#genocide mention

[jewfrogs]

this post sucks so bad massachusetts takes its name from the indigenous massachusett people who were genocided and whose land was stolen and that would be obvious if you would think for a single second and look up the etymology before posting. mocking a native language that was eradicated for centuries and is only now beginning to be revived is not fucking funny it is ignorant and racist and cruel

#ribbits #genocide mention #i am actually quite mad that that has 10k notes. scrolled through the notes and only saw one correction #someone asked ‘why did the founding fathers name it that’ first of all the fucking people who were already living here named it that #hundreds of years before this country was founded. second the first colonist to call it massachusetts was fucking john smith in 1610

[sonicreferencephotos]

Paramount, Palestine, and This Blog

With the Knuckles series rapidly approaching, I feel it necessary to make a statement about how we will handle media created by Paramount. I have endeavored to keep this account dedicated exclusively to Sonic reference photos. However, as this issue is directly related to a piece of Sonic media, it has become relevant here.

For any who are not aware, Paramount Pictures, the company behind the Sonic movies, released a statement last year expressing their support for Israel and its "right to defend itself." As you probably know by now, Israel's idea of "defending itself" is committing genocide. I won't go into detail here (that is definitely out of this blog's field), but I would recommend doing your own research if you aren't aware of the atrocities happening at the hands of Israel right now. Needless to say, companies publicly supporting genocide is unacceptable; which brings us to the echidna in the room.

Many Sonic fans, myself included, have been looking forward to the Knuckles series. But, given the situation, supporting Paramount by subscribing to Paramount+ to watch Knuckles (or anything else) is not something I can condone.

I would like to humbly request that anyone who reads this avoid watching Knuckles through Paramount+. Please either watch it through "unofficial" channels, or abstain from watching it at all. Show Paramount that we will not ignore genocide.

And now, we return to the reference photos. I have thought long and hard about how to approach Sonic cinematic universe references. On one hand, giving publicity to the SCU will encourage people to watch Paramount media; on the other, refusing to post references will force people to collect their own. In the end, I have decided to approach SCU media similarly to Sonic Speed Simulator (albeit for very different reasons): I will post references, but all Paramount related posts will include a disclaimer condemning Paramount's support of Israel. I will also prioritize non-SCU refs, although you are all welcome to request any SCU characters you would like pictures of.

This is a difficult situation, and I welcome feedback on how best to continue. I ask that everyone remains civil in the notes. If anything changes, I will be sure to let you know.

Stay safe

#not references #paramount pictures #knuckles series #sonic cinematic universe #palestine #israel #genocide mention

[notaplaceofhonour]

There is no version of a conflict between two historically oppressed peoples who both claim one piece of land as their ancestral homeland that isn’t nuanced & complex. The only simple “solution” is genocide.

Israel-Palestine is complicated. Anyone telling you differently is selling you genocide.

#Israel #Palestine #Israel Palestine Conflict #Israel Palestine War #genocide mention #antisemitism #jumblr

[vague-humanoid]

#Palestine #genocide mention

[scuslime]

Btw for people who don’t use Twitter, here’s Charlie’s tweet on Palestine, if you want to go and look at the charities in the thread, here’s the link to the original tweet

For those confused as to why it’s not posted on his Main, he got locked out and doesn’t have the 2FA to get back in right now.

#slimecicle #charlie slimecicle #Palestine #Genocide mention

[blackpearlblast]

honestly one of the things that's been wild for me to learn lately is that israel was responsible for enforcing the idea that the holocaust was an unparalleled genocide that stands apart from everything else that's happened in the course of human history. even before i understood well enough how deeply interconnected all genocides are, when i was a kid, i really fucking hated it. it felt so wrong to me for the holocaust to be The Genocide of human history. it felt disrespectful to other groups who had gone through genocide and it felt like weirdly dehumanizing and tokenizing to us. i didn't want to think of jews as The Group Who Went Through A Genocide, i wanted to see us how i was familiar with in our culture our holidays our art our singing our prayers. that's how i wanted other people to see us too! not that i was ashamed of what we had gone through but i just didn't want people's perception of us to just be that we were victims and i didn't want other peoples victimhood denied to them through that either. but yeah kind of wild to learn that israel and zionist rhetoric seems fairly responsible for this pet peeve of mine from childhood before i even really had a greater consciousness of solidarity or anything.

