#everything is political | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

miniar · 7 months

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"No politics." and "No religion." rules are Massive Red Flags.

These rules are common in a lot of places that are intended for discussing specific things like your personal disability and relationship to it, or your personal queerness and your relationship to it, or your hobby, be it trains or cross-stitching, and more often than not, this rule creates an unsafe environment for marginalized peoples.

These rules are especially common on US based forums and chat servers, but they're found all over the world.

The problem with these rules should be obvious, but in case you've missed it; Everything is Politics.

Everything in your life is affected by how your country and the world around you are governed. From the price of your tap water to whether or not your postal service works. From whether something is purchasable locally to if it can even be imported or not. From whether you've got a safe place to live to whether or not you can legally drive your car.

Every single moment of every single day of your life is affected by the rules and regulations that exist around you. The fact that you can read this right now is because I live somewhere where my access to the internet and freedom of speech allow me to write this, and where you either have access and freedom to read, or you've found a workaround that lets you get away with accessing and reading what your government has forbidden.

EVERYTHING! Every Damned Thing is affected directly and indirectly at all times by politics.

And everything you do and say anywhere outside of your own personal bubble where not a single soul can hear you is both political and shaped by your politics.

It can be so minuscule and so mundane and normal that it's effectively irrelevant, but every last one of you has some idea, vague as it may be, of what kind of world you long to live in. And not only that, every last one of you, even if that too may seem vague and mundane, is shaped to some degree by the world you Do live in.

Religion, for better or worse (mostly the latter in most cases), is intricately interwoven into the world in much the same way. Even heathens like me are prone to exclaim "Jesus Christ!" or "God Damn It!" when the occasion calls for shouting expletives and throwing your hands up in frustration.

Much of western European and US culture is so steeped in cultural christianity that people treat the idea of going to church for a concert as an entirely secular and non-religious thing, even when that concert is a team of church choirs singing songs from Jesus Christ Superstar to mention a real life example.

So when these rules are set and implemented, they don't actually mean what they say on the packaging, and they're consistently enforced in a way that is based in conflict avoidance first and foremost.

And here's the thing that happens, and while exceptions may exist I have never seen one: - Someone makes a post or writes a comment or shares an image that contains dogwhistles or other forms of fascist propaganda, without using the words that people associate with specific political parties. - Someone else, often times the very target of the fascism in question or at the least a semi-aware ally, responds by calling out the problem with the post or comment or image, calling it out by name. - The rule of no-politics is invoked and the person responding is scolded for either making it political, or failing to keep their criticism of the politics a private matter with either the fascist or the mods.

That's the sequence of events I've watched unfold, and been a part of, too many times to count, and the results are a testing ground for dogwhistles where a fascist feels welcome and protected.

Their politics are never challenged because you're not allowed to talk politics.

They get to feed you tropes and dogwhistles all day long, as long as they don't say the quiet part out loud, and if anyone challenges them, the mods and rules are used in their favor.

Any environment that tells me "No Politics!" and/or "No Religion!" is an environment that tells me that this is a place where I'm forbidden from speaking up for myself when the fascist start implying, polite as can be, that perhaps the world would be better of if people like me were simply not allowed to exist.

Or at the absolutely very least, it tells me this is a place run by people who have forgotten that they live in a world and that pretending otherwise won't make that a political fact.

#no politics #no religion #red flags #fascism #everything is political

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onlytiktoks · 1 month

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#tiktok #time zones #time zone problems #politics #everything is political

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licorice-lips · 23 days

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This might be a controversial take, but I feel so bothered when I see some American reddit posts about children and weddings or even everyday life (and everyone can say it's American even if op doesn't say it bc the problems wouldn't happen anywhere but USA).

I'm not saying that I'm brothered because of those people life choices, that's not it. It's just that, as a Brazilian, I can sense the hyper-individuality at the center of the issue they are exposing and it's so gritting.

Like for example, when people complain about children behaving like the very children they are (crying, having meltdowns or just playing around really) in a restaurant, a plane, or a mall or something like that. It's so clear to me that those people just don't know how to deal with the very existence of children, some even throw so much hate on those children and I feel completely horrified.

