#i can't stop thinking about Aaron Bushnell

[caelum-et-ks]

Thinking a lot about pacifism as a response to living in an empire where violence is directly oppressive vs. violence as a tool for liberation and where I fall in it.

[fortunatefires]

After the death of Aaron Bushnell I can't stop thinking about the quote "Revolutionary suicide does not mean that I and my comrades have a death wish; it means just the opposite. we have such a strong desire to live with hope and human dignity that existence without them is impossible."

[euniexenoblade]

re: egg discourse

i thought it was just people saying that specifically making jokes about someone being trans but not knowing it yet can be kinda invalidating and sometimes traumatic. are people actually saying you should never tell someone that they might be trans?

i dont really have a side in the debate it just feels like people are willfully misunderstanding eachother and its making my brain hurt

"making jokes about someone being trans but not knowing it yet can be kinda invalidating and sometimes traumatic"

Sure, but it also isn't for a lot of people. And, a lot of people I talk to say egg jokes helped them realize who they were. Though I do think part of this resistance to an egg joke is actually internalized transphobia at points (the idea of being compared to trans people is being treated as degrading in a lot of these people's arguments) the truth of the matter is different people need and want different things. Me making eggs jokes with my friends is not your friend group.

This is why the recurring complaint of our side is it's never egg jokes can make people uncomfortable, 'make sure your friends are cool with them before just doing them,' it's always complaining about trans women forcing cis men to be women or trans women being "transvestigators" or "similar to Christian missionaries." People who are uncomfortable with egg jokes are always projecting their discomfort onto other people, other friend groups, and portray harmless fun between friends as something abusive.

Like for example,

this is a projection. the egg jokes people are talking about happen among friends and stuff, but this person is doing a whole "never make egg jokes because people did it about me and made me feel bad" (oh woe is you, people thought you might be transgender, how disgusting to be a tranny). The majority of egg jokes are not about random ass people, it's within friend groups. And, if you don't like your friends saying them, tell them to stop. If they don't? Then stop being their friends. Also from that post

The underwater filter butchered that. I know you can't read it but I wanted to post it cuz fucking look at that. What the hell. Anyways,

This opposition to egg joke people always talk about strangers. As if we're walking up to random people on the street and making egg jokes about them. It's mostly contained to friend groups. This is just an inaccurate portrayal of what's actually being discussed, and I'm sure the op will be like "I'm talking about my experience!" but OP openly admitted that this rant was relevant to a random blogger complaining about an egg tweet a woman made about her own friend group that neither this OP or that blogger are part of. They are actually dictating how strangers are allowed to act and identify with this, not the egg jokesters.

Yeah, once and a while you get shit like "Aaron Bushnell seems transfem" which was a completely innocuous convo that no one would have seen if well known transmisogynists who accuse random trans women of pedophilia like three times a year hadn't found the post. It was a trans woman seeing herself in someone important in history, and even if someone said something inappropriate, the backlash was undeserved. Yall say embarrassing shit all the time and no one's running you off the web site for it.

I'm sorry this person and others seem to have a bad time with egg jokes (though most of the time, what they describe isn't egg jokes but that's a whole other thing), but their few experiences can not be used to determine a blanket response to something so many people actually do enjoy and find useful. I'm especially not gonna take a cis person's opinions on egg jokes seriously (since so many have seemed to gotten involved and think their opinion on this matters).

"are people actually saying you should never tell someone that they might be trans?"

Yes! That's like, the entire underlying premise of this! Like, 100% this is the backbone of every anti-egg joke argument. That's the entire concept of "egg prime directive." And, it's overwhelmingly weaponized against trying to help transfems realize themselves sooner than they would. From the aforementioned Bushnell drama, to the polls where a shit ton of transmascs voted it was ok to tell an eggy friend they might be a trans man but NOT ok to tell an eggy friend they might be a trans woman, to the newest drama where chongoblog whined about a random trans woman on twitter making egg jokes about her friend (which it was later revealed chongoblog misrepresented the tweet), the anti egg joke committee / "You can't tell anyone they're trans!!!" crew are always wielding this ideology against transfems / trans women but practically never against transmascs.

This is why it's constantly said that these posts and arguments are transmisogynistic in nature. "I'm a trans woman and I say eggs jokes are bad, so it can't be transmisogynistic you're just using that as a shield!" That's great but 1) maybe read between the lines, or read the criticisms you're clearly ignoring and maybe you'll see these people don't respect you 2) the whole "using transmisogyny as a shield" is like, classic transmisogyny at this point. We've been hearing that from anti-feminists, cryptoterfs, and trans woman hating google doc writers for a few years now and 3) you being complicit doesn't mean we gotta care about what you say.

