Wealth is wasted on the wealthy.
Anarchic history, queer defiance, cooking and — of course — fighting city hall. @avlblade.bsky.social, @transnews.network Writer/journalist/editor. Eldritch trans dyke. She/They🏴🚩 Writing at: patreon.com/DavidForbes ashevilleblade.com
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Wealth is wasted on the wealthy.
If you think there's a giant conspiracy amongst the UK government, the media, and a small, extremely well-funded genitally-obsessed bigots to harass and dehumanize trans people, that's because there is.
Always a good day to repost this.
“i used to think trans people deserved rights, but then they told me i wasn’t being a good ally, so i decided to prove them right” you could not waterboard a confession like this out of me, but people on the internet will proudly put it in their bios shameful
“i’m an ally, but only if you’re sufficiently deferential and nice to me” is one of the most embarrassing statements imaginable, yet so many people feel perfectly comfortable shouting it from the rooftops absolutely mortifying
this is beautiful
It is a sign of basic maturity to stop revering politicians.
All true. I do think it's also worth adding that 20+ years of more queer and trans people refusing to go back in the closet has also shaken the gentry, especially combined with the collapsing numbers of christian conservatives otg. And all these things at once? A recipe for desperate aristocracies.
It is, honestly, incredibly surreal. (Also a societal divide: more marginalized groups still mask at much higher rates).
Oh, so we've reached the "what the actual hell is going on in the palace?" stage of imperial decay.
That this also reflects that the real divide between liberalism and conservatism is over different tactics for preserving the status quo is not a coincidence.
Doaa has been vetted by the Guardian newspaper and still has had her account deleted by the bigoted management here. She is being displaced and is the primary caretaker of her family after her husband was injured trying to get aid last month. Please, please consider donating or at least sharing.
Please help Saeed if you can
This cover is somehow one of the dykiest things I've ever seen. I am so here for it.
People obsessed with this country's "heritage" are violently opposed to ever actually addressing its real heritage, so all they're left with are consumerism and symbols chosen for their plausible deniability. Imagine claiming the Cracker Barrel logo as your birthright.
Put it this way: America's founding gentry revered a fictional republic, all marble and civic virtue. They got the truer Rome of massive slave plantations, military demagogues, civil strife and covering up all the many, many problems with pomp and blood-drenched expansion until it collapses inwards
Put it this way: America's founding gentry revered a fictional republic, all marble and civic virtue. They got the truer Rome of massive slave plantations, military demagogues, civil strife and covering up all the many, many problems with pomp and blood-drenched expansion until it collapses inwards
Yes, and what we do have isn't nearly as widely known as it should be. I've seen even Tacitus' "make a desert and call it peace" quote wake some up on this front because they'd never heard it before. And yeah, very intentional hagiography meant to prop up very intentional politics today.
Honestly, one of the main questions for societies today is if the patricians' endless, hateful greed will end up destroying us all. In far too many ways, the empire never ended.
Roman society was unusually horrific even by the (not great!) standards of the times. The fact it's revered, at all, points to some very ugly truths about this one.
In Los Angeles, this should be done everywhere. The pics of Americans snatched by ICE Gestapo is being projected on the side of a detention center in Los Angeles. #iceout #losangeles #california
Hey everyone, I hate to ask for help again, but I think we're really going to need it. My mental illness has made it hard to earn anything for the past couple months, and we barely have enough for this month. Everything helps! Thank you! www.gofundme.com/f/help-may-a...
Yes, that is part of it too.
Deadline still unknown, they won't give me the exact day, which I dont understand but I need 350 to get to the 15th and 2200 to get beyond it. Slightly more pressing, I need more food. I received ~60 since last posting but that didn't last long as I would have hoped, reason why unclear....
Oh yeah, that time the Reagan admin accidentally sent everyone time machines instead of rejection letters for food stamps. That was wild.
Not for the first time, "American democracy" might mean something more if I'd ever encountered it outside the realm of myth. The answer would still be, of course, that we are no one's sacrifice. Ever. Under any circumstances.
Rich kids.
I grew up in the '80s and '90s. No one I knew, not even the handful of more comfortably middle class kids, lived like this or could even dream of living like this.
The Democratic Party, y'all. Too clever to ever be smart.
Ha! Yeah, you ain't wrong.
When this particular fash slop goes around I'm always struck by how it's not just an idealized '80s/'90s childhood, but that of a really spoiled rich kid. Like this is the mental universe of the most uninteresting, coddled gentry dipshits everyone else hated.
i just don't see the point of going to a website filled with trans people to say trans people should sacrifice themselves to your milquetoast politicians and then complain when the trans people tell you to get fucked. if you want a fucking burger don't go to kfc
That's the spirit.
