#aren't astroturfed.......

[ravenkings]

i, personally, have no intention of seeing blonde, but i do agree that watching the tendency in some internet/fan spaces of engaging in art and culture criticism purely as a metric as to whether one work or another should be allowed to exist based on a system of black-and-white moral judgement seeping into the critical mainstream to be.......troubling.......to say the least

[thesocklesswonder]

Arizona is being forced to cut nearly 25% of its water sourced from the Colorado River. We're in an extreme drought. Drinking water is essential for human and animal life.

While the golf course industry uses graphs and charts to show that they don't use that much water and they bring in big bucks to the economy, I propose they try upping their game instead.

Rather than using up our precious drinking water (every drop counts) on grass for playing golf, why don't they go hard core and learn to play on hard pan dirt. I mean, it's a sport and sport is about challenges, right?

Golfers, challenge yourself and leave the water for drinking!

[gothicprep]

there's some daily wire drama going on with crowder and contract negotiations right now. one thing that i've seen pop up in the midst of this amongst other lefties is like, a reminder that conservative punditry is all manufactured or astroturfed. i won't forgo this as a possibility, but i think this analysis & treating it as fact flattens some of the moving parts. consider that the political right wing tends to gravitate towards individuals while lefties generally don't have figureheads in the same way.

it's somewhat related to the idea that someone can be "silenced" and popular at the same time.

here's a random thought dump about taboo and celebrity/notoriety:

this isn't (necessarily) related to conservatives, but it's a good illustration of the ecosystem: many articles about detransition have been published in recent months. this isn't a matter of there being a ton of detransitioners, or that detransitioning is less stigmatized than transition in the first place, it's that it sparks debate. for better or for worse, controversy sells.

a taboo ideology makes for a less crowded field. if feminism has one loud activist per every 10 feminists, that one activist will probably be speaking to a small club. if the far right has one loud activist per every 1000 true believers, that one activist will pack auditoriums.

the term "edgelord" carries with it a kernel of truth. holding a taboo view requires a specific skill set of thriving on the edge of acceptability and surfing the controversy that follows. if you fall out of bounds, you fall from grace, hence why milo yiannopoulos is never going to be able to claw back to where he was in 2016. there needs to be some restraint. otherwise, you're totally taboo instead of Speaking Truth To Power. a lot of people screw this up and get relegated to the fringes. this crowds the field even less.

you know how conservatives who go to liberal arts universities think they're punks? it's one of those silly assertions that speaks to something real – the right is underrepresented in institutions of prestige, specifically academia and publishing. ergo, its spokespeople arise naturally out of who is capable of demanding the most attention. someone like judith butler – gender studies professor, considered a leading voice in feminism – can be very good at what she does and promoting her ideas, but she's nowhere near as good as getting eyes on her as someone who was self-selected for that trait. there's also the variable of kissing ass in institutions, so there aren't incentives for a good writer who's tuned into the zeitgeist to say "i'm the leader of feminism. everyone pay attention to me" in this context.

here's a list of musicians who supported clinton in 2016. in other words, a list of musicians. generic celebrities will support popular causes, the ones who don't typically keep their mouths shut. this contributes to the void being created.

a figurehead helps launder your beliefs. if you're a conservative who holds to some belief, and also the type of person who puts their foot in your mouth often, the specific words you use can be the difference between "normie conservative" and "i'm calling HR". if you say "i'm really into louder with crowder," leaves ambiguity.

i don't know if these six points are exhaustive, but i think "crowded field" is a little bit more believable than "astroturfed". if you're trying to make better lefty posts, you're competing with vox and whatever. but your competition in the conservosphere is shit like "Freedom Eagle Dot Facebook" that uses "your" and "you're" interchangeably. one competition is easier to win than the other, and the prize for winning is the attention of large swaths of the US population.

[sadhoc]

"saying nurses are mean is anti union astroturfing!"

some nurses are genuinely abusive and disabled people have a right to talk about it

ableism means that an abusive nurse will always be believed over a disabled patient

disabled people aren't some kind of right wing conspiracy. most of us support unions actually. i'd love it if hospitals were better staffed and medical personnel were taken care of.

