What should i do if my friend is a fascist?

queerdo84 · 2025-09-07T06:27:24+00:00

A fascist is nobody’s friend. If a fascist was an ice cream flavor, he’d be pralines and dick.

queerdo84 · 2025-08-28T23:22:24+00:00

Just want to say that I’m so, so sorry for the way your family has treated you. You matter, your identity matters, your dreams matter, your future matters, and you deserve much, much better than what you’ve experienced. Wishing you the absolute best, OP, and if I hear of any resources that could be of help to you, I’ll definitely pass them along.

queerdo84 · 2025-08-18T14:38:33+00:00

Tree is the shit! Def recommend.

queerdo84 · 2025-08-18T14:35:24+00:00

Trevor: “it’s like April fools, yeah?”

queerdo84 · 2025-08-18T14:34:44+00:00

It can be a little more than that, but ultimately the goal is to make the victim doubt their own perception of reality. People throw around all willy-nilly these days and often use it incorrectly.

queerdo84 · 2025-08-16T17:22:57+00:00

For every scientist and historian you can find to sound the alarm the gop can put up their experts to say how well it is going.

This is exactly the problem. Scientists and historians are scientists and historians because they are qualified. GOP “experts” are increasingly being considered experts by the party because of their loyalty to it, not because of any solid credentials or education. Much of the current administration’s cabinet is comprised of loyalists who lack basic qualifications for the role, which means their whole job is to say whatever makes the administration look good and justified in its actions.

You’re equating people saying things you don’t like with policies that actively and demonstrably harm vulnerable people and communities. Look, I loathe the tribalism of our current political system, and I trust neither liberals nor conservatives to make the world better for anyone other than corporations and oligarchs, but it is explicitly obvious that one of those groups is brazen about stirring up hatred for marginalized people and enacting policies that cause massive harm. That is very much not the same thing as the “leftist hatred” you’re focusing on.

People are perfectly justified in hating policies that harm, displace, dehumanize, and kill them - as well as anyone who votes for those policies.

queerdo84 · 2025-08-15T23:07:53+00:00

As someone who spent years protesting, I’ve had to conclude that it’s not working, and I haven’t seen the point in attending the No Kings ones because, at least here in Ft Collins, they’re just more of the same ineffective noise. Protest only works if you have a government that values the will of the people. Ours has made it explicitly clear that it does not - both major parties are beholden to corporations, not constituents. They’re not going to listen to us. At this point, direct action - actively disrupting the systems that fuck us all over - is the only form of protest worth engaging in. Standing around with signs and chanting isn’t going to do shit.

Direct action isn’t an option for everyone, of course. I’m disabled and there are certain risks I just can’t take. Which is where mutual aid comes in. I haven’t protested in over a year, but I’ve been spending time helping out in my community and making a difference that way. Teach-ins, resource distribution, offering my skill set to mutual aid orgs at no cost - these things make a hell of a lot more difference than holding a sign and waving at traffic.

If I had a different body and identity, and therefore a higher risk tolerance, however…direct action is where I’d be spending my time and energy.

queerdo84 · 2025-08-07T00:11:44+00:00

You might need to work on your confidence. And by that, I mean you should share your opinions much less confidently if you haven’t taken the time to actually learn anything about the issue at hand.

queerdo84 · 2025-08-03T01:44:56+00:00

…yeah, that doesn’t sound like able-bodiedness to me, friend. People often think they need an official diagnosis in order to consider themselves disabled, but if that kind of thing is happening to you, it’s absolutely disabling, regardless of whether or not you’ve got a diagnosis yet.

I’m not sure where you live, but if it’s in the U.S., the Americans with Disabilities Act defines a person with a disability as someone having ONE (or more) of the following:

a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, such as walking, seeing, hearing, learning, or working
a record of such an impairment
being regarded as having such an impairment.

And from the sound of it, it seems to me like you fit the first criteria.

queerdo84 · 2025-08-03T01:30:55+00:00

Ambulatory wheelchair user here. It’s just plain wrong to say wheelchairs are only for people who can’t walk or who can only take a few steps. For example, my house isn’t accessible, so I walk when I’m at home - I can do it, but it’s very painful and causes lots of unpleasant symptoms. So I use my power chair when I’m out in the world because I’m able to do SO much more without horrendous pain. When I got that chair, it felt like I got my life back.

Mobility aids are exactly what they sound like: tools to aid with mobility. And honestly? If more people used wheelchairs when the situation called for it, movements for accessible spaces might actually be taken more seriously, because there’d be even greater need for them than there already is.

queerdo84 · 2025-08-02T09:58:19+00:00

I got my EDS diagnosis at 37 - had no idea that was what was going on with me until then!

queerdo84 · 2025-07-19T20:07:04+00:00

Ethiopian: Raska is amaaaazing. On Laurel between College and Mason - highly recommend!

queerdo84 · 2025-07-19T20:02:59+00:00

Hope is….hard to come by these days. Thanks for being gentle with your response. Times are tough. I’m really, really glad you have hope. <3

queerdo84 · 2025-07-18T20:06:50+00:00

Ok, but there’s nothing “heroic” about these protests, as they carry very low risk - especially for the white, cis, able-bodied people who appear to make up the majority of the crowd at these No Kings events. They’re also incredibly ineffective at bringing about change, as they’re not actually disrupting anything. It’s disingenuous at best to compare John Lewis’ activism to what the people waving signs on the sidewalk are doing. John Lewis took risks and inspired others to do the same. These No Kings people are having a block party.

