Entries by tag: america
I'm writing elsewhere but I care passionately about this topic. Here is what I had to say this morning: https://liveonearth.dreamwidth.org/1413541.html
I've been interested in human xenophobia (which I think is instinctive) and race and class warfare since I become politically aware some time in my 20's. The more I study the less I know, other than that people naturally cling to those who are like them and mistrust those who are different. Other than that humans are more emotional than rational.
Human xenophobia is functional in an evolutionary sense: members of a tribe are far more likely to have survived in the past, hence we are biologically wired to be tribal in this way. Without even knowing we do it, we will dehumanize those who we do not like or trust, those who look and sound too different. Once we have placed someone in a "not like me" category, it becomes OK to treat them badly, even kill them. This instinct is difficult to manage in modern society. Our founding documents speak of "domestic tranquility" but we have precious little of that in these interesting times.
The Wolverine Watchmen is a newer group that became active in response to efforts to flatten the pandemic curve in Michigan, and in response to the president's exhortations to "liberate Michigan" from the Covid-19 sparked lockdown. Trump has repeatedly attacked Michigan's Governor in speech and writing, making the target quite clear.
The Wolverine Watchmen of Michigan intended to kidnap the Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and to put her "on trial" for treason. How they think that their version of a trial will be more just than that agreed upon by broader society speaks to their ignorance and isolation. They want to form "a society that followed the U.S. Bill of Rights and where they could be self-sufficient". I can understand that, though their methods leave a great deal to be desired.
The WW website has been deleted. Their social media activity revealed particular concern about taxes, gun control and the "Deep State". Michigan is also home to the Boogaloo Bois who, like other Boogaloo groups are focussed on fomenting civil war.
Thirteen people were arrested by the feds for two separate plots on the Governor. The arrests include 7 members of the WW. They wanted to use bombs to blow up police vehicles and storm the Capitol with 200 men. The militia leader and others were charged with "threat of terrorism, gang membership, providing material support for terrorist ats, and possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony". I presume that the feds waited until they had ample evidence to bust the militia because the last federal case again a militia in Michigan ended poorly for the feds in 2012 when all seven defendants were cleared.
One young member of the arrested WW group talked about sending a bomb to the governor, saying "I just wanna make the world glow, dude," "we're just gonna conquer" everything and it will all "have to be annihilated". Comments like this do not suggest that this young man in particular has any ability to think critically or to comprehend what the law or the rest of society might have to say about his ideas.
An expert named Amy Cooter (Vanderbilt U) estimates that there are 24-36 similar militia groups in Michigan with the potential for violence. Michigan's militias are the envy of armed groups nationwide. Most of them are law abiding and predominantly interested in protecting what they believe are constitutional rights. They may not start out racist but they could easily end up that way in an environment of racial tension and with the influence of social media, which has increased collaboration between white supremacy and conspiracy groups. Talk of inciting a civil war is becoming more common especially by the militarized portion of Trump's base.
Meanwhile the president has been stoking fear about the next election. I suspect that when he loses he'll do his best to invalidate the election. He'll use these thugs to tie up law enforcement efforts, and sue to stop a vote count in some battleground state. From there he expects that a conservative-stacked supreme court will make him POTUS for a second term, from which platform he'll be trying to keep the office for life.
This story is just the beginning of the intended violence, and it is not the anti-fa that is plotting it.
Interesting times, indeed.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-we-know-about-wolverine-watchmen-accused-of-terror-kidnap-plot-against-michigan-gov-gretchen-whitmer
Betsy Ross Flag (flying at ringleader's house) significance: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/betsy-ross-flag-nike-colin-kaepernick-patriot-movement-ku-klux-klan-854612/
https://www.refinery29.com/en-ca/2020/10/10085589/wolverine-watchmen-michigan-militia-history-boogaloo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boogaloo_movement
Human xenophobia is functional in an evolutionary sense: members of a tribe are far more likely to have survived in the past, hence we are biologically wired to be tribal in this way. Without even knowing we do it, we will dehumanize those who we do not like or trust, those who look and sound too different. Once we have placed someone in a "not like me" category, it becomes OK to treat them badly, even kill them. This instinct is difficult to manage in modern society. Our founding documents speak of "domestic tranquility" but we have precious little of that in these interesting times.
