think like a mushroom

Myyce. Writing on art, organising and anarchism. Icon is a larval mask by Jonathan Becker.

[myceliumdistro]

You can subscribe to Think Like a Mushroom for free over on substack if you want to keep up with my work. You can download free zine versions on itch.

Essays currently in the works include:

The next couple of instalments in the emergent complexity gender theory series,

A piece about the political contradictions that shape the "middle class" and how to organise effectively from this positionality,

An attempt to develop a framework of epistemic in/justice that can effectively hold Madness and other types of knowledge that differ from rational consensus knowledge in form as well as content.

I'm also working on plain language versions of these for people less comfortable with abstract explanations or dense reading, and on hard-copy and print-at-home Braille versions of the zines.

[myceliumdistro]

A lot of folk could stand to get better at hearing "hey you're speaking about an experience that isn't yours and therefore missing some stuff" without turning it into an extended litigation of privilege

[myceliumdistro]

Trapped dogs will bite

Notes on the puppygirl polycule

[sophie-frm-mars]

I just realised that a lot of people who follow me have talked to me about their experiences of ostracism and it would probably be helpful to quite a lot of people here to be aware of No One Is Disposable, which is a resource library and discord server for people who've experienced public shaming & ostracism.

[rednines]

There needs to be a movement of people putting paint in fire extinguishers and super soakers and just covering every security camera that has been put up over the last forty years with paint or just pulling them down with like shovels and hoes or whatever they can do because honestly everyone hates them just get rid of them

This looks like a tool from the Billboard Liberation Front. I’ll bet they have a lot of other nifty tips that could be applicable in this case.

[kropotkindersurprise]

[anarchopuppy]

DeFlock

Find license plate readers (LPRs) near you.

[fandomsandhappiness]

here’s a zine called blinding the cyclops about one person’s experience of going anti-camera. spoiler alert: it’s really fun

[this-is-varsexism-transphobia]

I've noticed that there is a massive lack of understanding in the community about what sex/gender-affirming procedures exist for varsex (intersex, ersex, dysex, transsex) and genderqueer/transgender people.

So, for the sake of awareness, here is a very brief rundown of what sex/gender reassignment surgeries exist:

Vaginoplasty: The (re)construction of a vaginal canal. The depth and width of the canal is semi-customizable, and depends on what tissue you decide to use for its creation.

Vulvoplasty: The (re)construction of the outer vulva (labia, clitoris, etc.) When this is done on a penis, the patient can choose whether or not they wish to place the labia atop/above/below the scrotum, or to turn the scrotum itself into labia.

Phallus-Preserving Vaginoplasty/PPV: A vaginoplasty on someone who has a penis or clitorophallus, which preserves the phallus while creating a vagina beneath it. Can also become a phallus preserving vulvoplasty, if labia and a clitoris are crafted beneath the phallus.

Metoidioplasty: The release of a clitoris that has been enlarged by androgens (clitoromegaly), either from HRT or from an intersex variation. The ligaments that hold the clitoris down are cut, allowing it to point upwards when erect. If this is done without any other alterations to the genitals, it is known as a Simple-Release Metoidioplasty. If other alterations are desired, the person can choose to create a scrotum (and choose if they desire testicular implants), can choose to have the vagina removed (if one is present), and can choose to move the urethra to the tip of the phallus (unless the individual already had clitoris-placed epispadias.)

Phalloplasty: The (re)construction of a penis. When done to someone with a pre-existing phallus, the person can choose whether or not they want the phallus buried within the newly crafted penis (leaving the person with only one phallus), or if they want to create the penis separately above the pre-existing phallus (leaving the person with two phalluses.) If they have a vagina, they may choose to preserve the vagina (Vagina-Preserving Phalloplasty/VPP), or have it removed. A person can choose whether or not they want their newly crafted penis to have glans, a scrotum (with or without testicular implants), or the urethra moved to the tip.

Nullification: The removal of the genitals, leaving a mostly-smooth space behind. A person can choose to keep the pleasure nerves and have them buried beneath the skin, or have them removed. If they have a pre-existing vagina, they may choose whether or not they wish to remove it.

Penectomy/Clitoroidectomy: The removal of a phallus.

Labiaplasty: The creation, removal, or reshaping of the labia.

Circumcision/Hoodectomy: The removal of the foreskin/clitoral hood.

Dorsal Slit/Ventril Slit: The creation of a slit within the foreskin.

Urethroplasty: The (re)construction of the urethra, possibly moving it to a new location.

