Goodies

Pronounced something like Hurr-am-jin. (Nothing to do with anyone named Dean or Genies, sorry).

[beesmygod]

im genuinely struggling with existing in a world where the israeli pager bomb act of terrorism isnt being condemned en masse as a infringement of human rights

[choramdean]

you mean the same world where nobody bats an eye at Obama killing kids in Yemen with drones?

[utopians]

Man come on

[utopians]

Honestly the real takeaway from this is that every tumblr user who's made a post in an attempt to sound Raw and Hardcore and get put on some sort of list of Rawest Tumblr Lines should have tomatoes hurled at them and then get yanked offstage with a big hook

[choramdean]

THIS makes you cringe? You're pathetic!

[zs-21]

When I say “last year,” I’m talking about 2019

[choramdean]

skill issue

[gabrielagresteofficial]

have you ever considered just moving on?

hell no bitch!!!!!

[seek--rest]

[naamahdarling]

[choramdean]

Everybody gangster till you're the one that needs hurting.

[winged-thinged]

Look, we joke a lot, but really, "you were born evil, wretched, worse than the scum of the earth, and it took killing a god to make you salvageable, so now you'd better be grateful to that god and thank him 10,000 times a day for it and fill your thoughts with him 24/7 and abide by the letter of his every word, lest you suffer unimaginable torture for all of eternity" is a truly horrendous thing to believe about yourself and other people

[choramdean]

@heresylog genuinely wanna know your perspective on this you're the most well-read accessible catholic I know

[snaxle-deactivated20260531]

they should make a body that isnt constantly in pain or sick or has health problems forever

[choramdean]

I know where this is coming from but they're literally trying

[nevarroes]

what butthole chart

well u know... the butthole chart

[existentialdebbies]

me and the 10 other people who are going to watch the wheel of time s2 are going to have so much fun

[choramdean]

madam the show's been #1 on prime in multiple countries, it's hard to ignore

[existentialdebbies]

the post was a joke and I made it before the season started airing 🫶🏾

[choramdean]

understandable thank you for context

[existentialdebbies]

me and the 10 other people who are going to watch the wheel of time s2 are going to have so much fun

[choramdean]

madam the show's been #1 on prime in multiple countries, it's hard to ignore

[genderkoolaid]

any other achillean transmascs have residual Ugly Girl Shame when it comes to attraction towards men. it's like a combination of internalized transphobia around being Guy Enough alongside the lingering feeling that you'll never be able to be conventionally attractive enough for guys to actually like you. and on top of that you don't even know if this guy is gay. hell world

[choramdean]

If it helps, many traits that are often perceived by society as ugly in girls are often the opposite for men, or neutral. A lot of trans men I've talked to have shared something that sounds like this with me and I've pointed out that these traits they're insecure about make them attractive men, even by conventional standards, which are rigid compared to the standards in the LGBT community.

[notyournightsky]

tiktok can’t outdo the doer

[peoplecallmelucifer]

To be fair tiktok WAS first to do this (Ships of the northern fleet)

[salamangreat-fennec]

The Homestucks on here were pretending the Squiddles were a real show (and the comic was actually an anime) like a decade ago on here.

[choramdean]

Why are you gotchaing the fake media fake claim with fake media nested in fake media

[cannibalcaprine-deactivated2024]

do you believe homestuck isn't real??

[choramdean]

In the same way that I believe in science and the indomitable human spirit.

[cannibalcaprine-deactivated2024]

is that a yes?

you know you can just read it, right?

it doesn't cost money, it's right here

[ringosnoop]

oh that link's broken actually, here's a better one

[choramdean]

Look, I really appreciate it when human beings commit to the bit, but I'm not going to read the fake webcomic. I don't appreciate how all encompassing people pretended homestuck was and also it's not really my genre. Don't mean to interfere in your fandom but technically this post is about Goncharov so I guess this is a valid place to air my opinion.

[notyournightsky]

tiktok can’t outdo the doer

[peoplecallmelucifer]

To be fair tiktok WAS first to do this (Ships of the northern fleet)

[salamangreat-fennec]

The Homestucks on here were pretending the Squiddles were a real show (and the comic was actually an anime) like a decade ago on here.

[choramdean]

Why are you gotchaing the fake media fake claim with fake media nested in fake media

[cannibalcaprine-deactivated2024]

do you believe homestuck isn't real??

[choramdean]

In the same way that I believe in science and the indomitable human spirit.

[notyournightsky]

tiktok can’t outdo the doer

[peoplecallmelucifer]

To be fair tiktok WAS first to do this (Ships of the northern fleet)

[salamangreat-fennec]

The Homestucks on here were pretending the Squiddles were a real show (and the comic was actually an anime) like a decade ago on here.

[choramdean]

Why are you gotchaing the fake media fake claim with fake media nested in fake media

[koboldfactory]

I think if a studio exec says they want to force you to starve to death so you’ll be made to accept garbage wages, you should crush them in a hydraulic press incredibly slowly

Like the fact that rich people have gotten to the point where they think they can just be like “oh yeah I’m literally trying to kill you” without fear of repercussions is beyond infuriating. They need to know what it feels like to be beaten to death by hammers.

[choramdean]

but no one is ever gonna do this because people in this part of the world value their own lives too much.

Which isn't a bad thing, but seeing the sentiment expressed candidly when it's never gonna happen is frustrating.

[frascospecimen]

Remember when someone was like “haha the funniest thing tumblr could do right now is make it so you get a badge for looking at 600 posts instead of what twitters doing lol” and then they did it. That was pretty awesome. I think the funniest thing tumblr could do right now is stop flagging trans women’s post as sexual right fucking now lol and fix prev tags and get rid of the fucking bigots and racists and nazis for once haha and also apologize for this shit. Wouldn’t that be pretty funny lol haha it would be so funny if they did this

[choramdean]

hmmm but how much money would that make?

[threebigolsausages-deactivated2]

one day itll be 2023 and everything will be good

[threebigolsausages-deactivated2]

you fucking liar

[choramdean]

everything may not be good but i ask you is your life honest to god worse than it was in fucking 2012?

[cock-holliday]

The whole “how will anarchism account for insulin” or any similar gotcha is so funny because of how it not only misunderstands anarchism but also misunderstands how things are handled currently.

It’s very similar to gotchas over prison abolition. “If we don’t enforce x by threat of prison and police brutality, how are we gonna stop it?” We don’t stop it with threat of prison and police brutality.

When anarchists call for removal of state oversight, the assumption is that the perspective is the same as republicans. When I say “I hate Joe Biden”, it doesn’t mean my ire towards him is for the same reason as those from the opposite direction. In fact, my ire often comes from the current system enabling my opposition. The same with insulin.

BUCKLE UP FOR AN ESSAY

Assuming these discussions are actually based in fruitful curiosity and not a horniness for the state, let’s debunk a few issues:

Item 1: Deregulated means unsafe, regulated means safe.

One of the big concerns is without STATE oversight, things won’t be safely made. The assumption then is that state oversight makes things safe. State oversight is conceptually neutral, and depends on what the state wants. Yes, it is in poor taste to off your citizens and generally they wanna keep the populous around, but that’s not always how things operate in practice.

In reproductive healthcare, under the guise of “safety” a series of laws referred to as TRAP Laws, over-regulate abortion providers with the intention of closing them down. Your hallways must be this wide. You must have x equipment you won’t use. You have to have this type of doorway. The intent is to red-tape these facilities into closing. It’s not about safety, it’s about control.

When it comes to covid vaccines, companies held patents that prevented “unpermitted” groups to produce their own vaccines and forced a dependance on the patent-holders. And by “groups” I mean entire medical organizations with the skills, training, and materials to make their own safely and correctly. It wasn’t about safety, it was about profit.

In India, certain strains of potatoes are illegal to grow because Lays holds a patent on them. You are not permitted to grow your own type of food because a company holds the “rights” to these potatoes.

Native land in the US that was “granted” in the form of reservations repeatedly gets re-stolen under the insistence of a “need” for resources and pipeline access.

You’ll notice a trend. In place of “safety” is political control, in place of “rights” to something, is financial gain.

Now, not all red tape we have currently is pointed towards the people, a lot is pointed at institutions and corporations—which is what many people are afraid of losing. Republicans want to remove child labor laws, they want to add hours to the workweek, they want to cut wages, so without the laws and oversight on these entities, we’d be fucked, right?

Item 2: Corporations are held accountable NOW.

It’s true that without any of the current oversight, corporations would be even worse. Workplace safety would be worse. But leaving the analysis here is a mistake for two reasons: it assumes that what we have is due to the benevolence of the state, and assumes the regulations we have even do what they’re supposed to.

The 40 hour work week, weekends, child labor laws, workers rights, everything good about regulation we have is because those lobbying for it were seen as a reasonable compromise next to people blowing up factories, killing tycoons, and destroying company goods. Every single good thing we have on the books was fought for with blood, sweat, tears, and the bodies of children, because the state wasn’t going to grant these protections until it became unwise for THEM not to.

Now, once we HAVE these protections, what are the consequences for violating them? The state considers child labor bad, stealing wages is bad, forcing employees to work in dangerous conditions is bad—so these things don’t happen, or when they do, the consequences prevent it from happening in the future, right?

…right?