I cannot overstate just how awful this stupid fucking bill proposal is - adding backdoors into encryption on OS level - "sniff" every single message before it gets encrypted AND SAVE IT CENTRALLY - let a goddamn hallucinating "AI" mark people as criminals it needs to be stopped, post haste
I just want a global 'turn all 'ai' off everywhere, categorically, no exceptions unless I individually approve them in triplicate' setting for all my devices
And even if they magically sprung into existence i still wouldnt fucking care for them cause it would be s e g r e g a t i o n
Few things more of a reality check about how our area's actually doing than cheery "everything's going great" tourism propaganda (literally from the TDA) in front of a gutted building. There are spots like this all over. Asheville is still a disaster zone, y'all. #avlnews
the trans eliminationist twitter screenshot with no context on who the person talking even is has been going around and i am like 30 seconds away from unfollowing people i actually like for sharing breathless quotes of it. please stop.
Random Person: “Its 2025 this shouldnt be happening!!!” Any Black Person Alive and Alert in a Heavily Marginalized and Poorer Area: **eyes roll so far into the back of their head that they can see their skull**
Solidarity with everyone fighting back against state terror in Indonesia. We spoke with people there in 2019 about the growing anarchist movement. itsgoingdown.org/inside-the-g...
It would take a real and substantial hit. There's still be *a lot* more to do of course, but their level of dependence on him ia a real weakness. I found this thread helpful.
Whatever happens, whenever it happens, the fact that our enemies' power structure is overly reliant on a single aging, wannabe despot is a very real weakness. So is how widely he's hated by the broader populace. And every last weakness of fascists is worth remembering.
Whatever happens, whenever it happens, the fact that our enemies' power structure is overly reliant on a single aging, wannabe despot is a very real weakness. So is how widely he's hated by the broader populace. And every last weakness of fascists is worth remembering.
On a more immediate note, there is a need to make measures like covid precautions and vaccinations a principle for radicals the way "don't talk to cops" and "don't tolerate nazis" are. The government's going to be even more fully on some bullshit so it's on communities to save lives. We keep us safe
We need to get a lot closer to this world, especially on this front, and we need to do so quickly.
A public health catastrophe. Not “immanent,” not “potential.” This is the catastrophe.
Reminder trans women didn't start the "white trans women say everyone had a fascist phase" trope. A guy who actually had one and is incredibly transmisogynistic started it as a smear to, falsely, depict us as a uniquely reactionary demographic. Don't buy into it, don't repeat it.
Old Soviet joke for today: A man walks into a newsstand every day, looks around, and leaves. After a long time of this, the owner says “Can I help you find something?” “I’m looking for the obituaries.” “The obituaries are in the back of the newspaper, comrade.” “Not the one I’m looking for.”
*nods, sagely* Women.
There has just been an explosion of these no-pfp, anti-trans, blueMAGA accounts in the past few weeks. And it corresponds very closely with the escalation of Newsoms meme war.
Thread. "AI" is a capitalist hellscape.
So here for this.
But yes, it will still require us to overthrow it. As it did before. But i do think some radicals, whose politics are shaped by reflexively contradicting what libs say, underestimate his importance to holding together their coalition even if they correctly identify that he's not some unique evil
What it will not do is stop the fascism from happening, but he also didnt start the fascism, he is a particularly effective vector and avatar of it. Vance has real potential to be a Caucescu type, but i think he's not nearly a slick or experienced enough operator to pull off real consolidation
It will change a whole fucking lot when it happens, because the main power this administration has been wielding is despair and demoralization, the party in the streets alone will mark a significant fucking watershed.
No reason to get complacent, just a reminder that our enemies have some very real weaknesses (thin on the ground, highly reliant on one aging wannabe despot) To put on my anarchist hat, I think the quisling bs of dem pols has spurred more folks otg to get creative about resistance, and that's good.
They were hated (there was a whole song about how "we'll bash in the heads of the bosses in brown" that was belted out well into the '40s). One big difference: a lot of the original nazi paramilitaries were WWI trench fighters not weekend warriors. There were also, per population, far more of them.
He's got no public events scheduled for labor day weekend and Vance just gave a whole interview about how he's ready to be president.
Criminalization is the fuel of fascism.
A servile society is one ripe for fascism. It's impossible to stop without ditching the expected subservience that's blasted at most of us from a young age on every front (political, legal, workplace, personal). Defiance by itself isn't enough, but you sure ain't getting anywhere without it.
for as long as i’ve seen, CA has been blue on these maps. thanks to newsom’s massive rightward lurch, it might no longer be safe for trans kids. anyone pushing this man for president needs to own the fact they’re advocating for abandoning the most vulnerable among us to people who’d exterminate us
Lesser-evil rhetoric will absolutely and positively make things worse, and there's over a century of evidence to back that up. You either build an oppositional movement in the other direction, or you move incrementally to the right and pretend you're not collaborating when you are.
Every time you use ChatGPT or something like it, you’re helping to train an algorithm that is actually being developed to do things like this
Apparently the German republicans had a saying that one had to "howl with the wolves" to remain viable. It was a very cutesie way of shutting down debate, Haffner relates. Now of course we know that if it howls like a nazi and runs in the same pack, it's a nazi
Huge shout out to all the people telling me that I was overreacting for pointing this out over a month ago. I'll take your groveling apologies and £20 as soon as you can pay up.
