I attended a seminar today on building community resilience to radicalization to violence. The lecture was really informative and covered a wide spectrum of different types of extremism, including political, gender motivated, racial, etc. I don't feel the need to share all of the information here, because the focus was primarily on radicalization in my state specifically, but I did want to share this specific part on identifying indicators that someone is on the path to, if not fully, radicalized:

If you see any of these in your community, call it out!

This is what has been proven to lead to mass attacks against marginalized groups.

If you see something, say something!

if there's one thing people need to understand about the way that transphobia opperates, it's that it, functionally, has lore and its own cosmology. much in the same way that other forms of bigotry like racism and homophobia do. this is what makes systems of bigotry such complicated topics; in order to justify their feelings, they need to essentially create a separate reality that opperates on laws known to be false.

Source // Two heroes from the Colorado Springs nightclub shooting were a military veteran and a trans woman (misidentified as a drag queen in the article) who stepped on the gumman with her heels.

No cops. A vet and a trans woman.

so this is something that's been on my mind for a while. I wish I could make a big magnum opus post on it but I don't have the energy

I've noticed in my travels that antisemitism seems to be one of the only forms of bigotry that's not self-evidently wrong. People may think they think it is, but I don't think they do. Every time antisemitism comes up as a topic, I see Jews sharing posts with twin explanations: one on why something is antisemitic, and one on why that's a bad thing

I've seen this a lot, and have fallen into it myself, although recently I've been trying to stop. On a post about Bibi changing his last name to "sound more indigenous": "Imagine if someone said this about Black people". On a post blaming Jews for what Israel does: "Imagine if someone said this about Chinese people". On a post accusing Jews of owning too many industries: "Imagine if someone said this about Asian people".

There was a post that went around claiming the IDF harvested the organs of Palestinians with very little evidence. (There are some great posts debunking that but that's not what this post is about.) I remember looking through the comments and one of them stuck out to me. I can't remember the wording exactly, but it went something like: "Israel heard about blood libel and thought why don't we just do that?". Ignoring the fact that blood libel is about the accuser, not the accused, this comment played over and over in my head. I thought about it as I went to sleep that night. Here was a person admitting that the thing they were saying has a strong resemblance to blood libel, but saying it anyway. It struck me that the underlying thought here was "it's not blood libel if it's true".

Once I realized that, I was stunned. I suddenly heard right-wingers in my head saying "it's not racist, it's just a fact that on average Black people have a lower I.Q.". And suddenly everything clicked into place. I know it might seem like an elementary idea, but it genuinely had never occurred to me

In the eyes of bigots, racism protects power. Antisemitism protects truth.

I've often said that all conspiracy theories eventually lead back to the Jews, and this newfound realization fit in nicely. A popular neo-Nazi slogan I've seen recently is "the goyim know". This idea that Jews have something to hide has saturated the political spectrum

Antisemitism is itself a conspiracy theory.

I realize that makes it sound like I don't think antisemitism is real. That's not what I'm saying, it absolutely is. But the way people talk about it is unlike how they talk about any other form of racism. The Jews are a shadowy cabal, who meet in secret to deplatform people who dare speak out against them. This is something we see on the right and the left, from Kanye accusing the Jews of destroying his career, to leftists accusing the "Zionists" of controlling social media.

Spouting antisemitism now becomes a moral good, a political necessity. It's the most important thing in the fight for truth

I understood then, why people on the left are so comfortable calling out accusations of antisemitism as "frivolous", "unserious", "over-used". How they think people are using antisemitism to silence them. You can't just say something is antisemitic and walk away. It won't stick. You also have to sit there on your computer for the next 2 hours, looking up sources to debunk their claims. You have to appeal to the truth. With any other form of bigotry, it's understood by leftists that whatever the facts may be, they don't excuse racism. The number of Black Americans who commit crimes doesn't justify saying Black people are all criminals. The number of First Nations people who own casinos doesn't justify playing off that stereotype. But when it comes to the Jews, it's open season. You can say anything you like about the Jews, as long as you think it's true. Being told that it's antisemitic isn't enough.

This is a great example of just that. "Yes it's antisemitic, but it's also true." The accusation of antisemitism becomes an accusation against the truth. So when it comes to people who really believe in what they're saying, it all just bounces off. This is why people never seem to learn. They hop from conspiracy theory to conspiracy theory. As long as someone assures them it's all true, the bigotry doesn't really factor. They apologize not when confronted with their own racism, but when confronted with the facts.

In this way, antisemitism has become baked into society, especially Christian societies. Because why wouldn't it? Yes, the Jew is greedy, yes the Jew is sneaky, yes the Jew is bloodthirsty. But the Jew is above all a liar. They lie about their names, their culture, their history, their victories, their defeats

I wish I knew how to end this post. Some sort of call to action, some idea of how to fix this going forward. But I have no idea. I suspect if I did, we might not all be quite where we are right now

I think the problem with a lot of people is that they make anti-bigoty a part of their identity and not a goal. So when they inevitably do something bigoted, it wounds their pride. And that matters more to them than any harm they may have caused.

Does not matter if it's, "How dare you call me racist, I am an ally!" or "How dare you call me ableist, I am gay!" or even "How dare you call me sexist, I am a woman!"