[astraltrickster]

I think this post is also the root of a lot of my internal conflict over a lot of critiques of fandom - a lot of complaints about shallow enjoyment of media, of people only looking for mediocre white boys to ship and disparaging anything else, of derailing posts about serious real life issues to talk about a cartoon, of people expecting all stories to be a straightforward escapist romp with positive morals and holding everything to that standard and attacking people for liking anything that doesn't live up to it-

The latter three are...something of a problem - less of one than than they look like due to sampling bias (stupid takes get clicks + we post blorbo here, sir), but a problem nonetheless - but individual wank-riddled fandom blogs aren't the root of it. The root of it is high school English classes that teach symbolism as an absolute so you can fill in the right bubbles on a standardized test, with no regard to whether students are actually learning analysis or not, and the corporations getting their hands on fandom and encouraging this shit because shallow engagement is accessible and won't end up revealing that the source isn't as great as it seems in the hype, and keeping people talking about your product keeps people buying.

This is a problem that has to be solved by filling in the media literacy education gap and rejecting the corporate encroachment on fandom spaces, not shaming individual people for Doing Fandom the Wrong Way or demonizing fan culture wholesale. It is a problem that is reflective of an environment that created it, not a grassroots societal collapse a la Idiocracy.

Of course we have more wank in fandoms now than we did 15+ years ago - fandoms are BIGGER, so by the 1% rule alone we're going to have more bullshit, even before accounting for the fact that corporations have been moving toward astroturfing this shit for a WHILE now (remember Twilight and the Team Edward vs. Team Jacob marketing?). Of course there's a lot of bad fan content - 90% of everything is crap; most of the people creating it are either kids, or adults who are just getting back into creative hobbies after having the creativity beaten out of them as kids and never developing their skills since then; this is just part of the experience when you remove the skill floor of a professional publisher (side note, I love[/s] how it's always "don't be afraid to make bad art as long as you're having fun making something" until said bad art is a cliche slash fic), and it will be there even after Disney et al. stop encouraging the shallowest of readings so a sizeable audience refuses to take a more analytical look at their media junk food to find that it's all formulaic nonsense held together by hype, pointless grandeur, and applied phlebotinum - and more damningly (as there is nothing inherently wrong with junk food media!), is pushing out all the mid-range studios by sheer volume.

Tl;dr: a lot of critiques of fan culture are mistaking the symptoms for the cause.

[the-empress-7]

Aren't all of these paid awards just glorified astroturfing? Kinda like she did with her own backstory details with her "charity" photoshoots in Africa and India. If the pictures exist, she must've been doing charity work. If the awards exist, the Harkles must be worthy of them. 🙄

Harry is getting the Walmart version of the PR treatment she gave herself when setting the trap for him.

[sayruq]

Or, alternatively, Depp supporters don't need to be vocal anymore. He won, there's no need to go on about it. Whether you think he should have won or not is irrelevant; what's relevant is that one side clearly doesn't need to raise awareness or campaign for anything now and are just getting on with their lives, whereas the other side feels they still have things to do.

There aren't any less Depp supporters or any more Amber supporters - one side just went home.

That's not true at all. Mind you we're talking about 11-12 days after the verdict, not weeks or months. They're still here, they're still making tweets demonizing Amber, they're still making videos reacting to the trial but without his team shoving that down our throats, it doesn't have the same impact.

Sorry you fell for an astroturfed campaign made by an abuser.

[indifferentvincent]

I'm often confused abt Sci. Youll see claims that it's so powerful it gave TC his whole career, "astroturfs" TGM (where was it for Mummy), is going after critics online, but theres far less praise for it, its more a butt of all jokes, all TC filmbuffs are antiSci, you get far more insta-antiSci comments than pro, TC is the only Sci who reached megastardom.. I personally think TGM wouldve done even better w/o it,the only holdouts from seeing TGM at this point are those who don't want to fund Sci.

Not that I'm saying this to claim to be an expert otherwise or anything, but people really do just make shit up about this all the time. I rarely read anything or come across anyone who has ever even met a Scientologist. I used to really think it was more commonly known about than it apparently is, so literally most people probably aren't basing these claims on anything but random gossip.

Tom Cruise would have had a fantastic career somehow otherwise, because he just has the talent and drive to have done it, and as you mentioned, he's the only Scientologists to be this famous, so clearly it's more than just that.

They were much more influential until somewhere in the 2000s. It used to actually be that a lot of Hollywood was made of Scientologists. I don't know what exactly made it stop, if it was that South Park episode that made the Xenu stuff suddenly very public, but....maybe? Because there just aren't celebrity Scientologists anymore. Elisabeth Moss is the only younger generation I've heard of very recently, and she's 40 (and was also born into it). This also aligns with the last group I ever heard of, cos a lot of sitcom stars of the late 90s were into it too (like That 70's Show and Dharma & Greg). Since then....nothing. They have disappeared from the general public too as much, especially since the Anonymous protests. They still have a hold in some ways via the property they own and the money they have, but it's stopped reaching the celebrity level anymore, somehow, which is a good step. Aside from one time, I've never known anyone to be serious about it. Even the Scientologists I knew otherwise were those born into it and were just like, 'I don't want to talk about it, it's my parent's shit.'

