IDK. Hi, my name is Mathúin~ :3

AroAce, Solstellarian, Marsic, Greyplatonic Autistic, ADHD I love being autistic but hate my executive dysfunction

[queeranarchism]

When a comrade gets arrested

If you’re new to actions with an arrest risk and you don’t have experienced protestors with you, there’s stuff you can find online about having a legal team, writing the name of a lawyer on your body, saying NOTHING to the cops except the name of your lawyer, etc. That’s all good advice.

But let me give you a bit of advice that is just as essential as all that:

If one of your comrades gets arrested, and you know they can be held for 6, 9, 12 hours, depending on where you are, you get a group of people together and you wait outside the police station.

You may be tired, you may be stressed, it may be freezing, you may need to take turns, but you take whoever can still physically and mentally bear it and you go to that police station and you wait for your comrade. You can spend the time taking care of each other, drinking hot drinks, doing whatever gets you through, but you wait.

And when your comrade gets out, you make sure they do not walk home alone in the dark thinking about the fucked up experience they just had, you make sure there’s a big fucking crowd of their comrades there to greet them with hugs and hot drinks and a cigarette if they smoke.

And whether the arrested comrade that just got out is happy or sad or pissed off, you take that for what it is and give that space and you support that. And you get them a hot meal and you hang out with them and you offer to let them stay at your place or you stay with them so they don’t have to spend that night alone with their thoughts.

You do this every damn time, regardless of whether you really like that comrade and regardless of how you feel about the thing your comrade got arrested for, regardless of how often they’ve been arrested. Because you never know how shitty their experience is going to be in there this time. 

Trust me. This is absolutely essential. Once you’ve been arrested and have felt the difference between walking home alone or having your friends waiting for you, you’ll understand.

[property-is-theft-deactivated20]

Be good comrades

[property-is-theft-deactivated20]

Seriously if you are serious about building networks of mutual aid and solidarity ya gotta show it when they need it most

[notsoterriblymisanthropic]

Also this is always important but like especially vital for occasions when there also fascists getting arrested and processed at the same station.

[queeranarchism]

True!!!!

[assignedmale]

[mad-dyspunktional]

tscum act like we’re just deciding to dress in a gender nonconforming way and going “Whelp, I’m dressed in a way that doesn’t match with the social expectations of my agab, looks like I’m trans now!”

[mad-dyspunktional]

And I mean, we don’t even all dress in a gender nonconforming way. So that alone should discredit the idea that it’s just us being gnc.

Most of us know damn well we aren’t the gender we were assigned at birth. Many of us showed signs of this in childhood (though not all). The very idea that people view me as a woman is fucking weird as hell to me. It’s wrong. I know it’s wrong. It completely clashes with my inner sense of my gender.

I’m not just gnc. I’m trans.

[theblondlesbianfromthesnakehous]

I will never get angry enough with people who appropriate the Q slur and use it to be unique.

Stop calling entire groups of people Q-r, we don’t like people assuming we’re comfortable with a slur. Stop putting the Q at the end of LGBT, it’s a useless repetition and we don’t like people assuming we’re comfortable with a slur. Stop saying you’re Q-r because you haven’t found a better label, it’s a slur with a specific meaning and not a good for all identity. Stop calling other people Q-r especially if they said they aren’t comfortable with a slur. Stop normalizing the use of the Q slur in books and internet pages/blogs, we don’t want straight people to assume we’re comfortable with a slur and that it’s okay to describe anyone and use it commonly.

This has been a PSA, enjoy pride month.

[diskhorsedudes]

1. You have no right to tell other people what labels they can and can’t use for themselves. That’s none of your business. Also, way to invalidate those that have trouble pinning down their orientation and therefore find comfort in calling themselves queer. You are essentially forcing isolation onto those that have no other way to describe themselves and that’s pretty much gatekeeping.

2. Way to completely shit on the decades of work that elders in the community put into reclamation.

3. Queer people have said over and over again that if we are talking about queer people and the queer community, we mean those that actually identify as queer. If you’re not someone who uses queer for themselves, then we aren’t talking about you. Move on and stay in your lane.

4. I’m queer, I love being queer, and I’ll never stop being queer. I’m here, I’m queer, get used to it. Otherwise leave queer people alone. Your opinion will never stop us from loving our identity.

[mad-dyspunktional]

….Anyway, who else here is queer as fuck?

