annieApr 29, 2025
When I was 16 or 17 years old, I stood with a group of people outside an abortion clinic. I was holding a sign that said, “Choose Life.” I was… | https://anniemueller.com/posts/people-can-change
People can change - annie's blog

When I was 16 or 17 years old, I stood with a group of people outside an abortion clinic. I was holding a sign that said, “Choose Life.” I was...

annie's blog
Show threadSara Joy Apr 29, 2025

@annie people really can, and until they do change, it's not that they know they're on some kind of dark side, they believe what they believe because they love, and usually they feel like they're doing the most loving thing. Until they realise they aren't.

There are people who are clearly on the dark side - like oligarchical rich horrible humans - but I think most people are doing their best with the information that they have access to / shoved down their throats.

Show threadSara Joy 
@annie Sorry went off on some kind of pseudo-philosophical knowitall comment - thank you so much for sharing, Annie
Apr 29, 2025 at 9:53amWeb
Show threadMaggie MaybeApr 29, 2025

@sarajw @annie I enjoyed reading it. I’m a middle-aged white woman who didn’t even know I had internalized misogyny until sometime in the last decade, and it has taken me a really long time to purge it from my being.

It’s quite possible that in my quest to do that I swung too far in the other direction, but I’m actually OK with that. I am 4B AF now (not the TERFy “West 4B” I just don’t deal with the patriarchal con of “romantic love” and once I realized that people think they have a right to infect other people with disease I don’t let them touch my body anymore either.)

I’m embarrassed about how long it took me to come around, I recently apologized to some of my younger friends because I know when they were in their 20s and I was in my 30s I was saying dumb stuff to them, but those millennials were not having it. And I thought they just didn’t know how the world worked. But they were right and I was wrong.

Show threadannieApr 29, 2025

@maggiejk @sarajw “they were right and I was wrong” is a glorious thing to be able to say.

the important part is being open and willing to change, I think. I’ll be working out internalized bullshit till I die.

Show threadSara Joy Apr 29, 2025
@annie @maggiejk sooooo much internalised bullshit
Show threadannieApr 29, 2025
@sarajw pseudo-philosophical is my fave comment genre :) and I think a lot about this line I read somewhere: “No one does the wrong thing on purpose.”
That doesn’t mean it’s the right thing ofc… but usually people are choosing what they think is best based on their current understanding and motivations and fears.
Show threadSara Joy Apr 29, 2025

@annie

"No one does the wrong thing on purpose.”

I agree up to a point - somewhere a line is crossed into greed and ambition and some people stop at nothing. But there's a lot fewer of those awful kinds of people.

Show threadannieApr 29, 2025
@sarajw Oh yeah, for sure. Evil exists (as you pointed out, the horrible humans) and some people absolutely cross that line into it.