Lesley Carhart 
Women are being -erased- in America #resist https://www.reddit.com/r/optimistsunitenonazis/s/FvYzm4erhn
Secure, in Style 👞🗝️@hacks4pancakes Hopefully it’ll all be housed outside of the country, where it’s safer.
@SecureInStyle I keep pleading with people outside the US to store things and not just count solely on the Internet Archive to do this for them. They're amazing, but a huge target right now.
Unfortunately, it doesn't look like many non-Americans understand how bad it has gotten in one month and that this is really happening, right now. I will buy all the hard drives I can myself when I move.
The digital book burning and minimization of trans/black/gay/women's history is very well underway here. And because the US hosts much of the internet architecture, it has been very effective. They are doing everything from blowing away digital backups, to wiping file repos, to painting over walls and murals, to forcing changes in school curriculum. Now. It is happening now.
Jack Linke 🦄@hacks4pancakes @SecureInStyle I don't know why I was shocked to hear that even the monument at Stonewall is being wiped of any references to trans.
The cruelty and dehumanization is devastating.
And it's like cancer.
1/4
@hacks4pancakes @SecureInStyle One of our Marines the other day was joking about trans folks getting kicked out. Using pronouns like "it".
I don't think he even thought about what he was saying. He thought he was being funny. He...
- Doesn't think he knows any trans folks
- Didn't realize that we have at least one trans person in our unit affected by this
- Didn't realize he was making jokes in the presence of a gay guy
I shut that shit down right away.
2/4
@hacks4pancakes @SecureInStyle Reminded him and the others nearby that we are talking about fellow humans and fellow Marines.
That somewhere around 1% of the military is transgender, so they almost certainly know someone who is trans and will be hurt by this policy.
That many of the jokes made at the expense of trans folks are similar/the same as the ones I experienced in my first decade in the Corps.
That we treat others with respect and dignity. Always.
3/4
@hacks4pancakes @SecureInStyle But I'm not around for every conversation 😞
It just hurts so badly that these kinds of conversations are becoming 'okay' again. That it's becoming publicly acceptable, at least in certain crowds, to again treat people like they are inhuman and as if some lives are inconsequential - without making any effort to understand.
Things feel so dark right now.
4/4
@hacks4pancakes @SecureInStyle (Also, ironic that the young man I mentioned is Hispanic, and it's a near certainty that people he knows and cares about will be impacted by certain other policies. Why do groups of humans pick other groups to harm instead of banding together to protect us all? We're all so damn stupid!)
Sorry for spewing a load of despair that had little to do with your post.
5/4 oops
Baron Vonskinnback@jack @hacks4pancakes @SecureInStyle surely it is worse than that, trust is a huge element of military life, how confident could you feel fighting side by side with a person you know doesn't even respect you as a human, how can you trust that person to respect your life when it matters most, I wouldn't trust them to have my back when it counts the most...
Court Cantrell does not comply@jack @hacks4pancakes @SecureInStyle The defining characteristic of all of these racist bigot misogynist homophobe transphobes is: fear.
Something in their individual personal histories -- not the same thing for all, but *something* -- has caused them to be, at their very core, utterly terrified of the Other. It's really a terror of the otherness within themselves, that part of all of us that we disavow, the place where we're innately alienated from ourselves. Most of us try to deal with it...
@jack @hacks4pancakes @SecureInStyle ...in healthy ways, and we succeed and fail, succeed and fail, and such is life.
But *these* people...these hate-filled, violent people canNOT tolerate even the mere hint that they themselves are not whole and complete. The only way they can sublimate the fear is to disavow that innate self-alienation. They only way they can deal with it is to look for a scapegoat, someone(s) *outside of themselves* they can blame for why they're scared...
@jack @hacks4pancakes @SecureInStyle ...and why they cannot know themselves.
Every fascism is born of a failed revolution, and every attempt to create "utopia" is really an outward symbol for these people's terror and disavowal: they create dystopia instead.
Wanting to create The Good Place where they (think they) can be whole and complete, they inevitably create The Bad Place instead.
@courtcan @hacks4pancakes @SecureInStyle This seems to be true, but makes me sad. Can humans as a whole ever get over this hurdle? It seems like these cycles have existed for a long time. Maybe through all of humanity's history 😖
@courtcan @hacks4pancakes @SecureInStyle My personal experience is that exposure is the best medicine for overcoming fear of otherness.
Traveling to other places. Trying new things. Considering new/uncomfortable perspectives. Making an effort to talk with (or read content from) people who aren't cookiecutter examples of ourselves.
But you can't make someone care or to expand themselves or to allow themselves to be a bit vulnerable if they aren't willing to step a bit beyond their comfort 😢
Bruce Mirken@BruceMirken @hacks4pancakes @SecureInStyle I'm thankful I am able & confident enough to do this these days.
That was not always the case. For many years while I was closeted, it hurt that none of the leaders in my life would stand up for folks (like me at the time) unable or afraid to speak up for themselves.
I'll be damned if I'm going to let someone experience that frustration if I can do something about it. No policy (or lack of policy) makes it okay to punch down on or scapegoat others.
@BruceMirken @hacks4pancakes @SecureInStyle Hell, I'm still angry with the Navy Chaplain Corps for being so cowardly near the end of DADT that LGBTQ folks couldn't trust them for fear of being outed.
Chaplains are supposed to be the spiritual mentors of Navy/USMC, & provide counseling & other services, but they made it clear during that time that admitting one was LGBTQ would be reported.
I'm 100% sure this led to deaths of folks among the LGBTQ community 😪 It certainly left me hurt back then.