To Tumblr
I can’t return to the site for now.
I’m sorry for anything I did wrong and I take responsibility for my mistakes.
This will be a long break.
May 2011
you have to stand up for what is right, even when you stand completely alone.
Period.
Tolerance of introlerence only promotes/allows that intolerence. It’s hard to stand up for what is right, but at the end of the day, it has to be done. Someone has to stand up for people who are too afraid to voice their opinions, someone has to stand up for those who can’t voice their opinions. Too many people are afraid of standing up for others, because the masses tend to be ignorant, and ignorant people tend to be mean, rude, and often violent (verbally, and physically).
I don’t think I will ever apologize for standing up for what is right. If it makes someone uncomfortable, good. Maybe they shouldn’t voice their views if their views are so bloody ignorant.
let me make this incredibly clear.
Autistic people have feelings. We are not punching bags. We do not like being treated as less important. We are incompetent.
We may not respond with flowers and rainbows when you are an ableist douchebag.
We may have trouble caring that much when no one cares about ableist douchebagginess but when your oppressor gets stressed out, the world falls to their knees.you have been comfortable this whooooole time, allistic people.
We have not. At all. And we’ve been screaming at you to pay attention. You do not. We get mean.So right now? Just think for a while, okay?
moononwaters replied to your post: …They sound scary. *hides behind*
Can you provide a list so I can instant block?
These are people that I’ve blocked. I’m sure there are more. But these are the ones I have come across till now. Most of these blogs are white libertarians.
TRIGGER WARNING FOR ALL.
http://communismkills.tumblr.com/
http://fucknolanguagepolicing.tumblr.com/
http://thingsthatreallyreallyannoyme.tumblr.com/
http://otaku-sex-beast.tumblr.com/
http://souljaboycantdancelikeme.tumblr.com/
http://bedtimebaddie.tumblr.com/
http://madwalrusinabox.tumblr.com/
http://feministsaresexist.tumblr.com/
http://itsraininglocusts.tumblr.com/
Circulating (also, there’s this list).
A handy list.
i'm gonna be really repetitive here. allistic people read this.
Here’s the situation. Autistic person says this happened to me and is ableism!
you say, this is not ableism!
but you are not autistic!What to do!
Solution:
realize that the autistic person is the expert in their own oppression, not you, period, and stop being an ableist douchebag by invalidating their feelings and experiences and telling them they are wrong.do not make the autistic person explain multiple times the basic definition of ableist and 101 ableist concepts before you agree, drop it, and apologize, patting yourself on the back for what an ally you are.
simply realize you are not the expert even if you have an autistic cousin or work with autistic people.
your opinion about this is irrelevant.
stop. Do not pass go or collect any cookies.
Also if you are going to tell me this is wrong bc I am autistic and am not entirely competent stop trying. You are fullstop ableist. Stop talking about it. Because you are wrong.
Sick of home: There’s a Secret Patriot Act, Senator Says →
muchtoocynical.tumblr.com
There’s a Secret Patriot Act, Senator Says
You may think you understand how the Patriot Act allows the government to spy on its citizens. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) says it’s worse than you’ve heard.
Congress is set to reauthorize three controversial provisions of the surveillance law as early as Thursday. But Wyden says that what Congress will renew is a mere fig leaf for a far broader legal interpretation of the Patriot Act that the government keeps to itself — entirely in secret. Worse, there are hints that the government uses this secret interpretation to gather what one Patriot-watcher calls a “dragnet” for massive amounts of information on private citizens; the government portrays its data-collection efforts much differently.
“We’re getting to a gap between what the public thinks the law says and what the American government secretly thinks the law says,” Wyden tells Danger Room in an interview in his Senate office. “When you’ve got that kind of a gap, you’re going to have a problem on your hands.”
What exactly does Wyden mean by that? As a member of the intelligence committee, he laments that he can’t precisely explain without disclosing classified information. But one component of the Patriot Act in particular gives him immense pause: the so-called “business-records provision” which empowers the FBI to get businesses, medical offices, banks and other organizations to turn over any “tangible things” it deems relevant to a security investigation.
Please don't forget about libya or other countries in turmoil, lives are still being lost, human lives aren't just a number.
Play
Play
Play
I've set up a donation button.
