Angel

She/her

[weirdtranssexual]

i feel like i’m going insane watching leftists have literally zero consistent morals

[originalleftist]

It cuts deep.

To be fair, it's long been true of the Right too (well, unless you count "be cruel to people different than you" and "its okay when we do it" as morals).

But the Left were supposed to be the ones who were better than this.

[nochd]

The Left and Right and everyone else are doing the same thing they have always done: treating their enemies as enemies.

I was a bullied kid at school, because I was autistic and bisexual (the first of which I'd never heard of and the second I was in denial about), but also, very explicitly, because I was a convinced Evangelical Christian and I did what I had been taught was my Christian duty and tried in the best ways I knew to bring the Gospel to my friends and schoolmates so that if they were killed in a car crash and went to Hell it wouldn't be my fault for not saying anything.

(Most of the other Christian kids seemed to be able to compartmentalize away that side of our beliefs when they left Christian spaces; but, like I said, autistic.)

Back then I genuinely thought Christians were kinder and better people than anyone else; they were, after all, kinder and better to me. We were taught that "The World" hated us because they hated God, and I thought that was what I was seeing when they would mock my attempts to evangelize.

Then at age 20 or so I left Evangelical Christianity. And strange to say, instantly there were hostile Evangelicals everywhere. Members of my former church, people I'd known as friends, followed me down the street haranguing me about my salvation. Suddenly Christians were the horrible people and the non-religious were the nice ones.

I remember one year the president of our students' association joked about a new Pagan student club that "Personally I think they should all be burned at the stake," which obviously the Pagan students weren't happy about. Many times I heard people say "Imagine if someone said that about Christians -- there'd be an outcry!"

I remember this because it was an epiphany. I knew from long experience that what actually happens when people say things like that about Christians is that the Christians all sit around going "Imagine if someone said that about Muslims -- there'd be an outcry!" And I realized, as I never had before, that what mostly makes one piece of hostility or disrespect more or less tolerable than another is which end of it you're on.

Leftists gasp at "Your body, my choice", but laugh off "Eat the rich" as clearly not serious and only designed to grind the Right's gears and have a bit of a laugh. Rightists, vice versa.

I had another epiphany from an even more trivial source. Of all things, it was a Game of Thrones shipping war when I was on tumblr as "veryrarelystable" about six or seven years ago. Someone said, in full seriousness, "Jonsa shippers don't abuse and threaten others. Only Jonaerys shippers do that."

I was already so fed up with this shit clogging my dash that I imagined myself yelling in their ear (with a megaphone that I imagined having bought specifically for the purpose), "Your own side doesn't abuse or threaten you, but that's not because they don't abuse or threaten anyone, it's because you're on their side."

And I suddenly saw that this applied to every dispute, everywhere, over things vastly more serious than which fantasy TV character pairing was going to end up fucking.

Leftists are not more virtuous people than rightists any more than Evangelical Christians are more virtuous people than atheists. Leftists see kindness coming from the Left and violence from the Right because the Left are their friends and the Right their enemies. Rightists see kindness coming from the Right and violence from the Left because the Right are their friends and the Left their enemies.

There's also a lot of infighting and accusations of treason on both sides, but you get that when the moral stakes are high.

The Left are not "better than this" and never have been.

And knowing all this, I still vote Left and promote Left causes. That's because climate change is real and will destroy us all if it isn't stopped. It's because the after-effects of colonization and slavery are still hurting people. It's because the market can't be trusted to set fair wages. It's because corporate power makes everything worse if it's not put in check. It's because diversity in gender and sexuality does no harm, whereas treating it as a problem that needs fixing does massive harm.

It's because, on nearly all the big and urgent issues, the Left's position is closer to being factually correct; from which it follows that the Left's solutions are more likely to work and hence make life better for people.

That is what matters.

[solisaureus]

i don’t know who needs to hear this but learning about disability justice will make you love yourself more. even if you don’t have a disability. training yourself with ideas of radical acceptance and celebration of all ability levels will help you treat yourself with patience and compassion because at the end of the day everyone has limitations. a rising tide lifts all boats

also, even if you don’t consider yourself disabled now, you can acquire a disability at any time in your life. you could develop arthritis in 40 years or you could get a concussion tomorrow. doing the work now to uplift and support disabled people around you and fight for disability justice will make you feel less helpless if you do acquire a disability later. fighting for disability justice is not only a moral human imperative, it’s so good for your soul and inner peace as well

[tofumarinado]

