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simplegenius042 · 20 days

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Late Music Monday and Partners-In-Law Meme

Tagged by @imogenkol

Tagging @socially-awkward-skeleton @aceghosts @noodlecupcakes @direwombat @voidika @la-grosse-patate @inafieldofdaisies @cassietrn @adelaidedrubman @shellibisshe @josephseedismyfather @icecutioner @derelictheretic @shallow-gravy @strangefable @rhettsabbott @josephslittledeputy @cloudofbutterflies92 @skoll-sun-eater @carlosoliveiraa @g0dspeeed @wrathfulrook @afarcryfrommymain @strafethesesinners @turbo-virgins @raresvtm @softtidesworld @starsandskies @ladyoriza @florbelles @minilev @yokobai @thewanderer-000 @omen-speaker @justasmolbard @alypink and @sledge-in-space + anyone who'd like to join.

Late Music Monday, songs for characters from The UnTitledverse, The Silver Chronicles and Life, Despair & Monsters. Not in that order though. Partners-In-Law Meme for my V, Judy and River. Songs and template below the cut:

Welp, here I go rambling about the parallels of Silva and Paul once more. Alright so, I think by now we've mostly gotten well-aware that Silva (and Paul) have not had good experiences in regards to religion. Most certainly due to the fact they were both born in a cult that abides by puritanism and fascist beliefs, which, by the time of Paul's birth, also gained a militaristic mindset with the introduction of the Enforcers when Adam took charge as their Prophet. The Congregation of Adam's Guard, on surface level, preaches and demands virtue and righteousness from its followers, to effectively become morally pure under their Prophet's watching eyes, especially if they wanted to see Paradise after the world falls to the Collapse when all seven Frozen Omens melt. To not adhere to or display any other qualities other than their "norm" was punished with extreme force, and by the time Adam came into charge, with death. Which explains why under the surface of the cult's message, is a foundation rooted in colonialism and xenophobia, tied up in a bow of hypocrisy that is used to justify all kinds of depraved and heinous actions the Congregation and their Prophet allows. Silva and Paul are both victims of the Congregations persecutions and discrimination. Both had been under the God-fearing foot of the Congregation, with Paul being amongst the segregated Tumultites and Silva enduring under Adam Omar's terror. Both Silva and Paul eventually reject the Congregation, (a) because the Congregation wants them dead, (b) long-term wise, especially under Adam's tyranny, the Congregation and the society it has built through fearmongering cannot survive the inevitable collapse from the insufficient resources that protects them from the environment and the spark of rebellion due to the less fortunate citizens living under the pressure of becoming "pure" and (c) the Congregation sucks. Silva and Paul instead adopt the Tumultite community's values and beliefs, especially of their first revolutionary leader, Jannah, who Paul especially aspires to be like. Finally, Paul and Silva, once in the modern world, while not believers in the predominant religions (especially in America), do not hold any ill-thought towards such groups; Silva rather admires some of the lessons spoken and wishes she could have the same comfort that their God gives to others, meanwhile Paul is only hostile to people who hide behind God to harm and oppress others... otherwise he's pretty agnostic to the whole thing. One things clear though; their experiences with the Congregation had irreversibly shattered their perceptions of being able to seek any kind of comfort under any deity, especially with the associated pain that haunts them to this day. The song below can fit either one of Silva or Paul or even both.

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"First things first I'ma say all the words inside my head I'm fired up and tired of the way that things have been, oh-ooh The way that things have been, oh-ooh

Second things second Don't you tell me what you think that I could be I'm the one at the sail, I'm the master of my sea, oh-ooh The master of my sea, oh-ooh

I was broken from a young age Taking my sulking to the masses Writing my poems for the few That look at me, took to me, shook to me, feeling me Singing from heartache, from the pain Taking my message from the veins Speaking my lesson from the brain Seeing the beauty through the...

Pain! You made me a, you made me a believer, believer Pain! You break me down, you build me up, believer, believer Pain! Oh, let the bullets fly, oh, let them rain My life, my love, my drive, it came from... Pain! You made me a, you made me a believer, believer

Third things third Send a prayer to the ones up above All the hate that you've heard has turned your spirit to a dove, oh-ooh Your spirit up above, oh-ooh

I was choking in the crowd Building my rain up in the cloud Falling like ashes to the ground Hoping my feelings, they would drown But they never did, ever lived, ebbing and flowing Inhibited, limited till it broke open And rained down It rained down like...

Last things last By the grace of the fire and the flames You're the face of the future, the blood in my veins, oh-ooh The blood in my veins, oh-ooh

But they never did, ever lived, ebbing and flowing Inhibited, limited till it broke open And rained down It rained down like...

Eden "Evie" Bloodleech, formerly known as Evie Jackson, was picked up and became an experiment for Sir Enigma Malvolio. Unfortunately, she survived the process and became one of his rare human successes, which was a mindset that was further encouraged by her apparent likeness for her "rebirth" and led him to continue his absurd quest to evolve humans to a level he sees as perfect for them, allowing Evie to officially join the Ruins of the Midnight Rise as both a valuable member and a prized success story. He sent her out in his stead for diplomatic purposes, allowing her to use her abilities to charm potential investors and allies to further his illicit research. Eventually she was sent back to her original universe in my An Invite To Wine And Dine WIP (set in The Invitation) to infiltrate the Alexander Family in order to dethrone Dracula and take the three families he held control under her wing... or rather tendril. And... she's rather a show-off (byproduct of being one of Malvolio's rare favorites I guess):

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"There's only two types of people in the world The ones that entertain, and the ones that observe Well, baby, I'm a put-on-a-show kinda girl Don't like the backseat, gotta be first (Oh, oh) I'm like the ringleader, I call the shots (Call the shots) I'm like a firecracker, I make it hot

When I put on a show I feel the adrenaline moving through my veins Spotlight on me and I'm ready to break I'm like a performer, the dance floor is my stage Better be ready, hope that you feel the same

All eyes on me in the center of the ring Just like a circus When I crack that whip, everybody gon' trip Just like a circus Don't stand there watching me, follow me Show me what you can do Everybody let go, we make a dance floor Just like a circus."

And finally, a I'm sure I've used before, but am gonna do it again because "I'm So Sorry" not only slaps, but fits the main antagonist of The UnTitledverse's first saga, Edward Carmine, quite well, if you squint. He's a menace to society and should not be in charge of any leadership roles, even as a CEO. Edward's the type of man to burn all his bridges and blame a child he manipulated for it. Diabolical man that just won't get the hint and stay dead. Extremely petty and arrogant, as antagonists like him should be. By far, amongst one of my favourite antagonist OCs (though that's probably because he's one of the first ones to be developed). Listen below:

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"About time for anyone telling you off for all your deeds No sign the roaring thunder stopped in cold to read (No time) I get mine and make no excuses Waste of precious breath (No time) The sun shines on everyone Everyone, love yourself to death

So you gotta fire up, you gotta let go You'll never be loved till you've made your own You gotta face up, you gotta get yours You never know the top till you get too low

A son of a stepfather A son of a, I'm so sorry A son of a stepfather A son of a, I'm so sorry

No lies and no deceiving, man is what he loves I keep tryin' to conceive that death is from above (No time) I get mine and make no excuses Waste of precious breath (No time) The sun shines on everyone Everyone, love yourself to death

So you gotta fire up, you gotta let go You'll never be loved till you've made your own You gotta face up, you gotta get yours You never know the top till you get too low

A son of a stepfather A son of a, I'm so sorry A son of a stepfather A son of a, I'm so sorry

Life isn't always what you think it'd be Turn your head for one second and the tables turn And I know, I know that I did you wrong But will you trust me when I say that I'll make it up to you Somehow? Somehow?"

