Glad the essays got some appreciation. <3

And thanks, sadly no better, and genuinely thank you for the offer it’s really kind of you, but I think it’s probably all a bit much to put on a stranger…

Welcome new admins, I can’t get my brain to be friendly right now (not related to you or any of this at all), so I’ll just leave it at I’m glad it isn’t anyone I have blocked, and good luck.

I’m in a really bad headspace right now due to irl bullshit, so I’ve not got around to and honestly don’t have the brain bandwidth to make my own post about this right now or even discuss it in any depth (nor to fully process what you’ve suggested in op), but this seems like an opportunity to bring it up if not as a general discussion, then at least for the admins of this specific instance to read and consider, I think it’s really important and something I’ve seen (and personally experienced) get people who are organisers and run communities to end up acting against their own community members and make the latter feel excluded and even unsafe, so I’m just going to leave this here.

The essays are titled “tyranny of civility”, they are a bit long, but yeah, I think really important especially on this instance where we (should) take abolishing oppressive structures, even within our selves, seriously:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

E: There is also Social Power and the Oppressive Potential of Civility which is a later discussion by the same author about the series of essays, and their observations since to, in their words “hopefully highlight some issues that I believe are created by maintaining civility as an unquestioned social norm in a society where institutionalized and social oppression operates along a variety of dimensions.” as a kind of TL;DR (though still read the essays if you can)

Presumably, when you are speaking about these things you have first hand knowledge of reputable people and organisations.

And also, the burden of the constant demand to teach people about your lived experience, even though thousands of others who share it have already wilfully taken the time to document it extensively. We’re not talking about individual experiences, but about well establish and deep rooted systemic oppression.

At the end of the day, expecting marginalised people, especially random ones you “happen upon” (would they even be asking if I wasn’t here?), to be the ones constantly doing the work is an unearned entitlement that comes with privilege, and what those with that privilege should be doing instead is using it to lessen the burden on marginalised people, not increase it. Step one is learning to invest their own time and energy instead of demanding or even just expecting it from others.

As to why, sure it’s patriarchy, but they keep putting out duds and using it essentially say “audiences don’t want female-led content”…

You’ve answered you’re own question - they put it out there so they can say they tried, people didn’t like it, so we’ll continue as we were, with them (patriarchal entertainment execs and the patriarchal capitalists who fund them) maintaining their positions.

The people who complain about this shit are running governments and corporations and controlling society, wtf are you talking about?

You’re really narrowing down a much much bigger issue to try and make it digestible. But the patriarchy is systemic. Misogyny is systemic. Male privilege is systemic. Gamergate is a symptom, and honestly, a mild one at that.

Patriarchy.

Privilege and with it an overinflated sense of entitlement, which result in the most fragile of egos (E: see downvote ration lmao).

That’s at best.

At worst, and on top of the above, is conscious and deliberate misogyny and the unwillingness to give the privileges up.

This is the teeny-tiniest tip of the iceberg, but it sounds like you are willing to challenge your views and perceptions, so jump in, it (E: patriarchy, misogyny, feminism, intersectionality, and on and on…) is a terrifying, but also extremely well documented rabbit hole, just start looking…

With regard to the astroturfing, are you saying that the sources people might find are AI? Sure, that’s definitely a thing that is happening, but I’m not sure what I’m meant to do about that? I’m no better than the next person at recognising AI and would need to read through and make a call just like anyone else (and then we open a whole other can of worms of rating the writing and or expression levels, and potential use of assistive tools of, especially in this case, fellow disabled people, which can become really problematic, really fast).

Like I say, I’m perfectly happy to help, especially those who have shown even a bit of initiative, but there’s only so much I can do, and really, the burden shouldn’t be falling on us to not only educate those with more privilege, but also become expert at deciphering AI use (and within that, legitimate vs intentionally manipulative).

Na, it’s perfectly reasonable to expect people who claim to care and genuinely want to know, to make a minimal effort.