"feeling unsafe at night is something no man could ever understand"

black men beg to differ

brown men beg to differ

aapi men beg to differ

autistic men beg to differ

gay men beg to differ

trans men beg to differ

[hypermascbishounen]

Homeless men beg to differ

[crazyalien87]

True but I think the point was not "men are not in danger" but that "men are not in danger due to being men, maybe from being a man and something else but not manness itself, whereas women are in danger simply due to being women, regardless of other factors which may increase the danger but are not the only cause"

[chronicbitchsyndrome]

i have been in community with profoundly developmentally disabled peers and peers with brain damage my whole life, bc i had a childhood diagnosis. i have also been leftist my whole life; my mother was a marxist and raised me that way, and while their politics were absolute dogshit, they were lefty dogshit.

my entire life, i have seen leftist educators throw mentally disabled people away as "lost causes" because they couldn't engage with the material the way it was being presented. leftist outreach and education does, genuinely, have a massive lack of accessible material. to be blunt, people are not interested in retrofitting their leftist outreach to be accessible to people who learn best through episodes of sesame street.

as in, i have repeatedly faced outright laughter and cruelty over the idea that this could be a priority. or even something that we consider doing at all.

"people who are that mentally disabled don't need to know about these things," the kindest interpretation goes. ("people who are that mentally disabled don't interact with the world, anyway, they're all in institutions or monitored 24/7 by their parents," the uncharitable underlying assumptions go. "they wouldn't be a worker who needs a union. or a library attendee. or a member of the community garden. or a volunteer at the food bank. or or or")

the people i have seen this hurt the worst, over and over again, are profoundly mentally disabled people of color whose lack of access to accessible antiracist education is causing real danger in their lives. institutionalized disabled people of color who have learned racist ideology and behaviors from white authority, whether they were adopted by white families or incarcerated in care institutions run by white staff. who are treated lower than garbage by leftist educators, who view them as "lost causes," as unworthy of time and effort and attention, as deserving of their abuses because they... what... internalized the abuses that make up every aspect of their lives since birth?

i see people saying things in this conversation like "disability isn't an excuse for racism or transphobia or whatever, people have the obligation to improve themselves." oh, believe me, i have seen again and again how many privileged disabled people utilize their disabilities to punch down on others, try to escape accountability for their punching down by citing disability. but individual weaponization of identity is just that: weaponization of identity.

the power structures at play are what they are. it is a noble and admirable goal to want leftist outreach and education to be more accessible to all. if that is truly your goal, you must eventually reckon with the existence of people who do, actually, really need it presented in a picture book. or an episode of bluey. or a conversation where you only use examples of people they know in real life, using things that happened to them personally. the existence of people who cannot grasp forms of abstract reasoning, who need information presented as rules, or as guidelines, or as categories. the idea that yes, fully grown adults who need daniel tiger to explain racism to them are human beings who not only deserve access to that very thing, but who also deserve to be a part of leftist spaces and benefit from leftist organizing. are people for whom it might be INTEGRAL they get to be a part of leftism. are victims of racism themselves and suffering without access to antiracist spaces and community and support.

and you will need to reckon with the abject cruelty of your peers who laugh and mock the very idea of this. you need to reckon with the fact that a lot of people you respect, a lot of leftists doing genuinely good work, will respond to this by making fun of the people you're serving, even outright telling you their violent fantasies about these people. that is the experience of organizing in leftist spaces for profoundly disabled people. that is why so many of us burn out so fast. there IS a structural problem with mentally disabled people being seen as disposable and not a part of community. and it is EXTREMELY present in leftist organizing and outreach efforts.

[angel-cat123]

Blue square

[angel-cat123]

Orange square

[fascistsarefreefood]

Daily reminder that we do not actually live in a dystopian movie put the apocalypse down and back away slowly. You know when your cleaning a room and you pull everything out of it's draws to sort through it and you're like "what the fuck have I done I'm never going to be able to tidy all of this" I think that's the stage we're at in the world. Thanks to social media we've pulled out all the messed up shit from the cupboards of the world, it was always there but now we can see it and we're going to have to sort it all out we made this mess and we can fix it. Falling to the floor sobbing will not clean a crusty room. A group of people working systematically (preferably with music in the background) will.

[roach-works]

[e-rated-beardo]

There's a lot of good stuff in the tags:

Thanks @justabitoddish, @butterbee, @eggtrolls and @ladytemeraire

[gorgonstaringcontest]

This is a conversation I've had throughout my professional career quite often. I have to be cautious to avoid naming names, to keep my professional and online lives separate.

