Notices by cavewoman rika :nonbinaryFlag: (mrjunge@raru.re)

Me destroying my dress shoe boots cuz I did the most scuffed shoe shining/polishing 🧍🏽♀️

@Miaourt haven’t heard of the sandpaper method tho how does that work just rub it against the shoe at the end or smthn?

@Miaourt oh lmao xD

@Miaourt idk anything! I could easily be tricked. Just like Linux n00bs who do `rm -rf /`…

@Rasp That may or may not work. I think reclamation can sometimes give more license for use outside the community under specific conditions. But I’m not trying to find some kind of ultimate proper way to use language to combat hostile language anyway and each person is welcome to decide how they want to engage with language and their experiences of language use. While it can be fine and interesting to talk about, I think it’s futile to try and find some reliable, slam dunk solution (within language use). I think it’s healthier to just let people draw their lines in the sand and for other people to respect that if they want to continue having any relationship.

It literally just comes down to boundary respect. For example, just because I decided I want to reclaim what is otherwise a slur doesn’t mean other people with similar experiences to me don’t cope with the slur differently and may not want to hear it regardless. I’m not gonna say, “oh, but what’s the problem? It’s just a reclaimation.” For the same reason I also wouldn’t say, “oh but my friends let me use this word widely used as a slur” when I’m talking to a random stranger. Equally it would be silly for someone to insert thenselves into some random queer group and then start talking down to them because “queer?!? that’s actually a slur guys oh my god stop with this.” etc.

Saw this video by a Gen Zer and to sum it up the whole point was basically, “these newer kids coming up are turning neutral terms into code words for slurs now that traditional slurs can no longer be said without consequence and a marginalized person’s vector of privilege is sometimes used for covert bigotry while a privileged person’s marginalizations is sometimes used as a shield from criticism.” It took Gen Z that long to figure out that language policing is the most futile part of activism? It’s useful to getting a sense of respect by asserting boundaries at an interpersonal level, but that isn’t activism, and changing what words the entirety of society can use barely budges social norms any particular way because it reduces politics to an endless word game. I’m speechless. This is so basic. And no, I’m not one of those people who are like, “oh my god I’m entitled to call you (insert offensive term) without having to confront your personal feelings about it.” But the fact that the former point was always so constantly conflated with the latter, until now y’all are finally like, “oooohhhh?!?” Y’all don’t listen. lol

@Rasp yeah. I was kind of looking forward to it because my anhedonia has made it hard to continue doing my hobbies this week and I only barely get to work on time cuz I stay in bed really long now when I wake up (thank god I have not had almost any hours this week..). I do wonder if maybe its also I was giving myself that leeway as well thinking I might be able to get it all out today.

My therapist canceled for understandable reasons and I hope she’s safe but that also means I’ll have to buckle down and weather the storm.

Ah. US government. The greatest Jerry Springer show ever aired.

The only satisfying thing about US politics right now is that I finally get some reprieve from being constantly gaslit about this country and my own experiences and the experiences I saw of others growing up, by being able to see it all plainly laid out. Like, I don’t know how to convey how frustrating it was to be Chicken Little back when I had more solid ties to certain movements. I am not saying I made this very specific call, but I saw the things I was talking about escalating over time. I saw the complete decimation of certain spaces by certain toxic dynamics, how the right-wing then started leveraging the repressed resentment for the decimation of those spaces by those dynamics, etc. I saw legitimate concerns drowned out by concern-trolls and then by those pearl-clutching at those defensively reacting to this entire series of escalations. Which then gave more fuel for the concern trolls, which then fueled more of the defensive lateral toxicity. I saw fellow travelers try to eventually take the fight into their own hands by warning about what was going on only to be dismissed as too militant or exaggerating, or otherwise force-fit into a highly dichotomizing discourse that had already congealed by then. Ultimately their warning message was drowned out in a sea of discursive confusion and half-truths. It may seem ridiculous, but when I saw the destruction of spaces where I could openly talk about theory and even *potentially* organize without either paranoid, punitive readings/interpretations of my words from fellow travelers or a cadre of constant waves of right-wing trolling, rhetoricians and derailments, I knew we were cooked.

Sure, engaging in theory can be its own form of slacktivism. I’m not saying I ever was some amazing activist going out doing things in the streets. But my point is, when you can’t even discuss theory online or in real life spaces in peace, it’s a really bad sign. How likely is *anything* to get off the ground at that point? I literally *stopped yapping about the things I used to yap about* because of all I mentioned. Of course, many other more concrete indicators were already there even by then of where things were headed at a larger scale—just certain facts about the way US “democracy” has operated, hostility to unionization, etc. But when social life, which seems more smaller scale, starts to radically change in such a way that certain cultural activities are unsustainable for social movements outside of a purely reactive frame that is a big sign of catalyzation.

Now people have been catching on but at significant delay. I guess that is only the natural consequence of relegating the underground to oblivion. Of ignoring the messy, experimental, or marginal canaries in the coal mines, in favor of the mainstream, clean and sanitized normative spaces. One is so easy to manipulate if one had only ever heard of something like antifa on and after cable news rather than before. If one had only ever witnessed what disability means socially after the pandemic. And a whole slew of other things. The worst part is, though some of us may be guiltier than others, none of us are innocent on that front. It is only this recognition that can keep me compassionate even as I succumb to anger and disgust.

My New Year’s resolution? Continue my positive mental health trajectory and trends so far (which also touches on spontaneity/playfulness, learning and hobbies via my emotional presence), maybe try and socialize more as well. Maybe.

Good morning everyone 👋🏽 Hope y’all have a good day

I’ve tried a few times to create a worksona alt but I think I’m just incapable of maintaining a worksona and I figure that’s actually a good thing.

@solidsanek @epsi Nice. I need this myself. :3

I see people saying that the “majority of Americans preferred this.” The only silver lining to this election is we know that lower voter turnout combined with more mixed mail-in ballot voting is what caused this. Like okay that is its own disappointment for some (not really for me because to me that is just how the system is designed to work but that’s a whole other discussion). But it at least tells us the Orange Cheeto does not necessarily have a strong endorsement in the general populace. Don’t get me wrong, I am critical of the US enough to know US culture had something to do with the results here, as my previous posts attest, but I think the fact that your neighbor was probably either too apathetic, burnt out, amnesiac, checked out or busy to vote means the mandate is not indicative of the public as a whole. Winning the popular vote does not necessarily mean being popular with most Americans. That would be the case of voting was something people were legally required to do.

@lunarised On the whole grains grindset.

Good morning fedi! :blobcatMorning:

@puniko just woke up. gonna see what I can get done. dreading working tomorrow. lol

@puniko how are nyou doing?

Good morning fedi! :blobcatMorning: