On March 28, millions of people around the country will participate in the third day of No Kings rallies. We are calling on everyone to engage with these rallies as an opportunity to build towards more concrete forms of organizing and action.
In this call, we spell out an array of options, from most ambitious to easiest.
Whoever you are, whatever resources you have at your disposal, there is something you can do.
From “To Survive Climate Catastrophe, Look to Queer and Disabled Folks” by Patty Berne, as told to and edited by Vanessa Raditz in Disability Visibility, 2020
In this time, people need strength models. Strength isn’t just about momentary power to jump building to building; it is also the endurance to handle what is less than ideal.
It’s the gritty persistence that disabled people embody every day.
Even in the moments when we’re in pain, when we’re uncomfortable, when the task ahead feels overwhelming and we feel defeated by the sheer scope of everything that’s wrong in the world, we don’t have to give up on life or on humanity. Queer and trans disabled people know that, because that’s how we live. At this moment of climate chaos, we’re saying: Welcome to our world. We have some things to teach you if you’ll listen so that we can all survive.
Federal military forces may provide support to civil authorities, and often do in emergencies such as natural disasters. But they are prohibited from acting as enforcers of civilian law. Federal active-duty military and state National Guards have been employed at various times in support roles on the border by state governments and Democratic and Republican presidential administrations. Because state National Guard units are under state and not federal control, they are not generally seen as being subject to the prohibitions of Posse Comitatus.
But therein lies the rub for supporters of extreme presidential power. Which may be why Clark cited code under the Insurrection Act that would allow Trump to seize control of state National Guard units and deploy them along with active-duty military forces — in a domestic law enforcement capacity — to quell “insurrections.”
Clark went on to urge the use of capabilities that would merge domestic law enforcement with the military, in Trump’s hands. As such, Clark told the assembled Project 2025 participants that they needed to “become experts” on sections of federal law codified under the Insurrection Act.
Send a postcard to your Senators and Representatives today to ask them to support legislation that supports the right to read. Tell them you believe in the freedom to read. Tell them to oppose book bans in any form. Tell them that in America, we do not ban books.
This compilation showcases wrought iron doorway designs by architect Ernest Blerot, created around 1900 in Brussels. Flowing lines, organic forms, and meticulous craftsmanship define these entrances, each one blurring the boundary between architecture and sculpture.
Blerot’s work reflects the height of Art Nouveau, a moment when even functional elements like doors were treated as opportunities for beauty and imagination.
Companies use Real-Time Bidding systems to gain access to your data for targeted advertising. From highest to lowest bidder, your data is harvested and combined with other datasets to build a profile about you, even if the company doesn’t win the bid to show you their advert. Everything from your geolocation, political beliefs and sexual preferences to your browsing habits and information about your devices comes under the hammer.
You know what happens when you don’t have a “valid” social security card, driver’s license or birth certificate anymore? You become undocumented. And you know where they’re putting undocumented people? In the all the warehouses they’re converting into fucking prison camps.
If they can invalidate anyone’s documentation without reason or notice, they can invalidate yours.
The investigation found that much of the footage captured by Meta’s smart glasses, of which more than seven million pairs have reportedly been sold, is reviewed by contracted workers at a Kenya-based company called Sama. These workers are data annotators who are tasked with reviewing footage captured from the camera on the glasses and labeling it to help AI systems get better at identifying what they see. The process is tedious and labor-intensive, requiring workers to meticulously label everything on screen that can be identified.
The firehose of footage meant to serve as valuable training data that is being delivered to these contractors apparently doesn’t undergo much of a culling process before it lands at their stations, because, according to the investigation, a lot of private, personal, and at times intimate images are getting shared.
Contractors reported being able to see things like a person’s credit card when they go to complete a transaction at a store or text messages they send and receive when they look down at their phone. Those are things that one could reasonably assume might accidentally get caught on camera when a person forgets to turn off the record feature, but some contractors reported seeing a lot more of people than they ever expected.
