jsyk that 1977 petition he signed calling for the repeal of several articles of the age of consent law and the decriminalization of all consensual relations between adults and minors below the age of fifteen was also signed by jean sartre, roland barthes, simonde de beauvoir and alain robbe-grillet. [x]
i have not read the book in this review but i don’t have trouble believing it:
For long periods, the couple became a “trio”, though the arrangement rarely worked out well for the third party: at least two of de Beauvoir’s former pupils found themselves becoming first her lover, then Sartre’s, only for the couple to close ranks against them once the fun wore off.
Was de Beauvoir passing lovers on to Sartre - who enjoyed taking girls’ virginities, though he could muster little enthusiasm for the sex act itself - to ensure the continuance of his relationship with her?
Seymour-Jones certainly thinks so, and she quotes various accounts to back up an increasingly monstrous vision of the couple. “Simone de Beauvoir was able to finish Sartre’s sentences and vice versa,” recounts the writer Olivier Todd. “There was even a kind of mimetism in their rasping voices.”
For Seymour-Jones, de Beauvoir’s affairs with her students were not lesbian but paedophiliac in origin: she was “grooming” them for Sartre, a form of “child abuse”.
One of de Beauvoir’s students, who she ‘seduced’ and passed on to Sarte, wrote a memoir about the ‘affair’ - worth noting that she was not only 16 at the time, but Jewish: they dumped her during the Nazi occupation and apparently never showed any concern for her safety during the war. de Beauvoir lost her teaching license permanently in 1943 for ‘seducing’ another pupil. God knows how many there were.
The charges come two years after the activists publicly confessed to vandalizing the pipeline in an effort to halt construction.
TWO WOMEN WHO vandalized the Dakota Access pipeline in an effort to halt construction have been indicted on charges that carry up to 110 years in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines. They are among the harshest penalties environmental activists have faced in the last decade.
Civil liberties lawyers say the charges are in line with industry-inspired scare tactics meant to deter citizens from participating in direct-action protests or acts of sabotage against oil and gas companies. As the deadly impacts of carbon emissions grow ever clearer, the fossil fuel industry has increased pressure on lawmakers and government officials to penalize those who would inhibit their projects’ operations.
At the same time, a growing number of activists have demonstrated willingness to break laws in order to highlight the urgency of the climate emergency and other ecological crises. Ruby Montoya and Jessica Reznicek, who stand accused of damaging pipeline valve sites using a welding torch, “tires ignited by fire, and gasoline-soaked rags,” are part of that trend.
The arrests come more than two years after Montoya, 29, and Reznicek, 38, publicly took responsibility for a series of acts of sabotage that they said was necessary to protect the rivers and waterways under which the Dakota Access pipeline passes. Both women had been involved in the Indigenous-led struggle to stop the pipeline, which attracted thousands of people to opposition camps in North Dakota and Iowa in 2016 and 2017.
“We are speaking publicly to empower others to act boldly, with purity of heart, to dismantle the infrastructures which deny us our rights to water, land, and liberty,” Montoya and Reznicek stated at a press conference in July 2017.
They told The Intercept at the time that they planned to use a necessity defense to argue that they had no choice but to act. Civil liberties attorneys said they are not aware of such a defense being accepted in a federal case related to climate change or environmental issues. It has, however, begun to gain traction in lower courts, where a handful of pipeline protesters have successfully argued that they acted out of necessity.
...
“I wish the government would use the same resources to go after the oil companies and pipeline companies, but clearly they’re not interested in that,” said Bill Quigley, an attorney who previously represented Montoya and Reznicek. “They shouldn’t be prosecuted; they should be praised. They’re trying to stop the destruction of the human race.”
...
By the spring of 2017, however, the pipeline company had overcome the water protectors; construction was all but complete and the camps mostly cleared. It was then that a series of above-ground valves along the pipeline route were pierced by welding tools.
In response, the mercenary security company TigerSwan launched a multi-state dragnet in search of the saboteurs, who they referred to as eco-terrorists. Montoya and Reznicek were their primary suspects, but internal reports TigerSwan filed to Energy Transfer Partners also described how security personnel cast suspicion on an array of other activists. They reached out to pipeline opponents’ neighbors and local businesses for help in their search. They surveilled one Native couple’s private home and photographed their property. A TigerSwan contractor posing as a water protector sought information about Montoya and Reznicek from pipeline opponents who believed him to be a friend. The documents show repeated instances of the company attempting to feed information to local and federal investigators.
