Liberals are Useless – A Link to an Article by Chris Hedges
I just discovered a new author, Christ Hedges, he seems really cool. I am going to go out and buy his book, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle. Check out the article he wrote about Liberals are Useless – we need more than just lip service in this day and age. My opinion of politics: right wing and left wing are still attached to the same man.
Butch seeks Butch: Why is it so Taboo? (Repost from Deleted Blog)
I was googling butch seeks butch and boi seeks boi out of curiosity and there wasn’t much to be found. Sometimes I feel like the only genderqueer butch boi who wants another butch. I mean there is plenty of butch seeks femme but just none for the bois. I feel like I have a nonexistent dating pool. I’ve been single for 26 years and I’ll probably be single for life. I would like a girlfriend that I am attracted to both physically and mentally but finding someone like that is really problematic. First off, there’s not that many lesbians to begin with. I don’t know why there are so many gay males maybe because we live in a patriarchal society and it promotes men so it makes sense for men to love men. It goes against everything that society tries to condition us to be a women who loves women. But there aren’t that many lesbians and most lesbians tend to go femme. I have nothing against femme – I know all about femme visibility and I am an ally to the cause but it’s harder being out all the time and visible queer. I’ve been punched in the face before for being gay which sucked more than anything. In NYC of all places in 2009 – how ridiculous is that? I thought the world would be beyond such nonsense. Anyways, finding smart people is hard. We all know that. The world is full of dummies. And if you are already dealing with a small dating pool to begin with – it becomes even smaller looking for someone smart. Plus, add looking for someone vegetarian and a boi – that’s near impossible.
Anyways, I don’t know why Butch seeks Butch is so taboo. For gay men, since there are plenty of them, there’s a whole bear community for masculine men who like other masculine men. They even have their own flag for their community. There’s nothing like that for the lesbian counterpart. It might just be there’s not enough of us but why is it okay for men and not for women? Double standards again? I remember being sad when reading Stone Butch Blues when they specifically said in the book butch on butch is taboo. It’s the mentality now. I get such a hard time when I hit on other butches. I get treated like an alien and ignored. It happens all the time when the rare occasion I find a butch. It’s a real blow to one’s self confidence to be treated so poorly. It should be taken as a compliment being hit on – by anyone. It’s nice to know you are attractive. If you don’t like the person who’s hitting on you, don’t be mean to them. Say “Thank you, not interested.â€Â Then again, I learn that if they are a jerk to me, they weren’t worth my original attempt and are just a pretty face with an ugly inside.
I am a sweet kid who looks like a bad ass and I get lots of shit for that because everyone thinks a million and one things about me that aren’t true. It’s also hard being genderqueer. At least with being ftm or mtf – you have a gender identity – you might be the wrong gender but there’s a gender for you. For me, there is no gender. I am just genderfucked. Not male and not female and just stuck being something I am not without any options. I feel so out of place in a world with males and females and not much room for a this or that.
Peace Needs To Be The Foundation of Our Society
In order for there to be peace, the whole foundation of our society needs to change. We live in a society based on violence. If we are to have peace, we need to have a society based on peace.
Everything from entertainment to what we put in our bellies to what games we play as a child are centered around violence. We have the “good verses evil” scenario drilled into our heads. We are taught separation, “us and them.”
Most people are addicted to violence. Their life revolved around it and they aren’t even aware of it. If we really valued peace, why would we murder animals for food? Why would we watch superheroes fighting supervillains for “truth, justice, and doing things our way?” Why would we teach our children to play with weapons? Why would we later send our children to war?
Having violence in news, television, and video games are made to desensitize us. It trains us to even find violence to be entertaining and unquestionably accept it as another part of life. It makes it so when we hear of war people praise it instead of abhor it.
If we built a society based on peace, the current establishment would collapse. Our youth wouldn’t want to fight wars. We wouldn’t murder animals for pleasure. We would detest the taking of life and value tranquility.
Instead of viewing the world as a conflict; dog eat dog or us verses them, we’d start building community. Instead of seeing differences as a threat which is the hostile violent reaction to have – we would cherish our differences and embrace them. If we taught kindness and compassion in place of conformity and unquestioning obedience to authority – we’d have a nurturing and caring world instead of the hostile environment we have.
