@randahl It's not really, though. It's a pretty white woman who will get released PDQ.

It's a pretty picture but it doesn't show the cruelty inherent in the system.

We shouldn't be distracted by this.

@muddle @randahl

White women are being repressed under the capitalist patriarchy too, albeit in different ways.

Comparing suffering does not help anyone.

Lady Libery's smile may well be a fawning reaction, which is a defense mechanism.

Those apparently complying w the mythical norm - white, male, young, slim, successful - like policeman in pic - suffer in this culture, too, cf Audre Lorde.

We the People, need to unite worldwide, against all oppression, including the current extreme forms we see in the US.

Let's go!

@muddle @randahl

That's on you.
Not dismissing me, but asking a question, instead of positing your truth, could have been an option.
I'm sure you can think of someone else, as I am now starting my offline day.

Good luck! Actually listening is not always easy, but very rewarding 🤍

@muddle @randahl

Alright. Although it is not my job to educate you, I will, out of courtesy and respect, for you, myself, and anyone else who cares enough to read, take time out of my day to explain myself.

You could appreciate the woman who made an effort and took a risk by dressing up and going out to protest.

Instead, you belittle her. Then, when I speak up, you belittle me.

You do the oppressors' work.

This is not helpful to what I assume is your cause, too.

Hope this helps.
Enjoy your day 🤍

@spellfinder @randahl I didn't really address your point that I was belittling the woman in the photo or you. That wasn't my intention at all. My point wasn't really directed at the woman at all. I was trying to make a point about the photo, symbolism and how we, as viewers are prone to making up comfortable narratives.

As soon as the woman dressed up as Liberty, she was assuming a (symbolic) character. She is inviting us to interpret her not necessarily as herself but as a symbol. You might think that I'm belittling the woman by not looking at her as herself, but I think she is explicitly giving us permission to do just that. She is allowing herself to become an object of analysis.

I might have been unkind by saying that she'll probably be out of jail very quickly, and this, perhaps does put the focus back on her unfairly. Some might read into that and think that I'm discounting her courage or her sacrifice. That's not what I was trying to say. I was trying to caution against easy narratives. So when Randahl describes the picture as "Trump's America in one picture," I'm really trying to push back on that interpretation. It's one interpretation and possibly a flawed one due to the amount of symbolic baggage that Liberty comes with.

You were absolutely right to also focus on and analyse the police guys, too. We should be looking at it from all the angles. But we should also, I think, come in with an attitude of scepticism, to some degree. To be able to see that this is just one artefact, one scene among many. And, as you pointed out, and I agree with you, everyone's suffering is valid and it shouldn't be like a scoreboard. I probably came across as someone who was OK with downgrading the validity of this woman's (or white women's in general) but the point I was trying to make is that it's often too easy and too comfortable to elevate "white suffering" over that of non-whites.

Anyway, I did get defensive because I thought you were accusing me of denigrating the woman and maybe white women in general. Sorry for getting a bit tetchy over that. I hope you can see that I was motivated by trying to go for a wider, more critical and more inclusive view.

Thanks for listening and I hope that if you're reading this, you had a nice net-free time.

@muddle @randahl

What I want, not hope, for everyone, including you, is to stop wasting time thinking, analysing, hammering on your keyboard, and get out there on the street, to meet ups, to distribute Soup, or do whatever to actually help People.

Is what "a nice Time away from the internet" should mean.

And yes, I did, thank you.

Fuck narratives. Create and takeback your own power.

Cheerio!