...
At an energy industry conference in 2018, Kelcy Warren, CEO and board chair of Energy Transfer, mentioned Reznicek and Montoya’s actions. “I think you’re talking about somebody who needs to be removed from the gene pool,” he said.
The oil industry used the acts of sabotage to push for a crackdown on pipeline opponents. In 2017, the American Legislative Exchange Council introduced model legislation that would increase penalties for anyone who interfered with oil industry operations. Iowa and at least seven other states have passed related anti-protest laws. More recently, industry lobbyists, as well as members of the Trump administration, have proposed federal legislation to make it a felony to inhibit pipeline operations. Most of the legislative proposals are broad enough to net individuals who commit no acts of property destruction.
Meanwhile, since it started operating, the Dakota Access pipeline has had at least 10 spills, and this past June, Energy Transfer announced plans to nearly double the pipeline’s capacity. A recent study indicated that current fossil fuel infrastructure leaves humanity with less than a 50 percent chance of avoiding unmanageable climate crises.
Energy Transfer did not respond to a request for comment.
In parallel to industry lobbying, fossil fuel opponents have advanced their own efforts to set legal precedents that protect dissent. “The state of the necessity defense in climate cases is emerging, and it is gaining acceptance in state courts across the country,” said Quigley.
Pipeline protesters in Massachusetts have had the most significant success in mounting the climate necessity defense. In March 2018, a judge found 13 opponents of a Spectra gas pipeline not responsible for civil charges related to their attempts to block construction, because the environmental risk posed by the pipeline made their actions necessary.
...
Meanwhile, the most severe penalties for participants in the movement against the Dakota Access pipeline have been borne by Indigenous opponents. Red Fawn Fallis, for example, faced a potential life sentence after a gun in her possession went off as she was tackled to the ground by police. The Oglala Lakota Sioux water protector is serving a five-year sentence.
...
It’s unclear why the investigation took more than two years, but a possible historical parallel can be found in a string of arrests in the mid-2000s, during a period known as the Green Scare. Law enforcement officers arrested environmental activists accused of involvement in arsons, years after they committed the alleged crimes. The FBI had used that time to build cases against an array of actors. “Based on past experience and based on some of the other clues that I’m seeing, I certainly have a concern that there may be more than two defendants, but that is real speculation,” said Regan, who represented many Green Scare defendants.
The indictment against Reznicek and Montoya claims that the acts were carried out “with other persons known and unknown by the Grand Jury.” In an interview shortly after their confession, Reznicek told The Intercept, “At no point was anyone else involved in these activities. Not even in consultation. Not in anything.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Iowa declined to comment.
Regan called the charges against Reznicek and Montoya evidence that the industry’s legislative initiatives are a public relations stunt. “What these charges indicate to me is that the state does not need any of these gifts to the fossil fuel industry. The existing crimes are more than adequate, because obviously ‘malicious use of fire’ is not a crime that was drafted by ALEC,” Regan said.
Montoya remains in jail in Arizona, awaiting a hearing, while Reznicek was released on bail Tuesday, on house arrest with an ankle monitor. Her trial is scheduled for December 2.
Hey y’all! We broke down these concept even further! We only support full decriminalization!
(✔️)decriminalization
(✖️)partial decriminalization
(✖️)legalization#decrimnow #decrimnowdc pic.twitter.com/pfJ5EvIKhr
We know who’s responsible for the climate crisis: rich people. Nowhere is this clearer than in aviation, with billionaires’ private jets ravaging the planet. We need to ban them now.
Flying in coach counts for one-third of the emissions of flying first class because the seats take up one third of the space. Each additional luxury seat means two fewer travelers on that flight, leading to greater emissions per passenger. Yet because first and business classes are more profitable, airlines have removed coach seats to add more premium seats.
As unsustainable as first class and business class are, though, they pale in comparison to flying on a private jet, which is at minimum three times more polluting than even first class.
In just one cross-country trip, a single private jet, the Gulfstream IV, emits nearly double the CO2 that the average American emits in an entire year. Owning and flying in a private jet is a reckless behavior in times of climate crisis, and the billionaire, private jet–owning class are conspicuous carbon consumers.
Humanz was shit because it was more cameos from other artists rather than the Gorillaz themselves. Only like, 2 songs are worth listening to. The newest album makes Humanz look like it was made by a 17 year old kid with a 30 day license of FL studio, and his older brother who thought he could rap
People commenting on that post about how “some traditions aren’t sustainable anymore” as if indigenous people are dumb savages ignorant about modern ecosystems and how human actions affect the world around us, good and bad.
