Minority cops are still cops

I’m a firm believer in the passive and small acts of activism.

You’re actively fighting capitalism by resting and taking a break. You’re actively fighting homophobia by wearing a rainbow pin to signify to others your allyship. You’re actively fighting climate change by air drying your hands after washing them. You’re actively fighting childism by letting a minor talk to you about how they’re doing. You’re actively fighting oppressive systems by simply existing.

There have always been others like you, and there always will be others like you. Your existence is rebellion. As long as you’re alive, conservatives and bigots have lost.

You’re a rebel. You’re a warrior. You’re a fighter. And you don’t even know it.

Defund billionaires

Defund corporations

Defund the military/police

Defund the Vatican

...

Oh wow. Look at that.

Now let's just get rid of all the nazis and fascists in positions of power.

I wonder how.

Hmm.

How would we do this. Not just voting. Not just protesting. But.. maybe ALL the means we have available?

(Looks at rich people)(looks at people with more spoons than I have ever had)(looks at people who have had more love and support than I have/will ever have)

Hmm. Maybe NOT relying on your most disenfranchised, disillusioned, and disabled to do the heavy lifting would get this done faster. Unfortunately (normies?) Don't know how to treat brown, weird, queer, and crippled folks like humans a lot of the times..

So we are very much here. Despite having -negative life-force at this point.

Remainder to all class/privilege-conscious folks out there! Do whatever you can for marginalized people in your profession, especially in the prestigious fields! If they survived that far, with that much obstacles against them, you know they should get a chance for a successful career. To combat discrimination, help people around you who deserve to succeed. Nominate them for grants and awards. Buy their book, for yourself or a friend or to donate to your library. Update their Wikipedia page. Share your knowledge. Take on interns and trainees. If they're talented, recommend them to others. Focus on their positive traits when describing to others in the workforce- trust me, everyone heard about the negative ones already.

Racists, mysoginists, classists, ableists, terfs etc. will spent hours trying to make marginalized communities fail- so we need to band together and not only refuse to behave horribly, we have to actively help the ones who are having it harder for no reason!

It's especially important to support low-income people.

Wealth is not just money, it's connections. It's having your voice listened to. It's being recognised for your hard work. It's being given second chances, over and over. It's acknowledging and appreciating your talent.

The world is not fair. Some people are gonna have lots of support and all the advantages in the world. But it doesn't mean we can't even try to even the race and provide some of it to others.

If you want to see more POC/women/disabled people/first generation/Indigenous people/religious minority people in senior positions, actively work toward it. You know lots of people are already working against them. It's really needed.

If you're disabled in any capacity, I want you to make your disability your personality x10 more.

Make abled people uncomfortable!

Talk about your support needs.

Talk about your mobility aids.

Talk about your sensory needs.

Talk about your medical equipment.

Talk about inaccessibility.

Talk about the stupid price of medicine.

Talk about your caregivers.

Talk about your stims/fidgets.

Talk about your triggers.

Talk about it all!

Sterile Pride Flag

Sterility: the physiological inability to effect sexual reproduction in a living thing, members of whose kind have been produced sexually; physical incapability of ever having a child without medical intervention.

Not the same as being infertile/infertility.

I really dont understand why terfs and other transphobes think we just wake up one day and think “hmm lemme change my gender real quick” like what the fuck? do they really believe that we CHOOSE to go through the pain of constantly doubting your whole existence while belonging to a minority whose members are STILL, to THIS DAY in LITERAL DANGER OF BEING ABUSED AND KILLED?!! they fear us because were different to them, so they take away our rights and make sure WE are in constant fear of BEING FUCKING MURDERED. too many trans people have died because of the hate of those who couldnt let us live our lives in peace. it FUCKING HURTS. we are normal people, but you, you have blood on your hands. 

