A couple more eternal gales refs that I’ve managed to finish up the past week, goodbye staliens I will miss you so as I move on to the human kids

Parler is bringing together mainstream conservatives, anti-Semites and white supremacists as the social media platform attracts millions of Trump supporters

Parler is much like Twitter however doesn't management or discourage hate speech or calls to violence. OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP by way of Getty Picture

Because the 2020 U.S. presidential election, Parler has caught on amongst right-wing politicians and “influencers” – individuals with giant on-line followings – as a social media platform the place they’ll share and promote concepts with out worrying in regards to the firm blocking or flagging their posts for being harmful or deceptive. Nevertheless, the web site has grow to be a haven for far-right extremists and conspiracy theorists who are actually interacting with the mainstream conservatives flocking to the platform.

Because the three highest-profile social media firms – YouTube, Fb and Twitter – proceed to take motion to mitigate the unfold of extremism and disinformation, Parler has welcomed the following exodus of right-wing customers. It has exploded in recognition, doubling its members to 10 million through the month of November – though it’s nonetheless dwarfed by Twitter’s roughly 330 million month-to-month lively customers.

With its newfound success, the positioning is contributing to the widening hole between the totally different perceptions of actuality held by the polarized public. On mainstream social media, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris received the presidential election, and theories alleging crimes by the Biden marketing campaign and Democrats are flagged as misinformation. On Parler, Donald Trump received in a landslide, solely to have his victory stolen by a wide-ranging alliance of evildoers, together with Democrats and the so-called “deep state.”

Whereas it’s too early to inform if Parler is right here to remain, it has already achieved a fame and degree of engagement that has overtaken different various platforms. However together with its success comes the fact that extremist actions like QAnon and the Boogalooers have thrived within the platform’s unregulated chaos.

Parler’s origins

Parler was launched in 2018 and located its place as one other area of interest platform catering to right-wing customers who ran afoul of content material moderation on Fb, Twitter and YouTube. Its consumer base remained small – fewer than 1 million customers – till early 2020.

Different primarily right-wing platforms, particularly Gab, had housed fringe and violent ideologues and teams for for much longer than Parler. These included violent far-right militias and the mass shooter Robert Bowers.

The shooter within the Tree of Life Synagogue bloodbath in Pittsburgh in 2018 posted hate speech on the choice social media platform Gab. AP Photograph/Keith Srakocic

Parler, in distinction, gained a fame for catering to mainstream conservatives due to a handful of high-profile early adopters like Brad Parscale, Candace Owens and Sen. Mike Lee. In consequence, in 2020 when Twitter started labeling deceptive Trump tweets about attainable fraud in absentee and mail-in voting, politicians like Ted Cruz embraced Parler as the subsequent bastion for conservative speech.

The 2020 election

Within the weeks earlier than the Nov. three election, the large social media websites took steps to mitigate election-related extremism and disinformation. Twitter rolled out labels for all mail-in poll misinformation and put a immediate on tweeted articles to encourage individuals to learn them earlier than retweeting. Fb blocked QAnon teams and, later, restricted QAnon-adjacent accounts pushing “SaveTheChildren” conspiracy theories. Fb additionally started prohibiting holocaust denial posts. YouTube labeled and blocked promoting for election-related faux info, although it left in place many conspiracy theory-promoting movies.

These actions continued within the wake of the election, particularly as mainstream conservative politicians and Trump pushed the false declare that Biden and the Democrats dedicated large-scale voter fraud to steal the election. Consequently, tens of millions of customers migrated to various platforms: Gab, MeWe and, particularly, Parler.

Customers flocked there due to the promise of a web site that wouldn’t label false info and wouldn’t ban the creation of extremist communities. However additionally they moved as a result of Republican politicians and well-known elites signaled that Parler was the brand new house for conservative speech. These embody commentator Mark Levin and Fox host Sean Hannity.

Selling racism, anti-Semitism and violence

Parler has solely two group tips: It doesn’t knowingly permit legal exercise, and it doesn’t permit spam or bots on its platform. The shortage of tips on hate speech has allowed racism and anti-Semitism to flourish on Parler.

My analysis middle has spent a number of years constructing an in depth encyclopedia of far-right terminology and slang, protecting area of interest matters from the spectrum of white supremacist, neo-fascist and anti-state actions. We’ve got studied the ways in which far-right language evolves alongside content material moderation efforts from mainstream platforms, and the way slang and memes are sometimes used to evade rules.

Parler has grow to be a haven for overt white supremacists and anti-Semites. ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP by way of Getty Pictures

We’ve got monitored far-right communities on Parler since March and have discovered frequent use of each apparent white supremacist phrases and extra implicit, evasive memes and slang. For instance, amongst different express white supremacist content material, Parler permits usernames referencing the Atomwaffen Division’s violentlty anti-Semitic slogan, posts spreading the idea that Jews are descended from Devil, and hashtags corresponding to “HitlerWasRight.”

As well as, it’s simple to search out the the implicit bigotry and violence that finally brought on Fb to ban actions like QAnon. For instance, QAnon’s model of the “blood libel” concept – the centuries-old conspiracy concept the Jewish individuals homicide Christians and use their blood for rituals – has unfold broadly on the platform. 1000’s of posts additionally use QAnon hashtags and promote the false declare that world elites are actually consuming youngsters.

Among the many various platforms, Parler stands out as a result of white supremacists, QAnon adherents and mainstream conservatives exist in shut proximity. This ends in remark threads on politicians’ posts which might be a melting pot of far-right beliefs, corresponding to a response to Donald Trump Jr.’s unfounded allegations of election crimes that states, “Civil conflict is the one option to drain the swamp.”

Behind the scenes

Parler’s possession remains to be saved largely secret. Nevertheless, the few items of knowledge which have come to gentle make Parler’s spike in recognition much more regarding.

For instance, Dan Bongino, the extremely well-liked right-wing commentator who revealed a e book in regards to the “deep state” conspiracy concept and incessantly publishes unverified info, has at the very least a small possession stake within the firm. CEO John Matze has mentioned that the possession consists of himself and “a small group of shut buddies and workers.”

Notably, conservative billionaire Robert Mercer and his daughter, Rebekah, are buyers within the platform. Rebekah Mercer helped co-found it with Matze. The Mercers are well-known for his or her investments in different conservative causes, together with Nigel Farage’s Brexit marketing campaign, Breitbart Information and Cambridge Analytica. The connection to Cambridge Analytica has, particularly, alarmed specialists, who fear that Parler could harvest pointless knowledge from unwitting customers.

Parler’s privateness coverage doesn’t put to relaxation issues about consumer privateness, both: The coverage says that Parler has permission to gather an unlimited quantity of non-public info, and offers its members a lot much less management than mainstream platforms over what that knowledge can be utilized for.

Parler’s future

Parler’s destiny will hinge on what its members do over the subsequent few months. Will the corporate be capable of capitalize on the inflow of recent customers, or will its members slowly trickle again to the bigger platforms? A significant factor is how Trump himself reacts, and whether or not he finally creates an account on Parler.

Having catered to a right-wing viewers and allowed hate speech to thrive on its platform, Parler can also be on the whims of its consumer base. Parler’s major competitor, Gab, equally tried to capitalize on issues about unfair moderation in opposition to conservatives. Nevertheless, Gab’s enlargement got here to a halt after Bowers’ mass taking pictures at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. Bowers had been posting anti-Semitic and violent content material on the platform, and the revelation resulted in PayPal, GoDaddy and Medium banning Gab from their companies.

