Me: Please Don’t Panic And Overanalyze Things Again

Universal categories and representations about pristine, people-free nature have emerged and powerfully informed the conservation of tropical habitats, from rainforests to deserts. These dominant narratives carry little, if any, regard for Indigenous and local ways of knowing, using, and living in these landscapes (i.e., Indigenous territories). The notion of wilderness is one such category that has arisen from the Enlightenment and imperial processes, and continues to cast high value, biodiverse spaces as pristine and people-free environments that are in need of preservation: supposedly, the very antidote to the Anthropocene. Despite decades of critique and resistance during and after the colonial era, a resurgence of the wilderness myth around the world has once again found traction among large international nongovernmental organizations, private philanthropists, major foundations, and corporations, and certain nation-states who seek to reimpose aspects of “fortress conservation,” whereby Indigenous and local peoples are excluded from land and the life it gives.

Wilderness: Origin. Old English wildēornes ‘land inhabited only by wild animals,’ from wild dēor ‘wild deer’ + -ness.

Rather than enlighten and save humanity, wilderness thinking has facilitated the perverse outcome of landscapes being idealized, imagined, and managed as intact, high-value biodiversity areas free from human disturbance. In many respects, such narrow interpretations of forest landscapes have justified the inhumane eviction of Indigenous and local peoples from their homelands following annexation as parks and protected areas, driving dispossession and conflict similar to the colonial period across the Americas, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Australia. The Wilderness Project and efforts to map and classify high-value, intact wilderness zones (many of which overlap with the tropics and regions with high Indigenous populations), continue to this day.

Indigenous knowledge and the shackles of wilderness

9 Black butch lesbians share their stories in The Butch Mystique (2003)

I’ve just been staring out the window listening to the pentatonix version of hallelujah and now I am at peace with the world

I was really sad, but now it’s raining and I am slightly less sad

there's a new harry potter video game coming out. jkr was not involved, but that doesn't mean we should stop criticising her, or that we should stop criticising the game. we do, however, need to be precise.

it is very important to me to criticise jkr, but also to be accurate about what she did and didn't do or say. for instance, she did not say hermione was black all along; she said she approved casting a black actor to play her. (this one is conjecture but) she didn't retcon dumbledore being gay; that was basically the first 'revelation' post-septalogy of something that hadn't been mentioned, literally years before she started obviously retconning stuff in to fill in the gaps or address fan questions or out of boredom or whatever. she didn't write about a race of big-nosed bankers; she wrote about a short, 'swarthy', oppressed-and-yet-also-unfairly-powerful, not-permitted-to-do-jobs-other-than-finance-but-then-resented-for-being-involved-in-finance, stereotypically 'bloodthirsty' race that speaks a 'guttural' language and is believed by prominent equality activists to not need allies because they're 'clever' enough to defend themselves and probably also align themselves with the fascists who hate them. (this stuff is a mixture of antisemitic conspiracy theories/stereotypes & actual legit things that have happened to jews, but a lot of people aren't informed enough about antisemitism to recognise that.) the filmmakers took all that in and went 'ah, yes, clearly this is the nose tribe™, let's put that in our character design.' she didn't randomly invent a single jewish character when confronted about the lack of jewish people; there is literally photographic evidence of anthony goldstein being a character from the very beginning, plus he is in the books, albeit not mentioned to be jewish. she didn't say there was a magen david on the floor of gringotts bank; the filmmakers chose to use a building that had that floor pattern as their set for gringotts, which is super fucked up. she didn't write one single irish character who wants to drink alcohol from a young age and blows things up all the time; that was a single joke that the filmmakers decided to turn into a years-long running gag.

she did create a world where you're supposed to be against bigotry, and yet the reasons behind the bigotry are actually objectively true. werewolves are objectively dangerous and lycanthropy is objectively harmful to the sufferer. trolls and giants are violent and fundamentally lack the mental capacity to understand why violence is bad. goblins do control the economy and hoard their literal and metaphorical wealth. house-elves want to remain enslaved despite the abuse they suffer. the list goes on.

i genuinely think this came primarily from ignorance. she had a bunch of unchecked prejudices, and like many self-proclaimed allies, did not pay enough attention to oppressed groups to understand what they actually need from allies. (for instance, based on things she's declared publicly, she honestly believes she is an ally to jews.) she naïvely believed herself to be progressive and open-minded, and when it was explained to her that this was not the case, it made her uncomfortable and she rejected the information instead of taking it in.

this is speculative, but i also don't think that she was secretly a massive transphobe all along. the progress of her transphobia is pretty clearly identifiable as a process of radicalisation as she doubled down and learned new rhetoric to justify her pre-existing prejudices. it is indeed disgusting, and she has actively contributed to the persecution of trans people both in the uk and in other countries.

people who defend her believe that people who criticise her are spreading misinformation. don't confirm that belief for them. the things she actually has said and done are bad enough.

I am once again asking the autistic community stop punching down on autistic people they’ve been taught to view as “stereotypes.”

I’m talking about nonspeaking autistics.  About autistic people who need full-time support.  About asexual and aromantic autistics.  Autistics who don’t want a lot of friends.  Unemployed autistics.  Autistics who were/are in special ed.  Intellectually disabled autistics.  Autistic adults who live with other family members.  Autistics whose meltdowns aren’t “subtle.”  Autistics who injure themselves.  Multiply disabled autistics.  Autistic shut-ins and agoraphobes.

We are all just as deserving of respect and dignity as former gifted kid autistics who still do everything they can to distance themselves from us even as they preach acceptance.

thinking about my optometrist who was treating my eye infection and said “if it hurts, you can rinse your eye with boiled water. look at me - look at me. i want you to understand that i mean water that has been boiled and has since cooled down. not boiling water. do you understand?” like i’m so grateful for this man ensuring that I wouldn’t destroy my eyes by pouring boiling water in it, because it is an adequate assessment of my intelligence

lets all drill holes in our heads for more room for God