once again thinking about “the lottery” by shirley jackson.
imagine there was a man in the story who went around giving speeches about the importance of the lottery as a tradition. He said the casualties were unfortunate, but also an inevitable price of freedom. Imagine he treated those who sought to end the senseless cycle of violence with condescension and derision, calling them idiotic, naïve, and diseased.
yet when that man was selected for the lottery and stoned to death, everyone mourned him and said how unfair it was that a bright young family man should die so soon. And when people pointed out that this man was killed by a system he adamantly defended and worked to perpetuate, they lost their jobs and were shunned from the community as insensitive and monstrous.
Imagine. Hypothetically. For no particular reason.
And then they Still didn’t do anything to get rid of the lottery
And then they Still didn’t
do anything to get rid
of the lottery
Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.
I don’t think it’s possible to overstate the degree to which every mass liberatory movement in the US has failed because of racism. Like there really cannot be functional working class unity until we figure out how to systematically liquidate all forms of white chauvinism in progressive organizations
So here is my problem with the “by virtue of being a man, you have to make your peace with the fact that some people will be uncomfortable with you, and thus you have to make yourself a safe person”
I’ve heard the same thing about being black. A lot of people have taken my very presence as hostility. I have had people escalate situations just because I am present as a black person in front of them. Before, and after transition.
You know what the problem with bending over backwards to make other people comfortable with your presence even though you haven’t actually done anything to them besides breathe the same air?
It’s never enough. You can be One Of The Good Ones for ages and at some point you will fail your Good One inspection and people will turn on you at the drop of a hat. People who you thought you had a good rapport with. People you thought were your friends.
I have *experienced* this, both online and in person.
The onus is on everyone to be safe people to be around. Singling someone out and blaming them for daring to share a demographic with someone else who has caused harm isn’t cute when people do it to me because I’m black, and it’s also not cute when they do it because I’m a man.
People are uncomfortable about my blackness all the time. I didn’t magically stop experiencing racism when I started taking testosterone. So it’s absolutely wild to me that people think “well, you know, with what you look like, some people won’t want you around” is going to fly when I was explicitly taught *not* to tolerate that shit by every single one of my black relatives.
Someone doesn’t like that I’m occupying a space? Well I’m not hurting them, so that’s a them problem and not a me problem. That’s how I’ve learned how to exist as black in white-majority spaces. Why do you think you can change the demographic and get me to agree with you?
Similarly scrolling past a post that was effectively “trans mascs should sit down and shut up and let other people do the talking” and I WISH that I was exaggerating but the post did literally use the phrasing “you need to sit down and shut up” and here’s the thing.
Every single one of the women in my family whether they consider themselves feminists or not taught me to never tolerate someone telling me to sit down and shut up and let someone else talk over me. That my voice is my power, and that I should never let someone take that power from me.
Why do you think I’m going to tolerate it now?
Hey I just wanted to say this isn’t a derail at all because it is my entire point. This mindset hurts trans people of all genders, racialized people of all genders, and all sexual minorities. Trans man 🤝 trans woman solidarity, I know y'all are affected by this nonsense too. You don’t have to be afraid of derailing a post that inherently includes you.
I once heard a quote by a dude named Alan Watts that went “A person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts. So, he loses touch with reality, and lives in a world of illusions” and now when I get trapped in an anxiety spiral that likes to pop in too
I think the internet might be like this as well actually
This quote may in fact be the philosophical highbrow equivalent of Bitch Go Touch Grass
the thing that bothers me with 7 deadly sin based characters is when they cant decide if they embody the sin by suffering from it or by drawing it out of others. ie. if your gluttony demon is a guy who loves eating then your lust demon should be a gooner sex pest. and if your lust demon is a seductive girlboss then your gluttony demon should be a 5 star chef. does this make sense.
“In the same way that your heart feels and your mind thinks, you, mortal beings, are the instrument by which the universe cares. If you choose to care, then the universe cares. If you don’t, then it doesn’t.” – Brennan Lee Mulligan, D20, Fantasy High
every five minutes communists must reiterate that petit bourgeois doesn’t necessarily mean you’re rich or a “bad person” and it’s a descriptor of your relationship to the means of production. yes, if by being petit bourgeois you advocate for bourgeois politics, then communists must oppose this and correct anyone who believes it to be a proletariat position, but it doesn’t mean “i believe you to be evil rich scrooge type of guy and we will shoot you tomorrow for it”.
stop thinking about class in terms of morality and income brackets.