ik this is like by design bc we live in a capitalist society that emphasizes individualism so as to isolate us from one another, but it would be so much easier to analyze and critique societal phenomena if every statement made about the potential harm of certain actions/behaviors/cultures didn’t get taken so personally by the people who engage in them.

we can’t talk about how makeup culture stems from and enforces misogyny or the violent institution that is gender because women who love makeup will scream that no, actually, they LOVE wearing makeup, it’s an art and a hobby and who are we to tell them they have to stop (which nobody ever actually says)

we can’t talk about how bdsm going more mainstream often results in people (usually men) who are sexually gratified by physically hurting others (usually women) having much easier access and opportunity to enact said physical harm, often with people who feel pressured into accepting it who wouldn’t otherwise – let alone discussing why so many men get off on beating women – because self-identified submissives will say “stop telling me what i can and can’t do in the bedroom!”

but frankly i think if someone says “analyze and examine your behaviors because they might be harmful” and you hear “stop doing this because it’s harmful” that tells me that you know what you’re doing might be harmful, whether to you personally, to someone else, or just in terms of promoting harmful phenomena in society, and you’re afraid to examine it because you’re afraid that you won’t be able to justify the consequences of your behavior

get okay with being some level of burden on others, seriously

you know what’s a real burden? a person that is so scared of leaning on other people that they try to be completely self sufficient and you end up either having to help them indirectly to save their ego or they have to break down in order to receive help, both of which are so much more heavy to the person that loves them than just being leaned on casually

People will accept eugenics so long as it proves them valid in some way. Like "if scientists prove there's a gay/trans gene or something we'll finally be recognized as legitimate by all" like nah dude that's fucking eugenics bud that'd be used to get rid of us

Or mom's being like "I can't wait till one day when we can find the autism gene and stop autism once and for all" like bitch that's eugenics is your kid having a sensitivity to touch and not wanting to be hugged such a big deal to you that you want to get rid of all autistic people? That's so incredibly selfish and terrible.

Eugenics isn't a morally gray area. It's all bad. All of it. "We can stop families from suffering :(" suffering what? A unique individual? Fuck off.

When online, ask yourself: was the image I am consuming produced in a safe environment? Am I laughing at the expense of someone else’s misery? Is someone else the object of mockery? Is my means of communication decontextualizing someone else, making them a symbol, a flat image on a screen? Is my anger warranted? Am I interacting with someone in good faith? Am I talking to myself or do I actually care to establish a link with the person on the other side of the screen? Am I acting ethically? Are my intentions honest?

#also good to ask re: memes and reaction images: is someone else’s race the object of mockery? #is the joke at the core of it something that i can apply to myself or is it exclusive to another culture?

The fact that people think anarchy is an aesthetic with a “fuck rules” rhetoric and not an ideology in which empathy takes priority over all things. Rebelling against established law and state means valuing human life. people forget that when they talk about anarchy and chalk it up to edgy teenagers hate the law.

fun fact: any policy on drugs that isn’t harm reduction is going to cause addicts to suffer and die

fun fact: Drug addiction is a public health issue, and approaching it as if it were a law enforcement issue is prejudicial to addicts and will result in their suffering and death

if you just assume addiction is a method of self-medicating, you’ll pretty much never be wrong.

now, not everything people self-medicate for actually has a proper treatment. i’m pretty sure the reason my uncle made sure to be slightly drunk at all times ‘to round the sharp corners off of things’ was sensory processing disorder. i have that too, and i just kind of accept that i’m going to randomly get my brain sandpapered from time to time. there is no medication for that. all you can do is dull your senses. i’ve chosen not to, but i can’t blame him for his decisions. when a ringing phone feels like getting hit upside the head with a frying pan, liver damage sounds like a fair price to pay.

anyway, it seems really self-evident to me that people don’t enjoy living the life of an addict, they do it because the alternative looks worse. people don’t get addicted to substances just for funsies. they start making a habit of taking something because of insomnia, or grief, or headaches, or depression, or seething undirected rage and terror they can’t put a name to – something that they can’t ignore or shrug off. and for whatever reason – lack of access, lack of knowlege, lack of money, or it just plain doesn’t exist – they aren’t able to apply the Approved Correct Remedy. they use what they can get.

addicts aren’t some weird otherfolk who inexplicably just Do Drugs because they’re Bad. addicts are you with a problem you can’t solve.

these facts aren’t fun but they are pretty important

I can promise you that however bad you think drug addicts and/or alcoholics are making society, their experience of it is still worse. It’s the responsibility of policymakers to find solutions and treatment options that address the issue in such a way that views and respects addicts as members of society who need help and support, not external evil forces who need to be eradicated in order for society to function “properly.”

i’m not quite sure that everyone understands the severity of antifa being designated as a terrorist organization. 

antifa is not an organization. it does not have structure, members, leaders, meetups, rules, etc. it is literally just shorthand for antifascist. that’s all it fucking is.  the only designation for “being antifa” is considering yourself antifascist. 

if antifa is labeled as a terrorist organization, calling yourself antifascist gives the government legal grounds to arrest you for terrorism. 

if donald trump isn’t bluffing about this, it will give the government the legal right to arrest people who are vocally antifascist for suspected domestic terrorism. antifascist peaceful protests will no longer have the legal right to exist.

antifa is a ideology, not a group. if it gets legally classified as a terrorist organization, the government has the jurisdiction to arrest anyone they deem to be a part of it. 

this isn’t fearmongering. this is what being classified as a terrorist means. and it is beyond dangerous. 