Like, it's not even a consensus for them that children are part of society and, as such, they have a right to occupy public spaces!

And even the users who "understand", they comment "children are/can be annoying, but...", just baffles me because at least for me as a Brazilian, this was never even an issue! It was never discussed, or pointed out. I grew up going to restaurants, malls and other places with my parents and all the children there would be doing their own things and absolutely no one would bat an eye!

Even when I grew up, children making noises were just a background noise because it was never pointed out to me as an issue. Absolutely no one I know bats an eye when children are near making anything that isn't dangerous or inadequate.

And more than than that, I see a lot of people making such a fuss about "taking care" of "other's" children. For example, when I'm out and I see a child walking by themselves somewhere, it's just an instinct for me to look out for them until they reach their parent or somewhere safe, or if I'm looking out for my brother in a playground or something like that and another child gets hurt, in a fight or something, my first instinct is to help. I don't even think about it and most of the people I know wouldn't either.

But for some reason, for Americans (ofc, this is a generalization) something as simple as this seems to be the end of the world.

And mixing that with childfree weddings, it's just so confusing to me. Ofc, I won't judge people for making childfree weddings, it's their weddings and none of my business, they can make whatever choice they want. It's just that I don't understand their reasoning outside costs?

I mean, children are loud, and they can make fusses and all of that but still, I've been to so many weddings in my life with tons of children from almost every guest and I've never seen those children causing even one issue the entirety of those ceremonies.

(But I don't completely fault those people either, considering that the very infraestructure of their country is not fit for children, per my cousin's experience. In Brazil, for example, we have spaces destinated for children almost everywhere —playgrounds, toy rooms, changing rooms, and so on—, including malls, restaurants, wedding venues, my parents liked to go to a construction store that had a play area for kids even, and I know that's not so common in the US, at least not in my families' areas)

About weddings and day to day: I see a lot of it in AITA foruns, which, I understand, is not the norm, but still, there are somethings there that just makes me so genuinely confused.

For example, the whole concept of "outshining the bride" is so alien to me because to me people could go to weddings wearing chandeliers on their heads and it still wouldn't matter because the bride and groom are already the reason we're there to begin with??? HOW exactly do you outshine the REASON of the party?? Everyone is there for them, the whole ceremony and reception happens around them, what do you even mean with outshine?

And that is not to say I don't think there are things that are disrespectful to do at a wedding, I just don't see how one person can ruin the whole day because they caused an inconvenience? And going on that stream, why is it that that one minor thing can ruin your entire wedding day?

And don't get me wrong, there are things that can ruin a wedding but the point is that just expecting 100-200 or even just 50 guests to make everything about your happiness is not just irresponsible, it's delusional. And it's not that I'm implying that people will get out of their way to make your wedding day difficult, all I'm saying is that expecting everyone to comply with your own expectations is unreal because not all of them are even in tune with what you're expecting, people have different backgrounds and ways of thinking and something that is wrong for one person can not be for another. It's not their fault, it will most likely be unintentional —unless they're those crazy Karens or Chads I can't even believe exist.

And, if you indeed go to therapy, you'd know that your expectations are your responsibility because they will inevitably be frustrated one way or another. Other people are not and should not be expected to cater for your expectations, even in days that are special to you.

And even more than that: why is it that they seem to want perfection for their wedding day when it's exactly the imperfections that would make it so special? I once saw a video of a little boy interrupting a wedding ceremony to ask the bride if she was getting married in such a scandalized tone it couldn't be more funny. And there were so many comments of people saying that something like that would ruin their day, and this is so confusing to me.

Again, I don't have an issue that people feel like that, they are allowed to feel whatever they like (although I still draw the line in blaming other people for your expectations), but it still doesn't make sense to me. As a person who has a huge family and grew up listening as the older members of my family remembered their past experiences, if something like that happened at my wedding, it would've been the highlight of the whole ceremony because 10, 20, 30 years from now, I can assure no one will remember "perfect" wedding ceremonies, not even the bride and groom themselves. But something like that? That is something worth remembering.

