The Chieftans have the only Christmas music worth listening to, for the most part. It ain't the holidays without "St Stephens Day Murders", I tell you what.
Margaret, you write about movement history and you lived through this––do you know what transed the anarchist movement?
Question brought to you by this post reminding me of a bookfair I went to where they screened a documentary about the Battle of Seattle and there appeared to exist cis men anarchists. Even white ones. In abundant quantities.
Fast forward to this summer where I didn't know how to answer a local trans who thought there must be a trans gathering going on but he was actually just seeing a bunch of anarchists.
I think a couple things came together at once. If you go all the way back to the guy who coined the terms we use, Magnus Hirschfeld, he's got a quote somewhere about how if you want to find the queers you gotta look to the anarchists (though you can also find bigoted anarchists throughout history). The very first out trans people I ever met personally were in the anarchist scene. There weren't a TON of them, but I think that there being this culture that lived entirely outside mainstream society's values gave more and more people a chance to come out.
In general I've seen the anarchist scene be like 5-10 years ahead of more mainstream subcultural trends (veganism is another example, though that one faded from anarchism and then the mainstream as well).
I dunno, I think queerness and anarchism are very natural fits for one another, and trans people have been forced to live outside of society for so long. Someone else probably knows this better than me, but that's my guess.
* gears turning * Okay, so I've been vegan since early 2010 and at that time would go to animal rights protests. The majority of animal rights activists I'd see at that time were "older" (I was 18, they were probably like 30-35), wore all black, had a bunch of tattoos with images of freeing animals/animals freeing themselves, vegan straight-edge symbols, etc. One of them who didn't have visible tats was a former political prisoner for I think a series of A.L.F. actions. Now, I'm autistic and mute in a lot of cases, especially back then, so I wasn't asking questions, but would they likely have identified as anarchists?
I feel like I became an anarchist for unrelated reasons, being that nearly a decade later I decided to try to devote my life to stopping bad things and the people who were willing to actually do things to stop bad things were anarchists.
I spent my teenage years ping ponging between being a punk/death rocker ("goth" came later) and being a Dickens Christmas Faire nerd (I was WAY into it - by 16 I was a core character actor getting paid and dating the guy who played David Copperfield).
I have big opinions about Christmas - both from an irreligious anarchist point of view and a traditionalist point of view:
1. Roast the chestnuts. So good.
2. The Wassail Song is under sung. So is The Boars Head - the Latin part is rad.
3. Fabric gift wrap and real fabric ribbon.
5. David Bowie/Bing Crosby is the only Little Drummer Boy worth listening to.
6. Angels in America is a Christmas movie. So is Band of Brothers.
7. The original Broadway recording of "Rent" counts as Christmas carols.
8. The Hallelujah Chorus is a comedy if sung correctly.
9. Give away stuff that you love to people you love who will love the stuff more.
Attended a memoir writing workshop, did you? Well, I look forward to seeing the outcome of that! I saw the Willem Arondeus backpatch in action at a farmers market in Seattle recently. I’m designing a whole ass pencil skirt around my uliksi patch. Vava voom. Merry Christmas Margaret. You are a gift.
The Chieftans have the only Christmas music worth listening to, for the most part. It ain't the holidays without "St Stephens Day Murders", I tell you what.
Margaret, you write about movement history and you lived through this––do you know what transed the anarchist movement?
Question brought to you by this post reminding me of a bookfair I went to where they screened a documentary about the Battle of Seattle and there appeared to exist cis men anarchists. Even white ones. In abundant quantities.
Fast forward to this summer where I didn't know how to answer a local trans who thought there must be a trans gathering going on but he was actually just seeing a bunch of anarchists.
I think a couple things came together at once. If you go all the way back to the guy who coined the terms we use, Magnus Hirschfeld, he's got a quote somewhere about how if you want to find the queers you gotta look to the anarchists (though you can also find bigoted anarchists throughout history). The very first out trans people I ever met personally were in the anarchist scene. There weren't a TON of them, but I think that there being this culture that lived entirely outside mainstream society's values gave more and more people a chance to come out.
In general I've seen the anarchist scene be like 5-10 years ahead of more mainstream subcultural trends (veganism is another example, though that one faded from anarchism and then the mainstream as well).
I dunno, I think queerness and anarchism are very natural fits for one another, and trans people have been forced to live outside of society for so long. Someone else probably knows this better than me, but that's my guess.
* gears turning * Okay, so I've been vegan since early 2010 and at that time would go to animal rights protests. The majority of animal rights activists I'd see at that time were "older" (I was 18, they were probably like 30-35), wore all black, had a bunch of tattoos with images of freeing animals/animals freeing themselves, vegan straight-edge symbols, etc. One of them who didn't have visible tats was a former political prisoner for I think a series of A.L.F. actions. Now, I'm autistic and mute in a lot of cases, especially back then, so I wasn't asking questions, but would they likely have identified as anarchists?
I feel like I became an anarchist for unrelated reasons, being that nearly a decade later I decided to try to devote my life to stopping bad things and the people who were willing to actually do things to stop bad things were anarchists.
yeah, I'd bet money that 80% of them at least would have IDd as anarchist based on that!
You know, it never occurred to me until just now that you could put a back patch on anything but a battle jacket.
oh yeah they're great on hoodies, or for a more wholesome punk look, put it on a cardigan.
I spent my teenage years ping ponging between being a punk/death rocker ("goth" came later) and being a Dickens Christmas Faire nerd (I was WAY into it - by 16 I was a core character actor getting paid and dating the guy who played David Copperfield).
I have big opinions about Christmas - both from an irreligious anarchist point of view and a traditionalist point of view:
1. Roast the chestnuts. So good.
2. The Wassail Song is under sung. So is The Boars Head - the Latin part is rad.
3. Fabric gift wrap and real fabric ribbon.
5. David Bowie/Bing Crosby is the only Little Drummer Boy worth listening to.
6. Angels in America is a Christmas movie. So is Band of Brothers.
7. The original Broadway recording of "Rent" counts as Christmas carols.
8. The Hallelujah Chorus is a comedy if sung correctly.
9. Give away stuff that you love to people you love who will love the stuff more.
Attended a memoir writing workshop, did you? Well, I look forward to seeing the outcome of that! I saw the Willem Arondeus backpatch in action at a farmers market in Seattle recently. I’m designing a whole ass pencil skirt around my uliksi patch. Vava voom. Merry Christmas Margaret. You are a gift.