Like last year they kept the rainbow flag profile pics up for the entire year. Now they aren’t doing it because they are fearful of some lumpenproletariat boycott. Reactionary workers are worse than pro-lgbt bourgeoisie. I’m gonna side with whoever respects the rights of trans people to literally exist and if neither are gonna do that then fuck both of them!

  • Tachanka [comrade/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    “hey actually the corporations never supported you they were just pretending to drive up their sales”

    this is literally true though and not mutually exclusive with this statement

    our very last defense against genocide - tokenizability and monetazability - is evaporating in mere weeks

    those things were never really defenses against genocide. they were the bourgeoisie lulling us into a false sense of security.

    very obviously not queer people

    quite an assumption to make. I'm nonbinary, I was raised by lesbians. my grandpa is bisexual. my mom is bisexual. reactionary phobia affects myself and and everyone in my family but i have never for one moment believed that corporate pride was ever going to defend me or my loved ones or the broader LGBTQIA+ community. if anything shallow corporate pride gave the false appearance that we are the cultural hegemony, and paints a target on our back, and allows reactionaries to feel like they're the "real outsiders" when really their culture has always been hegemonic. amerikkka is a genocidal reactionary capitalist empire. never has LGBT pride been hegemonic, and never has corporate pride protected us from reactionaries. hell, the corporations were probably holding onto the names of everyone who ever bought a pride flag or bumper sticker and selling it off to the bloodthristy reactionaries who were sharpening their knives. our last line of defense was never corporate tokenization or commodification of our identities, but mutual aid, solidarity with each other, getting armed, getting organized, providing each other with shelter and protection from reactionaries.

    • aaro [they/them, she/her]
      ·
      1 year ago

      "this is literally true though and not mutually exclusive with this statement" true! accurate. I never said it wasn't. That's what this whole thing is about.

      if anything shallow corporate pride gave the false appearance that we are the cultural hegemony, and paints a target on our back, and allows reactionaries to feel like they’re the “real outsiders” when really their culture has always been hegemonic.

      this is actually a solid counterargument. I'm not fully sure I agree but it's a thinker.

      our last line of defense was never corporate tokenization or commodification of our identities, but mutual aid, solidarity with each other, getting armed, getting organized, providing each other with shelter and protection from reactionaries.

      no, mutual aid, solidarity with each other, getting armed, getting organized, providing each other with shelter and protection from reactionaries are our best lines of defense. Those fell through. Now we're down to our last one, which is really shitty and barely buys us more than nothing. I'd really really like to get those first, good lines of defense back and that's a great deal of the organizing work that I do.

      • Tachanka [comrade/them]
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        edit-2
        1 year ago

        no, mutual aid, solidarity with each other, getting armed, getting organized, providing each other with shelter and protection from reactionaries are our best lines of defense. Those fell through.

        i understand what you mean, but there's still time (not enough time, obviously, but a nonzero amount) to find some comrades in your local area and help fortify each other for what's coming

        btw i'm used to having these discussions with my older family members, who remember the times long before there was any performative pride coming out of corporations. they're still to this day weirded out by it. it simultaneously seems too good to be true (and I think it is too good to be true) and kinda creepy to be "honored" by the very same faceless entities who in the 70s and 80s were bending over backwards to demonize us.

        • aaro [they/them, she/her]
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          edit-2
          1 year ago

          all I'm saying is that being used as an advertising campaign buys us a little time to get that network together, especially when weeks count. The day we stop being useful to capital is the day capital lets the fash go in for the kill. With the amount of momentum that the left has right now, the amount of organizing we can do in just a year or two will mean thousands of lives.

          I do not like being in this position. I do not feel like capital cares about you or me. I think any help that they provide us is collateral and unintentional. But the fash will provide us no help, collateral, unintentional, or otherwise.

          • TreadOnMe [none/use name]
            ·
            1 year ago

            I'm going to be honest, as the cynical communist bi guy who has been harping on this for years now, that 'time' that advertising bought us was during the Trump presidency, when liberals woke the fuck up for five seconds and smelled what was cooking. They identified all the wrong reasons, but it was during that time that you could make the most difference organizing.

            There still could be time, but the prime time to organize is when the opposition is in charge but doesn't have their shit together.

            • aaro [they/them, she/her]
              ·
              1 year ago

              Post-COVID (lol) organizing has been bonkers for me personally, I've never seen so many Biden voters start to want their money back and enter the pipeline. I view Biden as the opposition, and I know you do too, but I think you're not giving enough credit to the ever-radicalizing liberals who are actually starting to peel back the layers. I think more progressives than ever are viewing Biden as opposition.

              • TreadOnMe [none/use name]
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                edit-2
                1 year ago

                Doubtful. My bet is that they will still vote for him and any associated lackeys when push comes to shove, we just aren't quite in the middle of the election season propoganda cycle.

                Maybe it will be different this time. But we say that every time and it never is.

                • aaro [they/them, she/her]
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                  edit-2
                  1 year ago

                  oh I mean no doubt, they're still going to vote for him, but more of them are gonna be mad about it than ever before, and they're going to be looking for an outlet for that anger. They have too many marginalized friends (or they are marginalized) to swing right about it, and there's only one other way to swing.

                  🤞