a bit of an idiot. i’m always mad about something. 22. health student, full of existential dread. she/her.
235 posts
Latest Posts by lunnym - Page 2
Vivllanious threads post, second post of reaction to the first threads post | Elon musk is an evil stupid annoying fuck and deserves nothing.
s/o to this skeleton babe from 1936
In Chile we didn’t nonviolently defeat Pinochet: he decided to step down. Yes, we got to vote for whether we wanted him to stay on power or not, and the “no” won. However, had he wanted to stay in power he would have. He became dictator by fucking bombing the presidential house and killing anyone that disagreed with him, don’t think he couldn’t have done it again. But by “stepping down” he could live the rest of his life as a free man, with the income of an ex-president added to everything he stole, what he was paid by the USA, and whatever he got from allowing narcos to do whatever they wanted.
He wasn’t arrested after we returned to democracy. And when he was finally arrested, it wasn’t even done by us; the order was issued by Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón for the causes of genocide, terrorism and torture, when Pinochet was in London for medical reasons, almost 10 years after stepping down. How humiliating is that? That the murderer of our people had to be arrested in a different continent, because nobody was brave enough to do so in the land he abused?
So no, I don’t believe nonviolent struggle can defeat a dictator. For at least one of the examples quoted didn’t involve much “defeating”, but the dictator deciding to abide by democracy for once. And it took 17 years of dictatorship, 200 000 people in exile, the torture of 28 459 (denounced), 2125 deaths and 1102 missing people (in a country that had less than 9 million people). Do you want that “peaceful way” for your country?
"With Donald Trump set to take office after a fear-mongering campaign that reignited concerns about his desire to become a dictator, a reasonable question comes up: Can nonviolent struggle defeat a tyrant?
There are many great resources that answer this question, but the one that’s been on my mind lately is the Global Nonviolent Action Database, or GNAD, built by the Peace Studies department at Swarthmore College. Freely accessible to the public, this database — which launched under my direction in 2011 — contains over 1,400 cases of nonviolent struggle from over a hundred countries, with more cases continually being added by student researchers.
At quick glance, the database details at least 40 cases of dictators who were overthrown by the use of nonviolent struggle, dating back to 1920. These cases — which include some of the largest nations in the world, spanning Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America — contradict the widespread assumption that a dictator can only be overcome by violence. What’s more, in each of these cases, the dictator had the desire to stay, and possessed violent means for defense. Ultimately, though, they just couldn’t overcome the power of mass nonviolent struggle.
In a number of countries, the dictator had been embedded for years at the time they were pushed out. Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, for example, had ruled for over 29 years. In the 1990s, citizens usually whispered his name for fear of reprisal. Mubarak legalized a “state of emergency,” which meant censorship, expanded police powers and limits on the news media. Later, he “loosened” his rule, putting only 10 times as many police as the number of protesters at each demonstration.
The GNAD case study describes how Egyptians grew their democracy movement despite repression, and finally won in 2011. However, gaining a measure of freedom doesn’t guarantee keeping it. As Egypt has shown in the years since, continued vigilance is needed, as is pro-active campaigning to deepen the degree of freedom won.
Some countries repeated the feat of nonviolently deposing a ruler: In Chile, the people nonviolently threw out a dictator in 1931 and then deposed a new dictator in 1988. South Koreans also did it twice, once in 1960 and again in 1987. (They also just stopped their current president from seizing dictatorial powers, but that’s not yet in the database.)
In each case people had to act without knowing what the reprisals would be...
It’s striking that in many of the cases I looked at, the movement avoided merely symbolic marches and rallies and instead focused on tactics that impose a cost on the regime. As Donald Trump wrestles to bring the armed forces under his control, for example, I can imagine picketing army recruiting offices with signs, “Don’t join a dictator’s army.”
Another important takeaway: Occasional actions that simply protest a particular policy or egregious action aren’t enough. They may relieve an individual’s conscience for a moment, but, ultimately, episodic actions, even large ones, don’t assert enough power. Over and over, the Global Nonviolent Action Database shows that positive results come from a series of escalating, connected actions called a campaign...
-via Waging Nonviolence, January 8, 2025. Article continues below.
East Germany’s peaceful revolution
When East Germans began their revolt against the German Democratic Republic in 1988, they knew that their dictatorship of 43 years was backed by the Soviet Union, which might stage a deadly invasion. They nevertheless acted for freedom, which they gained and kept.
Researcher Hanna King tells us that East Germans began their successful campaign in January 1988 by taking a traditional annual memorial march and turning it into a full-scale demonstration for human rights and democracy. They followed up by taking advantage of a weekly prayer for peace at a church in Leipzig to organize rallies and protests. Lutheran pastors helped protect the organizers from retaliation and groups in other cities began to stage their own “Monday night demonstrations.”
