Just a quick #ResistTrump post today. There’s a lot going on. Here are two important developments that we need to respond to.
First: Jeff Sessions has started off his new job as Attorney General with an attempt to undermine legal protections of trans students.
What he did is a bit complicated to explain; see here and here for details. But Sessions’ intention is clear, and the effects of his move will be felt immediately. Here’s the Human Rights Campaign statement on the issue:
Tonight, HRC responded to the Trump Administration’s decision to withdraw a request to halt an order against the Obama administration’s protections for transgender students. This action will effectively continue to halt the protections nationwide.
“After being on the job for less than 48 hours, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has signaled his intent to undermine the equal dignity of transgender students,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “Transgender students are entitled to the full protection of the United States Constitution and our federal nondiscrimination laws. It is heartbreaking and wrong that the agency tasked with enforcing civil rights laws would instead work to subvert them for political interests. President Trump must immediately reverse course and direct the DOJ to uphold guidance protecting transgender students. “
If you want to help, consider supporting HRC or The Trevor Project, which offers crisis intervention/suicide prevention services for LGBTQ youth and twentysomethings.
And if you know of other good organizations to support, please email me or post them in the comments below.
Second: The Trump regime has launched a wave of deportations — and has triggered protests across the country against these deportations.
See here and here for more details and a rundown of some of the protests that have happened so far.
And here are some protests taking place tomorrow, courtesy of the RESISTABLE newsletter:
Sunday, February 12
11AM ET — Jewish Community Action for Refugees, Manhattan, NY
10AM PT — Worker and Immigrant Solidarity March, Burlington, WA
3:30 CT — Chicago Moons Trump Tower, Chicago, IL
4PM MT — NO WALLS PROTEST: Holding hands in unity, International Border U.S. El Paso, Tx / Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua Mexico
If you know of other protests or good groups to check out, please email me or post them in the comments below.
Re: Bias and gay, white, male bigots. I try to include intergroup bigotry in my functional definitions (most useful to current situation) of bigotry. The tension within LGBT groups and between radical feminism and trans people have informed it as much as race, sex and LG.
I think of it as a weaponized definition that I refuse to abstain from using with other aggressive white male-types. They often get very intense when I use this definition. Intersectional-izing is a thing. Oddly I think it’s a a benefit of white privilige. I own the cultural bigot software and it was installed as I grew and matured. I can introspect it’s nature and make cultural weapons (know myself and my culture and know the ways of bigots).
Bigotry : irrational* dislike of a person from an out-group [X]resulting in irrational beliefs, thoughts, actions, and communications.
Common bigoted phenomena are irrational prejudice and irrational discrimination (“prejudice” and “discrimination” are political contractions** that increase speed of use at the expense of accuracy).
Specific examples of bigotry require definitions suitable for social and individual use on bigots. So race gets it’s social factor to deal with the functional expression of racism. Similar for all the others because racism must delt with on the individual and social level. It must have effective language for intense communication with respect to individual, group and self.
*The focus on the irrational nature of bigotry allows strategy against the “Racism, sexism, etc… is all discrimination between or prejudice towards an out-group” people. To see racism, sexism, etc one must look for differences in how ourselves and others believe about, think about, act with respect towards, and communicate with people in an out-group.
You have to rationally look at race and race connected phenomena to discriminate between in research. You get to prejudge the reputation of bigots so you can prepaid for bigotry.
**”Tolerance” is another political shorthand because it meant “tolerance for other races, sexes…”. Including the irrationally intolerant in tolerance is strategically unwise so rallying to “tolerance” has limitations. Political use of “tolerance” has been adopted by the irrationally intolerant bigots.
“Spreading hate” is another. That metaphor tends to harm legitimate expression of hate. The danger in hate is applying it to a whole group of people, even if for rational and logical means. That makes a person a statistical asshole (so likely as to be certain of functionally expressing bigotry in an insulting and/or harmful manner). The trick to hate is to limit it to beliefs, thoughts, acts and communications.
Third paragraph from the end should be “…prepare for bigotry.”
And I should have said that in-group membership is an advantage in functionally undermining bigotry from one’s group. White/male/man/straight/aggressive/ and more are relevant intersectional axes here.
And some of us aren’t sure if we’re we’re cis or not but feel like either way, some large faction of the LGTBQIA sphere is going to resent the fact I exist. I’ll experience anti-trans prejudice whether i identify as trans or not. If I don’t identify as trans people within LGTB spaces will see me as having “internalized transphobia” because I dress like a man, obviously it means I identify as one.
