October 2011
“
We also practice a concept called Step Up, Step Back. This is a really important concept, and it’s a beautiful concept. What it means is that, for example, I was born a white male. Because of the colour of my skin, and because of my gender, I have been given certain unfair advantages in my life. People have told me my entire life that what I have to say is important, and also that support has made me feel empowered to speak more often, and louder.
Some people have never been given that support. Some people have been silenced or oppressed their entire lives, so I step up to the responsibility that I’ve been empowered, and then I step back, and let other people who haven’t been empowered have a chance to speak. It also means that if I’ve been speaking a lot I’ll step back, and encourage people who haven’t been speaking a lot to step up.
” —Occupy Wall Street: General Assembly Training
Play
DEAR TUMBLR
Please stop talking about how “bad”, “wrong”, “dangerous” or “stupid” it is when people self-diagnose, especially in regard to mental illness.
Let’s go over the reasons this is fucked up, problematic and oppressive.
1. Classism. Psychiatric and other types of evaluations are really fucking expensive, and often inaccessible. The last psych eval I had cost me $500. Anything involving neurology? Costs a SHIT TON more. Not to mention, services that are available to the poor are typically of low quality.
2. It dis-empowers people with disabilities by establishing doctors as the ultimate authorities on our own experiences. No matter how well we may know ourselves, a doctor supposedly will know better. Because they are a doctor. (And treating someone as an authority simply because they have the privilege of a formal education is classist and ableist.)
3. The entire psychiatric system is still really oppressive to people with disabilities, who can become institutionalized against their will. A lot of people understandably do not trust doctors or are afraid to pursue treatment. Forcing people to see a doctor to obtain a “real” diagnosis is ignoring this reality.
4. Psychiatry and the medical establishment are also very oppressive towards people who are marginalized in other ways. The fact that trans people can still be diagnosed as mentally ill for being trans is only one example of this. People who are out of status could risk deportation for seeking help. Etc.
5. Doctors often disagree with each other. Doctors misdiagnose and prescribe medication that can aggravate an illness. Doctors frequently make mistakes. Teaching people that their own instincts are wrong if a doctor disagrees with them can be really goddamn dangerous. Like, taking the wrong medication due to misdiagnosis can result in death, okay? Serious shit.
If your problem is with people trivializing illness, then say so. That’s not the same as self-diagnosis, which does not inherently trivialize anything. A lot of people consider self-diagnosis to be liberating, empowering, and extremely important, myself included. Don’t tell us how we are “supposed” to seek treatment, especially when it involves a system that is fundamentally flawed, largely inaccessible, and overwhelmingly oppressive.
Flapjack State: how to decode a person with an anxiety disorder →
flapjackstate.tumblr.com
things we are trying to do all the time:
- be safe
things we can’t help but do all the time:
- second-guess ourselves
- behave impulsively and reactively
- take everything personally
- worry
- worry
- worry
- have difficulty accepting compliments
- have difficulty reciprocating friendly gestures
- have difficulty finding the courage to respond
- have difficulty not being suspicious of others’ intentions
- make a huge deal out of the smallest thing…
i really cant tell if i have this or i think i have this but this pretty much all applies to me always so either im in denial i have it or im imagining i do but i think i just do because even when i try to will myself to be “spontaneous and brave and independent” or “take a chance!” or whatever it never rly works out great at all wow this is depressing
but idk i really dont wanna be taking a legitimate disorder and be like “omgz i hav this!!!!!!!1!1” when i just exhibit some traits but this pretty much all applies most of the time so :/ like “making a huge deal out of the smallest thing” i dont always do but a lot of things i def do but i dont rly want to admit that who does but maybe its true and im not always scared of everything but i am i just spend a lot of time telling myself i dont make a huge deal out of things or rationalizing or saying im not scared and nothings gonna happen even though i always feel like it is
There are some good online tests to help you decide. I’ve used a few of these:
http://depression.about.com/cs/pad/l/blanxietyscreen.htm
http://www.anxietycentre.com/anxiety-tests.shtml
http://psychcentral.com/quizzes/anxiety.htm
These will often tell you how much anxiety you have, so that you can compare it with norms for people with the disorder etc. It’s not a professional diagnosis but a useful tool.
how to decode a person with an anxiety disorder
things we are trying to do all the time:
- be safe
things we can’t help but do all the time:
- second-guess ourselves
- behave impulsively and reactively
- take everything personally
- worry
- worry
- worry
- have difficulty accepting compliments
- have difficulty reciprocating friendly gestures
- have difficulty finding the courage to respond
- have difficulty not being suspicious of others’ intentions
- make a huge deal out of the smallest thing
things you should keep in mind:
- we’re scared of everything
- pretty much all of the time
- it’s an actual disorder
- it manifests as impulsive behavior
- you can’t fix us with words
- telling us “worrying is silly” won’t make us stop worrying
- it’ll only make us feel silly
- and then we’ll worry even more
- “oh god, am i worrying too much? what if they call me silly again?”
