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artemis

@[email protected]

#horror and #ttrpg enthusiast.

I'm a bisexual anti-capitalist & aspiring propagandist. We're not free until we're all free.

I sometimes have updates from my brother "Apollo" on the ground in Minneapolis.

Guillermo del Toro fan account. Anarchist pep-talks are provided free of charge. Solidarity forever!

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@artemis@dice.camp avatar artemis , to random

Some people decide what they think about everything based entirely on their personal loyalties. It shows up a lot in toxic family relationships. Sometimes they'll even admit it openly, like a mother telling her child that her husband is higher in their hierarchy of loyalty than her children are & that she is always going to side with him.

Some families seem to find this so normal & obvious that they will punish & ostracize anyone who objects to it.

This is abuse culture.

artemis OP ,
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There are other things that need doing too, but abuse culture has to go.

Epstein & his ilk have been empowered by cultures of silence & complicity. The reason it was possible to do what Epstein did is that a whole hell of a lot of people find abuse normal & even natural. It's not just the Epstein class. For them to operate with total impunity, they need accomplices in society & victims silenced & alone.

Abuse culture is in our families, classrooms, workplaces.

artemis OP ,
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Abuse culture is one of the lynchpins of oppression.

People who have learned to endure abuse often don't recognize it when they see it. They've been gaslit & silenced their whole lives. And people who perpetrate abuse don't want anything to make them stop.

You want to fight the Epstein class?

  • Don't tolerate abuse anywhere & bring it into the light when you see it.
  • Help survivors get out, heal, & recover.
  • Don't let your personal loyalty to someone overrule an abuse victim's testimony.
artemis OP ,
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Changing hearts & minds will not automatically fix things that are systemic, but it can expose systemic problems & make those who perpetuate them work harder to do abusive things they used to do with ease.

artemis OP ,
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Making people aware of abuse & changing their feelings on it won't change systems of power.

Those require other solutions, but the more of us who are willing to bring things into the open & the fewer of us who are willing to keep quiet about or turn a blind eye to what they see, the harder it makes things for those profiting from abuse.

artemis OP ,
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One of the most horrible things I discovered on the way out of Christian fundamentalism was how many fucking people just don't want to know about abuse & get angry about being told about.

With family abuse or abuse within a specific community especially, they'll often tell you it's a "private matter". You can tell some people that a person they know is sexually abusing a child & they will scold you for "gossiping" & sharing someone's "dirty laundry".

Abuse is never a fucking private matter.

@artemis@dice.camp avatar artemis , to random

Noam Chomsky is one of those people that some people will defend reflexively without even thinking.

Try not to have powerful people that you defend reflexively without even thinking.

That's abuse culture.

artemis OP ,
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"Noam Chomsky didn't abuse any girls".

Um, my friend, how can you possibly confidently state that like you know that for sure? Especially when Chomsky has now been exposed as having a lot of correspondence with Epstein, mentioned how excited he was for "the Caribbean island", & told Epstein he was sorry that he was having "Me Too" problems & commiserated about how terrible it is to have women speaking up about abuse. To name a couple things.

artemis OP ,
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Weird that you would give a man in that situation "the benefit of the doubt", honestly.

The man knew about the sexual abuse, didn't think it should be exposed, & palled around with these folks in settings where this abuse was happening. Whether or not he physically touched one of Epstein's victims, he participated in their abuse.

I don't care what good ideas you think Chomsky has had. He's a piece of shit & a traitor to humanity

artemis OP ,
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Why TF in the year 2026 is anyone who wants to be taken seriously saying "this man's work is too valuable for it to matter how he harmed women & girls"?

artemis OP ,
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Some people are absolutely refusing to understand the abuse culture that the Epstein files are pulling back the curtain on.

Epstein's "friends" were all accomplices. Stop making excuses. I don't need to establish whether Chomsky physically harmed a child himself to state with confidence that he was complicit as fuck.

If Chomsky is 1/3 as smart as some people think he is, then he understood just fine what was going on.

artemis OP ,
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Not to mention that a man embedded with the ultra elite & privy to their private conversations cannot be taken seriously as a thinker. He is a traitor. His loyalties are not with us but with them.

artemis OP ,
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And let me just say this: we don't freaking need Chomsky.