I need (at the absolute minimum) another $1000 in order to go back to school in the fall. That’s just the tuition, by the way, that’s not including food, textbooks, or art supplies. I don’t even want to think about the cost of the surgeries I’m going to need yet, but on the off chance that I get more than enough to go to school next year, whatever else I get will go towards funding my transition.
I can’t get a job for various reasons (very few people will hire me because I’m trans*, I have difficulty even applying because of my anxiety) and the commissions I’m selling online are not even gonna get close to covering what I need. I’m living with my parents and they’re paying for food, but they won’t pay for gas money and I have very limited access to the car.
Please signal boost this?
Signal boost for Hunter :(
Sex Ed in England is Fucked →
care.org.uk
“The founding members of the [sex and relationships education] Council are: evaluate, Lovewise, Challenge Teams, LIFE, Silver Ring Thing, Family Education Trust and Right to Life.”
Let’s just put that into context, shall we?
- evaluate: “support them in delaying sexual experience until a long-term committed exclusive relationship. “
- Lovewise: “Too Special to Spoil: Sex is too special to spoil. This presentation examines the benefits (physical and emotional) of saving sexual intimacy for marriage and discusses the practicalities of ‘going out’.”
- Challenge Teams: “What is the message?• Saving sex for marriage is a positive, realistic and healthy lifestyle.
• Saving sex for marriage is a lifestyle of sexual self-control and respect.
• Anyone can start over again and choose chastity, ……which basically means saving sex for marriage.
• There can be many negative physical and emotional consequences to teen sexual activity - unplanned pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections and diseases, loss of self-respect, embarrassment, anxiety, regret, etc.
• Saving sex for marriage can bring freedom - from worry about health or pregnancy, to be respected for who you are, to plan your future, to enjoy healthy relationships, and more.”- LIFE: “LIFE is opposed to abortion on principle in all circumstances because it ends the life of a unique unborn child. This extends even to what many people consider the “hard cases”, such as disability, teenage pregnancy, and pregnancy after rape.”
- Silver Ring Thing (UK): “There is only one true “Safe Sex” message and that must be the message of abstinence until marriage.
- Family Education Trust: “The organisation is research-based. There is no area in social science in which the evidence stacks up so completely on one side: marriage and traditional family life are associated with good outcomes in terms of he alth, wealth and other indicators of well-being.” … ” Liberal divorce laws have rendered marriage less meaningful as a commitment.”Young people, including children under the legal age of consent to sexual intercourse, are being provided with contraceptives and then treated for the outcomes of sexual relationships by means of abortion and sexually transmitted disease clinics, without their parents ever having to be informed.”
Ohhhh so this is why SPUC came into my ALL GIRLS (yes, i fucking know) school and gave a presentation about abortion, but no pro-choice organisation was allowed to….
“
For anarchists who do know something about anthropology, the arguments are all too familiar. A typical exchange goes something like this:
Skeptic: Well, I might take this whole anarchism idea more seriously if you could give me some reason to think it would work. Can you name me a single viable example of a society which has existed without a government?
Anarchist: Sure. There have been thousands. I could name a dozen just off the top of my head: the Bororo, the Baining, the Onondaga, the Wintu, the Ema, the Tallensi, the Vezo… All without violence or hierarchy.
Skeptic: But those are all a bunch of primitives! I’m talking about anarchism in a modern, technological society.
Anarchist: Okay, then. There have been all sorts of successful experiments: experiments with worker‟s self-management, like Mondragon; economic projects based on the idea of the gift economy, like Linux; all sorts of political organizations based on consensus and direct democracy…
Skeptic: Sure, sure, but these are small, isolated examples. I‟m talking about whole societies.
Anarchist: Well, it’s not like people haven’t tried. Look at the Paris Commune, the free states in Ukraine and Shimin, the 1936 revolution in Spain…
Skeptic: Yeah, and look what happened to those guys! They all got killed!