- like that
- also, we wear a lot of armor
- cold, heavy, affection-proof armor with spikes
- we constructed this armor as children
- we’re fairly certain you will never be able to pry it apart
- but there is a nice person under there, we promise
things you can do for a friend with an anxiety disorder:
- stick around
- ask them if they’re comfortable in a place or situation
- be willing to change the place or situation if not
- activities that help them take their mind off of things are good!
- talk to them even when they might not talk back
- (they’re probably too afraid to say the wrong thing)
- try not to take their reactions (or lack thereof) personally
- (the way they expresses themself is distorted and bent because of their constant fear)
- (and they knows this)
- give them time to respond to you
- they will obsess over how they are being interpreted
- they will anticipate being judged
- it took me four hours just to type this much
- even though i sound casual
- that’s because i have an anxiety disorder
things you shouldn’t do:
- tell us not to worry
- tell us we’ll be fine
- mistake praise for comfort
- ask us if we are “getting help”
- force us to be social
- force us to do things that trigger us
- “face your fears” doesn’t always work
- because—remember—scared of everything
- in fact, it would be more accurate to say we are scared of the fear itself
emergency action procedure for panic attacks:
- be calm
- be patient
- don’t be condescending
- remind us that we’re not “crazy”
- sit with us
- ask us to tighten and relax our muscles one by one
- remind us that we are breathing
- engage us in a discussion (if we can talk, then we can breathe)
- if we are having trouble breathing, try getting us to exhale slowly
- or breathe through our nose
- or have us put our hands on our stomach to feel each breath
- ask us what needs to change in our environment in order for us to feel safe
- help us change it
- usually, just knowing that we have someone on our side willing to fight our scary monsters with us is enough to calm us down
if you have an anxiety disorder:
- it’s okay.
- even if you worry that it’s not okay.
- it’s still okay. it’s okay to be scared. it’s okay to be scared of being scared.
- you are not crazy. you are not a freak.
- i know there’s a person under all that armor.
- and i know you feel isolated because of it.
- i won’t make you take it off.
- but know that you are not alone.
♥
gender-neutral version
“Once you recognize that the majority of fertilized eggs don’t become people, then you recognize how absurd this amendment is…”
—Push for ‘Personhood’ Amendments Is New Tack in Abortion Fight (via Running Chicken)
“To be governed is to be watched over, inspected, spied on, directed, legislated over, regulated, docketed, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, assessed, weighed, censored, ordered about, by men who have neither right, nor knowledge, nor virtue.”
—Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (via fuckyeahdrugpolicy)
Crazed Women and Bearded Intellectuals: Occupy DC Needs →
brosephstalin.tumblr.com
Please donate and pass this list on to others
The current Number of tents is about 155 and the numbers continue to grow on the weekends, so we are looking at supplies for about 170 people, our finance committee has some funding, but we are reaching out for donations -and or slightly used…
Mohandas Gandhi: Remember when far-right groups claimed the Muslim Brotherhood and... →
mohandasgandhi.tumblr.com
Remember when far-right groups claimed the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas were behind the Occupy Wall Street protests? Yeah, classy. Then there were the desperate right-wing critics, such as Rush Limbaugh and David Brooks, who claimed the protests were anti-Semitic, “relying on the old myth…
its kinda sad to see how desperate they are.
Sky news put so much effort into the most-tents-are-empty lie for london…
You Might Be Missing The Point If:
“But what about the men?”
“But what about the white people?”
“But what about the Christians?”
“But what about the straight people?”
“But what about the cis people?”
“But what about the rich people?”
“We may feel, in the face of the ruthless corporate destruction of our nation, our culture, and our ecosystem, powerless and weak. But we are not. We have a power that terrifies the corporate state. Any act of rebellion, no matter how few people show up or how heavily it is censored by a media that caters to the needs and profits of corporations, chips away at corporate power. Any act of rebellion keeps alive the embers for larger movements that follow us. It passes on another narrative. It will, as the rot of the state consumes itself, attract wider and wider numbers. Perhaps this will not happen in our lifetimes. But if we persist, we will keep this possibility alive. If we do not, it will die.”
