A Divine Contradiction

Dancing and spinning with wild abandon because I'm silly and free and the wind tells me to. "I like the smell of earth, the touch of waves, the taste of berries, the sight of trees, the sound of laughter, and the feeling of being fully alive." Fandoms...

[letsbelonelytogetherr]

— nipuna (via @nipsyyy)

[letsbelonelytogetherr]

— Nicole Lyons

[mournfulroses]

Trista Mateer, from "Aphrodite Made Me Do It," originally published in 2024

[letsbelonelytogetherr]

— Leo Tolstoy

[satellitebroadcast-deactivated2]

[futuristicson]

I will leave my mark.

[caats]

[caats]

mcapriglioneart

[katal0gue]

The way that we learn about Helen Keller in school is an absolute outrage. We read “The Miracle Worker”- the miracle worker referring to her teacher; she’s not even the title character in her own story. The narrative about disabled people that we are comfortable with follows this format- “overcoming” disability. Disabled people as children. Helen Keller as an adult, though? She was a radical socialist, a fierce disability advocate, and a suffragette. There’s no reason she should not be considered a feminist icon, btw, and the fact that she isn’t is pure ableism- while other white feminists of that time were blatent racists, she was speaking out against Woodrew Wilson because of his vehement racism. She supported woman’s suffrage and birth control. She was an anti-war speaker. She was an initial donor to the NAACP. She spoke out about the causes of blindness- often disease caused by poverty and poor working conditions. She was so brave and outspoken that the FBI had a file on her because of all the trouble she caused.

Yet when we talk about her, it’s either the boring, inspiration porn story of her as a child and her heroic teacher, or as the punchline of ableist, misogynistic jokes. It’s not just offensive, it’s downright disgusting.

[roachpatrol]

the reason the story stops once hellen keller learns to talk is no one wanted to listen to what she had to say

how’s that for a fucking punchline

[cookinguptales]

Another part of the story that is often conveniently omitted is that Anne Sullivan, the “miracle worker” in question, was also a visually impaired woman (and abolitionist) who faced her own struggles finding accessible education. That was why she was able to teach Helen Keller and connect her with resources that would allow her to flourish in academia. When Helen Keller was railing against poverty-induced diseases that caused blindness, she was talking about things like trachoma which was what had caused her friend’s vision loss.

The fact that Sullivan is often portrayed as able-bodied in retellings of their story is indicative of the narrative that is most comfortable for an ableist society: that accessibility and equality are gifts bestowed upon the disabled by able-bodied heroes. Disabled children are never taught that they have the power to lift each other up, and that’s a crying shame.

[thememedaddy]

[strokeofserenity]

Margaret Atwood, “The Blind Assassin.”

[catchymemes]

[catchymemes]

[bravesonnets]

—salvador allende’s final speech, 9/11/73

this week marks the 47th anniversary of the US-backed overthrow of salvador allende. allende was the first latin american marxist to be elected president in a liberal democracy. under allende, universal healthcare, tuition-free education, minimum wage, worker safety protections, free school lunches for children, and other socialist programs were implemented. according to the national bureau of economic research, blue collar wages rose 56% in 1971.

after allende moved to nationalize chile’s US owned industries and align with socialist cuba, nixon (who’d already been carefully monitoring allende’s rise) gave direct orders to the CIA and the US state department to “put pressure” on allende’s government. while the US publicly worked to sabotage chile’s economy with trade restrictions and aid denial, the CIA secretly collaborated with reactionary forces in the country to undermine allende’s credibility and ultimately overthrow him in a bloody coup.

in allende’s place, the US helped install military leader augusto pinochet who returned “freedom” to chile through re-privatization and the extra-judicial murder of an estimated 3,197 chileans. despite pinochet’s reputation as one of latin america’s most brutal fascists, the US supported his regime without issue. “i would say they are dictatorial,” nixon later conceded, “i would also have to, on the other side, indicate that they are non-communist and that they are not enemies of the united states.”

[catchymemes]

[soberscientistlife]

[anna-chr0nism]