The dice are loaded. You can‟t win. Because when the skeptic says “society,” what he really means is “state,” even “nation-state.” Since no one is going to produce an example of an anarchist state—that would be a contradiction in terms—what we‟re really being asked for is an example of a modern nation-state with the government somehow plucked away: a situation in which the government of Canada, to take a random example, has been overthrown, or for some reason abolished itself, and no new one has taken its place but instead all former Canadian citizens begin to organize themselves into libertarian collectives. Obviously this would never be allowed to happen. In the past, whenever it even looked like it might—here, the Paris commune and Spanish civil war are excellent examples—the politicians running pretty much every state in the vicinity have been willing to put their differences on hold until those trying to bring such a situation about had been rounded up and shot.
There is a way out, which is to accept that anarchist forms of organization would not look anything like a state. That they would involve an endless variety of communities, associations, networks, projects, on every conceivable scale, overlapping and intersecting in any way we could imagine, and possibly many that we can‟t. Some would be quite local, others global. Perhaps all they would have in common is that none would involve anyone showing up with weapons and telling everyone else to shut up and do what they were told. And that, since anarchists are not actually trying to seize power within any national territory, the process of one system replacing the other will not take the form of some sudden revolutionary cataclysm—the storming of a Bastille, the seizing of a Winter Palace—but will necessarily be gradual, the creation of alternative forms of organization on a world scale, new forms of communication, new, less alienated ways of organizing life, which will, eventually, make currently existing forms of power seem stupid and beside the point. That in turn would mean that there are endless examples of viable anarchism: pretty much any form of organization would count as one, so long as it was not imposed by some higher authority, from a klezmer band to the international postal service.
” —David Graeber (via slamdanceonyourgrave)Well, Shit.
Yet *ANOTHER* post on sex-selective abortions on the rise in India. What is it? Coconut season? Anyway, the gem is this:
In a culture where, as the Times notes, sons inherit property and carry on the family name but daughters do not, girls are also more vulnerable to infanticide, abuse and neglect.
So remind me again, in which culture are people who present or identify as women *NOT* susceptible to abuse, neglect, violence etc? As some people seem to think, I’m not saying female foeticide is ‘okay’ — I’d rather talk to you about bullfrogs instead of even suggesting it’s ‘okay’. My question is, why is the data not investigated? Why do people not question the resources that these posts quote? And ignore factors such as:
— Dalit and tribal communities are largely written *out* of such censuses, or as I mentioned yesterday, forced to undergo coercive sterilisations.
— The census is conducted in official languages (Hindi, English, Marathi, Telegu, Bengali etc). So people who speak in dialects again get written out of such counts.
— So much of this information is tampered with, to gain U.N. sympathy and whatnot. Seriously, meet P.Sainath, he’ll explain everything.
— Stop framing us as people who are *exclusively* sexist, that this only happens in Dusty Corners Of The World.
— These censuses club together the abortions that sex-workers, hijra people, queer women who get ‘correctively raped’ and don’t want to carry *those* fetuses to term are all branched under sex-selective abortions.
Next time you want to write about [x] issue in the ‘third world’, don’t frame us as people ‘inferior’ to you. Yes, in our societies and communities, female presenting-identifying-passing-whathaveyou people are at a considerable disadvantage, but remember things are not so different in your societies either.
So until any western feminists don’t view third world women as “ourselves undressed”, till then I have no hope or expectations for the uneven power dichotomy to shift.
So till then, fuck you.
J.
As usual, Jaded is spot on. The fundamental problem with mainstream feminism right now is the unequal balance of power that allows western feminists (who are also predominantly white, abled, cis, and het) to universalize their experiences. But then, this is not a new revelation to readers of the Hub and our attendant contributors, no?
Play
“A study from late January by The White House Project found that female workers comprise 73 percent of the nonprofit sector, a figure that agrees with the Georgetown survey. However, the leadership at these nonprofits is disproportionately dominated by males—only 45 percent of the CEOs at nonprofits are women, and beyond that, only 21 percent of the CEOs at nonprofits with budgets of $25 million or more are women.”
