Y’all gotta realize that some of us are weary because of the direct violence that comes with this presidency. Sure he can’t do x,y,z, but that’s not going to stop his supporters from harassing, murdering and discriminating against minorities. His election has given them the thumbs up to be openly prejudiced at a greater amplitude. The direct threat comes from his supporters, and that’s what’s terrifying. These people are all around us in positions of power and education. Their confidence in their bigotry has been restored and multiplied and that is extremely worrisome.
Young native man from the Ojibwe nation, reports being openly targeted by a police officer using “non-lethal” weapons to cause serious harm.
“He shot me with a rubber bullet right in the belly button, and when I showed him that he had hurt me, he just smiled and shot both my kneecaps,” he said.
“I was tear gassed over 15 times, which made it hard to breathe and left my face burning for hours. I got hosed down with a water cannon in freezing temperatures leaving me hypothermic, and I was slammed into a barbed wire barricade out of panic caused by the police after a flash grenade was thrown and caught fire to a field,” said Cheyenne, a young native woman from Michigan, whose face was streaked with tear gas, and whose eyes were red and swollen.
Yep. Thanksgiving. Native American Heritage Month. Celebrated in 2016 by encroaching on Native land and assaulting Native bodies.
It’s the traditional American way.
Oh yeah its the time of year to be thankful, therefore give thanks for rubber bullets, tear gas, water / sound cannons, concussion grenades and the freedoms for a bunch of evil bastards to attack groups of unarmed people without the “legal” ability to defend themselves.
Re: but the Trump U settlement is more important than the anger at Hamilton booing:
I agree that the settlement SHOULD NOT FADE FROM MEDIA COVERAGE. SHOULD NOT SHOULD NOT SHOULD NOT.
But demanding an apology from artists who are politely making a statement to a powerful person is not minor. It is alarming.
ANY normal politician runs for office knowing there will be people who will oppose their policies. Vociferously. Any normal politician knows they will not necessarily be kind about how they say it.
Any normal politician is prepared for that as part of the whole process.
Someone about to assume power reacting that intensely to a minor slight is concerning.
And also — caring about things is good. Telling people to care about more things is a lot better than telling people off for caring about things.
Donald is saying something real and not remotely trivial about how he views the performing arts and public dissent in his lashing out at the Hamilton cast’s statement.
While you’re at it, please support his musical Allegiance, about the Japanese internment camps. There will be a one-day viewing December 13th at theaters across the US. Here’s a link to more info:
“Icarus. The original myth had two parts. Daedalus said to his son, ‘I fashioned these wings for you. Two rules. Don’t fly too high, or the sun will melt the wax. But, more important, son, don’t fly too low. Because if you fly too low, the water and the waves will surely weigh down the wings, and you will die.’ We’ve left out the second part of the myth. We don’t say to people anymore, ‘Don’t fly too low.’ All we do from the time they are 4 years old is warn them against hubris. We have created this industrially led structure that says: How dare you.”
Here is a reminder: your personal life still exists. It did not get eaten by the election.
You are still allowed to have personal triumphs. You are still allowed to be happy because something good happened for you.
And even if you feel like your personal life has been eaten by the election, even if you’re terrified beyond measure of what it might mean for you – you still have a favorite book. You still have inside jokes and nice memories and that soft sweater you’ve worn for a decade. Small joys have not evaporated. Even in the worst parts of history, people have found ways to be kind to themselves.
There’s a post going around right now claiming that Trans Lifeline is a scam that exists to harm vulnerable trans youth. This is false, and much of the “evidence” is fabricated.
Much of it comes from a site called Kiwi Farms, which functions as a sort of base of operations for 4chan-style online harassment campaigns against marginalized and vulnerable people. Over the summer, Kiwi Farms launched a harassment and misinformation campaign intended to discredit Trans Lifeline. This included creating social media accounts to pose as trans people who’d had bad experiences with the lifeline and spread fabricated stories. (Notice that the Twitter account linked in the post is a bot that was only active for a few weeks in August, and that many of the other links go directly to Kiwi Farms.)
The line about the founder showing up at someone’s house refers her reaction to the harassment campaign: locating the person who runs Kiwi Farms and going to confront him in person. Her “vague threatening posts” were in response to being doxxed and having threats directed at her and her family.
Is Trans Lifeline unable to answer every call they receive? Yes. I’ve witnessed it happen. This is because Trans Lifeline is a small org struggling to fill a massive need for services, not because they’re all sitting around ignoring the phone. And I don’t doubt that some people have had bad experiences with Trans Lifeline operators. However, the project’s flaws result from a lack of resources – which is why they’re fundraising to hire more staff and provide better training for volunteers.
And about their post-election day blog post? They’ve since updated it to read “rumors that eight or more trans folks died” in light of the information that the list may have been fabricated.
Stop spreading misinformation, especially when lives could be at stake.
Since conversion therapy is looming in everyone’s consciousness right now:
This is your regular reminder that ABA, the generally-recommended therapy for autistic children, is literally conversion therapy with an extra dose of “auties aren’t even real people” thrown in for good measure. It was conceived by the same people, from the same research, for the same ends: To brutalize and torture children into a narrow range of “acceptable” behaviour.
And it is considered totally legitimate and valid and even preferred by the overwhelming majority of the medical industry.
Do not leave disabled people out of your activism.
Listen people, please do not burn your New Balance shoes. Burning rubber is terrible for the environment. Don’t throw them in the garbage either. They are perfectly good shoes. Don’t be wasteful: donate them to charity so that people who cannot afford shoes this winter can have something to keep their feet warm. The ability to boycott brands is a privilege that not all enjoy.
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