Notices by Passenger (passenger@kolektiva.social), page 4

@anarchopunk_girl

<sung to the tune of Karma Police>
This is what you get
This is what you get
This is what you get
When you uuuuuuuuuuuse React

@AnarchoNinaWrites

A good eighty percent of why the Left is factional is to keep out the fucking reactionaries and cryptofash.

She wants to know why we're like this? Because of her! We were much more chill until her lot turned up.

@mybarkingdogs @river @Rhube @bookstodon

My opinion is that a dystopia, written one way, can be an attack on the idea that there can ever be a better world, and so is a powerfully anti-hope sentiment. (Warhammer 40,000, for example.)

Written another way, I think a dystopia can be a powerfully pro-hope sentiment, by calling out the things that are wrong and showing us that they aren't immutable facts that will continue for eternity. I am not really that into FFVII but my understanding is that some of it falls into this category.

@mybarkingdogs @river @Rhube @bookstodon

I'd definitely read that. It reminds me of Vandermeer's Annihilation, which is a good book.

My immediate thought when reading that prompt is that the authorities are in on it, and so the investigators must constantly dodge them in order to discover the truth. Is that what you intended?

@mybarkingdogs @river @Rhube @bookstodon

I mean, Le Guin wrote male characters, and they were generally acutely well observed because women learn to observe men acutely as a matter of survival (and also because she's just that cool.) Likewise, Black authors writing white characters often make them way more interesting because learning to understand white people and predict their behaviour is important when you grow up Black.

With that in mind, if you as a trans person with disabilities write an able bodied cis character, they will probably be better observed than if I, an able bodied cis person, wrote them. And I would like to read that.

Also, ancient shattered abandoned cities seen through the eyes of someone who knows how to read them for accessibility? That's something I want to stuff into my brain.

@mybarkingdogs @bookstodon

You could also take inspiration from the spy novels of Alan Furst. Furst's writing follows a pattern, but it's a pattern I enjoy reading so I don't mind.

Most of his books are set in Europe before or during the Second World War, during the rise of fascism. His protagonists are usually people disrupted from their lives by fascism: a Bulgarian peasant whose family are killed on the orders of a landowner-turned-ultranationalist, an apolitical French filmmaker who learns the necessity of solidarity, a Polish cartographer turned conscript turned insurgent.

They fight fascism, and they accept the help of the western allies and the USSR, but those foreign benefactors are always shown to be unreliable and untrustworthy. "Who can you trust" is often a major theme in Furst's novels, and trusting any powerful group is presented as a surefire way to prevent yourself from finding truth.

@mybarkingdogs @bookstodon

My obvious go-to would be the Lovecraftian tradition, which is also very racist in places (especially Lovecraft himself) but has a long history of telling mystery and investigative stories that don't involve the police.

Many stories in the Lovecraftian tradition are also sceptical of power, because their metaphor for power is not "heroic cop protecting us" but "evil corrupt cultist who'll summon a monster to kill you if you dare meddle in their schemes," and so it becomes a tale of the weak investigating the strong.

This isn't to say that the Lovecraftian tradition is always free of copaganda, and definitely not to say that it doesn't have problems of its own, of course.

@anarchopunk_girl

Draped on the couch vertically, I hope?

It sounds like a really good walk, and a lot of fun! I'm not a doctor or a physiotherapist but if you do something like that every day I think you'll be doing your health a favour just generally, as well as helping healing.

@anarchopunk_girl

You can tell your girlfriend that an x-ray is usually not that useful for minorly broken ribs cos what the fuck can the doctor do, they can't splint a rib. The real danger here is a chest infection; it's one of those things where broken ribs are usually minor and a chest infection is usually minor but if you get them together then OH NO. If she feels the need to worry about something then she should worry about that.

She can also take you for long walks during which you do lots of deep slow breathing. Possibly while holding hands. That's something girlfriends are often very good at helping with.

On the note of chest infections, try not to get covid. Like, this is general good advice, but especially now.

I am not a doctor or a surgeon or anything, just an antifascist medic, so if a real doctor contradicts me then go with their advice.

@anarchopunk_girl

As a street medic:

The first few days will hurt like fuck. Paracetamol and ibuprofen both help, but ideally only use ibuprofen after the first 48 hours (cos it can slow down healing within that period.) If there's swelling during this period, do the ice peas trick.

The ribs should heal by themselves in a few weeks, and broken ribs have a low chance of infection. You can help by trying to sleep sitting upright for a few days, or at least more upright than you usually do. Try to avoid sleeping in a foetal position, and try not to lie down that much while awake. You want to be vertical as often as possible.

Get into the habit of taking deep, slow breaths regularly, ideally hourly. Yes, it'll hurt at first. It'll help it heal. You want to get as much air in your lungs as possible to keep them healthy, and you want your rib cage to stay accustomed to its full range of movement.

Don't do heavy work if possible, especially not heavy work that involves lifting shit or bending over. Especially not bending your back.

This is a weird sounding one, but make sure you get regular gentle shoulder exercise. As the ribs heal they'll pull on all your torso muscles, and that'll lead to stiffness in your shoulders.

If they don't feel better after a few weeks, or if you get a fever or are coughing up mucus, go see a doctor. Even if chest infections are normal for you (as they are for me) you 100% do not want a chest infection while you have broken ribs.

@anarchopunk_girl

Would you like some medic tips or have you got this?

@hakan_geijer @HeavenlyPossum @mu @AvengingFemme

cf Graeber on "large heavy objects."

Although having said that I am a union member for exactly that reason: it trades away some of the fluidity and ease of projects, and in exchange becomes legible to the outside world in a way that allows it to intermediate when people need intermediation.

@hakan_geijer @HeavenlyPossum @mu @AvengingFemme

I'm coming to believe that it's better to talk about projects than groups.

For example, if a particular antifascist crew announces they're going to confront a particular TERF event, then not everyone in that crew will be involved (because people have lives) and some people not in that crew will be involved (because fuck TERFs.)

This sort of association makes it easier to build consensus about tactics, because there is no "agree with the project or leave the group."

@anarchopunk_girl @hellbeast @rybson

Works great!

Also, it takes the time to give Hoppe a kicking, which is good.

@anarchopunk_girl @hellbeast

I did this and no dice. I think Eugen just shrinks the images automatically.

@terraboop

It's disgusting.

As someone who works in tech, my theory is that any time you have something which is marketed as "the thing that smart people do", it attracts the very worst men in the world.

@tychosoft @Radical_EgoCom

Note that the use of a tear gas launcher at such close range is banned in many jurisdictions, because it acts as a lethal weapon instead of a crowd dispersal weapon.

Either this cop knew, and is deliberately misusing their weapon, or didn't know and was allowed onto the street with it anyway. Either way, ACAB.

@tychosoft @Radical_EgoCom

In this picture, you can clearly see all the goods cops rushing to disarm the bad cop.

100% of the good cops present that day are busy doing that in this photo, in frame, clearly visible.

It's just that that number happens to be zero.

@elilla

It is clearly a joke, but unfortunately it's a joke by god at our expense.

I used twitter mostly to follow queer and trans shitposters. Mastodon seems a lot more serious, but perhaps I just haven't found the right people.

Who are the good accounts to follow here?