That is something that people (guests and hosts alike) will find joy in even decades from now, and children will love to listen to.

So yeah, I won't judge, but I definitely don't get wanting your wedding to be so perfect that in the end it'll be just a generic memory.

Oh, and about the day to day basis, I feel so weirded out when I see Americans finding problems in the whole concept of doing favours for their friends, like... ??? That became viral on TikTok this week btw.

At the same time, it's so clear to me that the center of all those problems comes from the extreme individuality that permeates American and other Global North societies — but specially the US.

I feel the center of the issues is that this extreme individuality got mixed with the rising mental health discussions, and it became so toxic. It's like anything that is slightly taxing or costly to do is somehow a threat to our "mental health", like anything that takes from our comfort is immediately wrong, like any minor inconvenience is to be avoided when mental health is not about avoiding pain, it's about dealing with it exactly because things like pain, discomfort, annoyances are inevitable. Mental health is about dealing with them the best way we can and focus on how we can do the best of those situations, or at least keep walking despite of them.

We will be put into uncomfortable positions, we will be in annoying situation or having bothering companies because we live in a society and because we need close relationships and those won't ever be emotionally healthy all the time and in every situation, doesn't matter how hard we try or what our own values are. And I think this kind of thing gets mixed up with real abuse or neglect in the minds of individualistic people — as in "it's always the other's fault I'm inconvenienced", or "I'm right because my values and way of life are the healthy ones", or "everything that bothers or inconveniences me is an attack against me and my mental health".

What I am saying is that being inconvenienced by someone or a situation is not a threat to our emotional health, it's just life.

So what I'm trying to say is that I see so much Americans acting like any bothering little thing is somehow the end of the world for them, and more than that, like other people have the responsibility of catering for their comfort.

And it always reminds of my grandma. My nana spends half of her life serving others: she goes out of her way to help her friends and family, she always does things that can be considered inconvenient for her with a smile on her face. For example, once she was expecting a construction worker to take a look on her house's roof but she still left it all to go get me at the bus station because I needed a lift. I could've called for an Uber, but she insisted on doing that for me.

And my grandma is the one person I know that finds her life to be completely fulfilling. She's so happy in doing these little things for her family, nothing that is so bothersome for us seems to faze her. I remember her taking care of me when my parents where working and it didn't matter how much of a mess I made, she was always gushing over me like I was the second coming of Christ (she still does that, btw).

And it's not like my gradma doesn't have her own things. In the midst of all of that, she finds time to do her dyi projects, to go to her Bible group and make get togethers with her friends. She goes to church and watches her favorite tv shows, and she is so generally happy. Of course, she has her own struggles, such as anxiety, but she herself always comments to me that she finds her life to be as fulfilling as it could possibly be.

So it's ironic to me that individualistic people seem to be so unhappy despite preaching about mental health and not inconvenience themselves with little favours they consider it would take from them — either time, money, both, or something else — and my grandma, who actually lives her life by very Christian principles of serving others, is so happy with herself.

Personally, I also find myself happier and overall with a higher quality of life when I'm helping my friends and family. I feel better with myself when I:

• do things for others

• don't expect anything from my experiences but company, affection and love from the people I want near

• prioritize community instead of me individually

And I genuinely believe that that's something we as human beings are wired to do. We thrive best — both as individuals and a community — when we prioritize building community over our own individual comfort. And notice that I say comfort and not mental health — if it really costs you your mental health, it's because you shouldn't be doing in the first place.

So Idk, I just feel so confused and/or emotionally exhausted when I hear some very American reddit stories. It's not that they're wrong or TA per se, it's just that I don't know why this is an issue in the first place yk?

Ps.: please be kind and know that that is a generalization, I don't believe all Americans to be like that, it's just that their extreme liberal economic position instigates the individualistic behaviour (New World Order, by Daddot and Laval) and they're the best example I can give.

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sabinastanart · 2 months

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I went to the Buddhist temple on Mont-Pèlerin, in Swiss, for the second time, thinking I would spend an hour on meditation like last time. It is really quite inside and despite the amount of details and colours, it is a place that makes me feel peaceful.

