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#equalrights

4 posts4 participants0 posts today

A long time ago, in my later teens, in my first week of college - I remember half of my class went to the pub one lunch time. I don't remember the exact topic of conversation, but I remember sat around a large table of people, responding with "I'm a feminist".

Everybody laughed at me. All the guys and the girls. I didn't understand. Then someone said "You can't be because you're a man", laughing once again. ...But I still didn't understand.

I was an un-diagnosed autistic at the time, but it makes sense now why that conversation went around in my head for months, trying to make sense of it. Every cycle ended the same way - That I just could not see why a man believing in the fundamental equal rights of woman was something worthy of ridicule.

Of course a lot changed as the years went by, and my standpoint became more socially acceptable. But, 25 years later, I find myself in the exact same situation, as a 'cis' man laughed at for believing in trans equal rights.

But now I know that the only way they could find that ridiculous and comical is if they see everything only from the very narrow perspective of their own existence and sense of self.

Nobody needs to be trans, gay, etc etc, to understand that we are all conscious beings having unique experiences, with the fundamental right to exist. But when you do understand this, you know that we are all experiencing this existence together and need to look out for one another.

Replied in thread

@Simon318ppm @urlyman

- I agree that:
- the fundamental question might be of almost existential importance to organised groups, and humans who wish to form and maintain them.
- finding common ground is essential, as is nurturing empathy in all parties.

- I sumbit that:
- enquiring minds might enjoy examining the findings (or what we might divine of them, for such firms, if they have any sense, have long since obfuscated their work) of Cambridge Analytica and their ilk: research.bangor.ac.uk/portal/f although please note that state-of-the-art circa 10 years ago may now be old hat.
- theologans are a fine source of information regarding tried-and-tested methods of creating inclusive "in-groups".
- lesser groups that depend upon cohesive thinking like cults, militaries, resistance or political groups, corporate entities, and so forth, are all worthy of consideration too. The real nuggets of gold are finding the "happy-clappy" groups that manage to absorb & bestow happiness upon their adversaries. Not sure where one finds such groups though (outside mathstodon.xyz obviously).

- I'd love to know if anyone has come across any "threads" that are interesting to pull at, or salient web-search terms that are a good start, in reading about such things.
- I'd be curious to know how folks (eg in NATO, CCP, etc) taking high-level geopolitical perspectives might view this problem.

#Peace#Love#War

A quotation from Lincoln

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Speech (1863-11-19), “Dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg [Gettysburg Address],” Pennsylvania

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/lincoln-abraham/7562…

WE SHALL RISE - Volumes One & Two
Order now for the pre-order price of only $4.99!

mybook.to/WeShallRiseAnthology

These are more than stories. These are REAL PEOPLE who have struggled and fought for their rights.

All proceeds from Volume One go to the ACLU.
All proceeds from Volume Two go to The Trevor Project.

Add Vol One to your TBR: goodreads.com/book/show/221582

Add Vol Two to your TBR: goodreads.com/book/show/221582

Today in Labor History March 8, 1911: The first modern International Women’s Day was celebrated in Austria, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany and the U.S. IWD has its roots in the suffrage movement of New Zealand, and leftist labor organizing in the U.S. and Europe. The earliest Women’s Days were organized by the Socialist Party of America, in New York, in 1909, and by German socialists in 1910. They chose the date of March 8 in honor of the garment workers strikes in New York that occurred on March 8, in 1857 and 1908. However, the first IWD celebrated on March 8, the current date, was in 1911. The holiday was associated primarily with far-left movements until the feminist movement adopted it in the 1960s, when it became a more mainstream celebration.

Today in Labor History March 8, 1908: Thousands of workers in the New York needle trades (mostly women) launched a strike for higher wages, shorter hours and an end to child labor. They chose this date in commemoration of the 1857 strike. In 1910, German socialist Clara Zetkin proposed to the Second International, that March 8 be celebrated as International Women’s Day to commemorate this strike and the one in 1857.