thatchainsguy

[thatchainsguy]

if you don't do anything else today,

Please have a moment of silence for the people who were killed instead of freed when news of emancipation finally reached the furthest corners of the american south.

have another moment for the ledgers, catalogs, and records that were burned and the homes that were destroyed to hide the presence of very much alive and still enslaved people on dozens of plantations and homesteads across the south for decades after emancipation.

and have a third moment for those who were hunted and killed while fleeing the south to find safety across the border, overseas, in the north and to the west.

black people. light a candle, write a note to those who have passed telling them what you have achieved in spite of the racist and intolerant conditions of this world, feel the warmth of the flame under your hand, say a prayer of rememberance if you are religious, place the note under the candle, and then blow it out.

if you have children, sit them down and tell them anything you know about the life of oldest black person you've ever met. it doesn't have to be your own family. tell them what you know about what life was like for us in the days, years, decades after emancipation. if you don't know much, look it up and learn about it together.

This is Juneteenth.

white people CAN interact with this post. share it, spread it.

[thatchainsguy]

[thatchainsguy]

mutual aid is not a crime!

federal officials and the new york post are going after LA based groups who are supporting immigrants and protesters. now more than ever, pls consider donating to local grassroots organizations in LA providing mutual aid:

operation healthy hearts

unión del barrio

all power books venmo: allpowerbooks

ktown for all venmo: ktownforall

midnight books venmo: midnightbooks562

frontline medics venmo: resistcarebloc

community self defense coalition la

coalition for humane immigrant rights (CHIRLA)

[thatchainsguy]

Meanwhile in LA

[thatchainsguy]

Israel cuts Gaza's final internet line, plunging it into total communication blackout.

Israel bombed the last main fibre route in Gaza, which means that as of June 12, all internet and fixed-line communication services are now completely cut off, further isolating Gaza amidst an ongoing genocide.

I am seeing more and more calls from inside of Gaza for help with eSims as that is currently the only way they can connect internally and with the outside world.

- Buy eSIMs here.

- If you can't afford it, you can donate any amount to this eSIM fund.

- Instructions on how to buy and share eSIMs.

[thatchainsguy]

I have arrived at being a Performance Olde. Have a show tomorrow I’m so absolutely over, the likes of which I have not experienced since I was in a corpo performance company in the beginning of my career. The feeling that ultimately catapulted me into becoming feral as I am now.

What have we learned? I will hereto after no longer be accepting invitations to perform others’ work. Not for friends, comrades, love…only for money. Lots and lots of money.

I’m too old and too disabled at this point to be doing stuff that’s tearing skin off if I chance wearing 1 (one) less layer than I normally wear (which is 3). I’m too old and too disabled to be given notes in the eleventh hour on things that could’ve been sorted weeks ago.

I don’t have any interest in others’ visions or ideas, and even less so in teasing them out from inexperienced (and borderline dangerous) choreographers. I’m the expert on my own body and its relationship to this godforsaken apparatus I’ve given the last four years of my life to. I’m so ready to be back on my own bullshit, working on my own research.

Fine print: this does not apply to stupid shit co-created with friends, where I’m given full artistic liberty and agency over my own body and apparatus.

[thatchainsguy]

Definitely take a look at the replies and reblogs for all the good follow-up info! I’m reblogging to say that if you’re on testosterone and not having a period and still having horrible cramps, it still definitely needs to be investigated!

I stopped having a period in 2018 from my iud (which was specifically for polyp treatment), and never had it return since then. I’ve been on T since 2021, and in 2022, I started having cramps that would lay me all the way out on the ground, with spotting that was worrying me. I was so scared that maybe my iud had like, perforated my uterus or something equally disastrous because it hurt that badly. (Never mind my previous pelvic health history with similar occurrences in my teens and twenties, I wanna make sure to focus on post-T times.)

Because I have no period, the thing that the cramping seemed to be occurring around was certain hip and leg movements. Luckily, I had my pcp investigate and send me to a specific gyno, who very easily and efficiently diagnosed me with pelvic hypertonicity.

I immediately got a physical therapist and after six solid months of working various exercises (some of which were fixing chronic overuse pain, but hypertonic, nevertheless), I only have the cramps come up occasionally if I’m really stressed and maybe haven’t kept up on my PT, and never to the degree that they did before.

In other words, it’s worth the investigation! No matter your pain history, it’s worth it to try to figure it out. There will be a cause, and hypertonicity might be it.

Ok breaking containment for this one because I need everyone who will listen to hear this.

Women who suffer bad cramps are told cramps shouldn't affect school/work/etc, but no one ever investigates further because no one can possibly know if what someone experiences is just typical pain or something much worse.