#genocide mention #holocaust mention #there was something about like ''contextualizing the holocaust'' or something maybe it was ADL or something #i don't understand how isolation is empowering #like obviously the holocaust is significant and huge and gut wrenching and i do think it being part of the modern jewish identity makes #sense but i don't want it eclipse everything else about us i think the idea that the most accessible knowledge to people that weren't #jewish about judaism was that we had been murdered and nothing else upset me. because we have candles and bread and songs and #i feel like i'm over clarifying i doubt people would take this in bad faith anyway i just get nervous

[tepehkwi]

culturally-specific orientations and gender identities are real and they exist whether you want to validate them or not. terfs and truscum refuse to accept these facts because their ideologies can only be defended by racist and colonialist arguments, such as insisting that gender is biologically-dictated or that your gender is not real unless you experience gender dysphoria and pursue medical transition with hormones, surgeries, and legal document changes.

biological essentialism, cis-normativity, and the pathological idea of ‘transgenderism’ are racist, they’re concepts made up by colonizers that are violently enforced by christianity and white supremacy. when we say “gender is a social construct” we mean “the gender binary and the idea of transness, as it is defined by western standards, are ideas constructed by a white christian society.” i am ‘trans’ and ‘queer’ only because i am considered trans and queer by white christian standards. in my own culture, i would not have to ‘transition’ because my gender would simply be accepted.

colonizers force upon us their concepts of gender, biological sex, and sexuality while they continue to erase ours. you cannot separate the extermination of our culturally-specific sexual orientations or genders from the violent genocidal destruction of our cultures. the words that once existed for our concepts of gender and attraction were erased when our languages were banned and we were punished, beaten, and tortured for teaching them.

my own two-spirit identity can only be labeled using the language of my oppressors because the words for what i am are no longer spoken.

#xe speak #130k notes later i am deciding to remake the post in a more concise way #if you're not native i still encourage you to reblog this (without commentary!) (even in the tags!!) #my language here is vague because this applies to EVERY indigenous culture #not just first nations on turtle island! #ndn tag #indigenous #twospirit #two spirit #genocide mention

[lizardsfromspace]

*screaming at some bit player whose job was almost replaced by his scanned image* You monster. Some more famous people in the same job support a genocide, and some actors were fired by executives and talent agents for opposing it, and oh, you were too busy playing Man At Party #6 to stop this yourself, huh? Huh??? You should've lost your job forever, you imperialist pig

#britta perry core #i/p // #politics #genocide mention

[daloy-politsey]

It’s so weird when people are like “Israelis are not from Palestine” as if that is the problem and not that Israel is a settler colony committing genocide. Like, are you saying that it would be okay if Zionists built an ethnostate in Europe and committed genocide there?

#genocide mention

[just-antithings]

it’s almost like they hold their donation drives at the same time every year or something

#mod erin #just anti things #image #genocide mention #ao3 discourse

[phoenixyfriend]

Among all the other conflicts happening, like Ukraine and Gaza, I am somehow still missing things, and my bet is that a lot of you are, too. The world is a big place, and we can't know everything, but we should at least be trying, yeah?

Anyway, there is another conflict in Africa, not too far from Gaza, that has also been referred to as a genocide, and is reportedly massively influenced by proxy war politics via Russia, the UAE, and more.

IMO RealLifeLore is a really good creator, but I haven't watched the Modern Conflicts Darfur conflict video yet, so I'm going to watch that... probably tomorrow?