For context, the vast majority of my work involves talking about the worst aspects of the world at any given time. I speak at length and in great detail with people about the realities of anthropogenic climate change, petrochemical pollution, microplastics, ecological collapse, flora and fauna extinctions, the impact of geopolitical conflict on civilians, wealth disparity, and the failure of government and oversight bodies on these issues. The second aspect, I also am often exposed to discussions on many specific illnesses that do not have prevention, treatment, or cure - or do and are simply under-or-unsupported so their impact is not ameliorated - from various cancers, to genetic conditions, to neurodegenerative conditions, and more. The third aspect is sociological - human trafficking, homelessness, refugees, mental health and suicide, family and domestic violence, systemic issues affecting indigenous and first nations people, and education particularly supporting people who live with disability due to the failure of extant education systems.

That's not even all. And I've done this for thirteen years.

One of the subjects that comes up from time to time, often between people who have been around as long as me or longer, and those who are three or six months into their career is - how do we cope? How do we sleep at night? How do we reconcile our own lives with what we know, and how do we avoid falling into the stereotypes and logical fallacies that allow people to remain ignorant of these issues.

The truth is, it's different for everyone. We are all staring into the same sucking void of everything wrong in the world - with the knowledge that we're not even looking at 100% of it - but from slightly different perspectives.

Some of us will say that it's accepting that no solution is perfect, but any step in the right direction is worth taking. That if we care for what is within the sphere of our influence, and inspire others to do the same, then we are on balance making the world better.

Some of us will say we must reach as far from our own positions of privilege, whatever they may be, and amplify the voices of those who are the furthest from them. That the best course of action is to know our work is to directly counterbalance the disparity we know exists on whatever fulcrum we can see.

Some will say that we must hold truth to power. That because we are able to stand witness, it is our responsibility to do so. To tell the stories of the voiceless, and advocate for those who are not able to advocate for themselves. To make sure no voice speaks out alone.

Some say that they must strive to gain more power and influence to have the resources to make change possible. That the nature of finite resources means that to devote themselves to the acquisition and redistribution of that to those who have been deprived of the opportunity that provides is recompense for the injustice inherent to the world they've been brought into.

For me, it took a great deal of introspection. For those who have seen the nature of work without being involved in it, have asked me the same question in various ways - "how can you talk about all the ills of the world, and not give up? You spend hours talking about painful, tragic, preventable deaths. Exploitation by or failure of those who were meant to protect. The specifics of harm that happens to innocents. How can you feel normal after being mired in all of that? Why don't you just lose hope?"

And for me... After a lot of introspection, I realised - I can't give up. I take stock of what I have, and knowing what I do, I feel grateful. It throws simple experiences into harsh contrast because it's tempered by that broader understanding.

The other side is outrage. I am not angry, I am outraged - outraged, that a species of animal was killed to mine for gas or oil and is now extinct. Outraged that someone took their own life because they didn't get the help they needed. Outraged when someone dies of an illness that could have a cure by now, if only it was more profitable.

My outrage is not a flash in the pan. It does not spark and explode. It does not make me irrational, or lash out. My outrage is a fragment of uranium lodged in the center of my chest. Sometimes it feels like it existed before I was born, and will outlive me.

That outrage is the reliable core of my hope. It is not a delicate creature whose life is easily snuffed out. It's what drives me to do better and be better to bend those skills to changing the world for the better. It's not a last stand, it's a war of attrition. I've accepted that even if I live to be 100, the world won't be perfect when I die. But everything I've worked towards will have been to make the world the best, imperfect, version that it could be.

And I hope that those who came after feel the same way I do. That someone will wake up one day and find the fragment that called me home lodged in their chest, and continue to hope.

[hadesoftheladies]

the main prerequisite to being an ally for women, poc, disabled or same-sex attracted people is to literally just practice de-centering yourself. like you are raised assuming you, your experiences, culture and history are the default.

this is the biggest handicap to your thinking.

tackle it and no one will have to hold your hand for everything including theory. you'll automatically know how to behave and what not to say and learn how to consider the plight of others outside yourself. it's that simple.