News flash: The world is the way it is because of us. Humans make the world the way it is. The only way the world is going to change is if the people change. The only way the people are going to change is with education. The way we’ve been educated: from pre-school to college is inept. There are so many problems in this world because people weren’t taught properly. Humans aren’t born knowing how to be human and most people forget that. The current system doesn’t teach people brotherhood, solidarity, or sharing. We need to focus on unity regardless of what limits our meat suit proscribes us. The current school system isn’t focused on building the best people it can. It’s more focus on building the best worker it can.
The quality of people today is terrible. It’s just messed up people having messed up children, teaching their kids the same mistake they were taught. No wonder why the world’s a mess. The cycle needs to end somewhere. It can start with you by learning to be a kind, compassionate, and loving human being. Philosophers, religions, and thinkers across the ages have all been trying to communicate the same idea: That we need to love each other and get along. That we are all human. We are all one.
We need to teach ourselves that fighting amongst ourselves is not okay. That violence is not acceptable. We need to find a way to tolerate each other and not hate. There’s so much hate in this world when the foundation should be love. I was told once by a friend’s mom that “People only act out of pain.” I thought about it, and she was wrong. People act out of love too, not just pain. If we all learned to love a little and have our actions be based in love – the world would be an amazing place.
An Anoymous Question: College and Higher Education
I’ve gone to college. I’ve been to several colleges. I haven’t graduated yet and currently on leave from my most current school. I’ve been to a university of California, a private Catholic university, a community college, and two prestigious art schools. I’ve changed majors so far five times. I was: theater, painting, illustration, film, and fine arts. Plus, I was part of and lead several clubs and organizations. My current GPA is around a 3.5. I’ve studied on the West coast and the East coast. I’ve been through about six years of college so far. I know college very well. I might graduate someday. I have enough credits for it just none in the right places.
Overall, I was very disappointed with college. It was a lot of work but it wasn’t hard. I was hoping to find intelligent life and people I could relate to. I didn’t which is why I changed schools so many times because I thought perhaps it was the school and the crowd it attracted. First university was all sex, drugs, and beer. I’m straightedge and not into partying so I didn’t have much of a social life. The people were plastic, superficial and materialistic. So, I tried going to the extreme opposite which was a private Catholic university. The Catholic university was too Catholic – they taught creationism in the science classes and people thought that was a good thing so I had to leave. The art schools were pretentious, highly competitive, and cut throat. My fellow students were mean and jerks. The community college was something I tried to do to just get a few credits while in limbo but being surrounded by the people who attended it depressed me so much I just had to drop out.
I think college is a system within the System. It’s part of the capitalistic machine to train the next generation of workers. It’s also a system of control. Knowledge is power and the rich don’t want to part with it. Depending on which college you go to depends on what education you will get. If you go to Standford, they’ll teach you to be a CEO. If you go to a state school, they teach you to be a manager. It’s very classist because college is about the money not about teaching. If you can’t afford it, you’ll be working minimum wage jobs for the rest of your life with a few rare exceptions. In college, it’s more of the formal conditional received through the public school system as they try to control how you’ll think and relate to the world. They fill your head full of knowledge that has their slant to it. They want you to think in their terms with their ideas. They don’t want you thinking for yourself.
With that being said, the only way the system is going to change is if the people change it. The only way the system is going to change is from within. Have you seen the movie SLC Punk? Stevo’s realization that you can do more harm to the system from within than from the outside leads him to go back to school to become a lawyer. The only way the we’re going to destroy the system of control is to become the system then dismantle it. If the people don’t want the system to be there, it wouldn’t be there. We could build a new world.
I think college education is important to become the system to fight the system. I am considering going back to school to get a women’s and gender studies degree and then going on to get a PH.D. I want to teach the world about peace, love, freedom from oppression and hierarchies, and equality. However, I recently talked to a former professor of mine who has a PH.D and mentioned my idea, thinking that having a credential would make people more willing to listen to me. His exact words to me were, “I have a PH.D and it doesn’t make people listen to me.†So, I am unsure right now if I really need school. It all depends on what you want to do with your life and if school will help get you there. It’s a personal thing and the answer is different for everyone.