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).” ― Mark Twain

original auntieblues

All our support to Dani Gallardo, Spanish young man sentenced to prison for his solidarity with Catalonia

Dani Gallardo was 22 years old when took part in a demonstration held in Madrid (Spain's capital city) in solidarity with Catalonia, right after the Spanish Supreme Court sentenced a group of Catalan civil society leaders to prison for their involvement in the Catalan independence movement. The demonstration also stood against the brutality of Spanish police against Catalan people and in solidarity with Catalonia's right to self-determination. It was the first time that a demonstration like this was held in Spain (outside of the occupied nations like the Catalan Countries, the Basque Country and Galicia), and the protestors were met with police violence as well. (At the same time, on the other side of the square, there was a counter-protest organised by a fascist group who opposed the solidarity protest and rallied in favour of the indivisibility of Spain. That one was not attacked by the police.)

Dani Gallardo tried to help his friend Elsa, a young woman who was being violently reduced by 5 anti-riot policemen at once. Then, the policemen beat him up and arrested him and Elsa. In total, 4 protestors were arrested that evening. That protest happened on October 2019, and since then Dani's life has changed completely.

All the detainees were insulted and threatened with violence by the police, and Elsa (being a woman) was constantly sexually harassed and insulted with misogynistic insults and very vulgar sexually explicit comments that I will not replicate here. Dani kept shouting to defend her, so they beat him with a stick with nails on the head. He says that Elsa was the one who got beaten up to a worst condition, but in the end Dani was the only one who wasn't freed.

Dani spent more than a year in pre-trial jail, while waiting to be judged by the Madrid Provincial Court. Then, he was freed on probation but, later, he was sentenced to 4 and a half years of prison for "basic public disturbance" and "attack against authority", because a policeman says Dani hit him. He appealed this decision but now (June 1st 2023) the court has confirmed the sentence, and Dani will have to go to prison.

The trial was a joke. The policemen declared things that contradict what happened, or pretended they hadn't seen anything. The doctor's report that was used to claim that Dani had attacked a policeman was signed at 9:30pm in Plaza del Sol hq, when he was arrested at 10:45pm at Tirso de Molina. This shows that the police had decided that they would accuse someone of this crime even before they arrested anyone, and then went out to look for some protestors who they could blame for it.

More than 4,200 Catalan people have been repressed by the Spanish courts since September 2017 for their involvement in the independence movement. This number includes people who have gone to court with many different outcomes, from prison sentences to more commonly fines, and also people who have been arrested and retained by the police, some of whom have denounced being tortured. Dani's case is unique because he isn't Catalan himself, he is Spanish. But this didn't save him, because the Spanish State has wanted to make an example out of him: this is what will happen to any Spaniard who dares to stand in solidarity with the peoples oppressed by Spain.

Dani has talked about why he supports Catalonia's right to self-determination. Dani is an anarchist, he doesn't believe in states, so he believes that everyone should have the right to self-determination and understands the want to get away from Spain and its fascist institutions.

He has also talked about the support he has received since he was arrested. He has received lots of support from Catalan people at all levels, from all kinds of social organizations and local assemblies to many individual people who sent him letters, and politicians who have him their support. On the contrary, he denounces he hasn't received any support from Spain (only a small support from the Madrid anti-repression movement at first, but they never followed up), and has not even heard a word from the Spanish "progressive" political parties. In fact, during the time he was out on probation, he moved to Catalonia because it was the only place where he knew he'd find help and solidarity.

We are very thankful to Dani, Elsa and everyone else who has showed their support.

Other sources used for this post: interview with Dani on Vilaweb (23/07/2022), 3/24.

Why I care about this...

Okay, you know what? I am gonna talk about this, because a lot of people seem to be very confused about this. By now I have been asked so many times about it: "Why do you care so much about Black people being depicted in media? You are white!"

And my first reaction is: "Because diversity in media and real life is objectively and scientifically profen to be a good thing?" See, a lot of people do not have any marginalized folks in their direct surroundings. And because of this they are less empathetic to marginalized folks and do internalize a lot of stereotypes. Depicting those marginalized folks in media (in not stereotypical, and empathetic depictions, that is) helps to foster empathy with them. And given that Black people face a lot of racist stereotyping, yeah, I am very much in favor for good depictions of them.

And it might also be said, that in reality more diverse teams are actually really good for outcomes!