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On-line extremism and hate can result in real-world violence by legitimizing excessive actions. Parler’s tolerance of hate, bigotry and affiliation with violent actions opens the likelihood that, like Gab, a number of of its members will commit acts of violence.

Though it’s onerous to understand how Parler will develop sooner or later, my analysis means that the extremism amongst its consumer base will persist for months to return.

Alex Newhouse receives funding from Spectrum Labs.

from Growth News https://growthnews.in/parler-is-bringing-together-mainstream-conservatives-anti-semites-and-white-supremacists-as-the-social-media-platform-attracts-millions-of-trump-supporters/ via https://growthnews.in

What Is Shadow Banning? How The Instagram Practice Can Affect An Artist.

In an era where social media is one of an artist's most pivotal tools, we look at how Instagram's penchant for "shadow banning" rappers may have a detrimental effect on their livelihoods.

Instagram can be a powerful weapon for the world’s most creative minds. The Facebook-owned company permits creatives of all types to foster organic bonds with their audience, tailoring their communication to purport themselves and their brand in whatever way they so desire. No longer prohibited by junkets or predesignated appearances, many artists utilize their social media as an extension of the viewpoints and aesthetic that they present in their music. As a result, the relationship between a rapper’s personal life and their movements in the professional sphere are more symbiotic than ever. The autonomy that social media provides the artist and its uncensored, largely self-governed nature has aided many artists’ ascents while also spawning its fair share of cautionary tales. Beyond the intrepid dangers of rampant clout chasing that Denzel Curry is quick to warn us of, there is another, far less publicized side to the application that has largely remained shrouded in mystery and hearsay. This is Instagram's ability to “shadow ban” an aspiring hip-hop artist. In an era where visibility is placed on a high premium, “shadow banning” obstructs artists from gaining new followers or being discoverable by the search function, ultimately hindering their livelihood. Rather than a conventional ban— such as that which was doled out to Boonk Gang or almost befell The Game— there is no significant effect on functionality of the app for the recipient of the shadow ban. In many cases, it’s highly probable that an artist wouldn’t know they’d been given this exposure-hampering designation unless they were specifically informed. By the same token, their pre-existing fans and followers would be none the wiser as their posts would continue to show up on their feed without incident. Ultimately, the problem lies in the fact that their omission or diminished position in search results makes it exceedingly difficult to find them. Thus, getting slapped with a shadow ban can covertly stifle audience growth without Instagram ever having to offer a robust explanation. In fact, the powers at be over at Instagram HQ vehemently refute that it’s a real practice. Speaking to reporters in July of 2018, product lead Julian Gutman opted to use the press visit as a platform to dispel many of the “misconceptions” that have haunted them in recent years. Amid granting TechCrunch and others a window into the intricacies of the platform, they set aside time to downplay the existence of shadow banning and other supposed foibles of the app that have come under scrutiny.  "Instagram’s feed doesn’t favor users who use Stories, Live, or other special features of the app. Instagram doesn’t downrank users for posting too frequently or for other specific behaviours, but it might swap in other content in between someone’s if they rapid-fire separate posts. Instagram doesn’t give extra feed presence to personal accounts or business accounts, so switching won’t help your reach. Shadowbanning is not a real thing, and Instagram says it doesn’t hide people’s content for posting too many hashtags or taking other actions."NLE Choppa at the HNHH NYC Office - Image by HNHH Draped in the same ambiguity as an urban myth, the issue reared its head in the hip-hop sphere in recent weeks after a discovery from NoJumper’s Adam22. Known to champion the exact generation of burgeoning rappers that are so intertwined with social media, he took to Twitter to flag what he saw as unfair treatment of one of Memphis’ rising rappers. Complete with screen-recorded evidence of the issue, Adam proclaimed, "NLE Choppa is one of the most popular up & coming rappers. He’s also shadow banned on Instagram and it’s almost impossible to find his account unless you type in his exact username and scroll past a bunch of fake accounts. He has no recourse or avenue by which to appeal this. I’ve noticed this with a bunch of rappers lately," he continued, "but can’t remember who else. Either way the government needs to step in and stop this shit." Met by fervent agreement by some and scepticism by others, Adam’s insistence that this must go to a higher body speaks to how crucial platforms such as Instagram can be to a rising MC’s progression. When levelled with allegations about this practice, their spokespeople are always quick to espouse the "principles" that are key to success such as "having a distinct visual presence," "being a storyteller" and putting "thought into your creative." This may be sound promotional advice on the surface but it is ultimately null and void when you’re being thwarted by an algorithmic anomaly. In light of Adam’s revelation that NLE Choppa had fallen foul of a shadow ban, it seemed only right to delve into the ranks of today’s rising artists to discern who else has found themselves on the receiving end of it and whether there’s any commonality between them. To clarify, all prior research into shadow banning estimates that they last around 14 days so while these examples are valid at time of writing, that could realistically change any minute in favour of another crop of rappers being afflicted. In terms of artists in the upper-reaches of the modern-day game, two notable victims of this form of social media-based marginalization come in Freddie Gibbs (@FreddieGibbs) and Max B (@Maxb140). Teetering more towards elder statesman than the archetypal Instagram generation, both rappers are nigh-on undiscoverable on Instagram unless you search their username on a search engine that’s independent of the app. Segueing towards XXL Freshman territory, the polarizing Blueface (@bluefacebleedem) has been extricated from the results entirely while Skinnyfromthe9, Icy Narco and the incarcerated YNW Melly are all buried below fan pages and other offerings with far less relevancy and far less follower counts. Veering into the up-and-comers, the social media prevalence of artists such as ABG Neal, Queen Key, Philthy Rich, Freebandz’ Lil Wookie, Peewee Longway, Coca Vango, Egypxn and 9lokkNine is diluted on account of unspecified shadow bans that they may not be privy to whatsoever. An undisclosed restriction that may leave these aspiring artists screaming into the void, where it gets interesting is when you factor in the other societal group that have been plagued by this scenario.Peewee Longway at the HNHH NYC office - Image by HNHH In April of this year, Instagram implemented a new power that enabled them to discreetly minimize what they saw as “inappropriate” content even if it didn’t explicitly violate their community guidelines and, in typical fashion, have seldom expanded beyond the blanket terms. After refusing to provide further explanation to HuffPost, it had been suggested that shadow bans were closely aligned with their new policy of combatting "inauthenticity." "Every day people come to Instagram to have real experiences, including genuine interactions," they declared in a blog post. "This type of behaviour is bad for the community, and third-party apps that generate inauthentic likes, follows, and comments violate our Community Guidelines and Terms of Use." However, the ongoing trend of sex-workers, strippers and other adult-oriented content creators receiving shadow bans suggests that there is an attempt to remove anything risqué or subversive from the platform. Among the most vocal detractors of Instagram’s shadow banning policy, Jacqueline Frances, otherwise known as @jacqthestripper, spoke openly about the toll that it has on her ability to engage with her audience: "I absolutely depend on Instagram to make a living. I sell books, I sell T-shirts, I sell art, and Instagram is my largest-reaching advertising platform," she conceded. "Having my content demoted makes me less visible and makes it harder to remind people to buy my stuff." Although the products may be different, the plight of the artist depicts how shadow banning could directly affect today’s rappers in the same irremovable fashion. While they think they may be doing ample promotion for a new single or project, getting saddled with a shadow ban will mean that they won’t be eligible for any explore pages and are ultimately left preaching to the converted rather than having any hope of alerting potential fans to their material. Not only does it set a dangerous precedent for freedom of expression on Instagram and social media at large, shadow bans have the potential to meddle with an artist’s standing in the hip-hop realm. Consequently, the community must keep a watchful eye on this and spread awareness until this invisible ceiling on creatives has been lifted once and for all. Have you noticed a shadow ban on certain artists? Let us know in the comments.

