The last 2 reddit userbase diasporas were wildly more different than all of the previous ones combined.
When voat became a thing everyone already knew ahead of time that it’s ranks would be filled with facists; but it took a while for lemmy to earn its tankie stereotype and I’m also glad that lemmy’s design helps ensure that it’ll have more stamina that voat or any of the other reddit user digital refugee camp platforms that came before it.
… objectively worse and far less tolerant.
True for now; but how much longer?
My ruling class either miscalculated our response to the election choices they gave us or decided that excelerationism was in our best interests. In both cases they’re going to have to double down to maintain their control and that means more facism or another distraction war.
Both majority parties have shifted towards the right end of the political spectrum since 2016 and the dnc’s unwillingness to accept the reasons why they lost this election like they did after 2016 guarantees that they will continue to follow republicans in their shift rightwards towards facism.
History has plenty examples of calms before storms like this and my existence at the intersection of several vulnerable minorities guarantees that at least one of them will be popularly scape goated. I have no intention of serving that role and one of my identities affords me an easy-ish path outside of this country.
So the question for me isn’t to where but which one and I know through experience that they’re all already sufficiently tolerant. whether or not there’s a link with pinochet doesn’t matter much to me since starmers’ few controversies so far already suggest that a pinochet link is plausible.
Germany’s ruling coalition falling apart; trump winning; macron caucusing with the far right instead of the election winners; Italy’s civil rights regression with its new far right govt; and now this makes me think that we’re in for a wild ride in the West for the next few decades and I wonder if I should try to leave now or wait until the shooting starts.
I use xfce and this looks great.
The last time I was a team lead, I would sit in on meetings and whenever this one admin assistant was present she would complain about an analyst’s appearance saying things like he looked disheveled because his shirt had some wrinkles; but he was very much silicon-valley/california-shabby-chic fashioned for the time.
We got bought out by a bank complete with stereotypical old fashioned management and dinosaur sensibilities from the East Coast. She brought up the analyst again during one of our meetings that included the new management and the analyst was fired the next day.
i wish that the article provided more insights into why because it’ll only lead to conspiracy theories if they don’t.
during the hiv/aids crisis; people who had spare bedrooms; or could afford to cook extra meals; or took it upon themselves to distribute those extra meals; or volunteer basic healthcare services for free (ie candy stripers); etc. would put up “help offered” posters in gay safe spaces with contact information on them. the posters where mostly hand made back then, but i’ve seen a more modern day version of it with home printers and the bottom section of the paper scored off so that people can rip off and take the contact information with them and i’ve seen a newer version of that with the mutual aid community in hexbear: https://hexbear.net/c/mutual_aid
any leftist safe space, both virtual and real. will have something like this; seek them out and you can ask someone in person what you can do to help that’s tailored to you circumstances. (and to set your expectations: it’s probably going to suck a lot; that’s why they need the help)
the last time i was in a position like yours i almost learned the hard way to make documentation to protect yourself.
the next time you and your boss have a conversation on security things like that windows 7 computer; tell him that you’re going to send an email at the end of the conversation restating what he told you to do; then send that email; and then use your smartphone to take a picture of the email. (time stamps are important so make sure that the phone’s picture metadata is enabled and they’re usually on by default or make sure that the picture includes something with the date & time on it like a calendar on your computer).
do this for anything security related like passwords or administrator access. if you have a good boss, they’ll realize that you feel like you need to protect yourself and they’ll start making changes.
in latin america they were nice to the white passing americans like me that i was traveling with at the time and not so much to me because my words said that i was was sorry, but things like my facial expression; or body language; or intonation said otherwise and i can’t imagine how similar situations would work out if i didn’t even have the words.
also that and other related experiences over the decades teaches me that the benefit of the doubt comes rare once i’ve committed that faux pas and the local version of “sorry” by itself doesn’t work well if they’re angry about the perceived transgression.
i was only looking for vacation
when i have a long list i go with audio novels first and then read written versions if there’s no audio version. that way i can “read” through my list while simultaneously working and burning time on social media. lol
I’ve started with the audio book series entitled: Anti Imperialism of Star Trek Deep Space Nine and then i think i’m going to read theory after that.
i love lucy.
we would all drop what we were doing; get together on the couch and watch it every weeknight when my parents starting enforcing a bedtime to help get them more sleep out of their working schedules.
my neuro-divergence sometimes causes people to think that i’m an asshole and if i can’t speak the local language to explain that; i won’t be able to explain away the autism induced faux pas that i created and that can sometimes lead to sticky situations.
i’ll technically be “ex-patting” too since i’m an american and like most other americans i never gone past the periphery of the american empire. lol
a japanophile colleague made a similar recommendation in the past and my past discussions since then with japanese people in this country who also co-occupied my lgbt spaces with me, gives me the impression that the mainstream gay community barely exists at all in japan compared to other places like latin america or south asia; but it does have relatively well represented niches of its own that are unique to japan and mostly unknown to the rest of the world like my niches are mostly unknown to the world outside of the american imperial core.