And lastly, a Partners-In-Law meme for my V (actual name Min-Ji "Vasilisa" Choi), her new partner Judy Álvarez and her amicable ex River Ward. [Note: I'm assuming affection refers to their feelings for their mutual partner. Also I never romanced River and am just taking taking whatever information I can recall or from the internet in regards to his preferences and sexuality and the information I've found (especially the wiki compared to everything else) is quite conflicting so I'm going with Bi-curious]:

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hihiitscai · 1 year

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Okay I need to yell about antitheism because it’s so painfully rampant in leftist spaces, and there seems to be an emphasis on being antitheist specifically towards the Christian God and the countless denominations that believe in Him. Things like “well if he’s so loving then why xyz thing that’s bad in the world,” or “there cannot be a god that is both all knowing and all loving because xyz thing” or, as I encountered literally today, “you don’t actually love your faith or your god because you misunderstand your religious texts” and proceeding to say that there are no verses about God loving everyone, or “Catholicisms only value is in its aesthetic,” which I also saw today.

Leftist and otherwise progressive spaces seem to be suddenly okay with antitheism when it’s towards Christians because it’s, I don’t know, punching up? People have been hurt by it and the vast majority of oppression in the world is perpetrated in the name of Christianity, and therefore it’s okay to be blatantly disrespectful of something that is important to literally billions of people and brings joy to their lives? My faith brings me joy and hope and love and fulfillment. I am Catholic not for the church, but for the God that I love and who I know loves me. The church is the vessel through which I feel most connected to Him. And yet I am told that I misunderstand my own religious texts (that I have studied, by the way), that I am somehow unintelligent for believing in a higher power. Antitheism of this nature is in largely online spaces, I’ll admit, like in multiple different discord servers that I have been a part of that had “religion” on their blacklist, but really only meant Christianity. Pagans, Muslims, Jewish folks, all were allowed to talk about their faith and their holidays and their beliefs and practices, but as soon as I mention my excitement for Easter, or my preparation for Lent, I’m in violation of the blacklist and get a warning or a kick or whatever the case may be. And why? For those hurt by the church? It seems to be difficult for some to view the situation with any nuance and understand that healing from religious trauma can include deconstructing and reconnecting to your religion.

Also, please don’t hear me say that this is equivalent to the systemic oppression of religious minorities or that it is appropriation. It absolutely isn’t. But there’s an important point here to be made about systemic oppression (which this isn’t) and interpersonal prejudice/discrimination (which this is). You can experience discrimination on an interpersonal level and that is what a lot of antitheism is. Devaluing my beliefs and my intelligence on the basis of my being Catholic is interpersonal discrimination. And the fact that it is permissible because it relates to Christianity is as well.

#antitheism #anti theism

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covid-safer-hotties · 27 days

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Leave Those Kids Alone - Published Aug 29, 2024

Bullying a child for wearing a mask exposes a stark hypocrisy in some people's view of personal freedom.

If someone bullies a person for wearing a hijab, they face consequences. If they bully a person for wearing a turban, they will be sanctioned according to the rules of their institution or laws that punish racism and discrimination. Most people view the racist bully with disdain because society has determined that targeting someone based on their race or religion is inherently a bad thing.

But what about people who wear masks?

A recent social media thread1 outlined the abuse suffered by a child at the hands of fellow students and adult staff for wearing a mask to protect against the risk of respiratory infection. Replace mask with turban, hijab, crucifix or Star of David and see how you feel about the victimized child and the people who’ve been bullying them. Talk to members of the COVID-safe community and you’ll understand that this sort of bullying is commonplace.

There is never any justification for targeting someone based on their personal choices, attire or appearance. A child or adult who chooses to wear a mask is doing so for their own reasons. They might be immune compromised or have a family member who is immunosuppressed. Diabetes puts people at higher risk of poor outcomes of COVID-19 and other infections2. Perhaps they have a family member with diabetes, or perhaps they themselves live with the condition. Maybe they have an autoimmune disease or a family member who does. Or perhaps they just want to avoid participating in the largest experiment in human history.

Whatever their reason, it is private and none of anyone else’s business. Bullying is often portrayed as the strong picking on the weak, but it is usually the weakest members of society who engage in bullying. Those who seek to externalize the way they feel about themselves, to draw attention away from their own flaws or downplay their own fears.

Mask wearing is backed by science. It has been shown to be almost wholly effective at preventing infection3,4. And there are thousands of scientific studies that demonstrate the short- and medium-term harms of COVID-19 infection5. The long-term impacts of this virus are yet to come, but we do know that SARS-COV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 results in a rise in autoantibodies even in children6-8. Autoantibodies are components of the immune system that attack the self.

Children who have had COVID-19 are at higher risk of a diverse range of autoantibodies, including those implicated in diabetes6-8. The long-term harms are yet to be determined, but at the very least, societies can expect a rise in autoimmune disease.

The ignorant among us believe infection is a good thing, that it trains the immune system and makes us stronger. We’ve previously written about the error of this belief9. If infection made us stronger, the areas of the world that have the most disease would have the best population health and life expectancy. The opposite is true. In fact, both COVID-19 specifically and infection of any sort more generally have been found to age the immune system, a discovery which may upend conventional views of the immune system as a ‘muscle’9-14.

Take a moment to think about your immune system and the layers involved. We know that infections often deplete immune cells. COVID-19 is particularly well studied in this regard and has been found to deplete dendritic cells, T cells, and other immune cells15,16. Whether transient or longer term, this depletion will leave people more vulnerable to infection and might explain the rise in prevalence of other diseases experienced since the arrival of COVID-1917,18.

In addition to depleting the immune system, COVID-19 is implicated in the creation of autoantibodies19,20, meaning the immune system is being mistrained to attack the body, further weakening the host, and in some cases, causing long-term autoimmune disease, which also further weakens the host.

Some viruses exploit the aftermath of another infection. Dengue has been demonstrated to use antibodies created by prior dengue infection or COVID-1921,22 infection to infect the host more effectively, a process known as antibody dependent enhancement. This phenomenon is also seen in relation to Zika, West Nile Virus and HIV23-26.

In short, there are many ways in which an infection can impact a person and make them more vulnerable to other infections. So, the child who chooses to mask should be commended for taking responsibility for their health and the health of those around them. Under no circumstances should they be bullied or singled out, often by people whose connection to science and current affairs is so feeble that they believe COVID-19 has ‘gone away’ and are shocked when they are reinfected.

In 2020 and 2021, when members of the John Snow Project hypothesized about the long-term impacts of SARS-COV-227, it seemed implausible that a ‘common cold’ could cause so many issues. SARS-COV-2 is not and never will be a common cold. More and more people are noticing an uptick in illness28-37. People are sick more often with a wider variety of illnesses. This was predictable because the mechanisms by which this would happen were understood in 2020. What was also predictable was the rise in all-cause mortality that continues to be seen around the world38,39. We are also likely to see a significant rise in autoimmune diseases over the long-term and a general increase in ill health40.

Instead of bullying a child strong enough to be the only person wearing a mask in school, those being cruel should show some humility and confront the possibility the child might be better informed about human health or have private reasons for continuing to be cautious. Public health bodies and public institutions should do more to protect personal choice and prevent bullying and stigmatization for masking. After all, we are living in a world of individual responsibility and an individual should not be penalized for choosing to be responsible.

#covid #mask up #pandemic #covid 19 #wear a mask #coronavirus #sars cov 2 #public health #still coviding #wear a respirator

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alpaca-clouds · 1 year

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Solarpunk and Religious Diversity

Okay, let me talk about the probably most contentious issue about diversity in the Solarpunk space: Religion.

So far I have again and again noticed, how a lot of Solarpunks tend to be very anti-religion, only maybe making an exception for spiritual religions like Shinto (often without even understanding, what Shinto actually entails).

Reason of this is partly the awareness, no doubt, of religion again and again being used to suppress minorities. Both Christianity and Islam are fairly well known for how they suppress both women and queer folks - and of course in the past religion has been used for example to justify slavery and other attrocities.

As someone, who has been active in atheistic circles for a couple of years in his early 20s, I am very well aware of the usual "You cannot choose your sexuality, but you can choose your religion" argumentation going on. Which is of course... wrong

Now, obviously nobody chooses their sexuality, but.. most people do not choose their religion either. Not only that most people are in fact raised within their religion, but... I know a lot of SciFi folks hate to hear this, but we are actually not really this reasonable, rational species, you know? Our brains are made for pattern recognition. Our brains are, in fact, kinda made for seeing intent, where there is none. And because of this... we are religious.