"it just feels like people are willfully misunderstanding eachother and its making my brain hurt"

Oh, I'm sure this is absolutely the case. The problem is a bunch of transphobes are really who spurred a lot of this drama up earlier this year and instead of people thinking "oh these people have bad intentions I shouldn't boost this" they instead were like "Yeah! I don't like egg jokes!" and now we have to deal with trans women making egg jokes (normal, harmless, pro-trans and literally want to help trans people) being compared to transvestigators (a literal anti-trans hate group thing). The issue is people aren't treating us as people, and thus it gets returned in kind.

What's the answer to this? Mutual understanding that "some people need to be told they're trans," "some people don't respond well to being told who they are," "egg jokes can help people and be a fun joke for friends," and "some people are uncomfortable with egg jokes" can all coexist. But, honestly, I don't think we'll ever get there.

[cbs-scorpion-coffee-shop]

I still can't stop being sad about Aaron Bushnell, but it won't change anything.

I still can't stop feeling evil for thinking he wasted his life, but he did.

I still can't stop thinking about how the world needs people like him alive, loud and in power.

We want more Aaron Bushnell's.

Alive.

Loud.

and in power.

Free Palestine

[reasonandempathy]

how can you reblog a Zionist post criticizing people who support Palestine for allowing themselves to be harmed in an effort to support Palestine (https://www.tumblr.com/reasonandempathy/743584944850354176/politics-is-fucking-soul-churning-it-really-is) while also seeming to respect Aaron Bushnell, who made the ultimate sacrifice in an effort to support Palestine? is it so unthinkable that people would be willing to act against their own interest to stop a genocide?

TLDR; that post isn't denying people can self-sacrifice to stop a genocide. That post is about taking the broader context into perspective, and remembering that Trump Is Still So Much Worse, so you should vote against him.

-------------------------------------

Was thinking about this one, actually.

Didn't know the person's broader political views until checking them out, and while it's important context for that person individually, but the post at large still, broadly, stands.

There is, undoubtedly, an aspect of political discourse that promotes people who would vote for Biden to stay home or vote for someone not Biden and not Trump, rooted in (to a much lesser extent than Bushnell, who was being compelled to be an active participant) not wanting to be complicit in that genocide.

What I took to be the main thrust of that post was to point out the unfortunately very, very real dynamic of not helping Biden win would, objectively, be worse for everyone including Palestinians if Trump wins. And in a truly, honestly Binary choice between D or R, there is a correct choice to make. It's Biden.

The first few paragraphs of that post are basic "don't be selective with your care." Which is true.

The rape of Israeli women, the Jewish Diaspora, The various tortures and war crimes inflicted by Hamas and the Houthis are not things to be forgotten nor supported. The world is fucking complicated and "Good Guys" are in incredibly short supply, but "Hooray Huthis" is what I'd call an incredibly fraught tightrope to walk.

----------

The main thrust of that post, though, is referring to people who know Trump is worse and have done extensive work broadcasting that Trump is, objectively, Worse for Palestinians. Worse for Women. Worse for the LGBTQ community. Worse for Non-Christians. Worse for BIPOC. It's pretty simple and reasonable to think that if Trump was in the White House he would find some way to be even worse right now than Biden is being.

But they still can't endorse or support Biden. Who is definitely horrible, but also objectively the better of the 2 options we have.

Which is why I said Politics is soul-churning. Because it is. Because, outside of any actual plan to get anyone else into the White House, it is objectively Better for the people I care about.

My fiance.

My friends.

My extended family.

My Neighbors.

My trade union (though I haven't been in it for a few years).

My city.

My values.

It is objectively Better for Biden to be in power than Trump, which, again, is the only realistic alternative to Trump. But it does mean voting for the guy. And, yeah, I'm in NY (not a secret). Maybe I could vote for the Justice Party or the Green Party or something else.

But I can't assume nobody else will do that, and ceding what small influence I have (.000008% of Biden's popular vote in 2020) to actually help people to instead assuage my personal beliefs is putting my comfort over that small, minuscule, but very Real influence in being able to help people.

I...have blood on my hands. (broadly) We all do. I just want to add less to it.

[the-lady-writes-what]

It is not worth it to argue with Zionists. This is a lesson that I'm trying to learn. It is not worth your time engaging with them at all. A Zionist will likely always believe that Israel has the right to "defense." They will likely always dehumanize Palestinians by conflating them with Hamas. They will likely always offer an ultimatum to you that if you are truly against anti-Semiticism, then you obviously must condemn Hamas, and by that, they mean you must ignore Israel bombing and shooting Palestinian civilians. They will likely always conflate Israel with the interest of the international Jewish community. Jewish organizations actively protesting Israel's actions will be ignored. Jews speaking out against Israel will be ignored or vilified. They will say that Aaron Bushnell was a mentally disturbed anti-Semite whose sacrifice and protest means nothing. They will continue to say all these things and flip criticism towards Israel into anti-Semiticism. They will verbally beat you over the head with accusations of bigotry towards Jews if you so much as suggest that Israel is an apartheid state who has been stealing land and killing Palestinians since 1948.