Sudan's conflict is particularly worrying geographically, as it is bordered by

South Sudan (formerly unified, ongoing conflicts due to oil)

Egypt (already unstable and at risk due to Gaza)

Ethiopia and Eritrea (in conflict with each other and Djibouti)

the Red Sea (unreliable for oil experts due to Houthis)

Libya (still recovering from civil war that ended in 2020)

Chad (still recovering from civil war that ended in 2010, at risk of further destabilization due to the Sudanese refugees entering from Darfur)

#current events #sudan #sudanese civil war #genocide mention #phoenix politics #Youtube

[antianakin]

Honestly, it's just a little weird that SHIN ended up the least anti-Jedi character on the entire Ahsoka show. Ahsoka and Baylan both explicitly condemn the Jedi as weak or failures and both Ahsoka and Sabine keep disrespecting Huyang and his Jedi protocols, whereas it's Shin who actually asks if Baylan MISSES the Jedi themselves, if he misses the Order. She has no real connection to it herself, so she can't miss something she never even knew, but she takes the time to ask Baylan if HE misses it. It's the closest we get to someone MOURNING the Jedi and recognizing that their loss is, in fact, something that should be sad. Shin asking if her master misses his own genocided culture is legitimately the closest we get to acknowledging Order 66 at all and the closest we get to a genuinely pro Jedi moment.

And it came from the stupid little Darth Maul knock-off with a personality like wallpaper.

#star wars #jedi #pro jedi #ahsoka show #ahsoka show negativity #anti ahsoka show #shin hati #ahsoka tano critical #ahsoka critical #sabine wren critical #sabine critical #baylan skoll #genocide mention #tw genocide #order 66

[strawberrus0da]

This scenario has been playing nonstop in my mind for hours help

#the english language was developed in what #5th century? #and this kid was in the inbetween for possibly thousands of years #this is entirely plausible #my art #my toh art #i want to read a fic about this so bad #philip wittebane #emperor belos #the collector #the collector toh #toh the collector #comic #toh comic #toh #the owl house #toh humor #toh funny #toh spoilers #genocide mention #sorry idk how tws work

[angelynmoon]

Eldritch Steve verse

Part 10

So, apparently A03 is down and I had nothing better to do, so I wrote this, I'll post it to Ao3 either tomorrow or when it's back up if it takes more than a day.

Thank you for all your ideas for a title, I haven't actually chosen one but you've gotten me thinking so thank you, (a little part of me wants to name it 'From the rot', I don't even really know why).

-

"...and that difference was my undoing, it was the undoing of my kind as well, they just didn't know it yet." Steve began.

And Eddie listened, quietly, he listened intently because this was Steve's story, the journey into who he was now, and Eddie had always been curious about who Steve was before he came into their world.

Not enough to ask, no, he'd seen the way Steve looked away when Jonathan asked about others, when Nancy questioned if they should be worried about others like Steve.

And Eddie felt his heart break when Steve mentioned spawning, when he'd explained what that was.

And he felt the tears in his eyes escape when Steve described coming home and finding the broken shells, the remains of his raveged children and the anger that had filled him.

Eddie didn't blame him, he'd be angry if anything happened to the Party, to El and Erica and Max, he didn't know what he'd do if someone killed them, didn't want to find out.

"I sat there for what must have been days, watching the remains of my babies rot and then I buried them as deep into the ground as I could." Steve spoke softly, an otherworldly grief in his voice.

And Eddie expected him to say that he'd sought out a way into their world, snuck through a crack or hole and ran from his anger and grief.

What he did not expect was what Steve told him next.

"I tracked the scent of the one that took my spawn, and I tore it apart, piece by piece until nothing was left but scraps and blood. And I stood there and I knew that I could never safely spawn, not while my kind lived." Steve looked to the window, to the tree that scraped at the glass, "And I knew that I'd be hunted for what I'd done, not the killing of a fellow, but that I left it to rot."

Eddie frowned wondering why that would be the problem, Steve seemed to understand and explained.

"My kind, they aren't like humans, it's survival of the strongest, and we'd eat the weaker of our kind, to gain their strength, their rage , that I didn't eat the one I killed was the wrost sort of insult I could give, they'd hunt me for that alone, but as far as the others were concerned I'd attacked unprovoked, for no reason since I wasn't eating.

"So I let my rage and anger have me, let it guide me in my slaughter, thinking of my spawn broken and killed before they had the chance at life.

"When that rage, that anger finally faded into the sorrow it was covering I was..." Steve looked at Eddie, tears in all those thousands of eyes, "I was alone, the rest of my kind were dead and left to rot throughout the Down Below, their blood poisoned the rivers and the fumes from their rotting flesh poisoned the air. I made the Down Below the wasteland it is now, because I would not feed on those that killed my babies, because it was worse for me to leave them where the fell once I'd killed them."