Yes, I have read things he has written that seemed true & useful. You know where else you can find similar insights? In a million fucking other places from people who are NOT among the "intellectual elite" & who do not rub elbows with a whole community of abusive oppressors.

Read stuff written by Black people. By indigenous people. By people who are not in the power establishment.

I promise you, you don't need Chomsky.

artemis OP ,
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If you're defending Chomsky because you think we need him & his insight, I think you should try broadening your reading list.

I'm serious. Marginalized folks (and the folks who actually live & work in solidarity with them) can offer you so much more & open up your imagination in transformative ways.

We don't need the intellectual elite. We definitely don't need anyone who is "well respected" among dishonorable & abusive people.

artemis OP ,
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@shadowfals
Someone else could do a better job summarizing him, but he's a public "leftist" intellectual. In his heyday he was frequently the only supposed "far left" guy getting high profile interviews & he was kind of supposed to be a one-of-a-kind genius.

Now that we know he was besties with billionaires, it's easy to see why HIS was the "leftist" voice that was given air.

artemis OP ,
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I always end up linking to Firestorm, but I am freaking in love with their curated catalog. I've ordered several books from them just based on description with no prior knowledge, & every single one has been 🔥.

A huge number of them are written by people along multiple axes of oppression. Also they throw in goodies sometimes like zines & other additional materials. That's how I found Crimethinc!

https://firestorm.coop/

@firestorm
@CrimethInc

artemis OP ,
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If you want to have your mind expanded, want to come to new & different ways of organizing the world to end violence & oppression, you should go somewhere other than old white dudes with a vested interest in the existing system.

Honestly, we shouldn't put aside the abusive, predatory people he cozied up to, but aside from that Chomsky invested heavily with Epstein. The world's premiere leftist thinker has enough capital to "invest heavily". Dude ain't who he says he is.

artemis OP ,
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So yeah, frankly, if you think "we" need Chomsky, then you & I are not part of the same "we".

artemis OP ,
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If you learned something from Chomsky at some point, if he turned you onto a truth you didn't know, that doesn't get erased: YOU learned something.

But look, it was fucking RON PAUL who convinced me widespread abuse by police in this country actually exists, & I ain't looking to Ron Paul to tell me how to think, even if he happened to be the catalyst that helped change my opinion for the better one time.

artemis OP ,
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You don't owe your loyalty to someone just because they happened to be useful in the evolution of your thinking. You can be glad you found something of use & move the fuck on.

As previously stated, plenty of marginalized folks (Black, indigenous, queer, disabled, etc.) have more to offer to you, especially if you bring it all together.

Even there though, don't fucking idolize people. There is no amount of "good" someone can do that should shield them from accountability for their own actions.

artemis OP ,
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I know that it's actually hard for a lot of us to process what the Epstein files really expose about the wealthy elite & the people they keep around them because it's just so cartoonishly villainous.

It feels absurd.

I get it. I do. As much as I knew the whole system has got to go, as much as I knew that billionaires are mass murderers & their lackeys are participants & accomplices, somehow the world these people created for themselves feels unreal.

artemis OP ,
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But y'all, these are the people fighting to protect & preserve rape culture & their cronies & accomplices. These are the people who think there are too many people in the world & some need to die off. THESE are the people when we say "they" are trying to control everyone & everything.

I refuse to use the word "cabal" because of its antisemitic connotations (seriously, let's not), but this is indeed the real global conspiracy among the rich & powerful & those who participate in their mission.

artemis OP ,
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People actually familiar with Chomsky's history could tell you a thousand different reasons why no one should have still been trusting him before this (I don't blame you if this is your first time hearing this...his scam has been supported by the media for a long time), but even without that, it is not possible for this man to both be sincere about his public opinions AND be a member of this crowd. That's not how it fucking works.

artemis OP ,
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We have to face it. I've seen the defense "well lots of business people, academics, etc. were friendly with Epstein, so how do we know how serious it was".

