So It Goes

Overly anxious writer with too many feelings and too little time.

[whitepeopletwitter]

[ohjustletmewriteinpeace]

[heckyeahponyscans]

Hey folks, I live in Seattle and up till a couple years ago I lived on Capitol Hill. I still have friends living there.  So I thought I’d provide some local insight into the CHAZ (Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone).

There is a lot of misinformation out there, especially from Fox News, which photoshopped a gunman into pics, wow.

First, the best resources to find CHAZ info are local to Seattle: The Seattle Times, Capitol Hill Blog, and the CHAZ livestream where you can see the streets for yourself.

Capitol Hill is a very densely populated neighborhood full of apartment buildings and bustling restaurants and bars. If you work there, you live there (because it is hard to navigate by car, like NYC), and if you live there, you are probably super liberal. It’s also the center of counter-culture and LGBTQ culture in Seattle.

Are the protesters terrorizing the locals?

No, the protesters ARE the locals. They live in the many, many apartment buildings on Capitol Hill.  Having lived there for years, believe me when I say “fuck the police” is a prevalent opinion there even when there isn’t a nationwide protest.

Is there looting?  How are businesses protecting themselves?

The local businesses are not being looted; they are open and are doing a booming business.  Also, a lot of workers / business owners ARE protesters.

I saw a picture of Seattle on fire!

Actually you saw a picture of a protest in Minnesota that Fox News pretended was Seattle because they are frauds and shills.

How big is the Autonomous Zone?

Six square blocks.

How did this situation come about?

There was a peaceful march.  The mayor abruptly set a 5 pm curfew.  The protesters ignored it and marched anyway.  Then the police set up barricades to stop the march.  The cops started using tear-gas and flash-bangs and the situation devolved from there. (You can find videos of this on Capitol Hill Blog.)  What prompted the tear-gas was … one of the protesters thrust a pink umbrella over the barrier.  Yes, really.

The situation deteriorated for several days/nights running until the police abandoned the East Precinct on Capitol Hill. The violence was very one-sided: the police attacking the protesters.

Then the police left.  From what I heard the mayor ordered them out due to rumors or fears that the police station would be burned down? Which didn’t happen.  Anyway, they abruptly left.  As in, hired a literal moving truck and emptied out their headquarters, in almost a comedic beat.

Do you have to show your ID to enter the Autonomous Zone?

No.  People come and go freely.  City services are also allowed to come and go (and I presume delivery trucks but I haven’t looked into that.)

What’s with the physical barriers if people can come and go freely?

They’re to keep vehicles out. 

Backstory:  While the protests were ongoing, a guy (whose brother was an East Precinct cop) tried to ram his car into a crowd of protesters.  A brave man eating a hot dog threw himself at the side of the car, grabbed the steering wheel through the open window, and stopped him. Whereupon cop-brother-car-man shot him with a gun.

Personally I think cop-brother-car-man was planning a mass shooting because he had extra ammo taped to his hoodie sleeve. You can see the blue tape on his arm in the pic above. (The protester who was shot thankfully survived.  Check out those brave medics tending him while an ACTIVE SHOOTER is standing feet away!)

But anyway, that’s why there are barriers. I believe they move them aside for approved vehicles, like emergency vehicles or deliveries.

Are there people with guns roaming around?

Not on a regular basis, although I’ve heard a local gun club had some members there one night when it was rumored the Proud Boys (a Nazi group) might show up.  (They didn’t.)  But in general, no.

Is it scary??

No.  The neighborhood is fully on board and overall there is a festive atmosphere.  There are speeches about BLM, about discrimination, about what people want for the neighborhood.  There are first aid stations, medics and counselors, and people offering free pizza.  If you watch the livestreams, you can see people walking their dogs, out with their kids, etc.

Where will this all end?

I don’t know.  The barriers can’t stay up forever and I think everyone knows that.  The “Autonomous Zone” name is tongue-in-cheek, the protesters aren’t actually trying to secede from the United States.  Basically, this is a boiling over of frustration.  The police have never been good-faith neighbors on Capitol Hill.  Also Seattle police have always been pretty racist and had a problem with excessive force.

Look at this whole situation.  All the police had to do was stand back and let the protesters march; they would have marched and gone home and that would be that.  All the police had to do was nothing.  Instead they turned a neighborhood into a warzone.

By the way, did you know that yesterday (6/12) in a different Seattle neighborhood 60,000 people marched to support BLM?  And because the city had learned its lesson about dumbass curfews, they let everyone march and nothing bad happened.

Weird how the national news didn’t report on that march, huh?  Almost like they cherrypick the protests that will appear “scary” to their audience.

