Harp the Wigglytuff @wigglytuffitout@computerfairi.es

tldr for ranting, when examining the racism in the southern usa, don't gleefully declare that you're so glad racism doesn't exist at all where YOUR home is

because if you do, i will physically manifest in your bedroom to play, on loop, the chorus of Outkast's Roses https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWju37TZfo0 , bass boosted horrifically, on loop for a period of no less than four weeks straight at max volume

it's the same racist shit. The Same Racist Shit.

but because the yankee knows he's "not one of those stupid racist southerners", he sits around preening about how clever he is and denies that anything could ever be the issue with *him* and *his viewpoints*.

PEAK YANKEE BULLSHIT!

if you see anyone pull that or try to pull it, i hereby ask you to firmly and decisively bite their fucking head clean off

peak example - one of the most odious people i met in college who once exclaimed, "i CAN'T be racist! i'm from NEW YORK! there are different cultures ALL AROUND YOU all the time, you can't grow up in that and be racist!"

and yet he interacted with other cultures in 2 ways only:

1. pretentiously telling minorities what their shit was about, as if he was the expert

2. "eewww that's so gross i'm glad i don't have to touch it"

this other-ing of the southern united states means that so much of the rest of the country is not even going to consider that what they're doing might be racist. because gawd it's not like there's a kkk rally or some shit, that's what those southerners do!

it's a cheap and easy trick to get yourself off the hook for ANY sort of self-reflection, and to let racism pass on through completely unabated and actively aided.

honestly i feel like a lot of those attitudes tie into this larger problem - the south as america's scapegoat.

i'm not going to say we were justified in the fucked up shit! at all! but too much of the country is way too content to look at it as "well it's the south, people are racist there. there's the racists. since we're not in the south, we just can't be racists, so it's fine!"

@InspectorCaracal a lot of people basically are quick to celebrate jim crow in the name of being progressive and it makes me roll my eyes out of my head every time

@InspectorCaracal honestly i feel like that opinion is great for only one thing, when i saw people saying things like "well fuck x state, they can all die in the hurricane, they voted for trump!"

for one thing, it was a lot closer in many places than anyone wants to admit (thanks electoral college)

for another - PoC populations have been intentionally kept around too poor to move and also disenfranchised, kept from voting... and to ignore that... well

i suppose i feel that keenly because the same blinders end up with people wholesale discarding the south if brought to its logical end

not only is this, well, not a tactically sound move, but they refuse to acknowledge the racism there (black people being disenfranchised, kept too poor to move) and the inherent classism behind "well - if these people were worth anything - they would have moved o civilization by now"

i just feel sometimes that some of the worst habits of leftist discourse and calls for action, while trying to address very real and present problems, have blinders on that mean they look at those problems in the urban setting and are not likely to consider rural settings

and this becomes unintentional classism + racism etc. - "the country folk would never understand, and they voted for Trump anyway, so fuck 'em"

basically i worry that especially as it becomes a moral precedent, it will end up a way to look down on and sneer at rural communities - that are often also really poor - but also it will mean that more people who are disabled and have limited mobility or are chronically ill etc. have large parts of the country where they are unable to live, whereas 'go in car' is doable now, but with no car and little rural service with public transport...

there's just some sort of... big practicalities there

how do we keep it from creating large no-man's-lands in rural environments, basically?

don't get me wrong, incrimental progress is still progress. right now basically everywhere except for some areas of some large cities in the US mean that if you don't have a car, you aren't able to do *anything*, so it's all no-man's-land.

as much as i agree wholeheartedly that we need to move away from cars, and promote public transportation, especially availability to disabled folks

i kind of wonder how this gets rectified with a city mouse vs country mouse practicalities

when out in the country, public transportation is really hard to figure out, especially when you take into account that for many people who live out in the countryside it's more than just transportation

i may be the token cishet, but i'm just enough towards middle of the kinsey scale to see cute girls and know "i must alert the wlws of this so that they can come properly swoon over this woman as she deserves"

on that note, Nyma Tang on youtube is not only charming to listen to review makeup, but has one of THE cutest noses i have EVER seen. see picture for proof

i realize that the token cishet talking about this while surrounded by trans women is, at best, sort of... charmingly quaint, but perhaps same hat a little bit, if in a rather orthogonal manner

but more importantly: come, my sisters, let us cover our virtual selves with glitter and pink and be violently feminine towards all who may oppose us

like in warframe... "oh well i guess i need to stick to more sedate colors, i don't want people to think bad of me when i play co-op and -"

fuck it!

energy color is violent pink!

everything else is purple and teal!

i BECAME THE #AESTHETIQUE and it improved my game experience by at least 300%!

for many years, playing online games, i consciously or subconsciously tried to disguise myself - male avatars, very modest character outfits, etc.

part of it was the "but i'm not like THOSE girls" blues, part of it was just trying to figure out how to not be harassed by people online

and honestly, my friends

one day i went "fuck this. i'm going to be full pink glittervomit frillytimes hyperfemme." and it has improved my life immensely