Notices by A.R. Moxon, Verified Duck ? (juliusgoat@mastodon.social)

Let's say we're on the subway in rush hour and it's a little crowded on the car, and I step on your toes. Say you tell me about it in this sort of fashion: "Ow!" or "Youch!" or "Gadfreys! My toes!"

How do I react?

Full Essay: https://www.the-reframe.com/rules-of-engagement/

3) When somebody seems too unsafe to trust with your boundaries, leave. If it's not safe to tell them, or you're not sure if its safe, withdraw from them without telling them. See how they react. They'll tell you who they are.

2) When somebody seems too unsafe to trust with your pain, set a boundary. If somebody has proved themselves less safe than you thought, but you still think it's safe to do so, tell them that you're going to have to withdraw in some way from them. See how they react. They'll tell you who they are.

In this coming age of fascism, it's going to be just as important to discover safe people as it is to discover unsafe people.

Three simple principles I think may work.

1) When someone hurts you, tell them. See how they react. They'll tell you who they are.

https://www.the-reframe.com/rules-of-engagement/

Christians of good intentions need to accept the fact that the signs and symbols of Christianity now represent a genuine menace and a credible threat of violence to all the kinds of people Jesus told followers to serve. The cross once again represents only a tool of authoritarian torture and death.

if you voted for trump, or you excuse those who did, people in your orbit know you’re not safe. When the chips are down, you’ll sell out your loved ones and then retreat to your self-exonerating excuses. Of course you will; you did it when the chips weren’t down.

You’re unsafe, and dangerous times are coming. Bye.

Question of if/when Republican family/friends should be shunned by those who will be directly harmed by their support of Trump—and the fact that the possibility infuriates Republicans so much—comes down to this simple fact:

Bullies need victims. But victims don’t need bullies.

Trump supporters, when people cut you out of their lives because you support their marginalization and abuse and murder, they aren’t ending your relationship over politics; they’re recognizing that you ended it over politics and are reacting accordingly. It’s that thing you say you love—personal accountability. Live with your choice.

Seek people whose lives are hard, and make it easier for them.

Encounter people who have made their lives comfortable by making it hard for others, and make it uncomfortable.

Hope is a thing that fights in the dark.

good morning

"I see TRUMP/VANCE 2024 signs on lawns around my neighborhood, and I know there is somebody inside that house who on some fundamental level cannot be trusted. I know there might be people inside that house who quietly fear that person with good reason."

https://www.the-reframe.com/apology-not-accepted/

When you name the Republican Party as the white supremacist cult it is, there's a standard response.

"We can't just get rid of them," it's said. "We have to learn to live with them."

We.

Yes, we tolerate the intolerable. More than tolerate it; we enable it. On Tuesday maybe (hopefully not) we are going to give it limitless power.

Yet it cuts against the dominant social narrative to say we need to fight the white supremacist cult; this, because our society is supremacist.

Let me ask some other questions.

Do Republicans and other fascists *want* healing? Is that what they're asking for?

Do Republicans *want* to walk these redemptive paths? Are they walking them? If not, why are we so certain those paths are closed or that we have closed them?

I mean, do we not need to heal the white supremacist cult? Do we want these people to stay broken?

I sure don't.

It's far more popular to say we need to heal the white supremacist cult.

It's far more popular to issue reminders that we need to leave paths open for the white supremacist cult to find redemption.

And who could be against redemption? Who could be against healing?

It's not so popular to suggest that white supremacists have to learn to live with everyone else.

It's not so popular to suggest that the answer to white supremacy is for white supremacists to change their behavior.

A question: How to heal fascist bullies? How to leave paths open for their redemption?

To answer, let me give you a phrase and a word, which might seem counterintuitive.

Let me give you: Apology not accepted.

Let me give you: Unacceptable.

Full Essay: https://www.the-reframe.com/apology-not-accepted/

Here's what I mean when I say all of this is absolutely unacceptable in a decent society: It cannot by definition be permitted in a decent society, because a society that permits such things cannot be considered decent.

And yet our society does permit it.

So we know our society is not decent.

Jesus was big on miracles, parables, and carpentry. What a TikTok star he'd have been!

He told a parable once with 3 characters: a kid who squandered the family money; a father who loved his wayward kid; and an older son, who isolated himself from the return party because he held himself superior.