me omw to big oil shareholder meetings ☺️🥰🌸

So what is going on in Iran right now?

I am pretty sure most of you who are either on TikTok or keep up with international news have heard about the massive protests happening in Iran right now. Its a pretty big deal. But what exactly are these protests for and why are they so important?

Hopefully, for those who dont know whats going on I can explain it all here.

Who is Mahsa Amini and what happened to her

Mahsa Amini was a 22-year-old woman traveling from Kurdistan to Tehran (the capital of Iran) to visit family and was stopped once she entered the city by something called “the morality police” (yes this is a real thing). They claimed Mahsa Amini was wearing her Hijab incorrectly and that she would be arrested to undergo “reeducation” at the police station (which would result in her being released after an hour or so). Mahsa’s brother was with her when she was arrested and waited at the station for her to be released.

It is unclear what exactly happened between when Mahsa was arrested and the events of her death (mostly because we do not have any video of these events), but the women detained along with Mahsa reported for similar offenses reported Mahsa was violently beaten by said “morality officers”. This was supposedly for resisting their insults directed toward her. This story is corroborated by her brother’s report of Mahsa having bruises all over her body and the hospital where Mahsa was staying reporting she was brain dead upon arrival along with reporting signs of skull fracture and bleeding in her brain both on social media and in leaked medical reports.

Mahsa died of her injuries 2 days after she was admitted to the hospital on September 16th of 2022. 

The official cause of death as reported by both the morality police and Iranian government has been extremely suspicious since the ‘official’ story claims she died as a result of a random heart attack/seizure combo. However, as stated before, there is plenty of evidence that Mahsa was violently attacked which includes (but is not limited to): the skull fractures found, the bruising around her body and face, the bleeding found in her brain and ears, and the fact several other witnesses have either said they witnessed the assault or have seen the previous things. Mahsa’s father also reported she was in perfect health and did not have a history of heart or seizure issues.

Why are people protesting?

For the people of Iran, instances of violence like this are not an unheard-of occurrence. Since the revolution of 1979 and the creation of this “morality police force” women were forced to wear the Hijab regardless of personal choice and had to adhere to a strict modest dress code lest they face similar treatment to Mahsa. To quote an actual penal code enacted in Iran post-revolution:

"women who appear in public without religious hijab will be sentenced to whipping up to 74 lashes"

Violence against women for this reason was now, in a way, much more normalized. Some of these dresscodes did apply to men, sure, but they were primiarly created expressly to control women with the use of fear and force by way of the Hijab. To also directly quote Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei (who has been in power since 1989):  

"improperly veiled women should be made to feel unsafe"

Is this an anti-Islam protest?

The protests surrounding the death of Mahsa Amini have definitely gained international attention by what many people are doing in them. Many women are burning their hijabs in the streets, cutting off/shaving their hair, and otherwise just doing a lot of things that, traditionally, would be considered taboo under this system that's currently in place. However, this does not seem to be a direct rejection of Islam and rather a direct rejection of control over women by the use of the Hijab as an avenue for that control.

As stated before, this is not a new issue. There have been anti-hijab protests going on since the revolution in Iran back in the 70s. There were even protests pre-revolution FOR veiling since the leader at the time wanted to strictly stick to western norms. Iran shifted from one major extreme to the other. And in both these extremes choice on the part of the woman in question is completely taken out of the equation. It has been men making these choices for women in a broad universal way without giving women the ability to decide what they want for themselves. There is more than 1 way to veil in Islam. There are also many women who do not veil at all but are still active participants in their faith. There is not one specific way to do this correctly within Islam because modesty as a whole is a subjective topic. So the fact this police force exists in the first place is less about keeping morals ‘secure’ and more about exerting control through these rules via more extreme interpretations. 

It would however be unfair to say that these protests and the cultural revolution happening because of these protests do not diametrically oppose some parts of Islam and the culture surrounding it. These beliefs are incompatible by virtue of them being polar opposites of each other. These protests, like it or not, have western influence on them and this influence threatens certain parts of Islam because over time certain aspects of culture have become rooted in these controlling methods. Its pretty unclear how this will all play out. However, it is safe to say this will be shaking up things both within Iran and in the world of Islam as a whole. 

Why are Non-Iranian women also cutting their hair?

Ever since the protests have gained international attention many women outside of Iran (both ethnically Iranian and not) have also been cutting their hair to various degrees to stand in solidarity with protestors. 

This is significant symbolically for a few reasons. In many cultures, long hair is directly tied to one's femininity, attractiveness, and even in some cases where one comes from. Like it or not hair is culturally and socially important and the loss off it can be a very big deal for those living under these cultural expectations. In Iran doing something like this subjects you to harassment from the morality police. It breaks the morality code and challenges the idea of what a woman should be and look like. Outside of this context, the removal of hair can be a sign of mourning, fear, anger, and a rejection of femininity (or in this case, the control brought on by strict gendered dress codes). 

There has been a lot of controversy around this act since many people currently participating in these protests feel this act is performative activism on the part of western allies. Cutting one's hair is not really on the same level as donating money to a cause or protesting yourself. But others believe this is an important act of international solidarity. If you reading this decide to do this: do it at your own discretion and be sure your act of solidarity does not outshine the actual protests going on.

Why are people asking to blur/delete protest footage posted online?

It should go without saying that the people protesting right now are putting themselves in very real danger. What happened to Mahsa Amini is now happening to protesters who are speaking out about Iran’s harsh morality laws. Many people have died already as a result of participating in these protests and many more have gone missing. When you are dealing with an oppressive system like this they are not going to take too kindly to opposition. And if they are not afraid to beat women simply for wearing their Hijab ‘incorrectly’, they are not afraid to do much worse to political rivals. 

Out of respect for the protesters and their safety: please blur out any faces, names, and remove all metadata from any protest photos/footage you decide to share online. Because if I can find one of the protestors on Instagram simply by looking at their face and general location so can the morality police. For those around during the Black Lives Matter protests, the Russian anti-war protests, or any other media-sensitive protest use those same rules when posting footage/reporting on them

what’s wrong with building codes?