Yeah, I literally never get any pro-Scientology comments lmao.

[loominggaia]

The Caeclian cult that’s working with Damijana sounds interesting! Anymore info on them? What do they actually do for the Empire?

This idea is still in its infancy and needs a lot more development. It actually stems from a proto-Looming Gaia fantasy story I was putting together over a decade ago, about a planet covered entirely by water and populated by aquatic peoples. Cecaelia were the dominant species on this planet.

That world got scrapped, but some of its concepts got carried forward into Looming Gaia. This cecaelian cult is a bit of a callback to that world.

This cult believes that there is a cecealia-ruled planet out there in the universe, and this planet is where all cecaelia on Looming Gaia come from. They think long ago, a spaceship crashed in Gaia's seas containing a cecaelian crew. The crew survived and couldn't get back home, so they reproduced and made Gaia their new home. However, the cult sees Gaia as a temporary home and wishes to get back to their home planet.

It's a pretty wacky idea that started with a handful of nutjobs, but once the Damijani government caught wind of it, they helped astroturf the seas with propaganda to promote it. Now the cult is quite elaborate and works closely with Damijana on their space program.

Why exactly did Damijana promote this ideology? Well, simply put, because it inspired many cecaelia to jump on board with Project Starlight. The cecaelian cultists aren't concerned about the Damijani colonizing the moon, because their business isn't with the moon. They just want the capability to go to space so they can locate and return to their home planet. No civilization is closer to achieving space travel than the Empire of Damijana is, so that's their best bet to latch onto.

Cecaelia are a long-lived and intelligent species. Their capacity for intelligence and magic is very valuable to the Damijani, not to mention these cultists make good spies and soldiers to keep the Aquarian Alliance off their backs. So, Damijana promises the cultists positions in their space program and gives them false evidence that their home planet is out there to keep them loyal.

As of now, Damijana's government is pulling the strings behind this cult. But this is not new for them. After all, they are quite experienced with designing and promoting cults to control people. It's what they do best!

*

Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

[guywhoknowsthings]

To the re-writers of history

The fact that you pretend that you can't undertand what I write about, or that specific ways of writing must constrain to a standard that limits any kind of specificity and clarity, stunts the ability of the author to convey emotional experiences and flattens the audiences ability to empathize with the characters and causes simplification of the ever-increasingly complex world we live in.

If what you want as an audience is the brutal extremes of mainstream media, down to the stagnant stories told again and again, the world is missing out on a spectrum somewhere in between. For example, is all you want is written porno (ahem dr. grey), there sure is a lot invested in forcing authors into eithe black or white. Good luck on finding the special thing in between and the colors that aren't astroturf green.

[donewithcapitalistfrayers]

"fight 4 loop" is an "anti-imperialist" 'appalachia' based org w/ roots in some serious readings and some social media presence but they are far more interested in the political mission of Patrick Wolfe than J. Sakai/butch lee. I do rec going on their site and downloading the latter works that aren't available elsewhere but want to add a disclaimer:

Its members mix the most naive kind of gullibility to imperialist astroturfs e.g. members will go on social media decrying the "slave trafficking" of Cuban doctors, rage against Russian imperialism, and support "the national liberation struggle of East Turkestan" with malicious and really over-the-top personal smearing ("Assadist"), philosemitism ("genocide/Holocaust denier") and misogyny (too disgusting to reproduce) when challenged. They also float around the most elite imperialist academics a fair bit on social media, making their grudges the org members' own. Members repost bellingcat, Alexander Reid Ross, Robert Evans, USHMM anything with no shame while subjecting their dissenters to the most stringent of 'purist' anarcho/commie standards.

They're basically on this "renegades of the left" thing b/c much of the org is a WWP split during 2019 teacher's strike. They operate like political cops...

[feelingbluepolitics]

From 2018. The tactic has become pervasive. Worse, idiots who routinely fail or reject reality tests and moral checkpoints have become actual grassroots cheerleaders for every harm we face as a society.

"AstroTurf looks and feels like grass—in an all-too-perfect way. But it's not grass.

"Now the well-known artificial turf's brand name has taken on a new meaning, referring to purported 'grassroots' efforts that are actually funded and supported by industry and political entities.