I don’t like this focus on either being exactly about cis gay people or exactly about trans people. some aren’t sure or could easily pass as either category. And the bigots don’t care what I identify as. They just see that I look different and react. Full stop.
I guess what I’m saying is that it hurts to not know what exactly your identity is in a world where you have to tell everyone exactly what you are so they can place you on the LGTBQ+ privilege scale or say that your identity doesn’t exist or that your existence is problematic
Sometimes I’m very intimidated by the queer/nonbinary/gay community and I don’t think I’d ever be truly welcome.
@Cerberus
Understood. Thank you. And sorry everyone for not looking this stuff up myself. Didn’t really have it in me to scour google. But I’m sure it was annoying, and it’s my job to educate myself. I’ll do my own due diligence in future 🙂
Well maybe Axe felt he had to apologize, but I appreciated all of the links and education today. So thank you everyone who posted anything. And thank you Axe for asking.
But what’s going on here? Where is everyone?
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc83/pirateyar/crickets_zpse69fd4f8.jpg
Grammys? Walking Dead? Where’d everyone go?
If you’re all out fighting injustice, nevermind.
It’s me again, I just wanted to let everyone know that @PDeciusMus went and deleted his twitter account. I managed to get a screenshot of him talking with Heartiste, but is there any way to access a deleted account? Google cache works for the main page, but I’d need access to the “tweets & replies” section.
Hey David, can you help people find local anti fascist groups, or would that require too much vetting to find active, well-organized, and politically diverse groups?
A good place to start is Food not Bombs. They do a lot of community food distribution work and feed protesters.
Antifa isn’t the only group, but they vary in methodology and general activity. Check out your local group if you have one, make sure you vibe with it and that they’re not the aimless riot types. You’re going to want to find people who are interested in counter protesting and non violent disruption. Look for mixed groups of anarchists, socialists and communists. If you’re none of those things and your’re just interested in fighting Trump, I think Antifa groups will become more open to moderates/liberals in the coming months/years.
Hello.
Out of topic :
A Netflix soon-to-come TV serie called “Dear White People” already cause rage among White Supremacists who cast boycott against Netflix.
Who would have believed that, hmm ?
Have a nice day.
Can’t speak for anyone else, but I just haven’t had much to say lately.
Uhh… I got a PS4 for my birthday and PokeBank dropped the same week, so… Yeah. Too many video games, not enough non-Trump threads.
@Jesalin:
In many ways I have an incredibly lazy approach to hating on things:
– Is it causing anyone problems (real ones)?
– If yes, could be something to hate, depends on details.
– If no, meh.
Where ‘meh’ means WTF are people getting riled up about, they should either show support or get out of the way.
I may not personally enjoy whatever it is but as long as I’m not being made to do it…
Seems a fairly robust policy, as things go.
What I’m trying to say is, I don’t get being pro-gay and anti-bi, or anti-trans.
I don’t understand how people can be aware of the negative shit that happens if you’re in one group, support that group but put the same negative shit on another group that’s got a lot of shared experience.
Feminist tears. I drink them. President Trump has feminists catching feels. LMFAO.
Fuck.
I’m not in the USA, but I really wish I could do something about the deportation raids.
@ occasional
Surfing for info on the new Netflik, I discovered this fro UK Independent….
Article is ok, but I’m waaayyyy happy to find the gem “broflake” which the author coined to satirize MAGA/MRA types!!
the comments section, mostly from broflakes, is great, I’ll summarize it here:
“waaaaaaaaaa!!!! MEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! WAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!”
I’ve been
building utopian communities in Prison Architectworking.Brony hit on something that I think a lot of us SocJus folks in general need to get to work on: refinement of language. I’ve never been one who thinks lining up words and firing them off will change a mind, but stories are powerful things that can slowly influence culture.
This medium article explaining how progressives are not the tolerant people we’re portrayed as because we don’t tolerate the hateful points of view is spot on in that respect and it points to a rhetorical issue that I think merits more serious discussion. In the same vein, I’ve seen the “intolerant left” memes making the rounds, and while the mocking memes are classic (like Red Skull getting a shield to the face lamenting “So much for the tolerant left!”), it speaks to a flaw in progressive/liberal thinking that we need to confront.