Ok fair, this isn't a line of critique ppl talk about much and probably isn't intuitive from lots of positions.

But they're a fundamental piece of how capitalism (tries to) force us to play its game and of how it destroys alternative lifeways!

Also worth noting that nearly all traditional indigenous dwellings are gonna be illegal by most building codes. That alone should make you real skeptical of them.

//

For most of human history, in most places, people could build dwellings at the individual or small group level out of readily available, natural materials. (Eg from what I've read 1-2 people can build a wigwam in 3 days that'll last well over a year).

This kind of set up gives individuals way more power over their housing and isn't conducive to landlording or housing debt. Readily available housing means way less pressure to stay with shitty family/housemates/partners/jobs. It removes one of the primary forms of leverage.

Building codes make it difficult or fully illegal to live in anything other than a modern, conventional home.*

///

Modern homes are convenient in tons of ways. But:

Older tech gets portrayed as way worse than it was, and:

A lot of that convenience primarily matters if you're spending most of your time/energy working because you're living thoroughly inside the market and if you're separated from the skills and knowledge to take care of your shit without modern conveniences.

Civ has a gravity to it. You (theoretically/legally) have to pay a certain amount in taxes, at the point at which you're working a little, probably you find at least some things you want to buy. As you work more you handle less shit yourself and pay more so other people handle it for you. As more people are doing this community becomes harder and harder to find if you're holding out. And the skills, knowledge and lifeways for living outside of civ are harder to access.

While mass violence is needed at times, that's not needed or sustainable long term.

With the commons enclosed, the genocide and forced relocation of indigenous people enacted, industrialization and urbanization complete, more mundane and bureaucratic forms of coercion tend to do the trick for the few hold outs and breakaways.

Shit like telling you you have to install a septic system you can't begin to afford, or condemning your house.

//

*while the details of what's allowed and what's prohibited vary massively from place to place, it is a practical tension I and friends come up against with the state, and even if it wasn't I think it makes sense to object on principle/with an eye towards the future.

Child custody standards (what's grounds for the state taking your kid/what's gonna count against you in a custody battle) often go above and beyond building codes in requiring normative dwellings.

I'm thinking of details like: septic/sewer standards, requiring electric/water hookups, requiring buildings made to last decades vs easy to build structures that are rebuilt every few years or require more active maintenance, making it difficult or impossible to use natural materials, etc.

//

Qualifier: I think building codes serve a purpose in landlord-tennant relationships but without them it'd be way easier to escape renting

i had a korean friend (living in korea, not korean-american) who told me once that he thought korean people felt a kinship toward black americans because of their history of being continuously exploited (on the korean side he meant by china/japan/the US). obviously i took that with a grain of salt because i'm not ignorant of korea's relationship to antiblackness but i still think about it a lot.

i think an important distinction needs to be made here in which the people of korea, the people of the korean peninsula, the people of joseon, are an ethnically homogenous civilization with a shared national identity of 500 years under the kingdom of joseon and shared cultural history of 5000 years. the koreans who are able to enact material and ideological antiblackness right now are the ones benefitting from the US neocolony that is the republic of korea and the ones that are diasporic (especially in the imperial core). the dprk has historically been aligned with the ongoing political struggle of black people in the US and the black panther party frequently published the writings of kim il sung.

here's a document from the dprk about US antiblackness and the oppression of the black panther party around 1970.

and if you see here, it's simply on a basis of morality and moral political ideology that the korean people stand with black people in the US, there doesn't have to be emotional commonalities. it is simply political and moral necessity to speak up about our support. we are being oppressed by the same regime of US empire and global white supremacy and racial capitalism, it is of the utmost importance to stand in solidarity with other people in struggle.

it's also very cool to see this kind of document. "trenchantly flaying the US imperialists for their occupation of South Korea" goes sooo hard. the US is indeed "the chieftan of world imperialism, the ringleader of world reaction and the common enemy of the world people." the dprk's political morals are a really refreshing reminder that korean people do not all have the same relationship to global hegemony and there have always been korean people who are against empire and struggling for liberation.

and what you're actually talking about here is about the empathetic resonances between the political struggles of black people and korean people, which do exist. they are there and it's important to feel them to begin any kind of political work as a korean person, though politics should not be based around anecdotal and emotional resonances only. korea was known as the shrimp between 2 whales between china and japan for 5000 years and china's word for korean people is eastern barbarians. many artistic, technological, and cultural innovations credited to china and japan are actually korean. china and japan would kidnap hundreds of artisans and scholars every time korean people invented something they wanted and usually the korean kingdom (unified silla, joseon, etc) was a vassal to china or economically beholden to japan so they couldn't stop it. even cherry blossom trees that are the japanese national symbol were first taken from the silla kingdom. and then planted all over joseon during japanese occupation hundreds of years later to show that joseon now belongs to japan. the constant cycles of theft, labor exploitation, disrespect, and humiliation are present in both peoples for sure. and korea spent decades freeing ourselves from japanese colonization and succeeded, only to be overtaken by US military occupation 3 days later. and then divided in half and made to be in perpetual war with our other half.

there are resonances with black people's constant struggle against institutional, ideological, and cutlural violence that seems to be never ending because of the strength of the US empire and global antiblackness. but both of our people can and will be freed, and the empire is decaying as we speak. we both have a lot of our people working for the colonizer's side but that can shift as well. i believe it. we have the same enemy and we outnumber them, we have been struggling for liberation and will one day succeed.

the important distinction here as well is that black people have singularly been exploited in the form of chattel slavery and the ideological work of whiteness to justify chattel slavery is the racial formation of the entire world. the entire world operates on an economic and ideological system of antiblackness.

i think every korean person coming to terms with the truth of the world needs to necessarily do massive amounts of academic and internal and physical work to come to terms with global antiblackness and our part in it, to redistribute any resources we have and support black people's vital struggle against empire. that is the first step to actual material solidarity, korean people have to make those changes within themselves and their lives first. like to even be able to relate to black people normally without the distortion of global narratives about blackness is going to require a lot of work. restructuring the way you and relate to the world and changing how you move in the material world as a result of that political realignment is deeply necessary for undoing the antiblackness embedded in everyone.

