CantTrip [she/her]

Existing in our heteronormative, transphobic society can breed a lot of self loathing. When dealing with that, there’s a fear that every good thought and feeling you have about yourself is self- delusion. This is compounded by watching the liberal, shallow exaltation of queer people in our culture. So it makes perfect sense when a fash says "I have nothing against you personally, but cmon your identity is ridiculous and is bad for society. " It’s a hard truth, but at least it’s not self- delusion.

And then there’s validation as well. They get to be One of the Good Ones. One of the ones that’s grounded and realistic, not delusional. It’s a toxic mix.

I’m not trying to frame any fascist as sympathetic - or do the “they’re racist because they hate themselves” thing. There’s of course a base of political ideology that’s ripe for far right radicalization. But I think the above is a big reason why there’s attraction to existing, transphobic groups.

The guys on American Pickers are usually quite kind to the old, lonely, rural dudes who sometimes have mild hoarding disorders. At least the shows portrays them as being appreciative of their things and interested in their stories.

Which must be baffling and cringe to Chuck who finds those people gross and disposable.

Also: ugh women suck… always wanting to watch one of the most common programs on the channel you turned on… why aren’t they interested in the hypothetical history program you imagined could be on???

And that’s like saying “There’s always going to be rape,” and then not being anti-rape or even being pro- rape.

But then they’ll turn around and say 'but greed isn’t always bad," which I mean lol

You can shoot meth.

But why would you when you have a personalized pipe engraved with your first name?

Torture is awful and should be abolished everywhere. What better place to start than at home? After all, isn’t our efforts best spent using our ‘democratic systems’ to see our desire to end torture realized? The U.S. doesn’t meet any of the published benchmarks for Vietnam in that link lmao:

1. Prohibition of the practices of holding prisoners and detainees for prolonged periods in incommunicado detention and solitary confinement, which not only facilitate and perpetuate the torture of detainees, but in some circumstances can themselves amount to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatmen . [U.S. has more people in solitary per capita than Vietnam]

2. Commitment to a timetable by which the government will authorize independent monitoring of all prisons, re-education centers, and other places of detention in Vietnam by both international and domestic monitoring bodies to investigate allegations of physical abuse and torture of prisoners and detainees and enforce the absolute prohibition on such abuses by police, security officials, prison and detention center staff, and other detainees. [We do not have oversight or follow- up for reported torture/ abuse in our prisons]

3. Acceptance of country visits by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and officials of the International Labor Organization, with unrestricted access to prisons, detention centers, psychiatric institutions, re-education camps, drug detention centers, jails, police lock-ups, and other places of detention. [No one gets unrestricted access to prisons in the U.S. for investigative/ oversight purposes]

4. Ratification and implementation of Work Convention No. 105 (Abolition of Forced Labor), which prohibits forced or compulsory labor of prisoners convicted of political offenses or because of racial, social, national, or religious discrimination; and publication of a list of all forms of work in which prisoners and detainees are involved (just lol)

As someone who hates torture, I can’t imagine spending any time lecturing Americans about the happenings in a SE Asian country i don’t even share a language with, when there is so so so much torture right here at home