This is leads to the next thing: I am autistic, and us autistic folks tend to care a lot about justice. And that involves also all sorts of social justice. Which includes among other things good depictions of marginalized characters - including Black characters. It is just something that I care about for justice reasons. Because it is just right to give everyone some representation in media. Which includes Black people.

And yes, I am very frustrated about the non-depiction of a lot of other groups. You know, what would I give for an autistic trans person in media. That would be swell. It totally would be. But yeah, that is still a couple of years out, eh?

But there is also another thing... In a lot of cases where Black characters are written by Black people, those characters are angry in a way that I identify with a lot. Yes, they are angry because of racism, I am angry because of other forms of *isms. But I identify with that anger.

Like, look at Black Panther. Yeah, fuck, I do get Killmonger's anger. I fucking get that. Or in Castlevania with Isaac: I totally get that anger. I can very much identify with that.

Especially, though, I just identify with that a lot more than with some white guy characters feeling very sad about themselves for shit they got themselves into (yes, I am talking about the MCU, thank you very much, so many horrible white male characters in this).

To put it differently: Yeah, fuck, that anger and just the general part of having to fight discrimination on every corner... it is a lot closer to my experience, than the usual white, cis, ablebodied main characters we often get otherwise.

So, yeah... There are a couple of reasons why I do care about this.

And it should be said, too, that even outside of settings with racism, I do want to just see more diversity. Like, yeah, it bugs the hell out of me, that BG3 is so fucking white. I love the game. And it does exceptionally good on the queer rep front (I think I encountered more queer NPCs so far, than explicitly heterosexual ones). I love the game. But just give me some non-white characters. Please?

Bitches be like “just be yourself!” And then get angry when you act like yourself

Why do so many Socialists support guns when there's so much gun violence?

Firstly, the prerogative to not arm yourself in present society is, in fact, privilege. For many, many people, particularly marginalized people, their only choice is to live in high crime areas. Within those areas, police response times are often much slower, and worse, calling the police can result in far worse outcomes (i.e. trigger happy police may shoot a black home owner who is the one who called them about a home invasion in the first place.)

Next, in response to the rise of far-right violence it is important for marginalized people to protect themselves. Armed thugs are picketing and harassing queer-owned businesses and threatening trans people. It is important for those people and their allies to have means of defense on-par with the weapons their adversaries are using. This means that bans on gun purchases now are only keeping the left from arming itself in response to far-right terror.

Also, Marx advocated for gun ownership, and I am inclined to agree. Marxism is a revolutionary philosophy, and revolution, while it may not entail direct violence does require becoming ungovernable. As Huey Newton said, anyone who is not armed is either a slave or is at risk of becoming one at any moment. If we can just be bullied by anyone with weapons because we don't have weapons, it means we can't be effective in any revolution, no matter how peaceful. Even in a scenario where we can manufacture weapons via rapid prototyping technology, they become useless if we have no training. Training means we need guns now.

Finally, we very justifiably agree that the current problem with gun violence is unique to the conditions of the world. Gun violence, most Marxists would argue is not the fault of the guns themselves, but rather far-right stochastic terrorism, the desperation, alienation, and despair caused by capitalism, and the stigma against and lack of availability of mental healthcare.

There are so many things we share with animals. They are a different species.

There are some people who shoot cats. Some people who love them.

There are soft men and hard men. Masculine men and androgynous. Etc.

Diversity is a part of life.

I'm not intrinsically different because I'm trans or autistic. I'm intrinsically different because of how I'm treated.

Same with being a man vs a trans man.

So many of our exp overlap. But people treat me differently. I do have different perceptions.

But I am still a person. With triumphs and flaws. Normal ones and rare ones. Same as others.

Kyrgyz women in the little Pamir.

Source: Silvia Alessi

'[anyone] is worthless if they dont-'

no. they arent. no one is worthless for any reason.

and even if they were, i choose to love them anyway. because they are still people.

'even-'

yes, even them

'what about-'

yes.

"what is the worst crimes you've ever committed?"

being myself.

drinking chocolate milk while eating pasta