Robin Forlonge Patterson
Justin MacleodJust so disabled people in the UK know, if Reform UK get in, they would repeal the Equality Act, describing it as divisive and a political fashion statement. If you aren't interested in politics, it's worth bearing in mind that politics is interested in you - the immigrant carers that help you, your benefits, your access to work, your right to live free from discrimination, companies' obligations for accessibility, Uber's obligation to take guide dogs.
Also, don't imagine that them getting in would never happen because other people will vote the right way, because no-one would ever be mad enough to vote for them. Don't imagine this is a problem for other people to fix. It is not! Look at America. Ask the people of Minnesota how a largely apathetic electorate worked out for them. You know what's coming. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!
If they come for you and your benefits, you don't want to be thinking "perhaps it would have been different if I'd done something!" If you're not sure what to do, askk. We're all in this together. We'll help each other, but we must do something!
Christine M.Just to make sure ... attached: the nine protected characteristics of the 2010 Equality Act. Some may be surprised how many "everyday conditions" are subsumed here ... among others age, being married, being pregnant, being disabled and more.
Throwing away all this? I wonder ...
Left For Dud, Dud for Left@JustinMac84 Pericles said the same thing several THOUSAND years ago! Nobody seems to have paid attention to him.
@BackFromTheDud Some things bear repeating. And people do take notice, they do resist. We just need to massively upscale!
javensbukan@JustinMac84 It's beyond words to see the UK seemingly whole heartedly lining up to shoot itself in the face willingly.
Again.
ðŸ˜
@javensbukan The thing that agravates me most is the media's role, starting to talk about Reform like their election is a foregone conclusion! Heard an article saying who they'll have in their cabinet and in what roles. With three years to go, who cares? It sets the stage in an unacceptable way!
@JustinMac84 They did the exact same thing here with the Conservatives...until everything changed with Trump.
Nothing is a forgone conclusion...especially with that long to go!
Miggi@JustinMac84 Things are close to the situation here in Germany. Fascist parties and movements worlwide are like that.
@miggi At least the left won your last general election. That was a profound relief!
@JustinMac84 They didn't win. They just increased their votes. We've got a very conservative CDU, which is sure open to a coalition with the AfD after next election in 2029, IMO.
@miggi Oh. I thought your chancelor was left and the alt right lost ground.I'm sorry to hear it!
@JustinMac84 Sadly not. Our chancelor Merz is close-minded to Trump and said racist things, for example. He was the CEO of the German section of Blackrock. So he's ultra capitalist too.
Badger@miggi @JustinMac84 and it feels like that capitalist loyalty is the uniting cause of so much of this evil. The whole house of cards has to fall. I just hope we don't get forced into war before the rich are forced to relinquish that stolen power.
@BadgerandVole @miggi One thing is certain. A whole lot more will have to happen than people saying they're unhappy about it.
@JustinMac84 @miggi oh yes.
Artstories@JustinMac84 @miggi I wish. Our chancellor was a BlackRock-CEO and it shows. He's pretty close to the right-wingers and his cabinett is a horror show.
@art_histories @JustinMac84 Exactly!
Estarriol, Terrorist Dragonlets see, lowering minimum wage, removing the equalities act, insurance based healthcare and butchers aprons for all!
solid policies there, for psychopaths and idiots.
Nina Cried PowerOn the other hand, being Racist is okay again.
Tricky decision.
@Nina_cried @Thebratdragon there's a deep sad truth to this. It really seems that far more people than there should be are happy to vote discrimination, glad that someone is affirming their negative thoughts, despite the increased poverty it will mean for them "I don't mind being broke if it means I don't have to feel bad about hating the neighbours any more."
Neil Moffatt@JustinMac84 Anything tainted by snakeoil-salesman #Farage is be treated with deep suspicion.
#Reform will serve the wrong people.
@NicelyManifest If only more people would realise this and Reform would be tossed back to the margins where it belongs.
@JustinMac84 Yup. The media embrace self-serving monsters like Farage and give precious little time to the few deeply caring politicians. That there are only a few should give GREATER reason to hear their views.
All across the world, power is exploited for nefarious reasons by the very wrong type of people ever to be given power.
woe2you@JustinMac84 They also want to dismantle the NHS and replace it with US-style healthcare for the rich, debt and death for the poor. And lower the minimum wage.
@woe2you Didn't know about the NHS! That needs publicising widely!
Chris Brooking@JustinMac84 It's something everyone should be concerned about. Even if you don't belong to one of the protected categories, one day you will be older.