—READ THE ARTICLE (via goodmenproject)
White Privilege Diary Series #1 - White Feminist Privilege in Organizations →
dailykos.com
The core group began by thinking it was easy to go beyond tokenism to integrate women of color into the organization. They ended, however, with the realization that genuine integration means not only attracting more women of color to events, but also shifting the structure of the organization to include women of color as powerful forces in shaping the organization. Perhaps because their racism made them see me as a “white ally,” these resistant white feminists were often very up-front with me about their decision not to share power with women of color. One Board president told me it “simply isn’t worth it” to consult women of color about what they want, because she realized it would take the organization in a direction she didn’t want it to go, and serve a constituency she now realized (as a result of our “counseling”) she didn’t want to serve. Other white women said that it would make them “too uncomfortable,” and that, for them, [their organization] would no longer be a refuge and a place that boosted their egos by affirming they “did good.” Instead, they’d have to be “careful” all the time, and would be self-conscious about what the women of color thought of them. In short, given the comfort of racism, and the discomfort of active anti-racism, they chose racism, outright.
Racism: A Primer~*
Racism is sociologically defined (and therefore not going to be used in the DICTIONARY) as policies and practices put into place to enforce hierarchies. These hierarchies are also known as ways to keep white people in power.
In short, racism = prejudice + power. Power being the way that white people exert their power just by having white skin. Although race is a biological concept and therefore it has no place in being used in conversations tied to one’s worth, it is still used as a tool to support racism.
Being the good citizen that I am I have uploaded some amazing articles written by mostly men (so hopefully you will take them more to heart but some of these men aren’t white so idk) who have degrees and shit in sociology and this is taken as fact and this is their life’s work. They have been published in journals! Read them.
First: The mostly easy to understand wikibooks to racism.
Works on post-racial/post-privilege:
- Becoming Post-White: Robert Elliot Fox
- The Persisten Power of Race: Harrison
- White Americans, The New Minority? (THIS ARTICLE IS NOT WHAT IT SOUNDS LIKE IN THE TITLE SO FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON’T CITE IT WITHOUT READING IT): Warren and Twine
- From Bi-racial to tri-racial (something about exploring racial stratification): Bonila - Silva
On racism/democracy/policies/culture/whatever:
- The Great Islamphobic Crusade: Blumenthal
- The Criminalization of Undocumented Migrants: Golash-Boza
- Racism and Democracy Reconsidered: Gould
- The Rise of Anti-Muslim Hate: Kumar
- Structural Racism and American Democracy*: Marable
*THE MOST IMPORTANT TEXT YOU WILL READ. IF YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT THE REST OF THE POST I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT
And then you go on to say wow but racism is only in America!1!! Something about Africa to disprove my theory!!!
Racism in South Africa:
- From Racial Class to Apartheid: Bond
- Beyond Racism (discusses in SA, Brazil, and the US): Fredrickson
Racism in Brazil:
Racism in Germany:
Racism in Europe:
- Racism and Anti-Racism in World Perspective: Solomos
- Talking Culture: Stolcke*
- French Racism/veiled racism (youtube link)
*also good one on who’s allowed to culture and who is not
More:
- Spike Lee talking about Obama (video)
- Racism in Brazil (vid)
- Racial Tensions in South Africa 1, 2, 3
- America’s Native Prisoners of War (vid; I noticed there is a lack of NA discussion in this post and I’m sorry about that)
The only reason I am doing this is because I can’t just keep trying to explain this to people and I think it’s a damn fucking shame that people do not want to learn about this. Additionally, I have the privilege of taking a solid class on this but I did learn from the internet. There is some privilege in learning but in no way should I have to put up with racist and sexist remarks everyday (online or off) and be okay with it.
http://theartfulodger.tumblr.com/ →
theartfulodger.tumblr.com
My awesome friend Sophie has just got a tumblr - seriously, check her out. This grrl is going to go far, and I can guarantee her blog will be kick-ass.
Seconded. I was going to link when she had a few posts up, but now is as good a time as any.
Follow this, I can guarantee it will become awesome.
yeah bro you need to stop being so political bro
how about I punch you in the face and you shut up, is that a better option?
Bro I uphold the oppressive inequalities of centuries past bro, look how logical and informed this makes me look bro.
@drippingbeards
that blog was recommended to me and rage exploded out of my ever orifice as soon as i laid eyes on it, oh god
Yeah there have been times when I’ve just looked at a page or two of it and it is the most disgusting shit I’ve ever seen.