Perineal Urethrostomy: The opening of a urethra on the perineum. This procedure can be essential to the preservation of the genital nerves for people with certain intersex variations, such as some cases of urethral agenesis or urethral hypoplasia.

Phallus Splitting: The splitting of a phallus (typically a penis) in half. This could be the entire phallus split in half (creating two separate penises), or just the glans.

Genital Beading: The insertion of beads within the shaft of a phallus, or within the labia. These beads could be of any shape (circular, square, stars, etc).

Hysterectomy/Uterectomy: The removal of part or all of the uterus.

Uteroplasty/Hysteroplasty/Metroplasty: The merging of two halves of a uterus/two uteruses, done to those who have bicornuate uterus, septate uterus, or uterus didelphys (septate type, bicornuate type, and complete type.)

Cervical (Re)construction: The (re)construction of a cervix, often done due to cervical damage or for intersex people who have cervical agenesis, cervical hypoplasia, or cervical duplication.

Trachelectomy: The removal of part or all of the cervix.

Prostatectomy: The removal of part or all of the prostate.

Gonadectomy: The removal of a gonad (ovary, testicle, ovoteste.) Oophorectomy refers to the removal of an ovary, and Orchiectomy refers to the removal of a teste.

Orchiopexy: A procedure to move the teste/ovoteste into the genital area of an intersex person with cryptorchidism.

Vastectomy: A procedure to snip the vas deferens, in order to halt fertility. This procedure may or may not be reversible.

Tubal Ligation: A procedure to tie or snip the fallopian tubes, in order to halt fertility. This procedure may or may not be reversible.

Salpingectomy: A procedure to remove a fallopian tube.

Mastectomy: The removal of a breast.

Breast Reduction: The removal of some breast tissue, reducing its size.

Nipple Reduction: The removal of some of the nipple, reducing its size.

Nipple Excision: The removal of a nipple.

Areola Reduction: The removal of some of the areola, reducing it's size.

Nipple (Re)construction: The (re)construction of the nipple.

Mammaplasty: The creation or reshaping of the breast. Breast Augmentation is a subset of this, describing a procedure done to increase the size of breasts. Mastopexy/Breast Lift is a subset of this, describing the lift of saggy breasts.

Tracheal Shave: The shaving of the Adam's apple, reducing its size.

Feminizing Laryngoplasty: The shaving of the vocal chords, increasing the pitch of the voice, as well as potentially reducing the size of the Adam's apple.

Please reblog for awareness!

[starfuckerz-incorporated]

i think leftists need to start thinking of taking a job as a psychologist/ psychiatrist with the same extreme suspicion as someone taking a job in the justice system

yes, the person in the justice system *could* be a prison teacher or a restorative justice practitioner, but most likely they are going to uphold the status quo and make a living of the violent oppression of others.

just like how the psych *could* be anti forced rescue, anti forced treatment and work with service users to decide if they wish to be diagnosed or not. but more likely they will swallow what the system teaches them unquestioningly and go on to enact terrible violence to a group of people they see as a doomed underclass to fall in line with the policies of regulatory bodies.

[starfuckerz-incorporated]

forced drugging is violence. restraint is violence. incarceration is violence. the perpetrator wearing scrubs does not stop violence from being violence nor does it stop those subjected to it from being traumatised

[dragon-in-a-fez]

today's reason I fucking love the open source community: Ageless Linux, a brand new Debian-based operating system specifically designed to break the law by giving children access to computers that explicitly refuse to track their age.

[dragon-in-a-fez]

reblog this post to help a child break the law

[parkchanwoohoo]

Once you start noticing how the incapacity to handle discomfort affects how people live their lives it's actually pretty shocking how it ruins pretty much every conceivable aspect of existence. Interpersonal relationships, romantic and platonic. Career and education opportunities. Your politics Your willingness to go anywhere. The kind of food you eat. The kind of art you expose yourself to and your ability to read it. It's never just one thing, it touches everything, and once you notice it it's like suddenly being able to see germs or something. Just this horrific catastrophe people look at you askance for screaming about. As I grow older and see what became of my friends and peers who could not learn to handle discomfort, the more I'm like. This is a genuine societal issue

[sophie-frm-mars]

Bathtub estrogen

This is a harm reduction post about DIY

I've seen some people recently using the term "bathtub estrogen" as a little joke about the production of DIY estradiols. This is fine by me as a joking term, I get that people are 1) trying to evoke a DIY punkish or prohibition moonshine sort of image and 2) communicating that we are having to turn to much less carefully prepared forms of medicine than cis people can access when we use DIY. However I recently saw a trans woman with a large platform make the joke and then when asked about it sort of waffle around the topic for a bit and then shruggingly say she does think that some estrogen is made in a bathtub in a way that made it pretty clear she doesn't actually know much about the production side of DIY. She also gestured to a global south DIY producer as being the one who was doing this, which I think is just clumsily labelling people overseas as a bit dumb and less clean.

