i'll say it again, fascists go after small, marginalized minorities bc doing so gives them an opportunity to establish precedent for broad, invasive powers against citizens in a way they don't think the mainstream will fight back against
once those laws are established, they won't be used JUST against us marginalized folks
@nerdybutcute And I think this was getting started a long time ago. Way long ago. The only way to stop this is to make sure no minority is despised. And I mean no minority: we can't allow them a single point of leverage.
So, I mostly *don't* buy this line of thought for America. It was true for Nazi Germany, but I think it's wrong (or distant) enough to be dangerous.
The *specific* problem with this line of thought is that it conflates all minority groups. And I think that's too .. conclusory or simple to accurately get at what's going on at least in the US.
@jrm4 @nerdybutcute
Why do you think it doesn’t apply? The Republicans are targeting transgender people in the same way Nazis targeted the Traveller/Roma communities. Take a relatively small group of people who are on the edge of society and are somewhat easy to differentiate and create in intense fear about them. Then make their mere presence illegal through dress and behavior bans and haul them off the streets.
The whole “back the blue” BS
and “law enforcement training funding” to get rid of “undesirable criminals” is talking about the incarceration of minority groups. The same minorities that they discriminate against in the workforce and put into desperate situations. Will legislators@shelter the homeless and feed the hungry? No, but they’ll give that money to law enforcement to buy and maintain military grade equipment to keep us from protesting being treated worse than cattle. The actual solution to police brutality and abuse is to replace the police in this country entirely with agencies who can provide real help, and a small task force of armed enforcement that is accountable and not immune to prosecution. But our predominantly old rich white cis male legislators are getting exactly what they want from current police - oppressing minorities and the poor.
All minorities in the US are venerable. I’ve been harassed by police for parking outside a gay bar. Had my picture taken by police for attending a peaceful rally for a transgender day of remembrance for those killed by violence. Been threatened with arrest if I stepped off the sidewalk during another peaceful protest (my college English prof was there too.) I’ve been denied medication in a timely manner because a Bible thumper worked at my pharmacy and saw my rainbow mask. Been deliberately stabbed during a blood draw at my doctors office (enough to cause a big bruise) and misgendered on my paperwork because the other nurse complemented me on my progress flag watch band. You don’t have to be transgender to be treated like an “undesirable.” Any minority will do. Blacks, Asians, Hispanics, pick any minority community in the US and they can tell you their stories of harassment and othering.
Private prisons and mental wards can and are doing the same jobs as concentration camps - the people are out of sight and their outside communications are totally controlled. It’s always been easy to mentally and physically abuse people with little to no contact with the outside world. Refusing health care, misgendering people, refusing/punishing people for speaking their native language or with an accent, refusing to let people carry out their religious rites, not feeding people according to the medical or cultural needs, torturing people with abuse of all kinds, and killing people, all of these things can fairly easily happen quietly in institutionalized settings.
“Degenerates” is a term that can be cast on any group that doesn’t fit in a cookie-cutter set of “norms.” Groomers is just modernizing an old slur. I’m old enough to remember when the scare was bisexual women in shower houses, with the same stupid level of fear. We’re queer and our people have always been here. Nobody notices until some politician or preacher starts yelling to create a fake panic.
I also remember the “all Black men in hoodies are thugs looking to hurt women” stereotype too. This type of othering and “moral” panic is not specific to any group, but can be used against all of us.
It’s time we stopped saying it can’t happen here in the US and realize that it IS happening here.
Not in the future, but right now. If we don’t start standing up for each other, then we’ll all fall separately.
@dawnfry @jrm4 @nerdybutcute
I totally agree and I am sorry this is happening to you and others!
Keep on rocking!
@jrm4 @nerdybutcute I mean yes, in the US the attack on trans folks and access to abortion have been almost simultaneous, but that’s going to be followed by contraception very soon. In the UK attacks on trans folk is the wedge to attack abortion provision AND contraception, because it’s seeking to undermine Gillick competency. They failed the first time but haven’t given up.
@nerdybutcute
I’m not a formal student of history but (alas!) from the American perspective, the last decade has seemed to me to be Reconstruction 3. First edition was obviously post Civil War, the second was post WW2 and Civil Rights backlash and this moment is just recycling the old song book.
We keep making the mistake that righteousness prevails… but the fact is that the evil just goes temporarily dormant until conditions return to ideal.
@nerdybutcute It is exhausting to keep explaining this to people. :-( I do not understand why this is not self-evident to everyone.
@nerdybutcute They never stop with one target. History has shown this again and again. It's no wonder they don't want children learning history in school.
@nerdybutcute Exactly! White supremacists and “Christian supremacists” (white supremacists hiding behind Bibles) are creating laws attacking blacks, Latinos, Muslims, Jews and atheists, but soon those laws will be turned against EVERYONE who dares to stand up against authoritarians. The Bible itself predicts that Antichrist will merge church and state to corrupt BOTH, and to persecute ALL good people, including true Christians of all races. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MWV3TQL
@nerdybutcute
While I agree with this, this can't be the main "concern": going after minorities is.. It's just plain wrong and if one accepts this, more evil will follow
@nerdybutcute @mpirnat we have known this for a really long time, I don’t understand why it fails to stick to memory for so many. In the eyes of fascists *everyone* is eventually a degenerate https://youtu.be/vGAqYNFQdZ4
@nerdybutcute Sometimes not small. Hitler's first victims were the disabled. Trump has said they shouldn't exist, but over 20% of the population is disabled. He is about to defund their education. Here in Ontario, it was the first group Doug Ford defunded. My husband and I are both educated and fought for that education. It is the reason two people who were disabled from childhood own property and a home, but again, conservatives still want us dead.