Glad the essays got some appreciation. <3

And thanks, sadly no better, and genuinely thank you for the offer it's really kind of you, but I think it's probably all a bit much to put on a stranger..

Welcome new admins, I can't get my brain to be friendly right now (not related to you or any of this at all), so I'll just leave it at I'm glad it isn't anyone I have blocked, and good luck.

I'm in a really bad headspace right now due to irl bullshit, so I've not got around to and honestly don't have the brain bandwidth to make my own post about this right now or even discuss it in any depth (nor to fully process what you've suggested in op), but this seems like an opportunity to bring it up if not as a general discussion, then at least for the admins of this specific instance to read and consider, I think it's really important and something I've seen (and personally experienced) get people who are organisers and run communities to end up acting against their own community members and make the latter feel excluded and even unsafe, so I'm just going to leave this here.

The essays are titled "tyranny of civility", they are a bit long, but yeah, I think really important especially on this instance where we (should) take abolishing oppressive structures, even within our selves, seriously:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

E: There is also Social Power and the Oppressive Potential of Civility which is a later discussion by the same author about the series of essays, and their observations since to, in their words "hopefully highlight some issues that I believe are created by maintaining civility as an unquestioned social norm in a society where institutionalized and social oppression operates along a variety of dimensions." as a kind of TL;DR (though still read the essays if you can)

Western Europe (excluding Britain) is taking this threat pretty seriously

What an odd exclusion to make.. The government might not be taking it seriously, but most others aren't either (and why would they? they serve capitalism, not society). Plenty of the people here (in Britain, in case it wasn't clear) are just as concerned as the rest of Europe (and the world)..

Just going to leave this here

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/romeo-kokriatski-respectability-politics-or-you-gotta-be-nice-to-monsters

So licking fascist boot is the solution?

Fuck that complicity.

Lmfao, do you live under a fucking rock?

Fascist parties have been gaining power all over Europe (and elsewhere) for ages, and have gotten significantly emboldened and actively backed by him since he became president whatever his dictatorial title will end up being.

Presumably, when you are speaking about these things you have first hand knowledge of reputable people and organisations.

And also, the burden of the constant demand to teach people about your lived experience, even though thousands of others who share it have already wilfully taken the time to document it extensively. We're not talking about individual experiences, but about well establish and deep rooted systemic oppression.

At the end of the day, expecting marginalised people, especially random ones you "happen upon" (would they even be asking if I wasn't here?), to be the ones constantly doing the work is an unearned entitlement that comes with privilege, and what those with that privilege should be doing instead is using it to lessen the burden on marginalised people, not increase it. Step one is learning to invest their own time and energy instead of demanding or even just expecting it from others.

As to why, sure it’s patriarchy, but they keep putting out duds and using it essentially say “audiences don’t want female-led content”…

You've answered you're own question - they put it out there so they can say they tried, people didn't like it, so we'll continue as we were, with them (patriarchal entertainment execs and the patriarchal capitalists who fund them) maintaining their positions.

The people who complain about this shit are running governments and corporations and controlling society, wtf are you talking about?

You're really narrowing down a much much bigger issue to try and make it digestible. But the patriarchy is systemic. Misogyny is systemic. Male privilege is systemic. Gamergate is a symptom, and honestly, a mild one at that.

Patriarchy.

Privilege and with it an overinflated sense of entitlement, which result in the most fragile of egos (E: see downvote ration lmao).

That's at best.

At worst, and on top of the above, is conscious and deliberate misogyny and the unwillingness to give the privileges up.

This is the teeny-tiniest tip of the iceberg, but it sounds like you are willing to challenge your views and perceptions, so jump in, it (E: patriarchy, misogyny, feminism, intersectionality, and on and on..) is a terrifying, but also extremely well documented rabbit hole, just start looking..

With regard to the astroturfing, are you saying that the sources people might find are AI? Sure, that's definitely a thing that is happening, but I'm not sure what I'm meant to do about that? I'm no better than the next person at recognising AI and would need to read through and make a call just like anyone else (and then we open a whole other can of worms of rating the writing and or expression levels, and potential use of assistive tools of, especially in this case, fellow disabled people, which can become really problematic, really fast).

