Skialalia

Read it, or not. Either way, I've had it.


Oh, it's so fucking easy to just 'blame the Left' for Trump, or the Tories, or Australia's Liberal government, isn't it? As if there's some monolithic group called 'the Left' who sit in their elite cafes with their chai lattes and refuse to 'understand the plight of the working class'. As if people who can't even claim the right - the fucking right - to get married are at fault because others bitch that it's somehow evil. As if people who just want to live through their own faith - and this is the important part - and not try to force others to do the same, somehow threaten the country.

Wake. The fuck. UP. Maybe there is a fundamental disconnect at work here - but blaming 'the Left' and insisting that they need to change achieves nothing but further repression and licence for bigotry. We're supposed to look to our leaders for guidance on how to behave. When those leaders either tacitly give the nod, or actively encourage the kind of behaviour we've seen in the last year, it is not incumbent on us to roll over and show our bellies, and apologise for being in the way of someone's fist or someone's screamed Nazi slogan.

By now, everyone's aware of the immediate effects of Trump's victory in the US Presidential election. Look at the Lefties out in the streets! What are they protesting against, if they didn't want Trump as President, they should have voted for Hillary, don't they know that? Typical professional protesters, never satisfied. That's what we're hearing now from most media, who are falling all over themselves to preserve their ad buys and their access to a new administration.

What they're not saying is that in just a few days, hate crimes have skyrocketed. Go and check out Shaun King's Day 1 in Trump's America for just a sample of how some people have become emboldened to the point of flagrantly assaulting others in broad daylight - and all for the 'crime' of being a person of colour, or a woman (especially a Muslim woman with her oh-so-offensive hijab). Read LGBTI news for the stories of people afraid to show any form of affection for their same-sex partners, for trans people wondering whether it would be 'safer' for them to pretend to be the gender they've never felt they were. Read about the people frightened to the point of being suicidal - and those who already have killed themselves.

This is not confined to the US, though. Go back and read about how British people turned on each other after the Brexit vote. The ones who thought it was somehow perfectly acceptable to scream that those who 'looked like Pakis' (excuse the term) were going to be forcibly booted out of the country. The ones who though it was a good idea to heave bricks through the windows of grocery shops, or follow Muslim women down the street threatening to rape them.

Oh, and just in case it wasn't clear to any of my fellow Australians ... we are no better. Remember the anti-Muslim protests that led to white supremacists assaulting those who stood in solidarity with community members who had legally bought land and received permission to build mosques? (And oh, how jocular that was, when the same people who condemned Muslim women for wearing the hijab covered their own faces with beanies, sunglasses and Australian flag bandannas.) And that's not all. There's the continual anger and despair with which our own LGBTI people have to live because our Prime Minister keeps caving in to those in his government who think there's nothing wrong with denying them equal human rights. The inbuilt prejudice against indigenous people, infantilised by having their benefits sequestered without their consent. The automatic assumption that people with mental health problems are either dangerous, or malingerers who don't 'deserve' our help. The fear with which trans people live every day, because somehow, if they can even muster the courage to report those who assault them to the police, they are to 'blame' for what happened to them.

These are the people that are supposedly 'the Left'. These are the people who live in cities, who get out of small rural communities are soon as they can - because it's the only way they can survive as themselves. Because there's a chance, even just a small one, that in the cities, they can find communities who support them.

These are the people who wept when Trump won the Electoral College (though not the popular vote), and then took to the streets. Who cried out in fear and anger when Britain barely voted to leave the European Union. Who punch walls in frustration and wonder whether marching yet again is ever going to move an Australian government that cares more about lobbyists who seem to have a permanent hold on its policy.

Don't tell me that the Left are to blame. When I see hundreds of queer people hiding their faces and beating the hell out of a bunch of white supremacists, then maybe ... maybe I'll concede that there's equal blame for this shitty fucking situation. I'll own my intolerance for those who refuse to let me, and my friends, live our lives and love as we wish.

The difference - the crucial, essential difference - is that I don't try to make others live as I live.

You want to hate me? Fine. Just don't think that voting in some candidate gives you licence to act on that hate.

My goodness, it's been a while, hasn't it?