The few hundred initial protesters quickly became 70,000, then 120,000, then 320,000, all participating in the weekly demonstrations. Organizers published a pamphlet outlining their vision for a unified German democracy and turned it into a petition. Prisoners of conscience began hunger strikes in solidarity.
By November 1988, a million people gathered in East Berlin, chanting, singing and waving banners calling for the dictatorship’s end. The government, hoping to ease the pressure, announced the opening of the border to West Germany. Citizens took sledgehammers to the hated Berlin Wall and broke it down. Political officials resigned to protest the continued rigidity of the ruling party and the party itself disintegrated. By March 1990 — a bit over two years after the campaign was launched — the first multi-party, democratic elections were held.
Students lead the way in Pakistan
In Pakistan, it was university students (rather than religious clerics) who launched the 1968-69 uprising that forced Ayub Khan out of office after his decade as a dictator. Case researcher Aileen Eisenberg tells us that the campaign later required multiple sectors of society to join together to achieve critical mass, especially workers.
It was the students, though, who took the initiative — and the initial risks. In 1968, they declared that the government’s declaration of a “decade of development” was a fraud, protesting nonviolently in major cities. They sang and marched to their own song called “The Decade of Sadness.”
Police opened fire on one of the demonstrations, killing several students. In reaction the movement expanded, in numbers and demands. Boycotts grew, with masses of people refusing to pay the bus and railway fares on the government-run transportation system. Industrial workers joined the movement and practiced encirclement of factories and mills. An escalation of government repression followed, including more killings.
As the campaign expanded from urban to rural parts of Pakistan, the movement’s songs and political theater thrived. Khan responded with more violence, which intensified the determination among a critical mass of Pakistanis that it was time for him to go.
After months of growing direct action met by repressive violence, the army decided its own reputation was being degraded by their orders from the president, and they demanded his resignation. He complied and an election was scheduled for 1970 — the first since Pakistan’s independence in 1947.
Why use nonviolent struggle?
The campaigns in East Germany and Pakistan are typical of all 40 cases in their lack of a pacifist ideology, although some individuals active in the movements had that foundation. What the cases do seem to have in common is that the organizers saw the strategic value of nonviolent action, since they were up against an opponent likely to use violent repression. Their commitment to nonviolence would then rally the masses to their side.
That encourages me. There’s hardly time in the U.S. during Trump’s regime to convert enough people to an ideological commitment to nonviolence, but there is time to persuade people of the strategic value of a nonviolent discipline.
It’s striking that in many of the cases I looked at, the movement avoided merely symbolic marches and rallies and instead focused on tactics that impose a cost on the regime. As Donald Trump wrestles to bring the armed forces under his control, for example, I can imagine picketing army recruiting offices with signs, “Don’t join a dictator’s army.”
Another important takeaway: Occasional actions that simply protest a particular policy or egregious action aren’t enough. They may relieve an individual’s conscience for a moment, but, ultimately, episodic actions, even large ones, don’t assert enough power. Over and over, the Global Nonviolent Action Database shows that positive results come from a series of escalating, connected actions called a campaign — the importance of which is also outlined in my book “How We Win.”
As research seminar students at Swarthmore continue to wade through history finding new cases, they are digging up details on struggles that go beyond democracy. The 1,400 already-published cases include campaigns for furthering environmental justice, racial and economic justice, and more. They are a resource for tactical ideas and strategy considerations, encouraging us to remember that even long-established dictators have been stopped by the power of nonviolent campaigns.
-via Waging Nonviolence, January 8, 2025.
the point of being alt is to break OUT of the box
hi so i keep seeing so so so many posts about people asking if they are punk because they do x,y,z or posts asking how to look more punk or more emo or more scene, and while theres nothing wrong with asking for fashion tips, music recs, advice, etc,
PLS REMEMBER, u should wear *WHAT YOU LIKE* and listen to music that *YOU* like!!
Labels are used to describe things! we shouldn't change our tastes and preferences to fit a label. that is literally the opposite of the point of being alternative. focus on becoming yourself, then worry about applying labels after! experiment, try new things! there is no rush.
i used to ask myself "does this outfit make me look emo/scene/punk/etc enough?" and i realized bruh what am i doing. it does not matter. labels describe me, not the other way around.
life is too short to constrict yourself to any label!!!
compilation
Y’ever read something and have understanding that has eluded you interminably suddenly stop, curl up, and snuggle neatly into a fold in your brain because a new way way opened to it?