—Chris Hedges, “No Act of Rebellion is Wasted” (via cultureofresistance)
“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”
—Marie Curie (via myhazeleyes)
The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game
Massive Attack feat. Tracy Thorn
Massive Attack feat. Tracy Thorn- The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game
Every day brings change, and the world puts on a new face
Sudden things rearrange, and this whole world seems like a new place
Secretly I been tailing you
Like a fox that preys on a rabbit
Had to get you and so I knew
I have to learn your ways and habits
Ooooooh, you were the catch that I was after
I looked up and I was in your arms and I knew that I was captured
What’s this whole world comin’ to
Things just ain’t the same
Any time the hunter gets captured by the game
I had to lay such a tender trap
Hoping you might fall into it
Love hit me with a sudden slap
One kiss and then I knew it
Ooooooh, my plans didn’t work out like I thought
‘Cause I had laid my trap for you but it seems that I got caught
What’s this whole world comin’ to
Things just ain’t the same
Any time the hunter gets captured by the game
Ah yeah, yeah yeah, hey yeah
BNP conference: I'm in charge, says Nick Griffin
Someone Got Rich and Someone Got Sick: Nature Is the 99 Percent, Too →
truth-out.org
Beware of Growth: Getting the economy growing has been the refrain of the Obama administration and the justification for every bad deal, budget cut, and unbalanced compromise it’s made. The desperate effort to grow the economy to solve our economic woes is what keeps Timothy Geithner at the helm of the Treasury and is what stalls the regulation of greenhouse gasses. It’s why we are told we must sacrifice environmental quality for pipelines and why young men and women are sacrificed to protect access to oil, the lubricant for an acquisitive economic engine. The financial empire of the one percenters and the political order it has shaped are predicated on easy and relentless growth. How, we are asked, will there be enough for everyone if we don’t keep growing?
The fundamental contradiction of our time is this: we have built an all-encompassing economic engine that requires unending growth. A contraction of even a percent or two is a crisis, and yet we are embedded in ecosystems that are reaching or have reached their limits. This isn’t complicated: There’s only so much fertile soil or fresh water available, only so many fish in the ocean, only so much CO2 the planet can absorb and remain habitable.
Yes, you can get around this contradiction for a while by exploiting your neighbor’s habitat, using technological advances to extend your natural resources, and stealing from the future — that is, using up soil, minerals, and water your grandchildren (someday to be part of that same 99%) will need. But the limits to those familiar and, in the past, largely successful strategies are becoming more evident all the time.
At some point, we’ll discover that you can’t exist for long beyond the boundaries of the natural world, that (as with every other species) if you overload the carrying capacity of your habitat, you crash. Warming temperatures, chaotic weather patterns, extreme storms, monster wildfires, epic droughts,Biblical floods, an avalanche of species extinction… that collapse is upon us now. In the human realm, it translates into hunger and violence, mass migrations and civil strife, failed states and resource wars.
Like so much else these days, the crash, as it happens, will not be suffered in equal measure by all of us. The one percenters will be atop the hill, while the 99% will be in the flood lands below swimming for their lives, clinging to debris, or drowning. The Great Recession has previewed just how that will work.
An unsustainable economy is inherently unfair, and worse is to come. After all, the car is heading for the cliff’s edge, the grandkids are in the backseat, and all we’re arguing about is who can best put the pedal to the metal.
From the PROPER BLOG: Occupy Exeter First Meeting →
flapjacksnotstates.wordpress.com
Perhaps most importantly, the white male facilitator emphasised that no one can claim to speak for anyone else in the movement, and that this group does not endorse any political group or philosophy. Hopefully this will avoid the whitesplaining and celebrity endorsement of other groups, but we will have to wait and see. Read more“Hi I’m Rob, I’m the Campaigns Officer for the Gender Equality Society. I’ve been following this since the beginning on Wall Street, I was there on the first day of London, and I hope to see a fully inclusive movement.”
Words of advice to Occupy protesters from a US Army veteran →
sapphiremysteries.tumblr.com
The following message is from a US Army veteran to Occupy protesters. I think it shows how deep the stentiment of support runs among ‘regular’ Americans for the Occupy movement as against the police trying to suppress our rights.