Except that the day I went there were events I didn't know about because I didn't check to see if anything was going on. There was a conference in the morning, where a monk spoke in Chinese, I think, about achieving wholesomeness and teh importance of not doing anything unwholesome. What he said was translated in English in real time, but either the translation wasn't very good, or the teachings were a bit outdated or in anycase without relation to the world outside the temple. The monk gave an example about how regret can save you from having your bad deeds "ripen" saying if you do something illegal and get caught and show regret you may not be punished. I mean... Uh... Shouldn't you show regret by accepting your punishment for doing something wrong?... And should you show regret only of you get caught?

Anyway... After the conference and after all the monks and nuns and students went to eat, I stayed in the temple to paint. Some monks came back to prepare a table with food to share after the prayer at 2 pm. While they were preparing the table one of them started to talking to me and when he found out I'm Romanian, he started saying a lot of things that were ignorant, stereotyped and downright racist towards Romani people. He did seem to be aware of stuff when he spoke about the Holocaust, so he isn't as ignorant as he seems, but it also seems that he uses information to further his hate of people, specifically in the case of the Holocaust, of Jews. And than he started saying homofobic stuff, and kept saying "Sorry, it's just my opinion" and went on to say women should make babies and lesbians do not, so that is wrong. Some of the other monks were trying to get him to stop talking, but he kept saying "sorry, it's just my opinion".

I am disappointed to find there are people like this practicing Buddhism. He wasn't even a student, but a monk. However, after searching more on the subject and discovering about the genocide conducted by Buddhists against the Rohingya population in Myanmar, I guess another illusion is gone. Which is nice, because the monk who held the conference in the morning said that we should let go of out delusions. 💁‍♀️

I get it that Buddhists have been persecuted for centuries in India, but that is not excuse for this kind of violence against other people. It's the same narrative the Israelis have...

#buddhism #buddhist temple #history #everything is political #painting #monks #racism #homophobia #genocide #swiss #travel

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fungi-funguy · 6 months

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Caring For The Elderly

Reading an article by Vox about the crisis regarding care for older adults, and while I knew a lot of this, there's information I think more people should know.

(Article: "Baby boomers are aging. Their kids aren’t ready.")

A lot of Millennials, Gen X, and Gen Z are having to care for their parents. Our country isn't set up in the same way that it was when the Baby Boomers were born, and it's affecting their care as well as the entire family structure.

"By 2030, the US will for the first time have more residents over 65 than children. Someone turning 65 today has a 70 percent chance of needing long-term care at some point, and 20 percent will need it for more than five years."

"Medicare doesn’t cover most long-term care, and seniors only become eligible for care through Medicaid when they have almost no assets left. [...] the median annual cost of a full-time home health aide was nearly $60,000 in 2021, while a semi-private room in a nursing home ran $94,000 per year or more."

"To remedy the financial, mental, and physical health crisis facing boomers and their children, experts say improved paid leave is crucial. Caregivers can take unpaid time off under the Family Medical Leave Act, but without a salary, many can’t afford to."

The article also talks about the substantial gaps in Medicaid coverage, especially in regards to long-term care.

There are a lot of stories shared from the perspective of caregivers who are completely at a loss due to how little help the world offers. Mental and emotional strains due to working full-time jobs, combined with caring for one or more elderly parent, is increasing the stress levels in the younger populations. It's leading to higher rates of depression, anxiety, and heart disease.

If you're caring for an older family member, please remember that there is support out there in your community. If you aren't, please fight for better care for the elderly in these situations.

If you know someone who is a caregiver, please offer them whatever support you can.

And also, please remember to treat the elderly as the people they are. They're humans too, and they aren't some sort of monolith of pure evil rhetoric or something. They're people. And the forgetting of that information is half of why we have this crisis today.

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triptychgrip · 4 months

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I'm part of a Reddit community (r/CPTSD) that is a forum for folks with and/or adjacent to Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to openly discuss and share their personal experiences or general observations around the topic, and offer support and solidarity to one another. Over the last two months, I've noted a very disturbing trend in this sub that I had to call out.