Steve looked away from Eddie, "You say I'm not a monster, but you're wrong, I am, my reasons for doing it don't change the fact that I commited a genocide, that I am one of two, that neither of us will spawn together or alone, our kind, if we breed at all, will eventually be diluted with each generation, until it is nothing but strange quirks appearing now and again."

Eddie stared, it was a lot of information but it didn't change Eddie's feelings, grief did strange things to everyone, Wayne, when Eddie's mother died had spent days wandering the woods, always retuning covered in blood that Eddie could only hope wasn't human. Eddie had seen him digging holes in the far side of the trailer park to bury something but he'd never been brave enough to ask or to go digging later. And Eddie's mother wasn't related to Wayne, Wayne was Eddie's father's brother not his mother's.

But knowing what Steve had done didn't change anything, not for Eddie at least, his heart was Steve's for as long as Steve wanted it, even when Steve stopped wanting it, Eddie's heart would still be Steve's until it stilled, this changed nothing, except...

"Wait, does that mean you and me could have biological children?" Eddie asked, because he had no filter.

Steve looked at him with a from, "You don't hate me?"

"I could never." Eddie said as he pulled Steve into his arms and let him relax into him.

They stayed that way for minutes or hours, at some point moving to lay down on the bed, before Eddie's curiosity needed to be satisfied.

"You never answered me, can you have my babies, because I certainly don't have the right equiptment for carrying babies." Eddie said.

Steve looked up at him from where he laid on Eddie's chest, "I can have either parts, I'm not male or female in the way humans are, the male form was just easier when I changed, it's a less complicated system."

"Cool, I'd like to spawn with you, when you're ready for that, if you ever are." Eddie told Steve.

Steve stared at him in his unsettling way, "You are not lying."

"Nope, I love you, Steve, Monster or not, I'm yours until you decide otherwise." Eddie vowed.

"You need to talk to Wayne." Steve said.

"What?" Eddie frowned, what did Wayne have to do with this, with anything.

"He can explain what you're getting into better than I can, I didn't spend much time with Mated Pairs." Steve explained.

Eddie frowned, stared at Steve.

"Oh My God! WAYNE IS LIKE YOU?!" Eddie shouted.

-

Taglist: not taking tag requests, it's getting too long.

I will update this with the Ao3 link when it's posted.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/48500452?view_full_work=true

@addelyin @merricatty @lesbiabrobin @apuckishwit @0o-mushroom-o0 @starlight-archer @darkwitchoferie @just-a-tiny-void @swimmingbirdrunningrock @intergalactic-president-awesome @vampireinthesun @goodolefashionedloverboi @adhdsummer @purpleanimeoverart @space-invading-pigeon @lilaclilyroses @nohomoyesbi @plantzzsandpencilzzs @korixae @subversivecynic @flusteredcas @persnicketysquares @freddykicksasses @little-trash-ghost @cupcakesnwhiskey @cats-ate-all-of-my-pasta @planetsoda @paintsplatteredandimperfect @irregular-child @daydreamsandcrashingwaves @lifeisnotsobadonceyoustopcaring @steddieassheg0es

#steddie #eldritch monster steve #upside down creature steve #mpreg mention #cannabalism mention #genocide mention #From the Rot

[yardsards]

if i could change one thing about the owl house, i'd change the main point of conflict in clouds on the horizon from "odalia's okay with genocide, alador isn't" to "alador is willing to listen to his children, odalia isn't"

first off, i'd make it so that odalia *didn't* know what the draining spell actually did. her knowingly participating in genocide just serves to overshadow her pre-established abusiveness, and feels like the writers didn't trust the audience to understand that she was Bad and deserved to be cut out of her family's lives on the basis of abuse alone.