He sent me messages a few months ago like HAY BRO, YOU SHOULDN’T CARE ABOUT OPPRESSING PEOPLE BRO, I FEEL SORRY FOR YOU BRO, CENSORSHIP BRO, FREEDOM OF SPEECH BRO, FEMINAZIS BRO, BRO BRO, ERROR BRO, ERROR BRO BRO, BRO BRO BRO.
**Trigger warning for racist privilege denial** Stevie drops some knowledge →
steviemcfly.tumblr.com
Okay, first of all, the child who posted this is not even white. That little piece of delicious deep-fried irony should be addressed before I begin eviscerating this little piece of idiocy.
Proud To Be White
Someone finally said it.
How many are actually paying attention to this?People have said it before. They were called white supremacists. Stormfront says that shit all the time. The Hammerskins do. So does the Klan. Maybe you want to look into some of those groups. OH WAIT YOU’RE FILIPINO THEY WOULD MURDER YOU.
There are African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, Arab Americans, etc.
And then there are just Americans.This is part of the problem. The rest of us aren’t considered real Americans. You get the privilege of being considered real Americans whereas the rest of us are considered lesser varieties who don’t have a real claim on our citizenship (see the birther nonsense for that principle in motion).
You pass me on the street and sneer in my direction.
You Call me “White boy,” “Cracker,” “Honkey,”
“Whitey,” “Caveman” … And that’s OK.I bet you a hundred dollars nobody has ever called you any of those things, and if they did, that they didn’t hurt you at all. None of those insults are in common use or have any power because white people control EVERYTHING. To paraphrase Louis CK, “Oh no, you called me a cracker! Way to remind me of owning land and people!”
Also, who calls white people cavemen? I’ve literally never heard that before.
But when I call you, [list of actual racist slurs] … You call me a racist.
Well, if the shoe fits, caveman.
But seriously, if you’re not a racist, why do you want to use those terms at all? Think about that on the tree of woe.
You say that whites commit a lot of violence against you,
So why are the ghettos the most dangerous places to live?Poverty and desperation cause violence. The worst-funded schools are in the hood. The worst roads. The worst parks. You take people who have to focus too much on survival to have time to escape the cycle, put them in Section 8, and treat that shit like District 9. What the fuck do you expect? It has nothing to do with skin color and everything to do with the fact that ghettos even exist.
You have the United Negro College Fund. You have Martin Luther King
Day. You have Black History Month. You have Cesar Chavez Day. You
Have Yom Hashoah You have Ma’uled Al-Nabi You have the NAACP.
You have BET.If we had WET (White Entertainment Television) … We’d be racists.
If we had a White Pride Day .. You would call us racists.
If we had White History Month .. We’d be racists.
If we had any organization for only whites to “advance” OUR lives ….
We’d be racists.Jesus, Mary, and Jerome, you’re an [ableism redacted].
You have the vast majority of the wealth, privilege, and all kinds of historical benefits that make it far more likely for you to be able to fund your education. Plus, when UNCF started, things were a lot worse than they are today, which is a scary fucking thought.
You have White History Month. It’s called All Of The Months Except February.
You have President’s Day, which has only been honoring a black man on any level since ‘09 and is still 43/44 (approximately 98%) about white people. You have Thanksgiving. Columbus Day. The Fourth of July.
The NAACP is necessary because of institutional racism that still exists in our society. NAAWP is not necessary because you can’t advance past controlling everything and being considered the default.
BET was created at a time when there were almost no black people on TV and the few there were played servants who shucked and jived. WET is called every other channel on TV.
We have a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a Black Chamber of
Commerce, and then we just have the plain Chamber of Commerce.
Wonder who pays for that?Where are there minority Chambers of Commerce? I haven’t heard of them. And Chambers of Commerce are private sector organizations, not government organizations, so who gives a shit who pays for them? It’s not through our taxes as you so ignorantly intimated.
If we had a college fund that only gave white students scholarships
… You know we’d be racists. There are over 60 openly proclaimed
Black Colleges in the US , yet if there were “White colleges” ..
THAT would be a racist college.There’s no need for a whites-only scholarship. It’s not like a majority of white people are in poverty. When you have the money and power, you don’t need extra money and power because an effort is being made to share it with others.
HBCUs are not, as you imply, black-only colleges. They were founded when black people weren’t allowed in the white colleges (read: every college but those “black colleges” you mention). They allow anyone to apply, and on top of that, at some of them, white people can get minority scholarships!
