori perspective and they worked with the māori as a team rather than an opposition. Most of these photographers also undertook projects with blessings from the tribes and created series that are now considered historical. In 2003, John Miller received the Media Peace Prize Lifetime Award. He is from Ngapuhi descent and is a documentary photographer - specifically photographs protests and rallys that occurred around NZ.

Barry Barclay was talking about the importance and meaning of taonga in the Māori culture when he was working with New Zealand Film Archive to establish the Taonga Maori Deposit Agreement. Barry Barclay ensured a Maori perspective was represented in the legal documents structuring copyright, ownership, and accessibility. He wanted people to understand that Māori taonga was taken much more seriously than the translation of treasures. It meant that their taonga held tapu and that the tapu was extremely strong in power and strength. Mana Tuturu means enduring mana or it could be translated as 'Māori spiritual guardianship'. Mana Tuturu can be used in our photography by asking people for their consent to be featured in photos and giving credit to other photographers where credit is due. Kanohi ki kanohi means face to face. Photographs are regarded as taonga and giving the photographs back to the marae and to the people of the marae would be respected as they upheld the principle of kanohi ki kanohi.

[loveisbraveandwild]

you don’t have to answer this, but can i ask what you mean by the tiktok thing/trans issues intersecting? i’ve racked my brain since i read your tags and it’s completely lost on me

just like i think tiktok is good for a number of reasons, one being that its a) given another space for trans people to feel safe and interact with each other b) helping people realize their transness and c) helping give a voice to trans people and allow us to educate the world/non trans community one what its like, why we matter, and also the policies and active witch hunt going on against us across the country. these things have always been available (ie tumblr) but they are a lot more accessible and provide a much broader reach on tiktok which i love. part of the success of the counter protest to anti trans legislation i think can be credited to tiktok and the way it rallies ppl. calling ur congress person to protect tiktok has a direct effect on the protection on these things. and part of the anti-tiktok legislation is rooted into bigotry and censorship. theyre very obviously related imo

[jaymarlowgirlinnovators]

Black Lives Matter: Darnella Frazier, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor

1. What are your thoughts about Darnella Frazier's role as a bystander who chose to document a crime and became a brave citizen journalist in the process? What would you do in a similar situation?

I want to think that I would do the same but I don’t know if anyone knows this until they are put in that situation. I think what she did was extremely important and incredibly brave. As a black man, I felt that this video illuminated the prejudice that we experience every single day and the violence that can come from it. I feel that this has shown our non black neighbors the real trauma that we face on a day to day and has allowed them to shift their mindset and spring into action if they felt passionately enough. I think her attitude after the video went viral and news outlets across the country were requesting a comment is really telling of the kind of person that she is. We all watched this unfold on the news, but to be the person who held the camera and stayed there throughout the experience must have been extremely tough. I commend her on this act because if this didn’t happen, it would have been just another death of a black man that the police sweeps under the rug and the country ultimately forgets. 

2. Have you participated in Black Lives Matter marches and protests? Please share your experiences and your photographs in your post and in the thread below.

This is a tough subject for me and many. I have participated in protests, but ultimately, my charge at the time was to share my experiences with my then boyfriend (now husband) who happens to be white. I had retreated into myself and found many quiet moments during this time. This was one of the first times in my life where I found myself frozen, afraid and deeply emotional. I lived in Park Slope, Brooklyn at the time and I’ll never be able to forget the screaming and the chants outside my window. I’ll be honest when I say that I did not participate in social media activism and it's 100% within my rights to not. I think that there were many occasions where individuals felt that posting a photo was enough where there were many others who felt that going to a rally was enough. I found many moments of conflict and the solution for me was to stay off the internet.  

I had many “friends” approach me and send me DM’s condemning me because as a black man, I have to feel a certain way and their version of feeling a certain way was getting up, snapping a photo and posting it. That has never been me and since I wasn’t “going live” at a protest, or posting a black square on my feed, I wasn’t a real black man. My husband experienced the same thing, he received condemning messages because he’s married to a black man, and how can he not be posting or going live or anything like that. What I found interesting is that there were many who did not ask how I felt about what was going on, but it was more important for them to see something on my feed. 

