mind your change

Image transcription:

Escalate.

When they come for birth control rights, demand free birth control.

When they come for abortion rights, demand more clinics.

When they come to feed your black neighbors to the prison industrial complex, demand reparations.

When they come to collect refugees, offer a room in your house and demand they fill it.

When they come for Muslims, help build a mosque.

When they come for the ACA, demand single-payer.

When they come for Welfare and food stamps, demand universal basic income.

When they come with anti-trans bathroom bills, demand gender-transition healthcare coverage for trans people.

When they come with "reparative therapy," demand anti-hate crime legislation that includes LGBT people.

When they come with "Right to Work" legislation, build more unions and demand legislation making it easier for unions to form.

Do not compromise. Do not capitulate. A battle that is only fought with defense is a battle lost. Take the offensive.

Remember to take the time to identify a 'next step' and make note of it. When you (metaphorically) keep things on the 'back burner', it's important to give them a stir every now and then, to keep things from getting burnt.

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Them (more or less): That's absolutely [ableist slur]. What about when oppressed people try to strike back at the systems that oppress them, and sometimes harm the people who benefit from those oppressive systems? Aren't oppressed people the aggressor in that case, and doesn't that justify what's being done to them by the oppressing powers, you [ableist slur]?

Me (more or less): Oppressed people striking back against oppression is not oppression, and is not in service of oppressive systems. I am against oppression and its perpetuation.

Them (more or less): But the official statistics from the oppressive system claim that oppressed people do a lot of things the oppressive system has deemed to be bad. Why are you too [ableist slur] to see that oppressed people have a tendency toward evil?

Me (more or less): Can we get back to the topic of oppression, and how it's a bad thing? And maybe you can learn about how oppression creates the material conditions that oppressed people react to?

Them (more or less): Why won't you answer my leading questions? You're such a [ableist slur]. This is why no one takes you bleeding hearts seriously.

Me (more or less): You know what? Fuck you.

They tell you, "Oh, by the way, I'm trans. This is not how I used to look."

If you suddenly lose the attraction you had previously felt, that's transphobia.

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(By me, originally three posts but consolidated into one, with commentary carefully added.)

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ONE: Thou shalt not stereotype thine adversaries.

A realistic-but-complex movement to understand and meet the needs of all shall be far more acceptable than a movement to dictate how things happen that is shaped by ad-hominem.

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TWO: Thou shalt not put the needs of the community above the needs of the individual.

If the individual cannot comfortably survive within the community, the community is lacking.

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THREE: Thou shalt not put the needs of the individual above the needs of the community.

If the community cannot comfortably survive while meeting the needs of individuals, the community is lacking.

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FOUR: Thou shalt not put the needs of thine own community above the needs of the needs of the communities of others.

FIVE: Thou shalt not put the needs of the communities of others above the needs of thine own community.

All are humans are equal in human worth, for all are humans are human.

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SIX: Thou shalt create and maintain and modify the traditions of thine own community, and not those of the communities of others.

Thou art responsible for thine own. Thou hast no authority over others.

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SEVEN: Thou shalt not separate thine own community from the communities of others.

EIGHT: Thou shalt learn from the differences between the many communities that are the one community—humanity.

Subsuming thine own identity within other's expectations is just as wrong as expecting others to conform to thine own expectations.

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NINE: Thou shalt push the one community into service of all communities, so that all mayst thrive.

If 'success' be based upon competitive circumstances, people may be easily pitted against each other. If 'success' be based upon collaborative circumstances, people wilst be glad to cooperate with one another.

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TEN: Thou shalt be.

A scientifically-innovative moneyless alternate world, where cities work to support rural areas, and rural areas work to support cities, and where community, autonomy, and reciprocity are societal values. Food crops are sent to processing plants who send some of the processed food back and use the rest to feed the workers in the city. Trained specialists, with caravans full of equipment and assistants, visit small towns regularly, returning home to the city to rest and train more and stock up on supplies. Mining towns and lumber camps and the like are run by the people living in them, supplying the needs of a larger populace that, in turn, supplies the needs of the towns and camps that sustain it.

In Capitalist America, cost of medical care can kill you.

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In old country, state regulated businesses.

In Capitalist America, businesses regulate state.

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In old country, social supports eliminated wealthy elite.

In Capitalist America, wealthy elite eliminate social supports.

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In old country, people seized means of production.