Spoiler alert: indigenous groups are more than aware of how their traditions need to change to fit this ever changing world. They lead movements to reintroduce species to their natural ecosystems. They use invasive animal species for food sources, hunting them excessively to try to get control over the populations. They fight to revive land destroyed by deforestation and climate change.
If you can’t acknowledge how indigenous people are at the forefront of pretty much every environmentalist movement, then uh. You’re a fucking racist lmao
E Sjm Accessible Transportation for Ruth's Birthday!!! accessible transportation for ruth's birthday! ruth has been diagnosed with early-onset arthritis, ofte
My birthday is tomorrow and my friends have organized a fundraiser to buy me a car!
I’ve been managing debilitatingly painful osteo-arthritis which has made it much more difficult for me to get around by bike or public transit, even with the cane on which ive come to increasingly rely.
This condition, along with PTSD and a major depressive disorder, has also prevented me from working more than just enough to barely sustain myself.
Having reliable personal transportation is becoming necessary to safely make it to my ever-expanding number of doctor’s appointments and obligations, even to the library or the grocery store in my own neighborhood.
I don’t have any contact with my abusive parents or extended Jehovah’s Witness family, so i’m relying on support from my community to make this possible! Please consider donating, boosting, and sharing with family & friends!
We’ve raised $75! Sunday was my birthday and it was an incredible time, but the weekend also sunk in the fact that i need help making a change. i had debilitating leg pain and was barely able to sleep for two nights in a row, much less get around like i would like to. if people could keep boosting this post, that would mean so much to me!! thank you to everyone who’s already donated and shared <3
“Since Hamilton’s debut, Miranda has become a household name and rock star to the NPR set. He used this reserve of cultural capital to advocate for the passing of PROMESA [Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act], which along with forming La Junta gutted social services in Puerto Rico, eliminated pensions for public-sector employees, and closed over 500 schools. The bill’s effect on the whole range of public programs and institutions in Puerto Rico rivals the violence of austerity measures imposed by the E.U. on the Greek people.”
— Disaster Act: Puerto Rico’s uprising and the instrumentalization of Lin-Manuel Miranda
This might be a controversial take to some of you but here it goes–
Any narrative of ‘capitalists’/’ruling class’ being reptiles or aliens or otherwise inhuman beings, pretending to be human, hiding in plain sight, controlling things from behind the scenes, being greedy and parasitic, to be identified and exterminated– it’s antisemitic. It just is.
It is even when the speaker genuinely isn’t thinking about Jewish people. It is even when the speaker is leftist. It is a trope that is used to manipulate working class and oppressed people into being susceptible to more overt antisemitic narratives, and it’s been successful for a very long time.
If you can convince people that capitalists are a small group of inherently inhuman other that are controlling everyone behind the scenes, the work of revolution is so simple! Just kill them all and suddenly everything will start whirring away unimpeded. We don’t need to figure out how to structure a new society to provide for everyone’s needs. We don’t need to go through the work of truly understanding and dismantling systems of oppression to ensure that those with influence won’t later enact their own systems of control after the revolution. We don’t need to think about how the structure of capitalism operates outside of its individual players. We don’t need to figure out when and how to use restorative justice systems. We just need to identify the inhuman parasites and exterminate them.
Do you see how easy it is, once someone has accepted all of the above, to simply lead them the small step to “identifying” these parasites as Jewish people? You have a whole puzzle in front of you with only a few pieces missing. If you already believe that killing a particular other to purify the world and restore it to the way it should be is what the revolution consists of, then you’re basically a stone’s throw away from nazism.
There’s a reason why it’s called “the socialism of fools.”
Capitalists are human beings, and we need to overthrow the system of capitalism and hold individuals accountable for their actions and atrocities. They aren’t a separate species that is inherently evil and subhuman. Our problems won’t be solved by a one-time mass slaughter. The “revolution” is not just killing people. We actually have to put in the work to build the world we want, and continuously put in the work to maintain structures of equity and accountability and restorative justice, forever.
Leftists cannot let our snappy meme-leftism lead people down this path of dangerous analysis. We need to remember that leftists are not the only ones planning anti-capitalist revolution– fascists are too, and you need to be extremely careful that you’re not helping them recruit or we are completely fucked (and I don’t just mean Jewish people).
Known as TERFs, trans-exclusionary radical feminist groups are working with conservatives to push their anti-trans agenda.
