816 karma · joined May 26, 2016
https://www.wired.com/2008/11/valve-tricked-h/
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/06/what-drove-one-half-l... (better story)
Cuba was economically starved by the US and its allies and unable to interact with the global economy. This paired with its early history of horrific human rights abuses led to a rough state that continues to this day. But, and this does not excuse how violent the state was in its early days, Cuba does have no unemployment or homelessness which is something remarkable.
Those are edge cases though. Look at the northern european countries, canada, or germany
You see, white nationalists/facists/neo-nazis/alt-righters/whathaveyou have an ideology of genocide and oppression. Enacting violence against them can be seen as a form of self defense. Engaging them in debate only validates their ideology. Arguable, the best plan of action is to ignore them entirely and starve them of airtime, but the media clearly didn't get that memo.
Now, when you have somebody like Milo Y coming to campus with plans to publicly name undocumented foreign students (like he publicly named a transgender student at his last talk, forcing her to leave the school after harassment from his followers) in an attempt to incite violence against them or deportation, knocking over a few lights and breaking some windows to keep him at bay is pretty reasonable for defense.
What is really interesting to see is political cartoons from the days of the MLK led Civil Rights protests. The arguments against the civil rights movement are exactly the same as the ones against BLM now. People thought the protesters were "too violent" and were a bunch of thugs destroying their own neighborhoods and holding back the more respectable black people and their agenda. The same arguments are used today to discredit the work of Black Lives Matter.
After all, didn't MLK say that a riot is the language of the unheard?
Criminality us a result of being marginalized from society and not being able to work "honest" livings. You are forced to rely on your own group, pushed to the edges and fighting for its own.
9/11 is a valid date to start from because a large part of its shock value is that for the most part of post WW2 America, there weren't any foreign attacks on American soil. 9/11 was the anomaly, meant to provoke US outrage and further our violence against the middle East, convincing more young people that the US was an agressor and that they were the righteous. Clearly, these people are not righteous, but neither were we.
It's easy to be scared right now, but turning to racist rhetoric instead of finding parallels in history is what allows fascism to take hold. Read up, educate yourself, and come back tomorrow better ready for building a better tommorrow.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2017/01/31/most-te...
1. Trump has made islamaphobic rhetoric a cornerstone of his campaign, giving this racist undertones
2. That was a quiet secret at the time, this was an extremely public executive order. Both are wrong, but that doesn't somehow detract from or excuse this massive escalation. There wasn't this outrage at the time because nobody heard about it
3. The political situation at the time wasn't as life-or-death for refugees. Sending political refugees back now is a death sentence. That said, the US has been pretty terrible at accepting refugees in general this past decade, which is very shameful
4. This order detained cleared refugees while in transit, and, originally blocked green card holders from returning to the US after exiting for any reason
5. Remember that Trump has a neo-nazi in his cabinet with bannon, who reportedly wrote this order. That alone should be reason for heightened suspicion
He had repeatedly called for an ethnic cleansing of America. And now his buddy, Steve bannon is in the white house. The state has a monopoly on violence, and they aren't on our side
Because, clearly, actively calling for and organizing a group centered around my death and the death of my community isn't enough
"The first act of violence that patriarchy demands of males is not violence toward women. Instead patriarchy demands of all males that they engage in acts of psychic self-mutilation, that they kill off the emotional parts of themselves. If an individual is not successful in emotionally crippling himself, he can count on patriarchal men to enact rituals of power that will assault his self-esteem"
-Bell Hooks
Edit: looks like it bounced back up, but still, damn.
I am astounded by the negativity my comments have received for relaying long standing tensions and issues in the transgender community on relation to mainstream feminism. It's as if any time you ask the community here to look at historical context or complexity in social issues people just shut down, despite the fact that this site is made up of such a well educated, creative group of users.