(also it. kinda doesn't make sense why she'd be okay with it? like she is greedy and short-sighted. but the draining spell would negatively impact her personally, and while the idea of her being so distracted by greed that she acts against her own interests is extremely neat and an apt commentary on real billionaires, it's just,,, a big stretch.)

instead, i'd have her dismiss the truth with "i'm not going to put such a good business deal in jeopardy because of some unfounded suspicions" and "i trust the emperor far more than i trust a bunch of children"

next, i'd replace the scene where king talks to alador. while it was a really nice scene that revealed more about alador's situation and kinda laid the groundwork for king being helpful in the next episode, it's not the best way for alador to learn about the draining spell in my version of the episode. because in that scene, alador believes king is a coven scout -an authority figure- so trusting what he says about the day of unity is not any kind of challenge for alador.

instead, i'd make it so that *emira and edric* are the ones who tell him about the draining spell (maybe king helped the twins escape? that gives him a purpose within the episode and there's a fun parallel with him freeing the collector later).

i don't think the twins were deliberately looking for alador, but they saw him sitting out there as they broke out and they had two choices: sneak past him and continue trying to stop things themselves, or talk to him. and they don't quite trust alador to listen and do the right thing, but amity seemed so convinced when she told them he'd listen, and they trust *her*, so they decide to talk to him.

and he listens and promises to put a stop to it. and he tells them to go find safety, and emira is like "but shouldn't we stay and help/make sure amity is safe" and alador tells her that it should have never been her responsibility to handle everything (i am starving for her whole parentified older sister thing to get addressed can you tell) and promises that he's going to do better for all of them, and apologizes for being so negligent -and Maybe explains a bit of why he was like that and what odalia did to him (if i could fit it in without it being clunky and keeping it clear that it's an explanation not a full excuse)

so the twins go to take shelter at hexside (no more "wtf did he just leave them in gay baby jail???" that we had in canon) and alador and king go confront odalia/save amity like in canon

and then in that confrontation, perhaps alador brings up the abuse and overwork (since it maybe wouldn't come up in my rewritten scene w him and the twins like it did in canon's scene w him and king). and the general vibe w him confronting her is less "this is the final straw" and more "i should have done this years ago"

and overall i'd want the episode to keep the "he is also a domestic abuse victim and, at times, messed up because he was acting out of fear and trying to protect them" that it introduced in the canon version of the episode (i know some people have criticized the show's choice to make him a victim too and while i can understand some of their reasons i overall liked the concept so it stays) while keeping in mind the "sometimes he messed up because he was trying to do what was 'best' for his kids whilst ignoring what the kids actually wanted/needed" that they established in reaching out

#eliot posts #toh #the owl house #alador blight #odalia blight #emira blight #don't get me wrong i did overall love clouds on the horizon #but at the same time... i could Fix It #long post #abuse mention #genocide mention #i talked about this possible alternate episode with @pandoratheprocrastinator #tho they're also doing their own episode rewrite ideas which are for more extensive than mine lol

[sirfrogsworth]

The Pretty Average Trump Trauma

I really picked the wrong week to have a controversial post go viral.

The appeal deadline for my disability case is very soon and we just recently got the last of the medical records. My lawyer can get very busy and hard to reach. And I have been freaking out trying to get a hold of him to make sure everything is ready to be submitted. Thankfully he just emailed and said everything is on track and will be sent in for the appeal.

But having this weighing on me behind the scenes while also dealing with the blowback from my "vote for Biden" post caused me to enter into some unhealthy arguments and lose my temper on several occasions.

I didn't actually think about what would happen if that post went viral. Sometimes I write things and a hundred people see it, and it serves as a catharsis because I was able to get my thoughts and fears out of my brain.

And sometimes it gets reblogged 6000 times and I can forget I have a platform where that happens from time to time.

I wish I had written a better initial post. I think my thoughts in subsequent posts, along with the inclusion of what I think is a better strategy, would have gone a long way to help people understand my point of view. Looking back, that original post feels incomplete.

The post that ended up going viral was not inspired by reason or logic and it was never really meant to convince anyone of anything.

I thought I was preaching to the choir.

It was a representation of my fears. It was the result of two years of panic and trauma from the pandemic which ended in my mother's horrible death.

Let me explain...

On November 9th, Shaun, a YouTuber I respect, posted this.

And it scared the hell out of me.

A very popular leftist with a huge platform wrote this to 5 million people and I freaked out.

Shaun wasn't necessarily saying not to vote for Biden at the time. But he thinks people should all say they won't vote for him unless he calls for a ceasefire. I get the strategy. But I feared that nuance would be lost on many people and they would only see it as "don't vote for Biden... no matter what." Which was an accurate prediction on my part. The guy from Eve 6 has been going nuance-free for weeks now.