Well after 15 years of stage 4 treatment-resistant endometriosis that came with pain as bad as, if not worse than, actual labor contractions every month, all the while being told I was 'typical' and 'just had bad cramps', I've finally been healed (another post for another time). I have had what everyone describes as the elusive 'normal period pain' for several months now, and I am begging you to look me in the eyes and listen because I need everyone who can hear this to hear this.

I have been on both sides of this. I have the hard-earned knowledge of what a period 'should' feel like.

If you have to put in any effort to hide your cramps, you need to get help.

Even during of the PEAK OF CRAMPING (i.e., as bad as your cramps possibly get), you should still be able to stand, speak, walk, eat, work, and sleep with no problems. These tasks should require very-little-to-no extra effort beyond what you would normally do when you aren't on your period. When you do these things, you should feel grumpy and a little bit icky and maybe a twinge of nerves and NOTHING MORE.

If you have to sit in the corner and hope no one approaches you because you can't speak or stand without showing pain, even slightly, you need to get help. If your pain is showing on your face, you need to get help. And most importantly, IF YOUR PAIN DOES NOT RESPOND TO 1-2 TYLENOL OR IBUPROFEN, YOU NEED TO GET HELP.

Your period cramps should make you grumpy. Your period cramps should make you feel a little icky and tired. Your period cramps should make you feel your insides existing/moving a bit and a twinge of nerves that makes you groan slightly then the "pain" should stop there, NOTHING MORE.

If your cramps put you on the floor but you make believe you're the captain of a ship who has just been stabbed and has to hide it to fight on, and you force yourself to power through the day, please understand: you are not okay, that does not make you okay. Just because you can power through the pain doesn't mean you aren't sick. If you have to force yourself through any basic task beyond the effort it takes you to do when you aren't on your period, and I am holding your face and looking you in the eye as I say this because I need you to hear me: You aren't normal. You don't 'just have bad cramps'. You are sick and you need to get help.

Now most people will tell you if your cramps are beyond a 3 out of 10 on the pain scale, you should see a doctor. While this is usually true, you have to consider chronic pain CAN AND WILL BREAK YOUR PAIN SCALE. Most people will only compare pain they currently feel to pain they may experience one day but probably never will. "Sure these cramps feel bad now, but if I had a leg amputated with no anesthesia, that would hurt WAY worse, so this pain can't be that bad-" No. Your pain is what it is, objectively, full stop. My cramps were at a 10 out of 10 every. Single. Time. And nobody told me claiming they were a 6-8 because I thought to myself 'what if I lose a limb one day?' was completely wrong. 10 pain is 10 pain. And if there's something that hurts worse than that, guess what. The thing you are experiencing right now is still a 10 out of 10 on the pain scale. Just because you experience it every month doesn't mean it's magically not as bad is it is. And if your pain is worse than a 3 out of 10, you need to get help.

Now when I say get help, I mean find the root cause of your pain. You can't just throw drugs and hormones at it without knowing what it causing your pain. Endometriosis, fibroids, pcos, cancer, adenomyosis, polyps, thyroid issues, there is always a cause. And if you leave it untreated, it will grow and get worse to the point where it resists treatment and the drugs and hormones you've been throwing at it for years don't work anymore. You have to find a doctor that will investigate. If your doctor tells you you 'just have bad cramps' get a new doctor. I know you've been told that but please hear me: no one ever just has bad cramps. A healthy human body doesn't spontaneously cause itself pain so bad you can't stand up; there is ALWAYS a cause.

I was sick for more than 15 years. My entire life was put on hold and now I'm in my late 20s trying desperately to play catch up for everything I missed. I want to pick up 12yo me, spin her around, and tell her she doesn't have to die before she finally stops hurting. I don't want anyone to suffer the same fate I did simply because everyone told them they were normal. A little twinge of pain here and there is normal, suffering is not. I promise you your pain is real, it is not normal, and dear heavenly day I am begging you you need to get help now.

TL;DR: There is no such thing as 'just bad cramps.' If you feel anything more than grumpy, icky, and pain greater than a 3 out of 10, you need to find out what's wrong with you before it gets worse.

[thatchainsguy]

using her acceptance speech to highlight the la protests, gaza & trans rights that’s MY swamp princess

[thatchainsguy]

Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), "The Pitfalls of Liberalism" (1969), published in Stokely Speaks: From Black Power to Pan-Africanism (1971). [Full text]

Many people want to know why, out of the entire white segment of society, we want to criticize the liberals. We have to criticize them because they represent the liaison between both groups, between the oppressed and the oppressor. The liberal tries to become an arbitrator, but he is incapable of solving the problems. He promises the oppressor that he can keep the oppressed under control; that he will stop them from becoming illegal (in this case illegal means violent). At the same time, he promises the oppressed that he will be able to alleviate their suffering — in due time. Historically, of course, we know this is impossible, and our era will not escape history.

