aby

aby, 11 months ago to random

Every single protest I hand my expensive ass bullhorn off to complete strangers and it always comes back to me. Every protest I prepare for the fact my speaker or the PA system could get damaged or potentially stolen. It doesn't happen. Kids were spray painting right next to me yesterday and being careful not to get paint on my set-up. Ethical vandalism. Carry on bro. And—while I was standing in the middle of a ratchet intersection block party—a sweaty protester in a mask came up to me and handed me a car key he found in the chaos. Then he want back to dancing. Ten minutes later a distraught woman came up and asked if anyone had returned a car key. Her lucky day.

Anytime something of mine has been lost, broken, or stolen at a protest it's been by the police. And I've been at some WILD fucking protests.

• Roderick Douglass

#AbolishPolice #Abolition #anarchism #Protest

aby, 11 months ago to ADHD

Can we stop using mental illness as a label when talking about police brutality and white supremacy?

No, they aren't psychopaths. They're racists.

They aren't sociopaths. They're racists.

They aren't narcissists. They're racist.

If you label them as being mentally ill, you're:
a) being shitty towards those of us with mental illness

b) giving them an excuse for their bullshit.

Please stop it.

#Disability #audhd #autism #adhd #Ableism #racism #whiteness #WhiteSupremacy #AbolishPolice #AbolishPrisons #Abolition #anarchism

aby, 11 months ago to random

Reminder that we have literally zero idea what the actual covid case numbers are in Australia as most people aren't testing if they have symptoms, and most of those who do test positive aren't recording their results with official records.

So when you read about the increases and the new peak were entering in time for winter, that's only a tiny fraction of what's out there.

So please, please, put on a fucking mask.

#covid #Australia

BlackAzizAnansi, 11 months ago to random

After 12 years as a loyal Netflix customer, I finally canceled my account due to their cracking down on password sharing and general corporate bullshit. My account may only be one account, but I want to urge everybody else to cancel their accounts also, because if Netflix makes a profit from preventing password sharing, then cracking down on password sharing will become the industry standard.

#CancelNetflix

aby, 11 months ago to random

I'm a disabled Indigenous queer person who exists on Jobseeker, which means almost 50% ($269/week) below the poverty line ($489/week).

After living in the same house for almost 10 years, I have to move because the people we rent from want to renovate.

It's going to cost $3990 just to move, not including the new bond and rent for the new place, cleaning costs for the old place, and all the other incidentals.

I hate asking, but please consider helping if you can - I'd be super grateful.

https://www.paypal.me/kittensmeow

https://ko-fi.com/abydarling

#MutualAid #Indigenous #Aboriginal #IndigenousMutualAid #disability #JobSeeker #PleaseShare

aby, 11 months ago to random

Black activists are extremely controversial.

Native decolonizers are extremely controversial.

Kanaka Maoli nationalists are extremely controversial.

Anti-Zionists are extremely controversial.

Queer radicals are extremely controversial.

Marxists are extremely controversial.

Corporate media pointedly ignore all of them.

But those media love to cover Jordan Peterson and other reactionary hacks (including neo-Nazis). They don't provide that coverage because the subjects are controversial (see above). It happens because corporate media have an affinity for regressive ideas and a vested class interest in promoting them. By conditioning debate around spectacle, with a cast of smug and unlikable protagonists, reporters and pundits can ignore economic and racial injustice, even as they gesture at disapproval of the provocateurs they cover. (You disapprove of Peterson? Great! Maybe start ignoring him?)

Don't let reporters and pundits absolve themselves of introducing awful people to wide audiences by hiding behind sensationalism. The world has tons of controversial thinkers who are also insightful and compassionate. Arbiters of the newsworthy don't want to cover them. And they wouldn't be allowed to, anyway.

Pay attention to all that is missing from corporate media rather than assessing what they offer. The real story, as always, exists in the systematic absence of certain narratives.