seven theses on ziz waifuism

i. i use Ziz instead of simurgh to maintain consistency with the other endbringers, whose names are derived from the monsters mentioned in the book of job, from whose flesh israel will feast in olam ha-ba.

ii. what is Ziz? Ziz is her body, her power, her scream, her effect, her allegorical potential. she is hypermediated surveillance capitalism, outside of which we are literally incapable of seeing. she is the death drive. she is school shootings and suicide epidemics.

iii. what is waifuism? waifuism is the practice of taking a character and imagining them as a partner, often a romantic one. waifuism shares qualities with "reality shifting," the belief made popular by tiktok that it is possible with sufficient to training to move between realities, even fictional ones. it also shares characteristics with the epidemic of synthetic tourette's.

iv. what is schizoposting? a subtack writer puts it thusly: "Schizoposting is the art of saying weird shit and believing in it, to sum it up. It’s the art of using wrong reasoning, weird spelling and grammar, and new age/based [sic] beliefs to create a pretty intelligent worldview, that no rational mind can ever conjure up, even if their lives depended on it. It’s a psycho-weapon against capitalism/the state and it’s [sic] agents, a protective shell against outside forces. It has its roots in surrealism and dadaism, both art movements dedicated to unwrapped the unconscious/subconscious mind, as laid out in freudian theory, and the abolishing of logic as a natural force."

this is far too optimistic an account. v. it is said that in madison (among, in fact, all other cities that fell victim of Ziz) the first effect to be noticed was a strange epidemic of cough syrup (dextromethorphan) addiction. it was as though, knowing they were doomed to enact violent events, the citizens sought comfort in dissociation because only that could fully separate them from the violence of their actions. another word for dissociation is irony.

vi. if we take walter benjamin's angel of history to be a symbol of the 20th century's bourgeois notions of a strictly progressive history, then Ziz is the 21st century's angel of the perennial now. there is nothing new, only deconstruction.

what are we to make, by the way, of the idea that worm is a "deconstruction" of the superhero genre? they say this as if it means it is progressive, when in fact its deconstructionism is precisely its most regressive aspect, its love for the status quo, for the perennial now.

vii. it is said that there are those who were immune to Ziz's attacks because they had listened to her scream on the internet. these people had Ziz body pillows. they had developed a tolerance via asmr. we must follow them, these Ziz waifuists. Ziz is my waifu the way accelerationism is my waifu: problematically, dangerously, wrongly. Ziz tells me to schizopost.

ILPS US resolutely stands in solidarity with the people of Atlanta as they fight to prevent the construction of the so called Atlanta Public Safety Training Center (aka Cop City)–an ecocidal racist, and anti-people project spearheaded by corporate interests under the aegis of the Atlanta Police Foundation–meant to develop the counterinsurgency capabilities of police departments in Atlanta and beyond as they crackdown on popular movements worldwide. Our unwavering support lies with the black working class community of south Atlanta that will disproportionately be affected by the flooding, deforestation and pollution construction will cause. Moreover we specifically condemn the numerous acts of violence and terror the Atlanta Police Department has enacted against activists, community members, and land defenders, from the execution of Manuel “Tortuguita” Teran, to the arrest of 40 protesters and concert goers on Sunday March 5th (23 of whom are facing domestic terrorism charges). The APD and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s actions are an affront to the dignity of all who wish to live free of police terror in homes fit for human habitation and in communities of love and care. 

As of today, 22 of these arrestees (excluding the SPLC legal observer, Thomas Jurgens) are being held without bond and all 23, if convicted, will face prison sentences as long as 35 years. These charges are one part of a vast campaign of political repression taking place on the state and federal level that justifies itself through the specter of “terrorism”. Thanks to the Biden administration’s Countering Domestic Terrorism (CDT) initiative, domestic terrorism prosecutions are  500% higher than they were five years ago, while convictions have risen 300%. This initiative, developed in the aftermath of the white supremacist and pro-fascist January 6th riots to falsely appear progressive and anti-racist on the surface, specifically targets “anarchist violent extremists, who violently oppose all forms of capitalism, corporate globalization, and governing institutions.” In the wake of indigenous land struggles such as No Dakota Access Pipeline, the 2020 George Floyd Uprisings, militant anti-fascist organizing, and the reawakening of the labor movement, the US government has recognized the need to maintain a tradition of surveillance, harassment, false arrests, and assassination that dates back to the COINTELPRO program of 70s and perhaps farther.

Stop Cop City is a crucial moment in a broader struggle against the militarization of police, the surveillance state, racialized violence, and environmental degradation–and because of this, the APD, Atlanta’s ruling coalition, and corporate interests in Georgia and beyond will stop at nothing to destroy the movement. The Black community of South Atlanta’s heroic defense of their life, land, and dignity is not a local struggle. The architects of the project have made clear their intention to have Cop City serve as a place where security forces throughout the world may come and perfect anti-riot tactics and urban warfare for the purpose of political repression. Moreover, many of the project’s corporate donors are multinational corporations with offices, plants, and warehouses in all of our communities. This much is clear: we are all human rights and forest defenders and it is imperative that we not only fight to have the trumped up domestic terrorism charges against the 23 dropped, but uplift the work of the movement in our own cities in whatever way we can and identify targets in every city we can. CDT and every initiative and entity targeting activists under the pretense of anti-terrorism and public safety must be called out, opposed and defeated. It is our responsibility to assert and defend the rights of all oppressed people who struggle for liberation.

No to Cop City! Drop the charges! Justice for Tortuguita! Defend People’s Struggle! 