In the Million Man March, you believed that you were marching
For your race and rights. If we marched for our race and rights,
You would call us racists.What rights would you be marching for? You have always had all of the rights! From the time this country was founded, you have had every right.
You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and orange, and you’re
Not afraid to announce it. But when we announce our white pride …
You call us racists.Think about everyone you’ve heard yelling, “White pride!” Now think about everything else those people said surrounding that. Now consider why we might associate that phrase with racism.
You rob us, carjack us, and shoot at us. But, when a white police officer
Shoots a black gang member or beats up a black drug-dealer running
From the law and posing a threat to society … You call him a racist.Are you seriously implying that all minorities rob, carjack, deal drugs, and shoot white people all the time? ARE YOU MOTHERFUCKING KIDDING ME? ARE YOU GODDAMN MOTHERFUCKING KIDDING ME?
I am proud.
But, you call me a racist.No. You’re a racist, so I call you a racist.
Why is it that only whites can be racists?
Racism == power + privilege. White people, having the power and being considered the default (and thus having the privilege of always being represented, respected, and considered normal, beautiful, safe, etc.), are thus the people in this particular country who can be racist. Black people can be racially prejudiced, but the ability on an institutional, society-wide level to affect people through that prejudice is nonexistent.
There is nothing improper about this e-mail.
Let’s see which of you are proud enough to send it on
There are many things improper about that e-mail. And I know who will be proud enough to send this bullshit on. They’re on the Stormfront forums. They watch Fox News. They have swastikas, Confederate flags, and the numbers 14 and 88 tattooed on them. They like to goose step and Skrewdriver is one of their favorite bands. They have countdown clocks on their computers for when Prussian Blue turns eighteen. They really like acid washed jeans and suspenders. Oxbloods are their jam. They totally missed the point of American History X. There is exactly one type of person that yells, “White pride!” at the top of their lungs, and I’m sure they loved that e-mail.
"thingsthatreallyreallyannoyme" is following me...
is this for real? why would this happen? haha.
Please do not engage him in debate, it will just frustrate you. He will never move from his multiple bullshitty stances, and all you would do is increase the popularity of his blog. His responses to you would be seen as victories by his supporters.
I recommend you block him actually, so that he doesn’t undermine you at every turn. That’s why he’s probably following you, to look out for important social justice issues to derail.
It might be that I can stand him less than others can, but oh god that guy…
A pro-life blogger was asked:
**Trigger warning for anti-choice privilege-denial, punishment threats**
“in an earlier post, you said if abortion was outlawed, you would like to see both the doctor and woman punished. what about the father of the child?”
They replied:
“I think the punishment should be mandatory mass attendance for 25 years.”
I FUCKING QUIT.
Hahaha what will mass attendance do exactly? Is church a punishment now? Is everyone in the world Christian? Omg I swear they create more questions than they actually answer.
I guess it's 'cool' to talk about race now
The number of posts that I see focused on race keep on increasing on mainstream feminist blogs. We must be flavour of the month, it seems. I guess, this is where I give a cookie?
Anyway, now I know it’s *cool* to talk about brownness and blackness and every other polka-dotted hue you can, because the Big White Feminists are doing it, so I guess it’s ‘hip’ now.
It’s great that you’re talking about us. Now I just have one thing to add, if you could just address the staggering fail that is perpetuated by white western feminism, in the comment sections of *your blogs itself*, so much so that it’s generally an unsafe space for anyone who doesn’t subscribe to the white, western, cis, able-bodied and middle class brand of Feminism it would be great.
So till then, fuck you.
J.
Also they only speak to non-white people who are already part of their group. Like there are heaps of POC who they could ask to blog on their site, speak to, reference properly etc.
Bolding mine. This happens *so* often at Feministe!, Feministing and Pandagon that I don’t look at the comments EVER anymore. And so many times we’re told how to *manage* our experiences with racism. Does anyone else find it ironic from where this is coming from?
Targets of oppression are the experts in that particular system of oppression. I'd be really stoked not to have to tell anyone that ever again.
Oppression 101, folks.