• Steven Salaita

#anarchism #queer #racism #whiteness #WhiteSupremacy #activism

aby, 11 months ago to random

Looking at you too, so-called Australia.

#Indigenous #Aboriginal #SovereigntyNeverCeded

aby, 11 months ago to random

SCAM ALERT

A new scam just dropped on the back of the budget - please be careful.

The link shown isn't a real myGov link, as it ends in [dot]icu, and not [dot]gov[dot]au.

#AusPol #JobSeeker #Scam
#ScamAlert

atomicpoet, 1 year ago to random

I disagree with "hide features from newbies and they'll discover it when they're ready".

No, they won't.

I've worked in the tech support trenches. I know how this goes.

People use software to do what they believe is apparent and obvious to them but is, in actuality, an edge case use.

And then when they discover your software can do it but it's been hidden from them for years due to a silly "KISS" philosophy, they get pissed.

aby, 1 year ago to random

Just a reminder:
A budget surplus is the sign of social policy failure.

If you have a surplus then you're hoarding money as a government, instead of spending it on education, health care, support payments, climate crisis measures, roads and infrastructure.

#SocialPolicy #JobSeeker #Poverty #Budget #PoliticalSystems

aby, 1 year ago to random

Just your friendly reminder that Aboriginal culture is the world's oldest continuous living culture.

And this always was, and always will be Aboriginal Land.

#Aboriginal #Indigenous #FuckYourSettlerColonialism

aby, 1 year ago to random

Hey Mastodon,

There's a difference between autonomous spaces and segregation.

Autonomous spaces are developed by OUR choice, by US saying you [those who embody hegemonic identities] aren't allowed in OUR space because it's just for US. These spaces help us empower ourselves and exist in defiance of systems or oppression.

Segregated spaces are imposed on us by YOU. Segregated spaces are YOU [those who embody hegemonic identities] saying that we people who are systemically oppressed are not welcome in your space. Because these spaces belong to YOU, they rely on and even reify systems of oppression. Sure, you might wrap it up in some concern trolling bullshit about "being more comfortable in your own space", but we see what's really happening.

Please stop calling for segregation and start working to make all spaces accessible and welcoming.

#racism #RacismOnMastodon

shlee, 1 year ago to random

Rock star Admins can get stuffed. #mastoadmin

aby, 1 year ago to random

"Me in 2009: Adulting is way harder than looks, I feel like I haven't gotten any better at this at all. My parents must have really had their shit together.

Me in 2019: The concept of "adulting" is bourgeois propaganda designed to keep us questioning our own worth instead of questioning the absurd inefficiencies and inequalities of the economic structures that govern social relations in our society. Nobody really has their shit together as much as they appear to on the surface, and my parents didn't actually have the slightest clue how to survive outside of riding the wake of the mid-20th century economic boom and not questioning anything too closely."

aby, 1 year ago to random

I keep seeing mods and admin in social media groups post, starting off with saying 'speaking as a person and not a mod..' or 'speaking without my mod hat on..' etc.

It highlights to me that they don't understand how power works. Once you take a role with authority over others, you can't effectively speak to those others outside of that role.

Power isn't a coat you can just pop on and off when it suits you - in fact, the (attempted) 'popping on and off' of that is actually an exercising of that power.

I wish we had a more nuanced and in-depth analysis of power structures behind social media groups and mod/admin status.

aby, 1 year ago to random

"I think that part of what a culture of domination has done is raise that romantic relationship up as the single most important bond, when of course the single most important bond is that of community." - bell hooks

aby, 1 year ago to random

Sometimes it's just about the hugs..

aby, 1 year ago to Dog

Mia has a bucket hat!

#DogsOfMastadon #Dog

Mia, a grey spotty dog, wearing a yellow bucket hat that has holes in the top for her brown ears to poke out of. She's looking at the camera and seems to be smiling.
Mia, a grey spotty dog, wearing a yellow bucket hat that has holes in the top for her brown ears to poke out of. The picture is of the back of her head, so you can clearly see her ears poking out the holes in her hat.