-- “Drop the Charges! Activism is Not a Crime! ILPS US Stands in Solidarity with Stop Cop City,” from International League of Peoples’ Struggle US, 10 Apr 2023

I am so sorry to come careening into your asks like this, but that post you reblogged where OP directly conflates conservatism with nazi germany is driving me insane. it’s like, has it occurred to people that painting a whole community as remorselessly evil perhaps has some drawbacks? maybe that history can also tell us about other times having no empathy for ‘the enemy’ has worked out well for all involved?

like. I get that conservatives have done violence and significant harm to our communities. those things are unforgivable. at the same time you cannot simply write off like half of the US for having bad politics. fight against them, fight against fasc alt right shit, just don’t say there’s something innately wrong with those shitheads that is beyond changing. that’s such eugenics bullshit.

There's a good book called "Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil" by Hannah Arendt. Arendt was a Jewish woman who fled Germany and the book was about the trial of Adolf Eichmann, an SS Officer who oversaw the deportation of many Jewish people to Auschwitz. What Arendt found after studying Eichmann was that at the end of the day, in spite of everything, he was just a normal guy. There was nothing off in his psychology, he wasn't mentally unwell, and by all accounts he was a regular citizen who had 'enthusiastically' upheld the system that the Nazi's put in place. Eichmann harbored zero guilt for any of his actions up until his execution, and argued throughout the trial that he bore no personal responsibility for what he'd done. I don't think it's inaccurate to compare conservatism to fascism these days given how many alt-right members are chomping at the bit to install an authoritarian in office, but if all you're going to say is that Republicans got the "Nazi" gene, you've got a misunderstanding about what makes people evil and how they justify evil to themselves. It's not that conservatives are born without the capacity to feel for others or that because they were born bad they became conservative and because you were born good you became liberal. When evil is systematized by those in power and held up as a status quo, doing depraved evil shit becomes ordinary and normal. For example, plenty of Americans still think it's normal and justifiable to enact the death penalty because it's been systematized as part of our criminal justice system. It's the status quo, so therefore it must be upheld no matter how immoral it is.

Frankly, I'm not going to sit here and try to defend conservative beliefs at a time when the Supreme Court is out here just chipping away at everyone's civil rights and white supremacists are breaking into the capital. I don't particularly feel bad writing off the people who continue to vote for and empower fascists. How do you empathize with someone who thinks you're a child predator or that you shouldn't have bodily autonomy? How do you keep your heart open to people advocating that teachers be shot for using someone's correct pronouns? Personally I think galvanizing more liberals into using their vote strategically and engaging in political action will have faster positive action than trying to win over the group who's dictated by bigotry. That said, it's important to understand that these views have been baked into America before the Pilgrims even got here. These ideas didn't pop up over night because an evil person invented them, they've been present for thousands and thousands of years. The conservative party acts the way they do because transphobia and misogyny and racism are normal aspects of American culture that have been systematized into our government and our society, Conservatives believe that because those things are normal, therefore they are just. So I take issue with the idea that there's something inherent in their brains or psychology that turned them evil, and that liberals are immune to this problem. Liberals will uphold the status quo too, albeit with different lingo. Plenty of liberals engage in True Crime podcasts where they celebrate when the police infringe on civil liberties in order to catch a serial killer. "No ethical consumption under capitalism" is often used as a blanket excuse to ignore unfair labor practices. The Queer community loves to accuse it's own of toxicity and predation just as much as the conservatives do. During the Heard v. Depp defamation trial, tons of liberals rejoiced at the way the legal system was used to silence a DV survivor and were happy to support suing a woman for talking about abuse. A lot of the time the people saying things like this, do not think of themselves as doing anything wrong. Evil is boring, and it's normal, and oftentimes those who act immorally do so without a single ping of their conscious. Thinking that conservatives were born with abusive personalities is the exact thinking people had about Nazi's in the wake of World War II. Americans assumed that there was something fundamentally sick and broken in the Nazi psychology, when in actuality it wasn't that different from the institutionalized segregation and systematized eugenics America itself had going on at the time. Being a Nazi was super normal in Nazi Germany just like being a racist was super normal in America. If you tell yourself that there's something fundamentally abnormal and inhuman in the actions of your enemies, you miss the wider picture of the systems they're part of. Worse, you're telling yourself that you could never be like that, that you could never do what they did, rather than examine the ways you're already complicit in abusive systems. Bigotry and abuse and apathy towards injustice are all human traits, and buddy we're all human.

tl,dr: Conservative politics aren't evil people politics, they're ubiquitous and we probably all hold them to some extent. So do your due diligence.

Kenyan authorities were wrong to ban the gay community from registering a rights organisation, the country's Supreme Court has ruled.

Yet at the same time it stressed that gay sex remains illegal.

The judges ruled three-to-two that the country's NGO board was wrong to stop the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (NGLHRC) from registering in 2013.

As Kenya's highest court, the Supreme Court's ruling cannot be overturned.

In their judgment, the judges ruled that "it would be unconstitutional to limit the right to associate, through denial of registration of an association, purely on the basis of the sexual orientation of the applicants".

Nevertheless, the ruling is bitter-sweet for Kenya's gay community. Laws which were introduced under British colonial rule mean that it is criminal to have sex that "is against the order of nature", which can result in up to 14 years in prison.

In May 2019, Kenya's high court rejected an attempt to overturn these laws.

Africa Live: Latest update from around the continent

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Friday's judgement ends a 10-year legal battle which began in 2013 when Eric Gitari, the former executive director of the NGLHRC, challenged the head of Kenya NGO Coordination Board's refusal to permit him to apply to register an NGO under a name containing the words gay or lesbian.

The judges ruled in his favour at the High Court in 2015, again at the Court of Appeal in 2019 and finally in 2023.

Speaking after the ruling, Njeri Gateru, the current executive director of the NGLHRC, said: "The Supreme Court's decision to uphold the lower courts' rulings is a triumph for justice and human rights.

"At a time where the Kenyan LGBTIQ+ community is decrying the increased targeting and violence; this decision affirms the spirit and intention of the Constitution to protect all Kenyans and guarantee their rights."

The ruling comes at a time when homophobic rhetoric has been rising in Kenya.

Members of the LGBTQI+ community have been harassed by police, subjected to body examinations to "prove" gay sex, and openly insulted on social media and in public spaces. Some say they have even been denied healthcare and thrown out of rental houses for being gay.

