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This conference didn't go "too far left." This isn't some horseshoe theory bs, this is cynical right-wing action taken deliberately by the conference, with the knowledge that any blowback would be directed at radicals rather than at them.

This conference has excluded activists (including those in academia) since its inception, and it's only gotten worse. They consistently refuse to platform local activists--the closest they'll get is Shaul Magid, the guy who thinks that BDS is just as bad for Palestine as West Bank settlements.

This was a stupid ploy to play to the center or to be edgy, but it serves the conference and BU better if everyone assumes this was the fault of the pro-BDS types.

Growing up is pretty violent, actually. It breaks your spirit. It teaches you to be ashamed of the things you love, to temper your actions and reactions for the sake of people who couldn’t care less about you, to make yourself small and docile and inoffensive.

Do you mean learning ‘life skills’? Because, like, if you weren’t taught that growing up, or if you happen to be disabled to a point where you can’t be self-sufficient, you’re at an obvious, major disadvantage. Cooking classes cost money, not to mention time and energy, which when you’re an adult, is in short supply.

Like, it’s easy to say ‘suck it up, it happened, get with the program’, but do you know what that actually entails? Do you get that trauma isn’t just, like, someone’s backstory? That it affects them, physically, psychologically, every second of every day?

The first couple decades of your life are necessarily your most formative. It’s the foundation on which everything else is built. If you have a shitty foundation, through no fault of your own (which, like, you were a kid, so it couldn’t have been your fault to begin with), you’re gonna struggle just to meet other people’s ’normal’ for the rest of your life. For whose sake? Yours? Theirs?

Growing up is pretty violent, actually. It breaks your spirit. It teaches you to be ashamed of the things you love, to temper your actions and reactions for the sake of people who couldn’t care less about you, to make yourself small and docile and inoffensive.

Do you mean learning ‘life skills’? Because, like, if you weren’t taught that growing up, or if you happen to be disabled to a point where you can’t be self-sufficient, you’re at an obvious, major disadvantage. Cooking classes cost money, not to mention time and energy, which when you’re an adult, is in short supply.

Like, it’s easy to say ‘suck it up, it happened, get with the program’, but do you know what that actually entails? Do you get that trauma isn’t just, like, someone’s backstory? That it affects them, physically, psychologically, every second of every day?

The first couple decades of your life are necessarily your most formative. It’s the foundation on which everything else is built. If you have a shitty foundation, through no fault of your own (which, like, you were a kid, so it couldn’t have been your fault to begin with), you’re gonna struggle just to meet other people’s ’normal’ for the rest of your life. For whose sake? Yours? Theirs?

Perhaps you are going to struggle, maybe you're not quite going to fit in, and it's your choice to try, care, and put in the effort, as hard as it might be, to get yourself to a better place. There isn't any normal, there isn't any set milestone you need to be at, you just need to try.

"Nobody else will do it for you." I promise you that disabled people know this. Including the ones people think are just lazy.

The idea that if we just "tough love" people into so-called "healing" or "growing up" aka fitting into the Protestant work ethic/having middle class white people manners, it will take away systemic issues of abuse and ableism is laughable. It would be nice for our sick, sick society if we could brow-beat people into self-regulating, it would be nice if everyone could do the chores that the 21st century west considers mandatory (cooking, cleaning, etc) but that's never going to happen. We've tried that for decades. This individualistic attitude helped get us here in the first place.

Maybe tough love worked for you. AA/NA works for a lot of people, but it doesn't work for most who attend, even those who follow its rules religiously.

There is also no set boundary for "people who are too disabled to do a thing so this post doesn't apply" and "people who just need to Do Better." There just isn't. Means testing "who has to Just Heal Already and who gets a pass I guess" is ableist.

I just saw a tag on this post that says: "#it's my responsibility to be & act normal" Christ. This is not the world we want.

We don't live in a vacuum, these "radical alternatives to charity" basically function the same way re: societal structures of privilege and social capital.

