Fascism is a specific kind of bad thing, requiring specific kinds of strategy to counteract, rather than a swear word. Something can be extremely bad but not fascist. For example most of the big historical crimes of colonialism were carried out by people it would make no sense to call fascist, in fact sometimes by proponents of democracy.
it rly is weird how theres this culture in progressive spaces where like you can be as mean, as CRUEL even, as you want as long as youre not being explicitly bigoted towards any marginalized group of people and still be seen as a really good person with good morals who nobody is allowed to have beef with bc theyve never done anything racist or homophobic
this culture enables actual abuse. ive seen progressives engage in gaslighting, guilt-tripping, stalking, harassment, witch hunts, death threats, rape threats, and suicide baiting. these abusers are protected by the idea that marginalized people cannot be abusive and that any criticism of the behavior is “problematic” or tone-policing. the behavior likely emerged as a reaction to tone-policing, respectability politics and moderate liberalism, swinging the pendulum to the opposite extreme of aggressive callout culture and groupthink. i also think many progressives are marginalized + disempowered in mainstream society and cope by replicating the same patterns of abuse in a microcosm where they have clout
Addendum: you can also be horribly bigoted toward other marginalized people, so long as you use the ‘correct’ language and attack a marginalized group that is already a popular target of lateral / intra-community aggression (or, as I like to call it ‘I’m too chickenshit to do anything that requires effort or sacrifice, so my activism is screaming at other marginalized people and blaming them for all my issues’).
This is very visible on Tumblr, with a rotating cadre of people (bisexuals, pansexuals, ace/aro people, nonbinary people, intersex people, trans people who don’t subscribe to transmedicalist stances) being the revolving Targets du Jour for some truly vicious hate and smear campaigns, by individuals *who should know better* (but don’t, because they enjoy the thrill of soft, easily reachable targets upon which to vent the rage caused by non-marginalized society). Fundamentally, this is what happens when one’s activism revolves around seeking VENGEANCE (and a completely misplaced one at that!) rather than justice.
Good post but I wanna add another example: people are literally allowed and even encouraged to be as mean-spirited and cruel towards people who exhibit autistic traits, so long as they never actually use the word “autistic.”
hate to say it but the key to having things solved by big company customer service is you just gotta stretch the truth with them. or straight up lie. actually. was on the phone for 3 hours because they sent something to the wrong address and spoke to 10 different departments trying to figure out if anyone could go fucking get it and they’re like “uhhh but can you go get it” bitch I’m 8 hours away by car, I don’t live in the house where you sent it.
took a moment to think, called back and was just like. Hi. My package was stolen off the porch!!! Saw the cunt steal it myself!! Anyway can you please send new things to this other address for free since that’s your policy for stolen goods thank you~☆ ! and it was immediately solved.
actually my tags are too good not to include
follow me for more customer service tips and tricks
It is wild what kind of shit people will report to you in a security uniform. “Hey, that guy in the wheelchair? He doesn’t need it, he was walking outside earlier” like ??? Okay?? First off you don’t know his medical status, second what the fuck am I supposed to do with that information? Take it away from him?? It’s still his fucking wheelchair, he brought it from home
like I don’t have any physical disabilities that I’m aware of so stop me if I’m not in my lane but I feel like even if a dude is fully able-bodied, if he owns a mobility aid and he wants to use it then unless he’s swinging it around wracking toddlers with it then it’s really none of my damn business
Also?? “Hey there’s a junkie in the bathroom” ??? First off I saw them go in and I know for a fact that person has cerebral palsy, and also, are they actively using drugs?? Are they in medical distress?? No?? Then let them pissoh my God would you rather they shit on the street
and actually, another thing, because fuck it, but did you know?? “Security” means “safety”?? If nobody is using drugs inside the building and nobody is hurt or being hurt or bothering anyone or fucking in the lobby ar yodeling into the intercom or fucking, I don’t know, supergluing the toilet seats up and running off with the furniture, then what precisely are you expecting me to do about it? I’m not not the goddamn Social Norm Enforcer. If you’re wearing clothes and leaving people alone and you aren’t stroking out or freebasing coke with your non-service animal then I honestly do not give a fuck. “There’s a man in a dress in the women’s room” Okay and are they watching you poop? “I don’t think that’s a real service dog” is it humping someone? “That girl smells like weed can you get her out of here” Weed’s been legal for like five years get with the goddamn program. She probably works here. Do what you came here for and go hoooooome
“social norm enforcer” is exactly what is expected
hot take but none of you are allowed to use deer/antler imagery when working with cannibalistic themes anymore. you need to be honest with yallselves on WHY you’re associating deer/antler imagery with cannibalism. just because you aren’t naming the name doesn’t mean that the original anti-indigenous racism isn’t still inherent to what you’re doing.
For those who need more explanation, a well known (but often misunderstood) figure in Algonquin and Aanishinabe culture is the wend*go.
No, I’m not fully typing out the name cause we don’t say that name and don’t want to attract its attention. Yes, all of this is taken very seriously by us Natives.
The problem is that this very serious figure isn’t taken seriously at all by non-Natives and, instead of respecting our culture and the fact we don’t even say its name, its perceived as this cool monster to add to movies, video games and cool edgy OCs.
And, as with all thing Native being used and abused, misunderstood, and transformed by non-Natives, we are tired of that. It’s not okay, it’s not respectful.
You want a people eating monster in a story? Use anything else.
As someone who’s absolutely guilty of this shite on this account…yeah you have the right to spitroast me for that. Fair is fair.
I do hope we can use creepy deer aesthetics on and about other mythological/fiction monster villains tho. As someone who had a deer almost kill their dog, I just find deer creepy and unsettling regardless.
first off: You are the single person who has responded to this post admitting some variant of having done this that actually listened to what was being said, acknowledged that you did such things while you didn’t know any better, expressed an intent to never do it again, and asked for clarification on whether or not “creepy deer aesthetic” is completely off-limits with that in mind. So with that said, I want you to know that you’re one of the very few folks in this post I respect sincerely.
To that end: While obviously I can’t speak for Native America as a monolith, it would be my opinion that no, creepy deer aesthetics as a concept are fine. Deer can be fucked up and weird. There is a fundamental lure to the idea of a large prey animal behaving as a predator or in ways anathema to our understanding of prey. That juxtaposition and irony has a lot of narrative potential and for good reason–it fucks severely! I don’t want to see it go away! It fucks hard, for Christ’s sake!
But it is my opinion that the use of deer aesthetics within the specific context of cannibal themes isn’t able to be used anymore. The well has been poisoned too deeply. I never said once the specific being I was referring to in nearly any of my responses, but everyone knew exactly what I meant. Even trying to purposefully distance the racism from the imagery would be useless, since the racism is baked in to the assumptions by now. Reclamation may be able to happen in the future, but first we need to accept that setting it down completely is the right play for a while. You can distance racism from creepy deer stuff by purposefully and actively distancing it from Native America and cannibalism–if it becomes a recurring imagery on its own throughout multiple types of horror, rather than being innately tied by implication to the winter hunger, that’s when we could maybe begin talking about whether or not to start re-examining our relationship with it.