And let me make one thing clear: A lot of self-proclaimed atheists still believe in a lot of patterns, that are not there. A big eample is the "invisible hand of the free market".

So, no, people do not choose their religion. They either are raised within a religion or find a religion, that is especially good at making their brain go "brrz!". Do you really believe people would follow a religion in a country, where that religion is outlawed under the panelty of death, if it was their free choice? Probably not.

And it is because of that, that we just gotta learn to arrange ourselves with the religions. Instead of hating all of Christianity or Islam because there are those that use those religions for hate, hate those people, not the religion.

Atheism and "science" (that is not really science) has been used for hate, too. Just look at Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins and how they act about transgender people. Heck, most queer folks and women and otherwise marginalized folks like me, left the atheist sphere because it was so hateful towards us.

So, no. It is not the religion that makes the people hateful. Rather hateful people will use religion to propagate their hate towards more people.

Discrimating against religious people, will not stop discrimination against other groups. Most religions actually do have a rather solid moral framework. Of helping others and especially the poor, about protecting nature and so on. So rather build on that, than expecting people to not follow their religion anymore.

And for those, who think Shinto is so amazing: Be aware that for a long, long time human sacrifice happened as part of Shinto.

And I like the Shinto religion. But... I do not overidealize it. Like all religious frameworks, it has its flaws and has been used to justify bad things.

So just... be accepting. At least of those who want to use their religion for good.

#solarpunk #solarpunk fiction #diversity #religion #religious diversity #lunarpunk #shinto #acceptance

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originalleftist · 3 months

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Something I dearly wish more people, especially those who identify with progressivism and the Left, understood is Intersectionality.

I don't claim to be any kind of expert on the subject myself, and I have my own biases and privilege, so take my position for whatever its worth, and feel free to dissect it. But very basically, "Intersectionality is a sociological analytical framework for understanding how groups' and individuals' social and political identities result in unique combinations of discrimination and privilege. Examples of these factors include gender, caste, sex, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, religion, disability, height, age, and weight. These intersecting and overlapping social identities may be both empower and oppressing. However little good-quality quantitative research has been done to support or undermine the practical uses of intersectionality." (Wikpedia)

Put very simply, its about how different aspects of someone's identity affect how they are privileged and disadvantaged/discriminated against- and, crucially, how one can be both privileged in certain ways, and discriminated against in others.

I had heard the term previously, and probably had a vague sense of what it meant, but I believe that, as with so many things, I first started to really realize its importance, and the deficiency of awareness of intersectionality, while following the Depp v Heard trial (full disclosure: I actually used Depp v Heard as an example of intersectionality on a college anthropology exam, and I will undoubtably repeat some things from that here, though I do not have the exam on-hand to refer to).

One of the recurring arguments raised by certain Depp supporters (presumably those sympathetic to the Left, or perhaps more astute at manipulating the Left) was basically that Amber Heard did not deserve support because she was wealthy/famous/privileged. A recurring line (and example of how, despite being deeply rooted in Right-wing MRA/Incel ideology, "the Justice for Johnny Depp" crowd coopted Left-wing and social justice rhetoric) was to mock and dismiss Heard's obvious distress as "white woman tears".

Of course, this term is typically used to call out white fragility/defensiveness around race, and white women who play the victim against Black people- not a white woman who is in actual distress because she's being forced to publicly relive r*pe trauma in court before a jeering mob of her r*pist's fans. And the entire narrative ignores that Depp enjoyed far more power and privilege than Heard did (those who claim otherwise are generally adopting the misogynist "Men's Rights Activist" narrative that women are actually the privileged gender in society and are always believed, while constantly making false accusations against men- which was probably their whole point). It also means ignoring that Heard was repeatedly and viciously targeted based on her gender, her sexual orientation as an openly queer woman, and her mental health. Depp was subject to some ableist attacks as well, for example, in that he was stigmatized for the illness of addiction, but Heard, as with most things, got by far the worst of it.

One could and should also point out that much of what was directed at Heard and her supporters-the censoring of her freedom of expression, harassment and death threats against her and her child, abuse of the legal system, etc, as well as the horrific and life-threatening abuse inflicted against her by Depp and previously found to be true by a UK court-would be unjustified against anyone, regardless of their relative privilege, at least assuming one believes in universal rights or the rule of law. But the argument of privilege on Heard's part is itself selective, and misleading.

Now, flash forward to October 2023, for case study number 2. Among the arguments of the anti-semitic Left since October 7th have been that Israelis (primarily Jewish citizens of the world's only Jewish state) do not deserve sympathy or consideration, and that anything that is done to them is justified as "resistance", because they are the oppressors- they hold the power and privilege. Often, this has manifested as attacks not only on Israel and Israelis, but one anyone who supports them- and anyone who is Jewish. Again, one could and should reject outright that atrocities such as murder, r*pe, slavery, and torture are justified against anyone, for any reason. But the premise of the argument, that Israel holds the power and privilege, is again over-simplistic. Certainly, Israel has more economic and military power than Hamas, Gaza, or Palestine. But on a world-wide scale, the Jewish people are still a very small, marginalized, and vulnerable group- and would likely be far more so without a nation capable of defending itself. Jews amount to less than half a percent of the world's population, and the vast majority live in one of two countries- Israel and the United States. Further, regardless of the power disparity that exists between Israel and Gaza or Palestine, it should be self-evidently preposterous to argue that a random Israeli civilian, confronted by a Hamas gunman and facing imminent murder, r*pe, abduction, or all of the above, is in a position of power. But all of this is frequently ignored to try to justify bigotry, terrorism, and collective punishment of Israelis- and, very often, Diaspora Jews as well.

One should also consider how many Leftists have reacted to the war in Ukraine. Ukraine is unquestionably the smaller, less powerful party in a war with Russia, and it is unquestionably the victim of aggression. So, how did the Putinist/Tankie wing of the Left justify supporting Russia over Ukraine? Easy- they just treat Ukraine as an extension of NATO/the US, rather than as a sovereign nation, and argue that NATO aggression and imperialism caused the war, which Russia is then the underdog resisting (this of course is basically a Kremlin propaganda narrative).

Now, let's jump forward to the present, where Joe Biden's political future is being imperilled by relentless attacks asserting, on little to no solid evidence, that he is both mentally and physically unfit to run for or serve as President. One would assume that if any person on Earth is immune to systemic discrimination, it's Joe Biden. He is a fairly wealthy, heterosexual, cisgendered, white, Christian, American man. He basically won Privilege Bingo. And he currently holds the single most powerful position on the planet- one which just became frighteningly more powerful with the Supreme Court's presidential immunity ruling (albeit a ruling they obviously only made for Trump's benefit, confident that Biden would not abuse the immense and utterly unprecedented power that they have bestowed upon him).

And yet, as we saw with Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama before him, even climbing to the heights of political power does not shield a marginalized identity from attack. Hillary Clinton is a former First Lady, Senator, and Secretary of State, and was a major party's nominee for President. But she was subjected to relentless attacks, some obviously misogynist, and it certainly played a role in her defeat and the election of Donald Trump- a serial r*pist who was taped boasting about being able to get away with grabbing women "by the pussy". Barrack Obama won the Presidency twice- but not without a widespread movement denying that he was even a real American, allegations that he was a "secret Muslim" (which would not be disqualifying for the Presidency in any case), and a backlash that also likely contributed to the election of Trump, a virulent racist.

Biden, as a white man, has advantages that Obama and Clinton never did. But Biden too can still be attacked and treated unfairly based on his association with various marginalized identities. As soon as he showed signs of age and frailty, he was subject to the relentless contempt of our society for the geriatric and the disabled. Add to that his life-long stutter. Granted, Biden has far more power than most to resist such attacks, so it would probably be a big stretch to say that he is a victim of systemic oppression. But these attacks, using ableism and ageism to declare someone unfit for the Presidency, are ultimately also attacks on the dignity of all older and disabled people (there's also a good bit of racism and misogyny underlying it, as at least some of the hyperbole and fear-mongering over Biden's age and fitness is clearly driven by fear that a Black woman might succeed him- see in particular the recent piece in The Washington Post calling for Biden to stay in but replace VP Harris).

