I am not saying all that to look big—I actually don't like mentioning it since it makes me look bad. And I'm not trying to say that I'm some super talented natural-born sublimation witch of the deep greens.

What I am telling you is that I worked hard for several years and learned a lot and accomplished things and got some recognition for it. I have experience.

Yet, and this is the point, this video series completely changed how I think about how to do the things I did. It changed how I talk about politics with my own family—with people who already agree with me! It's really insightful. I think everyone who can learn from it should, because stopping fascism is too important for anyone to feel like they're too insignificant to make a difference. Nobody is too insignificant.

3/4

To give you an idea where I'm coming from, I did politics full-time for several years. I've been on national radio talking about how news media hijacked opinion research to influence elections, I've written texts that got talked about in national newspapers, I've vetted people for parliament, I've been in charge of statistical election analyses, created several campaign plans, been involved in developing countless political and rhetorical strategies, and more.

But my "thing", the thing which brought me over from philosophy to politics just as the Swedish Nazi party got into parliament in 2010, was my preoccupation and success with creating "ear worms" (to borrow a musical term since I'm actually a composer). I constructed little ideas that stayed in people's minds and changed how they think.

2/4

Okay, seriously. You should watch The Alt-Right Playbook. If you care at all about understanding what's happening as fascists are getting elected around the world, at least go watch the first video in the playlist, and then decide.

️ The Alt-Right Playbook

If you're going to watch it, just ignore me and go do it right now.

But if you're not convinced, I am going to tell you why I think you should be.

1/4

Trans people, and further down the line all gender nonconforming people, are the "threat" that just won't go away, no matter how much violence is used. And that's what fascism needs to escalate the violence until they can declare martial law.

6/9

And we won't go away. Unlike racial minorities, if you eliminate all of us, new trans people will take our place, because we're already there. Lots of cis people just haven't realised yet that they aren't actually cis, and many inevitably will, because living in denial is painful. And as if that wasn't enough, we're part of every generation born, all around the planet, everywhere.

5/9

So trans people are easier targets. It is much easier to lie about such a tiny and heavily misunderstood minority, especially when it's so dispersed geographically, making us quite isolated in comparison.

4/9

What doesn't go away is people. Racism works for this, because you can't just stop being who you are. It's not the best target though, because ethnic or racial minorities usually have a community with some strength. And once you get rid of an ethnic minority, it's not going to magically repopulate.

3/9

But there's a third reason why fascists love transphobia. Fascism wants to declare martial law and end democracy. But you usually can't just do that without a threat. And most threats go away when you fight them, because they're actions. People who do the actions will either be eliminated or go into hiding if put under enough pressure, and then the escalation of violent power doesn't have a reason to continue.

2/9

Earlier I mentioned that fascists love transphobia because it makes people cease to think.

I also mentioned how it's beneficial to them to stigmatise the voices of trans (and gay) and neurodivergent people: An important way of controlling people is to make unwanted thoughts too uncomfortable to think, which can be done by association to stigma. But we're often sufficiently different in how we perceive stigma that it doesn't work on us. And we're not less rational than anyone else. So our voices must be associated with enough stigma that nobody will listen when we happen to say one of the unconformable thoughts out loud.

1/9

There's an old saying in northern Europe that “it's like choosing between plague and cholera”, still often used when faced with only bad choices. And as any know-it-all worth her salt should be quick to point out, if you have access to modern healthcare, you pick cholera.

But if you don't? Over the years I thought about that a lot, and it always seemed obvious that while the more disprivileged can make things better for the more privileged, they're essentially blameless if they don't.

From my imagined position of a white, cishet, neurotypical man, I felt like I would be wrong to blame them for not picking the cholera outbreak, the better one for me that's just as bad for them.

I don't know to which degree this was based on selfishness. I was always quietly carrying this sad and desperate anger over being forced to live in denial of my neurodivergence and queerness.

So it's a good question: What can you really demand from those who have already had cholera forced upon them?

@raritastic … wait is that why I'm nauseous!?

my symptoms have been changing during this year after I quit gel+cypro and started doing monotherapy injections, and I'm just now realising that the new way I get PMS is dominated by being extremely tired—but the nausea has had me thinking that maybe it's something else.

but it actually fits with the PMS explanation instead??

And I say that after hearing someone deny that it can happen, who transitioned decades ago in her teens.

Cis people can go their whole lives without realising that other cis people's physical and mental experiences are radically different from their own. And being trans doesn't actually make you epistemically special. Arrogance is still arrogance.

I mean obviously everyone should speak and be heard about their own experiences, including trans women who don't experience this, or who experience some kind of cycle that matches their HRT schedule. But please shut up about whether the experiences of other people are real or not based on your own personal experiences.

All these women are doing is helping cis doctors continue to believe that we're confused about everything, that we need to be very carefully evaluated and interrogated before being given access to gender affirming care, and that we're probably confused about the whole trans thing right from the start.

What these women need to do is to shut up.

Others don't go that far and instead come up with really wild explanations of how the experience of a monthly cycle can come to happen.

The last one I heard was that it's because many trans women do estradiol injections once per month, so there will be a week or so when estradiol levels are extra low, and that's how that week happens.

But like—who injects once per month? And then why did I get my most obvious cycle symptoms on transdermal gel applied twice per day?

Some just deny that we can know our own inner states well enough to tell whether we have a repeating and roughly month-long cycle of psychological and physical changes or not. And that's… I mean look, every trans woman I know who has made that claim has also been a transmedicalist. They think that trans people are incapable of understanding their own inner states and must rely on cis people's insight to make sense of anything.

Trans women insisting that PMS isn't a thing for us makes me feel exhausted.

Caelan Conrad said in a recent video that “and whatever you do, do not scream out of a car window at the small-town lesbian as you drive by her! Jesus!!” and good gods I felt that

I can keep being a nice person if you please don't make "helpful suggestions" like "just do DIY" in response to this.

I am very knowledgeable about my own circumstances. there are seven things that can help:

• resources on how to get through the gatekeeping
• HRT (️)
• money
• money
• money
• money
• money

but since I'm on benefits they'll just reduce my benefits with the amount of money I get—and if I don't tell them it's fraud.

and I'm 26 months into HRT. i started out with GenderGP after they managed to get the Swedish ban lifted (but only for transfem HRT). but GGP was too expensive and i ended up with a huge debt to my landlord (who's also my ex and co-parent). after that I inherited a stash of gel and androcur that lasted 9 months. I was going to go back to GenderGP, but that's when they turned to shit. so now I'm on DIY subq since February—and I'm not mentioning anyone without prior consent but thank you!!! ️️️

we are not free.

I'm likely going to have my first meeting early next year. I feel horrible about it.

but I also feel more prepared than most people probably are. it's not going to be a nice 3 years of fighting off their persuasion attempts though