The Wolverine Watchmen is a newer group that became active in response to efforts to flatten the pandemic curve in Michigan, and in response to the president's exhortations to "liberate Michigan" from the Covid-19 sparked lockdown. Trump has repeatedly attacked Michigan's Governor in speech and writing, making the target quite clear.
The Wolverine Watchmen of Michigan intended to kidnap the Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and to put her "on trial" for treason. How they think that their version of a trial will be more just than that agreed upon by broader society speaks to their ignorance and isolation. They want to form "a society that followed the U.S. Bill of Rights and where they could be self-sufficient". I can understand that, though their methods leave a great deal to be desired.
The WW website has been deleted. Their social media activity revealed particular concern about taxes, gun control and the "Deep State". Michigan is also home to the Boogaloo Bois who, like other Boogaloo groups are focussed on fomenting civil war.
Thirteen people were arrested by the feds for two separate plots on the Governor. The arrests include 7 members of the WW. They wanted to use bombs to blow up police vehicles and storm the Capitol with 200 men. The militia leader and others were charged with "threat of terrorism, gang membership, providing material support for terrorist ats, and possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony". I presume that the feds waited until they had ample evidence to bust the militia because the last federal case again a militia in Michigan ended poorly for the feds in 2012 when all seven defendants were cleared.
One young member of the arrested WW group talked about sending a bomb to the governor, saying "I just wanna make the world glow, dude," "we're just gonna conquer" everything and it will all "have to be annihilated". Comments like this do not suggest that this young man in particular has any ability to think critically or to comprehend what the law or the rest of society might have to say about his ideas.
An expert named Amy Cooter (Vanderbilt U) estimates that there are 24-36 similar militia groups in Michigan with the potential for violence. Michigan's militias are the envy of armed groups nationwide. Most of them are law abiding and predominantly interested in protecting what they believe are constitutional rights. They may not start out racist but they could easily end up that way in an environment of racial tension and with the influence of social media, which has increased collaboration between white supremacy and conspiracy groups. Talk of inciting a civil war is becoming more common especially by the militarized portion of Trump's base.
Meanwhile the president has been stoking fear about the next election. I suspect that when he loses he'll do his best to invalidate the election. He'll use these thugs to tie up law enforcement efforts, and sue to stop a vote count in some battleground state. From there he expects that a conservative-stacked supreme court will make him POTUS for a second term, from which platform he'll be trying to keep the office for life.
This story is just the beginning of the intended violence, and it is not the anti-fa that is plotting it.
Interesting times, indeed.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-we-know-about-wolverine-watchmen-accused-of-terror-kidnap-plot-against-michigan-gov-gretchen-whitmer
Betsy Ross Flag (flying at ringleader's house) significance: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/betsy-ross-flag-nike-colin-kaepernick-patriot-movement-ku-klux-klan-854612/
https://www.refinery29.com/en-ca/2020/10/10085589/wolverine-watchmen-michigan-militia-history-boogaloo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boogaloo_movement
Living in an urban area I, like many, exercise in the park. I was doing so before the pandemic started and I have continued. My local park is big and beautiful and is seeing a higher level of use now that the gyms are closed. It feels safe and reasonable except for one thing: the runners who brush past on the paved trails. They are too close; many runners are making no effort to distance from others who use the same trails. This is not good enough.
Runners, please run farther away from the other people who use public trails. In most cases you can run off trail to give people, especially elders, a wide berth. Consider it part of your workout. Elders are much less able to avoid you than you are to avoid them. Running up behind people does not give them an opportunity to avoid you. There are sections of trail that are restricted in width--you can choose different routes. Some runners have taken to running on sidewalks and side streets to avoid too-close pedestrians. This is reasonable and appreciated, and might make it possible for you to enter that thoughtless consciousness that some runners enjoy.
If you are young or Republican and "not worried" about the virus, that does not make it acceptable for you to frighten or expose others. A certain amount of kindness is expected just because you are part of the human family. Thoughtlessness and selfishness are not admirable, and I don't think anyone wants to be that way. We all have the potential to be better than that, to be conscientious and caring in our interactions with each other. So please, runners, take the extra steps to let all people have a minimum of six feet distance, no matter who they are. I for one thank you for this kindness.
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.
Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am,
And be ashamed—
I, too, am America.
-Langston Hughes, 1926
patriotism,
it is unsafe
to be intelligent.