So what is my point in all of this? It is that peoples' identities are complex, and that just because someone is privileged-even immensely privileged-in certain ways does not mean that they cannot be underprivileged, marginalized, or oppressed and discriminated against in others. And that if the Left/progressives as a whole had as solid a grasp of intersectionality, and its importance, as they do of privilege, they would be far less likely to fall so easily for fascist psy-ops trying to convince Leftists that no, this whole class of people are okay to persecute because they're actually Oppressors, in order to divide and conquer us all.

Because the thing is: privilege is real. So is systemic discrimination. Certain people and groups of people do have unfair advantages over others based on their identities and how they are perceived, which contribute to bias and must be accounted for and rectified. But this is also true: everybody has multiple different identities. Everybody has ways in which they are advantaged over someone else, and ways in which they are disadvantaged. Some people have far more things that fall on one side of the scale than the other. But you can find something about just about anyone that gives them an unfair advantage over someone else. So if you focus only on that, and define someone's worthiness to receive sympathy accordingly, then you can reframe anyone as the Oppressor, and therefore unworthy of sympathy, and deserving of anything that is done to them.

Of course, one might also cynically argue that many people WANT to fall for that ploy, because it gives them an excuse to engage in harassment, bullying, and abuse; to join in the mob, while pretending to be righteous. I might also observe that the Left's fixation on determining who is worthy of sympathy based on who holds the most power essentially commits them ideologically to always being on the losing side- should any Leftist ever actually succeed in achieving major political success, they will become part of "the establishment", and immediately suspect. And I wonder how large a role this sort of thinking plays in Leftist third party "purity politics", and the infamous "circular firing squad".

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pbeltarts · 10 months

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Hey... It's weird rlly, but i'm caught in the in-between of I don't discriminate gays and I have to obey religion... HELP?

I can't really be a religious guide on something like that when I'm not part of any religion myself. But,

I think there needs to be an understanding divide between 'duty-bound by belief' and human decency. Regardless of if ancient texts state it, a politician or government leader, or someone of authority- we are at the end of the day, the maker of our choices. Our belief is as strong as the person believing and to me, is a guidebook for how we frame our own lives. IDK what religion you're having to obey, but my first question is: why do you have to obey it?

There's this strange consensus amongst religious groups that the religious text shouldn't be questioned or countered by any means. But these are just words written down by other infallible humans, and you can't speak directly to the god or gods they came from. Its already been proven throughout history how these religious texts and teachings can change throughout the years, being manipulated to serve the needs of a group or party in power. Why do their human interpretations take precedence over your own understanding of the religion?

If you know and believe that gay people are just as equal to you as any other person, despite whatever teachings you follow says, then believe in your own human decency first. If something says to do harm to another person, who just the same has a beating heart, a family, and a life as you do, why would that teaching be considered 'right'?

At the end of the day, as I understand, most of these teachings tell you to impart your religious wisdom to these people but it is ultimately up to them to live their lives how they choose. Their salvation isn't your responsibility.

To live our lives how we want, even if in the end its the 'wrong' way, means we at least lived. That isn't anyone's job to ordain or monitor. You don't get brownie points with god because you exclude or are rude to a gay person.

And in my opinion, God would never want you to do that in the first place.

Gods seem to come in two forms: fear them or love them. Not both. Because you can't really love something that strikes fear into you, not truly.

If God loves his creatures, all of them, despite whatever failings they have, then he wouldn't want them to hurt each other the ways many of us do. If Jesus, assuming we're talking Christianity which we may not be (but I grew up in baptized belt, so its my main frame of reference), died for our sins then does that not mean we are absolved of our sins? That his sacrifice was to save us everlasting, and by constantly attacking others for their 'sins' is pointless because they've been saved regardless.

IDK if any of that rambling can be helpful. Hopefully it gives you something to at least think about.

#drabbles #asks #long post sorry

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djuvlipen · 8 months

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Every European power viewed both Roma and Jews as exotic Asian foreigners who don't belong in Europe. Both groups faced a shared history of pogroms and expulsion. Both groups were blamed as scapegoats for the European plagues.

Yup. It's interesting too because other than that, Romani people and Jewish people are different in every way possible. Totally different language, different culture, different religion (Romani people are either Christian or Muslim, with only a very few being something else). And the oppression we face(d) have a different face too, it was true then and it is still true now. While Jewish people were discriminated in Romania, they were not enslaved in chattel slavery for 500 years there, as Romani people were. While Romani people were discriminated in Spain during the Inquisition, it is not comparable to the wave of killings and ethnic cleansings Spanish Jews faced. So we did experience oppression next to each other, but not *with* each other, turning us into witnesses of the other's oppression more than a fellow victim. If you get what I mean. Ari Joskowicz demonstrated this brilliantly in Rain of Ash.

The way antisemitism is conceptualized is also very, very different from the way anti-Romani racism is, although both evolved from a form of religious hatred (Romani people were/still are believed to be Pagans and non-Christian) to a form of scientific racism in the 1800s. Antisemitism is characterized by a sort of double-think; for antisemites, Jewish people are wealthy and controlling the world, but also a very poor people making up a plague of petty criminals. There is no such sort of double-think for Romani people. For people who are racist against Sinti and Roma, we are not just a part of a very poor people of filthy, petty criminals; we embody poverty and criminality itself. This is why Europeans will say "Gypsy" as a synonym for either "poor", "cheap" or "thief". This is why French and German Romantic writers turned "Bohemians" into an embodying figure of poverty. By doing so, they are also building on another common theme of anti-Romani racism: the representation of nameless, but very large masses of foreign invaders, which have been part of the anti-Romani racist register ever since Europeans saw poor, Brown travellers entering the continent centuries ago. So in Europe, poor masses and marginals will be thought of as a ramification of the Romani people; the poor and criminal will be identified with Romani people, because Romani people represent poverty and criminality. So if you read Third Reich orders about Romani people, you'll find the formula "Gypsies, half-Gypsies, and people who behave like Gypsies". Ironically, the man who pioneered anti-Romani hatred as scientific racism, who allegedly demonstrated the Romani race was a race of criminals, prostitutes and poor people, Cesare Lombroso, was Jewish.

So there's that. And as a result of those conceptual differencies, State persecution of Romani and Jewish people were carried out differently. In 1930s-40s Europe, antisemitism was a State matter, heads of state, governments and the entire political class felt so threatened by Jewish people that they all felt the need to chime in and organize big meetings around it. In comparison, Romani people were (unless it came to border control or marching on the USSR) usually thought of as a public health matter, as the matter of interior control and order, and so those big politicians delegated the handling of Romani people to smaller scale actors, local groups, local police, etc. Because anti-Romani persecution was less organized, it gave those local actors a larger leeway to do what they wanted, for better or for worse. That is why the architects of the Romani genocide weren't Hitler or Eichmann, but Himmler. And because State persecution of Romani people was more often relegated to local affairs, it is harder to track it down, more disorganized and chaotic.

People have used this fact to argue the Romani genocide didn't happen. Because direct State orders related to Romani people specifically (ie, forced sterilization, deportation and extermination on the Eastern front) were less numerous than Jewish people. It's because they are not taking in the different history of antisemitism and anti-Romani racism, and because they think just because the two groups were persecuted by the Nazis, that persecution must be 100% identical. That is simply not the case. The Romani genocide only started to be recognized as such by academics in the 80s, because historians like Karola Fings, Frank Sparing and Herbert Heuss looked into local history.

So it is interesting that although Romani and Jewish people have been used as a racial scapegoat for centuries by Europeans, anti-Romani racism and antisemitism differ so greatly in how it was/is carried out, and how it was/is thought of

#asks #anon #porrajmos #porajmos #samudaripen #holocaust #shoah

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actualmermaid · 1 year

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I present to you The Venerable John Boswell, who should be remembered by every church and every Christian who considers themselves “open and affirming.”

If you have heard of John Boswell, you've probably heard of his name in conjunction with words like "controversial" or "disputed." This is an absolute shame, because I've been getting to know him and his work over the last couple of months for a different project, and I've come to think of him as "my dead friend." According to an (alive) friend in religious studies, "a saint is just a dead friend who can pray for you," so I am presenting him in the form of a traditional icon.