"Some people, organizations and campaigns around everything from forestry to fossil fuels look and feel 'grassroots,' but many are anything but. 

..."It's one tactic in the industry playbook... Astroturf campaigns are designed not just to deny evidence and discredit opponents but also to imply broad public support for products or practices.

..."Many of the organizations are secretive about their funding and alliances, even as they attack social justice and environmental organizations over 'foreign funding' and collaboration with international groups.

"Astroturf campaigns aren't new, but they're becoming increasingly widespread and effective as social media and the Internet play a greater role in shaping public opinion.

..."In his book Heat, UK writer George Monbiot quotes a memo from tobacco company Brown and Williamson: 'Doubt is our product since it is the best means of competing with the 'body of fact' that exists in the mind of the general public. It is also the means of establishing a controversy.'

"The coalition, with additional funding from Exxon and other fossil fuel companies, went on to sow doubt about climate science. Its name illustrates another tactic: using labels and branding to convince the public they're evidence-based or to blur distinctions between them and legitimate entities.

..."As the Internet and social media become greater forces in society, astroturf groups and campaigns are growing, especially around global warming. Armies of trolls and credible-sounding organizations spread similar messaging on a range of topics.

..."Although it would be difficult or impossible to end astroturfing, people can learn how to spot phony 'grassroots' organizations and campaigns. SourceWatch and DeSmogBlog provide thoroughly researched information on a range of groups and individuals involved in these campaigns.

"For the sake of public discourse and progress on important social, health and environmental issues, it's up to all of us to critically assess all information sources."

[elishamanning]

Kramer: "Well, with us... we ask ourselves, how can something like (the Leverkusen game) happen, and we notice our surroundings asking that, we on the inside ask ourselves that, sometimes we come to a weird conclusion, what, do we have two faces? But we only think that because we only look at ourselves. But what do the Dortmunders think, winning 5-1 against Frankfurt, thus German champions obviously, then they lose 2-1 in Freiburg and everybody's thinking, well, they're not that good, are they. Will Bayern show their Supercup face, or their face-against-us, or against 1. FC Köln? The Leipzigers, do they show their Mainz-face or that outstanding show they put on against Stuttgart? These "problems of consistency" when you're a Gladbach fan, or a Gladbach player, you think 'these are Gladbach-only problems', but the others have them as well. It's always a matter of how you handle it and that you don't let it... well, tear you down emotionally. The important thing is to avoid a negative spiral, mentally, because, as everybody who's ever played football will know, in the end the decisive issue is always in your head (((aaaah, that's a bad translation. It's a mental issue, is what he says.))), and it always will be." Knippi: "Completely agree. And by the way, that's not limited to football." Kramer: "Well, exactly. It's not even worth discussing, when you enjoy doing something, when you're positive about it - it's not exactly a brand-new psychological finding - it'll always turn out better than when you're negative about it. So let's not, after the second matchday, tear everything down, and let's not, after the first matchday, praise everything to the heavens." Knippi: "Did you expect that? Becoming professional footballers, all that stuff that comes with it, besides playing football, all that stuff raining down on you?" Neuhaus: "Well, it just happens, it just all happens automatically. In the end, you become a footballer because you have fun playing football, and you don't much think about that kind of stuff that comes with it. You grow into it and you learn to handle it." Knippi: "So you're not actively getting prepared for that? Because in the last podcast you (Chris) said 'that's the guys from the NLZ' So it's not part of your training there?" Neuhaus: "No, it wasn't a subject in mine." Kramer: "Well to be completely honest, looking back, I thought football would be funnier, or at least less serious, and a bit more honest. That's also why I like this club so much, because I know that here at least you get an honest basis, like, I feel understood here, I have a certain relationship of trust to, for example, Max Eberl, but I wouldn't have imagined, without spilling any beans now, that football's such a not-really-nice business. So this is one of the best things here, for me, knowing that I have an honest and trustful basis that can be built on. And I really wouldn't have ever imagined it all to be so grossly serious. Sometimes I think inappropriately serious, because football is such a beautiful thing and when you get to do it as a profession, plaiyng football, there's nothing easier than joyfully going somewhere every day. These are the best conditions to have, the working hours, just turning your hobby into a profession - everything about football is 'geil', but still you get this completely inappropriate seriousness about it making you go, aw, it's tough. That's a shame I think, I wouldn't have thought so when I started out. I always wanted to be a footballer because, well, for one it's my passion, but also I thought every day would just be fun, and I think it should be, and that in the end that would be performance-enhancing, I'm quite sure about that. (laughing, saying that)." Knippi: "What do you think?" Neuhaus: "Always hard to disagree. The gist is we're all playing football because it's great fun being on the pitch. Of course there are always periods when it's a little harder but all in all and especially looking back you always regard things much more positive

