Nowhere GirlJun 21, 2023
"If you make some people feel excluded from your society for their whole lives, why would they care about you?"
Show threadNowhere GirlJun 21, 2023

Someone posed this question in the context of police / prison abolition.

If the system is going to fuck you over and probably kill you anyway, why should you feel bad about, e.g., cops being killed? They don't care about you.

Billionaires and their cronies have built an entire society around extracting wealth in exchange for making bigoted authoritarians more powerful, to the point the world is literally on fire.

Why should we care if one of them dies? They don't see themselves as one of us.

TelpereonJun 24, 2023
Show threadNowhere Girl

Anti-trans bigots have this weird tic of wanting to be loved and admired despite saying and doing horrendous things. Why should any trans person care if JKR or Elon Musk dies horribly?

"Be the better person" is usually the response, but the expectation of one-way sympathy, deference, and even submission is part of the system of oppression they use.

Why should we?

Jun 21, 2023 at 10:30pmWeb
Show threadNowhere GirlJun 21, 2023

This is a question I think about a lot, actually, in a personal sense and through most of my writing, where the protagonists tend to be alienated from their society.

People on the inside and in good standing with their culture often can't see the ways that it's abusive and oppressive to others.

People on the outside, the marginalized and vulnerable, are often aware of nothing else even as they're bombarded with messages to conform -- to a system that won't accept them anyway, regardless.

Show threadIt's Just Jenn 🏳️‍⚧️Jun 22, 2023
@gwynnion Yeah, they can get bent. I'll chip in for tickets for a submarine ride.
Show threadMikeDunnAuthorJun 22, 2023

@gwynnion

Well said. I think this is a clearer way of describing privilege

Show threadtimberwraithJun 21, 2023

@gwynnion Personally, I don't care if JKR, Musk, the cops, my GOP family of birth, and the entire populace of white conservative america are sucked into a singularity and forgotten by the universe.

Any and all of them could perish and I'd smile.

Show threadNowhere GirlJun 21, 2023

@timberwraith Like, you don't want to hold hatred in your heart but I don't hate JKR, et al. or even think about them most of the time.

Not the way they spend all their time trying to hurt people like us.

But I'm not shedding any tears for them either. And yeah, I'd probably celebrate a little when they died. Just as they'd celebrate my death if they knew who I was.

But I just can't be compelled to care about them.

They don't matter.

The best thing they can do for me is cease to exist.

Show threadtimberwraithJun 21, 2023

@gwynnion I feel an active dislike for all of them. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't.

The best that I can do is general indifference. If they die? Meh, whatever. The world's a better place with them gone.

I wouldn't actively seek violence against them but I'll embrace any good fortune the universe might offer via their demise.

Show threadtimberwraithJun 21, 2023

@gwynnion When my authoritarian father died when I was 20, I learned early in my life that an abuser's passing is often a moment of good fortune.

And the closer in proximity to my life that abuser's reach of power is, the greater the good fortune that comes with their demise.

With death comes change.

Show threadderekJun 22, 2023

@gwynnion There's the saying, "Never mud wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty and the pig is used to it." but Taking the High Road never works against those who are willing to cheat, lie, and steal their way to winning their arbitrary "contest." You _have_ to play dirty with these fascists.

- some random mastodon guy's thought