Anarchy and Anarcha-Feminism: What is it?
What is Anarchy?
To put it simply, Anarchy means not be ruled by another and not rule anyone else. This does not mean chaos and destruction, it simply means no one is in charge of you and you are not in charge of anyone else. Anarchy means that each person is their own entity, free to do as they please, but without hurting anyone else. This is where peace comes in, I want there to be anarchy and peace. Alone, anarchy could seem as leading towards chaos, as each person would be doing as they pleased. But the idea is that everyone would be responsible caring about other human beings and not wreck harm onto another, keeping in mind that one persons rights, cannot impede of the rights of others. This is why I say I want anarchy –and- peace, the two together are a match made in paradise. Peace implies no violence, no wars, no destruction and anarchy ensures freedom of the people in society. No person is free while someone holds control over them – and anarchy ideas are intended to provide that no one holds control over you. Anarchy usually takes the form of having small groups of people, who are working together towards a common goal. Just because no one is the leader, doesn’t mean that people cannot be assigned to different tasks and roles within the group, so long as everyone is okay with a specific person having the task. I recently read the article “The Tyranny of Structureless†by Jo Freeman and I think she makes a good point, that being when that if no one is assigned a leadership position, there are people in power in concealment. I am not saying someone should lead the group, as that would not be anarchy, but if the anarchical group doesn’t select their spokesperson, outside sources will select one for them. So, it is best that the group decides who is to be the spokesperson, which must be done in advance or give such person statements on behalf of the group. As well as making it clear to all as to who’s who and not hiding influence within the group. Each person should count just as much as the next person and I think there should be a reminder to the group members as such. Usually, from my experience, people are much happier following than leading. The goal of anarchy is to try to remove the “follower†and “leader†hierarchical setup. It is meant to provide that everyone is a leader. First, there’s the need to teach people to act in a non-oppressive or hierarchical matter to then focus on having a collective. Anarchy is the ideal organization. It is people working together hearing each other needs and helping one another fill those needs. From these small groups, it is hopped that a bigger group can be formed, which could build bigger groups and bigger groups. Start small and work big. As opposed to working with the big and going small. It means putting power back into the hands of the people and taking it away from politicians and corporations. It means working together in solidarity and building wonderful communities.
What is Anarcha-feminism?
Anarcha-feminism is the combination of feminism with anarchy principles.  Anarcha-feminism opposes all structures of power be it patriarchy, all leaderships, and all hierarchy. Anarcha-feminism is against government, it does not mean female President – it means no president. “Challenging sexism means challenging all hierarchy – economic, political, and personal.†(Peggy Kornegger, “Anarchism: The Feminist Connectionâ€)  Anarcha-feminists want change, a complete revolution. Anarcha-feminism stands for peace and equality for all. It’s to end all power, all structure, and all systems of control.   Anarcha-feminism is the struggle for complete human liberation.
For me, anarcha-feminism doesn’t stop at just human liberation but it is also about animal liberation too. It is about all beings on this planet being treated with respect, love, and kindness and not having harm rendered upon them. It is about being an anarchist – a responsible human being who takes responsibility for their actions; one who will practice loving kindness in the absence of authority because we are beyond that. We do not need to be policed. We are the ones who have the highest honor and morals without the need of a God to condemn us – we are good and righteous because that is a way a HUMAN is supposed to be.
People need to be educated to think for themselves. The problem is that the school system is set up to condition people to do what they are told without questioning. One of the most important lessons I learned in school was from my high school biology teacher and he said, “Question everything.â€Â I think if more people questioned things the world would be a better place since people would be thinking for themselves and not letting others rule their life for them. As Wendy O. Williams puts it, “The brainwash don’t even know they are brainwashed.â€
On Being Genderqueer and the Gender Binary
The interesting thing about explaining being outside of the gender binary is that you first have to explain what  gender binary is in order to understand what it means to be outside of it. There is no quick and easy way to explain what it means to be genderqueer and even after several attempts at trying to explain it, people still don’t get it because they are stuck trying to put it in a box.
