anyway. onto better things

here's what I learned from trying to warn people about COVID in February 2020: no one will heed a warning they aren't ready to hear, and you can't make them no matter how much you love them.

I am feeling the exact same type of insane right now, where we are watching the first threads of the old world unravel and almost everyone is still drastically underestimating the threat.

I am not a prophet. I am not going to play Cassandra this time. listen or don't. I won't beg you.

I won't make lists telling you what and how to prepare because I don't have that knowledge and I can't spare the time and energy. but I can urge you to find people who do know what they're talking about and listen to them. especially people who have survived dictatorships. they are taking this seriously, and that is why I am.

would you rather plan for the worst and find yourself relieved it didn't happen or hope for the best and find yourself with your back against the wall?

community. connect. share. plan together. only way.

don't obey in advance.

I see white people talking about scrubbing their online presences of any mention of queerness etc.

don't obey a law that hasn't been made yet. have courage. push back. if you retreat before we are even attacked we lose before we begin.

and remember the white privilege, among other kinds, involved in thinking "let's individually focus on becoming indistinguishable from nazis before that is even demanded of us" is a better approach than "build community so we can resist" and centering the most vulnerable.

rest is preparation. having a nice time with your friends is preparation. cooking yourself a nice meal is preparation. you cannot always be working, even when the stakes are high.

this is a marathon, not a sprint. settle in for the long haul.

The Shirley Exception

"Fund Care, Not Killing"

Posters spotted in Lansing, Michigan

My mom texts me: “Put your heart sunglasses on the cat!” I dunno mom, they’re big and I don’t think he’s gonna go for it. “Just try it, I saw it on Instagram, it’ll be cute.”

Nope.

Nope.

Bowie, please do not eat that.

OH SHIT!!!!

I’m getting fed up with this whole “feminism as an identity” thing. Time for “feminism as an action.”

So instead of asking “can a feminist do x?” ask “is doing x a feminist action!”

Can a feminist take her husband’s last name? Mu. Null. Question un-valid, please un-ask question.

Is taking your husband’s last name a feminist action? No it isn’t. It doesn’t challenge the patriarchy in anyway, it is the status quo thing to do, it is what is expected of women, and it carries a lot of historical baggage about ownership and shit like that.

But that’s okay, your life choices don’t have to be 100% dictated by your politics unless you want them to. And it’s okay to really want to take his name while recognizing that you also want to do the feminist thing and keep your own, and it’s okay to feel conflicted and have a hard time making the choice. But no more of this enabling “as long as I made the choice myself it is a feminist choice” -bullshit. Own your choices, even the ones that aren’t informed by your feminist politics. You are still a human being and people do shit that contradicts their politics and even interests all the time. Just stop pretending that everything you do is feminist because you are a feminist, that’s not how it works.

^^this is why bell hooks challenges us to say “i support feminist movement” or “i support feminist action” rather than “i am a feminist.” she says that once we say “i am a feminist” and make “feminist” an identity rather than a political movement or a set of beliefs and the actions resulting from those beliefs, we can become complacent and think the battle is over. 

I asked the bartender for a coffee with no milk and he said we're out of no milk and gave me a cup full of milk

come on