Notices by Andrew Perfors (andyperfors@aus.social)

This article is a year old but probably even more relevant now

*How the far-right is turning feminists into fascists*

The terrifying confluence of anti-trans thinkers, American evangelicals, anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists and global purveyors of dark money poses a much bigger threat than you might realize

https://xtramagazine.com/power/far-right-feminist-fascist-220810

But I can’t. iI’s always there. Even in things that aren’t about anything trans related. I’m acutely aware that I walk a tightrope. I can’t make a mistake, can’t misspeak, can’t screw up, because if I do it will be interpreted as reflecting on all trans people and not just me.

I’m so tired. And I didn’t even engage much in this over the last few weeks! Just talked to people, and spent far too much time on the internet reading. Mostly I tried to make inroads on my enormous to-do list, while not dropping the ball too badly as a parent.

But I’m utterly, utterly, utterly EXHAUSTED.

I don’t even want to post this because I don’t want the extra burden of responding to your (almost certainly very kind and supportive) replies. It’s just one more thing, and all I want to do is hide. But I guess I’ll post this because I want to share a little of what it is like.

Also I suppose I want to apologise to everything that I owe emails or work to. :( This anti-trans bullshit isn’t even the main reason — I just have too much work on my plate — but it has not helped.

/END

When I reflect on the past few weeks — the Nazi rally, everything going on around that — and the fact that some shit like this happens like clockwork every so often, I keep reflecting on this quote by Toni Morrison:

“The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language and you spend twenty years proving that you do. Somebody says your head isn’t shaped properly so you have scientists working on the fact that it is. Somebody says you have no art, so you dredge that up. Somebody says you have no kingdoms, so you dredge that up. None of this is necessary. There will always be one more thing.”

—

I don’t pretend to know what it’s like to be Black, but it speaks to my experience as a trans person.

We trans people will always have to prove ourselves as just as human, just as deserving of autonomy over our own bodies, as anybody else. We can’t take it for granted. We have to watch as we are made pawns in a vicious culture war we don’t want to be part of and can’t get out of.

Most of us just want to be left alone.

*I* just want to be left alone. I want to be able to live my life without some dipshit having more authority than my doctor or myself to determine what medical care I’m allowed to access or where I’m allowed to go in public or what I can wear.

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@NikaShilobod @ct_bergstrom @hildabast @philipncohen @drewharwell

Yes, as I thought about it more, I think while I’m still convinced of the underlying problems that come with power-law distribution of follower numbers - I’m less convinced about the solution of just placing hard limits.

That said, the “chaining accounts” thing isn’t the main problem with it IMHO. It would still make a big difference for mega accounts. e.g. consider someone with 1M followers. if follower numbers were capped at 10K you’d need 100 different accounts to get the same numbers and I don’t see how that is feasible at all for a person do to. Much less someone with 10M followers.

How to slow down scientific progress

"Leo Szilard—the physicist who first conceived of the nuclear chain reaction and who urged the US to undertake the Manhattan Project—also wrote fiction. His book of short stories, The Voice of the Dolphins, contains a story “The Mark Gable Foundation,” dated 1948."

You can see the full thing at this link, but I've also taken a screenshot of an excerpt. ? ? ?

https://rootsofprogress.org/szilard-on-slowing-science

@ct_bergstrom You are exactly right: it's a complete mistake to assume that the only harms of speech are felt by people who see the speech.

What so many people don't get is even people who aren't on twitter or social media at all are affected by the stochastic terrorism it inspires and the misinfo it spreads. The people working at Boston Children's Hospital, which had to shut down because of terrorist threats provoked by the twitter account LibsOfTikTok, are a great example of the former; all of the people who died preventable deaths from covid are an example of the latter.

I remember when Elon took over twitter I tweeted about how terrible it would be, and people said I could just block a bunch and I'd be fine. But that wasn't the point: I wasn't worried about myself, I was worried about the integrity of the information system. See example tweet below.

Anyway, I wish I'd been wrong to worry :(

This is the tableau that greeted me this morning after breakfast. I love the people in my house ?