On the day of the judgement, Member of Parliament George Peter Kaluma filed an official notice that he intended to introduce a bill which would jail for life people convicted of homosexuality or the promotion of it.

While Friday's Supreme Court ruling arguably torpedoes any attempts to legally harass openly gay people with new laws, Mr Kaluma can still rally MPs to increase jail terms for gay sex.

It is also illegal to have gay sex in neighbouring Uganda, where Muslim leaders used Friday prayers to preach against homosexuality.

The head of the country's Muslims, Mufti Sheikh Ramathan Mubajje, called on the authorities to enact even tougher laws against same-sex relations.

He was speaking at the Old Kampala mosque in the capital, Kampala, where hundreds had gathered for Friday prayers.

Earlier in the week, the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council circulated a letter to all clerics under its association gazetting Friday as the day to carry out peaceful protests against homosexuality in Uganda.

The clerics were asked to prepare sermons condemning same-sex relations and extend the same message to the media and schools.

In the event, the protests were only held in the eastern city of Jinja.

Gay rights activist Frank Mugisha described the protests as dangerous, saying they could increase cases of violence against those who identify as LGBT.

There has been a recent surge in homophobic sentiment in the country.

Last week, President Yoweri Museveni said Uganda would not embrace homosexuality and that the West should stop trying to impose its views and "normalise" what he called "deviations".

Post 5: Queer Representation and Queer-Baiting through Queer Horror in Jennifer's Body

The film Jennifer’s Body is not only praised for its feminist undertones in today’s society, but it is also seen as a movie that uses queer baiting as well. Before there can be any further discussion regarding how the film uses queer baiting, there must be discussion done regarding how queer individuals are represented and used in horror films. According to Harry Benshoff, homosexuality is defined as the following points: 

1. Homosexuality as a threat to the individual that someone you know or you yourself might be homosexual

2. Homoesexuality as a threat to others - homosexual have been frequently linked in the media to child molestation, rape, and violence 

3. Homoesexuality as a threat to the community and other components of culture - homosexuals supposedly represent the destruction of the procreative nuclear family, traditional gender roles, and “family values” (91). 

When taking this all into consideration, one can see how queer individuals are specifically used to enact horror through the disruption of the norm and as acting as the abject. When gayness does occur in films, it is not there to be expressed by itself. Rather it is being used to express thoughts about sexuality that is understood in the heteronormative instead. It brings light to how homosexuality is thought and taught by heterosexuals, which the culture will then teach one to see how they feel and think about their heterosexuality overall. Now in terms of the film, it is considered to be a queer awakening for many, even with its usage of queer baiting through the relationship of Needy and Jennifer. According to Olivia McCormack, a reporter at the Washington Post, discusses in their article about how upon the film’s initial release, “the dialogue was considered campy” and the “marketed audience of teenage boys did not care for the queer-coded friendship and allegory about sexual violence.”Although the film does queer bait, there are many individuals that felt as if their sexualities were represented very well in the film, even if neither main character was explicitly marked as a queer individual. The queer themes in the film were not very well discussed until fairly recently with many internet hashtags trending, like the #MeToo tag. Besides the representation of queer individuals, the film is still taking queer folks and portraying them as monstrous beings. According to Ashlynn Harman, the homoerotic scene between Needy and Jennifer has many overarching themes of patriarchy and queer representation overall. The reason why the film is so popular in queer spaces is because of the film’s rejection of the heteronormative and female faze (Harman). This brings the idea of how gender and queer identity are playing a role within creating horror that allows for one to play with the abject overall. The film helps create a theme that heteronormativity is not one ideology, but a concept by creating horror through the relationship of a heterosexual patriarchal capitalism and the Other, embodied in the figure of a monster. Jennifer is considered to be this man eating monster that is working against the male gaze of a heterosexual and patriarchal society. She is the monster that is marketing towards the abject. 

Works Cited: 

admin. “The Homoeroticism of Jennifer’s Body by Ashlynn Harman – Listen to Her UNF.” Unf.edu, 2022, lieberman.domains.unf.edu/s22/the-homoeroticism-of-jennifers-body%EF%BF%BC/. ‌ 

Benshoff, Harry. “Monster and the Homosexual.” Horror The Film Reader, edited by Mark Jancovich. 

““Jennifer’s Body” Has Become a Hallmark of Queer Horror. These Fans Explain Why.” Washington Post, 30 Oct. 2021, www.washingtonpost.com/gender-identity/jennifers-body-has-become-a-hallmark-of-queer-horror-these-fans-explain-why/. Accessed 12 Jan. 2024. ‌

My mom was 50 hours short this previous school year and therefor will not be granted her human right of health care for her broken ankle, and said ankle means she cannot continue her work there as a para 2. No income, no savings, no insurance.

Not sure what we're going to do but my resolve to blow up banks has never been stronger. Capitalism is a fucking rot. Capitalism is violence. How long will we endure this violence before we fight back?

Everyone could be provided for if we killed these rich parasites.

Just saying

Does anybody have any advice? We live in Oregon

AC — Elated so many folks' energies are empathetic during this time, but work smarter, not harder; calling reps does nothing. I don't care how many micro celebs try to tell you it does something; at most, it gives junior staff more work. Nonviolent critical masses or mass demonstrations that are not disruptive to the anti-Black capitalist war machine or aren't ~creative~ are glorified marches. Apologies to some people who just started publicly caring for the first time this year. Power to the nonviolent disruptive actions like the blockades or disabled folks handing out n95 masks at demonstrations to them helping Palestinians get phone access from home. Stop with the art sales or art raffles for Gaza. Palestinians are saying money is of no use now in Gaza, so stop fundraising for aid that can’t get to Palestinians. Aid cannot help Palestinians until the bombing and sieges end. Yes, to a ceasefire, but the only thing that will save Palestinians is an end to this occupation outright. Until then, sustained boycotting in the imperial core was an effective organizing method because all they cared about at the end of the day was money. Art folks hate that I can name most as neoliberals (at best) because almost none of them mask anymore, and they are only vocal when it doesn’t affect their clout (social capital) as much or they can gain power by incorporating the trending violence-of-the-month into their brands. Why do I have art folks blocking me in Nov 2023 because I said they will still get exhibitions for being vocal while other Black people & and a select few nonBlack people of color are losing their clout, their jobs, their housing, and opportunities, getting jailed, and killed for being vocal right now? Careerists have massive, fragile egos.