--Isaac Asimov, quoted in TheBulwark.com
A similar process is of returning home is happening now. Many college age kids have returned to nests recently emptied. Older children area also returning home, or staying home instead of setting out into the world. They settle into a spare room, use the internet, eat the food. Some exert themselves to take care of their parents or grandparents or siblings who are less able, and do the work that needs to be done around the house. The richer and more entitled ones hunker down with gaming or other internet pursuits and refuse to even grocery shop. The internet is the difference. Back in the Old days our best avoidant distractions were books, now in the New it is the bottomless pit of sex and violence and disinformation that is the internet. A mind-corrupting abundance of dopamine hits. Back in the Old days the youth still had a work ethic that included the possibility of picking up a rake or a hoe or a hammer. Now in the New days the youth think they should have gotten rich and famous somehow but they didn't, and now they don't know what to do.
Granted, the distancing requirements and loss of employment are especially hard on young people who are just getting their feet wet in the world. But I have to put it out there that there are things worth learning and exploring at home. Elders have things to teach. Knowing how to build a wall, fix a pipe, or grow a vegetable garden, these are valuable skills. Sure, you grew up in a time when your parents hired someone else to build and repair the house, and you got your groceries wrapped in plastic from a grocery, or already prepared from a restaurant. But food grows from the earth, you too can grow it. Animal food has to be butchered--are you ready to kill your meat? This is your chance to learn some things that have been progressively more forgotten over the last 5 generations in America. It's a good time to be able to subsist.
Back in the Old Great Depression, people got happier. Several different studies noticed this change. I have lots of theories about why this was true. I suspect that being forced to work out differences with your families helps people grow up. Instead of remaining a petulant child who has it your way but lives alone, you can learn to live with others and understand and respect their point of view. I think that growing up takes us to a happier place. I think that having honest, real, loving relationships with the people you know best is the strongest foundation of happiness.
During the Old Great Depression businesses closed but there was no pandemic. In the New Great Depression we know that when the virus finds our ailing and elderly relatives, they will die. This is a very hard thing. I am mourning already for people that I talk to every day. I know that someone dear to me will die, it is only a matter of time. Back in the Old days people were dying at a normal rate. Now we are dying by the thousands and we're nowhere near done with that yet. The deep sadness is pervasive.
Being a doc and a dork too, I've been studying on COVID-19 since it first appeared. Still the magnitude of the crisis is shocking. This will be a life-changing event and it may last for years. I could loose both of my parents. I would not be shocked if I also were to die, but then I have been expecting to die since early in life. What surprises me is that I am still here, to see all of this. I never thought I would see the American experiment fail. I did not anticipate being alive for a pandemic. I didn't know that I'd live to see another Great or Greater Depression. But here I am, still breathing, still enjoying the sun streaming through the window and the softness of Kitten's fur, drinking hot tea, with access to internet and hot water coming out of pipes. I am waiting to see what is next. I am lucky and I know it.
Being an intravert, it is not yet a hardship to stay home. In fact, I am more connected with my family and friends because I have been making daily telephone calls. I generally avoid the telephone, preferring one-on-one in-person conversations. But now, the telephone is what I have. And the internet. I have been spending a lot of time on fecebuk. I discover more interesting articles there than I do from my own independent web wanderings. My friends are a thoughtful and intelligent bunch.
I recently read a book called Perennial Seller, about how to create and market a lasting work of art. I am a writer and a philosopher, and I have several books in the works...and I am thinking that this long period of lockdown will be a good opportunity to write. If I can persuade my dear partner to stop interrupting me with his stream of consciousness verbal leakage, I have a chance. My next hurdle is deciding which book to focus on. I shift back and forth among all my writing projects as a new idea or bit of information provokes me. This shifting--and the splitting of one chapter into two, one book into two, does not facilitate finishing anything.
Of course, because my job is at a clinic, filling doctor's orders for herbs and supplements, the business may remain open. I may be one of those who still has a job for a while yet at least. This is both a blessing (paycheck) and a curse (exposure).
I was impressed. He was there to promote his latest book, Our Man, which is about the controversial diplomate Richard Holbrook and the old America that he symbolizes. The new America is something different. Packer understands the changes in our culture better than most and I fully intend to seek out his writing in the future. I have probably read him in the past but the name did not stick in my head.
Our Man is written in an unusual style for a biography. Rather than being overfull of dates and details, it is told in narrative style by a fictional narrator who is older than the author. The narrator was "there" for the whole story, and tells it in a style that the author repeated calls "a yarn". I'm sure it will be a good read, and I will read it as soon as the demand for it at the library goes down a bit.