…

The way the oppressor tries to stop the oppressed from using violence as a means to attain liberation is to raise ethical or moral questions about violence. I want to state emphatically here that violence in any society is neither moral nor is it ethical. It is neither right nor is it wrong. It is just simply a question of who has the power to legalize violence.

It is not a question of whether it is right to kill or it is wrong to kill; killing goes on. Let me give an example: if I were in Vietnam, if I killed thirty yellow people who were pointed out to me by white Americans as my enemy, I would be given a medal. I would become a hero. I would have killed America’s enemy — but America’s enemy is not my enemy. If I were to kill thirty white policemen in Washington, D.C., who have been brutalizing my people and who are my enemy, I would get the electric chair. It is simply a question of who has the power to legalize violence. In Vietnam our violence is legalized by white America. In Washington, D.C., my violence is not legalized, because Africans living in Washington, D.C., do not have the power to legalize their violence.

I used that example only to point out that the oppressor never really puts an ethical or moral judgment on violence, except when the oppressed picks up guns against the oppressor. For the oppressor, violence is simply the expedient thing to do.

Is it not violent for a child to go to bed hungry in the richest country in the world? I think that is violent. But that type of violence is so institutionalized that it becomes a part of our way of life. Not only do we accept poverty, we even find it normal. And that again is because the oppressor makes his violence a part of the functioning society. But the violence of the oppressed becomes disruptive. It is disruptive to the ruling circles of a given society. And because it is disruptive it is therefore very easy to recognize, and therefore it becomes the target of all those who in fact do not want to change the society. What we want to do for our people, the oppressed, is to begin to legitimatize violence in their minds. So that for us violence against the oppressor will be expedient. This is very important, because we have all been brainwashed into accepting questions of moral judgment when violence is used against the oppressor.

If I kill in Vietnam I am allowed to go free; it has been legalized for me. It has not been legitimatized in my mind. I must legitimatize it in my own mind, and even though it is legal I may never legitimatize it in my own mind. There are a lot of people who come back from Vietnam, who have killed where killing was legalized, but who still have psychological problems over the fact that they have killed. We must understand, however, that to legitimatize killing in one’s mind does not make it legal. For example, I have completely legitimatized in my mind the killing of white policemen who terrorize black communities. However, if I get caught killing a white policeman, I have to go to jail, because I do not as yet have the power to legalize that type of killing. The oppressed must begin to legitimatize that type of violence in the minds of our people, even though it is illegal at this time, and we have to keep striving every chance we get to attain that end.

Now, I think the biggest problem with the white liberal in America, and perhaps the liberal around the world, is that his primary task is to stop confrontation, stop conflicts, not to redress grievances, but to stop confrontation. And this is very clear, it must become very, very clear in all our minds. Because once we see what the primary task of the liberal is, then we can see the necessity of not wasting time with him. His primary role is to stop confrontation. Because the liberal assumes a priori that a confrontation is not going to solve the problem. This, of course, is an incorrect assumption. We know that.

…

The liberal is so preoccupied with stopping confrontation that he usually finds himself defending and calling for law and order, the law and order of the oppressor. Confrontation would disrupt the smooth functioning of the society and so the politics of the liberal leads him into a position where he finds himself politically aligned with the oppressor rather than with the oppressed.

The reason the liberal seeks to stop confrontation — and this is the second pitfall of liberalism — is that his role, regardless of what he says, is really to maintain the status quo, rather than to change it. He enjoys economic stability from the status quo and if he fights for change he is risking his economic stability. What the liberal is really saying is that he hopes to bring about justice and economic stability for everyone through reform, that somehow the society will be able to keep expanding without redistributing the wealth.

This leads to the third pitfall of the liberal. The liberal is afraid to alienate anyone, and therefore he is incapable of presenting any clear alternative. … The liberals are afraid to alienate anyone in society. They paint such a rosy picture of society and they tell us that while things have been bad in the past, somehow they can become good in the future without restructuring society at all.

What the liberal really wants is to bring about change which will not in any way endanger his position. The liberal says, “It is a fact that you are poor, and it is a fact that some people are rich; but we can make you rich without affecting those people who are rich.” I do not know how poor people are going to get economic security without affecting the rich in a given country, unless one is going to exploit other peoples. I think that if we followed the logic of the liberal to its conclusion we would find that all we can get from it is that in order for a society to become equitable we must begin to exploit other peoples.