than maybe you felt in that particular moment. (I don't really understand what he's saying there), but anyway the positives should always be front centre." Knippi: "What you just said, Chris, the seriousness, I also think it's too much sometimes. For example if a team's not playing well and the people on the pitch get personally attacked/insulted. I get to witness that when I'm down there, and sometimes I think 'what is wrong with you?', like, I get being unhappy when the team that has your heart isn't doing well, being unhappy, or sad, or disappointed, I get that, but not attacking the players personally. Well thank God that isn't an issue currently, and there's no reason why it should be." Kramer: "No, I don't think that's happened to me in my career... Well, once, playing with VfL Bochum in Aue, I was pelted with snowballs by our own fans but, in retrospect, that was quite funny." Knippi: "Like how?" Kramer: "Well, because we lost 6-1 playing in the snow. I'd say I'm a good player on snow, but, well, Ronny König is the best snow-player on this planet. He (literally he says 'he put four cherries into our basket', meaning he scored four goals... as you probably would have guessed.) So then our own fans, who'd travelled to Aue on a Monday night, threw snow balls at us, and we completely deserved it. And I do think every fan is right, and has the right, to use this outlet, that they're paying money for, to let off steam. Because football, in the end, is entertainment. Only, it doesn't help. What I meant with the seriousness is the whole stuff around it as well. Football is just a game. It's supposed to be fun, but sometimes I think, looking at the newspapers, all the sociopolitical issues, and seriousness... it's still football." Knippi: "Did I just understand you correctly, you're saying it's a fan's right to pelt you with snowballs?" Kramer: "Well... it gets its down dynamic, and it's not too bad. If someone insults me, say, I don't really have a problem with that. I don't take it personally because I don't think it's meant that way. It may not be the right approach and I may not understand their motive, but... that person is angry, they've had a bad week at work, then they come here, and we play badly ("nur hintenrum" - too defensively) so they have a right to...-as a fan, of course, you have to question whether that's doing any good. We've not really had that here in Gladbach and when there were beginnings of it, we had talks with the ultras, and stuff, we're quite close to the fans, so we don't really have that issue here, but you do see it with other clubs, and close friends of mine, they have had situations where I'd really say, now this is too much (I wonder if he's talking of Leon/the end at Schalke here), and that's just not on, but generally, we are an outlet for many and football is entertainment. When you're not being entertained you're entitled to boo. I don't mind. There's just this double standard - look at me, talking again for ten minutes straight (Knippi and Flo laugh), and you have to cut it all afterwards- once again I take ten minutes to get to the point, but you can't - you want to play with a young squad, and they'll make mistakes. You can't boo them. Or you can't say you want to play with a young squad. Very simply put." Knippi: "Tommy Schmitt, your successor at 11Freunde put it quite well there, I thought. It's very counterproductive to boo and whistle." Kramer: "Yes, well, you have to ask yourself, no matter what you do - I mean when you get to the office and everybody's scowling at you, thinking 'what an idiot!', you'll feel that as a person with empathy, like every footballer, and when you're booed, that does something to you... I can promise everybody: booing a player will never make them better, not ever." Knippi: "'Snow-player' you just said. You're not a good 'snow-player'." Kramer: "I'm a GREAT snow-player!" Neuhaus: "They lost 6-1, I don't think he's that great. They wouldn't have lost 6-1, would they?" Kramer: "Well Leon, Leon Goretzka

and I, we still talk a lot about that day. I'd say, Leon and I, we both have these long levers, we really are good snow-players, on a proper layer of snow, like there in Aue. But Ronny König! He's Messi on snow. Awesome, really." Knippi: "Wouldn't it be better to have short legs and a low centre of gravity?" Kramer: "I don't know. I don't think so. I mean, looking at Leon, and myself, AND Ronny König you can conclude the tall ones with the long legs are good on snow." (very scientific, this.) Knippi: "What kind of a snow-player are you?" Neuhaus: "There weren't any snow-games anymore in my time." Kramer: "NLZ, dude!" Knippi: "I know but..." Kramer: "No!" Neuhaus: "Climate change." Knippi: "But in your youth you must have played on snow once, haven't you?" Neuhaus: "Hardly." Knippi: "You're THAT young?!" Neuhaus: "At 1860 we had astroturf with undersoil heating." Knippi: "Did you ever play on clay?" Neuhaus: "...and anywhere in the stadiums today. There just aren't snow games like that anymore these days." Kramer: "He's from Bavaria, they don't have clay. They just have meadows and pastures, they play on the most beautiful pitches. Here in NRW when you're playing Galatasaray Mühlheim you know what's going down? You know what's going down, playing on clay?" Neuhaus: "I can just imagine." Kramer: "You take two weeks before you can go back to school because your legs - you simply can't walk anymore..." Knippi: "You've never played on clay?" Neuhaus: "No, never." Knippi: "You don't know that feeling when your grazed-open thigh is stuck to your jeans?" Neuhaus: "Yes, well, as a little child I played on the street..." (It goes on a bit yet, but I've already fallen asleep twice and I'm not sure these "translations" are making much sense anyway, so I'll leave it at this, now, alright? Flo played on asphalt, so he knows about open wounds from football. And Knippi claims he's still got remnants of clay in his thigh from decades ago. Hehe. I'll do the rest another time.)