No matter what form it takes, it is wrongfully self-protective and hinders any personal growth.

Context what started this: Cassadee Pope and Maren Morris called out Brittany Aldean for a comment she made, Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson got involved and now the rest is history and Mrs. Morris is a legend! Marren calling Brittany an 'Insurrection Barbie' really sent me into another dimension.

hey uh i don't think USamerican food (ex: all our candy, chips, fast food, etc.) is unhealthy because it's a nation filled with gross fat people ridden with diabetes... hear me out... maybe it's because this god forsaken country is effectively the birthplace of capitalism and they will put anything and everything in our food if it means we keep buying it. especially if we have no other options.

all the added salt and sugar is because they know people will keep going for it - they're also simple ingredients that are easy for them to procure (thanks to centuries of slave, and otherwise unethical, labor). all the harmful dyes is because they've been relentlessly marketing to us in such a way that they make out natural food to be dirty and inferior. all the "fat free!" food came about because of fatphobia... you do need fats in your diet, just in balance.

it's all because they (capitalist class) don't give a flying fuck about anyone if it means they can make money. of course we aren't nearly the only country where capitalism takes away peoples reasonable access to a balanced diet, and the USA does get slack on a lot of things for a lot of very good reasons. but... maybe that shouldn't fall on the oppressed people living here? especially not based on bigoted misconceptions? there are no conditions on not being a bigotted asshole to someone. not facing bigotry isn't supposed to be a privilege. and it doesn't have to be an acutely life-or-death bigotry to matter.

addendum: also whether a food is "unhealthy" is heavily subjective and reliant on the individuals health needs at the time. sometimes people really need that salty as fuck pack of potato chips... like a disabled person with electrolyte issues! or a poor person who hasn't had enough to eat!

tl;dr if you keep going on about how disgusting americans are because of our food, you're just fatphobic and ableist.

If you were someone who was anti-Ace during Ace Discourse and anti-Neopronouns/Xenogenders during Neo/Xeno Discourse and anti-Nonbinary during Nonbinary Discourse, but you've now accepted those things, except now you're Anti-Bi Lesbian, then you never learned why what you were doing was wrong and simply followed the crowd.

You still have internalized phobias that you never addressed, you still have issues regarding controlling other people's queer experiences, and until you actually and genuinely sit back and realize WHY being Anti-Ace, Anti-Neos/Xenos, Anti-Nonbinary etc. Was wrong, you are always going to be the bigot in the community. Learn self introspection, learn why you continued to be against queer identities you didn't understand, or you will always find yourself on the wrong side of the goalpost, and you will never grow.

Take a second to think about an argumentative sentence you've used and replace "bi lesbian" with any other queer identity you used to hate and you'll realize that at the root of it all, it's the same queerphobia but with a new subject to target.

Kinda crazy how any post I make about my experience of antisemitism — whether or not it mentions Israel — immediately becomes inundated with comments about Palestinian pain and suffering. Do you really not see how inappropriate that is, people?

When Black People post about their experience of racism, it’s not OK to come in to that space and talk about, idk, war in Sudan.

When Asian People talk about their experience of racism, it’s not appropriate to come into that space and start talking about China’s treatment of Uyghur people or North Korean aggression.

When Muslim people talk about their experience of Islamophobia, it’s not OK to come into that space and start talking about all the horrible things Isis or Al Qaeda have done.

When a trans person starts talking about their experience of transphobia, it’s not OK to come into that space and start talking about the latest horrible thing Caitlyn Jenner said.

Why are you able to understand this when it comes to every other group, but posts about Jewish pain are always filled with arguments about Palestine that blatantly imply that actually—my group, Jews—actually deserve the hatred we receive?

Spoiler alert: It’s because you’re antisemitic and will double down on your beliefs 100000 times to prove to yourself that you’re not, because actually confronting that you have hateful beliefs is too scary for you.

I’m sorry if it messes with your sense of self righteous inherent goodness, but you have and perpetuate systemic antisemitism just like you have all other forms of systemic bigotry. And if you don’t address it, that makes you a bigot on purpose. Deal with your hatred and stop being horrible to Jews.

All bigotry is inherently linked I look at racist Jews, antisemitic black people, transphobic lesbians and see only people furthering white supremacy. You see it in how te/rfs and sw/erfs side with a fascist like Matt Walsh over their own communities. There is no way to only be oppressive towards one group. White supremacists will shoot you in the back the minute they’re done with you. Each minorities’ struggles are linked and we can’t separate them. No one is free until we are all free

"One thing I don't think people realize is that in arguments about human rights, it's not about trying to persuade the other party. It's not about them at all. They've already made up their mind. It's about persuading the audience. If I call out my teacher on being homophobic I'm not trying to change his opinion. I'm trying to convince any closeted kids in the room that they're not the monsters he's made them out to be. If I argue with my aunt about how racist she's being it's not because I expect her to change her mind. It's because I'm hoping to god my cousin's kids hear and learn that maybe skin color doesn't mean what she says it means. People will try to hush you and say 'they're not going to change their minds, don't bother' but it's not about them. It was never about them." -sepulchritude

ClickHole wrote this so it's satire, but why did I read the tweets and just accepted them as a plausible thing to have happened?

It's a slow process, but it gets harder and harder to deny.