Bel_tamtu

Bel_tamtu, 10 days ago

@RickiTarr

The Weeknd - Blinding Lights (Canadian singer/songwriter, pop/R&B/new wave)

https://youtu.be/4NRXx6U8ABQ

Tricky - Hell is Round the Corner (UK artist, used to be a part of Massive Attack before going on his solo career, trip-hop)

https://youtu.be/E3R_3h6zQEs

Blackalicious - Chemical Calisthetics (American hip hop duo, this is hip hop with rapping, Gift of Gab recently passed away, this song is about chemistry and very nerdy and was in Into the Spider-Verse)

https://youtu.be/arJXKrBThBc

Bel_tamtu, 10 days ago

@mistheart @RickiTarr

Ohhh yeah I love the Heavy. I wasn't going to include them because they're not majority black but yes their singer/front man (and I believe he is majorly involved in the songwriting) is black. :3

Another trip hop group from the UK I love who has a black vocalist (Skye) is Morcheeba.

https://youtu.be/VyRxTTegjXM

They've been around for a while and have put out a lot of albums, there was a period of time where the producers split from Skye and had guest vocalists but then they got back together for the album that the above song is from.

Bel_tamtu, 27 days ago

@beadsland Yeah, I frequently see folks saying stuff about racists or bigots or fascists or police supporters that they are stupid or "dropped out of kindergarten" (just came across that one earlier on my timeline) and it's awful.

The ID people I've come to know are all really thoughtful leftists and social justice advocates quite knowledgeable about ableism and intellectual ableism in particular, and other forms of oppression too.

Meanwhile some of the folks I know who went down the pipelines of bigotry and conspiracy thinking have been assessed as highly intellectually abled, because being "highly intelligent" (which is a pretty BS category anyways) doesn't make you immune to being a bigoted asshole.

Not saying there's no bigoted ID people because they certainly aren't a monolith, just, the ableism is so obvious to me. :/ I try to speak up when I can.

Bel_tamtu, 27 days ago

@strypey @beadsland

The thing is, the sloppy word choice is still intellectually ableist. I used to use similar language thoughtlessly, and I know first hand that "high intelligence" is a pretty made up and glorified category that doesn't make one immune to bigotry. It is very common to refer to bigots as stupid, just as it is very common to refer to perpetrators of abuse and violence as some kind of crazy, but both are ableist.

I've made a point in getting to know folks of many different walks of life through social justice circles and there are many intellectually disabled people who speak about ableism they face. They face a lot of direct stuff but also it is so common for us non-ID folks to be thoughtlessly, casually ableist with our language.

I've had some positive results from pointing this out to people when they do it. I try to be gentle about it, because I can be not because everyone should be. But I do, and I am. I ask them to please take more care in the future.

Bel_tamtu, 26 days ago

@strypey @beadsland

As someone who was in a Gifted Education program and was assessed as highly intelligent, I'm pretty skeptical of the category of high intelligence and our ways of determining and ranking it. I really don't believe that the other kids in the regular education program were less capable of learning in the "gifted" environment than I was, in fact some of them may have done better than I did. I have come to see that people are intelligent in different ways about different things despite how well they may be ranked at some "classic" definition of intelligence.

Bel_tamtu, 26 days ago

@strypey @beadsland

When you say that a person is clearly working against their own interest you are discounting any other reasons you can't see or have not considered for why they are doing so. You are saying you know better than they do what they should do. This type of thinking results in all sorts of oppressive systems.

Addictions, for example, could be resulting from a need to self-medicate mental illness symptoms. Someone with crippling PTSD might have very good reasons to turn to something like heavy drug use as a coping mechanism, and though people may wish them to select something less physically dangerous than drinking or whatever it is they do, stepping in & mandating "treatment" on the basis that we know better than they do is literally taking away their rights & doesn't get the results we claim to want. Things like a harm reduction approach where their recovery is self-directed at their own pace is proven to work much better in terms of saving lives & lasting recovery.

Bel_tamtu, 1 month ago

@shippychaos I'd actually suggest acquiring books on gender and trans people for toddlers! You could read them to the kids if they have questions about stuff like pronouns, or you could read them yourself to see how these things are explained in a child friendly way.