This article includes a pretty thorough summary of trans exclusionary feminist ties to anti-choice conservatives. Here are some highlights of these connections (emphasis mine), but the article as a whole is worth the read:
_________
WoLF has made no bones about partnering with misogynistic and anti-LGBTQ organizations like the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) in order to oppose the livelihoods of trans people to the Supreme Court. […] WoLF’s relationship with ADF extends beyond just filing briefs in key cases. LGBTQNation reported in fiscal year 2017, the most recent year for which the feminist group’s financial records are available, WoLF applied for and accepted a $15,000 grant from the ultraconservative group. The LGBTQNation report additionally revealed in 2017 that WoLF contracted with Imperial Independent Media for help with fundraising, promising a 20 percent commission. At the time, IIM was run by Zachary Freeman, who made a name for himself over a lawsuit to leak abortion clinic employee names to the Center for Medical Progress, an anti-choice group known for propagating heavily doctored videos purporting to show Planned Parenthood profiting off the sale of fetal tissue.
[…]
Though it’s unknown who funds another prominent gender critical group, Hands Across the Aisle, one of its co-founders is Kaeley Triller-Haver, an anti-choice conservative who has reportedly admitted to committing statutory rape of a teenage boy when she was a youth counselor. What’s interesting about Hands Across the Aisle is how many journalists are seemingly involved with the activist group. A web archive from June 2018 suggested that former New Statesman editor Helen Lewis, recently hired as a writer for the Atlantic, as well as ultraconservative outlets the Federalist, the Daily Caller, and the Daily Signal are associated with the group.
[…]
During the Irish referendum on abortion rights in 2018, some British gender critical feminists withheld support for pro-choice campaigners citing the trans supportive attitudes of Irish feminism, going so far as to schedule an anti-trans meeting in Dublin at the height of the campaign season.
[…]
In February, the conservative Heritage Foundation held an event in Washington, DC, featuring prominent British anti-trans feminists Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull (also known as “Posie Parker”) and Julia Long, who came together to denounce the trans rights movement at large as well as a medical community that’s increasingly becoming more open to supporting trans children. The next day, the anti-trans feminists, who had allegedly been flown to the US on Heritage’s dime, stormed a Capitol Hill office where Human Rights Campaign national press secretary Sarah McBride had just concluded a meeting between parents of trans children and legislators. They filmed themselves yelling and taunting McBride with their personal gripes with the trans movement, accusing her of not caring about “lesbian girls.” McBride, to her credit, didn’t take the bait, remaining stone-faced and focused on her computer screen while a coworker attempted to de-escalate the situation.
[…]
In the US, Baltimore gender critical feminist Julia Beck has made a name for herself in conservative circles, appearing on Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News and testifying before the House against trans inclusions in the Violence Against Women Act and the Equality Act.
[…]
Just this month, gender critical feminists who have been banned from Twitter for extensive transphobic harassment have recently organized under alt-right message board Gab to form “Spinster,” a social media platform for TERFs. It remains to be seen whether British message board Mumsnet will remain the epicenter for gender critical messaging, but the movement’s growing connections with anti-choice and violent misogynist movements should concern both cisgender and transgender women.
[…]
Conservative groups, in turn, have made a conscious decision to use feminist language and framing to oppose trans rights, which is how we ended up with some of the most vehemently anti-woman politicians in the House voting against the Violence Against Women’s Act in the name of “protecting women and girls.”
Catherine Opie, from “Domestic" series, 1995-1998.
In 1998 Catherine Opie embarked (along with her dog) on a “great American road trip.” Over three months she completed a 9,000-mile journey across the United States photographing lesbian families and couples in their home environments. The resulting series of photographs titled Domestic (1995–98) presents these families involved in everyday household activities: relaxing in their backyard, hanging out in their kitchen, or playing with their children. There is no sensationalism here. These intimate photographs speak both to Opie’s identification with her subjects and to the overwhelming absence of such images in mainstream representations.
The thing about Those White People Baby Names is the way they so poetically express the tension between individuality and rigid conformity. These parents all want to name their child something unique, because they value the concept of uniqueness, yet simultaneously they abhor it in practice… ergo, 30 different spelling variations on the most normative possible names. This homogeneity-masquerading-as-diversity is inseparable from capitalist consumer culture and in fact is directly analogous to the experience of walking into a grocery store and being asked to “choose” between 50 varieties of toothpaste with the same exact ingredients, 12 brands of laundry detergent, etc.