Iconography:

"The Venerable": in one sense bitterly ironic, since Professor Boswell died young. On the other hand it calls back to the Venerable Bede, also a historian whose work has been "challenged."

Tongue of flame: a traditional symbol for the Holy Spirit. One of the traditional gifts of the Holy Spirit is the gift of "speaking in tongues" and the "interpretation of tongues." Professor Boswell spoke or read at least 17 modern and classical languages.

Harvard Doctoral robes: a symbol of his academic achievement and authority. Professor Boswell was educated and worked in some of the most prestigious institutions in the world, and was briefly the chair of the Yale history department before he had to step down because of his illness. Someone like Thomas Aquinas probably would have considered him a social equal. He was not "a single controversial historian" with a couple of crackpot theories.

Palm frond: a traditional symbol for martyrs. In a very broad sense, a martyr is someone whose death can teach us something, or is otherwise "theologically significant." Professor Boswell died of AIDS in 1994. HIV/AIDS is not "God's judgment upon sinners," as some conservative fanatics believe. It is a mindless disease that governments and other institutions (including churches) allowed to spread unchecked in gay communities for years, simply because they were gay. It was only when "respectable" people began coming down with it that medical research began in earnest and public health protocols were put into practice. It was, and still is in some places, a public health disaster even now that effective treatments for it exist. Professor Boswell was one of the vanguard of AIDS patients who died before effective treatments were available, and part of a generation of queer elders who should still be with us. He would be 76 years old in 2023.

"The crown of glory for me is with you": this is a line from "The Passion of SS. Serge and Bacchus," which Professor Boswell translated into English for the first time, which makes it widely available to people outside of small, elite academic circles. In the legend, Bacchus has been martyred and has appeared to Sergius in a vision. He uses this line to encourage Sergius to stay strong until they can be reunited in heaven. In another sense, the icon of Professor Boswell is encouraging the people who admire him to keep up his work. Keep digging up subversive, queer Christian history, and keep challenging him. We didn't stop writing English history after the Venerable Bede, and we won't stop writing LGBTQ Christian history after the Venerable Boswell.

Hagiography:

Professor Boswell, known as Jeb to his friends and family, was said to be remarkably kind, generous, funny, and sensitive. He was beloved by his students and respected by his colleagues. He became a devoted Roman Catholic when he was a teenager, and attended Mass daily. He was approachable and open regarding the challenges of being both gay and Christian, and was also openly critical of the Church in spite of (or perhaps because of) his personal faith. He challenged both religious conservatives, for obvious reasons, and also "enlightened secularists" whose dogma held that "organized religion," and Christianity in particular, was the root cause of all homophobic discrimination in the world. There are many people who would have preferred to let his life and work quietly slip into the past, and there are even some who have actively tried to erase him, but John Boswell will not be erased. In my opinion, Professor Boswell should be officially commemorated by every church that considers itself "Open And Affirming." This modern movement builds on work done by Professor Boswell, and he must be respected in all of his twinky, flamboyant, brilliant, and life-giving glory. He declared that queer people could know God without shame or self-censorship, and that the Church could be made to repent and welcome us as it once did.

Further Reading:

If you have a couple of hours, I recommend the single known video recording of one of his lectures: Jews, Gay People, and Bicycle Riders (1986). This is an excellent introduction to his work.

https://www.christiancentury.org/article/first-person/john-boswell-s-faith-lit-generation

https://qspirit.net/john-boswell-historian-gays-lesbians/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/17004797/john-eastburn-boswell

https://www.wm.edu/as/dean/boswell/about/index.php

https://lgbtqreligiousarchives.org/profiles/john-boswell

https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/pwh/index-bos.asp

https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/12/resources/5188

#my art #history #lgbtq history #christian history #christianity #saints

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ukrfeminism · 8 months

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Violet felt misunderstood and invisible when she was at school, as though teachers did not care or believe in her. She was permanently excluded aged 16, just before her GCSEs.

Racial injustice could have been to blame. New research from the charity Agenda Alliance has revealed that girls from a Black Caribbean background are excluded from school at double the rate of white girls.

A freedom of information request to the Department for Education found that in the 2021/2022 academic year, white girls were excluded at a rate of 0.06. That equates to six exclusions for every 10,000 pupils.

Black Caribbean girls were excluded at a rate of 0.12, while it was even higher for girls of a mixed white and Black Caribbean background at 0.14.

“Things were bad at school and sometimes things were bad at home but nobody ever gave me support,” Violet says. “When I was permanently excluded – just before my GCSEs – I didn’t know who I was going to be or what I’d do.

“I think there’s stigma around Black British girls. We’re treated differently with perceptions about us. We’re often punished just for being different. We get told off for the way uniforms look on our bodies, but they’re just not made for our body types and don’t fit us in the same way as white girls.

“Also, sometimes Black girls just have an opinion and it’s then taken as aggressive, or we’re just labelled ‘rude’. I could do the same thing as a white girl and I would get in 10 times more trouble.”

Research from charity Voyage Youth, which tackles racial imbalance in London, has found that around 70% of students had never been consulted on policies that affect them in school.

School rules can be “overly oppressive of self-expression”, with beauty products and hair styling often come up as valid reasons for punishing young people. Voyage Youth has seen that exclusions are often fuelled by “huge misunderstandings and misconceptions about young people of colour”.

Paul Anderson, the charity’s founder, explains that one of the key issues is ‘adultification’. He says: “Young people are mistreated as they are seen as mature, aggressive and more physical so their behaviours and actions are seen as intentional and not accidental.

“Many young people express they are not understood and valued by some teachers as many working in inner cities have no understanding of young peoples lived experiences, cultures, races and religions. This creates a disassociation and distance and can lead to teachers making recommendation to exclude due to a lack of understanding about diverse lives.”

Family background also plays a role – if parents are not present at school events, teachers might be able to “exploit this gap” and young people feel particularly targeted.

Anderson adds: “We are also concerned about new covert policies schools are also adopting such as managed moves. This is when one school partners with another to swap young people that are on the peripheries of exclusion. This helps them overcome being exposed as excludees.”

The situation is even worse for girls from Gypsy, Roma and Irish traveller girls, who are excluded at triple the rate of their white peers.

Pauline Anderson, the chair of trustees at the Traveller Movement, says: “Schools are legally required to have behaviour policies in place that address race-based bullying, yet these educational institutions are continuing to fail to protect our children.

“We need to see a zero-tolerance policy for racist bullying in schools from both pupils and staff. For our young girls, the combined discrimination of racism and ableism as well as sexism has a detrimental impact on them.”

Agenda Alliance is calling for schools to adopt improved behavioural policies, addressing how gender and racial stereotypes are disproportionately impacting girls.

The charity wants all specialist staff working with children at risk of exclusion to have better training that is aware of how culture, gender, age and experiences of trauma might impact behaviour.

Agenda Alliance also warns thatresponses to high rates of absenteeism “must avoid unnecessarily punitive approaches”, and instead work to address the root causes of girls’ absence from school alongside girls and specialist organisations that support them.

I ndy Cross, Chief Executive of Agenda Alliance, says: “These are extremely worrying findings. We are calling for zero tolerance to harmful behaviour policies which blight girls’ futures. We know schools do a tough job and that teachers are hard pressed. But by the government’s own measure, girls at the sharpest end of disadvantage are being set up to fail.

“Racial and gender stereotypes have no place in today’s education for young women. Enough is enough. No more excuses that poverty also inevitably jeopardises education. We can – and must – do better than this.”

Alba Kapoor, Head of Policy at the Runnymede Trust adds: “These disturbing statistics reflect the racism that continues to pervade every aspect of our school system. That girls from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds are being disproportionately punished and marginalised as a result, is something that needs to urgently be addressed.”

“That’s why we are calling on schools to implement a temporary halt on school exclusions, and to instead prioritise non-punitive, proactive approaches which actually address harm. This would of course need meaningful investment in education from the government.

“It will take whole-school approaches to root out racism, and embed anti-racism throughout school cultures, policies and curricula. This means improving racial literacy amongst teachers, broadening the curriculum to help students learn about race, migration and Empire, and doing away with discriminatory policies which disproportionately target Black and minority ethnic children.”