Ever since the 2023 Palestinian genocide has been underway (and yes it IS a genocide, I'm not interested in debating that), ppl in this Reddit community have been (very understandably) posting about how they are horrified around the inarguable CPTSD that many Palestinian children have been developing/will likely have to shoulder as a result of the near-constant strife/warfare from the very moment they've been alive. I myself posted something like this fairly early on after hearing of the Israeli government's initial aggressions.

Inevitably, EVERY SINGLE TIME that someone makes a post like this in that community, others will respond with something to the effect of "why can't we avoid politics in this sub?" or "I don't see how this is related to CPTSD, can the mods do something about posts like this?" and I just...

aljfkadjsfkasjdfjkdsj!!!!!

Honestly, it's enraging. Like it or not, EVERYTHING is political, because politics/public policy decisions (whether on a local scale, global scale, or somewhere in between) govern most parts of our lives.

I don't understand the cognitive dissonance at all. How can one who is part of a community that is dedicated to supporting/educating around the lifelong impacts of CPTSD reject people for wanting to seek solace/solidarity around the fact that these children will have to suffer their entire lives because of the Israeli government's actions (not just, of course, over the last few months, but over the last several decades)?

The fact that Palestinian children do experience/will continue to experience abnormal development of their neural pathways/brain chemistry due to prolonged and acute trauma is inarguable.

So, when I see ppl in this subreddit saying things like this, to me it reads: "Oh, I'm fine with people posting about CPTSD as long as that post doesn't make me, personally feel uncomfortable, or remind me, personally of the large-scale atrocity currently going on".

Palestinian children don't get to opt out of developing CPTSD, so I don't see why ppl in that community should get to opt out of seeing posts that are meant to (as the sub intends) bring awareness/educate/offer comfort and support to others.

As an aside, this Reddit community in general has a definite problem when it comes to matters of social justice and, particularly, racial justice. As a queer, disabled, woman of color, I've long since realized that it's not a truly safe space, and have started to be more active, instead, in the r/cptsd_bipoc Reddit community instead. I've never once seen similar pleas for "apolitical posts only!" in that community, thankfully.

#cptsd #internet discourse #Reddit discourse #free gaza #palestinian liberation #this is genocide #everything is political

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mulaplateada · 2 years

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serious talk tho I feel like we can't get actual butch representation on mainstream media without white washing the political slash working class aspect of it plus oversimplifying the butch (gender) identity as "super tomboy lesbians" or just another "alt style"

#everything is political #here i am to be annoying again #me and my complicated relationship with the concept of media representation #like i mean #how many layers of stone butch blues are you on

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teaboot · 7 months

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You know the last decade or so has been pretty shit but it is nice to make it to 2023 and see NFTs crash, Trump get taken to court, Musk fuck himself eight different ways, AirBnB eat shit, every major industry start unionizing and striking, and billionairs no longer able to squeeze blood from a stone finally begin cannibalizing each other for nutrients

#It's like a little treat for literally everything else #Politics cw #We just need to kneecap landlords to finish it off with a bang

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troythecatfish · 1 month

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#bioshock #bioshok infinite #video game #video games #gaming #video game posting #gaming post #political #political posting #politics #everything is political #social justice #gaming thoughts #gaming tag #youtube #youtube community #youtube comments #comments #comments section

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atlxolotl · 2 months

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The Night Doctor (Médecin de nuit), 2020

dir. Elie Wajeman

#The night doctor #Médecin de nuit #Elie Wajeman #political #everything is political #life is political #junkies #addicts #french film #french cinema #french films #film #films #the personal is political

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itsbasil · 20 days

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this literally never stops being funny like dog they made starship troopers with the Baby's First Satire cranked up to 11 and these people are still fucking dumbfounded that the creators don't share their politics

#idk if anyone who follows me plays helldivers 2 but trust me #when it comes to “political commentary in video games”#helldivers 2 does everything short of putting “YOU ARE FIGHTING FOR THE BAD GUYS” in every loading sequence #helldivers #helldivers 2

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sunshineandlyrics · 6 months

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The most adorable duet (27 October 2023) x

#a beautiful duet #what a sweet talented and polite little girl #everything about her is cute from her voice and accent to her face #both are talented #his tiktok is full of cool piano performances #River flows in you #duet #violin #piano #mine

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licorice-lips · 2 months

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So today I watched Nilce and Leon's cut video from one of their lives and they were talking about AI and its avance from the last year to 2024. Spoiler alert: it's scary. It's still not good enough to fool most people, but it's getting there, and faster than we thought.