https://youtu.be/tmWS4dlmK_s Read the full article

Mother Faces Jury Trial As Texas Seeks to Terminate Her Parental Rights Over Daughter Injured by Gardasil Vaccine

Anita reads to Aniya at a recent visitation. Photo supplied by family.

by Health Impact News/MedicalKidnap.com Staff

A trial began this week for a mother who was separated from her baby after the 4-month-old mistakenly received a Gardasil-9 vaccine intended for her older brother. The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services seeks to convince a jury to terminate the parental rights of Anita Vasquez for her now 22-month-old daughter, Aniya Blu Vasquez.

Jury selection began on Monday, June 18, 2018, for the trial which is expected to last up to 2 weeks.

We originally reported their story in June of last year:

Infant Accidentally Vaccinated with Gardasil – Mother Blamed for Vaccine Injuries and Baby Medically Kidnapped

The previously healthy baby, Aniya, began showing symptoms of problems almost immediately after getting the shot, a vaccine which is not approved for use in children under 10 years of age.

Her mother sought medical attention for the symptoms that her daughter exhibited, asking each practitioner about the connection between the symptoms and the Gardasil-9 shot that her baby should not have received, but her concerns were rebuffed at every turn.

No doctor that saw her daughter wanted to admit that the shot could have any kind of side effects.

The doctor who made a medical error in giving her the vaccine has suffered no consequences, but the baby's family has been ripped apart.

Previously health baby Aniya's health declined after her doctor mistakenly gave her the Gardasil-9 vaccine. Photo supplied by family.

Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy Accusation to Cover up Gardasil Injury?

Instead, the mother was accused by doctors and social workers of Munchausen syndrome by proxy (today usually called “factitious disorder”), a diagnosis that has become a convenient scapegoat to accuse parents, usually mothers, of children who are vaccine injured, medically complex, or victims of medical malpractice.

It is a difficult accusation to fight, since even Munchausen experts recognize that the symptoms of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, or “medical child abuse” as it is sometimes referred as, are remarkably similar to those of parents who are seeking medical help for children with difficult medical conditions.

Dr. Marc Feldman, who is considered to be a leading authority on the subject of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, says that the very fact that a mother protests and defends herself and her child is perceived as a further indication of her guilt. It is a lose/lose scenario, he told Health Impact News. (see article).

The very criteria for diagnosing MSBP are prejudicial, according to Dr. Helen Hayward-Brown, a medical anthropologist from Australia. The profile criteria “lacks scientific credibility” and “is being used by medical practitioners to hastily condemn women.”

In a paper entitled, “False and Highly Questionable Allegations of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy,” which Dr. Hayward-Brown presented to the 7th Australasian Child Abuse and Neglect Conference in Perth, she lists behaviors that are listed among the diagnostic criteria for MSBP and shows how these could actually apply to any normal, innocent parent, especially one with a medically complex child.

See also:

Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy – A False Diagnosis to Blame Parents for Vaccine Injuries and Deaths

Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy Label Destroys Families – Covers Up Vaccine Injuries

As we continue to report at Health Impact News, the safety of the Gardasil vaccine has come under fire by many countries around the world. The lives destroyed or ended, after the vaccine, continue to stack up while mainstream media and doctors ignore the dangers. A recently published study linked the Gardasil vaccine to infertility.

In this case, a family could be forever-separated as a side effect of the shot, unless the jury finds in favor of the mother.

Baby Aniya and her mother Anita Vasquez. Photo from Justice for Aniya Facebook page.

The Victoria Advocate is covering the story of the Vasquez trial.

Excerpts:

Jurors began hearing a case Monday that will ask them to determine whether a toddler's illness was the result of endangerment from her mother or the accidental injection of an HPV vaccine.

Attorneys for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services are suing Victoria mother Anita Vasquez, 36, to terminate her parental rights for 22-month-old Aniya Blu Vasquez. They claim the child struggled to gain weight and was hospitalized for severe medical problems because of her mother's actions.

“I would like a hashtag movement (called) #KeepAniyaSafe,” said Shelly Merritt, an attorney representing the state, to jurors. “It's what she deserves.”

Note: this seems to be in response to the #BringAniyaHome twitter hashtag that family and supporters have been using as they post in social media and share the story of the medical kidnapping of Aniya.

But Vasquez's attorney, Chris Branson, of Houston, told jurors the allegations against his client were “nonsense” and based on “an assumption.”

He also asked jurors to hold state attorneys to the strict burden of “clear and convincing evidence” that they are required to meet when the custody of a child is at stake. That burden, one lower than the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt requirement used in criminal cases, is the highest available in civil court.

Anita and her daughter during a recent visit. Photo supplied by family.

During the jury selection process Monday morning, Judge Jack Marr said the trial could take as long as two weeks.

Branson said he planned to call as many as 14 witnesses. Attorneys for the state and Barron declined to comment, and a Texas Department of Family and Protective Services spokeswoman did not answer phone calls Monday.

Anita Vasquez, who is a registered nurse, first took the stand after jurors were selected, describing Aniya's battle with persistent health problems in 2017.

Vasquez said those problems manifested after a Victoria doctor accidentally administered to Aniya an HPV vaccine meant for her 14-year-old son.

After the mistake, Aniya suffered not only physical symptoms such as fever and weakness but also psychological changes, such as lip smacking and staring spells, Vasquez said.

Doctors don't know the cause of Aniya's illness and have no reason to accuse Vasquez of endangerment, she said.

Note by Health Impact News: Although CPS has argued that her health problems disappeared, there is evidence that she continued to experience health issues after going into state custody.

There was at least one occasion that the fosters took Aniya to the emergency room that the family learned about. The mother has been denied medical information about her daughter in foster care.

The photo below was taken during a visit while Aniya was in state care. Her family described her as lethargic that day, and her eyes showed that she was not feeling well.

Grandma Mary holds baby Aniya on her 1st birthday during visitation. Photo provided by Vasquez family.Read the full article at Victoria Advocate.

Supporters have set up a Facebook page called Justice for Aniya for the public to follow Aniya's story.

See additional coverage of Aniya's story:

Texas Mother of Daughter Injured by Gardasil Vaccine Fights to Get Daughter Back as Attorneys Betray Her

Texas Mom Blamed for Baby's Accidental Gardasil Vaccine Injuries Fights to Get Medically Kidnapped Daughter Back

Comment on this article at MedicalKidnap.com.

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#SayHerName

AAPF - African American Policy Forum

http://www.aapf.org/sayhername

AAPF launched the #SayHerName campaign for Black women and girls who were killed by police and other forms of violence.

Fill The Void. Lift Your Voice.

Say Her Name.