“In some videos you can see someone going to the toilet, or getting undressed,” one contractor for Sama told Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten. “I don’t think they know, because if they knew, they wouldn’t be recording.” Another contractor claimed that they reviewed footage where the wearer of the glasses set them down on a bedside table, only to have their wife walk into the room and undress, presumably unaware that she was being watched. Other footage reportedly showed the wearer watching porn or even recording themselves having sex (Odds are they knew they were recording in that instance, given smart glasses have really caught on in the world of adult content lately.)
Gemini had the fucking GALL to get in my email and summarize a 3-line email, taking up more space than the email did visually.
Hit the “thumbs down.” It’s like, what’s wrong??? Was our summary wrong? Were there offensive words? Thank you for helping us improve our AI tools :)
I selected “other.”
Text box popped up. Please elaborate!
Wrote in “I can fucking read” submit comment
Then had to spend several minutes torching all my settings with a flamethrower. Let me be clear: I’m (a lawyer) notoriously picky with my words FOR GOOD REASON (lawyering) so I overwhelmingly reject Gmail’s “helpful” little assistance. My privacy settings were set to “full paranoia” a little less than a year ago when I saw the writing on the wall and knew public defenders could become a target in the future. Better to lock it all down now.
Gemini had crept in there and turned ALL that shit back on. And showed itself by saying “Jane Doe says she’s so sorry for your loss and offers to reschedule for Thursday at 3” over an email from Jane Doe saying “I’m so sorry for your loss. We could reschedule for Thursday at 3?”
Why would I possibly need this. In what universe would I need this. I have eyes and a brain and a reading speed that twenty years ago was measured at 1500 wpm with full comprehension on dense scientific text. Furthermore! If I read a summary, I’m not reading what they actually wrote. If I’m not reading what they actually wrote, I’m not using my own judgment on the words and phrases that they used.
I literally don’t understand why this is helpful at all. This is just avoidance. Using LLMs to write is specifically Not Writing. Using LLMs to summarize is Not Reading. Using them to make art is Avoiding Making Art. Just READ! Just WRITE! I was not put on this fucking planet to not read and not write and not make art! Avoidance is an anxiety symptom and indulging it gives it more power.
If I had an AI to do my most dreaded task, answer the phone for clients, I wouldn’t use it. Because an AI cannot help them. An AI cannot hear the facts of their case, make appropriate noises, be thoughtful and insightful, and then give them a realistic estimate of what could happen in court. I am unique. I cannot be replaced by machine learning. I have style. I have expertise. I don’t hallucinate unless I’m having a really great Friday night and I’m off the clock.
When I need to outsource tasks from my own brain, I give them to people I know can do them and that I trust to do them right.
Fuck, it just sneaks up on you, doesn’t it?? Goddamn Gemini jumpscare right in my own fucking email
Famed editorial cartoonist Herbert Lawrence Block's classic criticism of the economic strategies of the Reagan administration, published on Feb. 2, 1984.
The fact that such a stark cartoon remains poignant over 30 years later isn’t surprising in the least. But the immediate relevance of the scenario it depicts to current affairs is.
In a memo to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem regarding tribal members recently detained by ICE, Frank Star Comes Out, president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, said:
“This is a treaty violation. Treaties are not optional. Sovereignty is not conditional. Our citizens are not negotiable.”
So, yesterday, I got into a rather stupid internet argument with someone who was peddling what seemed to me to be a rather insidious narrative about slur-reclamation. Someone in the ensuing notes raised a point which I thought was interesting, and worrying, and probably needed to be addressed in it’s own post. So here we go:
The word ‘queer’ itself seems to be especially touchy for many, so let me begin to address this by way of analogy.
Instead of talking about “queer”, let’s start by talking about “Jew” - a word which I believe is very similar in its usage in some significant ways.