But the point was: they were commenting about the absolute need for digital education for our society and how we need it desperately in the face of AI advances because otherwise, we would never be able to disentangle the reality from the lies AI have the power to create.

Then I remembered about 1984, by George Orwell, and Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, and then Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, and I was thinking about how right they all were in their predictions of a futuristic society.

So, for those how don't know those books, I'll quickly explain:

1984, by Orwell, is a distopia in wich people are watched every minute of every hour of every day by who they call the "Big Brother" (the origin of the reality show's name, yes, it's that creepy). Anyway, in the new society of 1984, Orwell reveals a deep fear that the truth would be hidden from was, our History and the world news kept from us by an authoritarian regime that would know everything everyone was doing at all times every minute of every day.

Brave New World, by Huxley, is a distopia in wich people are so overwhelmed with both useful and useless information all the time, when wouldn't be able to CARE about the truth. In this book, Huxley denounces a deep fear that our humanity would be suffocated by a tsunami-worth of information (oh, look at this new Iphone, nevermind it's created by slave work of people in Congo; look at this constant stream of repeated, poorly made movies, books, songs, etcetera), he feared that we'd be so distracted by everything, we wouldn't be able to see the shackles around our wrists.

In Fahrenheit 451, by Bradbury, on the other hand, we have a society in wich every published work became digital, so why would we need the published version of it anyway? Except that's the catch: everything in digital mode has been slightly modified to spread a series of small lies that changed society so deep, people were unaware of their own unhappiness. In the first chapter, for example, the MC's wife tries to commit suicide and then denies it ever happened once she wakes up —and we discover as she is saved that this is not uncommon thing to happen, to the point there's a squad of medical aid for that alone.

My point is, all those authors saw in the middle of the 20th century what our society would become, at least some aspects of it.

I think from the three of them, Huxley was the most obvious one: we are so constantly bombed with information by our social media it's hard to catch up. Just today I saw a woman on TikTok talking about all the things she was supposed to do as the internet says (eat healthy, go to work, earn enough to pay for rent and food and bills and so on, exercise regularly, keep up with political issues, fight for them, having at least 8 hours sleep on the right time, and so on) and I mean, it's incredible if we manage to do half of it (my Elizabeth Bennet moment here lol).

Now, we are constantly bombarded with information, both useless and useful, all the time. We cannot escape it: we wake up and look at our phones full of notification of several apps; we go to work and pass through several outdoors and commercials of every kind; we go to social media, there's merchandise everywhere, influencers posting that you HAVE to have this purse/make up/jewelry, have this of that life style, if you want to earn N money, and on it goes.

And it's such a powerful pull, we became to WANT to be the ones doing what they're doing and we expose our lives on social media like it's candy, completely ignorant, or choosing to ignore, the dangers of it and how exposed we are. As Orwell said, we are watched, every minute of every day. Just not by one single regime. We are policed through ourselves in a game of "find a motive to cancel N celebrity/influencer" and we forget that the things we are policing are rooted on a very specific system and while this system exists, there will always be people that will need to be canceled.

Because they are not the problem, they are the symptoms of a larger problem.

Anyway, I digress.

Finally, when we talk about Fahrenheit 451, that's when the AI technology enters the conversation by a full. In a capitalistic society, I doubt that people would just give up an entire market (publishing industry) to spread a new social order, however, with AI, they don't have to.

Let's be honest, how many of us use the internet and social media to find information? Do we go through scientific data and/or published content such as books when we want to know something or do we go to TikTok, Twitter or Google?

They don't need to bane and burn books to make us ignore that truth in the digital world is relative, they don't need to force us to do anything because we'll do it willingly if we allow ourselves to be distracted by the constant distractions and dispersement of what's really important: liberation.

Liberation for us all.

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