I've been researching the production of DIY HRT for a few years as I think that the overseas supplies of DIY will be the next thing to be cracked down on by the government after all legally prescribed forms of HRT for trans people are shut down. My aim in researching it is to spread the relevant information to reduce harm for DIY users without making anyone's operations obvious to malicious parties. I can't entirely rule out the possiblity that someone very dumb and reckless is producing DIY in a place that is not sufficiently sterile, and this is part of the inherent risk of DIYing. I can however say that anyone who could afford to get the ingredients to produce DIY estradiols categorically has the money to use a professional-grade lab for it.

I would like to be clear here: bathtub estrogen does not exist

The cheapest way for someone to make estradiol is the individual-use case described by Lena from Kiev, mixing a single vial typically for the person who is making it. It is time consuming and inefficient but very cheap, and so people who care less about lab-level standards will likely resort to this method. This method is also the easiest to sterilise, as it's actually surprisingly easy to create a relatively dust-free and sterile environment for an operation this small. The primary risks with this method are from people being quite lazy about cleaning, skipping terminal sterlisation (heating the vial after mixing to kill bacteria) or neglecting to use a filter and introducing some dust, which may cause a granuloma and in the worst case chronic pain in the injection site.

If someone were scaling up from that model, the most effective methods for properly mixing all involve lab equipment, and if we were talking about a quantity of estrogen big enough to fit in a bathtub, the most effective thing to get it properly mixed would still involve transferring the carrier oil, powder and preserving agents into smaller containers for mixing and then using syringes to fill vials. Ideally all of that is done inside of a lamina flow hood or at least still air box setup and if it isn't then basically what is produced at the end is dangerous garbage. I haven't encountered anyone so far who is operating at that quantity who is not using at least a still air box, but realistically anyone who can afford the ingredients for a bathtub full of estrogen can afford a brand new container of a significant size that comes pre-sterilised or new unsterilised containers and the equipment necessary to sterilise them.

Even if someone were to make estrogen in a bathtub "for the bit" they would need to buy a brand new tub (which again would be inexpensive compared to the rest of the setup

Sterilisation is an ongoing struggle for DIY producers. For example anyone who isn't using a professional chemistry lab is probably not using depyrogenated equipment, which requires much higher temperature sterilisation to achieve. However this struggle is one that DIY producers are very deeply invested in and trying to overcome, because DIY hormone producers are trying very hard not to kill the people they make hormones for and suggesting otherwise is harmful to people's overall access.

I am not immune to transfem shitposting, I love the image of us in our long stripey socks cackling away stirring a big cauldron of secret witches' brew, but I would like for people with platforms to be careful not to communicate to the world that this is what is actually happening. I just want people to be a smidge better informed about this to avoid spreading misinformation in the community. All of the major suppliers of DIY that people order from online are either supplying hormones manufactured by pharma companies or has been tested by transharmreduction dot org, a great resource to check out if you want reassurance. Their tests found no contaminants in the majority of vials tested from all sources, and you can read the full breakdown on their website.

It is worth communicating to users of DIY about the real risks involved, of which sterilisation is one, but another that is commonly overlooked is allergy. Pharmaceutical companies use ingredients that generally have the lowest chances of setting off an allergic reaction, and while nobody is allergic to estrogen, the carrier oil which makes up the majority of the actual finished product can sometimes be made from coconut, seed or nut based oils that some people have allergies to. Another important risk for people to look at is safe injection, which is why I and many other organisers are working to normalise trans-focused needle exchanges where information about HRT is available as well as phsyical resources to ensure people are taking their hormones safely.

Soon hopefully there will be more resources available to lots of us so that we can be maximally informed about what is out there, how it's being made and for those interested how to make it safely ourselves. For now the best we can do is avoid saying careless things that could scare people into hopelessness

[sophie-frm-mars]

Substack version

[estrogenesis-vaporeongelion]

it's important for every communist to at some point realize that you can be pissed at someone in your life without getting karl marx involved

[mxjackparker]

Want to hear from sex workers about what our work is really like? Interested in why so many trans and intersex people sell sex? Looking for leftist theory on prostitution?

Get any of my books on the topic of sex work, in paperback or e-book formats, from my online shop.

Please share around, it can be hard to get the word out about this kind of writing because platforms censor and suppress mentions of sex work so heavily!