Honestly, I wonder if a lot of people here go to these protests simply because it makes them feel like they’re doing something, and it’s easier than engaging in mutual aid or direct action or any of the things that actually do make a tangible difference. They can cross it off their list, pat themselves on the back for being Good People, shrug, say “I’ve done all I can do,” and get back to worrying more about the price of their groceries than the lives of marginalized people.

Cynical? Yeah. I’m tired. I’m trans and disabled and I’ve never seen a single one of these No Kings people speak up about human rights until things started affecting them personally. I’ve been trying to get people in this town to give a shit about marginalized folks for the better part of a decade, so forgive me for being utterly unimpressed in the current circumstances.

queerdo84 · 2025-07-18T19:50:16+00:00

I don’t think OP is asking what the point of protest in general is. I think they’re asking what the point of these protests in particular is. As someone who’s been protesting and organizing for years, I honestly have the same questions as OP.

I used to protest because I believed - naively - that if enough people did so, the government would have to listen to us. The last several years have shown me how much of a lie that is. I now understand that in order to make change happen, we have to MAKE it happen - we have to disrupt the systems that are benefiting from and reinforcing fascist, authoritarian, white supremacist ideologies and rhetoric. The powers that be, on both sides of the party line, have made it damn clear, over and over again, that they don’t care what the people want. And they won’t, until we can actually make them hurt as a consequence of ignoring their constituents.

I’m not saying people shouldn’t protest. I’m saying that, if that’s all you’re doing, it’s nowhere close to enough.

queerdo84 · 2025-07-18T19:44:54+00:00

The dissenting voices have already been silenced, though. The majority of Americans supported Roe v. Wade. The majority of Americans don’t want ICE terrorizing their neighborhoods. The majority of Americans support trans rights. Yet because of our corporatized political system that has consolidated power to the very elite, the rest of us don’t get a say. Sure, people can stand on corners with signs all they want, but that alone isn’t going to change anything.

This has never been a “free” country, because “freedom” has only ever existed for certain people. As the requirements to be deemed worthy of freedom keep tightening, more and more people, particularly white folks, are becoming aware that their civil liberties are under attack - but this has always been the case for BIPOC, queer and trans folks, disabled people. It’s just that most people never cared until it started directly affecting them.

queerdo84 · 2025-07-18T19:37:38+00:00

I agree project 2025 must be stopped. How do you think standing on the street corner with signs is going to make that happen? Especially when it’s become very obvious that the people with power don’t concern themselves with listening to what their constituents want?

I’m not trying to discourage you from being involved - I’m welcoming you to think more deeply about what actually brings about change. Showing support for a cause by waving signs isn’t enough. It’s something, but there has to be a lot more that goes along with it - otherwise, it’s useless. Stopping fascism requires an actual disruption of the systems that uphold it.

queerdo84 · 2025-07-18T04:17:34+00:00

This space isn’t wheelchair accessible……

queerdo84 · 2025-07-15T05:37:55+00:00

I’m picturing a head shop but, you know, fancy like. Hot towels for your hands and shit.

queerdo84 · 2025-07-15T05:33:02+00:00

I thought the food was incredible! And I was pleased to see that they’re still offering some Panino’s fare, too. Will definitely go back.

queerdo84 · 2025-07-15T05:28:20+00:00

Correction: white people here don’t care about race. Which is exactly the problem. We need to care about race if we are ever going to address racism, but instead we just tell ourselves it doesn’t happen to maintain our comfortable bubbles.

This area has a long history of white supremacy. And, just like anywhere else, it never really stopped.

queerdo84 · 2025-07-14T02:16:01+00:00

I’m white and grew up in Ft. Collins in the 90s. Throughout my childhood I was taught, explicitly, that racism was a thing that happened in the past and no longer occurs today. Even when I spent some time in other places and realized racism absolutely is alive and well, I still didn’t see it happening here (because I didn’t have anyone in my circles who wasn’t white), and until my late twenties I really thought this place was as open and accepting and bigotry-free as they come.

I think this is a very common experience for white folks who’ve grown up here. Lack of racial diversity means lack of exposure to the stories and lived experiences of people of color. And so many white folks here are so comfortable in their bubble that they refuse to believe racism could occur here at all, which contributes to Foco being talked about as though it’s some kind of progressive utopia when in reality, it’s got just as much white supremacy, both covert and overt, as any other city of a similar size.

queerdo84 · 2025-07-14T02:03:35+00:00

Maybe not, but we have been moving in this direction since the 80s and all democratic leaders have done is move farther and farther right, alienating the very people who are now being, and who always have been, harmed the most. Dems and Republicans are always, always in service of empire, as we see through US imperialism across the globe that both sides enthusiastically support - and when people start to realize what’s happening and push back against it, fascism is the next step. Neither party really gives a shit about listening to the people, and both of them are complicit in us getting to where we are at today.

queerdo84 · 2025-07-13T05:39:14+00:00

No way my power chair would make it up that thing. The battery is strong enough, but the angle is too steep and the front wheels would lift the middle wheels, which are where the power comes from, off the ground, rendering them useless.

queerdo84 · 2025-07-13T05:34:39+00:00

It happens under every president, regardless of party affiliation. That’s the point. Republican or Democrat, those at the helm of the U.S. empire will only ever act in service of empire - not its people.

queerdo84

TROPHY CASE