first of all THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH

it's always interesting to hear about a player's mindset

it's really interesting to see how an athlete's relationship with their changes over time. like to have something that was for fun and a hobby turn into your job is a pretty incredible transition. it's something a lot of people experience to an extent, but to have it on this high a level is pretty unique.

Kramer: "No, I don't think that's happened to me in my career... Well, once, playing with VfL Bochum in Aue, I was pelted with snowballs by our own fans but, in retrospect, that was quite funny."

chrikra???? please??? what is this... snowballs???

i also agree that while fans are allowed to show their discontent, it does often cross a line. idk if he was referring to something like leon's ending with schalke, but that instance of schalke fans chasing and attacking the players is something that definitely comes to mind here. i think i actually draw a shorter line than chrikra here.

Neuhaus: "There weren't any snow-games anymore in my time." Kramer: "NLZ, dude!" Knippi: "I know but..." Kramer: "No!" Neuhaus: "Climate change." Knippi: "But in your youth you must have played on snow once, haven't you?" Neuhaus: "Hardly." Knippi: "You're THAT young?!"

omg flo please

i do love the idea of chrikra and leon reminiscing about their old games together... my heart

anyway i love this podcast and i hope they do more of it

and thank you again SO MUCH

[mothwine]

It's fucked seeing shit for brains terfs defending superstraights as if superstraight isn't literal /pol/ nazi astroturfing. Terfs adoring something started by nazis is not surprising at all but it's still scary how easily these idiots fall for hard-core right-wing astroturfing. There are some dipshits praising the 80+ pieces of anti-trans legislation while completely ignoring how a lot of these pieces targets gender nonconforming children in general. Almost as if rasfems aren't radical at all and will very happy align themselves with conservatives and overlook all the damage they do if it means they can dunk on the transes

[pipthebadger-blog]

The Crimew Email Leaks: My Notes on the First 100 Pages

So, all of these are unedited notes of my first 100 pages of the Crimew Email leaks. For those unfamiliar, the Crimew Email Leaks are leaks of emails from Republican lawmakers across the country who are pushing anti-trans bills. Quick notes before we begin. First, I am somewhere between gay and bisexual, but I am not trans myself. Second, my notes aren't going to focus too much on the fact that the republicans use detestable language to talk about queer people behind closed doors. Frankly, we already know that because they do it in public too. In my opinion, it's more beneficial to point out the political horse-trading and message-crafting that happens behind the scenes to make these kinds of fascist bills pass. With that said, here are the rough notes.

(LIST OF KEY PLAYERS:

-REP JULIANNE YOUNG (R, IDAHO)

-SOCIETY FOR EVIDENCE BASED GENDER MEDICINE, A CONSERVATIVE THINK TANK OF BOUGHT MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS.

-AMERICAN COLLEGE OF PEDIATRICIANS, A SMALL SPLINTER GROUP OF LICENSED PEDIATRICIANS WHO ARE AGAINST GENDER TREATMENT IN CHILDREN, DESPITE THE FINDINGS OF THE LARGER PEDIATRIC COMMUNITY

-WOMENS LIBERATION FRONT (WOLF), TERFS

-THE KELSEY COALITION, A HATE GROUP DISGUISED AS PARENTING ADVICE FOR PARENTS OF TRANS CHILDREN. ANTI-TRANS. -THE EAGLE FORUM, A LEGAL HARASSMENT GROUP ORIGINALLY CREATED TO OPPOSE THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT OF 1972. NOW ASTROTURFS ON CULTURE WAR ISSUES. END KEY PLAYERS) -They're gameplanning the wording of bills very carefully, and are generally very conscious of optics throughout (see Email pg 12).