[quilted-patch-kit]

o/ *raises hand*

[genderqueerpositivity]

(Image description: a piece of paper taped to a beige wall with words in black font; the words say “It’s okay to use microlabels to better understand and describe your gender and sexuality. There is nothing wrong with wanting language to talk about your identity.”)

[luckyladylily]

Blue, Sky, Navy, Indigo, cobalt, cyan, azure, sapphire, lapis.

I can think of nine different shades of blue off the top of my head we have different names for and there are many, many more. We give micro labels to everything, from colors to wood to cars because micro labels are useful and conducive to understanding. And yet applying them to gender and sexuality is supposedly a step too far. I call BS.

[communistbard]

HELP (Rent/Not Dying)

Hey y'all. I’m R, I’m a trans gay disabled Jew. I am very sick physically and undergoing tests to figure it out, and I recently went through the worst suicide attempt of my life, so working is not an option currently. I have no money so I’m not eating (or doing much self care in general), and my rent is due in 16 days. This month I was barely not evicted and I don’t want to be evicted this month, either. Please please help if you can, and thank you for reading!!!

Paypal: [email protected] (donate button on sidebar too)

Square: cash.me/$RDonations

Venmo: @Rabbie-Davis

[communistbard]

Hey everyone, I now have 14 days to make rent. 💜

[cannabiscomrade]

happy Pride month let’s remember that abolishing gender markers is an infinitely better option than having non-binary markers

I don’t know about y'all but I don’t need the government having me on a list of Known Trans People

[maraeffect]

I genuinely think the only reason they’re on ID’s currently is so that if you’re in a medical accident, people can see your ID and know how to treat you. which does actually suck for all trans/nb people, but medicine works that way (unfortunately).

[cannabiscomrade]

I’m actually trained in EMS and basic life support, and that’s incorrect. Generally medical emergencies are unrelated to your sex characteristics or endocrine system, and if they are, the patient will generally disclose to us first.

There are no emergency medical treatments that differ based on assigned sex. If we are treating you for sex characteristic based emergencies, we directly treat your organs, we generally don’t need to know what your ID says. Especially because your ID can say male or female and we still wouldn’t know what your reproductive system looks like.

[queeranarchism]

Additional:

Most medication right now that has a standard ‘men’s dose’ and ‘women’s dose’ makes dangerous assumptions based on weight and would be far more effective if body weight and length were considered.

Our ID’s don’t have our blood types on them. Or any other truly life saving information. Clearly that is not what they are for.

[revolutionarykoolaid]

Today In Solidarity (6/12/18): As we remember the two year anniversary of the Pulse massacre, it is important that we reflect on narrative and who gets to write history. In the weeks following the tragedy, police were lauded as heroes for their response. In reality, they dragged their feet in responding to the shooting, sprayed bullets indiscriminately into the club, and have used the opportunity to muscle their way deeper into queer spaces, potentially threatening the safety of them. Survivors have recently filed a lawsuit around parts of this reality. 

Intermittently, we must remember that the victims of this massacre were predominantly Latinx, some even with hazy immigration statuses. The reality is that to this day member of the Latinx LGBTQ community (in Orlando and across the country) experience xenophobia, racism, and classism at the hands of police/authorities. We must not allow the Pulse tragedy to be white-washed. We must demand accountability for the lives lost not just at the hands of terrorists, but due to the cavalier and reckless way police acted in response. #nojusticenopeace #noprideforpolice

[la-laborista-republiko]

[vortexsophia-deactivated2022110]

[semiautomatic-lonelygirl]

But arson is illegal. She was arrested because she committed a crime

[vortexsophia-deactivated2022110]

an attorney literally said to what you have mentioned, “under this logic every cigarette in public is “arson” that is NOT how this works. THAT is NOT Arson

ARSON: arson is defined as the malicious burning of the dwelling of another. Please note that the definitions of “dwelling” and “of another” are the same as they are in the context of burglary. In order to be convicted of arson, a defendant must have actually caused some damage to a dwelling, using fire.

[semiautomatic-lonelygirl]

Lighting a cigarette is not the same as setting a flag on fire in a populated area. She was convicted of attempted arson & reckless endangerment of others. She was in the wrong

[vortexsophia-deactivated2022110]

She was absolutely NOT “convicted” of anything she was arrested for the above, in which case the DA will facepalm and throw out the “arson” since arson  literally is defined as “intentionally setting fire with the intent to cause damage and having cause damage”  A flag is absolutely NOT a structure. She will be pleabargened with public disturbance. 

watching haw many fucking 19 year old bootlicker idiots on hear scream arson, makes me have 0 confidence in the LGBTQ community as having staying power to overcome this administration…

[socialistexan]

Burning flags is protected under the 1st Amendment as political speech, flat out. The police violated her first amendment rights by jailing her for expressing a political opinion that is explicitly protected though legal precedent because they didn’t like being mocked.