The one thing I greatly disagree with Shaun about is this...

Before the pandemic, I might have understood his argument. For the first two years, Trump was mostly an ineffectual goof. He had trouble getting a lot of his worst ideas to manifest. Most of the border wall he built ended up being repairs of existing barriers. And Obama droned civilians and kept kids in cages too—though Trump kept them in cages indefinitely and made up a rule that we can't actually know how many civilians he was droning.

So, a lot of the same, but turned up to 11.

But nothing about the pandemic response was pretty average.

There is something I have been choosing not to say during all of these discussions. I felt like saying it would be poor timing. I was worried people wouldn't actually agree with me. I worried it would make people think I was turning suffering into a competition. I didn't want to make it look like I valued certain lives over others. But then people accused me of all of that anyway. I was called evil and a collaborator and a supporter of genocide.

So I'm going to talk about it. Because the fact that few have mentioned it in these discussions has been bothering me. And the fact that the majority of society does not mention it makes me feel very alone in this belief.

I have long believed Trump and the majority of US conservatives committed a genocide of the disabled and elderly. I was never really comfortable calling it that word. I wasn't really sure how a genocide got classified as such. So I would just say things like, "40% of people who died during COVID should still be alive" and "Trump is responsible for hundreds of thousands of COVID deaths" and "Trump killed my mom" and hoping people would make the connection or at least see it as mass murder. I mean, this country judges everything by how many "9/11s" something is, but not the pandemic?

Donald Trump was the leader of the Republican party. When he refused to wear a mask due to vanity, his followers looked for something to excuse him. And I feel that directly birthed the "masks don't work" movement among conservatives. Donald Trump, having enormous influence among his acolytes, refused to correct this dangerous rhetoric. And he probably welcomed the cover so he could continue going maskless and not smear his makeup—even after he nearly died.

It is my belief this was the beginning of a genocide of apathy, deliberate and accidental incompetence, and non-compliance. And the reason for that non-compliance was not freedom as many claimed.

Conservatives did not like being inconvenienced.

They didn't like having to consider others.

And if competence requires effort and vigilance, they'd prefer doing the bare minimum.

Trump was famous for not filling vital administrative positions in the executive branch. Not only that, his turnover rate was 5 times higher than previous administrations. People were asked to do the job of several people because they didn't staff properly, and so those people quit. Thus creating a cycle of inexperienced new-hires that were out of their depth and asked to do much more than they bargained for. There is no way they could succeed in their jobs.

I think people forget that part of the role of the executive is the day-to-day boring administrative shit that is required to run a country. And when this day-to-day work isn't valued, it creates a crisis of incompetence. Which then creates things like not enough tests, not enough testing, Trump saying "if you don't test, it doesn't count", botched vaccine rollouts, rampant misinformation, poor education of the populace, and abysmal improvised press conferences where the President does a quick riff on injecting bleach.

This competence aspect is one of the hugest reliefs I had with the Biden administration. Not Biden. Not his policies. I'm talking about the regular workers getting shit done. This is the reason I am desperate to get my shit worked out with Social Security before the election. I once called Social Security during the pandemic and I literally got a recording saying to try calling back the next month.

Trump didn't care. People criticized him for not hiring people. He was aware of the problem. He just did nothing about it. And many conservatives praised him for "trimming the fat" or whatever. This idea that all of these government workers were useless burdens on the taxpayer fell apart during the pandemic.

There is incompetence caused by ignorance but it can also be a deliberate act. Trump was extraordinary in all forms of incompetence. He wasn't qualified to manage a pandemic. But he could have easily appointed experts and then gotten out of the way. But his narcissism would not let him cede power to anyone. He has always been convinced "only Trump can save you" and so his ego helped kill nearly half a million people.

Once the incompetence ball got rolling, that's when malicious apathy reared its ugly head. It was time to choose who they cared least about dying—who they felt was most useless. Conservatives decided it was time to devalue lives and start making sacrifices to save politicians' money laundering fronts small businesses.

