I take the view that protests are a multifunctional tool for social change. Expecting a protest to "work" is like expecting an egg to make a cake.

Protests aren't for convincing politicians to do the right thing, they are for:

*grabbing media attention
*connecting disparate activist and advocacy groups with each other
*demonstrating public engagement
*helping people find joy and/or comfort in their movement
*disrupting the business-as-usual
*practicing how to work together in a large group for a unified purpose

Every protest I've been to (I've been to some) I've seen friends and colleagues mix with strangers, be introduced to each other, exchange pamphlets and contact info, people singing and laughing together (even for dire events), people learning how to act in solidarity together, people (including me!) seeing how policing works to maintain the status quo even when that status quo is bigoted, racist, ableist, colonialist, classist, and heterosexist.

Protests can do lots of things. They don't (usually) make politicians change their opinions. For that you need direct action and mass movements, both of which can arise out of public protest.

The argument that "protests don't do anything" is kinda undermined by how many places are working super hard to make protests illegal.

@AnarchoNinaWrites In grade 8 we had to choose a famous figure from history and I, not knowing *anything* about *anything* picked Trotsky, and came away thinking "Wow, this guy had some really good ideas and then he got axe murdered for them" and it wasn't until many, many years later I discovered that lots of people *didn't* think he had any good ideas, but I still disagree. (I still know nothing about anything but I feel like 13 year old me wasn't too far off)

I made the mistake of looking at a "housing" program in Nova Scotia: 30 little huts inside a fence, surrounded by gravel. It's better than the warehouse with cots separated by curtains, but only barely.

I'm convinced the people who plan, design, and implement these "solutions" instead of just taxing the rich and paying the poor are inhuman monsters with no compassion. Yes, this includes most (all?) of the government.

You don't judge a society by how their richest people live, you judge it by how their poorest are forced to live.

You don't fight fascism by giving the fascists what they want, in case any governments want a tip.

"Oh, the fascists, they don't like those migrants, eh? Well, let's get tough on immigration, that'll shut the fascists up."

@Dremmwel @axnxcamr @theautisticcoach @CStamp @actuallyautistic @communism None of you needed to "well actually" the OP, you know.

Also, telling folks from *any* minority group they have to *do more* to end their oppression (eg, "How would we know about disability rights if disabled people don't tell us?") puts an undue burden on the folks being oppressed. Not to mention, oppressed folks are already explaining their oppression over and over again, it's not like there isn't a history of 100 years or more of disability activism.

Yes, folks should listen to disabled people, and *part* of that listening doesn't include telling them how to speak about their experience.

@MaierAmsden @Radical_EgoCom Please, I beg of you, learn about one, -even one!- culture outside of capitalism. If you like reading books "The Dawn of Everything" by Graeber and Wengrow is a great over-view of (among other things) the myth that capitalism is "human nature" by looking at the vast breadth of human cultures and economies through history. You've been told a story about human beings, and maybe now you have an opportunity to learn some different stories.

(thanks @SallyStrange for the correction)

@sentient_water @samiam @cynaq @actuallyautistic "If we go to the museum, can I stop and read every plaque or are you gonna keep rushing me to look at things without reading the plaque? I want to read the plaque."

@sentient_water @samiam @cynaq @actuallyautistic "Would you rather go to the theatre or to the museum?"

"What theatre? What museum? How many people will be there? Do I know anyone? Have I been there before? What show and exhibit? Can I cancel last minute? Are you going? Is he? What time can I leave?"

@sentient_water @samiam @cynaq @actuallyautistic I wish the med student who gave me the questionnaire from a sheet of paper and had no experience with autistics, especially not adult autistics, knew this and then my pauses, questions, tangents, and discomfort would have helped me get a diagnosis instead of just adding to the feelings of futility. :(

@hakan_geijer For me, if I knew a people were displaced, bombed, assassinated, imprisoned, restricted economically, socially, and politically, I would simply not waste any of my time critiquing their methods when I could criticizing the oppressive state that at every move has put the oppressed into an impossible position, but you do you and treat all violence as equal, no matter who does it or when.

@hakan_geijer Okay, thanks for letting me know.

@hakan_geijer Honestly I'm confused, I can't figure out what I said that pissed you off.

@hakan_geijer Do we know each other? Did I step on your toe?

@hakan_geijer Thanks, I'll rethink everything now?

My opinion is, you don't ever have to be outraged by an oppressed group's acts of violence, because you should already be outraged at the existing and continuing violence being done against them, and that arguing for the side of the larger militarized occupying force - even if your convictions are pure - isn't helping the folks who're oppressed as much as you think it might be.

Like, maybe wait a little while before adding fuel to a flame, especially if you're gonna start saying wild shit that sounds a lot like "if colonization happened long enough ago it isn't my responsibility".

I dunno, for me, a gay/queer fellow, I can't support an organisation (the police) who had as part of their literal job to arrest folks for doing gay stuff. When I learned about the harm cops cause to communities that aren't mine (Black communities, Indigenous communities) it just sealed it for me. ACAB, all means all, etc.

If I get serial killed, I already know the cops' investment in finding the killer is directly proportional to my economic status and proximity to power, so.

When I came out to my mom, when I was 18, I was nervous as anything.

She's a great mom, she always raised me and my brother to treat folks compassionately, and even before I came out to her she talked about LGBTQ+ people with care and love. But still, it was terrifying, nerve-wracking. I had peers who'd been kicked out of their homes, and even though I believed my mom would be accepting, the possibility of our relationship changing because of my sexuality was dreadful.

Before I came out to her, I came out to my three best friends at the time, one after the other. My reasoning was that if things went poorly, I would want community around me. A parent's rejection hurts more than almost anything else, I instinctively knew, and I took pains to make sure I was safe.

Of course my mom was loving in her response, and she is an outspoken ally of the queer community in her role as a minister in the United Church of Canada. At this point, she might have even been to more Pride celebrations than I have, and she's certainly waved the rainbow flag more than me (I'm not very flashy :P )

But even with all that, if someone - a teacher, a parent, a peer - had outed me to her before I was ready, with words I might not choose for myself, things could have gone much differently. I know this because it's happened to many, many, many of my queer kin.

For LGBTQ+ youth in hostile or precarious households, being outed to bigoted parents has consequences, it is an act of harm. "Parents rights" have nothing to do with their child's sexuality, gender, or anything else except insofar as it serves to help the child grow and flourish. A teen keeping their pronouns private from their parents may be the best thing that teen can do to keep themselves safe and housed.

ALL kids deserve the right to privacy, - even from their parents - kids deserve to grow into adults on their own time, to grow into whole people without worrying they might be homeless.

This move across Canada by conservative governments to turn teachers into gender-cops has NO purpose except to cause harm to LGBTQ+ people. It's a resentful, spiteful little law, that only the worst kinds of people who have a very specific, very intentional hatred of us, would write.