[one-time-i-dreamt]

Donate

Make A Difference With The Amadou Diallo Foundation Receive a Free T-Shirt when you donate $25 or more. There are 5 ways to make a diff

[coolxatu]

YO YOU GUYS SEATTLE

https://twitter.com/BRRN_Fed/status/1270345660617891842

[coolxatu]

oh my god

https://www.democracynow.org/2020/6/9/headlines/protesters_establish_autonomous_zone_around_seattle_pd_building_as_police_retreat

[coolxatu]

another article. it looks like mainstream media is saying nothing about this so far. wonder if theres a media blackout

https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2020/06/09/seattle-sleepless-as-authorities-mobilise-after-locals-declare-free-zone/

[coolxatu]

https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2020/06/welcome-to-free-capitol-hill-capitol-hill-autonomous-zone-forms-around-emptied-east-precinct/

[coolxatu]

losing my mind guys

[coolxatu]

heres some pics of the claimed area

taken from first twitter link

taken from r/seattle 

[coolxatu]

another one from this morning

[cryptid-sighting]

Welcome To The Cool Zone!!!!

[kropotkindersurprise]

[falsedetective]

update: city councilmember and socialist comrade kshama sawant has LET THEM INTO CITY HALL. the revolution is now

[coolxatu]

the capital hill autonomous zone has released its demands

[logan43000-deactivated20150721]

[maureenjohnsonbooks]

This graphic is fabulous. It represents a tiny crash course in rhetoric. Learn these things. Put them on your wall. Whisper them into the breeze. These are THINGS TO KNOW.

[hollyblack]

Yeesssssssssss.

[navaeragreenleaf-deactivated201]

Interesting

[joehillsthrills-deactivated2019]

Bookmark this shit and the next time someone begins gobbling nonsense at you on a social network, instead of engaging, point them to this handy chart. Also useful: Thought Catalog’s “How To Have A Rational Conversation” flowchart.

[queerukuleleplayer]

So…JK Rowling is now deliberately linking her sexual assault and domestic abuse with trans women (utterly abhorrent) and saying that “any man” can get a gender recognition certificate and use this to enter women only spaces (blatantly untrue).

If you can’t see the blatant TERF dogwhistles in this I cannot help you. She has clearly been radicalised because this what TERFs do. They prey on women’s traumas and use this to brainwash them into supporting their cause. They prey on the fears of the vulnerable and twist them for their own bigoted and vile agenda.

JK Rowling will not listen to us now. We can only hope at some point she breaks away and starts to truly listen and educate herself.

The best we can do is support trans youth *especially* trans women and trans women of colour even more so; who are more likely than any minority to experience abuse, mental illness, bullying, homelessness, sexual assault/rape and murder.

A person with such a high platform as JK is going to do serious damage to the trans cause we must combat this!

Not just with petty posts of how much she sucks but with action. Donate to trans charities, educate those around you, write to your government, those of you who follow me in the UK write to your MP about the revision of the Gender Recognition Act Review. This has been underway since 2018 and would allow trans people to change their gender without waiting years for appointments at gender clinics and jumping through nonsensical hoops.

Do not allow transmisogyny and transphobia to go on unchallenged.

We must make sure the world is a place where trans women are loved and supported and leave people like JK in the past where they are choosing to stay.

Donate here:

MissionThe National Center for Transgender Equality advocates to change policies and society to increase understanding and acceptance of tra

TLDEF - Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund - Transgender Legal Defense And Education Fund, Inc.

Transgenderlegal Defense & Education Fund

Trans Lifeline - Peer support services, hotline and resources for Transgender People Trans Lifeline

Trans Lifeline is a national trans-led organization dedicated to improving the quality of trans lives by responding to the critical needs of

SRLP (Sylvia Rivera Law Project)

Mermaids Website

Helping gender-diverse kids, young people and their families since 1995

[anarcho-smarmyism]

start pushing for prison abolition or at the very least widespread reform right now i mean it. you can’t say “fuck the police” and “all cops are bastards” and talk about alternatives to police, but say nothing about alternatives to prison and the crime against humanity that is the racist drug war and the U.S.’s mass incarceration, the financial machine behind the police industrial complex

[blackwoolncrown]

White people: if you want to help long term: get used to being told your opinion is wrong, irrelevant, or unwanted. Tell your friends to get used to it. Work on getting used to it and do this work with other white people. Because white supremacy has all of y’all very used  to being right and being an inherently valued voice and if we’re going to fight white supremacy you’re going to have to be comfortable surrendering that expectation and also white people will need to learn how to handle being rejected or disagreed with. It’s an extension of racism and racial trauma for black people to try and educate or speak up about our issues only to expose ourselves to your white fragility which  makes you defensive– this defensiveness can look like shutting down, silencing us, painting all corrections or disagreements as ‘fighs’ (extending the idea that black people are aggressive) etc.

White resilience is the opposite of white fragility and black people are VERY good at resilience, unfortunately. Listen to us we know how to combat this.

