I’ve been reading “A Mortal Flower” by Han Suyin & this was a quote that really resonated with me
It’s really fun spotting liberals who spend way too much time on this website and have convinced themselves that the transgender commie bloggers have somehow made imperialist jingoism an oppressed minority position and not like, the dominant strain of political thought in every western country on the planet
(via sivavakkiyar)
Begging leftists who are active on the internet to be careful of what they’re posting, especially if they are posting their opinions on accounts with their irl face. I see SO MANY young (18-21) communists posting on twitter and instagram with a hammer and sickle icon in their bio, talking openly about US imperialism and posting images of their face– and I don’t think people understand that these posts could potentially be used to charge them with a crime.
What you post on the internet or google can be used as evidence in court! There are people on the internet who are undercover officers! EVERYTHING you post, even if your account is private, can be handed over to the authorities.
I understand that visibility of lefist ideas is important, but so is your physical safety. We are in McCarthyism 2.0 (though the original era never truly ended). Please read about cointelpro, about the undercover officers who infiltrated the BLM movement, and about how the FBI used anarchist zines to divide leftist groups.
These are all previous tactics used by the US government that are STILL IN USE to infiltrate leftist movements. Except now, thousands of people have visible social media trails. I am especially concerned about self proclaimed communist groups (not naming names, but there is a prominent Asian diaspora org that does this) posting numerous pictures and videos of its members. Even if the organization itself isn’t doing anything illegal, those individuals pictured might, and this content is EASILY used in court to prosecute leftists, regardless of whether or not they’ve done anything “illegal.”
Please, please be careful with what you post. I myself am guilty of this very issue! But as the talons of US empire tighten, heat will be coming down on those who are self declared against it. I encourage people to read about the May 19th movement and the Black Liberation army, both of which were “underground” organizations. Visibility and representation is not going to lead to the revolution, at least not under these conditions.
can white people stop boo-hooing about how they lost their favorite vacation spot because of the fires on maui? it’s vile. people lost their lives and their homes. no one gives a shit that your colonizing ass can’t go somewhere you were never welcome anyway
This AND if you’ve ever visited/vacationed in Hawái it’s time to pay up. If y’all love Hawái so much, show it by donating. Oh, and never go back. That native land has been EXPLOITED by vacationers and capitalism. The government is spending money and resources in order to house and feed tourists/visitors OVER sending help to the native people who NEED IT. Stop going to Hawái. It’s not your land.
Just wanted to add on to this a concrete example: a couple years ago the Hawaiian government implemented water rationing FOR LOCALS ONLY, while continuing to allow tourists to use as much water as they wanted for fancy hotels, spas, pools, and GOLF COURSES. This is obviously the exact opposite of how water shortages should be addressed. I don’t even think many of the tourists had any idea that the water they used on vacation was literally being taken from the homes of indigenous people: many tourists think they are helping local economies. I would LOVE to visit Hawaii and see amazing Polynesian biomes and active volcanoes without a passport, but I have resigned myself to the fact that there is currently no ethical way for me to do so. Visiting Hawaii would take needed resources from the people who live there, and the tourism industrial complex would actively lie to me about it if I tried to travel there in an ethical or sustainable manner. The US has really plundered those amazing islands and done so much harm to them in so many ways. Native Hawaiians are begging tourists to stay away. So please take their demands seriously and enjoy Hawaii’s amazing natural wonders through video instead of in person.
(via literaltortoise)
Which like… obviously, “show, don’t tell” can be useful sometimes, like if you’re describing a terrifying monster! But pushing it as The Only Way To Write would definitely have a chilling effect on stories centering concepts and experiences unfamiliar to readers.
I find it both fascinating and a little disturbing how effectively censorship can be accomplished through simply convincing people that certain forms of expression are gauche.
(via waskuyecaozu)
constantly devastated by the world we lost due to aids
The battles that rose out of the AIDs epidemic were access to marriage and military service. When once the Queer community was focused on creating the best art and living lives worth telling stories about, the 1990’s brought on a new goal: How to best fit in.
As the brilliant Fran Bebowitz has said many times, the first people who died of AIDS were the interesting ones. The artists. There’s a reason that arts became Ghostbusters and Cats in the 1990s. Because all of the really talented artists were dying. The rule-breakers. The ones who weren’t afraid to shake things up. And the audience died with them.
“Now we don’t have any kind of discerning audience. When that audience died- and that audience died in five minutes. Literally people didn’t die faster in war. And it allowed of course, like the second, third, fourth tier to rise up to the front. Because of course, the first people who died of AIDS were the people who… I don’t know how top put this… got laid a lot. OK. Now imagine who didn’t get AIDS. That’s who was then lauded as like - the great artists.” - Fran Lebowitz
So many of the gays left alive once the Clinton Administration came into being were, to be frank, the boring ones. Gays who knew nobody and who nobody knew, and they rose to the top of the community and therefore their priorities rose to the top of the community as well. And what did they want? Apparently, they wanted to join the army and have big gay weddings.
