It’s as simple as this, whether you’re talking about people with addiction, the homeless, LGBT, immigrants, union workers, the poor, native Americans and on and on:
What the government can do to them, it can do to you.
Where can I find these stickers?
Nah, if they come for you in the morning,
They are coming for me in the morning, I am just too stupid to get it.
Ignoring the obvious fact that trans people are like everyone else. Any law against any group will fuck with everyone else. They wanted to ban abortions and now in some states, docs are afraid of saving your life because they might be blamed for the death of the fetus. They didn’t fuck with “women who love abortions” (as if that was real) they fucked with every pregnant woman’s life and in proxy, their friends and family’s life. If they target trans people, they are one poorly written law away to ruin your life and as they target trans people… They clearly aren’t particularly the kind of people who might would get it “right”.
Trans rights are human rights.
The famous “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out” quote leaves out the fact that before anyone, the Nazis came for trans people.
They came for the communists first. The fear of worker’s rights offered by communism is what caused the first fighting and gave Hitler power. Everything else followed. Hitler hunted down communists in ‘33. The prosecution of LGBTQ was a slower burn heading into the late 1930s.
However, I suggest we pay sharp attention to this:
This is exactly what republicans and trump are doing. Removing trans from passports, removing trans from military, etc.
Edit: before people downvote my position, they should read more about the lead up to the Reichstag Fire and the raid of the Institute. They are not singular markers in the course of history that define the beginning or end of anything. There were numerous battles with communist groups througout Germany in the 1920s and onward, from street fighting with Hitler’s proto-nazis to actions by the Weimar government. I don’t think anything I said is incorrect. Anti-communist action was part of Hitler’s rise and included the Reichstag Fire in Feb of ‘33, and the raid of the Institute was in May of ‘33. So even by that metric…they came for the communists first.
lone_fairie is correct.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institut_für_Sexualwissenschaft
If you want to discuss technicalities:
The Reichstag fire was in February ‘33, the institute was raided in May of ‘33.
My original position was that fighting against communists helped bring Hitler to power, and those clashes occurred first, from street fighting to attempted uprisings by various communist factions within Germany. There is plenty of history out there on this. So yes, they still “came for the communists first” in the context of this discussion. I don’t say this to detract from historic persecution of LGBTQ people in any way.
If you really want to discuss technicalities:
The institute was targeted by Nazis as early as 1920.
From about the early 1920s onward, Hirschfeld became a target of the far-right in Germany, including the Nazi Party. He was physically attacked during multiple incidents, including an incident in Munich on 4 October 1920 in which he was badly injured… By 1929, frequent targeting by Nazis made it difficult for Hirschfeld to continue with his appearances in public.
Do something the Jews had little opportunity to do, arm your self.
And practice. Safety and fighting under pressure takes practice.
There are so very few trans people, and so many more of us.
This is seriously good advice. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Muscle memory may well save you or some one else’s life one day
Hey! Found a bit of muscle memory the other day!
Always carry in the woods, sometimes throw down on squirrels for muscle memory. Not like I’ve trained, mostly random, “You should see if you can actually draw and aim.”, kinda practice.
RUSTLE
Cool! Deer?
big black bear with two babies galumphing behind
I’m_in_danger.gif
Pistol magically appeared in my hand, safety off, low-ready.
Didn’t think about it. That was neat. Didn’t know if that would happen when the shit came down.
I can’t afford a gun, and if I could, it would not be something I could keep in my home.
I didn’t say a gun. Of course that is probably the tool for defense against the jack booted thugs coming for those who dare to be different, but there are other devices. Prepare for a world where no one is going to save you.
I mean.
Probably not. I’m a straight white male.
I’m against bigotry because it is stupid, it holds everyone back, it’s always based on nonsense, and frankly I really don’t gibe a flying fuck one way or the other what someone else does if it doesn’t directly effect me.
Not self interest. Self interest is how this fucking mess starts.
Don’t worry bud, they’ll find something to come after you in the end
No, they’ll come for you in the end. Just by being sympathetic to trans people makes you one of “them”.
I feel like the communist party optics detracts from the messaging here. Basically nobody who is sympathetic towards socialist let alone ML anti-fascist groups needs to be convinced to not be okay with discrimination against trans people. We need a true populist call to the American public that any big government that comes after trans people will eventually come for them and that we need to fight together regardless of politico-ecenomic ideology, because human rights are being violated and concentration camps are right around the corner.
This instead works as a call to antifa supporters to reinforce the us vs them where the them includes everyone who is right of smashing capitalism. And not only do trans people include lots of people who are right of fully dismantling capitalism, but potential allies definitely do.
Communist party optics?
So this is the modern antifa flag used here, it is the red socialist flag overlayed by the black anarchist flag, it is directly based on and referencing this flag
Which was the flag of the militant wing of the German Communist party.I suppose you could say in the original post without the color it becomes more generalist in meaning but I suspect it was just for visual design and not to signal anything more anarchist and less socialist.
Regardless, trans rights should not be synonymous with antifa even if we are allies. The oligarchs are trying very hard to say that trans people are all “radical Marxists” let’s not make it easy for them. We are people just like them, and it isn’t Marxists vs capitalists, it is “we the people” vs “the ruling class of super rich” who want to control our lives and take our freedoms before giving up their domination and it always has been.
Tldr, that flag is antifas, antifa is much easier to villainize than “the trans population”. Antifa is a political direct action group which I support and many do, but many don’t, either because antifa has generally been anti-capitalist and some people really like capitalism (including many trans people) or simply because they just associate antifa with trashing downtowns and rioting and it’s easy to be against those things. It’s an easy target. Don’t make trans people an easier target by lumping together trans rights and antifa as being just the same people.
Modern antifa also uses the three arrows of the Iron Front, which represents anti-(ML)communism. I don’t think the connection is as deep as you portray it.
Regardless, trans rights should not be synonymous with antifa even if we are allies.
Not synonymous, but antifa are an ally in the fight for trans rights. Just like LGBT support should be welcomed if displayed by a corporation (despite corporations not really being allies), LGBT support should be welcomed if displayed by antifa (who are generally actually allies on the matter, even if you may not agree with the broader movement).
We are people just like them, and it isn’t Marxists vs capitalists, it is “we the people” vs “the ruling class of super rich” who want to control our lives and take our freedoms before giving up their domination and it always has been.
Uh.
I got some bad news for you about Marxism and capitalism.
Oh, wow. The original is much better. The modern one is very slapdash. They won’t be attracting antifa graphic designers, that’s for sure.
God yes, the graphic design of the early 20th century political movements was so much better though. The three arrows is my favorite by far. Perfect strong symbolism of meaning that still works today
Works perfectly without knowing the language or the location, down with monarchs, down with fascists, down with tankies.
And perfectly designed with the intent to be used to deface swastikas.