[angel-cat123]

yellow square

[falldontwaitforit-deactivated20]

im tired of trans men/mascs always having to make themselves smaller for the sake of not being berated by both the queer 'community' and cishet folk alike.

oh, your name is bug, you like big eyeliner and dyed hair, kandi, and use he/they? you're too trans, you're embarrassing the community.

you're stealth? you exclusively want to dress and present male? you don't want anyone to know your trans? what are you, ashamed of yourself? do you hate other queers? you need to out yourself to make fem people feel safe!

you're a trans boy but you like pink, frills and dresses, your hair is long and you don't bind? faker. you're making the whole community look bad. you are not actually trans.

you want to take testosterone, get jacked, shave your head and grow a beard? you are making women uncomfortable, you can't call yourself a trans man anymore bcs you pass too well, you aren't welcomed in this community.

see, see how there is never any winning? and still, i come online everyday and see trans people infighting, all of these things are said by both cis transphobes and actual people who call themselves transgender. just stop it. whoever you are, be proud, take up space, and especially make room for other trans people who are different than you. being a transmed or whatever is doing just as much help for both the trans community and yourselves as, like, the trump administration has.

[angel-cat123]

light yellow square

[genderrage]

It just occurred to me that there is an added level of irony that when Louis tries to deny the vampiric part of himself in 1x3 he drains a cat. A gay man "eating pussy" to deny his identity/nature is quite the interesting choice.

[angel-cat123]

tweed square

[rndmpunk]

As a physically disabled person, I see a lot of similarities in the way that perisex trans people treat intersex people, and the way that able bodied neurodivergent people treat physically disabled people.

Both our communities try and use us as a “gotcha” against bigots. “You wouldn’t say that to a wheelchair user!” And “Intersex people are born trans!” Are both incorrect statements that so called “leftists” love to use when speaking up against ableism and transphobia. But the fact is people do say ableist things to wheelchair users and other physically disabled people, and intersex people are not born trans.

For some reason instead of raising awareness about the issues we actually face, people just use our existence to throw in the face of bigots. But when we actually do need help, those people turn their backs on us.

So as a perisex person, I just want all intersex people to know that my account will always be a safe space for you. I know how it feels to have the people in your community just throw you under the bus, and it’s so fucking shitty. I’m sorry you all have to deal with those assholes.

[angel-cat123]

purple square/rectangle

[insert-some-url]

Why leftist racism hurts more

When we say "racism" most people think of right wing racism. But I really think it's time to give left wing racism more recognition especially since it's becoming more and more prevalent.

When I was a kid I thought of the right and left wing as bad and good. My naive mindset thought all the racism comes from the "Evil Right(TM)" while the " Hero Left(TM)" tries to fight it (yea yea i know but i was a wee kid so don't @ me) But as I grew older I realized what a HUGE mistake that was.

The thing is that when a right wing racist meets me, a person from the middle east, they'll call me some slur and make it clear they don't like me. It sucks. Fuck them for that! But at least I know where I'm standing with that right winger.

But with leftist racists though... God... IT'S SO CONVOLUTED. First they'll pretend to be supportive and friendly because " We support minorities! We love POC😃 We listen to the oppressed people😍Diversity yay!" But then I try to tell them about my experiences, about how my country(Iran) is being destroyed by the theoretic dictatorship of islamic republic and how the main reason we're suffering in Iran is in fact the IR regime and not MAINLY the US government and SUDDENLY it's like they deflate. They realize I'm not affirming their "America is the root of all evil" views. They realize not every government that says "America bad" is good. They have to face the uncomfortable fact that Islamist fundamentalism does exist and that it's horrible. Then just like that, the mask of performative support drops. Suddenly they're not interested in listening to a muslim-raised middle eastener anymore because "OMG wdym i can't just support any regime that is against America ???" " I'm not comfortable speaking against the Islamic republic's crimes cuz i don't wanna be Islamophobic😐" "Ummm actually you must be fooled by the Evil Western Governments(TM) and I just decided your experiences aren't valid anymore cuz you're not affirming my biased views of the middle east🙃" "I'm sure I know more about your country than yourself because I'm an Educated American (TM) and i'm gonna save you poor brainwashed middle easterns cuz don't know anything :)" " I think my own TikTok research is more accurate than your first hand experiences😉"

BOOM! All their racism, elitism etc just pops out as soon as you DARE to slightly disagree with their biased views. You realize they've been seeing you as a "lesser being" all along...

It's the back stabing that hurts the most... the gut wrenching feeling when you give your trust to someone just to watch them crush it...

I never put my trust in a right winger because they clearly announce they hate me. But the leftists make me trust them just to pull the rug from under me when I'm not "useful" to them anymore. This is why leftist racism hurts more...

[thefairfolk]

God, this.

You know the worst part about being Middle Eastern? It's not the governments, not the beatings, not the wars- it's the fact that it's so hard to talk about it.