I don't have specific suggestions, but I did just try to Google "good books on gender for toddlers" and a bunch of results came up, including some specifically transgender ones, as well as a more general book on pronouns I think ("They, He, She: Words For You and Me").

I have no idea as to the quality of that book or any of the others but there's a lot of resources like this out there now, including books on queer people too, like that book about the gay penguins raising a chick together.

Otherwise just, like, answer any questions they may have in a straightforward way, kids can understand a lot of stuff! I knew I wanted to be a boy by age four! I wish my adults had books like these while I was growing up. :3

Bel_tamtu, 1 month ago

@FionaCraig Canada used to have hate speech legislation, I believe it was discontinued under the Conservatives but don't quote me on that, it was certainly stopped with a lot of pressure from the right & alt right. I wish they'd try to bring it back. Great job Scotland!

Bel_tamtu, 3 months ago

@lynnesbian As a Canadian I feel this so hard. I've had some places say $50 all the way through and I have to check my bank account or credit card to see how much I was charged in CDN.

Bel_tamtu, 3 months ago

@MnemosyneSinger Uhhhh I like the message of the meme itself but the quote is a neo-nazi dogwhistle, unless the point is to be turning that around with a left leaning message beneath it? Sorry I just couldn't let it go by without saying something. :/

Bel_tamtu, 3 months ago

@gregly @MnemosyneSinger

I would feel slightly better if I knew it was an attempt to subvert the dogwhistle. I see a lot of people using it unknowingly, and even those who are trying to subvert it are spreading this dogwhistle around that others end up using unknowingly.

Trying to subvert a dogwhistle is still unfortunately blasting a dogwhistle and the effects on listeners can be the same regardless of who is using it. That goes for people who approve of the dogwhistle and people primed to listen for it out of self-preservation.

I am in favour of reclamation of the word queer and I argue against pushback on that but for some reason I feel quite differently about this.

Bel_tamtu, 8 months ago

@TechConnectify

I'm Western Canadian and utility rooms are common here too, like I've lived in places that have or are basements and a utility room with the furnace, water heater, and commonly (but not always) the washer and dryer seem pretty standard.

Bel_tamtu, 9 months ago

@ttpphd

I think instead of designating a religion as anti-queer, we instead listen to what queer members of that religion have to say about it. Because they exist and are too easily ignored by everyone.

Also I think it's dangerous labelling a religion as anti-queer, where is the threshold? Jewish people are statistically highly accepting of queer people but even they have exceptions. I've been a practicing Wiccan and found nothing but acceptance but there is a very vocal group of Wiccans who are anti-trans, specifically anti-trans-women. There are queer Muslims and people accepting of queer Muslims.

Religion is so intrinsically tied to culture, too.

Conservative Christians and conservative western politicians often provide support for anti-queer sentiments in other religions, superficially supporting their "religious freedom" as suits themselves. I don't think we should listen to them. I don't think we should listen to anti-queer people about queer people, period.

Bel_tamtu, 9 months ago

@ttpphd

Also, is Christianity one of these anti-queer religions? Or are you referring, in your question about multiculturalism, to non-Christian religions? I think we should, as with other religions and cultures, listen to queer Christians.

Bel_tamtu, 9 months ago

@ttpphd

Very pretty ombre!

Bel_tamtu, 9 months ago

@ttpphd

Yes!! As a femme nonbinary trans guy it's my pleasure to wear skirts and femmy tops and make-up! Hee.

Bel_tamtu, 10 months ago

@Radical_EgoCom

Also the antisemitism that gets mixed in to the conspiracy makes it really unappealing.

Bel_tamtu, 11 months ago

@ivy

I didn't really have those kind of stories either. At least, I didn't until I was well into my social transition and just before HRT. Then I remembered telling someone at the age of four that I wanted to be a boy. They opened the door for me to explore as a masculine girl but I was too feminine to stick with it and all of that fell away. Anyways thr memory came back too late to help me out.

It's a bit validating to have at least, but yeah I never related to always knowing or showing signs. I wasn't even a tomboy.

Bel_tamtu, 1 year ago

@Cloudguy

Yeah, likewise, I don't know you but I do trust the person who boosted this into my timeline. All done!