UK politics is not something I see a lot of on Tumblr. I want to make something very, VERY clear though.
Reform UK is a hate movement.
Local elections are at the start of May this year. It's important for us to protect each other from their hate, and make every vote count.
Be loud. Make your message clear.
If you live in an area with a lot of support for Reform, and if it's safe for you to do so, then a simple sign, sticker or pin, could be all you need to make people feel safer. It's easy to feel surrounded by hate, create a message of love instead.
Remain civil. Follow the law.
We have freedom of political expression, not liking Reform is not a crime. Me and my partner (a disabled trans couple) have been threatened with harassment by a neighbour for having anti-Reform signs in our window. We have been polite while she's yelled at us about how she doesn't care about our rights, and wants the posters removed for being 'offensive'. A political sign is not a crime, there is no hate speech, just opinion (which, wow, we've come full circle, huh? The 'you can't say anything these days' and 'people are so sensitive now' crowd being offended and throwing a fit over a piece of paper in the window).
We have responded to this situation by first attempting to de-escalate, and then informing her that we will call the police if she returns to our house to harass us. After she refused to be civil and agree to leave us alone, we filed a report with the police so they have the background info if she does show up again. Legal avenues only.
I cannot stress enough. Do not deal with a situation like this alone. If you are being threatened with harassment (or worse), contact the police.
101 is the non-emergency number for police where you can report an incident and ask for advice.
If you don't feel comfortable going to your local police alone, look to your community. Charities, support groups, community cafes (queer spaces especially), find places that can help support you.
If you are in immediate danger, however, call 999. Do not hesitate.
Right now is a scary time for the UK. It may not be as flashy and violent as places like the USA, but it's just as insidious. Protect yourself, protect your neighbours. Especially queer, disabled, or PoC in your community. Be kind to immigrants, have empathy, and most importantly, stay safe.
The British sense of humour is seeing the state of the world right now and coping with it by calling our cat a fascist while she stares at us with blissful ignorance in her eyes and bites fingers
I don't want to be rich or famous or massively successful or anything like that, I just want to live a kind of ok and stable life where me and my family can have nice things without having to worry
Fighting bigotry protects everyone- not just the marginalised.
I think it's incredibly important for people to remember this, bigotry comes from hatred and disgust, and at its worst can hurt so many whether they're the target of it or not.
This applies on so many different levels and has happened to extremes in the past and continues to happen now, but it's easy to distance yourself from atrocities when they're so far from your day to day life.
So, let's take it a little more local for the majority european-american demographic of Tumblr. Something that could happen to almost anyone, regardless of whether you're in a marginalised group or not.
(transphobia CW for under the cut)
Imagine your mother or your grandmother, is ill, too ill to take care of herself and is put into specialist care. She's extremely vulnerable, and needs to be protected from infections.
Behind the scenes, without you knowing, something has been happening.
The cleaner for your relative's room is a young trans man. He's great at his job, and takes the utmost care to ensure your relative is comfortable and safe.
His manager though, is transphobic, and doesn't want this cleaner in the workplace. She treats him badly, yes, but he sticks it out, and keeps working to keep your relative happy.
His manager takes it a step further.
His manager plants a bowl of moldy food in your relative's room, because he's meant to clean that room and he'd get in trouble for leaving that there. The mold could kill your relative just by being in the same room. His manager doesn't care, because his manager wants to make him lose his job.
His manager is caught, police are involved, he never receives any blame and helps the investigation.
Your relative, thankfully, survived. Her life was at risk though, directly because of the actions of a transphobe who didn't even think about the consequences, who didn't care if your relative died. It doesn't matter what you think of trans people, because this goes beyond just the trans cleaner. He wasn't directly hurt. It was your relative whose life was at risk.
His manager was investigated, and despite being proven to have done this, wasn't fired. His manager was given a warning, that if they did anything else, they would lose their job.
They tried to kill your relative, and were left only with a warning.
This sounds a little extreme, right? Who's plotting murder to get some random trans man out of a job?
Well, my partner's manager.
This all happened to him earlier this year.
A sick, elderly woman's life was endangered because my partner's manager was a transphobe.
Bigotry doesn't just hurt its targets. Anyone can be hurt by it.