3. Choose one of the following young women BLM leaders who began their activism as teenagers and write a one-paragraph bio about them. Post a one-line summary in the thread: Zee Thomas, Shayla Turner, Brianna Chandler, Tiana Day.

Tiana Day was 17 years old when she saw a post from Mimi Zoila on instagram that called for a member of the black community to lead a protest across the Golden Gate Bridge. The protest would be in response to George Floyd’s murder and Tiana jumped to the challenge. In an interview with The New York Times, Tiana states “For me, I was never really an activist before. But this movement lit a fire in me.” Growing up in California, she always felt out of place and would go out of her way to look like her non black counterparts.  There was an amazing turnout at the Golden Gate protest and the positive responses inspired her to lead more protests across the area and eventually inspired her to start the non profit organization “Youth Advocates for Change” which aimed to inspire other young people to share their experiences in their communities and be the next pioneers for change. 

4. What is your assessment of Amy Sherald's portrait of Breonna Taylor and the ensuing exhibition held at the Speed Museum? Does it do her justice? (see video clip)

I think the portrait is gorgeous, strong, poised and reflects the person that she was and not the state in which her life ended. Her mother being involved is extremely important and the timeline of her life highlights the work that she has done. She died a brutal death and she shouldn’t be forgotten. I appreciate the “Say Her Name” campaign because it forces the world to recognize the fact that she had a promising future and now that has been taken away. This exhibition is important because being able to witness the truth of the black experience allows visitors to really connect and not just be a spectator.

[twilightcitysky]

My daughter is four. She came home from school and told me she was playing a game called “Princess Gets Rescued From a Tower”. The kid of two feminists, living in a liberal city in a blue state, at the age of four, has internalized the idea that princesses need rescuing. 

I did four years of residency in ObGyn and three years of residency in Psychiatry. I am an MD and a practicing psychiatrist. I don’t have the bandwidth to look at the numbers right now, but I will tell you from personal experience with hundreds and hundreds of patients that women are the strong ones. Most of the babies of teen girls I delivered had no support apart from their own mothers. I wrote “father of baby not involved” in the chart more times than I can count. Most of the pregnancy terminations I performed were for girls and women on their own. Nothing made me feel like I’d made more of a difference than providing a desired termination for a teenager and placing her IUD. Now that girl gets to continue her education, develop her frontal lobe, and decide who she wants to be and what she wants to do. She doesn’t have to be a baby trying to raise a baby. She doesn’t have to be another cog in a system that perpetuates the cycle of poverty in order to keep women and people of color from working towards equality, equity, fairness and real change. 

Make no mistake. The overturning of Roe vs. Wade today is not about saving the lives of the unborn. It is about control of women’s bodies and agency, particularly poor women without the resources to travel out of state for a pregnancy termination. Women are meant to be property. Don’t believe me? How many letters have I received addressed to “Mrs. Husband’s First Name – Husband’s Last Name” instead of “Dr. My First Name – My Last Name”? How many people think my kids have their dad’s last name, because he’s the man and when you get married you’re supposed to give up your identity? Yes, it’s only a name. Yes, it’s tradition. But try speaking up against it— even that one, small thing— and see how much resistance you run into. 

Now women want more than our own names. We want to be paid the same as our male colleagues. We want our voices to be heard in legislation and government. We’d even like to be the president someday. At bare minimum, we’d like to decide the timing and circumstances of when we become parents, because women still carry the majority of responsibility for raising children today, with rare exceptions. We are on a tightrope with no safety net, because there’s so little in the way of institutional support for people who end up with a baby to support and no way to put food on the table. 

People who are thinking about how to get from one day to the next aren’t in the streets protesting. People who are terrified that they’ll be beaten or raped by their partner aren’t rallying for change. People who are trying to raise a child on a minimum wage salary with no parental leave benefits, without any sort of support, aren’t getting an education. People who are working two jobs to keep a roof over their heads aren’t voting. 