Do you want it to be like the bad old days where someone in their 40s or 50s could be told "yes you've got great experience but older people don't fit with our image, I'm sorry but you just wouldn't fit in".
its Ameise@JustinMac84 a reminder to old (and not old) people in the uk, you can become disabled at any time. As you get old you will eventualy become disabled. Even with only the most self centered mindset you should protect your future by protecting the rights of disabled peopl3
Simon Carswell@JustinMac84 And disability is just one of nine characteristics protected by the Equality Act. If you don't have one of them, you probably know someone who does.
Alex is Adjusting@JustinMac84 I'm going to steal "you may not be interested in politics, but politics sure is interested in you"
@WizardOfDocs Thanks. It may be boring, it may be complicated, it may be unpleasant and disheartening, but it's where most other things come from.
Energetic NovaAnd dont let people convince disabled people in your country they are selfish if they vote for a less than ideal person.
-a disabled person from America who had to deal with people accusing me of all sorts of stuff for wanting to live. :( stand up for disabled going through that shaming from the left please.
And they accused me of shaming too.
@Energetic_Nova I'm not sure I understand this post or this fight. I would say that voting is a complex process and each person has to weigh up the policies that are most important to them knowing that there isn't a perfect party. That said, I think there's a difference between voting for a normal party and voting for fascism.
@Energetic_Nova It's everyone's right to vote for whom they wish. It's everyone's right to express opinion on other's choices of which they're aware. It's everyone's right to ignore those opinions and it's everyone's right to keep their vote secret to avoid this contention
So why make the post you made? Guess you are a do nothing let them win sort. And believe what’s happened is a ok to fully happen to your country. Seems like a dumb post to make if you arent going for prevention.
@Energetic_Nova I am afraid I really don't understand you, but you have me completely wrong. I am absolutely not a do nothing let them win sort. I invite you to peruse my timeline for evidence. The purpose in my post was to engage those of my followers who don't care about politics but who depend on the legeslation politics produces to survive.
@JustinMac84
No, you made a post saying for people to care about politics, and now you have taken it back and you are a total hypocrite and you do not care about politics and you are a fence sitter and you lied about what your beliefs were. You have no plan of action for doing anything. I really hate this. I hate how you’re going to let disabled people suffer because you want perfectionism instead of protect protecting people.
No, you made a post saying for people to care about politics, and now you have taken it back and you are a total hypocrite and you do not care about politics and you are a fence sitter and you lied about what your beliefs were. You have no plan of action for doing anything. I really hate this. I hate how you’re going to let disabled people suffer because you want perfectionism instead of protect protecting people.
@Energetic_Nova You are not listening. I have not in any way taken it back. I was trying to empathise with you on what seems to me to be a completely separate issue. You could spend more time looking at my timeline and getting to know me and my stances thereby, rather than sitting back in assumed superiority over me for having caught me out in something that didn't actually happen.
First you made a post saying to care about politics cause politics cares about you, then you said it it’s OK to sit out and do nothing. You’re just giving people permission to do nothing. Anyway I’m sick of it.
I have scrolled back four days now on your profile and I am not seeing a single post that encourages people to vote. Not a single one like you promised would be there. And I’m not seeing any at all opposition two people accusing people of genocide for voting for a left-wing party. So yeah you said I could scroll back and find that you were not actually for sitting out. That was a lie.
@JustinMac84
I’m saying multiple posts that are against Israel which indicates to me that you are probably exactly the sort of person who yelled and screamed at me and told me not to vote for Kamala Harris so I’m seeing way more evidence that you are pro Donald Trump winning the presidency of the United States and fascism winning then I am seeing the opposite. I am not seeing any sign at all that you stand against fascism. All I’m seeing is you oppose Israel which Nazis do.
I’m saying multiple posts that are against Israel which indicates to me that you are probably exactly the sort of person who yelled and screamed at me and told me not to vote for Kamala Harris so I’m seeing way more evidence that you are pro Donald Trump winning the presidency of the United States and fascism winning then I am seeing the opposite. I am not seeing any sign at all that you stand against fascism. All I’m seeing is you oppose Israel which Nazis do.
@JustinMac84
So yeah you’re just going to allow your disabled friends to be called all sorts of things just because they want to vote for labor or they wanna vote for the green party or whatever cause I know that over there it’s not as big of a deal that you all consolidate on one group… But still same time I’m just not seeing anything about voter encouragement despite imperfections in platforms. I see nothing . I’m only seeing evidence that you would support sitting out and allowing right to w
So yeah you’re just going to allow your disabled friends to be called all sorts of things just because they want to vote for labor or they wanna vote for the green party or whatever cause I know that over there it’s not as big of a deal that you all consolidate on one group… But still same time I’m just not seeing anything about voter encouragement despite imperfections in platforms. I see nothing . I’m only seeing evidence that you would support sitting out and allowing right to w
@Energetic_Nova You said you received shaming from the left. In the American two party system, that led me to believe you had voted for a candidate on the right. I mean choice between her and Trump it's a no-brainer. There's no-one else with a chance. So I completely agree with you. I think it was unreasonable and baseless for them to attack you from the left. But this is what the left does, it is a house divided against itself. Look at you and me,
@Energetic_Nova too busy trying to pick holes rather than fight the common enemy. The misunderstanding is very simple. I didn't as I say, understand your original post because you gave no context. I couldn't imagine why people on the left would shame you. So I gave the best answer I felt I could, questioning at the time whether it was a good idea given the little information. It wasn't. I apologise for my misunderstanding, but
@Energetic_Nova you didn't make it easy and, having been misunderstood, preferred to shoot first rather than explain.