Where are all the Status Quo Warriors that scream about Freeze Peach when a Nazi gets punched? Not here when this is literally the state trying to silence dissidence.

[queernuck]

people are really getting heated about the “synthetic materials” shit as if American flags don’t get burnt all the time, are really concentrated on the act of flag burning so singularly that they are unable to even consider the symbolic irony of their defense of police over a transmisogynist arrest.

cop boots are ugly as fuck, if you wanna lick a boot find a leather daddy.

[arionwind]

I will never not be exhausted by people who seem to think they can be anti SWERF and anti kink.  As if anti-kink doesn’t always always always wind up coming down hard on sex workers.  Come on, kids, at least pretend to put some thought into this shit.

[strongorcbutch-deactivated20220]

It can be a complex issue. Because as much as people try to make it a yes/no issue, all kinks are NOT created equal. There are people using various aspects of my identity as kinks, aspects of my identity that are not theirs. There are people who are using “kink” as an excuse to craft and maintain explicitly abusive relationships. And this is not a tiny isolated problem. Things like racism and transmisogyny are mainstream problems in kink communities. I can be strongly critical of the scene and community without being anti sex worker. And sex workers can do sex work without participating in denigrating people of color, trans women, and so on.

[blatant-low-rumbling]

I’m very pro SW, and worked in cams before. I get there are some kinks that are just “not my thing yet mostly harmless,” but there are also some that are not that.

I see women bragging about their bruises inflicted by men and I can’t help but feel there is something malevolent about that when we live in a world overflowing with male violence. It harkens back to the argument about the failings of “choice” feminism.

I see men who, time and again, avoid culpability and consequences for violating consent in kink communities, and I can reach no other conclusion but the pervasiveness of rape culture.

In addition to the disturbing trans fetishization Eve referred to, I see the same applied to various racial and ethnic stereotypes being fetishized. Those in control in so many kink communities are so very white that it’s hard to see these fetishes as anything other than power fantasy.

So no, it’s not that simple.

[queeranarchism]

I feel like having decent conversations on this relies on:

Genuine good faith. This includes a sincere desire to create space for kink-positivity and to examine where we fuck up as kinky people. It also includes not wanting to do call outs for coolness points. All of this is rare enough as it is.

An understanding of the difference between the kink itself and the culture of the scene where it is currently practiced. For example: A desire to play with power? Not inherently a problem. Power impacts all of our lives and it makes sense to want to unwrap the impact of power on our emotions within an erotic context. Queer leather culture has build great kink cultures that included playing with the conncept of power in ways that subverted oppressive forces in our lives. But the mainstream BDSM scene as it is, shaped by and for white middle class straight men who get off on dominating women? That’s a rape culture filled mess which actively reinforces oppressive forces in our lives. 

An insider-focussed understanding of the kink and the desires it is rooted in. This requires either having experiences with that kink or genuinely listening to those who do. For example: a ‘fetish for fat girls’? That’s some fatphobic horrible shit. The clue is in the fact that the target of the fetish is the same as the person being fetishized. But a fetish for crossdressing? That’s about the person itself and as a result is generally rooted in someone’s own inherent need to express parts of their gender annd sometimes in their shame around that need. It can be expressed in transphobic ways but the desire to wear women’s cothing in an erotic context is not inherently transphobic because it adresses an inward need, not an outside fetishized target.

Generally, the best nuanced works I’ve seen criticizing kink have been from people who simultaneously have that specific kink and are victimized by the problems within that kink. Like trans women who have experienced being turned on by cross dressing before their coming out but were also very uncomfortable about the transphobia in some of the material produced. And people who like to play with power but have experienced the unsafety of the existing BDSM scene.

And always, it is important to involve sex workers who are practicing that kink in their work life or private life and would also like better, safer work experiences and private experience. These same sex workers will also immediately tell you that, no matter how bad a kink is, criminalizing the practice of it in sex work will make it more dangerous to the sex worker. Never ever a good idea.

[queeranarchism]

To argue that a protest that declares non-violence is safer and therefore more accessible to marganilized groups is to fundamentally misunderstand what it means to declare a non-violent protest, which is only a declaration about the behavior of the protestors themselves.

The cops might still be violent. Fascist counterprotestors might still be violent. Both groups have demonstarted countless times that they are very willing to use violent against non-violent groups.