-A lack of understanding/education among “moderates” is key to the trick of oppression (Email pg 14, “Not a single legislator I’ve spoken with so far has a clue about what’s happening with transgender advocacy nor affirmative therapy. All of this is new to them," phrased in a context that implies that this lack of information gives the Republican extreme maneuvering room). The fact that they know this is telling, and it comes up later.

-Role christianity has to play in the radicalization (Email pg 17, from Margaret Clarke of the Eagle Forum, a group originally created to oppose the Equal Rights Amendment of 1972) -Using WOLF for feminist cover (Email pg 19)

-Use of Detransitioner Amicus Brief (argument is trying to allow businesses to discriminate against trans people by claiming the following: Gender = Sex, Sex = “reality,” “you can’t force people to accept a denial of reality”. Never mind the massive complexities of primary & secondary sex characteristics, the many documented cases of people with one set of sex chromosomes with primary & secondary sex characteristics that do not match, & the fact that allowing kids to try social transitioning before they’re eligible for surgical change will actually prevent people from rushing into being trans by letting them try non-permanent gender experimentation that is reversible, thereby reducing the amount of detransitioners) -Citing “fact checking of American Association of Pediatrics (AAP)” but only really coming up with the fact that articles from the very early days of trans conscious study used sources that weren’t specifically related to trans identity, but Gay and Lesbian identity instead. As if they wouldn’t fucking string gays and lesbians up by a tree if they had the fucking chance, and as if torturing trans people back into the closet is going to magically fix that too, somehow (Email pg 21) -Throwing out gender identity research because it was written by Trans people. Because they don’t understand the concept that people sometimes work on things that are very close and personally affecting to them. (pg 24) -All above points are referencing the “Vulnerable Child Protection Act” - “We will need to respond to the Suicidal Thoughts quote, who’s the best on our team?” (pg. 29) Specifically referring to the statistic that gender affirmation by family in trans youth drops their fucking rate of suicidal thoughts by 52% and suicidal actions by 48%. So, yes, the right knows exactly what they’re doing. -Lawmakers are “pissed” at having to hear from actual trans people and their lived experiences (no surprise, lawmakers aren’t people) (also, pg 36) -Citation of a “Daily Signal” article saying that “surgeon admits that nobody truly transitions.” What the article actually provides is a transition surgery doctor’s physical examination of a trans woman which marks that, yeah, sure, certain physical secondary sex characteristics did not, in fact, change, because she was fucking born with them. But no trans person I've talked to ever denies the fact that certain biological secondary sex characteristics will survive the transition, they all acknowledge that and it isn’t much of a problem because secondary sex characteristics are already not a black and white issue. (pg 36) -An admission that, ultimately, they want to stop all transitioning, regardless of social/medical/adult/adolescent on pg 37 (also some generally concerning language, but that’s a given with republicans). -Failure to understand that children (in the relation sense, not the age sense) have their own agency at some point and deserve to make their own decisions, page 39.

-Reference to christianity being their main driving force on 41.

-Republicans ACTIVELY removing “expert” testimony that is prejudicial to their anti-trans bills from their findings. Not passively, actively. As in they saw it, literally said “this makes us look bad,” and struck it from the record. (43) The “expert” was SEGM, an anti-trans farce of an agency, and even THEY said that “the society of evidence-based gender medicine has declared that the conflation of sex and gender in health care is alarming, subjects hundreds of thousands of individuals to the risk of unintended medical harm, and will greatly impede medical research.” This is their anti-trans farce agency, seeing the evidence, acknowledging the evidence, and then ignoring the evidence because they want to do damage.

-Arguing about using the word Cisgender in the SEGM’s findings because it “lends an air of credence to gender research” (46) -Evidence of collusion w/ Child & Parental Rights Campaign, a legal harassment front (79) demonstrating a direct effort from republican senators to provide aid and comfort to the legal harassment of trans constituents. Not a surprise, if we're being honest.

- “the society of evidence-based gender medicine has declared that the conflation of sex and gender in health care is alarming, subjects hundreds of thousands of individuals to the risk of unintended medical harm, and will greatly impede medical research.” Remember this line from earlier? Well, the lawmakers (not the SEGM) decided to amend it to “the erasure of biological sex negatively impacts the health and safety of all individuals,” which is the opposite of the original quote. The quote was changed by Julianne Young, a woman who is not a medical expert of any kind, but instead, an Idaho state rep. Republican, obviously.

