There's a reason why I read Radfem literature to understand it and am sympathetic towards Radfems on an emotional level despite viscerally hating just about everything regarding the details of their beliefs and their political end goals. Their motivations make sense, even though I actively disagree with the manifestation of them.
You live in a world that is not made to support an important aspect of your identity. You live in a world that has traumatized you over and over again. That eats at you. You get angry. You get resentful. You find other people that not only feel the same way but also encourage your anger and resentment. This all radicalizes you. You fall into an echo chamber. You find scapegoats. You center yourself and your trauma above anyone else because you are hurt and scared and are surrounded by people encouraging you to weaponize that pain and fear.
The SCUM Manifesto is objective proof of this in many ways. I think Valarie Solanas was a deeply vile person, but she was also so deeply hurt and traumatized she couldn't imagine any other way of navigating the world than to externalize it all.
Violence begets violence, unresolved anger and trauma encourages extremism.
I think scared, hurt people lash out and hurt others. You personally do not have to engage with people like that. You can think they are vile and horrible. You can protect your own peace and mental well-being. But that doesn't make the scared, hurt people any less human or any less capable of change. Fear and anger and pain live in all of us and it is dangerous when that gets externalized, but it's worth combatting with compassion over more harm in my opinion.
There's a reason why I am so drawn to bell hooks, and my girlfriend placed it really well awhile back when she listened in to me watching a bell hooks talk. It's because bell hooks' ideology sounds like therapy. It's full of self healing and searching for understanding. It acknowledges the pain of the world and says "you can combat this suffering and heal from it without inflicting it onto others - especially not onto others who are also hurting from other directions"
I think there's a lot of meaning to be found there.
Oh BTW, it's important that as many people vote for Harris as possible, because we don't want a scenario where the votes are close enough that it might be taken to court (much less the conservative-leaning Supreme Court) and ruled in Trump's favor. And yes, this also applies if you live in a blue state; we don't want to risk any doubt anywhere who the winner is.
AID ACCESS is a website ran by a Dutch feminist organization, Women on Waves, where people in the U.S. can buy abortion pills online. The pills are effective up to 10 weeks after fertilization occurs.
You can start the consultation online as soon as possible. If you are pregnant in the first trimester and need an abortion, you may want to refer to AID ACCESS!
I can't believe we're so close to electing someone who could codify Roe v. Wade, legalize weed, protect public education, and put Trump in jail and some of y'all are really like hmmm not good enough.
VOTE!! FUCKING VOTE!!! DO YOU PEOPLE SEE THIS!??! THIS COULD BE OUR REALITY IF YOU PEOPLE GET OFF YOUR ASSES AND VOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There are 8 years of new voters since Trump took the White House in 2016. That is the generation that will change the world.
Find them. Inspire them. Tell them their vote matters and is important.
This thread is incredibly important to read.
It is also extremely difficult to read. I don't know if I need to point this out, but the document itself is obviously full of bigotry so please take care of yourself if you choose to read it. Antisemitic phrases like "cultural marxism" and "global elites" appear before the document even really gets rolling, and are mixed in with transphobia, racism, and more.
If you want a taste of how this document starts in the first main section about "The Family", here is a taste:
"This starts with deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity (“SOGI”), diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”), gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights, and any other term used to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists."
It is all bad. ALL of this document is bad, and dangerous, and threatens the lives and the safety of everyone living in this country.