also: my similar discussions with scandinavian expats in this country over the decades paints a fantastic and vibrant picture for lgbtq within the confines of their own american-allied imperial-core walled-gardens. they have everything that the american empire has for lgbtq plus more and it’s all a bit different with seemingly endless onion-y layers of niches. my intention of traveling is to leave the american imperial core, so i think that scandinavia would defeat that purpose considering that it’s all part of the nato now.
i’m aware of this and i bring it up as an example of the concerns i’ve shared of trying of traveling outside of the imperial core for me.
neuro-divergence awareness within the imperial core is weak at best like it is with my other niche lgbtq identities and it’s virtually non-existent in latin america. i’ve literally have bad experiences over the the decades caused by my neuro-divergence and had to rely on my ability to speak spanish to explain that i meant no offense. i’ve learned to leverage the entitled/clueless-american-tourist stereotype to “social butterfly” myself out of situations that my faux pas created and i can’t do the same thing in french, or vietnames, or thai, or russian, etc.
central and south american history was and is defined by american political intervention/interference in a similar manner to western europe in the decades following world war 2; it’s literally the reason why we have things like panama and reaggeton and why life sucks real bad for people right now in venezuela, cuba and haiti. (none of the governments in those countries are complying with the american empire’s will so they’re being punished for it with embargoes & sanctions and their people pay the price).
I don’t think this concern is justified in most cases, but I’m not really in position to argue. If this were a common problem, I think I’d have heard about it, but outside of the occasional sensationalist news piece or Hollywood/TV thriller, I haven’t.
the cases i had in mind were in the reports from federal inquiries investigating the aftermath of the iraqi invasion for non-existent wmd’s after 2008: they detailed HORRIFIC accounts of sometimes weeks long episodes of iraqi lbtq slowly bieng tortured to death while everyone did their best to pretended not to see it happening in front of their eyes. my strong accent already immediately outs me as an american and that’s taught me that the people who live in the periphery of the american empire’s core can all recognize i’m american easily and that’s resulted in experiences like me paying higher prices as a tourist at the most common and inconsequential end of a spectrum of experiences that also includes the iraqi-lgbq-torture example at the other more extreme & uncommon end of that same spectrum.
my experiences in talking to refugees & people of privilege from/in the middle east; south asia; & europe paints a picture of lgbtq communities that resemble the ones in latin america and living in this country as a member to niche several groups within the lgbtq umbrella teaches me that some of my identities have little to no communities at all outside the imperial core like it is in latin america and in large parts of the core itself. i think that my experiences as a gay cis american have turned me into a treat monster and not planning accordingly when traveling outside the imperial core seems like a bad idea if i can’t atleast speak the language to mitigate the social faux paus caused by my neuro-divergence.
i also now wonder if the fact that i learned about the iraqi-lgbtq example from gay subreddits is another manifestation of my identities being used as a virtue signal dog whistle in the dnc’s failed attempt to bank on the presidential election and left us with the genocide, facism and an impending country wide abortion ban among a FAR rightward lurch and i wonder how that’s going to impact the MLK jr timetable.
the numbers of the casualties from the gaza genocide rival those of the hiv/aids crisis per year back in the 1980’s and i think that it’s fitting that it the controversy back then also came at another time where my government also did little more than public displays of support while they strategically allowed thousands to needless die in service to the MLK jr timetable; but this time gaza’s impact is open-secretly-couched as harris not “separating” herself enough from biden as en explanation for the presidency & senate losses rather than plainly admitting that the voter turnout pushes with beyonce et al. succeeded in distracting from the losses of voters abstaining from the election over the genocide.
“a treat monster” is sort of like “tankie” in reverse; it describes the kind of american consumerist that is placated/bribed away from revolutionary thought with treats like big suv’s & social privileges and they’re monsters because they support genocides.
Most people around the world know how to distinguish between America the empire and a civilian American spending money into the local economy.
this is the reason why i ask this question.
my strong american accent makes it clear that i’m a clueless american and that gates my efforts to travel to places outside the core that don’t speak english or spanish. to me; all of the cultures that speak both languages belong to the same hegemony as the american empire and i’m aware that my nature will result in harm coming to me if i can’t atleast speak the language of where i’m visiting.
i did for halloween and that’s the only holiday i celebrate. i throw in dia de los muertos just to extend it a few more days and i take vacation days off for it as well.
when it’s halloween: i put costumes on my pets; decorate my home with renter friendly decor; and then redecorate again one day 1 of dia de los muertos with a shrine to the people i’ve loved in the past with pictures and keepsakes that were once theirs and then add prayer candles similar to these with lgbt & other notable figures like devine, mlk jr, james baldwin, malcom x, marsha p johnston, matthew shepherd, harvey milk, etc. and i put the star trek delta or idic instead of the crucifix, but i keep the statuette of the lady of guadalupe.