[blackwoolncrown]

I have been on this site firmly yelling about social justice for years and haven’t received quite so many upset asks for at least 3 or so until I made this post. Multiple white people have messaged me or replied saying that it’s invalid, ‘racist’ or simply unfair to suggest that white people by virtue of being white may share a common problem. Y'all really do not want to understand that racism is systemic (sidenote, this is why NOTHING I say about you as a group qualifies as racism) and that you are ALL part of the system. It is not possible to fight racism but not address how you perpetuate white supremacy. White people: ask yourself why you are so upset by the idea that your whiteness is under critique. Ask yourself why you feel so comfortable telling the victims of racism how they should (and should not) fight racism. Funny that it makes you uncomfortable to think that perhaps your skin color may, in some cases, render your viewpoint…less than relevant. 

Ask yourself why you are flinching and knee jerking at the idea that you may have to give up the privilege of having your voice ALWAYS being accepted and centered. Ask yourself why you think it’s unfair and upsetting that white people’s voices are going to need to be lessened if there is to be real equality. If you think this suggestion to learn to be open to and to accept being wrong, being told you need to listen and not speak, in order to balance the supremacy of white voices and white opinions; if you think this is too ‘rude’ or ‘racist’ or whatever, I want you to understand that that’s white supremacy talking. This is white fragility talking– the slightest suggestion that you may need to examine and surrender social privileges unevenly heaped in your favor has you automatically shutting down and silencing me. So this is me, telling you again: you are wrong more often than you know. And it’s time to accept that if you want to learn and grow. White people: learn to accept being wrong. Learn to accept being questioned and doubted– and learn to question and doubt yourself; ask if you’re thinking critically or just repeating racist shit you’ve heard all your goddamn lives.

[nellyben]

I like how everybody is paired off haha

[larssonadam]

#this looks more like an awkward sixth grade slow dance than it does hockey

[itsacpsideblog]

I FINALLY FOUND OUT WHY THIS HAPPENS. You see this all the time when there’s a fight or a scrum and suddenly everyone pairs up with a member of the opposite team and they just sort of …hold each other.

Someone on reddit asked about it. And it turns out there’s a logical-ish reason:

all of the other players pair off with their man to prevent anyone else entering into the fight … so it’s a form of self policing. 

[…] The players basically want to prevent 2 on 1, etc. fights and by finding a “hugging” partner so there’s no ganging up on one guy, even on accident. They do it because it’s fair. And it’s kind of cute sometimes.

so now we know! it’s fair…and cute.

[animentality]

Aw best part is no ones left out at this dance

[castiel--for--king]

[legotheeggo]

[arrghigiveup]

#hockey hugs #more or less #:)))))))) #where’s that one of Karlsson and Mike Green #that one’s priceless

=DDD

[thatsawrap-yall-deactivated2018]

#pure

[goaliesarethebest]

NHL: You need to prevent other player’s from joining in the fight, make sure to hold them back

Hockey players, hugging: Got it.

[deromantic]

When the squad is aesthetic as fuck.

[loloftheday]

bjorng

[moomoobooboo-deactivated2020102]

I burst out laughing. BJORNG.

[apardonablemonomania-deactivate]

[randomwordgeneratorr]

[diversehighfantasy]

How White People Handle Diversity Training in the Workplace

As a former professor and current facilitator and consultant, I am in a position to give white people feedback on how their unintentional racism is manifesting itself. In this position, I have observed countless enactments of white fragility.

One of the white participants left the session and went back to her desk, upset at receiving (what appeared to the training team as) sensitive and diplomatic feedback on how some of her statements had impacted several of the people of color in the room. […] [Later] her friends wanted to alert us to the fact that she was in poor health and “might be having a heart attack.” Upon questioning from us, they clarified that they meant this literally. These co-workers were sincere in their fear that the young woman might actually die as a result of the feedback. 

All of this is going to feel very familiar to anyone who’s blogged about racism in fandom.

[theotheryongbok]

“White fragility functions as a form of bullying: ‘I am going to make it so miserable for you to confront me — no matter how diplomatically you try to do so — that you will simply back off, give up, and never raise the issue again.’ White fragility keeps people of color in line and “in their place.” In this way, it is a powerful form of white racial control. Social power is not fixed; it is constantly challenged and needs to be maintained.”

[justasillynerd]

Please read this whole article, especially if you are white.

This is probably this most important thing I have read this week and has given me a lot of food for thought

[millionsknives]

please make sure that wherever you’re at in life, you don’t treat it like a transitory period. don’t waste your college years wishing to already be graduated & have a job. don’t waste your single years wishing for someone to be in love with. if/when those things come, they will come in due time and they will be good. but there is nothing like looking back and feeling empty because you wasted literal years ignoring what you had because you were hoping for something better. while it’s important to better yourself and reach for your goals, don’t neglect the present because that’s where you are now and it’s your now that determines your future. 

[shittycryptids]

A contestant on the Bachelor who doesn’t want to be there but is unable to leave until the final so they constantly look into the camera like they’re on The Office.

[anxietyproblem]

[1o9]