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#SayHerName: How Transgender Women Are Memorialized Online

Centered on feminism & women of the African Diaspora

https://www.blackfeminisms.com/transgender

The Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) was started by transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith as a vigil to honor the memory of Rita Hester, a transgender woman who was killed in 1998. The vigil commemorated all the transgender people lost to violence that year and began an important memorial that has become the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance

“Citizen participation in the media, or contribution of user generated content or ‘citizen journalism’ as it’s commonly known is a growing phenomenon in some ways. Its benefits are that audiences witnessing incidents can post eyewitness accounts on the Internet as soon as they happen or send a report and photos to the media. Citizen journalism also dwells a lot on analysis and debate of issues and stories appearing in mainstream media. Unlike journalists in the mainstream media, citizen journalists can be anonymous contributors with no journalism training.”

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Black Lives Matter | Say Her Name

http://sayhername.blacklivesmatter.com

Use #SayHerName to honor women and femmes who have been taken from us by state or intimate partner violence.

As part of the national #SayHerName day of action, we are asking folks to participate in lifting up women and femmes who are no longer with us, and/or those who inspire us in our everyday lives. Upload an image, graphic or photograph of someone you want to lift up, using either #SayHerName for those who have been taken from us and #InHerHonor for those who are still with us or passed from natural causes.

#SayHerName Use #SayHerName to honor women and femmes who have been taken from us by state or intimate partner violence

#InHerHonor Use #InHerHonor to lift up women and femmes in our everyday lives who are fighting and thriving in the face of adversity or who died from natural causes.

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#SayHerName

AAPF - African American Policy Forum

It is for these Black women and girls that the African American Policy Forum launched the #SayHerName campaign. On May 20th, 2015, the African American Policy Forum, the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies at Columbia Law School, and over twenty local sponsoring organizations hosted #SayHerName: A Vigil in Memory of Black Women and Girls Killed by the Police at Union Square in New York City. Family members of Black women killed by police from across the country came together for the first time in a powerful vigil designed to uplift their loved ones' stories. The family members of Alberta Spruill, Rekia Boyd, Shantel Davis, Shelley Frey, Kayla Moore, Kyam Livingston, Miriam Carey, Michelle Cusseaux, and Tanisha Anderson were present and supported by hundreds of attendees, activists, and stakeholders.

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The work of #SayHerName continues. Including Black women and girls in this discourse sends the powerful message that indeed all Black lives matter. If our collective outrage around cases of police violence is meant to serve as a warning to the state that its agents cannot kill without consequence, our silence around the cases of Black women and girls sends the message that certain deaths do not merit repercussions. Please join us in our efforts to advance a gender-inclusive narrative in the movement for Black lives.

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In an effort to continue to call attention to violence against Black women in the U.S., the African American Policy Forum, the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies at Columbia Law School, and Andrea Ritchie, Soros Justice Fellow and expert on policing of women and LGBT people of color, issued in May 2015 a brief entitled “Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women.”

Say Her Name documents stories of Black women who have been killed by police, shining a spotlight on forms of police brutality often experienced disproportionately by women of color.  In addition to stories of Black women who have been killed by police and who have experienced gender-specific forms of police violence, Say Her Name provides some analytical frames for understanding their experiences and broadens dominant conceptions of who experiences state violence and what it looks like. The brief concludes with recommendations for engaging communities in conversation and advocacy around Black women’s experiences of police violence, considering race and gender in policy initiatives to combat state violence, and adopting policies to end sexual abuse and harassment by police officers.

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Black women are outnumbered by White women 5:1 in the United States, yet are killed by police in nearly the same numbers.

On August 1st, Korryn Gaines became one of those women. Shot and killed after an hours long standoff with Baltimore County police, Gaines became the ninth Black woman killed by police in just the first eight months of 2016. Jessica Williams, whose death garnered little media attention despite forcing SFPD chief, Greg Suhr, to resign, was shot while driving a presumed stolen car. She was unarmed and seems to have been fleeing from the officer when she was killed, yet she was still declared a threat to the officer’s safety, legally justifying her death. Similarly, police killed Kisha Michael, “a great mother” of three, even though she posed no obvious threat. Michael was found sitting in a car unconscious at an intersection in Inglewood CA. After allegedly failing to revive her and finding a gun, the LAPD retreated behind cover and fired several rounds into the car, killing Michael and a man who was with her.

Gynnya McMillen died alone in a Kentucky detention center cell. Formally, declared a tragic accident resulting from a rare, and undiscovered, heart condition, McMillen, only 16, was found dead after just one night at the Lincoln Village Juvenile Detention Center. However, in that one night she was tackled and pinned for over four minutes after she refused to take off her sweatshirt during a search. She was also placed in a cell alone and then largely forgotten about despite being notably unresponsive, a strong warning sign that something was not right. In the morning, Gynnya McMillen lay dead. It is frighteningly unclear whether anyone will face charges for the deaths of these women and the five others killed, but what is clear is that, particularly when compared to their male counterparts, little is known or said about stories and lives of these women.

This is nothing new. In 2015 alone, at least six Black women were killed by or after encounters with police.

Just before Freddie Gray’s case grabbed national attention, police killed unarmed Mya Hall—a Black transgender woman—on the outskirts of Baltimore. Alleged to be driving a stolen car, Hall took a wrong turn onto NSA property and was shot to death by officers after the car crashed into the security gate and a police cruiser. No action has been taken to date with respect to the officers responsible for her death. In April, police fatally shot Alexia Christian while she was being handcuffed in the back of a police cruiser. And in March in Ventura, California, police officers shot and killed Meagan Hockaday—a young mother of three—within 20 seconds of entering her home in response to a domestic disturbance.

Sandra Bland, the 28-year old Black woman from Naperville, Illinois who was arrested for allegedly assaulting a police officer during a traffic stop in Waller County, Texas on July 10 and was found dead in a jail cell three days later, is yet another victim of police brutality against African American women. And the six officers who swarmed and tasered Natasha McKenna to death in a Fairfax County Jail will face no criminal charges for their actions.

-

#SayHerName: How Transgender Women Are Memorialized Online

Transgender people, in particular transgender women of color, become targets of violence due to stigma about non-binary gender identities.

Mainstream media generally fails to bring attention to this violence. Social media, however, has been a significant platform for uplifting and memorializing transgender people who lose their lives.

For instance, when I looked at hashtags associated with #SayHerName between late January and October, I found that at least 21 transgender women named in corresponding hashtags. The majority of these women were victims of homicide. One had died in police custody and another was missing.

Yet, when I went to correspond the name of victims with news accounts, I most often found that independent media or bloggers were the only ones to report on this violence. This suggests to me that citizen journalism2 is particularly significant in highlighting violence against transgender women of color.

Most of these independent media and bloggers were platforms meant to uplift women of color, Black women in particular. For instance, BlackGirlTragic.Com consistently provided information not only about Black women who lost their lives to violence but also girls and non-Black women of color. Furthermore, they bring attention to violence that women face throughout the Diaspora, rather than the United States alone.

BlackGirlTragic.com exemplifies these platforms in that they are intentional about their mission to uplift Black women:

This site arose from a need to disrupt the traditional 24/7 news cycle, which focuses on one crisis and moves to another. Our goal at Black Girl Tragic is to highlight the discrimination, abuse, mistreatment, unfairness and tragedy inflicted upon women of color throughout the diaspora. 3

Black women use social media to act as citizen journalists, subverting the barriers of traditional institutions of media and journalism through the use of digital technology. Transgender Black women, then, are memorialized as a labor of love by Black women who see themselves as capable of making change by taking their message to the digital sphere.