Do not engage

Do not enter debates with these people

They do not care about your opinions. I really don't think they do. They will not stop defending Israel and will continue to conflate Palestinians with Hamas. They will not stop using Oct. 7 to torment, kill, and displace the millions of Palestinians that are struggling to survive. Zionists and people who support this genocide and every other atrocity happening right now are not worth your time.

I get it. I'm guilty of it too. You get mad and hot under the skin. You can't physically deck them irl, so you take it to the comment section. You go back and forth until one of you gives up and blocks the other. You hate their attitude towards Palestinians, maybe you even hate them as people. Very valid feelings. It sucks. Putting that energy into hating these people who excuse and even support this genocide can be cathartic because maybe you don't have the money to support the Palestinians who are still alive or enough power to influence your government to stop supporting these acts of violence. But trust me, no matter what you say, it will likely not change them, and that sucks too. It isn't worth it. Put the energy you have now into doing what you can: boycott, phone calls, letters to your government, participating in protests, donating what you can.

And for the love of what little good is left in the world, do not send them suicide bait. Maybe this is just my controversial opinion, but don't tell a Zionist to kill themselves. It's not about protecting a Zionist's feelings. Calling them ugly or stupid and telling them to kill themselves just bolsters their beliefs. It does nobody good to send suicide bait even to a Zionist.

The best solution and the only solution is to block them. Socially ostracize them from your internet space. Do not interact with them. Don't send "kys Zionist" or call them ugly or that they have a small penis. Don't bother. Not because their feelings matter, but because your energy and effort is literally needed elsewhere. Give them something worse than engagement and debate. Give them silence. Block them.

[erismourn]

I can't stop thinking about the sounds that came out of Aaron Bushnell as he was in flames. I can't stop thinking about them. I can't stop thinking about how much pain he was in and how many men women and children in Gaza died the same way that he did

[trandoshan]

i read journalist jane talia's description of the immolation of aaron bushnell. i saw the still image. i watched her censored video, i heard his screams. i watched the uncensored video and i saw him burn, and then i watched it with audio and saw it all. the description is enough. the still image is as thorough and brutal as any average person may need ("need") to see to understand the suffering he endured in service of his protest.

i'm not by any means an expert, or whatever, in viewing gore or dealing with the psychic harm that it brings. watching the uncensored video satisfied my curiosity. i know what a burning human looks like, i know how his clothes fell, ashes, from his blackened body. i saw him tremble and fall. it did not make me a better person. i am not made more able to help the palestinian people, knowing these things. i already knew they were terrible.

there's value in respecting aaron bushnell's decision to publicize his protest as he did, that video should exist per his demand to be seen -- i would never condemn him for it, i would never condemn palestinians for begging the world to witness their suffering, i would never condemn mamie till for demanding the world see what white supremacists did to her son -- the holocaust is well-documented and those photos of nazi evil and jewish suffering were invaluable, tangible proof that something very wrong is happening in the world -- and i'm not a better person for having seen it. i wouldn't be a better person for turning away. maybe i would feel better and breathe easier if i did.

i won't satisfy my curiosity on this by searching for more details but when i was young i saw photographs of american soldiers raping women in the middle east. they haunt me. i think the photos were used in a legal case regarding these soldiers. this is different from aaron bushnell's video, of course, because those victims were recorded against their will -- a violation on top of a violation. i regret seeing them. i dont know those women but i hope they never experienced anything so horrific in their lives again. i can't imagine they want anyone seeing them in those moments.

i remember 2 guys 1 hammer, in middle school. i remember the time my mom opened a chain email of a man in police custody pulling a gun out of his pants and shooting himself in the head, quick. i remember videos of humans torturing animals: squeezing cats, cutting the fins off sharks, grabbing turtles by their necks, shaking them until theyre dead. all -- isnt this terrible? or course it is.

one of the first posts i saw about palestine since october 7, from a palestinian in the diaspora, was a tumblr user relating their conversations with their grandmother in palestine. the user wanted maybe to share photos of the people already killed, to remember them. grandmother says: their deaths arent entertainment. you know how israelis use our photos when we are killed.

once i told some people to stop using a specific photo for their memes about feeling ganged up on, by whatever abstract concepts of adulting or mental illness, because the photo was of a gay man being beaten by homophobes. they were aiming to kill him with kicks and stomps and he was curled up on the ground. they told me off for ruining their fun, or trying to, anyway.

[sapphiclizziebennet]

i can't stop thinking about aaron bushnell. i literally can't stop. i want to cry so bad but i'm just expected to keep going on in life. how can i do that when things are so bad that someone felt the need to sacrifice their life to this degree. i can't stop thinking about his voice. i don't know what to do