For those who have started reading this journal in relatively recent times, the Shit List is an occasional post where I rant about the things that really, really outrage me. The name comes from a marvellous L7 Song, which I now post for your listening pleasure:




( You shall not be amused )


Next up, it's time to take aim at the US Congress.

It's been ten years since the horrifying events of 9/11 - and, being something of an anniversary, it was perhaps inevitable that the events of the original day would enter the headlines fairly quickly. Some kind of tribute, perhaps, or maybe a 'where are they now?' series.

But no. Rather than any such 'human interest' reporting, the issue of healthcare for the 9/11 first responders has popped up - as in, when they might finally going to get some, so that they can pay their skyrocketing health bills.

What's that, you say? These people are heroes? They risked their lives to save as many as they could? Even when there was no hope, they sifted through the ruins looking for something, anything, to lay grieving relatives' minds to rest? They suffered terribly with psychological and physical problems - including cancer from breathing in the vaporised remains of concrete dust, asbestos and who knows what else - because their commitment to their duty outweighted concerns for their own safety? They're not already receiving the best healthcare government money can buy?

No. They're not. Their lives have been used as political footballs for nearly ten years.

So, when a bill designed to finally redress that unbelievable wrong - the Zadroga Bill, named for a first responder who died waiting for healthcare - looked like it might actually pass through both Houses, it seemed too good to be true.

It is.

You see, just as everything looked set to go, Republican Congressman Cliff Stearns from Florida added what he called 'a simple, straightforward amendment'. It imposes a teensy little condition that needs to be fulfilled before the frst responders can get any money at all.

They 'simply' have to agree to let the FBI investigate them, and have it proved to the government's satisfaction that they are not terrorists.

Yeah, you read that fucking right.

The heroes of 9/11 - the people who risked everything to do their jobs - and in many cases, volunteered to help because they were there and couldn't just stand by and watch - should be subjected to an incredible insult like this, just to go with everything they've suffered for the last decade.

Because, apparently, a deep-cover agent for al Qaeda might have been posing as a pretzel salesman on 9/11, and when the planes hit thought, 'Fantastic, I'll just pop on over there and risk my life helping out, because that way my cover will be impeccable and I get the bonus of scamming money from the government. Sweet!'

Bitch. PLEASE.

What's worse, is that this outrageous amendment was then endorsed by the Democrats. It sailed through the House.

What kind of fuckwit thinks like this? Who sits there and wonders if a firefighter who is dying of lung cancer might be a terrorist just waiting to be activated by his 'Islamist masters' - perhaps by suicide-bombing the Chemo Ward at the local hospital? How can someone be so lacking in basic human decency as to deny these people the healthcare they've desperately needed for years, finally hold it out to them - and then snatch it away with pious mouthings about how it 'makes a lot of sense' to insult them so grossly? (And yeah, I'm looking at you, Democratic leader Henry Waxman.)

Aaacchhhhhh. The idiocy is infuriating. Here are Jon Stewart's takes on it - he does the necessary ridicule and outrage at this idea far better than I ever could.


( And then there's the Fundie. )

So, that's another Shit List wrapped up. Three continents, three stories to get your blood boiling - but at least there's some light in the last one.

Stay angry, fellow ranters, and remember - if you're not outraged, you're not paying attention.

That time again - the weather is getting biblical out there, and, in lieu of Question Time, I'm watching APAC, which is broadcasting the sessions of the Human Rights Consultation Committee.


( Rights? We don't need no stinking rights! )

Yeah, fair warning. This is a nasty one. Possible triggers for people who are walkaways from Dominionist groups, possible offence for people who belong to such groups.

( There's never an excuse for child abuse, but this is pure abomination )

It's back!

For new(ish) readers, the Shit List is a series of semi-regular (well, extremely 'semi') rants about life, the universe, stupid people and whatever happens to be crossing my path at the time. There might be three or four in a week, then nothing for ages. That's the way it goes. Anyway, let's get into it, shall we?

(Since I'm cross-posting from Dreamwidth, some of the markup may be kinda broken. I'll attempt to overcome that.)

( At least you'll die a virgin?? )