And that last part is a giveaway: "It's harder to think of any large political movement from the past decade that didn't have a hashtag." So, it is about branding because what has a hashtag done for a Black person who is no longer with us or in immediate need? I am not saying going viral hasn't materially affected Black people. Still, many hashtags are symbols or branding through social capital that, ultimately, don’t materially affect the most marginalized in need.

AC — I mean, for example, nonBlack people posting in support of "Black lives" did nothing material for most Black people globally; it accelerated negrophilia, and exploitative neoliberalism in the arts towards Black arts. Again, I'm not saying, "DON'T BE VOCAL," but remember when white people bought race theory books at the beginning of the pandemic, and bookstores were saying people didn't come to pick them up? It is the people risking their livelihoods that helped combat the online propaganda war machine funded by multiple world powers (who want to build a new canal) against Palestinians right now, not neoliberals who are virtue signaling while having numerous settler colonialists friends in their local scenes and cliques; The microcelebs who waited to get vocal until later in October want all the credit. Watching the ones with little to nothing who risk their jobs or lives to debunk lies produced by multiple, rich world powers in real-time is incredible. Watching careerists, microcelebs, and neoliberals derail and defang this movement online is infuriating and insulting.

AC — Yes, the revolution will not be televised and won't happen at one point in linear time, but you don't need "the masses" to enact systemic change (see also: The Minority Rights Revolution by John D. Skrentny). There are so many roles in combating systemic oppression, but some of the strategies are proven not to work. Educational memes that aren't afraid to name Palestinians and settler colonialism? Yes. Demonstrations that do not disrupt anything? No. Demonstrations that disrupt or are creative? Yes. Strikes with support systems so people on strikes can live so the strikes can sustain as long as needed? Yes. Saying "strike" without systems support for people not getting paid for while striking, for example? No. Personal expression for sale from any white artist right now while we deal with multiple genocides brought by settler colonialism and global anti-Blackness? No, but they are not ready for that one. Personal expression not sale by any person of any race during this time? Yes. Targeted pressure on old media that doesn't endanger more marginalized people? Yes. Direct action like blockades with n95 masks or better while fully covered as much as possible with support systems if things go badly? More theory? Yes, it is clear that many are still not doing the reading and, at the very least, watching all the informative documentaries and videos recommended online. Celebrity or microceleb endorsements? No, who cares? Stop fueling the violence of celebrity culture and stop liking, sharing, and supporting celebs and microcells who are too afraid to say they are not okay with the killing and displacing Palestinians for profit. Open letters? No, what does that materially do for Palestinians? Boycotts? Yes, only if you can, and they must last for as long as possible to materially affect the ones enacting violence. You can't peacefully march and "vote out" fascism and genocide. “We should be beyond the point of recycling hopes that any government that consistently shows its opposition to liberation will somehow come to its "senses". Their "senses" are exactly where they want them to be. There’s no hope in their reform or redemption.”

“If you’ve only recently learned about what’s been happening in DR. Congo, Sudan & other Subsaharan African countries because of the genocide happening in Palestine, please continue to speak out and amplify ALL our voices. All oppressions should be given equal care & attention.”

AC — Neoliberalism and virtue signaling also breed fascism.

“people been said americans don't have revolutionary potential and mfers wanted to argue. let's accept this as true and learn how to move beyond docility and fear.”

AC — Audre Lorde has said the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house because it does not matter your goals or intentions, how progressive or “Left-leaning” you think you are; the systems in place will inhibit you from doing whatever you want to achieve. At the same time, it will make you complicit and force you to adhere to its anti-Black and racist rules. There is strength in numbers, but a large majority in the arts are vocal in a “safe and comfortable way.” Most people in the imperial core waste their revolutionary potential trying to appeal to oppressors who do not care. What does a well-attended, maskless march do for people materially during a mass disabling event? Nothing at all, and this all looks like 2020-2021 all over again. Everything is slowly becoming flattened into slogans and neoliberal gestures.

“white people willfully forget that they invented antisemitism and they are the most antisemitic racial group out of all racial groups.”

AC — Cause I know folks will ask, "Then what can we do if you seem to have all the answers?" Well, for one, I do not know it all, and the baseline is this: if you go to an action in any way, you must wear an n95 mask or better and cover up as much as possible. It would be best to start wearing n95 masks, at least indoors again. If you lack discipline to the point that you can't even do that, then I believe you cannot move beyond the spectacle of protest, and you will fall deep into branding or defeatism. Some of the most critical actions not in Palestine during this time have been majority masked. I know some people do care, but if we cannot do things on a local level in the imperial core, like wear proper masks, we can't possibly materially support Palestinians in profound ways; it is all connected. You can also, I don't know, support Palestinians who live by you materially in some way. You can not give money, likes, shares, and support to the people, organizations, and institutions enacting and enabling that violent displacement of millions of Palestinians so multiple world powers can build another canal for-profit and expand their white settler colonial state. If the arts were even slightly progressive, there wouldn't be violent censorship like the denial of Palestinian artists to the Venice Biennial; there would also be a "ceasefire" with the stoppage of all art fairs and all gallery shows, and only museum shows already up stay on view, and for free, until some kind of resolution is made but none of that's happening. If the arts were even slightly progressive, they would ensure Palestinian artists, Haitian artists, Congolese artists, West Papua artists, Hawaiian artists, Ethiopian artists, indigenous artists, disabled artists, etc., get majority of shows and steady collectors right now. However, the shows right now remain majority white, and the art world is currently throwing usually very light, non-Black indigenous artists who live in the USA a bone to feel better about themselves. If the arts were even slightly progressive, they would investigate their role in gentrification, a form of settler colonialism. If the arts were even somewhat progressive, collectors, dealers, and art writers wouldn't be making whisper networks advising people not to materially support artists who show even the slightest support for Palestinian liberation and the stop of the constant bombardments of Palestinian people. Art people who aren't risking their livelihoods, jobs, housing, and clout need to stop taking up so much space to virtue signal for clout and they need to start liking, sharing, and materially supporting people like me who are risking our livelihoods by being vocal and who were risking our livelihoods before Oct 7th. So much more can be said, but if most art folks can't even handle this, there is no reason to believe most art folks will go beyond the spectacle of protest anytime soon.