How To Get Out Of The Cycle Of Outrage In A Trump World

Have you heard about the latest outrage? Can you believe what the administration just did? I’m not actually talking about anything specific, but between the time I’m writing this and the time you’re reading it, there will no doubt have been plenty of examples. Your inbox and notifications are likely full of them. Your friends are probably texting you about them. You may well be talking about them at dinner tonight, before settling in to watch outraged pundits rehash them. Then there’s one last check for late-breaking outrages before a night of restless, fitful sleep. In the morning, with a check on the accumulation of whatever new outrages rained down overnight, the cycle starts all over again.

Trump has brought many new things to our lives. And one of them is this state of perpetual outrage (Trumprage? Trumpdignation?) provoked in reaction to the state of perpetual chaos his administration seems to generate on a daily, even hourly basis.

This is no way to live. Literally. We’re only 17 days in, and people are already exhausted by it. Trump hasn’t invaded any countries (yet), but he’s certainly invaded our minds and hearts. As Kevin Baker wrote in Politico, “thanks to social media, and to the nature of our new president and his administration, politics is suddenly with us always, in every aspect of our lives, including wherever we may look for diversion.”

And that’s not healthy. There is — as our president might say — a tremendous mountain that shows that when we live in an ongoing state of outrage, anxiety, fear and stress, it wreaks an awful toll on our physical and mental health. It’s not sustainable. And there is another way.

It’s not that the outrage is unwarranted. Trump’s executive order on refugees, his endless petty feuds — with allies, with judges, with Arnold Schwarzenegger — his constant stream of up-is-down and down-is-up fabrications is outrageous. Any president’s actions have real consequences in real people’s lives. This is high stakes and it really matters. But that’s precisely why it’s so important to take back control of how we react. Because only then will we be able to mitigate the effects of those presidential actions on the lives of people most vulnerable to them.

So we need to go back to the truth that helped the country recover after 9/11: if we are consumed by fear, the terrorists win. If we live in a perpetual state of outrage, Trump wins. Because when we become depleted and exhausted, and sapped of our energy, we’re not as resourceful, creative, or effective. The goal of any true resistance is to affect outcomes, not just to vent. And the only way to affect outcomes and thrive in our lives, is to find the eye in the hurricane, and act from that place of inner strength.

It’s the centered place Archimedes described when he said “give me a place to stand and I shall move the world.” It’s the place from which I imagine Judge James Robart issued his historic order to reverse Trump’s executive order on refugees. And it’s the place from which Viktor Frankl, who lost his pregnant wife, parents and brother in the Holocaust and spent 3 years in concentration camps, could write, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way…every day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision, a decision which determined whether you would or would not submit to those powers which threatened to rob you of your very self, your inner freedom.”

When we are robbed of our inner freedom, we feel like victims — victims of our circumstances, of Trump’s outrages, policies and chaos. If we want one more reason not to live in a state of victimhood and perpetual outrage, think of this: that’s the world Trump lives in. He wakes up feeling victimized by the media, he goes to sleep outraged at Alec Baldwin’s portrayal on SNL, and then he wakes up outraged at Judge Robart’s decision. And it’s from that place that he reacts and lashes out with language his administration has to spend news cycles explaining — like the “so-called” judge.

So whatever you do, don’t just let yourself get stuck in the outrage storm — that particular weather pattern is likely to be here for a long time. Remember, you have the power to step out of the storm, think carefully about how best to channel your valuable energy, and then take action. And there are so many ways to do that.

Laura Moser is a freelance writer and mother in Washington, D.C. After the election, she found she couldn’t disengage. So to channel her energy, and that of others as well, she created Daily Action, a daily text people can sign up for that gives them one concrete and specific action to take. In just a matter of weeks, she’s amassed over 100,000 subscribers. One is Aaron Becker, an author from Massachusetts. “People are feeling fatigue,” he told the Washington Post . “We are not really designed as human beings to take on the responsibility of everything at once.” But since channeling his energy in a specific way, he’s gotten a measure of control back in his life. “Now I feel like I can turn off my browser window and do some work,” he said.

And there are plenty of other groups doing a similar thing — making it easy to channel that outrage in productive ways that can change outcomes.

• 5 Calls gives you five calls that you can make in five minutes.

• The Resistance Manual is an open source guide to taking action on a range of issues, from incarceration to immigration.

• Run For Something is dedicated to helping young people get off the sidelines and into the leadership pipeline.

• No One Left Behind is dedicated to helping obtain special immigration visas for those — like translators and interpreters — who have helped U.S. soldiers abroad.

• The March for Science will be held on Earth Day, April 22nd. Showing up will be a way of demonstrating that we care about facts, data, science and what they tell us about climate change.

•The Indivisible guide bills itself as a “practical guide to resisting the Trump agenda,” and also shows you how to get involved with one of the over 4,500 local indivisible groups that have already been started.

When you fight a disease — and the Trump presidency is a disease, an assault on the health of our entire system — the most important thing is to give yourself the resources to allow your immune system to prevail over the disease. And that includes taking care of ourselves to strengthen our resilience — making sure we sleep, exercise, enjoy nature, eat healthily, take breaks from technology, and don’t start and end our day by going straight to the latest news before we’ve found that eye in the hurricane. As Marcus Aurelius, who spent nineteen years as the Emperor of Rome facing nearly constant war, a horrific plague, an attempt at the throne by one of his closest allies and an incompetent and greedy step-brother as co-emperor, wrote, “People look for retreats for themselves in the country, by the coast, or in the hills. There is nowhere that a person can find a more peaceful and trouble-free retreat than in his own mind. ... So constantly give yourself this retreat, and renew yourself.”

So how do you put this into action in your everyday life? How can we renew ourselves and thrive in the Age of Trump? Here are a few of our ideas. I hope you’ll add your own by telling me on social media at @ariannahuff on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook:

1) As they say on airplanes, put your own oxygen mask on first. Take care of yourself so you can take care of others.

2) Take action. Once you’ve taken care of step one, you’ll be ready to put your outrage to work, and the list above is a great place to start.

3) Remember that humor has always been a great way to find light in dark times. So seek out ways to laugh. There are, of course, the usual sources: Bill Maher, SNL (and Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer!). But you can also lead the way, as did whoever thought of the fake vigils to honor the victims of the “Bowling Green Massacre” made up by Kellyanne Conway.

4) Get creative — as did those who started the viral hashtag #dresslikeawoman in response to Trump’s narrow (and antiquated) ideas of how women should dress in the White House.

5) Find your own Thrive Tribe — reach out to people, seek out encouragement and inspiration from friends and be there for those who need the same, including those most vulnerable to Trump’s decisions.

6) Don’t limit your reading to social media — read the Greats and surround yourself with their wisdom. Here are two of my favorite quotes that I’m keeping by my bed right now: “Our actions may be impeded, but there can be no impeding our intentions or dispositions. The impediment to action advances actions, what stands in the way becomes the way.” That’s from Marcus Aurelius. The other is from Albert Schweitzer: “One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity.”

8) Unplug. Calendar time in your day when you choose to separate yourself from your devices, from the news, from social media.

9) Breathe. Seriously. It’s good for your brain.

10) Trust: As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” Remember: truth and justice ultimately always win.