I especially find it interesting that even this person below qualifies his warning to ’do things legally so as to avoid police brutality,’ by admitting that one could easily be targetted by the police anyway, despite acting within the law …
I support your right as an American to gather and to have your voice heard, just make sure your doing things legal so the police have no reason to brutalize you.
but here are a few helpful tips in case you happen to be targeted anyway.
bring milk - it can be used to wash out mace from your eyes and shortens the duration of the burn.
if pepper spray is burning your skin use a solution of 1 part chlorine bleach to 5 parts water. DO NOT USE FOR EYES.
bring a hospital mask and vinegar(apple cider vinegar or lemon juice) - douse the mask with it and breathe through it. It helps cancel out riot gas, although you may have to re douse it occasionally.
swim goggles with a tight seal can help protect the eyes.
bring a solution of water and 5% sodium bisulfate to decontaminate yourself from tear gas.
wear clothing that cover as much of your body as possible and sinch the cuffs closed. if you find yourself in tear gas your first instinct will to be to panic. you will cough, throw up, have burning vision, and possibly a 3 foot trail of snot gushing out your nose.
Do Not Run, as you cannot see and will most likley run into something big and painful.Breathing will be labored. the effects usually last 7 - 15 minutes. If you have a respiratory problem bring your meds/inhalers. do not touch your face or any other part of your body as the roit agent will spread. bring an extra change of clothes to change into. tear gas crystallizes so it will be in your clothes until washed.
Just some helpful tips from some one who has to go into a tear gas chamber every year. Be safe.
“The point being: if you miss a few home payments, you have a very high likelihood of colliding with a police officer in the near future. But if you defraud a pair of European banks out of a billion dollars — that’s a billion, with a b — you will never be arrested, never see a policeman, never see the inside of a jail cell.”
—Wall Street Isn’t Winning It’s Cheating | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone (via robot-heart-politics)
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable”
—
John F. Kennedy
(Though admittedly no fan of the man who started the Vietnam War, I think he was definitely correct when he said these words.)
Socialism Art Nature: Latest news is that Scott Olsen — the veteran critically injured by... →
socialismartnature.tumblr.com
Its very easy for cops to buy into the whole ‘the state is our overlord and protector’ thing and think they’re protecting us from bad people. I don’t think it’s possible to be a ‘liberal cop’, unless your understanding of one or more of those words is insufficient. Again though I’m not saying cops or soldiers do their jobs out of choice. But there are certainly questions to be asked.To those people that try to defend the police when they are sent to repress and attack peaceful protesters with the line: “They are just doing…
“The direct conservative attacks are easy to answer. Are the protests un-American? When conservative fundamentalists claim that America is a Christian nation, one should remember what Christianity is: the Holy Spirit, the free egalitarian community of believers united by love. It is the protesters who are the Holy Spirit, while on Wall Street pagans worship false idols. Are the protesters violent? True, their very language may appear violent (occupation, and so on), but they are violent only in the sense in which Mahatma Gandhi was violent. They are violent because they want to put a stop to the way things are – but what is this violence compared with the violence needed to sustain the smooth functioning of the global capitalist system?”
—Slavoj Žižek (via azspot)
Cynthia Pickles: tw depression →
cynthiapickles.tumblr.com
so hyperbole and a half did a post about depression.
i read it.
it kind of feels like all of the bones in my torso have been shattered, but in a good way? it’s weird that i have been thinking and talking and reading about mental illness for a huge chunk of my life but i never…
It was an amazingly validating post. I found it odd that she found herself undeserving of sympathy because her symptoms were unexplained. The symptoms on their own should be enough, though I do get the feeling other people experience way more shit/ ‘deserve’ depression more.
But it was like reading about my own life, and whenever I go anywhere in that extreme apathy state I always think I’m gonna smash through walls or something. It’s interesting to feel so unrestrained by anything, it makes me want people to treat me badly so I can flip out at them. It’s really like watching someone else, you never know what you’ll do next…
/rant, I’ve just never talked about the apathy thing before!
Occupy D.C.: Dear OWS: Stay United not Divided! →
occupywashdc.tumblr.com
There are articles/posts coming out…
Seriously? I really, really dislike arguing on the Internet, but I cannot just let that go.
Women and people of color and queers are forever accused of of exaggerating their experiences of discrimination, of lying or making a big deal out of nothing. I’m not saying none of these people has ever lied, ever. But when people speak about their oppression, you fucking listen. You don’t suggest that they’re wrong. Of course first person accounts are not generalizable. By reiterating this, and saying you “don’t mean” to insult anyone, you’re both reinforcing the ideas that oppressed groups are just being whiny, and then trying to absolve yourself of responsibility for making that implication.