Ancient Clay would like to remind everyone that if you are not poor in the imperial core and you stopped wearing an n95 mask or better, do not believe your political hot takes or posts. Art folks: less virtue signaling, more informed actions, please.

Ring-Wing Media Is Using Nashville Shooting to Broadcast Transphobia In the wake of a horrifying mass shooting at a Nashville school, Christian nationalists and right wing media pundits are capitalizing on people's grief to broadcast their violent, transphobic beliefs.Various members of the far-right media landscape, as well as numerous prominent social media posts, have claimed the shooting, which left six dead, was perpetrated by a trans woman who was damaged by hormone therapy, The Advocate reports. The obvious hoaxes are in part due to an announcement by Nashville police that the shooter, Audrey Hale, was trans, and early reports by right-wing outlets that Hale was a trans woman.Related | We Must 'Show Up In Force' Against Anti-Trans LegislationOne social media post, which has been reposted more than 1,000 times, claimed that "social media posts indicate Samantha was a trans woman," accompanied by a photoshopped picture of controversial "comedian" Sam Hyde, whose picture has been attributed to numerous mass shootings by internet trolls in recent years.Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, meanwhile, said that gender-affirming care was the cause of the shooter's "mental illness," and declared "everyone can stop blaming guns now." Unlike the misattributed photo, the tweet does not contain any clarification by Twitter's internal fact-checking system. At the time of publication, Rep. Greene's tweet has over 50,000 likes and 18,000 combined retweets and quote tweets. The congresswoman also claimed that trans people were working with Antifa to enact a "Trans Day of Vengeance," which is categorically untrue. "Does everyone understand that Antifa is an organized and funded terrorist group that brings violence and terror for every cause they take up?” she wrote on Twitter.As The Advocate reports, the hateful propaganda against trans people quickly spread to all corners of the right-wing ecosystem, with groups like "Gays Against Groomers" and pundits like Benny Johnson joining in on the circus. Their messages were in line with CPAC speaker and Daily Wire host Michael Knowles' message at an annual conference earlier this month, where he declared that "transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely – the whole preposterous ideology, at every level." Knowles has since gone on to deny he ever made such a claim, despite video evidence, and has demanded retractions from outlets like Rolling Stone over publishing his statements.The Covenant School shooting left six dead: three adults and three children. In the wake of the shooting, a mother (later identified as Ashbey Beasley) hijacked a Fox News broadcast outside the school to make a passionate, heartbreaking case for gun control: "Aren't you guys tired of covering this? Aren't you tired of being here to cover all of these mass shootings? I'm from Ohio Park, Illinois, my son and I survived a mass shooting over the summer." She added: "I am in Tennessee on a family vacation with my son, visiting my sister-in-law." “How is this still happening? How are our children still dying and why are we failing them?” Beasley pleaded. \u201c\u201cHow is this still happening? How are our children still dying and why are we failing them?\u201d\n\n\u2014 Ashbey Beasley, who says she survived the Highland Park mass shooting with her son last July 4th, makes a passionate case for gun control following The Covenant School mass shooting\u201d — The Recount (@The Recount) 1679939827 Photo via Getty/ Seth Herald https://www.papermag.com/nashville-shooting-transphobia-2659674638.html

On the Anniversary of January 6th, may we remember that these extremists &!their extreme movement are alive today. The disarray that was unleashed by the MAGA movement has not been distinguished. Today may we “NEVER FORGET”, and honor the US Capital Police & the Metropolitan Police of the District of Columbia for holding the Capital for hours without other law enforcement reinforcement. On January 6th they protected the property of the Capital building, Members of Congress and the peaceful transition of power (democracy). There is a strong message that all must send as citizens to demand that politicians condemn political violence & extremists. The majority of American people far out number those that have no moral compass or understanding of history. Abraham Lincoln said, “In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes, or pronounces judicial decisions”. It is staggering that on the anniversary of January 6th, two years later, the House is in deadlock for the 4th day to elect a Speaker of the House by the Republican Party. This is chaos, weak, embarrassing, & irresponsible. I am hopeful that this ugly display of power hungry politicians is finally crumbling. understanding that this has become finally that this is not serving the people or democracy. Never Forget. 🇺🇸🤍 https://www.instagram.com/p/CnEzlTYOtv3/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Guns, Desperate Migrants, and Dangerous Drugs

Even as Republican members of Congress accuse Joe Biden of failing to secure the nation’s southern border, Mexico is facing a growing problem of securing its northern border. Guns from America are pouring into Mexico, arming violent drug gangs.

Mexico has tried just about everything to stop the flow of firearms from the north – passing strict gun control laws, imposing stiff penalties on traffickers, and pleading with U.S. authorities to stop the trafficking – but nothing has worked. So now it’s doing what any litigious American would do: it’s suing.

Mexico announced Wednesday it’s seeking at least $10 billion in compensation from America’s 11 major gun manufacturers for the havoc the guns have wrought south of the border. It alleges America’s gunmakers know their products are being trafficked to Mexico and are expressly marketing their weapons to Mexican criminal gangs – designing guns to be “easily modified to fire automatically” and be “readily transferable on the criminal market in Mexico.”

The deluge of firearms from the United States to Mexico – on average, more than 500 every day – is contributing to mayhem there. Killings have become a routine part of the Mexican drug trade. In Mexico’s recent midterm election campaign, 30 candidates were gunned down by criminal gangs. In 2019 alone, at least 17,000 homicides in Mexico were linked to trafficked weapons.

