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You Wanted to Know How Fascism Wins? Look In the Mirror

Dana Hunter6 Comments

Donald Trump won the election, but he is not my president. George W. Bush was. Much as I hated him, much as I thought he was the worst thing that had happened to America in generations, at least he was a properly-elected (the second time), career politician who had some idea of how the republic worked and some shred of decency remaining.

Trump is none of those things.

I would not call Hitler Mark II my president. I will not call him president of my country. And if the Tea Party Republicans have shown me anything, it’s that democracy in this country is dead at the national level, and at many places at the local level, and that fire is needed to fight fire.

Right now, I’m in despair and devastated and staring into a future I doubt I can survive. But I am white and cis and hetero, and I will wield those privileges in defense of those less powerful than me for all I am worth. I live on the blue side of a blue state, and I will use that position to protect everyone I can.

Friends I love are going to die.

The things that were keeping them alive will be gutted.

Bigots who despise them have been emboldened enough to murder them without a twinge of conscience.

And you did that to them.

White folk. You did this. Cis folk. You did this. Bernie-or-busters, third party voters, people who didn’t vote because you couldn’t be arsed, people who thought all candidates were the same, people who voted for Trump because you’re either too white or too sexist or too racist or too selfish or too all-of-the-above to think it through, you did this. It’s all on you.

Those of you who thought racism was over and so didn’t make a peep when the Voting Rights Act got gutted, this is on you.

You ask how fascism rises. Look in the fucking mirror. Look. Look at yourself.

That is how.

You are the reason this happened.

So I will not be kind to you. I won’t be gracious in defeat. I won’t let bygones be bygones. I will absolutely let political differences end friendships, because you just voted to watch the world burn. You voted to murder the people I love. This isn’t the bullshit faux persecution that religious right cis straight white people whine about. This is queer folk, and trans folk, and disabled folk, and colored folk, and immigrant folk, and refugee folk, and poor folk, who will all die because you didn’t want to give up your dreams of domination.

I always wondered. I wondered how this happens. I wondered how the ordinary people chose good or evil. I don’t wonder anymore, because I am living it.

So.

If you voted for Trump, understand that I hold you beneath contempt. If you suffer because of what you’ve unleashed, I will feel pity for you, but understand that you brought it on yourself. If you voted for Trump, we are through. You have no place in my life. You are vile. You’re beneath contempt. I never want to see you. I never want to speak to you. I want you out of my life, permanently. I will not seek to take away your rights, but I hope that this decision ends up haunting you. I hope you end up unable to sleep at night. You shouldn’t be able to rest easy after what you have done.

If you voted for Trump, you are not now and never were a friend of mine. Until you show your remorse for that vote and do everything in your power to reverse the damage, you are not someone I can count as a neighbor, much less a friend.

*** Continue reading “You Wanted to Know How Fascism Wins? Look In the Mirror” →

You Wanted to Know How Fascism Wins? Look In the Mirror
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Dear Americans: VOTE. This Is Critical

Dana Hunter

This is it. This is the day.

Image is a banner with white stars on a navy background running across the top and bottom, bordered in red. In a white box in the middle, it says VOTE America. Every Vote Counts.
If you’re in Pennsylvania, you can get a free Uber or Lyft ride to the polls. Here’s how.

When you vote, remember this important truth:

Image is a quote from Rebecca Solnit that says, "Voting is a chess move, not a valentine." Beside the quote, there is a black and white photo of her sitting with tall grasses behind her.
So please, don’t write in a candidate who has no chance, or vote for third party candidates who not only will not win, but are unfit to govern to begin with. Don’t throw your votes away. Trump needs to lose, and lose hugely. The bigoted assholes, the white supremacists, the violent fanatics he’s goaded and enabled, they all need to see him crushed. They need to see that hate doesn’t win. They need to understand that they are despicable, and decent society will have nothing of them.

Vote.

***

I am so terrified to find out whether my fellow citizens are such sexist dupes that they’d elect an admitted sexual abuser with none of the knowledge, temperament, and experience necessary to run a country as huge and complicated as ours, rather than have to call an eminently qualified woman Madam President.

I haven’t been able to do more than read about this shitshow and huddle in my blankets in abject dread. It’s never been like this before. Every other election, even 2004, I knew the country would somehow muddle through. This time, if we make the wrong choice, I don’t think we’ll be okay again. Not until after too many people have died. At the very, very least, our Supreme Court will be fucked for at least a generation, and the suffering that will cause is huge.