When my story in Rolling Stone published, my count of Coast Guard flights for ICE was in the 260s. Six days later, it's over 300. www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
Not for the first time, I really encourage folks to read this essential work by Charles Cobb, on how community defense — including armed defense — played an essential role in fighting segregationist regimes and went hand in hand with wider movements. firestorm.coop/products/596...
Awhile back, wrote a reality check on cops and gun laws based on my experience investigating them. Here's some of what I've witnessed. The full piece: www.patreon.com/posts/realit...
For several days, Bluesky won't stop banning the accounts of Joy from Gaza. She did nothing wrong, at all. Joy is a writer. Her account and her voice are important, her words are powerful. We need to still look at her, to still hear her. @joyfromghazza.bsky.social , @joybskyacc.bsky.social
Something that I think has been REALLY memoryholed. Is how many drag queen story hours/reading things at libraries, didn't end up in massacres, because people showed up with guns to protect the drag queens. These chuds are cowards. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022...
And yes, this means the cult of civility is part of social control and hierarchy. Act accordingly.
Because never being contradicted — no matter how bigoted, abusive or wrong — let alone facing anger or mockery, is a key part of the gentry's power. The elite backlash to "uncivil debate" is about preserving power when the rest of us are challenging it.
Not for the first time, I really encourage folks to read this essential work by Charles Cobb, on how community defense — including armed defense — played an essential role in fighting segregationist regimes and went hand in hand with wider movements. firestorm.coop/products/596...
David also wrote an article about it for @transnews.network which is worth reading Moreover, ICE must be destroyed transnews.network/p/nc-dems-an...
As David disccuses in the episode there is a long, LONG history of the Democrats doing this shit on everything from civil rights in the 60's to the original North Carolina bathroom bill Moreover, ICE must be destroyed bsky.app/profile/cool...
I just did a two part episode with the wonderful @davidforbes.bsky.social about how Democrats voted for anti-trans laws in North Carolina and literally two days after we recorded the episode it happened again in Texas Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
A Demonstrator’s Guide to Operational Security crimethinc.com/opsec How do police and federal agents identify and target those who participate in demonstrations? What countermeasures can we take to hinder repression? Nowadays, everyone needs to know the skills that radicals have used for decades.
New "How to Report ICE" zines up today for free printable download! California (by county/area) Chicago Colorado DC Metro Area (DMV) Massachusetts North Carolina Triangle Area NYC Philly Pittsburgh Portland, OR St. Louis Metro Area Washington State Please share! drive.google.com/drive/folder...
New It Could Happen Here 🏳️⚧️ Mia continues her conversation with journalist David Forbes about two recent horrific anti-trans bills in North Carolina and how Democrats made them possible. @miawong.bsky.social @davidforbes.bsky.social www.iheart.com/podcast/105-...
My nerves are shot today and I really needed the laugh I let out listening to this.
Same, honestly
oh i needed this today lmao
Ok, imagining Katherine Hepburn saying this has me cackling.
Look, I do get why they deleted this scene from "The Lion in Winter."
Stop trying to appeal to these people. Stop trying to find common ground. Stop trying to find ways to let them get what they want but also make you feel like you got something. Stop these people or they will murder us all.
A not inconsiderable reason the Roman Empire crumbled was because damn near everyone hated it. For grounded, utterly justifiable reasons.
All periods sucked to some extent. But if you think life was better in rural Pannonia during the Crisis of the Third Century than in Merovingian Gaul just because there were some Pretty Statues around then really, no-one can help you.
You know what I really love about the Dark Agers? That their main argument is how much better life was under the slave-holding, mostly rural, highly militarised, lead-in-the-waterpipes, civil war and usurper ridden state that the Roman Empire was.
A project of hope in Gaza City—we support a mutual aid team serving FIFTEEN displaced families in Jabalia who refuse to displace again. Last week, you got them flour + water. Don't give up on them. Give / find their link here. 2202/2500 by Saturday. chuffed.org/project/hope...
Goth goth goth. 🖤
New It Could Happen Here 🏳️⚧️ Mia talks with journalist David Forbes about two recent horrific anti-trans bills in North Carolina and how Democrats made them possible. @miawong.bsky.social @davidforbes.bsky.social www.iheart.com/podcast/105-...
wording like this from @latimes.com in the same year as devastating fires is such a slap in the face to us all, but certainly to the organizers who have been working tirelessly to clean the air for our communities here in the southland.
Well, well, well. Who's the plant now, Plastic Gavin Stans? 🤨
It really really fucking sucks and actual organizers in Illinois are trying to get him to actually fucking do something more than put out statements as trans kids lose their fucking healthcare Moreover, ICE must be destroyed chicago.suntimes.com/health/2025/...
Please I am begging everyone to stop saying that Pritzker hasn't thrown trans people under the bus when he refuses to enforce his state's own anti-discrimination laws to force hospitals in Illinois that have stopped providing gender affirming care to minors to do it Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Suspending Dorian is bigoted and ridiculous. Wtf.
lol oh