[mxjackparker]

Want to hear from sex workers about what our work is really like? Interested in why so many trans and intersex people sell sex? Looking for leftist theory on prostitution?

Get any of my books on the topic of sex work, in paperback or e-book formats, from my online shop.

Please share around, it can be hard to get the word out about this kind of writing because platforms censor and suppress mentions of sex work so heavily!

[lifeafterpsychiatry]

It's important to remember that "neurotypical" just means "still able to cope with society's demands and expectations well enough to avoid being psychiatrized". It doesn't refer to some idealized super human who doesn't have any problems, doesn't struggle with anything, never does anything weird and who thrives under the status quo.

[chthonic-cassandra]

It is necessary, however, to introduce a certain distinction here, for there may exist a threshold of suffering beyond which an individual's actions teach us nothing more about the individual but only about the reactions that unbearable suffering elicits from the human mechanism. One can be brought to that threshold by prolonged starvation, or by the imminent threat of death, or even - as in the Nazi camps - by the initial encounter with an atmosphere of terror and menace. [...] But what exactly does that observation mean? Does it reflect the fundamental truth about human nature, that morality is but a superficial convention jettisoned at the first opportunity? On the contrary, what it demonstrates is that moral reactions are spontaneous, omnipresent, and eradicable only with the greatest violence. Plants can be forced to grow horizontally, Rousseau says, but unconstrained they will nevertheless grow upward. It is not under torture that human beings reveal their true identity. Suppressing the usual components of human social life creates a completely artificial situation that tells us only about itself. [...] Even before considering the details of moral life in the camps, one can see that the hypothesis that individuals behave as wolves toward one another is not supported by observation. Des Pres' readings of survivors' accounts come to the same conclusion: "The state of nature, it turns out, is not natural. A war of everyone against everyone must be imposed by force." The popular version of Hobbes' doctrine is wrong: except under extreme constraint, human beings are prompted, among other things, to communicate with one another, to help one another, and to distinguish good from evil.

Tzvetan Todorov, Facing the Extreme: Moral Life in the Concentration Camps (trans Arthur Denner & Abigail Pollak)

[diserbillyti]

I just don't think we're going to get anywhere until we deal with the presumed whiteness of disabled people in social discourses.

OK, in the States, Black people are three to four times more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia than white people. Often this includes misdiagnosis, as in Black people with much milder and less permanent conditions being diagnosed with SCZ instead, with looser standards than the processes that white people are usually subjected to. Black people are more likely to be sent to the psych ward for any number of reasons and their stays are usually much longer than their white peers'. Finally, it is a known thing that many psychologists and psychiatrists struggle to effectively communicate with Black patients.

Now consider how normalised carceral and compelled treatment is for schizophrenics overall and I mean, obviously that's related, right?

It just feels like spinning wheels in mud to attempt to discuss schizophrenia in isolation from the fact that it has, to some extent, been medically codified or treated as a "black people thing" within the context of the legal system that surrounds medicine. Y'know?

And we can have a complex talk about the history of schizophrenia and the influences of actual real race scientists, eugenicists and racial hygiene blokes on the concept of the disorder. We can have a conversation about the influence of the historically racist American insurance industry on the DSM. We can talk about all of these things and how it affects every schizophrenic, not just black people, because it does affect every schizophrenic and the concept of the disorder itself, but we can't do that if we aren't acknowledging the connection between racism, psychiatry and broader concepts of medicine, and we can't do that if we keep thinking of disability as a white people thing.

[cleaningouttherooms]

if you're looking for further antipsych readings, i heavily recommend bruce cohen's psychiatric hegemony: a marxist theory of mental illness.

it would be one of the published academic books on the topic of psychiatry i would have the least amount of caveats for - together with anne harrington's mind fixers: psychiatry's troubled search for the biology of mental illness.

if you are already convinced that psychiatry, together with other sciences, evolved alongside capitalist development to serve bourgeois interests, ensure social control and legitimize the hegemonic world order - and that no amount of intradisciplinary reform can change this, short of total abolition - then you will likely not be learning much from this book. it does however lay the arguments very clearly, together with concise, clearly explained marxist theory about labor. it then goes on to tie psychiatry with other hegemonic structures - the family, most notably.

interestingly enough, it manages to completely avoid two of the most common pitfalls of this kind of text: it never places the issue with the use of drugs themselves, but with forced medication and lack of available information - and it never blames capitalism itself for the coercive and punishing character of psychiatry, inventing a precapitalistic mythical past where crazy people were fine.

a solid recommendation if you are trying to give an introduction to antipsychiatry concepts to someone!