I can’t wait for this to be over, and yet I’m dreading it.

If you can vote, cast your vote for Clinton. Vote downballot for the most progressive candidates available. Then come huddle here with me. We’ll get through this together.

***A SPECIAL NOTICE TO TRUMP VOTERS***

But if you vote for Trump, realize that you’re voting for a deeply racist child rapist. Realize who you’re unifying yourself with. These are people who burn black churches, who torch transgender people’s trucks, who beat up protestors, harass immigrants, and even attack a child in a wheelchair for having the audacity to disagree with their hate.

If you vote for this man, you are condoning this behavior. You’re saying it’s okay to assault disabled folk, women, and people of color. That’s on top of the endless pile of reasons why he’s completely unfit to be president.

I don’t care what your reasons are. I don’t care if you’re lodging a protest against the Dems, or really think an ignorant jackass in the White House would force everybody to have some wonderful revolution, or if you’re just easily bamboozled. I don’t care if you’re doing it because you think Clinton is evil, or think she’s going to rip fully-developed healthy babies from wombs right at the 9th month, or don’t like her husband, or whatever reason you might offer.

If you vote for this man, you are reprehensible, and I want you to realize that and sit with that realization and feel awful about it. And then I want you to do better. But I don’t want to hear a single word from your mouth until you’ve had that epiphany. As long as you feel you did the right thing by voting for Trump, I don’t want to hear a single thing from you.

Because you voted for this. You voted for a man who foments this kind of hate. And that says nothing good about you.

Dear Americans: VOTE. This Is Critical

Bay Area Peeps: A Must-See Documentary Screens TODAY!

Dana Hunter, , , , , , , , ,

Promised Land is screening on Monday afternoon – TODAY! – at the 41st American Indian Film Festival, San Francisco, AMC Van Ness Theater.

If you want to understand Standing Rock, get a sense of Native American history, and see what happens when people whose ancestors can be traced back to tribes that have occupied these lands for thousands of years are denied federal recognition, you need to see this film. Please go if you can, and spread the word. Continue reading “Bay Area Peeps: A Must-See Documentary Screens TODAY!” →

Bay Area Peeps: A Must-See Documentary Screens TODAY!

Dear Americans: VOTE

Dana Hunter, , , ,

There won’t be normal blogging this week because I am godsdamned terrified.

I’m haunted by Brexit (CN: casual ableism). Remember how folks in Great Britain thought that staying in the European Union was a sure thing, so they either didn’t vote, or voted NO as a joke or protest, thinking they were safe – and next thing they knew, they were staring down a wrecked economy and emboldened racists? Yeah. That could happen here.

Don’t believe that Trump losing is such a sure thing that you don’t have to bother voting. Don’t believe it’s such a sure thing that you can safely vote for a third party candidate. Because there’s never a sure thing until the last vote is counted.

Vote.

Vote because we don’t only need to defeat Trump, we need to crush him and all he stands for. If we’re to have a hope of rescuing this country from the white supremacists and militias and all the other deplorables who want to burn it all down, we need to vote in such numbers that it sends a clear message to politicians who want to harness that bigotry: they are the ones who will burn. That strategy of appealing to racists and bigots and misogynists needs to fail so spectacularly that they don’t attempt it again for generations.

Vote, because if we’re going to stop global warming, we need people in office who actually believe it’s happening.

Vote, because we need to put as many progressives in power as we can, and where we can’t get the progressives we want right away, we at least get someone who leans far enough to the left to help pull us in the right direction for next time.

Vote, because we need someone with a solid liberal voting record sitting in the Oval Office, and that person is Hillary Clinton.

Vote, because the next president will decide whether the Supreme Court leans liberal or conservative, and the effects of that will be felt for decades to come. The damage a conservative court could do would not be undone for generations. Continue reading “Dear Americans: VOTE” →

Dear Americans: VOTE

How to Stand with Standing Rock – And Why We Must

Dana Hunter, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Long story short: white people have spent centuries trying to eradicate Native Americans in order to get their land, their resources, and their wealth. That hasn’t stopped. It’s ongoing today. It’s probably happening in your community without you even realizing. It’s happening in North Dakota, and if you’re not aware of the situation, please remedy that right now.