It is not the job of women to make OWS or other Occupy events safe for women. It is not the job of people of color to make OWS or other Occupy events safe for people of color. It is not the job of queer people to make OWS or other Occupy events safe for queer people. And I like doing education. I like talking about these things a lot of the time. But it’s not my responsibility any more than it is anyone else’s. I am a person, not a fucking object lesson in oppression.
I don’t need Occupy DC to remind me to stand up for myself. I need Occupy DC to stand up with me. How about stating that people being racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, ablist, or otherwise oppressive won’t be tolerated? How about suggesting that we all must be allies to oppressed people everywhere, and that everyone, not just women or racial minorities, need to challenge sexist and racist language and thinking when they experience it? How about, instead of asking these folks to stay in solidarity with Occupy DC, you make a statement that Occupy DC is explicitly in solidarity with people of color, queer people, people of all genders, people of all abilities? Are we an intersectional movement, or aren’t we?
Reblog for incredibly on-point commentary. The original post was reblogged by Occupy Louisville and totally rubbed me the wrong way.
If I have to fight for the people I’m supposed to be standing in solidarity with for them to recognize my humanity, how are they any different from the other oppressors? If there’s no respect or safety for someone that is disabled, of color, LGBT then why should those groups take the risks inherent in participating? It goes against all logic & common sense to fight for people you cannot trust.
and how about OWS realize that they are just NOW getting to the party and POC and LGBT groups have BEEN protesting this shit for literally *ages*, and all these white folks were nowhere to be found until shit affected them?
god damn, that *arrogance* of some of these people.
^ commentary.
Oh that occupy DC is such bull. Again the concept of power is being replaced with ‘don’t let bigots get you down’. It’s so patronising.
I’ve seen a lot of whitesplaining by the occupy wall street leadership too. Previous comments are correct, white people are new to the party and think they speak for all the downtrodden.
They piss me off so much and I say this as a white guy
Nauseating new razor ad campaign by Gillette →
youtube.com
Following in the footsteps of Dr. Pepper’s atrocious ad campaign, Gillette has a new “Don’t do it like a man” campaign which is encouraging women to use women’s razors by invoking all kinds of gender binary sexist stereotypes about men and women and problematically infantilizing women as “girls.” The banner on their youtube channel says “You’re a woman. Shave like one.” What the actual fuck, Gillette?
I used to have a Venus razor. You know what happened to it? I dropped it accidentally in the shower and the handle BROKE IN HALF. Why? Because it’s made of shitty plastic. So now I have a Gillette Fusion razor “for men.” It’s metal and will thus never break in half. I’m going to have to write them a strongly worded letter about this ad campaign and when it comes time to spend more money on razors I’m going to have to switch companies if they don’t rectify this disgusting ad campaign. Or perhaps I’ll just stop shaving altogether :)
I am getting so sick of this bullshit. At this rate, I won’t be able to eat or drink anything, nor will I be able to shave. STOP BEING SEXIST, ADS, I JUST WANT TO BE A WOMAN CONSUMER. IS THAT SO WRONG?!
If you have a moment, tell Gillette that their ad campaign is offensive, sexist, and really atrocious by calling them at 1-800-GILLETTE, or emailing them here.
I think they’ve noticed that people have started to realise that you know what, even though these two products are in different sections of the shop, have different pricing and colour coding and are for some reason directed at different genders, THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEM. So I guess it’s time to pull out the big guns… the big sexist guns…
No idea why the general public don’t see through this oppressive shit. Saw gendered bookmarks the other day, shaped like toilet signs and the female one is bright pink oh god
[photo] **trigger warning for graphic image of Scott Olsen being carried from the scene** →
thefortnightly.tumblr.com
Iraq Veterans Against the War member Scott Olsen who deployed to Iraq twice serving in the Marine Corps was hospitalized after being struck with a tear gas canister by Oakland police at the Occupy Oakland demonstrations.
As an Iraq war veteran myself I served my country because I wanted to make the world a better place. I realized there were no weapons of mass destruction, that Saddam had nothing to do with 9-11, and that we are making the Middle-East less safe by our military occupation.
I came home to discover that Americans still struggle for freedom of speech. That corporations pay big money to have politicians elected that will benefit them. That the rich get richer off tax dollar from the poor and middle class.
The police just defend the property and rights of the wealthy and hurt anyone that interfere with consumerism and conformity.
As a US military veteran I have put skin in the game and want to see the freedoms and justice that I swore to deliver.
As far as I am concerned, my comrades and I have been betrayed by the elitists using our blood sweet and tears to their own gain.
This one is to Iraq War Veteran Scott Olsen.