I was going to have a blog motto that was something like this. Maybe a life motto…
Feminist Frequency is following me on Twitter
reogher;ornephoner’erhn[ AHHHHHHHHH
insanepoet9 replied:
Oh my gosh, I love her!
SAME. She follows 650 people though so I’m no special snowflake hahaha.
The Adult Privilege Checklist →
shutupsitdown.co.uk
avry:
I will never understand why so often I come across undeniable, child-hatred within the socially progressive, activist and feminist community. Ever. And I see it- a lot.
Please. Read. This.
A type of privilege that people don’t tend to talk about.
People
You can’t say “self diagnosis is unhelpful at best” when people have had good experiences with it.
SERIOUSLY WORDS MEAN THINGS AND REALITY EXISTS YOU CAN’T JUST MAKE SHIT UP.
I can say “Seeking psychiatric help is unhelpful at best because psychiatrists are abusive assholes” which, while it’s pretty much my experience, IS NOT UNIVERSAL AT ALL.
Stop being assholes and stop trying to center systems that are frequently abusive. I mean really.
Seriously.
“The DSM-IV-TR states, because it is produced for the completion of federal legislative mandates, its use by people without clinical training can lead to inappropriate application of its contents. Appropriate use of the diagnostic criteria is said to require extensive clinical training, and its contents “cannot simply be applied in a cookbook fashion”. The APA notes diagnostic labels are primarily for use as a “convenient shorthand” among professionals. The DSM advises laypersons should consult the DSM only to obtain information, not to make diagnoses, and people who may have a mental disorder should be referred to psychological counseling or treatment.”
—
Self-diagnosis will get you nowhere. Don’t do it!
My opinion of self diagnosis is to use it as a stepping stone to treatment, but definitely not as a lifelong reason as to what your symptoms or actions may be. Professionals actually understand what is going on and what this is. I know a lot of people think they understand a disorder due to how it is explained in the DSM, but unless you thoroughly know the symptoms through training, self diagnosis as a long term thing can be really risky.
This is only my opinion of self diagnosis, and I’ve always thought that it starts with a person feeling they might have this disorder, then seeking treatment for it.
This isn’t an anti-self diagnosis statment. Rather that self diagnosis should be followed up with treatment to assure your inklings of thought. Then you question, well what if I don’t have the money to seek treatment. That’s the problem with the healthcare system, and that’s why we need to fix it.
Absolutely agree! It can be a great spur to help-seeking, but self-diagnosing alone without seeking professional help / treatment and attempting to go down these routes oneself can be unhelpful at best and dangerous at worst.
No, self-diagnosis can be right and re-affirming at best. And how “dangerous,” really? Especially in comparison to professional diagnosis. Like, I know a doctor who diagnosed someone with depression, gave her antidepressants, and then watched in horror as the patient (who was actually bipolar) wound up in the hospital after a manic episode. OOPS.
Also: professional diagnosis is extraordinarily, systematically flawed. ADHD is over-diagnosed in assigned-male children and under-diagnosed in assigned-female children (like, I have the attention span of a goldfish, but I didn’t get a professional diagnosis until I was 17). Borderline personality disorder has the opposite problem. And then there’s the fact that the DSM itself actually sets up autism as mutually exclusive to OCD. Which is like the falsest fucking thing: I’m autistic, and it does give me some very OCD-like things, but I just fundamentally do not have OCD. Other autistic people do. Very often, we can recognize this even when professionals can’t.
And I don’t know a single person who self-diagnosed themselves only using the DSM (and I know a lot of people who self-diagnosed). We do extensive research: we read the blogs of people who have whatever disability/illness we think we might, we read ridiculous “wahhh-my-kids-are-broken” guides written to the parents of kids with whatever it is that we have, we find case studies.
Or, some of us do. I imagine the average self-diagnosed person is just about as scrupulous as the average psychiatrist.
Just weighing in here because for the first time I can:
My self-diagnosis was actually far more thorough than my medical diagnosis. I took two very detailed tests, read about the symptoms and have studied the illness in my degree.
The doctor had me do two 5 question measures and said ‘yes, you’re probably right’. There wasn’t the scientific rigour assumed by the OP. Doctors and scientists can always help but they aren’t perfect, and a little research certainly won’t hurt.