The book that he wrote in 2013 is called The Unwinding and it is about the cultural shifts that led to the election of Trump--except that at the time nobody knew it would lead there. It is on my reading list. The NY Times says it explains why Trump was elected. For many of us that bears some thought.
When Packer first took the stage he looked up at the audience in the Schnitzer auditorium and he said that Portland is not the biggest city, but it was the biggest crowd. The auditorium is huge and a beauty. It holds 2,500 people, and it was full. After his talk he took out his phone and photographed the crowd from his view on the stage.
Portland, Oregon is an interesting place, full of many highly educated individuals who dearly want to save the world. They share Packer's sadness and fear about the changes that have come to our country and our politics in the last 20 years. The patterns of applause during the Q&A period at the end reveal the overall agreement of this crowd with Packer's assessment of what is happening because of Trump. His answer to the question about Syria (after the Trump-licensed Turkish bombing of the Kurds) made the situation more clear to me than months of reading in the Times.
Packer recommended three books to read (not his own) at the end of the talk. I put them all on my library list but the one that really excites me is more current. It is called Intellectuals and Race, by Thomas Sowell. Amazon says it is an inclusive critique of the intellectual's destructive role in shaping ideas about race in America. Other sources talk about how much ruckus this book has raised. Intellectuals don't like to be criticised but in this day and age, they need to respond to criticism rather than dismissing it.
I would say that the ivory tower has made some missteps in shaping ideas about sexuality and gender, too. I have been subject to some pretty strong progressive brainwashing in this town and witnessed it being misused to shame and alienate. We would do well to pay attention to George Packer and other thoughtful people in the future as we try to find a way out of the stalemate we are in culturally and politically. Our democracy is on its way toward failure and if we care about this experiment enough to continue it, we need to find a way that we can talk across the rather deep divisions.
I didn't mean to have anything to do with the protests in PDX yesterday but by accident I visited the fringe. I worked until 1pm and then I went into SE PDX for an appointment. My appointment was on Morrison, just a block east of the bridge. When I parked at 1:15pm, the first oddity I saw was two large trucks loaded to the gills with PDX cops dressed out in riot gear. The trucks are set up such that the police can stand around the edges of the back and hang on, and when the truck stops they all step off. They had helmets with face guards and a large assortment of weapons. There appeared to be a medic on each truck.
There was a helicopter hovering overhead, and another helicopter roaming. Soon two more truckloads of police came by my parking spot. I got out of my vehicle and walked around. There were drunken white tourists coming out of a bar. They climbed onto one of those big bicycle carts and rowdied off down the street. Then a crowd of black and camo-clad men sauntered by, wearing masks and armor and carrying medieval looking weapons. There was at least one woman with them. They were scary, intentionally so. I think they were anti-fa. They appeared to simply be making their presence known. Two truckloads of riot police unloaded from their trucks and stood on the street corner. Another two truckloads of riot police came through behind the anti-fa after they left. I read this morning that Rump is talking about treating the anti-fa as another terrorist org. I don't think so. Their goal is not violence. Their goal is to be there and intervene in bigoted violence when the cops aren't around. I am grateful, frankly, that there are local citizens willing to step in and stop white supremacists from hurting/killing for their "cause". I'm not about to risk my own neck.
I walked around the area for a while because I was early to my appointment. I saw three very clean black suburbans slowly creeping through the blocks. I presume those were the feds behind bulletproof glass. Large ford trucks were arriving and parking in the area, and from each truck spilled four white men. They were mostly wearing polo shirts and blue jeans, and were mostly young to middle-aged and in good shape. They looked like they were ready for a brawl. Itching for a fight, maybe. I presume those were the so-called Proud Boys in spite of the fact that none were wearing black polos with yellow trim which is their uniform. That group is required to physically fight for their "western chauvinism" cause in order to reach the top level of membership. They are racist and misogynist and I was glad our local anti-fa and the cops were there ready to suppress their efforts to beat up gay and brown people.
I am proud of Portland with its bubble of relative safety for LGBT and brown people. Oregon doesn't have the finest of history in this regard, but at least now there are a lot of people willing to stick their necks out to stop hate.
Below are some of the links I visited on Saturday morning when trying to understand what is going on. I think McInnes and his crew will continue to come here because they get attention, and that is what they want. Attention and a fight. The PDX goal was to stop the fighting. After the protests the word was that they plan to return every month. It will be expensive for the city to continue to provide the kind of police presence that I saw.