I have received an important email. It's kind of a big deal, especially in the sad world we live in today.
Here's the article pictured above with working links.
So yeah, that's a thing. Lets let him know this is something we'll take seriously.
wanna be cuddled for like 4 or 5 days
JKR is once again attacking a woman of colour
idk if it's just me but i'm glad that the majority of people outside of here believe tumblr is a dead site because like i've been here for 13 years and like this is my house??? i don't need thousands upon thousands of people flocking here it'd be like inviting chimps to a house party total fucking carnage
Also btw trump recognizing only "the two biological sexes" harms intersex people too. I am a researcher of sex and it's affects on disease, and sex is far more complicated than "two sexes" and it always will be. Sex is multifaceted and there are far more than two binary sexes. Keep that in mind too. Don't fall into bioessentialism as you fight for trans people and intersex people.
There’s a reason these people are fucking stupid and proud of it.
remember kids
Artist 🎨: @vhsdogs
this tiktok screenshot ruined my life i need to see the serbian pigeon movie so so badly but it doesn't exist it's so foul to make this bad of a point with something so cool and then take it away from me.
op turned off reblogs but i want this post on my blog
every other website: highly tailored ads based off of your personal data
tumblr:
At first I was like “If he deduced you were trans, wouldn’t he deduce you hadn’t figured it out yourself as well” but… he probably wouldn’t have. that thought didn’t pass through his brain at all.
Whether someone is trans or not is not something the average person can decipher, although someone observant can certainly infer if someone is on the closet because of context clues, how they behave around different people and certain topics they might “close off” around. I can’t really tell if someone is a closeted gay, aromantic, asexual or trans, but my gaydar tells me that person is queer. However, Sherlock Holmes would probably never question it, for how could someone not deduce such a basic fact about their own identity by themselves, and would leave you in a gender crisis. That’s why he needs Watson, who would be very carefully listening to the exchange and would probably have a bit of a more empathetic approach.
sherlock holmes deduces you are trans before you've figured it out yourself and refers to you with those pronouns and then when you look confused is like "ah...had you not arrived at that conclusion yet?" and wafts away in his dressing gown to smoke seventeen pipes, leaving you in a gender crisis
A brief moment of rationality from the bird place.
“magic isnt real” — plants just grow out of the ground. for free. everywhere.
IM LAUGHING SO HARD I DIDNT THINK SEXUAL DESIRE WAS A REAL THING LIKE I ALWAYS SAW PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT HOW THEY WANTED SEX BUT I THOUGHT THEY WERE JOKING OR EXAGGERATING OR SOMETHING THATS WHY IT WAS SO HARD FOR ME TO REALIZE I WAS ACE BECAUSE I THOUGHT IT WENT WITHOUT SAYING SEX ISNT THAT IMPORTANT IM 19 YEARS OLD I CANT STOP LAUGHING LITERALLY 99% OF THE POPULATION EXPERIENCES SEXUAL DESIRE AND I THOUGHT IT WAS A JOKE
one of the most important things, perhaps the most important thing I have learned in my life is that nice people can fuck each other up in monstrous ways. people can be bone deep kind and loving and self reflective and still lash out under pressure. people can be earnestly neighbourly and charitable and hospitable and generous and still find themselves in situations where they become selfish. people can be well meaning and easygoing and gregarious and hold deep seated opinions that turn them into vicious little bullies under the right conditions. nobody is just one thing, and nobody stays one way. every person is a kaleidoscope and they will surprise you. you will surprise yourself. it's not a warning and it's not a judgement and it's not an excuse, and it's certainly not a reason to stop trying or to stop trusting. it is just a fact.
it is so over for me the day hozier makes an achilles reference. all his mixing of greek mythology with the idea that love is an act of violence/defiance against the world and we have yet to hear him make a metaphor out of how batshit achilles went in the iliad ...i think i would spontaneously combust actually.
I once knew a butch dyke who was all of 5’4 and 200lbs who had a truck that was lifted so high she needed to do goddamn acrobatics to get in (she basically had to jump and yank herself on the wheel to fully make it up, I watched her eat shit once or twice) and anytime someone asked why she didn’t just get a smaller truck she cited the fact that she liked picking up tall girls and they liked how high + roomy the cab was (and she liked when they needed a step up which meant she could give them a boost) and I think about the fact that that’s who those trucks were made for, not some dickhead named Cody who’s gonna put low profile tires on it
Common based butch W
having sex with your friends is so very normal please stop poisoning the youths minds with shame surrounding hooking up with your friends. especially if you’re gay
this is a tradition started when i was all of 5 yo and my mom told me “no” for some reason.
why am i always sad for christmas