Fatima Ahmed, helpline coordinator at Southall Black Sisters, says: “In my experience, young black girls who have approached our services often struggle to remain focused or remain in schools at all due to their multi-faceted and consistent experiences of racial injustice. For example, those who experience violence at home or in any other setting are less likely to directly approach their schools for support, which is why they may approach a local domestic abuse agency to advocate on their behalf.

“There is no one proven way to challenge racial injustice in schools as, often, it depends on the school’s geographical location and willingness of institutions to prioritize the experiences of young black girls subject to racial injustice. One suggestion would be to take a synergistic approach by bringing together teachers, counsellors, and safeguarding professionals to create tools to tackle structural racism and embed racial injustice awareness into every subject possible.”

Violet was referred to the charity Milk Honey Bees who offered support and empowered her to be herself. The charity supports Black girls who have been excluded and those who are at risk of exclusion and sees stories like Violet’s far too often.

Ebinehita Iyere, founder and managing director of Milk Honey Bees, says: “In my experience as a practitioner, racial biases are applied resulting in harsher punishment for things such as uniform or lateness.

“As an organisation, we are calling for support from policymakers, schools, funders and our wider community to understand and foster positive relationships between teachers and Black girls to stop them being marginalised by the education system.

“Only a joined up therapeutic approach will work. Creating safe spaces for Black girls to heal from their traumatic schooling experiences must be a priority, in order to prevent further risk of exclusion.”

With the right support, Violet found hope for her future. She says: “I got referred to Milk Honey Bees who worked with me and reassured me that it’s okay to be myself, without judging me from stuff on my form but going off my relationship with them. Now I see there’s a lot more I can offer in the world but, at school when I was excluded, I felt like if my school has given up on me, why should I believe in myself?”

#articles #education #organisations

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weirdestbooks · 2 months

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The Discovery of a Kindred Spirit (Wattpad | Ao3)

Skullyville, Oklahoma

March 23, 1847

Logically, Choctaw knew he was not alone in his suffering. There were thousands of other indigenous peoples in this land, from his family to his enemies, all of whom had been experiencing the disease, discrimination, and violence brought over by the new personifications from across the sea.

Choctaw thought they were all the same kind of people, people who took what was not theirs. They could never have enough because they were still young and feared death. They were people who saw anything that wasn’t them as different and wrong.

They made far too many assumptions. It would probably get them killed.

It was not that Choctaw was claiming to be a perfect man. He knew he had done great wrongs before, and he wasn’t free from making assumptions either.

After all, he presumed all Europeans were like France and England.

He didn’t realize that one of them had been going through the same struggles he had.

Ireland was not an unfamiliar name to him. He had heard of him before, someone who was part of England’s empire. Someone who he presumed supported what England was doing, that he was a loyal and willing member of a plague on the world. After all, he had seen many people who claimed Irish blood hurt him and his people, including the bastard who forced him off his land, Andrew Jackson.

But what he was hearing now painted a different story. A story that reflected his own.

A story of an indigenous personification who was colonized by an English-speaking white Christian who couldn't care less about what you went through, who just wanted you gone and replaced with more of his people. A person who thought your very existence was a crime and saw the deaths of your people as a good thing.

A person who wanted your culture gone and for you to fade away as your people become theirs. A person who, even if they didn’t say it, even if they denied it, was wishing for your death.

Ireland’s story wasn't like England’s. It was like his own.

“We are providing aid,” Choctaw said as he approached William Armstrong, the man collecting the donations to help relieve Ireland’s suffering. A kind of suffering that Choctaw most certainly could say was worse than anyone thought. After all, no one ever seemed to think the pain he went through on that Trail of Death was as bad as he said. Although no white people ever seemed to believe what he said.

“I know we don’t have a lot…but—”

William cut Choctaw off, smiling, “I’m glad that the Christian faith remains strong in you Indians.”

“I’m not doing this because some of my people follow your faith. I’m doing this because it is the right thing to do, and aid is something that I wished I had when I was forced onto this territory when your president made me leave my home despite the treaties I had with America and your court telling your president not to.” Choctaw responded, his voice even as he made eye contact with William, who looked less happy.

He probably wanted Choctaw to claim that it was Christianity and the lessons from it that made him want to help, as no one ever seemed to think that he had kindness before the people who invaded his land and killed his people taught him and his people about their religion. They never seem to understand that it had always been a part of his culture to be generous. Even if his people were warriors, they were also kind and generous souls.

You didn’t have to be Christian to be that.

“I don’t think we need to discuss prior issues right now. You did say you were going to help, right? Why don’t I collect your people’s donations so we can both be on our way and not start silly arguments?” William said, almost talking down to me like Choctaw wasn’t centuries old.

Humans. Whether they were his people or not, Choctaw don’t think he would ever understand them.

Then again, he’s sure they felt the same about him and his kind. Although the humans from Europe always seemed to revere their countryhumans more than anyone Choctaw had ever met here, it was an odd phenomenon.

Suppressing his urge to lecture William, Choctaw passed over my people’s donation. It wasn’t a lot, barely a hundred seventy dollars, but it was all they could spare. He hoped that even with the small amount, it would be able to help Ireland if it was just a little.

A little bit of help is better than nothing, and doing nothing about what was happening to Ireland, after all, Choctaw has seen and been through…

Choctaw doesn’t think he would have been able to accept or forgive himself if he did that.

#countryhumans #countryhumans ireland #countryhumans choctaw #oneshots by weird #historical countryhumans

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vzyt · 6 days

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Blog Post Due 9/19

What is intersectional feminism? Intersectional feminism focus on the “intersectionality” of the movement’s struggles. When looking at things through an intersectional lens, we need to recognize the historical context of an issue. Each individual or group may experience oppression differently – the intersection of the systemic social institutions in which they live. For example, a woman of color may not have the same experience as a White woman or a higher class White woman. Intersectional feminism center the voices of disadvantaged people who experience multiple layers of oppression rather than suppressing or marginalizing them.

2. How does intersectionality help us better understand the experience of women of color compared to White women?

Intersectionality is a term that has been highlighted by Kimberle Crenshaw in “Dermanalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex.” Women of color believe that their life experiences are different from those of white women, and they do not agree with the definition of gender equality that white women have created. Their needs and worldviews are different from those of both black men and white women because their identities are both women and people of color, they face disadvantages that come from racism, sexism, and classism in white supremacy. For women of color, their experiences are shaped not only by sexism but also by racism. In the TED Talk of Crenshaw, she take Emma’s story as an example of intersectionality when Emma experienced both gender discrimination and race discrimination at the same time when she applied for for a job and wasn’t get acceptance while that job hired both men and White women. 3. How do biased algorithms affect society? Biased algorithms affect society in various ways such as discrimination, distorted information, increasing inequality, etc. Algorithms have the potential to perpetuate prejudices towards specific demographics, such as those based on age, gender, color, class, or religion. This can lead to disadvantages in terms of employment, education, or service accessibility. Technology affect society when people using social media pretty much nowadays. The social media algorithms may prioritize some contents, leading to the leaking personal information without conscious. The biased algorithms also affect the society by increasing the inequality when it exacerbate wealth gaps biased toward large corporate and powerful individual, creating even broad loop of inequality. 4. Can technology ever be completely unbiased? Technology would be unlikely that it can ever be completely unbiased because algorithms reflect to the its data system that got influenced by human biases.

Reference:

Crenshaw, K. (2016, December 7). The urgency of intersectionality | Kimberlé Crenshaw | TED. YouTube. https://youtu.be/akOe5-UsQ2o?feature=shared

Crenshaw, K. (2018, June 22). Kimberlé Crenshaw: What is Intersectionality?. YouTube. https://youtu.be/ViDtnfQ9FHc?feature=shared

Benjamin, Ruha. 2019. Race After Technology.oble, S. U. (2018). Algorithms of oppression: How search engines reinforce racism. NYU Press.

#wgst320f24

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icannotgetoverbirds · 2 years

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You replied to a post saying you used to be a terf, what changed your mind?