Like I say, I'm perfectly happy to help, especially those who have shown even a bit of initiative, but there's only so much I can do, and really, the burden shouldn't be falling on us to not only educate those with more privilege, but also become expert at deciphering AI use (and within that, legitimate vs intentionally manipulative).

Na, it's perfectly reasonable to expect people who claim to care and genuinely want to know, to make a minimal effort.

"I tried looking it up but couldn't find an answer, do you mind helping me out"? Sure, no issue here, wouldn't have even mentioned it. But to drop in to a conversation without knowing anything about the topic, and expect disabled (or otherwise marginalised) people who are personally impacted (and therefore constantly having to have the same emotionally laborious conversations over and over and over) to do the work for you before you've even tried? That's going to get (seriously fucking gently) called out every time.

I have the same poor quality search engines at my disposal, and have to sift through similar results.

There is also an easy way to recognise actual advocacy sources vs industry publications - is a disabled person writing from their personal experience? Advocacy. Is the article written by someone who isn't personally impacted? Irrelevant. Simple.

E: The fact that I went ahead and did the work for them anyway despite all of that (with, again, the gentlest of reminders that they could be doing it themselves), and people still find a way to complain about how supposedly unaccommodating I'm being is fucking wild..

It's almost as if there is no ethical consumption under capitalism... 🤔

And I'm not trying to be an ass, but in the same way I've just had to look up "paper straws unsuitable for disabled people" to provide you with the answer, you could have just done so yourself and come across one of tens of thousand of articles, videos, podcasts, and images addressing this specific topic.

https://www.eater.com/2018/7/19/17586742/plastic-straw-ban-disabilities

https://creakyjoints.org/advocacy/plastic-straw-bans-bad-for-people-with-disabilities/

https://www.a-zine.net/blog/2018/7/31/straws-are-not-the-issue

http://web.archive.org/web/20240703214002/https://nypost.com/2018/07/02/banning-plastic-straws-is-more-scam-than-science/

https://inbedwithfridakahlo.wordpress.com/2018/07/12/banning-plastic-straws-the-strawman-of-strawmen/

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/09/disabled-person-plastic-straws-baby-wipes

TL;DR:

(ID: 2 tables breaking down why each type of alternative straw might be unsuitable for different disabled people. If someone needs a more in depth description, please ask)

E: just for context

(ID: image of an old informational leaflet detailing the medical and accessibility benefits of single use bendy straws, which were invented for that specific use in the first place)

And the disabled people who have lost access don't.

For the sake of an item that constituted 0.003% of ocean plastics, and giving you a "win" you're further supporting the exclusion and marginalisation of disabled people.

Banning plastic straws did less than nothing to improve the environment (less than, because it made people like you think they've done their part, and focus less on the actual problem), and worse, it sprung up an entire multi billion dollar industry that makes and sells reusable straws that end up in landfill just as often, and will be staying there for significantly longer.

You getting a dopamine hit doesn't make something good or right.

The thing though is they replaced polluting single use straws with less polluting single use straws.

Single use straws only ever constituted 0.003% of ocean plastics, they were already less polluting than pretty much any other plastic in use today, and the alternatives are not suitable for many disabled people for many different reasons. The ban also removed accessibility, and put the burden on disabled people (and on retail staff to gatekeep us, which more often than not resulted in service being denied).

If they actually wanted to do something useful it would have been nice to have multi-use straws ie. metal/wood/or even hardened plastic. But I guess that wouldn’t be as suitable a source of income, and wouldn’t fit well with american consumerism and fast food culture, so here we are debating on the best type of single use straws.

They did, they literally created an entire multi billion dollar industry to make money off of the problem they created, and the virtue signalers flocked to buy reusable straws, which again, are not suitable for many disabled people who depend on single use bendy straws for literal survival.

As you said, the base problem comes from capitalism.

It is, stop getting distracted by the bullshit capitalists tell you so that they can sell you more shit.

The attack on single use straws was entirely symbolic (end completely useless) in the first place, and harmful for disabled people.

The problem was never straws, it was, and is, capitalism.

Focus on that, don't get drawn in to the superficial virtue signalling divisive and harmful distractions.

It's both, and you need to zoom out and see the big picture, the one where they coexist because one necessitates the other, to really appreciate the problem

(ID: aerial photos from South Africa and India showing the vast disparity between rich and poor existing directly next to each other)

A feature, not a bug.