Just throwing this out here, biden voted for DOMA, was a segregationist, his head of Muslim outreach is a fucking puppet for the BJP in India, AKA Hindu nationalists who are actively oppressing India’s Muslim population in the most literal sense of the word, he was pro war in the Middle East which has lead to hundreds of thousands of innocent people dying, and possibly most relevant to the events currently unfolding nationwide, the Ferguson uprisings happened during his second term as Vice President and the administration he was second in command of actively condemned the Ferguson protesters and black lives matter. Yes trump is worse but joe biden is a racist, a rapist, a liar, and the face of ambivalence in the face of injustice. I am so sick of people on Twitter like this with no actual understanding of what people to the left of them believe and prefer to endlessly straw man people they disagree with in favor of pointless moral posturing to protect the status quo. If biden wins in November things will just get easier for you to ignore, they will not get better.

Like, he’s not just flawed, he’s emblematic of every issue you supposedly stand against. The lesser of two evils, especially by so little, is still fucking evil.

I keep seeing a lot of posts along the lines of “It’s ok to come to tumblr as an escape from what’s going on. There’s nothing wrong with not sharing information and keeping your blog a safe space” etc etc and like. That’s 100% understand for black people who have to live with this 24/7 and need to get away from it for their mental health.

However, for white people, the ability to ignore this is a privilege. It does not affect us in the slightest. Literally the LEAST we can do is share information, donation links, and petitions. Obviously this is a stressful time, but seeing people over and over say “It’s ok to ignore it for your mental health uwu” is infuriating. White people have been ignoring this for years. There is nothing radical about acting like nothing is happening. That’s a massive part of the problem.

think it is a good time to bring up the fact that the police in the united states of america are not legally required to protect people. that is straight up not part of their job.

furthermore, the united states police system was created largely out of runaway slave roundup patrols, they never existed to protect people, they were created to protect “property rights.”

They do not and have not ever existed to help keep folks safe. That is quite literally not even in their constitutional job description.

people apparently think rubber bullets aren't dangerous or something. they're bullets with a thin rubber coating, they're generally not, as some seem to believe, bullets made from rubber. they've got the capacity to seriously injure and kill. there is nothing nonviolent or lenient about rubber bullets.

If you are someone who likes to watch a lot of cop shows, I want you to ask yourself a few questions.

Why do all TV cops, even the good ones, hate Internal Affairs? Isn’t the job of Internal Affairs to root out the “bad cops”? Isn’t their job to make sure police follow the rules? Why is that presented as inherently evil or antagonistic? 

Why do all TV cops, even the good ones, hate defense attorneys? Isn’t the defense attorney’s job to protect the rights of all citizens? Isn’t it their job to make sure police follow the law? Isn’t it their job to make sure everyone is treated fairly under the system? Why is that presented as inherently evil or antagonistic? 

Why do all TV cops, even the good ones, get upset when citizens invoke their constitutional rights? Don’t those rights exist to ensure all citizens are treated fairly? Don’t they exist to ensure innocent people are not wrongfully incriminated? Why are citizens who invoke their rights presented as dishonest, untrustworthy, or antagonistic? 

To be clear, I’ve watched Brooklyn 99 and enjoyed it. I was watching Elementary the other day. But even when I watch shows I like, I make a mental note every time a cop lies, breaks the law, subverts someone’s basic rights, or just generally acts like an asshole to the people the are meant to serve and protect. 

How often are they called out on their behavior? How often are they punished for it? How often is it reinforced as correct by the narrative?

When I tell people to be critical of the media they consume that is what I mean. Not simply calling it terrible and moving on, but actually engaging thoughtfully, asking questions, and forming conclusions about what that media is trying to say to you. Then decide whether you want to keep listening, or if it will be better for you in the long run to move on.

but really though, this pride month, shout out to straight trans people. it’s gotta be rough sometimes listening to people constantly complaining about “the straights” and how “it’s gay month if you’re not gay go home”. you’re not contributing to heteronormitivity just by being yourself. you 100 percent belong at pride and all of you make this community a better place.

cash app link culture was popularized by sex workers who are now routinely banned from the platforms they were instrumental in building. pass it on.

all your favorite cash apps built their platforms on the backs of sex workers and then banned sex workers when they got big enough to run shit without them. square cash, circle pay, venmo, gift rocket, even fucking patreon. all patronized predominantly by sex workers at first, all banned sex workers as soon as they got off the ground.

i know everyone’s said this already but the cruelty of subjecting people to tear gas during a respiratory infection pandemic is unparalleled. i’m not a doctor but i imagine the lethality associated with it will massively increase as a result

white people see riots and protests against police brutality directed towards black people and be like "oh is this my commie dream revolution" no bitch it isnt!!

you dont care about the black people dying.

youre just looking to push forward your own agenda while emptying your mind of all sympathy for black people. its transparent.

your commie revolution is only for you and for people like you, and doesnt involve the liberation of black people who are brutalized on a daily basis for existing.

either boost our voices or shut the fuck up.

there is no difference between a white conservative who hates black people and a white leftist who makes jokes about black protests while speaking over black people.

one is just less of a coward about being open to how they really view us.