Popular conservatives were going on TV and saying it was okay if Grandma died. It would be a worthy sacrifice to protect our freedoms.

The Lt. Governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, basically offered up the elderly for sacrifice all while claiming that he spoke for them and was also willing to die. Though I don't take his personal willingness very seriously, since he has the money and resources to get the best medical care and probably had no expectation he was in any danger.

“No one reached out to me and said, ‘As a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren?’ But if they had? If that is the exchange, I’m all in. So my message is let’s get back to work. Those of us who are 70-plus, we’ll take care of ourselves.”

But you cannot just sacrifice the elderly. You may justify it by saying they have lived a long life, but many of the same health risks were shared by the disabled. Many of whom still had normal lifespans, but just needed extra care and protection.

There are countless elderly who cannot "take care of themselves" but they are still of value to our society. They are still loved. They watch and teach their grandchildren. They are the keepers of the family stories. They bake cookies and give you two dollar bills. They have random bowls of butterscotch all throughout their house.

But some need help. Some are sick. Some can't drive. Some can't walk. I guarantee not all of them were prepared to die for the cause.

And none deserved to die for a sports bar.

Oh, didn't I mention?

Dan Patrick owned a chain of sports bars that were losing money from the lockdowns. Did you really think he was sacrificing old folks "for the children"?

Thankfully Dan's sports bars are gonna be okay. He ended up receiving a $179,000 PPP loan... that was forgiven.

Then they started saying COVID deaths weren't COVID deaths.

"Well, they had a bad heart." "They were obese." "They had cancer."

They dropped the elderly excuse and began to openly devalue the disabled as well. If you were sick, what good were you? They considered us the next sacrifices for their convenience. If we wanted to survive, we shouldn't have gotten sick. It didn't matter that we could survive for years or even have a normal lifespan as long as we were protected by our communities.

And then began the non-compliance.

Trump's followers ignored masks and lockdowns and eventually vaccines. They were unwilling to protect the vulnerable and so many of us just... died.

Again, 40% of the US COVID deaths could have been prevented. Hundreds of thousands of people should still be here. Malicious apathy, incompetence, and non-compliance were the direct cause of this genocide.

The United Nations Genocide Convention identified 5 acts that typically constitute genocide. Only one act is required and in the pandemic 3 of the 5 acts happened.

Killing members of a group. Causing members of a group serious bodily harm. Imposing living conditions on that group that would destroy them.

I'm looking at that third one just now and realizing why we have advocates to remind us of vulnerable groups that need protection. I was thinking about how the elderly and disabled were trapped in hyper-contagious nursing homes and care facilities, but I completely forgot about prisons and the concentration camps at the borders.

I am not trying to diminish the awful things happening in Palestine right now. This is not a comparison of suffering—but a reminder. When a current terrible thing is happening, it can be hard to focus on anything else. But I do wish more people recognized what happened as a genocide and that the leader of that genocide, the one with the power to stop it, was Donald Trump. If we are going to base this voting decision entirely on acts of genocide, why is this not part of the consideration?

It is an awful moral calculus we have to figure out. One president is supporting and asking for funding for a genocide and I feel the other was the direct cause of another genocide. That's why I said both choices sucked. And the only way I could resolve this moral calculation was by asking what path would cause the least harm for everyone involved.

And the most disappointing aspect of all of these debates was the ableism. People told me if Trump was elected and I lost my benefits I should grow my own food and learn about medicine. They said I valued disabled lives above those in Gaza. They told me to imagine myself in Nazi Germany as a collaborator despite the fact I would have been euthanized.

But I felt like they weren't considering the disabled at all.

I am a disability advocate. So of course I am going to remind people to consider us in their voting decisions. But I'm tired of hearing I value lives differently just because I speak on behalf of a vulnerable group more often. I'm tired of continually having to justify my existence. And I'm tired of people dismissing the very real trauma caused by Trump.

It was not pretty average.

I'd like to tell you the full story of my mother's passing. All of the details. Even the ones I can't bear to type. But this isn't just my story. This is the story of countless others who had to watch their loved ones slowly die behind glass or over the phone or on an iPad.