Yet Mexico’s lawsuit is likely to face tough going in the United States, where the easy accessibility of guns is also wreaking havoc but where gun ownership is considered a constitutional right and gun purchases are skyrocketing.

In addition, American gunmakers have erected a fortress of legal protections. In 2005, the gun lobby got congressional Republicans to enact the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Firearms Act, banning most lawsuits brought against gun manufacturers for marketing and distributing their products.

At a more basic level, American capitalism considers any market to be an opportunity to make a profit. After all, a buck is a buck (or, more precisely, 19.98 pesos, at today’s exchange rate). In America, buying and selling are hallmarks of freedom. For government to prohibit a sale is to intrude on the “free market.” For another government to bar its consumers from buying American goods is to violate “free trade.”

Alejandro Celorio, a legal advisor to Mexico’s foreign ministry, estimates the damage to the Mexican economy caused by trafficked guns to total 1.7% to 2% of Mexico’s gross domestic product. What’s left unsaid is that Mexico’s illicit drug business is also a boon to the Mexican economy, adding billions of dollars each year in foreign sales, mostly to American consumers eager to buy thousands of kilos of methamphetamines, heroin, cocaine and fentanyl each year.

Freedom of contract, it’s called. We sell them guns that kill them; they sell us drugs that kill us.

But this isn’t trade in goods. It’s trade in bads. There’s death on both sides.

The merchants of such death – American gunmakers like Glock, Smith & Wesson, Beretta USA, Barrett, Century International Arms and Colt; Mexican producers of methamphetamines, heroin, and fentanyl; and the wholesalers and traffickers connecting buyers with sellers on both sides of the border – are making piles of money. Free market ideologues will argue that as long as everyone is getting what they want, these trades are efficient. Yet vast numbers of people are dying.

The Republicans who protect gun manufacturers and who are criticizing Joe Biden for failing to secure the southern border from migrants who are desperate to come to America should take note of this tragic irony.

The flood of guns from America into Mexico is helping fuel much of the crime, violence, and corruption pushing thousands of Mexicans to seek a better life north of the border.

It’s also enabling the flow of dangerous drugs from Mexico to America that are killing hundreds of thousands of Americans, many in states and congressional districts represented by those same Republicans.

Guns, dangerous drugs, and desperate migrants are inextricably connected. The answer to solving one of these problems lies in responding to all three.

Soil is the stuff of life, and it is made up of our residues -- it transforms them into humus, and our connection to that fragile layer of the planet on which human life depends is acknowledged in the fact that our species name, human, is derived from humus. [...]

The Earth is wretched because its soil -- that thin layer of earth at the surface of the planet upon which we depend for life -- is contaminated, eroded, drained, burnt, exploded [...]. As Jennifer Wenzel and other scholars of postcolonial environmental humanities have pointed out, [...] Fanon’s work is crucial for recognising that, as he states [...]: ‘European opulence ... has been nourished with the blood of slaves and it comes directly from the soil and from the subsoil of that under-developed world.’ [...] [T]o do full justice to Fanon’s diagnosis of ‘the wretched of the earth’, we must understand more deeply the extent to which [...] this condition has been the destruction of ‘ecological’ relations with the earth. [...] [There is] the need to [...] think about the multiple human and nonhuman cohabitations that constitute the soil and, more broadly, our more-than-human commons. [...]

Colonialism, from the Roman Empire onwards, has been inextricably bound with practices of cultivation, both culturally and agri-culturally. Colonialism has always entailed the cultivation of lands as well as that of bodies and minds, through the imposition of a dominant (colonial, neo-colonial, modernist and now neoliberal) form of culture -- one that was, and continues to be, deemed to be superior, more rational and enlightened [...], and that is opposed to the ‘nature’ it seeks to construct and harness. As such, to use the words of [...] Pablo Mukherjee, ‘colonialisms and imperialisms, old and new’ must be understood ‘as a state of permanent war on the global environment’ -- including on the soil, both as a planetary entity and, in the words of Maria Puig de la Bellacasa, as the ‘infrastructure of life’. Colonialism, thus, must be understood as an ‘offence against the earth’ -- be this in its historical form or the contemporary realities of settler-colonialism, neo-colonial extractive capitalism (ie, corporate colonialism) and practices of so-called development [...]. In the present day, the expansion of intensive agriculture and extractive industries, not to mention the continued remodelling of environments in the name of development [...], continues the violation of the earth space.

As Kristina Lyons suggests, the Earth’s soil has been ‘host to all terrestrial experiments and tragedies’, and as such is not only the sustainer of life, but both ‘grave’ and ‘trash dump’,

Yet more than simply an offence against the earth, the conflicts [...] are often enacted through the earth or natural environment. Landscapes and vegetation are not simply the backdrop against which violence and dispossession unfold, but are mobilised as the very medium of violence, whether this be through [...] scorched-earth tactics, or through the role of planting and environmental remodelling [...] in land grabbing and dispossession. As such, in order to fully grasp the violence of colonialism upon its subjects -- those who have historically been deemed ‘less-than-human’ or ‘not-quite-human’ and denied access to ‘human rights’ -- it is necessary to also address the violence carried out upon the landscape and environment [...].

Puig de la Bellacasa argues that we need a shift in perspective that makes the soil visible in all its liveliness, peopled by all kinds of beings -- earthworms, fungi, nematodes and microbes -- that sustain its health. She points out that making the ‘invisible workers of the soil’ visible is not a neutral affair:

‘Words matter: thinking of worms as managers reproduces the hierarchies of capitalist productionist culture.’ Understanding earth as a living organic web of being that involves many creatures including humans involves a breaking [...] through changes in practices as well as a shift away from the language of management and services in relation to the soil. From this perspective soil is a ‘planetary word’. This ‘planetarity’ is not based on the abstractions of Western universalism and the [...] territorialisations of corporate capitalism, but rather on a sense of inter-dependence and connectedness that insists upon the radical alterity of [...] marginalised worlds-in-the-making.

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Ros Gray and Shela Sheikh. “Introduction” to The Wretched Earth: Botanical Conflicts and Artistic Interventions. Third Text. 2018.