I find it interesting that they call themselves boys. Oh yeah? Not men? So desperate to belong that they'll revert to boyhood? And proud of what, exactly? Their white skin? They had nothing to do with that, they were just born with it. Their tatoos? Their toughness? Not very proud of their independence I guess. Not too proud of their critical thinking or compassion. They may be proud but we are not proud of them.
Wiki on Proud Boys
There was a helicopter hovering overhead, and another helicopter roaming. Soon two more truckloads of police came by my parking spot. I got out of my vehicle and walked around. There were drunken white tourists coming out of a bar. They climbed onto one of those big bicycle carts and rowdied off down the street. Then a crowd of black and camo-clad men sauntered by, wearing masks and armor and carrying medieval looking weapons. There was at least one woman with them. They were scary, intentionally so. I think they were anti-fa. They appeared to simply be making their presence known. Two truckloads of riot police unloaded from their trucks and stood on the street corner. Another two truckloads of riot police came through behind the anti-fa after they left. I read this morning that Rump is talking about treating the anti-fa as another terrorist org. I don't think so. Their goal is not violence. Their goal is to be there and intervene in bigoted violence when the cops aren't around. I am grateful, frankly, that there are local citizens willing to step in and stop white supremacists from hurting/killing for their "cause". I'm not about to risk my own neck.
I walked around the area for a while because I was early to my appointment. I saw three very clean black suburbans slowly creeping through the blocks. I presume those were the feds behind bulletproof glass. Large ford trucks were arriving and parking in the area, and from each truck spilled four white men. They were mostly wearing polo shirts and blue jeans, and were mostly young to middle-aged and in good shape. They looked like they were ready for a brawl. Itching for a fight, maybe. I presume those were the so-called Proud Boys in spite of the fact that none were wearing black polos with yellow trim which is their uniform. That group is required to physically fight for their "western chauvinism" cause in order to reach the top level of membership. They are racist and misogynist and I was glad our local anti-fa and the cops were there ready to suppress their efforts to beat up gay and brown people.
I am proud of Portland with its bubble of relative safety for LGBT and brown people. Oregon doesn't have the finest of history in this regard, but at least now there are a lot of people willing to stick their necks out to stop hate.
Below are some of the links I visited on Saturday morning when trying to understand what is going on. I think McInnes and his crew will continue to come here because they get attention, and that is what they want. Attention and a fight. The PDX goal was to stop the fighting. After the protests the word was that they plan to return every month. It will be expensive for the city to continue to provide the kind of police presence that I saw.
I find it interesting that they call themselves boys. Oh yeah? Not men? So desperate to belong that they'll revert to boyhood? And proud of what, exactly? Their white skin? They had nothing to do with that, they were just born with it. Their tatoos? Their toughness? Not very proud of their independence I guess. Not too proud of their critical thinking or compassion. They may be proud but we are not proud of them.
Wiki on Proud Boys
The Proud Boys say they have an initiation process that has four stages and includes hazing. The first stage is a loyalty oath, on the order of "I’m a proud Western chauvinist, I refuse to apologize for creating the modern world"; the second is getting punched until the person recites pop culture trivia, such as the names of five breakfast cereals; the third is getting a tattoo and agreeing to not masturbate; and the fourth is getting into a major fight "for the cause."
CBS
No one has applied for permits for today's protests
FBI will be there
SPLC
Proud boys = "general hate" white supremacist, misogynist, antisemitic
Gavin McInnes
Gavin's website: http://streetcarnage.com/
He's from NY: https://www.huffpost.com/
Several articles: https://www.huffpost.com/
Rollingstone
Israel
https://www.newsweek.com/Then Lorena Bobbit came to mind. She's the woman who cut off her husband's penis and threw it out the car window as she was driving away. I saw a recent news bit about her, she's doing fine. She did remark that everybody was fascinated about the penis, which was found and reattached. Her husband went on to be a porn star, I imagine abusing women on camera. People weren't nearly as interested in why she did it. Why did she cut it off? I'd bet she was furious. She said it was because her husband "forced himself on her". Not just once: many times. She didn't use the word rape but I will. Her husband considered sex with her to be his right and he raped her, so much and so unpleasantly that she was angry enough to cut off his penis. Temporary insanity sounds like a nice plea deal but not the truth. The truth is something more like justice. If rape doesn't sound like a bad enough crime to you to justify that punishment, you are probably a man.