…

These pitfalls are present in his politics because the liberal is part of the oppressor. He enjoys the status quo; while he himself may not be actively oppressing other people, he enjoys the fruits of that oppression. And he rhetorically tries to claim that he is disgusted with the system as it is.

While the liberal is part of the oppressor, he is the most powerless segment within that group. Therefore when he seeks to talk about change, he always confronts the oppressed rather than the oppressor. He does not seek to influence the oppressor, he seeks to influence the oppressed. He says to the oppressed, time and time again, “You don’t need guns, you are moving too fast, you are too radical, you are too extreme.” He never says to the oppressor, “You are too extreme in your treatment of the oppressed,” because he is powerless among the oppressors, even if he is part of that group; but he has influence, or, at least, he is more powerful than the oppressed, and he enjoys this power by always cautioning, condemning, or certainly trying to direct and lead the movements of the oppressed.

To keep the oppressed from discovering his pitfalls the liberal talks about humanism. He talks about individual freedom, about individual relationships. One cannot talk about human idealism in a society that is run by fascists. If one wants a society that is in fact humanistic, one has to ensure that the political entity, the political state, is one that will allow humanism. And so if one really wants a state where human idealism is a reality, one has to be able to control the political state. What the liberal has to do is to fight for power, to go for the political state and then, once the liberal has done this, he will be able to ensure the type of human idealism in the society that he always talks about.

Because of the above reasons, because the liberal is incapable of bringing about the human idealism which he preaches, what usually happens is that the oppressed whom he has been talking to finally becomes totally disgusted with the liberal and begins to think that the liberal has been sent to the oppressed to misdirect their struggle, to keep them confused so that the oppressor can continue to rule them. So whether the liberal likes it or not, he finds himself being lumped, by the oppressed, with the oppressor — of course he is part of that group. The final confrontation, when it does come about, will of course include the liberal on the side of the oppressor. Therefore if the oppressed really wants a revolutionary change, he has no choice but to rid himself of those liberals in his rank.

[thatchainsguy]

with the protests in LA today and the violent federal and local pushback from police: we (me and my editor ryan fae) are accepting leaks, insider data, and public + leak archives relevant to ICE/DHS, LAPD, LASD, and anyone else that could shift the power of knowledge to the people if it were published.

in my words:

for now it's just minor archival data and some older data, but YOU can make a change to that.

we have three bits up already. the below article will be updated constantly. contact info at the bottom of the article. we promise anonymity and general source protection.

[thatchainsguy]

ICED OUT

this morning my UNMASKED self helped out at school arts department here in LOS ANGELES. this is not usually something i talk about to protect privacy of my other creative life but given whats happening in LA i think its worth the mention because ICE raids hurt these kids in so many insidious ways

they have NOTHING to do with how they arrived here and right now the fear hangs over them in a way that effects everything they do. yes, they could LITERALLY get snatched off the street, and some do, but even outside of the physical threat THE THREAT ITSELF is so harmful

the strange vibes and mysterious absences hung over everything at the start of the day, but when i popped in after helping i watched the assembly i saw something really beautiful: kids having fun. they were with their buds, they were in community, they were forgetting the threat for a moment.

there are so many ways to help. you can march in the street, you can volunteer, you can use art to urge others to do the same. you can CREATE spaces like an assembly auditorium full of cheering kids. today i am suggesting a donation. here is post of suggestions im trottin

i am going to be donating my own sum as well, and DOUBLE the profits of all tinglers sold today. so if you need a reason to check out the tingleverse now is your time. LETS TROT BUCKAROOS LOVE IS REAL

FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT HAVE BLUESKY I WILL LIST SOME OF THE DONATION LINKS HERE AS WELL:

amnesty international

we are casa

chirla

immigrant defenders law center

al otro lado

mid south immigration advocates

the young center

[thatchainsguy]

los angeles california 1940

[thatchainsguy]

in absolute tears about the pride module at my work

[thatchainsguy]

Happy Pride Month

[thatchainsguy]

Happy Pride!

[thatchainsguy]

Girls practice chinese lion dance

[thatchainsguy]

My kid graduated from high school tonight!! 🥹🥹

I’m so fuckin proud of them! Immediately started sobbing when the procession started and all the graduates came in.

They applied to four different art high schools at 13 years old during the beginning of a pandemic in a process that I can only describe as being very college-application-like. The second school that accepted them was the one they wanted, and we moved across the country so that they could get this education (and escape a terrible governmental regime, but that’s another situation). They’ve spent four years in academics and art conservatory with 9 hour days; worked their ass off to get to this day today.

And to be able to say that I’m an artist, of a family of artists, helping a young person take on this increasingly more difficult field…is incredible.

We need artists. It’s so important. I can’t believe I get to watch my kid become an artist, too!