We fight bigotry not just to protect ourselves, but to protect everyone we love.
he lied in bed for thirty years or whatever the fuck. while his daughter struggled to put food on the table. but then!!!! ohhh then! charlie gets a golden ticket and all the sudden that jackalope is hopping around the shack like he’s fuckin simone biles. i hate him i hate that free loader i hope he busts a hip and falls into the chocolate river
Ok this is hilarious, but also! I have Things to Say on this from a media analysis point of view. Media analysis is my SHIT.
Why the fuck does Grandpa Joe suddenly get up like he's fine after years of laying in bed doing nothing and leaving his family to work for him? And why is everyone just ok with this?
Well! I think there's a perfectly reasonable explanation! (Note: my reference points are the original book and the 1971 movie, anything beyond that is a strange, strange mystery to me)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is, first and foremost, a child's fantasy. Think about our protagonist- Charlie Bucket is a young child living in poverty. His home is overcrowded, anyone who can work is also acting as carers for their disabled relatives, Charlie himself is already working as well and giving any earnings from that straight back to his family. His birthday present was a bar of chocolate. This is a child who has nothing but the roof over his head (which in itself is damaged heavily and lets the rain get in) and his family.
The golden ticket and everything thereafter is an escapist fantasy. It's Charlie's dream come to life. It's quite literally his ticket to everything he ever wanted. Why does Grandpa Joe get up when he gets the ticket? Because his Grandpa is his best friend in a world where he's otherwise very isolated, and in his dream come true that's the man who's there with him.
He's not thinking about what the implications of Joe suddenly being fine have financially or any of that shit, he's a kid, he's a thinking about how amazing it would be if his sick, disabled grandfather magically got better to go on an adventure with him. That's what it is- a fantastical adventure where his dreams finally come true.
It's a classic story that's been told time and time again, it's a story meant to give an escape to all the Charlies out there.
To give these kids hope that one day they'll find their golden ticket.
Absolutely fascinated by the Fairy Walrus Discourse. Naturally, I have a take:
This actually is also a fantastic illustration of a truism about Telling Stories that we all implicitly know but rarely acknowledge aloud: the improbable is far less believable than the impossible.
When you invoke the impossible, you silence the critically thinking, reality checking, lie detecting circuitry. Simpler rules reign supreme.
The Walrus, however implausible, is a thing which is real, and so whatever narrative you imagine either precedes or follows the reveal will be constrained by the envelope of the possible.
This is a webbed site all about Narrative.
The person answering the door to a Fairy is in a fairy tale, and frankly most of us would be overjoyed to find ourselves in a fairy tale. Fairy tales have sensible rules, structures we understand, tropes we love and hate.
A Walrus on your doorstep is just one more giant reminder that the world is a maelstrom of chaos, incomprehensible in its complexity, full of moving parts which obey no narrative. It’s another dose of “what fresh hell is this?”
A Walrus on your doorstep is a burden. A Fairy on your doorstep is an escape.
Interesting take, and I absolutely agree with the theory behind it, but also I think it's really interesting to see the different perceptions of what the word fairy means and invokes in different cultures.
Doesn't take away from the point OP was making as to what's going on, but coming from a perspective in a Celtic nation, raised on mixes of different European folklore and pagan spiritualism, whatever fairytale I'm in for a fairy to be at my doorstep is Not a welcome one. A fairy at your door is something deeply dangerous and to be treated with extreme caution.
Arguably so is a walrus of course, but the worst a walrus can do to me is main/kill me. A fairy can do so much worse.
Within many Celtic stories and beliefs on fairies, or Fae, they're tricksters that are uncaring at best, actively malicious at worst, they use wordplay and deception, your only defence is to know their tricks and how to avoid them- if you don't know what you're doing, you're as good as gone. Even if you do know what you're doing, the odds aren't great.
I wouldn't such say that I believe in the Fae, so much as the stories and beliefs have stuck with me over the years in some subconscious part of my mind. A walrus is bizarre, sure, but a fairy would be the far more unwelcome sight, and the one that based on local tradition, is something I should be far more cautious as a possibility.
Though saying that, I'm in a place where a lot of strange animals seem to just Show Up unannounced as well. So when it comes down to it, either would be a shock at first, but something that if I made it out the other side I'd look back on and go, well it was strange, but am I really surprised?
I'm aware that's going to be far from the standard way of thinking on this though. To all the people raised on Celtic and other European folklore on the Fae though, may your home be free from any future fairies.
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