The gender binary is a form of hierarchy and oppression. It divides the human race into two groups instead of uniting us as one.  Most people’s concept of self is centered around their identity and it influences the course their entire life. It controls how most people will treat you down to which bathroom you can use. I want no part in it.
For me, genderqueer is beyond male and female. I don’t want people judging me based on genitals or my body. My private parts do not define me as they do with so many of my fellow humans. If we are to eventually have equality in the world, we need people to be treated as people not as genitals.
It is strange to me that I get treated with more respect and taken more seriously when I get mistaken for a male verses a female. I don’t like being called, “Honey,†“Sweetie,†or “Dear†because of the body I happen to exist in. At the time it happens, I don’t even know where to begin because it’s socially acceptable. Just because something is tradition doesn’t make it right.
It embarrasses me that our species didn’t have a women’s rights movement until War World II, that there was a division at all. It wasn’t that long ago and it still isn’t over. It won’t be over until we abolish gender all together. As long as there is separation into groups, one group will oppress the other until people understand equality isn’t the same as sameness.
I imagine a world in which males wear skirts as often as females. A world in which people can just be people. No gender, no sexuality, no racial tension. That we can be fluid and undefined. Once you start worry about defining something, you lose it. It’s like grasping sand, the tighter you grip it, the faster it slips through your fingers.  Be free. As long as you know yourself, that’s all that’s important. People like what they like and that should be it.
The problem with society is that most people don’t know themselves. They know an illusion which they considered to be self – but all those layers are fake. What’s real, is that we are all human and all need love. If we learned to love and accept each other regardless of outside fluff, we can have utopia.
Being genderqueer to me gives me the freedom of having a label for those who need boxes but still be able to be outside the box. It’s not fully definable and that’s okay because our language is flawed and can’t express all aspects of being human succinctly.
Treat Me For Who I Am and Not How I Look
Looks can be deceiving and you can’t judge a person by their looks. For example, who’s more threatening: a blue haired mohawked, tattoo studded jacket wearing punk rocker or a person wearing nondescript clothing and generic hair? I would say the person who’s wearing the nondescript clothing and generic hair is a greater threat than the blue haired mohawked, tattooed studded jacket wearing punk. Why? Think about it: If the blue mohawked person robbed you – they would be easy to spot and find as they are unique looking and standing out from the crowd. They might look like a threat being so loud but in reality they are harmless because if you are up to no good – you don’t want to draw attention to yourself. The generic hair and nondescript clothing person could rob you and if you tried to describe them to the cops – they just look like everyone else. There are a few exceptions when people who are loud are also violent and crazy but *usually* they are as law abiding as anyone. They dress differently to make a statement and express individuality. The punk rocker might appear to be a threat but they are really not to you as an individual.
People treat me funny because I am tattooed, pierced, and mohawked. All it is really is their fear of the unknown showing. Think about it: if I was really a danger I wouldn’t go around advertising the fact. There are a few exceptions to the rules but most of the time when someone advertises being a radical, they aren’t up to anything illegal. They might have different ideas than the mainstream and philosophies and be a threat to the status quo but they aren’t breaking any laws.
Laws are there to give people the illusion they are “safe”. Think about it: if there was a law to enforce identification cards (like they are planning in the UK) only the law abiding citizens will do it. The criminals don’t care about the law and won’t follow it or get fake IDs. It’s to give the masses, the sheep, the appearance of order in the chaos we exist in. The criminals will be criminals and do illegal things while the masses fall into line. The ID card is a stupid idea and very 1984ish because it only applies to who will follow the law to begin with.
More laws equal less freedom. Sure, common courtesy laws like not stealing or killing are nice to have to protect me from your average idiot. I am an anarchist and sometimes I am grateful for the police to protect me from stupid people. For instance, the police helped me out when I was punched in the face for being a “homosexual.” In an ideal, anarchical society, the person would behave like an anarchist and respect his fellow human beings – however, the assaulter was moronic, angry and fucked up so I need the police to protect me from people like that.