-Page 86, on Feb 4 2020, Julianne Young talks about INSERTING IDEOLOGICAL LINES INTO THE FUCKING CENSUS CODE IN ORDER TO JUSTIFY THEIR POINTS IN A LATER PLANNED DEBATE ABOUT TRANS RIGHTS. All of the points she adds (highlighted in red on the page,) mention some strain of ideological instead of statistical interest. Also, god help them, they cannot get over the appeal of using segregation terminology like “separate but equal” because they just HAVE to let the mask slip off sometimes. -ACP’s leader, Michelle Cretella, calls herself “techtarded” on page 91, which is an interesting choice of language in a professional setting. -“embrace reality and christ” on page 91 is fucking comedy gold.

-GIRL or “Gender is Real Legislative Act,” using language to wrap fascism in feminism (not an uncommon tactic). They're using a similar tactic with Women's Liberation Front, or "WOLF," which is just a TERF organization.

-Discussion of fabricating information in briefing papers to state legislators in order to sway votes on page 92. Specifically claiming that inconsistent legal/historical definitions of gender bolsters their argument (somehow?)

-Robert Sullivan, esq, discussing how his faith plays a role in his anti-trans crusade. Most interestingly, if you swap “Christ” and “Christian” terms with “Allah” then it would sound like it was written by the fucking Taliban (98-99)

-Kaiser Permanente study is cited by Dr. Mirriam Grossman, a bought rag for the Republicans, and she specifically heard it from the Society of Catholic Social Scientists. A longitudinal study found that, basically, youth diagnosed with gender dysphoria were often comorbid with other mental health issues before their diagnosis, which, yeah, no shit, being vilified by society will tend to do that to a motherfucker. Plus, I think that non-queer people who are on average far more repressive and image-conscious are just more hesitant to get diagnoses about mental health issues in general, which definitely skews the stats. But, there are other things here that are important to note: 1, this study is being misrepresented to paint trans identity as “a malformation” in that creepy, eugenicist feeling way. 2, full on tinfoil hat speculation, but I’m convinced that Kaiser Permanente shared this information with the republican party (albeit indirectly) in order to use the culture wars as a cudgel to legally cut costs by denying medical coverage to trans people, which, sans anti-trans legislation, could be prosecuted as discrimination. (100).

[justawholebunchofcows]

I haven't seen anything about it on tumblr yet but last week a UK based group called the Lesbian Project announced themselves on Twitter.

[image description: a screenshot of a tweet by The Lesbian Project that reads, "Today we are absolutely delighted to announce the launch of our new organisation for lesbians - The Lesbian Project. Find out more about who we are, what we stand for, and what we plan to do, on our website here:" below the tweet is a link to their website. /end ID]

It's run by TERFS. Namely, self-proclaimed radical feminist Julie Bindel, and Kathleen Stock (as well as "members who prefer to retain anonymity at this time," which may be a tactic known as astroturfing.)

I took a quick glance at the website's landing page. I didn't do too much digging, but I really didn't have to. Here's some highlights from just the home page with screenshots (tw transphobia)

[image description: a screenshot of a website with a pale blue background. the section heading reads "Why The Lesbian Project is Needed" in red text. Below that in a smaller black text reads "The consequences for lesbians of at least 20 years of institutional neglect are clear.

We have little reliable knowledge about the lives of same-sex-attracted females in the UK today (or internationally). We lack detailed information in such crucial areas as: the specific health needs of lesbians; lesbian parenting; lesbians and the housing crisis; young lesbians in the education system; lesbians in minoritised communities; lesbians and ageing; and more." /End ID]

They go on for a bit like this, claiming that lesbians specifically have been failed at an institutional level and that their struggles are somehow unique and separate from other LGBT people, and that other mainstream organizations aren't helping them.

Other than the "females" comment, (which is a terf dog whistle, if you weren't aware) they manage to save the transphobia for the very bottom of the page:

[image description: a screenshot of the same website as above that reads "There is an urgent need for the reinvigoration of single-sex lesbian social spaces and networks, to reconnect members of this disparate and beleaguered community, both nationally and internationally." /end ID]

They are straight up excluding trans women from their organization and painting themselves as the victims! Like idk gang, from the sounds of it one might think trans women already aren't allowed in your groups!

Also, they've been endorsed by LGB Alliance, a notorious anti-trans hate group:

[image description: a screenshot of a quote retweet by LGB Alliance that reads "We are pleased to see the launch of The Lesbian Project, a very welcome new initiative in the fightback against lesbian erasure. Please follow and show your support 👇" included is the original tweet from the Lesbian Project. /End ID]