So a declaration of non-violence really only says ‘if you use violence to defend yourself against these groups, we don’t have your back. We didn’t set up a legal team for you and we won’t try to hide your identity from the cops’.

That’s not safer at all.

Non-violent protests only achieve temporary safety by being so moderate and non-confrontational in everything they say and do that they never pose a real challenge to the system and never trigger a violent response. The illusion of safety they create at their protest is build on the mercy of cops and fascists.

[kryprosmarin]

Honestly, in my experience cops tend to be more violent when policing non-violent protests. If it has been made clear that all available tactics are welcome within the protest the cops often focus more on damage prevention and they’re more likely to try to avoid provoking violence from protesters.

However, if the organizers have made a declaration of non-violence the cops know that people taking part will do their best to stop any violence from the side of the protesters which means that they can go wild and beat people black and blue and still not expect any serious resistance.

[queeranarchism]

Honenstly, same.

The only time when non-violent protests are able to take place without police violence is when the protestors have elite support from politicians and celebrities, such as MeToo protests and anything lovey-dovey about human rights in a different country (that’s not a close ally of the country you’re in). And even then there’s a constant risk of violence if any of the signs are speaking a little too much truth to power.

But you can not have a non-violent anarchist protest, or a non-violent anti-capitalist protest. Just look at what happened to those activist groups at the G20 that specifically declared non-violence. None of them where safe from police violence. All their non-violence meant was that they were defenseless and basically had to take whatever was coming their way. The only groups able to build safe zones without police violence were those that were ready to build barricades and fight back.

And yet non-violent groups often have the audacity to claim that their methods are more accessible to marganilized and vulnerable people, when all they’re doing is telling marganilized and vulnerable people not to fight back.

[queeranarchism]

Some other things that came to mind:

At protests where there was a visibly identifyable non-violent block and an identifyable block that rejected more violence, we’ve also seen the cops use close-up violence against the non-violent block (like battons) while not risking a close-up confrontation with the other block and using things like teargas instead, which gave the block that had not declared non-violence more opportunities to respond or get away and regroup. 

When police violence does happen, it’s also pretty common for the non-violent block to go looking for excuses why their ‘non-violence is safe’ strategy failed. They often end up blaiming the block that did not declare non-violence, either claiming that they stood too close to the non-violent block, or that they stood too far away and abandonned the non-violent block, or that they shouldn’t have been there at all. 

Alliances made before the protest based on a diversity of tactics often fall apart when the non-violent block feels the need to explain away the fact that their experience of violence directly contradicted their theory of safety. 

It often becomes a situation where the block that had not declared non-violence gets blamed no matter what exactly happened and no matter what was agreed upon before the protest. If you see police violence as a reaction, not a default state, you’re always going to blame the activists that rejected non-violence. 

[queeranarchism]

Fun fact: in the 80′s the Dutch Unemployed Union held ‘fridge raids’ to protest against poverty. 

They’d find out when a politician of big boss who upheld poverty and starvation wages was speaking at some public even, then they’d carefully break into his house with a LOT of people and they would eat EVERY piece of food in his house and leave the empty dished behind without taking anything else. 

[gottamoveonup-deactivated201612]

Direct action at its finest.

[mantis-lizbian]

i kind of hope they washed the dishes and cleaned up after. i mean, i realize you gotta get in and out efficiently, and those politicians don’t really deserve cleaning up after, but… in addition to how leaving their house/kitchen a mess after could win those politicians some sympathizers, i just love that rubbing salt in the wound feeling that being model - if unwelcome - guests would leave.

[queeranarchism]

To be honest I hope they took a shit and didn’t flush the toilet.

[kittensandcoffeeandbeautifulday]

So I love this idea, but when I googled it I didn’t find a source.

[queeranarchism]

When a post has 73.000 notes it really helps to scroll through the commets for a bit, I’ve already provided sources about 18 times by now.

http://queeranarchism.tumblr.com/post/127930607693/exeunt-pursued-by-a-bear-gatewaycommunism

http://www.bijstandsbond.org/geschiedenis/boekwbva/boek19.htm

[queeranarchism]

Wholesome

Good wholesome: including plenty of hopeful, encouraging materials into your blogging, not trying to shock your followers into awareness, having place for lightheartedness and fun, having conversations based on good faith with those who are genuinely interested in what you have to say, practicing transformative justice, cheering each other up just because you can, working from the assumption that over-reactions come from pent-up pain and making room for someone’s pain to be expressed creates space for healing, perceiving anger as parts of your emotional repair system instead of as a ‘toxic’ thing to feel bad about, appreciating small victories, creating space for vulnerability.