“I tried looking it up but couldn’t find an answer, do you mind helping me out”? Sure, no issue here, wouldn’t have even mentioned it. But to drop in to a conversation without knowing anything about the topic, and expect disabled (or otherwise marginalised) people who are personally impacted (and therefore constantly having to have the same emotionally laborious conversations over and over and over) to do the work for you before you’ve even tried? That’s going to get (seriously fucking gently) called out every time.

I have the same poor quality search engines at my disposal, and have to sift through similar results.

There is also an easy way to recognise actual advocacy sources vs industry publications - is a disabled person writing from their personal experience? Advocacy. Is the article written by someone who isn’t personally impacted? Irrelevant. Simple.

E: The fact that I went ahead and did the work for them anyway despite all of that (with, again, the gentlest of reminders that they could be doing it themselves), and people still find a way to complain about how supposedly unaccommodating I’m being is fucking wild…

It’s almost as if there is no ethical consumption under capitalism… 🤔

And I’m not trying to be an ass, but in the same way I’ve just had to look up “paper straws unsuitable for disabled people” to provide you with the answer, you could have just done so yourself and come across one of tens of thousand of articles, videos, podcasts, and images addressing this specific topic.

https://www.eater.com/2018/7/19/17586742/plastic-straw-ban-disabilities

https://creakyjoints.org/advocacy/plastic-straw-bans-bad-for-people-with-disabilities/

https://www.a-zine.net/blog/2018/7/31/straws-are-not-the-issue

http://web.archive.org/web/20240703214002/https://nypost.com/2018/07/02/banning-plastic-straws-is-more-scam-than-science/

https://inbedwithfridakahlo.wordpress.com/2018/07/12/banning-plastic-straws-the-strawman-of-strawmen/

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/09/disabled-person-plastic-straws-baby-wipes

TL;DR:

(ID: 2 tables breaking down why each type of alternative straw might be unsuitable for different disabled people. If someone needs a more in depth description, please ask)

E: just for context

(ID: image of an old informational leaflet detailing the medical and accessibility benefits of single use bendy straws, which were invented for that specific use in the first place)

And the disabled people who have lost access don’t.

For the sake of an item that constituted 0.003% of ocean plastics, and giving you a “win” you’re further supporting the exclusion and marginalisation of disabled people.

Banning plastic straws did less than nothing to improve the environment (less than, because it made people like you think they’ve done their part, and focus less on the actual problem), and worse, it sprung up an entire multi billion dollar industry that makes and sells reusable straws that end up in landfill just as often, and will be staying there for significantly longer.

You getting a dopamine hit doesn’t make something good or right.

The thing though is they replaced polluting single use straws with less polluting single use straws.

Single use straws only ever constituted 0.003% of ocean plastics, they were already less polluting than pretty much any other plastic in use today, and the alternatives are not suitable for many disabled people for many different reasons. The ban also removed accessibility, and put the burden on disabled people (and on retail staff to gatekeep us, which more often than not resulted in service being denied).

If they actually wanted to do something useful it would have been nice to have multi-use straws ie. metal/wood/or even hardened plastic. But I guess that wouldn’t be as suitable a source of income, and wouldn’t fit well with american consumerism and fast food culture, so here we are debating on the best type of single use straws.

They did, they literally created an entire multi billion dollar industry to make money off of the problem they created, and the virtue signalers flocked to buy reusable straws, which again, are not suitable for many disabled people who depend on single use bendy straws for literal survival.

As you said, the base problem comes from capitalism.

It is, stop getting distracted by the bullshit capitalists tell you so that they can sell you more shit.

The attack on single use straws was entirely symbolic (end completely useless) in the first place, and harmful for disabled people.

The problem was never straws, it was, and is, capitalism.

Focus on that, don’t get drawn in to the superficial virtue signalling divisive and harmful distractions.