“Tolerance” was the SocJus branding against the intolerance of racists, sexists, homophobes etc. It was a handy shorthand that was broadly understood what the tolerance in question meant. What the right is very good at is branding their opponents and playing these rhetorical word games to paint themselves favourably. In response to the “pro-choice” argument, abortion opponents became “pro-life.” Masjid Nawaz’s very narrow term “regressive left” now means anybody who isn’t a free-speech absolutist. The Affordable Care Act became “Obamacare.” “SJW” has become shorthand for “shrill naysayer who can be safely disregarded” and on and on it goes.
Now “tolerance” has been deliberately misread to mean not merely begrudging acceptance of viewpoints privately held, but opposition to publicly held points of view that are demonstrably harmful to others. It’s all part of the effort to shift the Overton window further right.
If we’re always fighting with styles the opponents have chosen for us, progress will slow to a stop. But more than just styles, as the Pro Left podcast says (and I’m convinced of this), we win when we lead with our values. We just need language that makes our values plain in a few simple words.
Because while many edgelords seem to think their lack of values is a strength that keeps their “feels” at bay, it’s also their biggest rhetorical liability. If the only (I hesitate to say ‘concrete’, more a ‘plywood’) value they have is “free speech uber alles”, that value’s applicability gets put to the test in the face of a story of real people. A documentary about Matthew Sheppard I watched over the weekend provided a perfect example: Fred Phelps did picket his funeral and as much as I’m sure the internet edgelord of 20 years in the future would be eager to debate Phelps’ free speech rights, when the citizens of Laramie, Wyoming made it clear Phelps wasn’t welcome, he left. And the Matthew Sheppard story is an incredibly powerful symbol to this day.
The values are there. The language must be there too.
@ Dan
>Sigh.< The trolls don't even try anymore…
@ gussie jives
Apologies if I’m teaching you to suck eggs, but you might find Karl Popper an interesting jumping off point for a further exploration of the points you raise.
(once again thanks to dalillama for the reminder)
Same here, honestly. There’s only so many words to describe what’s going on in the USA.
And, to be honest, I know David’s doing his best, but I miss the non-Trump threads. I understand Trump’s a big deal right now and it’s slowly getting worse and worse, but I need to get away from it every once in a while.
You know whose tears I’m drinking? The tears of all the people who enthusiastically voted for Trump and are now regretting their votes for whatever reason. The salt is fucking delicious.
People who got their health care gutted because they believed the GOPs bullshit marketing scheme about “Obamacare” to the point where they thought the ACA and “Obamacare” were two seperate things.
People who got separated from their families thanks to his “It’s Not A Muslim Ban! (Except is totally is)” executive order because their loved ones were in those countries that Trump has banned solely because they’re mostly Muslim.
People who thought he was going to “drain the swamp!” but ended up hiring a bunch of predatory fucks from Goldman Sachs, including one who foreclosed on an elderly woman because of an error that amounted to 27 cents.
People who were so very pissed off that Hillary Clinton had an unsecured server full of emails (that actually didn’t have anything in them), but haven’t said a damn peep about Trump still using his unsecured Android phone.
Y’all made this bed, now you get to lie in it with us. Trumplethinskin wasn’t just going to fuck over all the people you didn’t like and leave your sorry asses be. You threw us under the bus to get that Mango Dick Tater in office for whatever reason you thought was good at the time, and now y’all gotta suffer just like the rest of us.
I normally don’t like to say “I told you so”, but in this case, I’ll make a huge exception.
In the meantime, we feminists and other Assorted Liberals will keep fighting for your health care, your freedom of protest, and your basic human rights. Because you deserve that much, despite the fact that you don’t think we liberals (and other people you don’t care for) do.
In the meantime, have an awesome protest sign:
I spent the weekend out and about! Didn’t have a lot of screen time, which was nice. I hope everyone had a lovely weekend.
@Paradoxy, that picture made me laugh. I feel like a close up of his face would be the best reaction pic ever 😀
@Dan, sweet fancy Moses. “Catching feels”? you sure got us, Dan. Feelin’ feelings, like a bunch of women. Unlike you hard-as-nails super-objective no-feelers.
Jesus Christ. The only people afraid of “catching feels” are teenagers trying to show their friends how tough they are. You’re just as transparent. Try to grow the fuck up.
Purring Kitten!
http://youtu.be/vizuivZCKrw
My work schedule has been sucking my energy for commenting lately.
@Dan
1st, racists shouldn’t say “catching feels”. 2nd, it’s feelings. 3rd… Is ‘desperate for attention’ not a feeling now? Cos I was pretty sure…