And that’s the goal. 

The princess in the tower may need a rescue now, but ask yourself who put her there. Ask yourself who robbed her of the tools to escape, because she’s strong and capable. If you’re a woman, stay safe. If you’re a woman of privilege, help your sisters. If you’re a man, speak up for us. And if there’s any part of you who feels that this is a move that will help any human beings at all, including the unborn children who are the proposed beneficiaries, I cheerfully invite you to get fucked. Nobody wins when women are forced to have kids they can’t or don’t want to support. Not them, not the kids… and not you. 

[jurakan]

GIVE ME FACT

[slides office chair over]

It is Saturday morning when I receive this, so I apologize friendo, but I am not going to make you wait another week because that's cruel. Also, I don't know if I'll have time to Fun Fact next Friday. So since I'm mostly free right now and nobody's told me that they don't know about this already, we're going to go ahead and talk about a random thing in American history that's one of my favorite Fun Facts.

[Again, if you already know this, notify me, and you can get a refund/new Fun Fact.]

Today You Learned about the first and only Emperor of the United States of America, His Imperial Majesty Norton I.

Joshua Norton was an English-born man living in mid 19th century San Francisco as a businessman, living the high life until one day, he lost it all. He was poor, he was destitute, nobody cared who he was anymore.

So what do you do when that happens? I don't know. I'll tell you what Joshua Norton did: he declared himself Emperor.

No really.

In the fall of 1859 he published a manifesto criticizing the government for its failings in the local newspaper. He later published a letter, which he wrote and handed to the newspaper office himself, declaring that he was the Emperor, and soon afterward started making decrees asking that both Catholic and Protestant churches officially recognize his claim, and that Congress was to be dissolved. When Congress was not dissolved, he asked the US Army to go to DC and make those Congresspeople go home. Norton I also declared that Republican and Democratic parties were to be disbanded.

As you can probably guess from today's headlines, this did not work.

He also told people to build the Bay Bridge, and that didn't happen until after his death, but there is a plaque for him, giving him credit, and there are efforts to have it named after him.

So yes, he was a crazy person, but you know what? He was pretty harmless considering he asked the Army to dissolve the government (in part because no one did anything about it). He hung out in San Francisco, wearing his uniform, walking around, getting free lunches at certain establishments (because they found this guy hilarious), and issuing his own form of money. Obviously, with an Emperor, the US was going to have a new monetary system, and he was happy to give bills out to whoever made the journey to meet him. Some local restaurants actually accepted that money too.

And Norton I remained politically active! He wrote to other countries' leaders, and even suggested marrying Queen Victoria to strengthen ties between nations (she did not write back). The one foreign ruler who did recognize Norton as legitimate ruler of the US was Hawaiian King Kamehameha V, who did not do the same for the actual US government.

This was also a time of discrimination against Chinese immigrants, and one douchebag held a rally against them. Norton showed up at the rally and told the racists to go home. Didn't work, but points for trying, eh?

At one point Norton was arrested, and committed to insane asylum. This did not go over well with the public of San Francisco, as they'd grown rather fond of him. And after all, he was pretty harmless. A local newspaper famously published the line, that Emperor Norton I had "shed no blood; robbed no one; and despoiled no country; which is more than can be said of his fellows in that line." He was soon released.

In January 8, 1880, Norton fell and died on his way to a lecture. Everyone around him immediately rushed to his aid, but he died pretty quickly. There were tons of rumors that he was secretly wealthy, or a lost royal heir or something, but upon gathering his effects for his funeral, it became pretty obvious that no, Norton really had nothing to his name. Still, local businessmen donated to a funeral fund, and the beloved Emperor's send off was attended by thousands of people in San Francisco.

So ended the life of the first and only Emperor of the United States.

He was immortalized, in part, by Mark Twain in a character called "the King" in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He's also the subject of one of my favorite Sandman stories. The man was absolutely NUTS, but in a fun way, and he even tried to use the imperial power he thought that he had to help other people. I don't know that he was very good at it, but, uh... well, he tried.

The man is a legend.