It’s both, and you need to zoom out and see the big picture, the one where they coexist because one necessitates the other, to really appreciate the problem

(ID: aerial photos from South Africa and India showing the vast disparity between rich and poor existing directly next to each other)

A feature, not a bug.

Na, he’s only playing the one side - his own. Always has, always will. All billionaires do, that’s how they ended up that way.

The differential between high and low tides in Alaska is crazy to me

Canada apparently get the highest with 11.7 metres (38.4 feet) mean tidal range, which I found out by accident because I was actually looking up the range specifically for the UK out of curiosity, knowing it was high but not realising it would be on the top 3 list (E: with maximum range in the Bristol Channel being 15 metres (49 feet)! ) lol

TIL

our big companies are infinitely more powerful than our government

The big companies ARE your government. Wtf do you think “lobbying” is? Who the fuck do you think funds both your parties? (Hint: It’s bribery and billionaires, respectively)

and it seems like SOME of them should be putting up a fight, standing up for their queer employees, Hispanic customers or at least the Palestinian family members of the board.

Why the fuck would they?

Because they used pink/green/crip/whatever wash for a few days each year to fool you in to believing they care? They don’t. Never have.

Companies exist to make profit, as long as appropriating marginalised peoples’ struggles and pretending to care made them money, they kept the mask on, now it no longer does, nor do they have rules like (what they would consider) that “silly” DEI keeping them from openly discriminating and maintaining the white supremacist cis-heteronormative ableist patriarchy they still openly favoured even when the rules were in place. Bending the knee to fascism (which capitalism will always decay in to precisely for this reason) will ultimately be much more profitable for them - the billionaires who own the companies (the companies are just a shell, that they will drop for a bigger one. Prison labour? Deportation camp labour? Slave labour? They’re already here, and are about to have a growth spurt) in a fucking flash.

Literally no one with real power is opposing this fascist takeover, and it fucking disgusts me.

Literally anyone with real power under capitalism is fascist, or at least dedicated to maintain the the capitalist system that leads to it, what the fuck did you expect?

Companies are jumping at the chance to appease orange Hitler, and all struck down their gay pride policies before even being ordered or threatened.

Welcome to pinkwashing, queers have been telling you for decades that rainbow capitalism is a mask and a trick you shouldn’t fall for.

Also maybe consider doing some research in to war and other oppression, see how motherfuckingly eye-wateringly profitable it is.

I guess somehow I was naive enough to hope that Starbucks or Patagonia or Target would pretend to resist the erasure of queer people, or even just push the oppressors into a courtroom before kneeling down to lick their spray tanned boots.

I’m sorry, but that is beyond naive, that is wilfully out of touch. These companies, the government, and capitalism itself have been telling you all along who they are, and those who they oppress have been scream it forever, it was all there for you to see and hear, but you chose not to, probably because it was more comforting to believe the lie, and marginalised people couldn’t possibly be right with our “cynicism”.

This is America. Land of the cowards corporation.

FTFY.

These people are not cowards, and the longer you continue to frame them as such, instead of as the intentionally oppressive individuals, and their machine, that they are, that machine will continue to chug along uninterrupted.

The idea that corporations and the people who run them should be “brave” and stand up against the very system that enables them to exist, or somehow give a single fuck about society at large, otherwise they’re “cowards” (and not simply self serving oppressors) is so far beyond absurd, it’s actually enraging at this point.

assuming their actual hiring practices are not really changing

Why on earth would anyone paying even the slightest bit of attention assume that?

If Google from now on only hired straight, white people, it would be detrimental to them for missing out on a huge pool of talent and they know this

Even with DEI they still hire more straight white men than any other group, and they do so because they don’t give a shit about the talent they might be missing out on because they don’t consider marginalised people to be as talented in the first place, that’s literally how white supremacy along with other systems of oppression function, and they aren’t something that is just happening now, they are literally what America and capitalism are founded on.