Honestly, it was a long process. There wasn't any one thing that changed me. It started with the fact that I was a sympathetic TERF - my worst standpoint was that people had a right to be afraid of trans women in women's restrooms - and even then I recognized the importance of legal rights and protections for trans people, even if I didn't think they were the gender they said they were.

I was a particular brand of TERF that wasn't particularly unhinged or cruel - I turned to radical feminism out of a mixture of frustration and misguided kindness. Radfems tell you that womanhood is suffering, and so they're very appealing to transmasc eggs who haven't realized their identities yet - they recognize and acknowledge something that transmasc eggs experience, even if they apply the concept far too broadly and incorrectly.

Essentially, I was tired of screaming that women deserve better to people who thought womanhood was all sunshine and rainbows, so when radfems acknowledged the pain I was in, even though they misattributed it, they won me over to their side by being the only people that seemed to listen to that sentiment.

Nonetheless, I was determined to be as kind as possible, and I recognized that dysphoria was real. I believed that it was real because I subconsciously understood that I was experiencing it. I thought that every woman, given the chance, would transition into a man. I thought my experiences were inherent to womanhood.

It truly baffled me when cis women would tell me that being misgendered hurt them, that being masculine was uncomfortable, that being seen as a man or stripped of their womanhood was a punishment. For me, all of that meant that I was being taken more seriously as a not-woman (as misguided and incorrect as that interpretation is) because I recognized the societal connotations between masculinity and competence (not correlated at all btw).

And what baffled me even more was the fact that trans women existed. See, I recognized gender dysphoria as valid, and i reasoned out that it would make sense for it to go both ways, but what I didn't understand was why any trans woman would transition, given the layers of oppression that she would experience.

I could recognize that trans women were oppressed, that they were at high risk of assault and didn't deserve to be relegated to the men's restroom. I understood that bathroom-based sexual violence happens and is much easier to commit without transitioning to try and sneak in or some bullshit.

I saw gender dysphoria and gender euphoria and concluded that trans people still deserved kindness, even if I didn't think they were right about their gender. I saw the pain and recognized that it was real, and I saw the joy and recognized that it was real. I recognized that trans people weren't doing any harm to others - I only thought that they were harming themselves.

Beyond that, I understood bodily autonomy to some extent, and while I wasn't as radically for it as I am now, I understood that I wasn't the one who got to choose who got to do what with their bodies. I'll admit, I did think that they needed more time in therapy before they'd be allowed to transition, and that it should've only be a last resort if nothing else was working, and that was something I had to fix.

If there was anything that changed it for me, it was deconverting from Mormonism. I'd become more accepting over the years as I'd learned more, even to the point that I recognized that queer people deserved rights within the structure of religion, that the prophets could have made a mistake or misspoken or been misinterpreted when they drafted The Family: A Proclamation To The World.

After all, that'd happened before with black men being unable to hold the priesthood. Why couldn't it have happened now?

But then, the other question arose. I realized that the only justification the organization had made for its discrimination back in the day was, aside from human flaws, the idea that the world was not yet ready for such things. It occurred to me that the world seemed more than ready for queerness to be accepted (I was much more entrenched in my persecution complex at the time and believed the outside world to be rampant with 'sinners' and their sympathizers, aka leftists, whether they were good people or not), so why couldn't that have happened now?

To me, it just didn't make sense. To me, the world was ready. To me, the waiting would cost lives, and that was unacceptable. Unfortunately, I had been trained well in thought-stopping techniques, so I didn't truly stop to ponder what that meant for a while.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Suddenly, I wasn't going to church every Sunday. Suddenly, I was tired all of the time. Suddenly, my mental health was crashing, and church was making it worse, somehow. Suddenly, the whole world was upside down, and it shook a few things loose. I came out to my mother as a genderqueer woman - not ready to fully break the mold yet - and decided that the church was wrong about this thing.

After things had settled down somewhat, I started turning over concepts in my mind, about how the one true church had had shortcomings in this day and age. About the prophets that had failed to protect their queer spiritual siblings. About the audacity to tell trans people that they cannot transition, despite medical and scientific evidence proving the benefits and even necessities. About the audacity to tell gay people that they cannot love the way they truly love.

Funnily enough, that's not what broke the shelf. No, get this - it was weed.

See, I'd been delving more into advocacy and had gained an understanding of the war on drugs and the true implications behind criminalizing substance use, especially with its history and current implementation. I had decided that it was a good idea to decriminalize all substances for the safety of the people addicted to them. I had also recognized that marijuana was by and large harmless if not outright helpful for many people.

I recognized that requiring a doctor's approval for weed in a country without good, socialized health care was classist and would lead to unwarranted suffering, and that the Mormon organization's influence in attempting to require such in Utah was overreach. I also was biased, as I wanted to try weed myself.

And suddenly it occurred to me that I didn't really care what the church thought I should and shouldn't do anymore. It occurred to me that their cruelty was intolerable, and that I couldn't have one foot in the queer community (as an asexual genderqueer woman) and one foot in such an intolerant organization. It occurred to me that I wanted to try weed, and I didn't care that the Mormon leaders had advised against recreational substance use. So I turned it over in my mind, taking time to actually consider it.

I didn't believe. I had never believed. I had been trying so hard to force myself to believe, to pretend that I believed, and for what? A god that never answered - or whose answers could easily be construed as the mechanisms of the world, as happenstance? Surely an all-powerful and loving god wouldn't leave me in the dark like that, especially considering how hard I had fought, despite everything.

And so the shelf broke, and I got excited, and started to think about what I wanted to do. I thought about tattoos, and piercings, and a double mastectomy, and a hysterectomy, and bottom surgery - oh.

Yeah. That was a bit to process. I realized that I had some learning to do, some media to rewatch with a fresh perspective, some concepts to understand, etc. And it took me a while to come around to the realization that I had, in fact, been a TERF and had, in fact, held harmful beliefs.

From there it was just a matter of learning more about activism, keeping an open mind, and fixing the holes that the manipulation of the mormon cult had left in my understanding of the world.

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leafstem · 1 month

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i know nothing about fallout or about your ocs so! i wanna hear about them please tell :]

:DD ok! most of it is heavily basd on the lore of the are in fallout but ill try explain

ill put it under a cut bc long

so heres the far harbor lore (spoilers for both the dlc and fallout 4 base game):

[pt: (spoilers for both the dlc and fallout 4 base game) ]

so its on the area called far harbor (fallout 4 dlc) where theres a few factions and a really heavy radioactive fog. theres the harbormen (town of the island residents considered 'normal') who are forced into a small town on the coast since most of the island is covered in fog. theyre not very accepting of outsiders and people considered different. then the fog. its considered to turn people 'strange' and 'crazy' from the radiation and maybe a supernatural/mythical element (at least in the beliefs of the residents). theres people who live in there who are considered 'crazy' and are cannibals. theyre called trappers and hunt and eat almost anything. no one likes them. (which. is reasonable). they live in ruins and camps in the wilderness and abandonded areas in the fog part of the island theres also acadia. its an old observatory that has been turned into a refuge for synths (robotic/articifial people created by evil science organisation called the institute to spy on people by replacing them. these guys are fighting for their freedom to not be slaves to the institute. almost everyone hates them because theyre a symbol of the istiture and are the ones replacing their loved ones.) these guys are running from the institute to not have their minds wiped and turned back into slaves basically. theyre hiding on the island and have neutral to bad relations with the town. they mostly stick to themselves. then theres the Children Of Atom (CoA). basically a cult around radiation. like actual cult not the joke version. they believe that radiation is sentient and they need to return to it. theyre isolated and go through strange rituals to prove they are a part of the religion/cult seriously. they try recruit the player when you first see them. town/harbormen hate them, think theyre crazy. they also kinda want to kill everyone for their religion to make 'atom' (radiation) happy and worship the fog of the island. oh and basic stuff: fallout is post apocalyptic after a nuclear war 2 centuries before the games. most things are dead. everything is still rebuilding (shacks made of rubble, very few towns/cities, mostly farms and small homes sparsely.) most animals that survived are horribly mutated and aggresive and dangerous. mutated humans that are basically zombies are called Ghouls. some havent lost sentience and are basically human minus appearance and immunity to radiation and aging. they are discriminated agaisnt a lot.