Now, the word “Jew” has been used as a derogatory term for literally hundreds of years. It is used both as a noun (eg. “That guy ripped me off - what a dirty Jew”) and as a verb (eg. “That guy really Jew-ed me”). These usages are deeply, fundamentally, horrifically offensive, and should be used under no circumstances, ever. And yet, I myself have heard both, even as recently as this past year, even in an urban location with plenty of Jews, in a social situation where people should have known better. In short – the word “Jew”, as it is used by certain antisemites, is – quite unambiguously – a slur. Not a dead slur, not a former slur – and active, living slur that most Jews will at some point in their life encounter in a context where the term is being used to denigrate them and their religion.
Now here’s the thing, though: I’m a Jew. I call myself a Jew. I prefer that all non-Jews call me a Jew – so do most Jews I know. “Jew” is the correct term for someone who is part of the religion of Judaism, the same way that “Muslim” is the correct term for someone who is part of the religion of Islam, and “Christian” is the correct term for someone who is part of the religion of Christianity.
In fact, almost all of the terms that non-Jews use to avoid saying “Jew” (eg. “a member of the Jewish persuasion”, “a follower of the Jewish faith”, “coming from a Jewish family”, “identifying as part of the Jewish religion”, etc) are deeply offensive, because these terms imply to us that the speaker sees the term “Jew” (and by extension, what that term stands for) as a dirty word.
“BUT WAIT” – I hear you say – “didn’t you just say that Jew is used as a slur?!?”
Yes. Yes, I did. And also, it is fundamentally offensive not to call us that, because it is our name and our identity.
Let me back up a little bit, and bring you into the world of one of those 2000s PSAs about not using “that’s so gay”. Think of some word that is your identity – something which you consider to be a fundamental and intrinsic part of yourself. It could be “female” or “male”, or “Black” or “white”, “tall” or “short”, “Atheist” or “Mormon” or “Evangelical” – you name it.
Now imagine that people started using that term as a slur.
“What a female thing to do!” they might say. “That teacher doesn’t know anything, he’s so female!”
Or maybe, “Yikes, look at that idiot who’s driving like an atheist. It’s so embarrassing!”
Or perhaps, “Oh gross, that music is so Black, turn it off!”
Now, what would you say if the same groups of people who had been saying those things for years turned around and avoided using those words to describe anything other than an insult?
“Oh, so I see you’re a member of the female persuasion!”
“Is he… a follower of the atheist beliefs? Like does he identify as part of the community of atheist-aligned individuals?”
“So, as a Black-ish identified person yourself – excuse me, as a person who comes from a Black-ish family…”
Here’s the fundamental problem with treating all words that are used as slurs the same, without any regard for how they are used and how they developed – not all slurs are the same.
No one, and I mean no one (except maybe for a small handful of angsty teens who are deliberately making a point of being edgy) self-identifies as a kike. In contrast, essentially all Jews self-identify as Jews. And when non-Jews get weird about that identity on the grounds that “Jew is used as a slur”, despite the fact that it is the name that the Jewish community as a whole resoundingly identifies with, what they are basically saying is that they think that the slur usage is more important than the Jewish community self-identification usage. They are saying, in essence, “we think that your name should be a slur.”
Now, at the top I said that the word “Jew” and the word “queer” had some significant similarities in terms of their usage, and I think that’s pretty apparent if you look at what people in those communities are saying about those terms. When American Jews were being actively threatened by neo-Nazis in the 70s, the slogan of choice was “For every Jew a .22!″. When the American Queer community was marching in the 90s in protest of systemic anti-queer violence, the slogan of choice was “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it!” Clearly, these are terms that are used by the communities themselves, in reference to themselves. Clearly, these terms are more than simply slurs.
But while there are useful similarities between how the terms “Jew” and “Queer” are used by bigots and by their own communities, I’d also like to point out that there is pretty substantial and important difference:
Unlike for “queer”, there is no organized group of Jewish antisemites who are using the catchphrase “Jew is a slur!” in order to selectively silence and disenfranchise Jews who are part of minority groups within Judaism.