I’ve already talked a lot about labor law on my blog and how amazingly toothless it is, but I’ll give a sparknotes version here for those who don’t know. Your boss stealing your wages, your boss employing children, your boss employing undocumented workers, your boss forcing you to work in unsafe conditions…will most often not face CRIMINAL legal consequences. The consequences they will face are under LABOR law, and the consequences for labor violations are: 1. Injunction (I prommy not to do it again) 2. Remedy (reinstating unfairly fired worker, financial compensation, etc) 3. Fines. That’s it.

No jailtime. And when it comes to fines, when the financial punishment is so minuscule as it usually is, it is not a deterrent, it becomes a cost of operation.

Now, you might be thinking “wow LJ, you paint a really bleak picture of people, things sound so bad” I want to say no, this is a bleak picture of corporations. Regulation or a lack thereof is tied to FINANCIAL INCENTIVE. It is not a reflection of people in general.

Item 3: Without fear of punishment, people will do whatever they want.

Workers on an assembly line don’t add corn and sawdust to foods because they feel like it, they are directed to by a boss who stands to make a profit by cutting down on what is real in their food. Medical industries trying out new products stand to gain money from introducing a product before it is ready. Construction workers pouring concrete have no incentive to make a bridge incorrectly, but the company shaves off some expenses by cutting corners. Financial gain AND MONOPOLY GRANTED BY POWER is what makes this cycle continue. Individual greed does not have this kind of devastation. A worker stealing from work, someone fudging their time card, doesn’t have this kind of impact because the devastating impact requires power and hierarchy.

We have a variety of social contracts that aren’t enforced with a big stick. People tend to all face the same way in an elevator. I won’t go to jail for spitting on my friend, so what stops me? No one is legally mandated to hold doors for each other or help your neighbor with groceries or donate to charity. Likewise, no one is punished for the opposite.

If a worker knows something isn’t up to code can they do something about it? I saw a post once saying the only people who hate OSHA are business tycoons. I know plenty of steelworkers who “hate OSHA” because OSHA requires heavy gloves for protection that make it impossible to grip tools, so workers forgo them under the speed demands of their boss and get hurt, then it’s their fault. I know workers who “hate OSHA” because if they get hurt at work they have to hide it because their boss has to send them home where they can’t work per OSHA guidelines. I know glass workers who “hate OSHA” because the ear protection they have to wear is too thick for the workers to communicate, so they forgo them and when they suffer ear damage, it’s their fault. In truth, they don’t hate OSHA. But the actual application of restrictions on employer’s doesn’t help if employers don’t face actual consequences, and bend their own consequences to punish the worker trying to utilize them. Sure, your boss can’t legally hurl racist slurs at you, but if you report it and get fired, can you withstand the years and expenses of court time only for your sole compensation being “reinstatement”?

So what should be the remedy then? Prison time for bosses? Let’s circle back to prisons and abolition. Prisons are an elaborate moneymaking scheme and its tentacles are gripping a wild amount of industry. Go to your local Walmart and pick up the first item you see boldly bearing a sticker that says “made in America!” Unless it’s a local small company, chances are pretty high that it was made, grown, built by prison labor. A large portion of farmworkers are prison labor. Even more are undocumented workers not protected by even our pitiful worker protections. 1/3 of California’s firefighters are prison labor.

Item 4: The state is separate from corporate influence.

So sure, more condemnation of corporations. But what does this have to do with the state? If you want to make yourself very angry about our government, look into ALEC. ALEC is a lobbying group for congress. A lot of corporations are part of this lobbying group, and they essentially write legislation that supports their financial incentives, and then lawmakers propose it before their committees. Holding hands behind your senators are corporations and private prison industries. And lawmakers are cut in on these deals.

Constantly lawmakers are revealed to be doing insider trading, taking bribes from corporations. Not just senators and reps. But supreme court justices. Presidential cabinet members. Power, control, financial incentives. The state has an interest to maintain itself, and when the opportunity for financial gain is presented, those in power take it again and again.

And ultimately, it’s not even just the case of personal corruption. It’s “playing the game.” You can’t run for office without financial backers, since elections are a money-pissing contest. Nonprofits have to kiss ass to wealthy benefactors in order to accomplish their noble goals, and their mission and directives ultimately become overwritten by the financial desires of their backers. Wealthy people won’t support unlucrative proposals, and so justice and fairness and meaningful change has to give them a financial return. Philanthrocapitalists is a term given to those of extreme wealth who pour obscene amounts of money into a social issue and are hailed a hero for the redistribution of their wealth. In reality, the “solutions” they fund perpetuate the issue. It becomes a business. Charity is turned into a profit-generating scheme. There are entire companies where you pay money to go build houses in “third world” countries. When the projects are completed and everyone feels good about the difference they’ve made and go home, the houses are torn down to make room for the next batch of saviors.