I spent two years in constant anxiety trying to protect my two very sick parents. It was always assumed that my father was the most at risk. And that he was probably going to die long before my mother. But she had started a treatment for her psoriatic arthritis that turned the volume down on her immune system. Something that would normally not be a huge risk... but a pandemic changed that. A vaccine needs a functioning immune system to protect someone.

She could either accept the agony of stopping treatment or risk getting COVID. If people would have been willing to protect her, it would have been an easier choice. And she would still be around today. And I wouldn't have to worry about being homeless right now.

I don't know for sure when she was infected. I kept her inside as much as possible. But she needed those treatments and we had to pile into a crowded waiting room every time. And I remember a man in his fifties who seemed preoccupied with having to wear a mask. And when he thought no one was looking, he'd pull it down below his nose. A few days later she was being taken away in an ambulance.

A few weeks before my mother died, she called me on the phone. She was heavily medicated and they had two different breathing devices assisting her. The nurse was holding the phone up to her ear and she was trying to speak over the volume of the air rushing into her face from the masks. I could not hear her no matter how loud she yelled. So she asked the nurse to take the masks off for just a second so we could talk.

Her only concern was for my father. We all contracted COVID and she was so worried he would end up just like her. Thankfully the vaccine worked for him and he was okay at that moment. But she kept yelling, "Is Dad okay? Is Dad okay?" And I kept trying to tell her he was fine, but she was hard of hearing and the phone could not be held very close to her ear.

Unfortunately, the yelling made it harder and harder for her to breathe. She started gasping for air. The nurse kept insisting she put the breathing equipment back on, but my mom refused. "I want to talk to my son! I need to talk to my son!"

I knew there wasn't much we could do to communicate. And so I kept trying to yell "I love you, Mom. Everyone is fine. I love you!" I then asked the nurse to tell her that. And when she finally understood what I was saying, she burst into tears.

Her oxygen levels were getting dangerously low and she was fighting the nurse. And she just yelled out, "I'm so scared! I think I'm going to die! Tell Dad I'm sorry I can't take care of him! I don't want to die!" She kept repeating that over and over. The nurse had no choice and had to put the masks back on. My mom screamed and shouted "No! Please no! That's my son!"

And those were the last words I ever heard from my mother.

Gasping for air. Scared of dying. Worried about her family.

This moment has intrusively popped into my brain on a regular basis since it happened. It happens when I'm awake. It happens in my dreams. I have no control over it. I just have to keep experiencing it like it is happening for the first time.

After I saw that tweet from Shaun and then many others expressing the same thing (without the strategic aspect), my dread and trauma resurfaced with a vengeance. I've been reliving my mom's final words in my dreams. That moment keeps popping into my head. I feared the man I feel is most responsible for my mother's death may regain power and kill me and the last of the family I have left.

I keep asking myself the same questions over and over. What if there is another public health emergency? What happens to my trans friends if he turns the US into Florida and Texas? What will happen to the migrants at the border?

All I have is my two best friends. Katrina is gay and Delling is trans and disabled. All of us are vulnerable.

I wrote that post to help deal with the nightmares. Writing is part of my coping process. I didn't really expect it to go super viral. I just needed to get that out of my brain. But when people pushed back and started calling me evil and a collaborator and that I was valuing my life above those in Palestine, all with a huge heap of ableism, I found myself unable to let it go and not respond. I couldn't choose the healthy thing and step away.

While I feel I made some good arguments and put forth some solid ideas for other ways to handle this, I also got angry and lost my temper and stayed in arguments for way too long—all to my mental detriment.

My little world felt like it was collapsing and the world at large also felt like it was collapsing. I had personal horrors in my mind mixing with the horrors of this global conflict.

It was too much.

I don't regret what I posted. Many felt the same as I do. And I think my subsequent posts did a good job of expanding on my thoughts while also offering hope for alternate solutions.

But I do regret the timing and I wish I hadn't lost my temper. Especially in a reply I left with a lot of cussing.

People might disagree but I am hoping that people can understand the fear and trauma that influences my point of view.

I am actually willing to risk quite a lot to protect other people. Even people in faraway lands I don't know.

But I refuse to offer up the vulnerable to be sacrificed if it won't actually help anyone. That's what a Texas Lt. Governor would do.

#trigger warning #death mention #genocide mention