b9AcEApr 3, 2023

If you and your friends expect to possibly get subjected to chemical repression weapons like "tear gas", it may be a good idea to do it yourselves first, alongside with training on countermeasures like liquid Mg(OH)β‚‚ antacid, lemon juice, milk, coke-type drinks, cigarette smoke, etc.

The primary mechanism intended for their use is to cause such unprepared pain-induced panic that chaotic retreat ensues.
If you live somewhere where possession of such substances is illegal, you can achieve a similar test by frying a large quantity of very strong chili pepper (cayenne or more) at very high heat, as capsicum, the active component of OC spray, the most commonly considered form of "tear gas", is what makes chili pepper taste "hot" and is the mechanism the repression forces use.

Snippet from the GeziDoc (https://vimeo.com/gezidoc 9 hours about Occupy Gezi, in English) when Turkey's rampant dictatorial regime used so much tear gas and similar that it exhausted not just its own store, but also that of Greece and probably elsewhere, to crush dissent for ecology, feminism and democracy.
They even deployed the gas so arbitrarily that they accidentally gassed inside the Consulate of Germany...

Gezi Doc

https://twitter.com/GeziDoc https://www.facebook.com/GeziDoc

Vimeo
Show threadKevin Karhan Apr 3, 2023

@b9AcE What I do recommend is going in prepared...

Like full-face mask with matching filter for teargas...

Show threadb9AcEApr 3, 2023

@kkarhan Yes, but with the caveats that in some places just bringing protective equipment can be taken by courts as "conspiracy to riot" or worse and more importantly in some cases when OC/similar is deployed in enough concentration, it can even cause chemical burns.

CW for the video: probable chemical burns occurring from "tear gas".
Same source.

Show threadb9AcEApr 3, 2023
Damn. Still 10 years later, after having seen it probably more than a dozen times, that video... :'-(
Show threadb9AcEApr 3, 2023
A personal experience:
When I was a conscript being trained to be a Sergeant Quartermaster in the Army Engineers Corps, we were going to practice with live chemical warfare substances, so we had to test our protection suits first,
so they threw us into a closed room with aerosol CS gas and... my mask leaked, as did those of some others.
Probably just a few crystals making it through had us evacuated to lie under a running faucet of water for >10 minutes before the proper liquid Mg(OH)β‚‚ countermeasure arrived.
Show threadb9AcEApr 3, 2023
Tangent topic:
There are two opposing stances on this and I equally support both, but one of them is that if you are a revolutionary you π˜€π—΅π—Όπ˜‚π—Ήπ—± undergo conscript training where it is mandatory instead of principled refusal, because the training can be good to have not just for life in general but even against the State's repression and in The Revolution.
On the other hand, it may to some degree add to the general militarization of society at large and the State's aggression stance in general.
Your choice (where applicable). Just saying.
Show threadASAKApr 3, 2023

@b9AcE regarding this tangent, there's a 3rd possibility to that debate that I'm wondering why you didn't bring up: the military kills & or disables the revolutionaries it drafts.

(I had originally written a 1k character message elaborating on this before, but the thread seems to be critical of the military overall so.)

Show threadb9AcEApr 3, 2023

@queex I am very critical of the military overall, so... do you still have your 1k message?

My post was based on my then current situation, wherein that was not occurring at that time (Sweden, uhh... I think like 1993 or thereabouts).

Show threadASAK

@b9AcE yeah so I'm in USA & was in the school to prison pipeline from the late 1990's until the early 2010's. I was also subject to conversion torture over being part of the TGNCIQ+/LGBTQIA+ community as well as having autism (via ABA "therapy" for the autism specifically).

Likewise I was thinking of USA's military instead of Sweden's, but since they're both racial capitalist states to say the least, (USA is patriarchal, I'm not sure how the patriarchy works in Sweden.) I'm pretty sure there's a lot of overlap since the heirarchies obviously involve gatekeeping

I'm editing the 1000ish characters to reconcile with the context you provided because a lot of it was like WTF, and you've helped give context for that.

I do want to mention, that I know poverty makes it to where in USA, native Americans enlist at rates like 75%. I'm not sure how they survive it, but still.

I'm also going to use we pronouns based on how the earlier thread was going. "We" isn't inherently inclusive or exclusive in English, so interpret as needed.

---
There's a 3rd outcome not mentioned from the 1993 discourse: I don't think we can trust the state train us for revolution, as if we can rely on the same state people are trying to be revolutionaries against.

Bootcamp is a form of gatekeeping. Getting trained by the dictatorship one wants overthrown is subject to survivors bias. The people who are revolutionary or already visible as revolutionary (let alone targeted by the racism, capitalism, sexism) get discharged, disabled, or killed. (Dishonorable discharge comes to mind too.)

Fat broken arm syndrome & trans broken arm syndrome originates from military hospitals where it was basically a euphemism for sending someone to their deaths for canon-fodder instead of treating them. (They ain't treating us because discrimination, send us back to our deaths.) This is why fat people are told to lose weight for everything, and trans people are told a variety of transphobic microaggressions.

What prevents their anti-revolution military from killing us while we're their captives?

Apr 3, 2023 at 10:40pmWeb
Show threadb9AcEApr 3, 2023

@queex Ooh, wow. Heh, thank you for sending so many thoughts to me. ;-)

I think, of course, a lot is different, whilst I think the Patriarchy per se isn't very different.

During the time I was slated for it, the system here required every male do evaluation for if the State wanted to conscript them or not and a plain refusal (as two of my dads did) meant months in prison.
My choice therefore was that I could either fake being "undesired" somehow and forced to sort and hand out socks for 7Β½ months, or go the other route and become the (hack, cough, sorry, it's a hierarchical structure, so there's no avoiding the terms) highest ranked instead and get a "free education" for 15 months to become a Sergeant.
I chose the latter, but they then also shut down the regiment while I was in it due to Cold War 1 ending (yes, I'm that old ;-P), so I was let go just before the final exercise months.

At the time I encountered all of two (2) persons identified as female in the 3 regiments I was trained at, a complete culture of homophobia and sexism, alongside with plenty of toxic "masculinity".

However, for me, personally, I think I gained revolution usable knowledge.