There’s no way that you can possibly explain without shooting so you know that’s just how it is. I explained to you got more upset
@Energetic_Nova That really isn't what happened. As soon as you mentioned Harris I was like ah I understand now. Yeah shaming a Harris vote is stupid. There's no-one better to vote for.
@JustinMac84
No there wasn’t anyone better to vote for also people also have shamed me for voting for Marie Perez (one of the furthest right wing Democrats) but no other Democrats even ran in both of the election she was in and she was up against a literal Nazi. One that is now an appointed member of Trump’s team.
No there wasn’t anyone better to vote for also people also have shamed me for voting for Marie Perez (one of the furthest right wing Democrats) but no other Democrats even ran in both of the election she was in and she was up against a literal Nazi. One that is now an appointed member of Trump’s team.
The whole thing just sucks. If somebody is facing that kind of election, if they’re having to vote for somebody who kind of sucks because they know in the end it will defeat you know somebody in that form party, that’s a good thing that’s being actually anti-fascist. Which is what I am. More than anything. I just can’t let those bastards win. And it just distresses me… I had to mentally push up against a lot of people in 2016 I wasn’t as strong.
@JustinMac84
My district actually has this crazy aliens cult that is against Israel like because it’s the land of the Jews, not because of genocide. They are also homophobic but they’re leader is bisexual and could probably be described as non-binary. And like RFK Junior used to do speeches for that group and I think he actually follows them. They used to support Democrats but then switched to Trump. They were like New Age hippie aliens cult to a lot of people.
My district actually has this crazy aliens cult that is against Israel like because it’s the land of the Jews, not because of genocide. They are also homophobic but they’re leader is bisexual and could probably be described as non-binary. And like RFK Junior used to do speeches for that group and I think he actually follows them. They used to support Democrats but then switched to Trump. They were like New Age hippie aliens cult to a lot of people.
It’s just a lot isn’t it? It’s really distressing and it’s like he was like back by the gay fascist guy who runs that tech company who did the dark enlightenment thing? I don’t know…
His name is Joe Kent. He is absolutely crazy. And he scared me both times he ran. He’s a full on election denier. And he was like doing all of that like right in front of me kind of thing and I saw his buddies in the trucks with the flags trying to stir up controversy about the election
You know it’s like the United States is such a big country so you usually don’t see that kind of a person like right in front of you like that and I did. And it’s like the most surreal thing thinking how like both of these people voted for Bernie Sanders and one of them is a fascist. Like an actual fascist who is a Sanders Trump voter. And then the other was a Sanders Clinton/Biden voter
@Energetic_Nova I am sorry that happened. Truly. Right now, I'm hearing about it on the news and, don't get me wrong, the stuff rolling off the NPR Up First podcast right now is chilling, but it's still the radio and internet. I'm not seeing it on the streets yet. With one exception.
@Energetic_Nova Reform UK waves the banner of being proud to be British. There was a period of people hanging Saint George's flags out as a pro-Reform, nationalist, presumably anti-immigrant symbol. People were talking about them in normal conversation, seeing them as they drove by. That was chilling in a different way.
Yeah isn’t it weird when you see it in person? But like not just that like these are people on the ballot they aren’t just weirdos who are trying to create a Nazi club at the community college which is also a problem that I had to protest to stop the club from happening.
But yeah it’s just so weird seeing people like that in real life and then like they’re on the ballot you know?
@Energetic_Nova Good for you. Props for shutting the club down.
It used to be like just like you know the five dudes who really suck and hosted all of the worst right wing websites that you have even heard about including Kiwi Farms. Yeah I’m literally in that location and somehow we got Democrats to win here. Like honestly people should just kind of put up with the fact I could only get a center. I managed to you know help something much further left than what is in VISIBLY in my community.
It’s really hard when… My district is like just kind of right wing in the first place so it’s just we had a republican for 12 years and then we finally flipped it with that like really right wing Democrat. And that’s like the only way I could get any progress. And I just hate the fact that everybody just like looks at that and can’t put it into context of she was against a literal Nazi who was having actual Nazis campaign for him.