This post was originally published on Thrive Global.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

How To Get Out Of The Cycle Of Outrage In A Trump World posted first on http://ift.tt/2kDxLY4

How To Get Out Of The Cycle Of Outrage In A Trump World

Have you heard about the latest outrage? Can you believe what the administration just did? I’m not actually talking about anything specific, but between the time I’m writing this and the time you’re reading it, there will no doubt have been plenty of examples. Your inbox and notifications are likely full of them. Your friends are probably texting you about them. You may well be talking about them at dinner tonight, before settling in to watch outraged pundits rehash them. Then there’s one last check for late-breaking outrages before a night of restless, fitful sleep. In the morning, with a check on the accumulation of whatever new outrages rained down overnight, the cycle starts all over again.

Trump has brought many new things to our lives. And one of them is this state of perpetual outrage (Trumprage? Trumpdignation?) provoked in reaction to the state of perpetual chaos his administration seems to generate on a daily, even hourly basis.

This is no way to live. Literally. We’re only 17 days in, and people are already exhausted by it. Trump hasn’t invaded any countries (yet), but he’s certainly invaded our minds and hearts. As Kevin Baker wrote in Politico, “thanks to social media, and to the nature of our new president and his administration, politics is suddenly with us always, in every aspect of our lives, including wherever we may look for diversion.”

And that’s not healthy. There is — as our president might say — a tremendous mountain that shows that when we live in an ongoing state of outrage, anxiety, fear and stress, it wreaks an awful toll on our physical and mental health. It’s not sustainable. And there is another way.

It’s not that the outrage is unwarranted. Trump’s executive order on refugees, his endless petty feuds — with allies, with judges, with Arnold Schwarzenegger — his constant stream of up-is-down and down-is-up fabrications is outrageous. Any president’s actions have real consequences in real people’s lives. This is high stakes and it really matters. But that’s precisely why it’s so important to take back control of how we react. Because only then will we be able to mitigate the effects of those presidential actions on the lives of people most vulnerable to them.

So we need to go back to the truth that helped the country recover after 9/11: if we are consumed by fear, the terrorists win. If we live in a perpetual state of outrage, Trump wins. Because when we become depleted and exhausted, and sapped of our energy, we’re not as resourceful, creative, or effective. The goal of any true resistance is to affect outcomes, not just to vent. And the only way to affect outcomes and thrive in our lives, is to find the eye in the hurricane, and act from that place of inner strength.

It’s the centered place Archimedes described when he said “give me a place to stand and I shall move the world.” It’s the place from which I imagine Judge James Robart issued his historic order to reverse Trump’s executive order on refugees. And it’s the place from which Viktor Frankl, who lost his pregnant wife, parents and brother in the Holocaust and spent 3 years in concentration camps, could write, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way…every day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision, a decision which determined whether you would or would not submit to those powers which threatened to rob you of your very self, your inner freedom.”

When we are robbed of our inner freedom, we feel like victims — victims of our circumstances, of Trump’s outrages, policies and chaos. If we want one more reason not to live in a state of victimhood and perpetual outrage, think of this: that’s the world Trump lives in. He wakes up feeling victimized by the media, he goes to sleep outraged at Alec Baldwin’s portrayal on SNL, and then he wakes up outraged at Judge Robart’s decision. And it’s from that place that he reacts and lashes out with language his administration has to spend news cycles explaining — like the “so-called” judge.

So whatever you do, don’t just let yourself get stuck in the outrage storm — that particular weather pattern is likely to be here for a long time. Remember, you have the power to step out of the storm, think carefully about how best to channel your valuable energy, and then take action. And there are so many ways to do that.

Laura Moser is a freelance writer and mother in Washington, D.C. After the election, she found she couldn’t disengage. So to channel her energy, and that of others as well, she created Daily Action, a daily text people can sign up for that gives them one concrete and specific action to take. In just a matter of weeks, she’s amassed over 100,000 subscribers. One is Aaron Becker, an author from Massachusetts. “People are feeling fatigue,” he told the Washington Post . “We are not really designed as human beings to take on the responsibility of everything at once.” But since channeling his energy in a specific way, he’s gotten a measure of control back in his life. “Now I feel like I can turn off my browser window and do some work,” he said.

And there are plenty of other groups doing a similar thing — making it easy to channel that outrage in productive ways that can change outcomes.

• 5 Calls gives you five calls that you can make in five minutes.

• The Resistance Manual is an open source guide to taking action on a range of issues, from incarceration to immigration.

• Run For Something is dedicated to helping young people get off the sidelines and into the leadership pipeline.

• No One Left Behind is dedicated to helping obtain special immigration visas for those — like translators and interpreters — who have helped U.S. soldiers abroad.

• The March for Science will be held on Earth Day, April 22nd. Showing up will be a way of demonstrating that we care about facts, data, science and what they tell us about climate change.

•The Indivisible guide bills itself as a “practical guide to resisting the Trump agenda,” and also shows you how to get involved with one of the over 4,500 local indivisible groups that have already been started.

When you fight a disease — and the Trump presidency is a disease, an assault on the health of our entire system — the most important thing is to give yourself the resources to allow your immune system to prevail over the disease. And that includes taking care of ourselves to strengthen our resilience — making sure we sleep, exercise, enjoy nature, eat healthily, take breaks from technology, and don’t start and end our day by going straight to the latest news before we’ve found that eye in the hurricane. As Marcus Aurelius, who spent nineteen years as the Emperor of Rome facing nearly constant war, a horrific plague, an attempt at the throne by one of his closest allies and an incompetent and greedy step-brother as co-emperor, wrote, “People look for retreats for themselves in the country, by the coast, or in the hills. There is nowhere that a person can find a more peaceful and trouble-free retreat than in his own mind. … So constantly give yourself this retreat, and renew yourself.”

So how do you put this into action in your everyday life? How can we renew ourselves and thrive in the Age of Trump? Here are a few of our ideas. I hope you’ll add your own by telling me on social media at @ariannahuff on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook:

1) As they say on airplanes, put your own oxygen mask on first. Take care of yourself so you can take care of others.

2) Take action. Once you’ve taken care of step one, you’ll be ready to put your outrage to work, and the list above is a great place to start.

3) Remember that humor has always been a great way to find light in dark times. So seek out ways to laugh. There are, of course, the usual sources: Bill Maher, SNL (and Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer!). But you can also lead the way, as did whoever thought of the fake vigils to honor the victims of the “Bowling Green Massacre” made up by Kellyanne Conway.

4) Get creative — as did those who started the viral hashtag #dresslikeawoman in response to Trump’s narrow (and antiquated) ideas of how women should dress in the White House.

5) Find your own Thrive Tribe — reach out to people, seek out encouragement and inspiration from friends and be there for those who need the same, including those most vulnerable to Trump’s decisions.

6) Don’t limit your reading to social media — read the Greats and surround yourself with their wisdom. Here are two of my favorite quotes that I’m keeping by my bed right now: “Our actions may be impeded, but there can be no impeding our intentions or dispositions. The impediment to action advances actions, what stands in the way becomes the way.” That’s from Marcus Aurelius. The other is from Albert Schweitzer: “One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity.”

8) Unplug. Calendar time in your day when you choose to separate yourself from your devices, from the news, from social media.

9) Breathe. Seriously. It’s good for your brain.

10) Trust: As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” Remember: truth and justice ultimately always win.