General employment non-discrimination wasn’t all that important to them. Making sexuality and gender identity a protected class, along with sex, race, and religion, wasn’t that important to them. They wanted marriage and military. Because they were the good gays. Not the naughty gays who were sleeping around and dying of AIDS. Not the poor gays who couldn’t make political contributions.
They were the gays with families and commitment ceremonies and office jobs and houses. They were the good ones. The ones who would look fantastic and incredibily marketable when they were interviewed by CNN. They were the gays who straight people would look at and say to themselves: “Maybe they’re not so bad after all. I still don’t want my kid to be gay. But maybe it’s okay if Bob and Henry got married.”
The gay rights movement shifted from ‘Accept us for who we are’ to 'We’ll be whatever you want us to be if you accept us.’ And it’s kind of remained that way over the last thirty years.
We’ve been trained to be offended by queers who step too far out of the mainstream. Plenty, and I mean plenty, of gays online were on edge when Billy Porter started showing up to awards shows in dresses. Lots, and I mean lots, of gays were unnerved and worried when trans people started coming out of their own closets. Some going so far as to disavow the T from LGBT because they were worried people who don’t like trans people would lop in the gay men and women in with them. Who needs community when you’ve already got your house in the suburbs, right?
(via vickythecarwash)
It’s so crazy seeing (white) people on this site realize they have relatives / ancestors of color, start reconnecting, then IDing as mixed. all within the course of like. 6 months
And let me say, I think reconnecting is great! I myself am reconnecting to my families ancestral religion after we were christianized. But I see a lot of people treat reconnecting as a very individualized thing– something that you do on the internet, primarily. And I completely understand why this is, because when you’ve been disconnected from your heritage for so long, the internet is often the most accessible way to learn about a culture.
But reconnecting critically requires talking to a community. If you’re going to claim to be a part of x group, you need to talk to other members of that group! You need to learn about the values of that group from the living people practicing it’s culture/language/etc. And yes, this is HARD. It’s awkward! It’s difficult when you’re from a marginalized group, especially if there’s not many people in your area. Yet I found so much more wholeness by talking to other people who practiced ancestor worship, going to a temple, learning the language of my ancestors with other speakers– than I ever could’ve all by myself. There are also often very real issues that marginalized groups are dealing with– elders without care, languages that are going extinct, food and housing insecurity. Ask yourself if you’re reconnecting for the sake of your community or for your own fulfillment. What do you hope to give by reconnecting? I’m particularly inspired by Ithiniw @ wapahkesis on instagram & their discussions of reconnecting.
Reconnecting is literally a lifelong process. It is the attempt to undo generational trauma, internalized hatred, and often white supremacy. There’s no shame in taking your time, listening to others, and acknowledging the other parts of yourself.
(via placedupon)
it’s good for your mental health to have mutuals who are wildly horny about kinks which do nothing at all for you
this is both as in. sometimes you will realise that actually these kinks do do something for you and that can be very eye-opening and liberating
and also as in. sometimes you will hear someone decry these kinks as indicative of moral failing, and being friends with people like this makes you immune to that sort of knee-jerk outrage
Also primes you for awareness that there are a lot of people who like a lot of things you don’t like or even that make you uncomfortable, and that is okay, has nothing to do with their character, and is also none of your business.
It’s always good practice. Remember that minding your own business costs $0 and has numerous health benefits.
“Having freaky friends to immunise you against moral panic” is a take so good I can’t believe I don’t hear it more often.
(via pclungs)
this was a good read
(via womenintheirwebs)
STOP USING THE WORD WOKE TO TALK ABOUT YOUR STUPID WHITE QUEER BULLSHIT!!!
plain text: stop using the word woke to talk about your stupid white queer bullshit!!! end plain text.
Woke is a word created by Black people for Black people as a reminder of police brutality against Black people. It’s already been ruined by the far right, and now you’re learning it from them without knowing its history while routinely excluding queer people of color from the queer community. I’m so fucking tired of white queers stealing AAVE terms like this and repackaging it as “Gen Z” or “gay” slang
AND you still use it as a derogatory word. It’s never with a positive connotation or about raising awareness. It’s always “folx is a silly unnecessarily woke word” and “amab and afab are just woke ways of saying male and female” when no!!! Woke is for Black people! and it’s not a bad thing! Stop fucking treating it like it’s a bad thing!!!!!
nonblack people are not only allowed, but encouraged to reblog
rbing this every time i see some bullshit
(via capricornpropaganda)