Now the OC (finally lmao):

so their name is Pine and theyre a hunter/fisher on the island and they live in the wilderness mostly. they are nonbinary (agender) and aroace. Theyre dad's side of the family who they live with past their toddler years are all trappers. their mum was a harbourman who ended up joining the cult CoA. they lived with the harbourmen untill they were a young child and ended up leaving to their dad after they were old enough to be taken care of by them. theyre considered an outcast by the town and they dont really like them but they still are allowed in and hang around there soemtimes. their dad and family cares about them and is as caring as a trapper can be. they live with cousins and uncles and their dad (cant remember if they had siblings (theres a family tree we made years ago somewhere but i cant be bothered getting up to find it now)

so they just keep going between their dad/family, the town, camping out on their own and visting their mum. the cult lets them in the area but they dont really like Pine (kinda like the harbour).

they end up meeting a synth around their age and getting into a QPR. the two then travel together.

oh yeah and pine has a pet rabbit that follows them around a bunch.

their appearance is short messy brown hair and tanned skin. they have a bunch of scars from fighting the wildlife and hunting. they also have heterochromia. their right eye is green and left is brown. usually they wear a beanie and jumper or t-shirt and overalls.

thats all i remember right now. might get up soon to find actual info/refernce sheets we made like 2/3 years ago

#leafstem posts #asks #fallout 4 spoilers #far harbor spoilers #fallout spoilers

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purplesurveys · 2 months

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1898

Do you ever wonder how Atheist people raise their kids? I do. There's admittedly some envy in there somewhere lol, but it's mostly intrigue about what the dynamics at home must be like. I live in an overwhelmingly Christian population where every single aspect of life is influenced by religion; so considering I've identified myself as atheist in a place where it's virtually nonexistent, it's something I find myself thinking about once in a while.

If you’re atheist, would you raise you kids believing in God or not? Absolutely not. They can explore, ask questions, even pick a faith to go by if they want to; but I will not be the first one to tell them anything about gods.

How long does it usually take you to finish answering a survey? Usually anywhere from 40 minutes to one hour, depending on the length or how fast I can think of my answers.

Do you spell it gray or grey? Gray.

If you make surveys, how do you decide about its title? I don't make them. I'm terrible at coming up with questions.

When are you going back to school? I don't need to; I graduated four years ago.

If you don’t go to school anymore, what do you do? I work in public relations; agency side.

Do you care about other people’s status messages? Like on Facebook? Sure. It's always nice to know what people are up to, the new places they've been traveling to or the life goals they've been reaching. The only theme I don't particularly like encountering are warfreak posts? like when they still subtweet (idk the equivalent term on Facebook haha). Come on sis we're in our mid 20s.

Do you like reading self help books? No.

What is your opinion on sex change? Your body, your choice. Glad to see there's been more opportunities to let this happen for those who need it.

Do you think that this will take away the essence of gay pride? ...What?

What do you do when you tell a really bad joke? I let it eat me up anywhere between 3 to 7 days, lol.

If you’re still a virgin, how important is your virginity to you? Not much, it's never mattered to me. I gave it up when I was 18 and never thought twice about it before or after.

If you have lost it already, do you regret it? No.

Do you believe in marriage? Why or why not? I believe in it, I don't believe it's a life requirement.

Do you like having a huge group of friends or would you rather have few close friends? Few close friends. The older I get, the more I enjoy my own company. That said I only let very few people in my circle now.

Do you have any goals for this summer? If so, what are they? Summer's over, but I didn't set goals. I did travel abroad, which wasn't something I specifically set out to do but was still nice to have done.

Or do you plan on getting a summer job? Or do you already have one? I've had a job the last four years.

If so, where do you work and what do you do? I work in a PR agency, doing PR work for consumer brands. Some of them you definitely know about and consume; some of them more up-and-coming and aptly needing the help.

Do you watch the TV show Skins? If so, who’s your favorite character? Never watched it.

And which generation do you prefer? Or do you equally love both?

Do you know someone who still typpe thiszz wayy? No.

Would you take a break after graduating from high school (like, postpone going to college for a year or so)? I didn't do that. Where I'm from, a gap year is just for the super rich who have safety nets no matter what they do or pursue, so...ew. Most need to fight to live.

Do you feel tired after stretching? No, it feels nice.

Can you get a strike at bowling? Only on Wii Sports, haha.

Do you use Facebook? If so, what is your favorite application there? Yes, but apps stopped being trendy there yearsssss ago.

It seems like everyone’s addicted to Twitter these days - are you? I fucking hate Twitter. I keep it to stay updated and to read translations for all BTS releases, but I stay the fuck out of any conversation. Everyone's always dragging, cancelling, bullying, shaming, discriminating someone else these days on there.

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fever-fluff · 10 months

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I'm Ashamed of Being Irish

In the last 48 hours, I have become embarrassed to call myself Irish

I know I’m not on this platform long, and that I have a very small following compared to a lot of other people who post in the way I do. But this needs to be said. A warning to anyone who may be triggered by violent behaviour from here on out, I will not mince my words so pleased be warned and scroll away if you do not want to read it.

Yesterday, at around the afternoon, four people were stabbed by a passerby, 3 of them children under the age of 15, and a woman working in a creche.

In the following hours, information spread about the assailant being of Algerian origin, who has been granted citizenship over 20 years ago. That same evening, while I was in college in Dublin city, taking part in a class in the National Gallery, my phone started blowing up from texts in my work group chat about Irish people rioting in the streets not ten minutes from where I was.

Buses were set alight, gardaí (police) cars as well, and mobs of angry rioters began attacking both our gardaí and public as they pushed down the main street. They began looting shops all around the area, and riot squads were called in from all over the country to try and contain the carnage.

I work in a pub in Temple Bar, and while I may not have been on shift, many of my friends, who are immigrants from Brazil and Spain, were working that night and were terrified for their life as they tried to get through the city. My manager, who is also Brazilian, had to make the decision to close the pub for everyone’s safety. As I left my class, I had to walk my friend, who is Polish, to her bus going through the middle of the craziness and trying to make sure she was able to get home safely, fearing for her life because she wasn’t “Irish” enough.

These riots were spurred under the guise of “Protest,” but that was far from the truth. People who hold racist and discriminative ideals over everything else used this opportunity to not only hurt our country, but to terrify the people who have come here looking for a better life.

And here’s why it angers me so much:

During school, I was taught in history class of all the ways Irish people have been discriminated against in the last 800 years. We’ve been denied accommodation, deported for crimes we did not commit to Australia, and been stripped of our heritage, religion and language, because of racism and discrimination.

The people who came out last night in hoards, burned cars and looted shops to “protest” the “tolerance” of immigrants in this country. The decided that the violence inflicted on innocent people was cause enough to go out and do more damage, because it was an immigrant who caused it.

and yet, the person who came to their aid, when no one else would, was a Brazilian man passing by on his bike. When he got off and hit his helmet against the assailant, stopping him from taking innocent lives.

I am from the country and not the city, where racism runs deeper than anything else. And I am so ashamed of being called Irish for the actions that happened last night, but also for the self-imposed ignorance many of us have taken in light of the racist ideals that many of our other country men have decided to believe.

Ireland is a country of immigrants. Irish people, for decades, have immigrated to places like Australia and New Zealand, looking for a better life than the have here- LIKE EVERY IMMIGRANT WHO COMES TO IRELAND FROM THEIR OWN COUNTRY.

But they flee war, poverty and death, while we flee for more money.

“that’s different” they say, “we’re not doing any harm”

THAT’S NOT THE FUCKING POINT.

How can you sit by and allow these people to scare and harm those we have promised refuge to?!

I will not stand Idly by anymore. I will fight and claw and scream when I see someone allow this racism to harm others. I’m done.

For my friends, who’ve stood by me and protected me when IRISHMEN have harassed and assaulted me in work and on the street. For the people who look past the jibes and insults, and smile because they aren’t being shot at, and words hurt less than bullets.

I owe them everything, because they’ve already given everything they can. And it is not fair.

#dublin #dublinriots #protests #racism #irish #irish history #discrimination #activism #ireland #immigrants #dublin protests #garda #government #dublin riots

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