This post was originally published on Thrive Global.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

How To Get Out Of The Cycle Of Outrage In A Trump World syndicated from http://ift.tt/2llz9hF

How To Get Out Of The Cycle Of Outrage In A Trump World

Have you heard about the latest outrage? Can you believe what the administration just did? I’m not actually talking about anything specific, but between the time I’m writing this and the time you’re reading it, there will no doubt have been plenty of examples. Your inbox and notifications are likely full of them. Your friends are probably texting you about them. You may well be talking about them at dinner tonight, before settling in to watch outraged pundits rehash them. Then there’s one last check for late-breaking outrages before a night of restless, fitful sleep. In the morning, with a check on the accumulation of whatever new outrages rained down overnight, the cycle starts all over again.

Trump has brought many new things to our lives. And one of them is this state of perpetual outrage (Trumprage? Trumpdignation?) provoked in reaction to the state of perpetual chaos his administration seems to generate on a daily, even hourly basis.

This is no way to live. Literally. We’re only 17 days in, and people are already exhausted by it. Trump hasn’t invaded any countries (yet), but he’s certainly invaded our minds and hearts. As Kevin Baker wrote in Politico, “thanks to social media, and to the nature of our new president and his administration, politics is suddenly with us always, in every aspect of our lives, including wherever we may look for diversion.”

And that’s not healthy. There is — as our president might say — a tremendous mountain that shows that when we live in an ongoing state of outrage, anxiety, fear and stress, it wreaks an awful toll on our physical and mental health. It’s not sustainable. And there is another way.

It’s not that the outrage is unwarranted. Trump’s executive order on refugees, his endless petty feuds — with allies, with judges, with Arnold Schwarzenegger — his constant stream of up-is-down and down-is-up fabrications is outrageous. Any president’s actions have real consequences in real people’s lives. This is high stakes and it really matters. But that’s precisely why it’s so important to take back control of how we react. Because only then will we be able to mitigate the effects of those presidential actions on the lives of people most vulnerable to them.

So we need to go back to the truth that helped the country recover after 9/11: if we are consumed by fear, the terrorists win. If we live in a perpetual state of outrage, Trump wins. Because when we become depleted and exhausted, and sapped of our energy, we’re not as resourceful, creative, or effective. The goal of any true resistance is to affect outcomes, not just to vent. And the only way to affect outcomes and thrive in our lives, is to find the eye in the hurricane, and act from that place of inner strength.

It’s the centered place Archimedes described when he said “give me a place to stand and I shall move the world.” It’s the place from which I imagine Judge James Robart issued his historic order to reverse Trump’s executive order on refugees. And it’s the place from which Viktor Frankl, who lost his pregnant wife, parents and brother in the Holocaust and spent 3 years in concentration camps, could write, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way…every day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision, a decision which determined whether you would or would not submit to those powers which threatened to rob you of your very self, your inner freedom.”

When we are robbed of our inner freedom, we feel like victims — victims of our circumstances, of Trump’s outrages, policies and chaos. If we want one more reason not to live in a state of victimhood and perpetual outrage, think of this: that’s the world Trump lives in. He wakes up feeling victimized by the media, he goes to sleep outraged at Alec Baldwin’s portrayal on SNL, and then he wakes up outraged at Judge Robart’s decision. And it’s from that place that he reacts and lashes out with language his administration has to spend news cycles explaining — like the “so-called” judge.

So whatever you do, don’t just let yourself get stuck in the outrage storm — that particular weather pattern is likely to be here for a long time. Remember, you have the power to step out of the storm, think carefully about how best to channel your valuable energy, and then take action. And there are so many ways to do that.

Laura Moser is a freelance writer and mother in Washington, D.C. After the election, she found she couldn’t disengage. So to channel her energy, and that of others as well, she created Daily Action, a daily text people can sign up for that gives them one concrete and specific action to take. In just a matter of weeks, she’s amassed over 100,000 subscribers. One is Aaron Becker, an author from Massachusetts. “People are feeling fatigue,” he told the Washington Post . “We are not really designed as human beings to take on the responsibility of everything at once.” But since channeling his energy in a specific way, he’s gotten a measure of control back in his life. “Now I feel like I can turn off my browser window and do some work,” he said.

And there are plenty of other groups doing a similar thing — making it easy to channel that outrage in productive ways that can change outcomes.

• 5 Calls gives you five calls that you can make in five minutes.

• The Resistance Manual is an open source guide to taking action on a range of issues, from incarceration to immigration.

• Run For Something is dedicated to helping young people get off the sidelines and into the leadership pipeline.

• No One Left Behind is dedicated to helping obtain special immigration visas for those — like translators and interpreters — who have helped U.S. soldiers abroad.

• The March for Science will be held on Earth Day, April 22nd. Showing up will be a way of demonstrating that we care about facts, data, science and what they tell us about climate change.

•The Indivisible guide bills itself as a “practical guide to resisting the Trump agenda,” and also shows you how to get involved with one of the over 4,500 local indivisible groups that have already been started.

When you fight a disease — and the Trump presidency is a disease, an assault on the health of our entire system — the most important thing is to give yourself the resources to allow your immune system to prevail over the disease. And that includes taking care of ourselves to strengthen our resilience — making sure we sleep, exercise, enjoy nature, eat healthily, take breaks from technology, and don’t start and end our day by going straight to the latest news before we’ve found that eye in the hurricane. As Marcus Aurelius, who spent nineteen years as the Emperor of Rome facing nearly constant war, a horrific plague, an attempt at the throne by one of his closest allies and an incompetent and greedy step-brother as co-emperor, wrote, “People look for retreats for themselves in the country, by the coast, or in the hills. There is nowhere that a person can find a more peaceful and trouble-free retreat than in his own mind. ... So constantly give yourself this retreat, and renew yourself.”

So how do you put this into action in your everyday life? How can we renew ourselves and thrive in the Age of Trump? Here are a few of our ideas. I hope you’ll add your own by telling me on social media at @ariannahuff on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook:

1) As they say on airplanes, put your own oxygen mask on first. Take care of yourself so you can take care of others.

2) Take action. Once you’ve taken care of step one, you’ll be ready to put your outrage to work, and the list above is a great place to start.

3) Remember that humor has always been a great way to find light in dark times. So seek out ways to laugh. There are, of course, the usual sources: Bill Maher, SNL (and Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer!). But you can also lead the way, as did whoever thought of the fake vigils to honor the victims of the “Bowling Green Massacre” made up by Kellyanne Conway.

4) Get creative — as did those who started the viral hashtag #dresslikeawoman in response to Trump’s narrow (and antiquated) ideas of how women should dress in the White House.

5) Find your own Thrive Tribe — reach out to people, seek out encouragement and inspiration from friends and be there for those who need the same, including those most vulnerable to Trump’s decisions.

6) Don’t limit your reading to social media — read the Greats and surround yourself with their wisdom. Here are two of my favorite quotes that I’m keeping by my bed right now: “Our actions may be impeded, but there can be no impeding our intentions or dispositions. The impediment to action advances actions, what stands in the way becomes the way.” That’s from Marcus Aurelius. The other is from Albert Schweitzer: “One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity.”

8) Unplug. Calendar time in your day when you choose to separate yourself from your devices, from the news, from social media.

9) Breathe. Seriously. It’s good for your brain.