However, I am against police brutality and abuse of power. There is a difference in keeping people safe from the idiots of the world and harassing someone because they have a studded vest. One time, I was in the wrong place at the wrong time eating pizza on the steps of Search and Destroy in NYC and the police treated me like I was a criminal when all I was doing was eating pizza. It was pretty scary – they patted me down and violated my rights all because they have nothing else to do. There’s also the cops who give out traffic tickets for being a few miles over the speed limit to make their quota. Things like that are an abuse of power – laws are there to keep you safe from other human’s stupidity not be a money making tool.
That is not the case in our capitalistic society. The law system and prison system are money making tools. It’s really messed up.
The question is: How will this change? The answer: Is with you. If the people were to stop profiling and treat people for who they are and not what they look like we would have a stronger, happier society.
We are all in it together.
We live in a society that thrives on the “us” verses “them” mentality. Country against country. Worker against worker. Subculture against subculture. It is everywhere. Imagine what the world would be like if we stopped dividing ourselves into groups and just accepted each other as being human and help each other out?
For example, most middle class white gay males are so caught up in their own “oppression” that they aren’t an ally to other causes. They are holding a couple of positions of privilege in the hierarchy that exists in our society by being male, middle class, and white. They feel marginalize because they can’t marry but they won’t join in the fight for other oppressed groups. However, what they don’t see is that their oppression is linked to the oppression of others. It’s like a drop of water in a lake – it ripples. If they would be willing to help out other minorities they would be helping themselves. No one is free while others in society are oppressed.
Some oppressed groups have taken a separatist approach to constructing their movements which I believe is an error. For example, some people of color groups don’t want white allies involved or feminist groups don’t want males involvement. I think that is very silly. It isn’t someone’s fault what color their skin is or what they have in their pants. To discriminate against potential allies simply because they don’t fit the mold and discounting their attempt to help the struggle due to factors beyond control is mad. We need all the allies in all shapes, sizes, and colors they come in if they want to help fight for freedom and equality from all oppressive forces.
I’ve met a handful of separatists who are always in denial of being a separatists – it’s really odd. See, if the world is going to be non-oppressive place – all forces will be working together in reality. By dividing and fragmenting – you are not mimicing the conditions of the real world and the real world will never change if you keep on keeping to yourself.
It’s like the idea of the monk who goes up to the mountain and is enlightened by never shares his insight with the world. It’s just a waste. Part of the project is sharing the knowledge with the world – with everyone. Not just “us” or “them.”
Let me point out too: just because you disagree with someone’s lifestyle choice doesn’t give you a right to dictate the rights or govern how someone else lives. I disagree and think my dad is a murderer because he eats meat. But, we co-inhabit the planet peacefully because it isn’t for me to make those chooses for him. The same can be applied to other aspects of life – that others shouldn’t censor their peers because of not approving.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life so far is that you can’t please everyone. Someone is always going to find something to be unhappy about and it’s not about being PC for everyone. It’s about having freedom and not being oppressed. That should be the goal of society and we have a long way to go.
Punk Rock 101: Wearing Bullets
I have a tendency to wear bullets (empty shell casings). I have a few bullet belts, a bullet wallet chain, and bullet on a chain necklace. The idea of wearing bullets is to make people think. When something is out of sight, out of mind, like war being an ocean away it’s easy to pretend it doesn’t exist. The idea is to confront people and make them think about what their tax dollars are doing. It’s a protest. I am an anarcho-pacifist punk – so war is the last thing I want being served.
Today, I was confronted by airport security guards about wearing my bullet chain – a chain with some bullet shells on it. They didn’t like it because it might make people feel “uncomfortable.†Here, in captalistic America – it’s not PC to make other people uncomfortable and think. Being that I was in a zone with zero rights, I wasn’t about to explain my position that making people uncomfortable is kind of the idea so maybe they think about what’s going on in the world. That war is real and not just something you hear about on television. Anyways, the guards let me go with my chain as long as I agreed to be censored and keep the harmless bits of metal in my pocket since someone might be upset by it. What happened to my freedom of expression?
