Glad to. I think the more valuable story to tell people is about the thread connecting deaths of despair, and it’s the story that will be resisted. Shitty liberal tendencies will tend to tell the easier story as a way to obscure the hard one, and they’ll tell it louder if you call them out on their hypocrisy. This is not to say mental health awareness is an easier conversation at all, but the wider concept of “deaths of despair” touches it and ties it to something bigger, and is the more potent thought to leave people with.
The Occupy Wall Street movement had problems with staying on message and not making concrete demands, among other critiques folks to their left might make. However, they introduced the powerful concept that 1% of Americans control more than a third of American wealth, and the idea of “the 1%” does tremendous good and will long outlive the other conversations within that movement.
A major value of online discourse is to teach ourselves to perceive deeper threads in situations like what I’ve mentioned, and to obliterate our own blind spots when they stand in the way. That is what I was trying to say, and thank you sincerely for being an engaged discussion partner!
“Deaths of despair” is a powerful concept which deserves whatever shove into the mainstream that it can be given, regardless of purity tests. Occupy had problems, but it still got people to take on the concept of “the 1%.”
Our posting buddy’s fucky word construction is correct and in wide use. I’m reading “A Short History of Trans Misogyny” by Jules Gill-Peterson which opens with this paragraph:
•••
Preface
"Trans misogyny" refers to the targeted devaluation of both trans femininity and people perceived to be trans feminine, regardless of how they understand them-selves. While it can manifest as a system of beliefs, trans misogyny also structures the material world through disparate life outcomes and a suite of characteristically punitive regimes. As an exercise of interpersonal or state violence, trans misogyny operates through the logic of the preemptive strike. It trans-feminizes its targets without their assent, usually by sexualizing their presumptive femininity as if it were an expression of male aggression. This process of misrecognition and projection construes its targets as inherently threatening. The threat label, in turn, justifies aggression or punishment rationalized after the fact as a legitimate response to having been victimized— a self-interested playbook if there ever was one. Whoever pursues trans misogyny enjoys the rare privilege of being at once the victim and the judge, jury, and executioner. The transgression prompting this full-court press can be as mundane as walking down the street, or a moral panic as overinflated as the putative end of Western civilization. Regardless, the passive presence of a trans-feminized person is almost always the solipsistic pretense for striking first. Trans misogyny attacks the very existence of trans femininity in attacking real people.
•••
Also, if you’re still reading, please also add to your lexicon the absolute gift that is “cissie.”
It’s a fucky word construction, but it’s correct and in wide use. Transgender and trans are different concepts. I’m reading “A Short History of Trans Misogyny” by Jules Gill-Peterson which opens with this paragraph:
•••
Preface
"Trans misogyny" refers to the targeted devaluation of both trans femininity and people perceived to be trans feminine, regardless of how they understand them-selves. While it can manifest as a system of beliefs, trans misogyny also structures the material world through disparate life outcomes and a suite of characteristically punitive regimes. As an exercise of interpersonal or state violence, trans misogyny operates through the logic of the preemptive strike. It trans-feminizes its targets without their assent, usually by sexualizing their presumptive femininity as if it were an expression of male aggression. This process of misrecognition and projection construes its targets as inherently threatening. The threat label, in turn, justifies aggression or punishment rationalized after the fact as a legitimate response to having been victimized— a self-interested playbook if there ever was one. Whoever pursues trans misogyny enjoys the rare privilege of being at once the victim and the judge, jury, and executioner. The transgression prompting this full-court press can be as mundane as walking down the street, or a moral panic as overinflated as the putative end of Western civilization. Regardless, the passive presence of a trans-feminized person is almost always the solipsistic pretense for striking first. Trans misogyny attacks the very existence of trans femininity in attacking real people.
We’ll do it again in our lifetimes. The perennial contender Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza is waiting under the ring with a steel chair, and COVID is a hell of a tag team partner for all kinds of pathogens.
Hamas is already strapped to the gills with AR pattern assault rifles thanks to captured, abandoned, unsecured, and sold IDF stockpiles along with other purchases, but you’re absolutely right.
With any luck, a free Palestine will get a Taliban sized plate of war materiel leftovers once the settlers go the way of Rhodesia.
Thank you for clarifying, and good luck on your quest. Arab Jews and local Palestinian Jews later termed Mizrahi were treated particularly awfully by the Zionists, there was even a false-flag Zionist militia bombing of an Iraqi Jewish synagogue.
For your earlier questions, I recommend chapters 1 through 6 of Ten Myths About Israel by Ilan Pappé if you haven’t encountered it already.
Hot damn, that sounds like the best combination golf and fishing trip ever!