Do they even HEAR what they are saying? Those are the people who have been bribed, flattered, & blackmailed (for their crimes & misconduct) into participation & complicity. They aren't innocents, my dears. They are the lackeys of the oppressors.

@artemis@dice.camp avatar artemis , to random

I guess it was convenient for my mental evolution when leaving the cult that virulent misogynists are always incredibly bigoted about other things. While unpacking the ideology & behaviors that were harming me, I was confronted with the evidence of many other forms of bigotry.

Thanks, manosphere, for being a giant stinking pile of shit. You really cleared some things up for me.

artemis OP ,
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During my process deconstructing from strict, ideological patriarchy, I kept tabs on/analyzed what was happening in Red Pill/incel/"men's rights" spaces, & they just slap you in the face with their racism, antisemitism, & queerphobia (among other things).

artemis OP ,
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In my childhood people had just straight-up lied to me & told me racism died in the 60s & Black people were just making it up (yes, I hear it now) & other ridiculous lies like that.

They couldn't keep lying to me about that after I found the online spaces where men were deliberately spewing non-stop hatred & bigotry.

artemis OP ,
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It's one thing to tell a child in a gatekept white community that racism—a thing which is deliberately tucked out of sight in that context—isn't real, but when she grows up & sees the things these men say when they are talking to each other, that lie fucking crumbles.

You can't both tell me "racism isn't real" & then say the most racist shit imaginable. It's not very convincing.

artemis OP ,
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Given that I grew up in an ethnocentric white community ("if you ain't 'Dutch', you ain't much") among proto-Christian Nationalists, I'm surprised that I didn't just grow desensitized, but this was before everyone went full mask off (or hoods on), back when they were playing at human decency.

Still, it was all around me. I KNOW I was just a kid & that I started sorting through this all at the earliest opportunity, but it still bugs the hell out of me that I didn't see it.

artemis OP ,
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In my mind, my childhood has this horrible miasma around it of all the bigotry I didn't know I was participating in.

I did not choose it. When I reached adulthood & got out into the world, I chose to say no to all of that shit & learned how to do better.

But it's still so fucking gross to know that my "idyllic" childhood actually involved close contact with some of the most toxic ideologies imaginable. Makes me want to take a shower & try to scrub it all off.

artemis OP ,
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And honestly, y'all, on a personal level, I'm just mad that people lied to me about this.

No, you can't expect white supremacists to be honest, & I get that, but I hate the lies they told me to convince me we weren't bigoted. It disgusts me.

I was a child. All I wanted was to know what was right & how to do right by others, & it's horrible for someone to take that & pervert it.

artemis OP ,
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Making other people participants in your hate feels unforgivable.

They would have made me be like them if they could have, & I hate them for it, & I hate them even more for how close they came.

They scorched my soul.

artemis OP ,
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This is also why I struggle to understand why other people haven't left. They tell obvious lies that it feels like only a naive child would be fooled by.

Like, I get how they had me fooled at 10. I don't know how tf I was supposed to stay fooled at 20. They weren't actually hiding their bigotry. They were just lying about it.

artemis OP ,
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I suppose in the pre-internet days I wouldn't have been able to just see what the men in these communities said to each other behind closed doors, so maybe it would have taken longer for the penny to drop.

Women in religious communities like ours generally don't talk about their own opinions. A lot of them only talk about their kids & housework & literally NOTHING ELSE, so it is mostly men who decide to "say the quiet part out loud" because the women don't have anything to say at all.

artemis OP ,
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My sister expressed surprise to my mom that I called out that she had posted anti-immigrant content online, because she didn't think she had said anything. Weirdly (haha) she didn't deny being anti-immigrant, just was surprised to have been caught saying something.

(Turns out I was referencing a comment she had made chiming in on someone's xenophobic Facebook post).

But yeah, I guess my sister tries to just play the mild, meek, "oh I don't think about those things" housewife.

artemis OP ,
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That gendered piece is actually another thing I'm trying to work out right now.