Because on one hand, you so desperately want to correct people (both right & left) who assume you come from some kind of Islamic ghetto with no manners (and the leftists usually assume you're some kinda bigot, mainly a homophobe). You know your country sucks, but you want people to know how many good things it has and how it's endured so much pain and trials. So you don't want to bring up all the suffering, right?

But on the other hand, you do. You watch these people with their silly little "happy pride!" or "BLM!" protests and you think, "Why couldn't you do that for other people who've been hurt even more? Don't you care about us? Don't we matter?". And this is unbelievably angering. You want everyone to know just how much a regime, be it the IRI or the Taliban or anything else, has hurt you and/or your family.

You might be the boy whose dad was on death row and only got out due to bribery, simply because his dad happened to be a sergeant for the Shah, living all your childhood days knowing your dad was alive, but maybe not for long, and that there was nothing you could do for him. You might be the girl who, at age 36, has a curfew of not going out after dark in the most expensive neighbourhood in Tehran, because the people who walk the streets at night are worse than any thief or rapist. These are just two examples of people I know personally. God knows how many other examples exist in a country of 80 million citizens, 90% of whom disagree with its government. But how you even vocalise this without getting shut down, dismissed, or pitied?

A racist/xenophobe might go, "Oh, that's the Middle East for ya, so brutal and barbaric and backwards!" while they subconsciously side-eye you simply from being from such a place. You can ignore this. A lot of poc from the West are way too thin-skinned to handle this stuff, but you can ignore this, trust me.

Another protests that you're not being fair by criticising your government this way, just because, what, it's an American or Israeli enemy? Do you know how fucking bad and toxic the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" mentality is? Do you know how many you're deeply hurting?

You can't win. Unless you find someone from a similar country (I am grateful every day for my Middle Eastern friends on this site) or with common sense (so rare these days), you can't win. And there's no way around it.

[insert-some-url]

PREACH👏

[insert-some-url]

[lupusbaby]

Some people don’t want to hear this but sometimes accessibility is not sustainable or eco-friendly. Disabled people sometimes need straws, or pre-made meals in plastic containers, or single-use items. Just because you can work with your foods in their least processed and packaged form doesn’t mean everyone else can.

[headspace-hotel]

I mean, if we're talking about a more...academic? rigorous? accurate? definition of sustainability, something has to meet human needs to be sustainable. A "sustainable" system that disabled people can't use isn't sustainable. Not distracting from your point just saying that "sustainability" is supposed to actually include the needs of people.

Also. In my opinion it's a good thing we invented plastic. Plastic is good at a lot of things. There are some applications where there really Isn't a more sustainable alternative. A lot of medical equipment needs to be single-use plastic and there's not really a way around it.

When we're talking material properties of a substance, plastic does stuff that other materials can't. It's not brittle. It can be flexible. It can be lightweight. It doesn't expand and contract a bunch with temperature. It can allow light through. And it doesn't corrode or biodegrade, which is bad but it's also good because it doesn't change or become contaminated while you're using it.

[sequencer987]

I bet the abled ‘leftists’ are going to be real cool and normal about this.

[headspace-hotel]

I saw a post one time that was like "in a just world with equality for everyone, people in rich imperialist countries would have access to less of expensive luxuries and that's okay" but one of their examples of these expensive things that wouldnt be in the world anymore with equality was. MRI machines.

I don't know about y'all but I think theres like, a ranked list of the frivolousness of expensive technologies, and all medical technology is collectively dead at the fucking bottom

[cantotallyeven]

Bout to go get my frivolous biyearly MRI to make sure my life expectancy hasn't suddenly dropped by 50 years

[regulusmasamune]

Also like. It's Big Business Propaganda that actions by single people contribute the most to environmental destruction. Like, they are the ones choosing to make things out of plastic. There isn't a way around that. It's gonna get made whether it's used or not. There are things that probably should be made out of biodegradable materials, like plastic bags. But that isn't cost effective for cooperations. It's gonna take a lot of research, new material invention and laws to get the corporations actually responsible for pollution to change.

Plus: Using sustainable materials isn't financially accessible. Walmart's Great Value Brand plastic forks are $1.98 (USD.) the Great Value compostable forks are $2.96. The disabled community has a disgraceful high unemployment rate. That difference adds up, and it hurts. Experience spoken from. Plus, the compostable forks don't act the same as plastic ones. They will bend into unusable shapes from hot macaroni.

Anywho: blaming the disabled community for environmental destruction is not just ableist. It's the big companies successfully tricking you into blaming someone else for the problems they are causing.