No matter how well-meaning, no president from New York is ever going to know how to appropriately address issues plaguing rural Iowans. To address them means to empower the community facing them now. No white president will ever know how to solve issues in Black communities. Appointing a Federal Black Issues Committee will still not solve the issues at a local level, because the committee, no matter how it is structured, will not reflect the issues of every Black American.

Calls for decentralization, allowing communities to address their needs at local levels without having to jump for treats from the federal government is NOT the same as right wingers chanting “states rights.”

Corporations and state financial interests reinging supreme means that as long as those in power have a big stick to control the masses, that sort of power should not be theirs in the first place, because it will continue the cycle. “MY group should get to hold the stick because not everyone can be trusted to handle things themselves” makes you much more inclined to side with structures predicated on maintaining power (cough cough financial incentives, monopolies, hierarchy) and makes you so much more dangerous than Joe Schmoe who wants out from under a boot.

So yes, how ever will anarchists address issues like insulin and ramp building without the state?

The only meaningful way to address it is WITHOUT a state.

[choramdean]

This is in completely good faith but one thing i really missed here is what stateless accountability will look like. This essay, while important for consciousness raising, doesn't actually answer the question, which I know is probably contextually a begged question but in my case, being someone who already recognizes that the state is evil and its institutions are entirely incidental at best and tools of self-perpetuation at worst, it is a genuine question. Imagining the alternative would be very helpful in, you know, realizing that alternative?

[cock-holliday]

Oh the ever-elusive question of accountability.

That’s always on a lot of people’s minds, and for decent reasons. The very first step (which I imagine you have already reached) is recognizing that the state does NOT provide accountability. Why not?

The system is rigged to allow those of influence to escape accountability, methods of accountability that focus on punishment do not achieve accountability and sometimes perpetuate the issues, many “crimes” are desperate acts to regain autonomy and the failure to address material needs traps people in a cycle of incarceration, and the ultimate form of accountability—death, is a power the state can and does abuse horrifically.

So what is the alternative? Frankly, it depends.

Most crime and social ills are perpetuated by the state. Many others are caused by the isolation of capitalism, violent conditioning under the state, and enforced by legitimizing hierarchy. Removal of these concepts would do away with a LOT of social woes, but of course, not all of them. Sometimes it doesn’t get to the root of the issue. Sometimes people will just be dogshit to each other. Without the power of the state behind them, the scope of the damage is lessened, but certainly not for their victim.

In *my* opinion, the best method of approach is victim centered approaches that prioritize reconciliation. I think in every situation where the victim wants to make amends and the perpetrator wants to make amends, room should be available. I think in every situation where the victim doesn’t want to make amends but the perpetrator does, rehabilitation that allows for the safety and security of the victim should be available.

Every situation that can allow both parties to move forward should be allowed. Opportunities for growth and change should be allowed.

Of course, THIS doesn’t address everything either. Though it addresses a lot more than you would think.

What is to be done when the perpetrator does real harm and is remorseless and the victim is rendered unsafe by the very presence of the perpetrator? For accountability, there must be community consensus. For community consensus, there must be the ability to freely associate.

If a group does something you don’t like, you need to be able to leave and go somewhere else without it being a risk to you. If someone is a threat to a group, kicking them out shouldn’t mean there is nowhere else to go.

I also say “it depends” because I disagree with others on blanket statements of retribution being wholly good or wholly bad. Yes there runs the risk of mob mentality making a victim of the outlier. But there is also righteous fury in groups around the world who, for example, hunt down nazis. I cannot find fault with an abuse victim who, unable to escape, kills their abuser. It depends on the situation, and exile should not be a death sentence in as many situations as possible.

We often see the idea of justice as a neutral arbiter. A community could be too close to an issue. Emotions could run high and cloud judgement. So a third party should decide, right? It’s flawed to have someone who will not have to live with the consequences of the choice make decisions, and it is an error to think not being part of the community makes someone not biased. Sometimes the lack of closeness means a lack of important context. Communities should decide what is best. With as much focus on safely moving forward as a unit as possible. If the conclusion is flawed, people should be able to opt out.

My politics and my views on community can be summed up as “do no harm, take no shit.” Reconciliation when possible. Growth when possible. Exhaust options for an amicable solution, but when exhausted, passive solutions are no solution.

Ultimately, I am not alone in this conclusion, but maybe it won’t work for a community and I am not their god or president or sheriff or leader, and cannot impose my system either, ESPECIALLY in communities I am not part of. I am no less biased than any other judge.

[choramdean]

It's somewhat unfortunate that there aren't more tangible case studies to work with, given there is a genuine demand for community-led justice now, and honestly not much of a barrier to simply enacting it without care for state intervention.