It's marketing, people competing to be seen as human. And while it's often done for survival, it's marketing to racist societies that we are all part of, societies that are more likely to associate Black people with negative things than white people, and are more likely to see Black people, especially Black men, as threatening.

People who donate mean well, but these biases are implicit, subconscious, and persist in marginalized communities too. It affects everything from voting patterns to foster care to maternal mortality, so we know damn well it impacts the left-wing online fundraiser ecosystem.

And if reminders didn't work for masking, the "stop ignoring fundraising posts" and "donate to POC fundraisers" posts aren't going to be enough either.

There's a Norwegian documentary, Norges Farligste, which goes through (nowhere near perfect, not above criticism) attempts at restorative/reformative justice in the country's prison system.

Namaygoosisagagun First Nation/Collins has burned to the ground. The entire community is nothing but ashes after being quickly consumed by wildfires. They did not have any support from emergency services, and no one offered aid. The community saved themselves by escaping into boats because no one came.

Mishkeegogamang and Cat Lake have lost power. Families are ending up in shelters with nothing. Armstrong, Lac La Croix, Whitesand, Gull Bay, Lac des Mille Lacs are currently in the fires path and all members are being evacuated.

All this loss, all this devastation, and it was entirely preventable.

After steadily underfunding wildland firefighting and purposefully excluding Indigenous wildland firefighters and Indigenous wildfire organizations from wildfire operations, firefighter training, decisionmaking, and resource exchanges, in 2025, Doug Ford slashed the forest firefighting budget.

It's hard to ignore his decision to cut funding and leave us out of adequate fire training (even though we've lived with forest fires for thousands of years—far longer than settlers have been in Canada—and made sure fires like the ones we're all seeing today were prevented through kinisitotēn) when, despite making up less than 5% of the population, we account for 42% percent of all wildfire evacuations in Canada.

And when we are successfully evacuated, we face discrimination and racism—like Kashechewan—because it's always been easier to blame us than it is to blame the true culprit: denialism, corportate greed, and colonization.

The people of Collins and every other impacted community deserve better.

Right now, the AFN is currently accepting donations to help Collins First Nation. If you're able to, please consider donating.

ONWA (Ontario Native Women's Association) is another great place to donate to. They have outreach vans going to motels and inns and offering food, water, resources, and cultural support to those impacted by the wildfires.

Other places to consider donating to are Mikinakoos Emergency Fund, Red Cross, True North Aid, Indigenous Climate Action. You can also send donations directly to Whitesand First Nation via e-transfer ([email protected]) and they request that you add your full name in the e-transfer comment section to receive a tax receipt.

*Before sending money, verify that the appeal appears on an official First Nation, Tribal Council or registered charity channel.

If you can't offer financial support, please consider donating items of need. Moontime Connections is currently accepting drop-off donations. If you live in the Thunder Bay area, Namaygoosisagagun Health Office is also taking in donations! They can also bemailed to Superior Inn Hotel & Conference Centre at 555 West Arthur Street, Thunder Bay, ON, P7E 5P8.

items needed are: food, diapers, medical masks, men’s and women’s joggers (all sizes), children’s clothing (newborn to size 14), children’s shoes, summer clothing, men’s clothing, toiletries (lotion, Vaseline, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, conditioner, soap, deodorant, etc.), strollers, adult depends-all sizes, dog & cat food

Not to be That Asshole but like. Individual resistance to AI at home and in your free time is fine and good

But in the context of a workplace is just going to get you to lose your job basically. Like imagine it’s the 80s and computers are flooding workplaces. no employer is going to tell you it’s fine to keep using a typewriter for all your reports when your coworkers are using a computer to type and doing it in half the time. Technology advancements, esp once that capitalists can leverage to extract more value out of you, are never going to be “optional” for the vast majority of the working class.

Again, the only meaningful resistance to AI has to be organized and collective, and focus on actual economic structures