sister-bell:

Christina Milne, leader of the Australian Greens, speaks out against the excising of the Australian mainland from the migration zone. 

“Not one of you who votes against this amendment, not one of you, in 10, 15, 20 years, when there is a national apology to the children detained indefinitely in detention for the sole supposed crime of seeking a better life in our country because they’re running away from persecution with their families… not one of you will be able to stand up and say ‘oh we didn’t know’, ‘oh it was the culture of the period’, ‘oh it was the best way we thought of saving their lives’ by locking them up in detention in places which the UNHCR has said is completely unsuitable.”

This is so incredibly well spoken and worth listening to. Christine Milne, leader of the Greens party, spelling it out in a way which even the lowest common denominator would understand. The truth is awful, and she’s just spilling truths here.
Shocking and brilliant.

Shame Australia, shame.

“
Many young men today have a shockingly strong sense of male superiority and a diminished capacity for empathy. They believe that the capacity for empathy and compassion has to be suppressed, early on, in the name of achieving masculinity. That this is true despite the progress of the women’s movement, parents who are psychologically aware and moral, stunning opportunities for men and women, is disappointing at best. But there is no way around it: Most young men who engage in acts of violence—or who watch them and do nothing, or who joke about them with their friends—fully subscribe to traditional ideologies about masculinity. The problem isn’t psychological; these guys aren’t deviants. If anything, they are overconforming to the hyperbolic expressions of masculinity that still inform American culture.
— Michael Kimmel, Guyland (via wretchedoftheearth)

Things Jon Snow Knows

mumblebrows:

1. Nothing
2. Oral
3. Windmills

“

Those who call themselves allies are responsible for understanding the contexts in which they speak; they are responsible for recognizing the structures of power from which they derive their privileges. And if this all sounds like too much to ask, then, perhaps, they should reconsider their claims to social justice work.

As Audre Lorde notes in the The Uses of Anger, genuine desire to build with those at the margins requires abandoning defensiveness, guilt, and self-interest. While women fight for the right to exist in a world free of constant mental and physical attacks, our allies cry about their hurt feelings and threatened masculinities.


— The Problem With Our So-Called Allies (via harriettumbles)

hizbullahtwerkteam:

I don’t really trust anyone that doesn’t care about politics or social issues, because these are generally the people who have the privilege of being apolitical, and of ignoring those specific issues.

divascreech:

i refuse to respect other people’s views if they oppress me and so should you

do not let people tell you that you should respect oppressive or intolerant views and do not let them make you feel guilty when you don’t

fuck them

I always think i’m so clever because I don’t buy treats, so I can’t eat them.

It’s not clever, it’s masochistic, and I hate myself a little bit for it right now.

commiekinkshamer:

i have no problem with pointing out that anyone of any gender can be an abuser, rapist, pedophile etc because that’s absolutely true.

but the problem with always emphasizing “yes but it happens to everyone, not just women (or people of colour, or trans* people, etc)!” is that it depoliticizes the issue.

violence is not an accident, it is reflective of social power relations that permeate society at every level

“
Nonviolence is an inherently privileged position in the modern context. Besides the fact that the typical pacifist is quite clearly white and middle class, pacifism as an ideology comes from a privileged context. It ignores that violence is already here; that violence is an unavoidable, structurally integral part of the current social hierarchy; and that it is people of color who are most affected by that violence. Pacifism assumes that white people who grew up in the suburbs with all their basic needs met can counsel oppressed people, many of whom are people of color, to suffer patiently under an inconceivably greater violence, until such time as the Great White Father is swayed by the movement’s demands or pacifists achieve that legendary “critical mass.
— Peter Gelderlos, Why Nonviolence Protects the State (via tabularasae)