The Standing Rock Sioux are trying to preserve their land and their water from a pipeline that (overwhelmingly white) Bismarck refused to have passing through their city. You know why they don’t want it: pipelines break. They explode. They spill. And for women, there’s a whole other set of horrific problems that come along with a pipeline.

Image is a map that shows the current Standing Rock reservation and the much larger boundaries of the 1851 treaty.
We have taken so much from these tribes, and now we’re trying to take more, and this is where it needs to stop. It needs to stop for the health and safety of our indigenous peoples. It needs to stop so that corporations and governments no longer assume it’s no problem to take what they want from the reservations without regard to the residents. It needs to stop for the sake of our land, our water, and our air.

This is one of the most important movements for Native American self-determination and survival in our lifetime. The people of Standing Rock need you to stand with them. Here’s how you can do it: Continue reading “How to Stand with Standing Rock – And Why We Must” →

How to Stand with Standing Rock – And Why We Must

Dear Men: We Need to Talk About How Y’all Talk About Women

Dana Hunter, , , , 5 Comments
And we definitely need to talk about how you’re talking to men.

Ah-ah-ah – I see you sidling towards the door, thinking that you don’t need to read this because you’d never talk about women like whatever I’m about to say. Stay put, Mister. Because I do mean you.

Yes, you. Yes, Mr. I-Respect-Women. Mr. I-Would-Never-Say-Harmful-Shit. Mr. I-Would-Never-Ever-Be-Like-Trump. I’m not just talking to the men who say misogynistic shit today. I’m talking to you. Take a seat. We’ve got some hard things to discuss.

Content note for: Sexual assault, misogyny, sexism, denial, rape culture

First off, let’s address this I-would-never thing you’ve got going on. Because chances are, you would. Chances are, you do. It may be hard to hear, but listen to what happened to Erin Branscombe not too long ago. Continue reading “Dear Men: We Need to Talk About How Y’all Talk About Women” →

Dear Men: We Need to Talk About How Y’all Talk About Women

All Cis Men Need To Read This, Right Now

Dana Hunter, , , 1 Comment

This is important. I want all of the cis men who clicked on this post to read this exchange. Start with this photo and click all the way through to the end. (Source:  my excellent Facebook friend Anna Jobsis).

Content note for sexual assault, victim-blaming bullshit, rape culture apologia.

If you think Carlos is making really good points and sounds really reasonable, you need to start educating yourself on what rape culture is. Now. Before you open your mouth to advise a woman on what she should or shouldn’t do. Before you nod along with your fellow dudes while they’re explaining this shit at women. Before you ever say one more fucking word, shut up and do some learning.

And keep in the forefront of your mind that what I’m saying applies to trans women, genderfluid, and nonbinary people just as much. Cis and trans women, along with people coded or read as women or femme, but who don’t identify as women, all have to deal with all this shit. And it’s constant. Carlos is just one vivid example in an endless septic ocean of them. Carlos is just one guy among millions who thinks he’s a nice dude and helping women out, but who is actually throwing toxic sludge all over them.

And you, dear reader, may also be a Carlos. I know you don’t mean to be. But you’ve been socialized that way, and most of you haven’t spent much time rethinking your assumptions. I know this because I was once a Carlita. I absorbed those same toxic rape culture messages and passed them on. Yes, women can perpetuate this shit, too, but it’s mostly men doing it, and we need you to stop. It can be done. If I can learn it, anyone can.

Image is the boss from Office Space. Caption says, "Yeah, if you could stop promoting rape culture, that'd be great."

So let’s go back through Carlos’s lecture. As you’re reading, ask yourself some questions: Continue reading “All Cis Men Need To Read This, Right Now” →

All Cis Men Need To Read This, Right Now

Catch me on Atheists Talk Radio Tomorrow Morning!

Dana Hunter1 Comment

Holy schinoozles, people, it’s official! I’m gonna be on Atheists Talk in the ay-em! It’s tomorrow! You should totally listen!

Dana Hunter is a science blogger at Scientific American and a blogger at The Orbit network. On her Rosetta Stones blog she is known for her writing about Mount St. Helens, her travel blogs about her geological adventures, women in science, and other gneiss schist. At her blog En Tequila es Verdad she writes about atheism, religious extremism, the implicationas and effects of religion on women, and many topics relating to social justice.