It's kind of funny that working so hard to deconstruct patriarchy & misogyny in my own mind has made it hard to understand people still in that trap because it all feels so meaningless now. I've nearly forgotten at this point what it actually felt like.

So I see my sister playing "innocent little white housewife" & wonder why tf she thinks she's excused from moral responsibility.

artemis OP ,
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"oh, I just let the men worry about that stuff."

No, fuck you. You're a grown woman. You make your own choices. You don't get to offload the responsibility for that onto another person. Choosing to let others choose for you is no fucking excuse.

artemis OP ,
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I think she resents me for expecting her to make her own moral decisions, as if I should know & be understanding of the fact that she doesn't think or decide things for herself.

artemis OP ,
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White supremacy infantalizes women because it makes them easier to control, but ALSO as a defense mechanism.

They want their women to all go "oh, I'm just a little housewife taking care of my family! How could you think I'm racist when I'm just a homemaker who raises kids & bakes bread? I don't decide anything."

@artemis@dice.camp avatar artemis , to random

Another interesting factor of resistance to ICE in Minnesota is that it does actually change what it means to people to be "Minnesotan" in a way that I hope will inspire & encourage people there.

Sure, Minnesotans like to think of themselves as good neighbors. The idea of being a "good neighbor" is highly valued.

But I think Minnesotans have redefined "neighborliness" for themselves in recent months.

artemis OP ,
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"Love your neighbors" & not just when they look exactly like you. That's the opposite of the fucking point.

This isn't about in-groups & out-groups or regionalism. It's about the people around you, whoever they are & wherever they come from. People are people, so look out for them.

Now that's what I call neighborly!

artemis OP ,
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Minneapolis has been a multicultural city for a long time at this point, & the George Floyd protests in 2020 kicked off something huge. So it's not like this version of neighborliness started with ICE coming to town, but this is a defining moment. It's a re-mythologizing of a sort.

artemis OP ,
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The parable of the Good Samaritan starts with someone asking Jesus "who is my neighbor?" A lot of Minnesotans answered that recently. Your neighbor doesn't have to look like you, talk like you, or have the same life as you. That person next door deserves your care & protection because they are a person.

Minnesotan or not, let's keep that energy up. Let's keep spreading the word: love your neighbors. Care for the people around you & don't let anyone tell you who you are allowed to care about.

artemis OP ,
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That is the energy we need. Enough with our prejudice. Enough hiding behind privilege. Enough with fearing the person next door who has never fucking harmed you rather than getting angry with the oppressors who would hurt you both.

If we can actually get our shit together & get serious about real solidarity, the fascists & white supremacists are fucked. They are counting on white people to fucking think of themselves first & act on fear, prejudice, & indifference.

artemis OP ,
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If enough white folks will just fucking look around & accept that everyone else is as valuable as they are, that everyone matters with no exceptions, the fash are going to really struggle with what they are trying to do.

Same with cis-het people with queer people. Same with all those dividing lines that define people as "not like me".

They need us not to care about each other. They need us indifferent to each other. They need us not to be able to see the humanity in others.

artemis OP ,
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Frankly, this is why fashy folks lose their shit at the inclusion of POC & queer people in entertainment media.

The media we interact with helps shape how we see each other & what we believe about the world.

Yes, representation is great for the group represented, but it is healing to all of us. It can help us learn to see each other without fear or hatred or disgust.

So yeah, they are fucking upset about inclusion in media. It's a fucking problem for them if we can just see & love each other.

artemis OP ,
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The increase in recent years of widely available good representation of different people & experiences has been transformative for me.

I can't name specific examples because it's not really individual things. It's the overall experience of exposure.

Sure, I try to mentally unpack my racism & other prejudices, & that's important work, & OF COURSE I try to apply that progress in real life, but the whole process is significantly helped by additional exposure making difference feel normal.

artemis OP ,
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Here's the difference between this & "can't we all just get along?"

The empathy gap largely goes in one direction. David Graeber does a great job in The Utopia of Rules explaining this, but the short version is: in relationships of unequal power, the less powerful/oppressed people learn to empathize with & understand the powerful people. They are forced to understand them to survive. This does NOT go the other way.