10) Trust: As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” Remember: truth and justice ultimately always win.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

from http://ift.tt/2kJmXty from Blogger http://ift.tt/2kDXlfn

How To Get Out Of The Cycle Of Outrage In A Trump World

Have you heard about the latest outrage? Can you believe what the administration just did? I’m not actually talking about anything specific, but between the time I’m writing this and the time you’re reading it, there will no doubt have been plenty of examples. Your inbox and notifications are likely full of them. Your friends are probably texting you about them. You may well be talking about them at dinner tonight, before settling in to watch outraged pundits rehash them. Then there’s one last check for late-breaking outrages before a night of restless, fitful sleep. In the morning, with a check on the accumulation of whatever new outrages rained down overnight, the cycle starts all over again.

Trump has brought many new things to our lives. And one of them is this state of perpetual outrage (Trumprage? Trumpdignation?) provoked in reaction to the state of perpetual chaos his administration seems to generate on a daily, even hourly basis.

This is no way to live. Literally. We’re only 17 days in, and people are already exhausted by it. Trump hasn’t invaded any countries (yet), but he’s certainly invaded our minds and hearts. As Kevin Baker wrote in Politico, “thanks to social media, and to the nature of our new president and his administration, politics is suddenly with us always, in every aspect of our lives, including wherever we may look for diversion.”

And that’s not healthy. There is — as our president might say — a tremendous mountain that shows that when we live in an ongoing state of outrage, anxiety, fear and stress, it wreaks an awful toll on our physical and mental health. It’s not sustainable. And there is another way.

It’s not that the outrage is unwarranted. Trump’s executive order on refugees, his endless petty feuds — with allies, with judges, with Arnold Schwarzenegger — his constant stream of up-is-down and down-is-up fabrications is outrageous. Any president’s actions have real consequences in real people’s lives. This is high stakes and it really matters. But that’s precisely why it’s so important to take back control of how we react. Because only then will we be able to mitigate the effects of those presidential actions on the lives of people most vulnerable to them.

So we need to go back to the truth that helped the country recover after 9/11: if we are consumed by fear, the terrorists win. If we live in a perpetual state of outrage, Trump wins. Because when we become depleted and exhausted, and sapped of our energy, we’re not as resourceful, creative, or effective. The goal of any true resistance is to affect outcomes, not just to vent. And the only way to affect outcomes and thrive in our lives, is to find the eye in the hurricane, and act from that place of inner strength.

It’s the centered place Archimedes described when he said “give me a place to stand and I shall move the world.” It’s the place from which I imagine Judge James Robart issued his historic order to reverse Trump’s executive order on refugees. And it’s the place from which Viktor Frankl, who lost his pregnant wife, parents and brother in the Holocaust and spent 3 years in concentration camps, could write, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way…every day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision, a decision which determined whether you would or would not submit to those powers which threatened to rob you of your very self, your inner freedom.”

When we are robbed of our inner freedom, we feel like victims — victims of our circumstances, of Trump’s outrages, policies and chaos. If we want one more reason not to live in a state of victimhood and perpetual outrage, think of this: that’s the world Trump lives in. He wakes up feeling victimized by the media, he goes to sleep outraged at Alec Baldwin’s portrayal on SNL, and then he wakes up outraged at Judge Robart’s decision. And it’s from that place that he reacts and lashes out with language his administration has to spend news cycles explaining — like the “so-called” judge.

So whatever you do, don’t just let yourself get stuck in the outrage storm — that particular weather pattern is likely to be here for a long time. Remember, you have the power to step out of the storm, think carefully about how best to channel your valuable energy, and then take action. And there are so many ways to do that.

Laura Moser is a freelance writer and mother in Washington, D.C. After the election, she found she couldn’t disengage. So to channel her energy, and that of others as well, she created Daily Action, a daily text people can sign up for that gives them one concrete and specific action to take. In just a matter of weeks, she’s amassed over 100,000 subscribers. One is Aaron Becker, an author from Massachusetts. “People are feeling fatigue,” he told the Washington Post . “We are not really designed as human beings to take on the responsibility of everything at once.” But since channeling his energy in a specific way, he’s gotten a measure of control back in his life. “Now I feel like I can turn off my browser window and do some work,” he said.

And there are plenty of other groups doing a similar thing — making it easy to channel that outrage in productive ways that can change outcomes.

• 5 Calls gives you five calls that you can make in five minutes.

• The Resistance Manual is an open source guide to taking action on a range of issues, from incarceration to immigration.

• Run For Something is dedicated to helping young people get off the sidelines and into the leadership pipeline.

• No One Left Behind is dedicated to helping obtain special immigration visas for those — like translators and interpreters — who have helped U.S. soldiers abroad.

• The March for Science will be held on Earth Day, April 22nd. Showing up will be a way of demonstrating that we care about facts, data, science and what they tell us about climate change.

•The Indivisible guide bills itself as a “practical guide to resisting the Trump agenda,” and also shows you how to get involved with one of the over 4,500 local indivisible groups that have already been started.

When you fight a disease — and the Trump presidency is a disease, an assault on the health of our entire system — the most important thing is to give yourself the resources to allow your immune system to prevail over the disease. And that includes taking care of ourselves to strengthen our resilience — making sure we sleep, exercise, enjoy nature, eat healthily, take breaks from technology, and don’t start and end our day by going straight to the latest news before we’ve found that eye in the hurricane. As Marcus Aurelius, who spent nineteen years as the Emperor of Rome facing nearly constant war, a horrific plague, an attempt at the throne by one of his closest allies and an incompetent and greedy step-brother as co-emperor, wrote, “People look for retreats for themselves in the country, by the coast, or in the hills. There is nowhere that a person can find a more peaceful and trouble-free retreat than in his own mind. ... So constantly give yourself this retreat, and renew yourself.”

So how do you put this into action in your everyday life? How can we renew ourselves and thrive in the Age of Trump? Here are a few of our ideas. I hope you’ll add your own by telling me on social media at @ariannahuff on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook:

1) As they say on airplanes, put your own oxygen mask on first. Take care of yourself so you can take care of others.

2) Take action. Once you’ve taken care of step one, you’ll be ready to put your outrage to work, and the list above is a great place to start.

3) Remember that humor has always been a great way to find light in dark times. So seek out ways to laugh. There are, of course, the usual sources: Bill Maher, SNL (and Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer!). But you can also lead the way, as did whoever thought of the fake vigils to honor the victims of the “Bowling Green Massacre” made up by Kellyanne Conway.

4) Get creative — as did those who started the viral hashtag #dresslikeawoman in response to Trump’s narrow (and antiquated) ideas of how women should dress in the White House.

5) Find your own Thrive Tribe — reach out to people, seek out encouragement and inspiration from friends and be there for those who need the same, including those most vulnerable to Trump’s decisions.

6) Don’t limit your reading to social media — read the Greats and surround yourself with their wisdom. Here are two of my favorite quotes that I’m keeping by my bed right now: “Our actions may be impeded, but there can be no impeding our intentions or dispositions. The impediment to action advances actions, what stands in the way becomes the way.” That’s from Marcus Aurelius. The other is from Albert Schweitzer: “One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity.”

8) Unplug. Calendar time in your day when you choose to separate yourself from your devices, from the news, from social media.

9) Breathe. Seriously. It’s good for your brain.

10) Trust: As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” Remember: truth and justice ultimately always win.

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from Healthy Living - The Huffington Post http://huff.to/2kOL2yQ