Dana joins us this Sunday to discuss her recently published book, Really Terrible Bible Stories – Volume 3: Leviticus….

Join us this Sunday as we discuss God’s instructions for BBQs, holy laundry, nutritional dictates, slavery and other instances of horrifying divine micromanagement.

It’s going to be awesome. And you don’t even have to get up early on a Sunday morning to do it! Instructions for getting the podcast or listening online are here.

Talk to you soon!

Image is Really Terrible Bible Stories vol. 3: Leviticus cover. The background is black. Really Terrible is in slasher-style red font, Bible Stories in a white gothic script beneath. The painting beneath it is Tissot's "The Dead Bodies Carried Away," which shows two men in white robes carrying bodies over their shoulders out of the Israelite camp. Below is vol. 3: Leviticus in the same gothic script.

Really Terrible Bible Stories vol. 3: Leviticus is now available worldwide at Amazon:

United States  ♦  Canada  ♦  Mexico  ♦  Brazil  ♦  United Kingdom  ♦  Germany  ♦  France  ♦  Spain ♦  Italy  ♦  Netherlands  ♦  India  ♦  Japan  ♦  Australia

Pick up your copies today!

Catch me on Atheists Talk Radio Tomorrow Morning!

“Let Us Not be a Community Who Says, ‘We got ours so fuck you.'”

Dana Hunter3 Comments

Gregory Gadow gave me his kind permission to repost his very incisive Facebook post here. This is so important.

A friend of mine made a very good point. Thanks, Calvin Hipps!

Dan White murdered San Francisco mayor George Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk on November 27, 1978. Charged with two counts of first degree murder, he was eventually convicted on two counts of “voluntary manslaughter,” the lightest possible sentence given the evidence. It was later shown that the jury gave him that sentence because A) White had been a SF police officer, and thus jurors presumed that he was acting against evil-doers, and B) because Supervisor Milk was an openly gay man.

When the verdict was handed down on the afternoon of May 21, 1979, the gay community went ballistic. San Francisco’s gay community had long been a target of SFPD’s bigotry, and many saw this verdict as police literally getting away with murdering community members. What originally started as an angry but peaceful protest quickly changed when the police tried to stop the demonstration. Police were attacked, and damage was done to SF government buildings. After several hours, the rioting subsided.

Black and white image shows a ghostly building with high windows and balconies in the background. There is a line of skinny trees whose trunks end in a puff of branches. Below the trees is a line of silhouetted figures standing in a line. The scene is lit by a streetlamp whose light seems to be diffused by smoke or mist.
Rioters outside San Francisco City Hall the evening of May 21, 1979, reacting to the voluntary manslaughter verdict for Dan White, that ensured White would serve only five years for the double murders of Harvey Milk and George Moscone. Image and caption courtesy Daniel Nicoletta (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Then the police staged a massive round of retaliatory raids in the Castro District. Cops in riot gear swarmed into gay bars and assaulted patrons, without even a pretext of claiming the mantle of law.

Sound like anything in recent events? Continue reading ““Let Us Not be a Community Who Says, ‘We got ours so fuck you.’”” →

“Let Us Not be a Community Who Says, ‘We got ours so fuck you.'”

What We Must Do

Dana Hunter, , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

It’s been a horrific week for police violence. Alton Sterling was murdered for the “crime” of selling CDs. Philando Castile was murdered for the “crime” of exercising his Second Amendment rights and driving while black. Castile’s slaughter was so egregious that even many of the white folk who typically find some infinitesimal fault on the part of the black man that excuses his extrajudicial execution have to admit this one was pure, undeserved slaughter. Not that they haven’t tried. They always try. It can never be the police who are to blame.

And as protestors peacefully gathered, a sniper in Dallas shot down cops and protestors alike, in a city that was trying to get it right. This will be all the excuse some people need to declare war upon people of color in this country. Not that a clandestine war wasn’t already being waged. Black folk in this country might as well be living in a war zone, see. They’re certainly dying as if they are.

And you may be feeling helpless right now. You may have no idea what to do with your rage and sorrow and pain. If, like me, you’re white, you may not know what do to with the power invested in you by the color of your skin.

Are you ready to listen? Because people of color are telling us what they need. This is what we must do. Continue reading “What We Must Do” →

What We Must Do