This is the real rub with the term queer – no one was campaigning about it being a slur until less than a decade ago. No one was saying that you needed to warn for the word queer when queer people were establishing the academic discipline of queer studies. No one was ‘think of the children”-ing the umbrella term when queer activists were literally marching for their lives. Go back to even 2010 and the term “q slur” would have been basically unparseable – if I saw someone tag something “q slur”, like most queer people I would have wracked my brains trying to figure out what slur even started with q, and if I learned that it was supposed to be “queer”, my default assumption would be that the post was made by a well-meaning but extremely clueless straight person.
I literally remember this shift – and I remember who started it. Exclusionists didn’t like the fact that queer was an umbrella term. Terfs (or radfems as they like to be called now) didn’t like that queer history included trans history; biphobes and aphobes didn’t like that the queer community was also a community to bisexuals and asexuals. And so what could they possibly say, to drive people away from the term that was protecting the sorts of queer people that they wanted to exclude?
Well, naturally, they turned to “queer is a slur.”
And here’s the thing – queer is a slur, just like Jew is a slur, and no one is denying that. And that fact makes “queer is a slur so don’t use it” a very convincing argument on the surface: 1) queer is still often used as a slur, and 2) you shouldn’t ever use slurs without carefully tagging and warning people about them (and better yet, you should never use them at all), and so therefore 3) you need to tag for “the q slur” and you need to warn people not to call the community “the queer community” or it’s members “queer people” or its study “queer studies” – because it’s a slur!
But the crucial step that’s missing here is exactly the same one above, for the word “Jew” – and that step is that not all slurs are the same. When a term is both used as a slur and used as a self-identity term, then favoring the slur meaning instead of the identity meaning is picking the side of the slur-users over the disadvantaged group!
If you say or tag “q slur” you are sending the message, whether you realize it or not, that people who use “queer” as a slur are more right about its meaning than those who use it as their identity. Tagging for “queer” is one thing. People can filter for “queer” if it triggers them, just like people can filter for anything else. Not everyone has to personally use the term queer, or like the term queer. But there is no circumstance where the term “q slur” does not indicate that you think queer is more of a slur than of an accurate description of a community.
If I, as a Jew, ever came across a post where someone had warned for innocent, positive, non-antisemitic content relating to Judaism with the tag “J slur”, I would be incensed. So would any Jew. The act of tagging a post “J slur” is in and of itself antisemitic and offensive.
Queer people are allowed to feel the same about “q slur”. It is not a neutral warning term – it is an attack on our identity.
a-lot-of-ace
This is one of the most well written posts about the evolution of “queer” I have ever seen. Please take the time to read this. Yes it is long but it is more than worth the 5 minutes!
On 28 January 1917, Carmelita Torres, a 17-year-old Mexican maid who worked in the United States, refused to take the mandatory gasoline bath given to day labourers at the border, and convinced 30 other trolley passengers to join her.
Her protest spread in what became known as the bath riots. Torres was one of many workers who crossed the border between Juarez and El Paso each day. In the name of public health, Mexican workers were frequently subjected to degrading and humiliating treatment. They had to strip naked, brave, undergo a toxic gasoline bath, and have their clothes steamed. The stated aim of the programme was to kill lice, which can spread typhus. However, it was not applied to everyone crossing the border: just working class Mexicans.
In addition to gasoline being poisonous, it was also a deadly fire risk. A group of prisoners in El Paso being treated with gasoline were burned to death in an accidental fire. Furthermore, US health workers were secretly photographing naked Mexican women.
On January 28, anger at the practice finally exploded, and within a few hours Torres had amassed a crowd of several thousand mostly women protesters. They blocked all traffic and trolleys into El Paso. They pelted immigration officers with rocks and bottles when they try to disperse them, and when US and then Mexican troops arrived they received the same treatment. The riots were eventually suppressed by the soldiers, and Torres herself was arrested. This appeared to have the effect of discouraging future protests.
The enforced bathing and fumigation of Mexican workers with toxic chemicals like gasoline, and later DDT and Zyklon B, continued until the 1950′s. The use of Zyklon B at the border appealed to scientists in Nazi Germany, who in the late 1930′s began using the agent at borders and in concentration camps for delousing. Although notoriously they later used it to exterminate millions of people in the Holocaust.“