Another thing that comes to mind is this article, The Female Price of Male Pleasure. This is truth. Men get their rocks off and women tolerate. The woman's pleasure is rarely a priority, much less her orgasm. Men just want to get off. If she's uncomfortable or in pain, they ignore it. If she seeks medical help for her discomfort in sex, her care is not as well covered by insurance as his is for getting an erection. As if men have more of a right to a big fat erection than women have to not be hurt. Part of the obliviousness of men is because testosterone makes them that way. They are impulsive and aggressive because their hormones make them that way. Sex is an obsession dictated by evolution. But their selfish behavior is in part due to a gender imbalance in our culture.
How many husbands have wives that never have orgasms, with them at least? How many even know that or give a damn? I know only about a few, but that's because they've confessed to me in private. Usually the blame is on the woman for not doing what it takes to have an orgasm. What if the whole experience is so unpleasant that women wait for the man to get off and fake orgasms so that they can be set free from the imbalanced sexual process for at least a few more hours? Lots, that's my estimate.
I know all of this from my own experience. My best lover ever was a woman. We didn't have the hottest sex in the world, but she made the effort to give me orgasms. She was sensitive and curious enough to learn how, and she taught me the lesbian creed of reciprocality. Our orgasms might not happen at the same time, but we can each give the other one. Lesbians emphasize this. It just doesn't happen in many male-female relationships. The male's orgasm is all that matters--the female can "take care of herself". The male gets resentful if he has to "take care of himself". This is disgusting.
My lesbian lover knew from her own experience how sensitive a woman's breasts are, how they can be used to excite, and how easily they can be hurt. I can't tell you how many times a man has been cruel to my breasts and painfully pinched the nipple or grabbed one in his hand and squeezed it like a water balloon. My breasts are not for men. If men cannot use them to give me pleasure, they do not get to touch them.
And then there is porn. You don't have to look much to know that one of the biggest themes is domination and abuse of females by males. To start with females are expected to be unnaturally shaven and denuded of protective hair. To follow up with that we're supposed to enjoy being tied up, abused, ejaculated on. Maybe some do enjoy this but I can tell you that the vast majority of women want to be caressed and adored, we want to be seduced, not raped. But a whole lot of really sad young men have their only sexual experiences interacting with this twisted porn, and it makes them even more messed up than they were to start with. How are they going to learn how to seduce a woman from this?
So in addition to all the other crises facing our time, there is this. Women are deeply angry because we've come to realize that we've been mistreated and it does not have to be this way. The sexual imbalance in our culture has come into very clear focus. We are furious. Sexism in sexuality is an ugly thing. Men can't help that they have testosterone and are horny, but they can decide to be egalitarian, they can learn to be good lovers and sensitive partners. They can take on the lesbian practice of reciprocality in pleasure and orgasm. For many in the boomer generation it may be too late; they are stuck in their ways. But for Gen X and onward I think there is still hope that men and women can find a new equilibrium in which women's pleasure is given at least equal priority and men don't think they have a right to sex in spite of how unpleasant it is for their partner, much less license to rape little girls or their wives.
I suppose we have the creep in chief to thank for this nexus. His naked misogyny in addition to the nasty racism has emboldened a lot of creeps to act out, and women have had to defend ourselves more and more. A supreme court justice who probably had some fun at the expense of many young women is just one of three accused on our highest court. The reversal of Roe v Wade is on the horizon, and with that men will be able to legally hijack a woman's body for the purpose of propagating their sperm. Add to that the fact that abortion is getting harder to access even before the Roe reversal, and that in some states rapists have parental rights, and we have even more reasons to be furious.
I'm not in favor of abortion in general, I think it is an archaic solution to a problem that should be addressed much earlier in the sequence of events. No woman should be raped or in any other way get pregnant when she is not prepared to raise a child. But this is another issue that would require all night to even just begin writing about. Then there's income equality which puts women in a dependent position, and many more sticky wickets. The pit is deep.
But just one more thing. We have every right and reason to be angry. Women have been through a lot of crap in service to men's desires, and it is our turn to serve ourselves. It is our turn not just to have pleasure instead of pain, but to run this place and change the culture. We are not bitches, we are justified and motivated. We don't need men; we only need sperm if we want babies. Justice may be a ways off but I can smell it through my tears. Look out all you creepy guys who buy and bully for sex. The world is changing.
- Current Mood:
angry
Comments