Bad wholesome: spreading the idea that ‘wholesome’ means ‘no sex, no drugs, no adult topics’, pushing conservative social values under the guise of care.

[clevermanka]

sex, drugs, and adult topics are my self-care,

[queeranarchism]

Honestly, same.

And not just in an “I drink too much and have one night stands to forget trauma” kind of way. I do some of those things and I recognize that that is coping mechanism, something I do to survive and I am happy that my survival instincts are all there. I’d probably be dead without those escapes.

But sex, drugs and ‘adult’ topics are also an important part of my self-care when I’m moving from coping into healing and when I’m building long term mental health.

Good sex with other trans people is an act of intimacy and validation, a celebration of our deviant bodies, a reminder that we deserve pleasure and love. Good sex is also a place where I experience the traumas within my body and allow them to heal. Where I recognize similar scars within my partners. Where I experience putting up boundaries and having those boundaries respected.

Good drugs, particularily those that open rather than numb the mind and the senses, provide me with therapeutic experiences, a greater comfort in new experiences and in my own vulnerability, fantastic new perspectives on life and a deeper appreciation for the good things in my life and in myself. The effects of that stay with me long after I am sober.

Growing weed is some of the best self care I ever did. It forces me to spend a few moments interacting with nature every day, caring for something, seeing if it is doing okay or needs some help. And it’s so satisfying to watch something grow and to get excited about enjoying it later. And the sweet smell is a little something I appreciate every day. To anyone who can do so without too much risk, I’d just recommend growing weed as self-care.

And then there’s things like crime! Confirming through physical actions that the systems around us are not all-powerful, that I can disobey and win, it fantastic. And anger! Being able to be with my anger, being able to share it, being able to channel it into actions, is a thing that is lifesaving. All the self-care in the world probably wouldn’t stop be from collapsing if I wasn’t also actively fighting the innjustices around me.

I could go on but I think I’ve made my point. Yay for sex, drugs and ‘adult’ things.

[veryfunnymemes]

[queeranarchism]

Do you know any good "intro to anarchism" artiles/books/websites? Thanks!

Works I’ve read or watched:

My personal favourite is Peter Gelderloos - Anarchy Works. I just loooooove this book: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/peter-gelderloos-anarchy-works

Crimethinc made the very short To Change Everything, including a video for those who don’t like reading. If you have only 10 minutes for anarchism, choose this one: https://crimethinc.com/tce/

If you like history and beautiful pictures, try finding a copy of Anarchy A graphic Guide. It’s beautiful, inspiring and badly in need of reprints https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/667752.Anarchy

Submedia made a fast-paced video series called A is for Anarchy that are so high-stimulus that I can’t really watch them but some people love that: https://sub.media/c/a-is-for-anarchy/

And vlogger Philosophy Tube made a short video about anarchism that I think misses a lot of essential parts but it’s also only a few minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCAUmh99hMI

And some works I haven’t read or watched (yet?): 

Colin Ward - Anarchy in Action https://libcom.org/files/Ward_-_Anarchy_in_Action_3.pdf

Some like the classic ABC of Anarchism https://libcom.org/files/AlexanderBerkman-ABCofAnarchism.pdf

And then there What is Anarchism? https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/donald-rooum-and-freedom-press-ed-what-is-anarchism-an-introduction

An Anarchist FAQ https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/the-anarchist-faq-editorial-collective-an-anarchist-faq-02-17

[queeranarchism]

Wow, there are lots of additional recommendations in reblogs and replies. I’ll round them up!

freackthejeste: The bread book! Surprisingly accessable for its age

(this is refering to The Conquest of Bread by Peter Kropotkin)

equality-is-anarchy: Libertarian Socialist Rants has lots of good videos on YouTube for beginners as well.

homeisforpeoplewithhouse: I’d also add in ABCS of anarchism, and No Gods, No Masters, if you’re looking for something a bit meatier!

toddismycopilot: Mutual Aid - Kropotkin

fairyqueenmaeve: Among the classics, I am fond of Peter Kropotkin, Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman

seiokona: If novels are more your thing, try The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin.

[steampunktendencies]

Smooth Criminal on a music box thing…

[seandunkley]

Masterpiece~

[the-gneech]

That’s cool and all, but why is it in the middle of a lumberyard?

[fictionmeister-moved-deactivate]

its the Mood