The Marigold Post
This may or not be a new thing, but I’ve decided that a Marigold Post is what you get when a post about a group of bigots and/or a blocklist for those bigots becomes mostly populated by the bigots in question. If you don’t know, using marigolds in a particular section of your garden away from everything else is an effective method of attracting everything that would eat the rest of your garden to the marigolds instead. Now, while a marigold post isn’t actually going to keep bigots away from the rest of the internet, it does make a large enough number of them convene in one place to provide the perfect opportunity for a very easy and very fruitful blocking (and reporting, if the social media platform will work with you) spree.
I started making a Terf/Radfem blocklist the other day, and luckily the terfs not only found it, they started reblogging and liking and outing themselves at a truly glorious rate. I was adding more names to the list but it was getting too long for a group of connected tumblr posts, and since the post thread itself has become one big collection of about 99% of the people it was meant to showcase, it’s done its job above and beyond what I was ever expecting it to. As it is, the post’s reblogs, likes and comments section now stands as a block list in and of itself, so please do take this wonderful opportunity to use it as one. And if this post itself becomes a marigold post, take advantage of that to use it as a blocklist as well. :)
https://everythingqueerblog.tumblr.com/post/646741055593742336/exactly-and-some-more-this-is-just-from-the
(There are some people who have actually reblogged and liked that post in good faith, so be sure to double check any blogs that aren’t clear from the name and blog description before blocking. Bigot blogs that don’t out themselves straight away with the handle and blog description will still usually come up with clear exclusionist beliefs and hateful behaviour with a quick scroll through the blog or use of the the search button within the blog; look for things related to whatever type of bigotry you’re searching for, including just typing in the name of the demographic you’re checking for hate toward because that will bring up any posted or reblogged hate rhetoric pretty quickly).
Remember that radicalisation works by the extremists in question getting a platform and speaking in a manner that relies on reasonable sounding positions with an extremist twist. Trying to argue with them on these positions will only result in you being hurt or worse, radicalised yourself. You’ll notice a number of repeated attempts at these tactics in the comments/reblogged comments section of the marigold post in the link, such as projecting and calling the rest of the actually reasonable population a cult because the actual psychological studies done on bigots say not to engage with them or give them a platform because you will not change them and they will only get fed by it, and bigots of course want to argue that it’s the same thing as cults saying don’t talk to anyone outside the cult because you talking to them is what they want. Please do not fall for those tactics. They will manipulate, gaslight, hurt and even radicalise you if you do.
Instead, use marigold posts as the very convenient block list they are. Ignore the bait, and focus on removing the extremists from your part of the internet. That’s what I’ve been doing the past few days. I’ve been experiencing some issues in blocking apparently not working to keep them away from this blog (maybe because it’s a sideblog? I honestly thought blocking just blocked people from all of your stuff; it’s a bit stupid if it doesn’t, considering that would mean you only get protection for your main and not any of your sides, but oh well. Some successful blocking is better than none), but I’m also not personally hurt by their behaviour and I know better than to rise to the bait. I hope everyone reading this can learn that skill too; I promise it will serve you well and make your internet experience a lot better.
Once you’re done blocking, take a break and go do something nice for yourself. There are plenty of doctors and scientists who talk about trans rights and the reality of biological sex and gender being very different and far more complex to what sex essentialists preach. You can look them up, or a lot of trans activists will have resource lists to look through to educate yourself and others (again though, don’t bother trying to educate radfems/other extremists on anything; they cannot comprehend and break free of the radicalisation by nature of what radicalisation does to the brain. Leave that up to trained professionals who can help deradicalize people safely in the right environment). One of these days when my mental health is better I’ll put together a list myself. In the meantime, there is a link here
https://about.unimelb.edu.au/news-resources/pride-in-action-ally-network/tdov-2020
that you can use as a starting point. It’s from the University of Melbourne so it’s based in Australia, but there are at least a few things in there that could be helpful as a starting point for trans people and those who wish to be better allies.
Take care of yourselves, ignore and avoid the bigots and their baiting, leave the deradicalizing to mental health professionals and dedicated properly qualified deradicalization groups, and focus on making your space as safe and welcoming and intersectionally progressive as you can for yourself and others who need it.
Love and acceptance wins out over hate eventually. Always has, always will.
Edit: Terfs are fascists. See this for more info and talking points. Spread it around. The world needs to see them for what they are.
I definitely don't have time to read all of this but holy shit I wish I could pin more than one post. Damn. Thanks KJK for making it so much
