I'm Done With Warnings

Holy fuck. The trans community. Or at least, portions of it.

Try to warn some people that their house is on fire, and not only will they throw stones at you for being an annoyance, for pointing out the obvious, or for misunderstanding your motives for warning them, but they will then launch into personal attacks, character assassinations and even issue threats.

Like, what are you going to do to me from the USA, dahling? Throw a ballistic handbag at me? Call me names? Send me some sternly worded hate mail?

Some people don't like to hear the truth, and can't handle it when they do hear it. Why should I have to sugar-coat the warning "y'all are going to end up in concentration camps if you don't pack up and move somewhere else that's safe"?

The Western Lie Unraveled: Why I Condemn Israel, Not Hamas

If you've been following my social media posts, you will know that I've been an ardent critic of Israel's genocide in Gaza. Even so, there's something I need to get off my chest, and it's something I've been carrying with me for a while now. Please bear with me a minute.

I wish to state for the public record, that back in 2023 when Oct 7 happened and Israel began it's open bloody genocide in Gaza, I was still very much under the influence of most Western media and the narrative that Hamas were "terrorists", an "illegitimate" wannabe government pushing for an independent state in the middle of Israel, and essentially just a band of troublemakers and malcontents - as Israel had spent the last 80 years telling everyone. At the start, I was somewhat horrified by the publicized attacks by Hamas on "innocent Israelis".

But something was very "off" about the whole thing. 

Forsooth Diderot, Viva Chromatica

In 50 more years, will those born after look back at where we are now, and think of the horrors we are witnessing today - war in Ukraine, fascism on the rise globally, the collapse of the USA and the slippage of its mask of pretend holiness - the raging, unchecked genocide in Gaza - like we look back now at the genocides committed by previous colonizing and cultures?

In South America? North America? Africa? Australia? New Zealand? Asia? In a hundred different lands, in a hundred different times, places and cultures - in a hundred different faces in black and white and grey staring back at me from pages and screens, from the other side of Time, in documentaries... their testimonies - evidence of lives that were shattered, minimized, dehumanized, ruined, forever changed and even extinguished in the hallowed names of God, Christianity and the almighty, pristine, blameless Western Civilization and its perverse denial of universal Humanity? 

What will this moment in time look like from 50 more years hence? Will it be, on a day when I'm no longer here on this Earth, in Gaza then as it is in Auschwitz now? In Treblinka? In a hundred new blood-soaked ash-strewn fields of horror and tragedy yet to come? Will they be preserved as horrors and outrage against decency and what it means to be human - as indecent and imperfect beings? Or memorials of shocked humanity, as splinters, burning, lodged in ravaged Conscience? Salves and tokens to be observed, respected in ways never shown the victims? Or mocked and dismissed as "fake news" or "woke liberal fantasy" by "influencers", apologists and revisionists? Or will they be long paved over in streets of greed, hotels, pleasure palaces and gilded with obscenity and vile, vapid towers of "Progress" and amnesia, whereon nasty wealthy scabs and carbunkles frolic and play?

I look back over my years, my half century, and hold in one hand all I was taught - by teachers, histories, the general narrative, popular beliefs, and in the other - all that I have learned. The incongruities between them - the disparities - are immense and horrifying. The world I thought I lived in is revealed as a bold-faced lie, a pleasant fascade to cover up for the lies, deceit, brutality, conquest and greed that twisted the world into what it is... to protect and invent the reputations and positions of powerful white "Christian" men subject to insatiable greed - and always has been.

Beware the tools, my children, the tools of the System: "civilization", "morality", "law and order", "education", "freedom" - all these are illusions easily distorted and subverted to serve it, but most dangerously of all these, is "religion" - and those who hold the power to wield these. 

Truth - in truth - is not subjective, nor objective. How we perceive it, or accept it - or not - is. But it remains true, regardless.

Diderot was right.

Please Pass the Shame: A Meal with a Side of Hypocrisy

Tonight I sit in a restaurant eating a lovely meal, when a news feed on a big screen catches my eye.

1.8 million Palestinian hostages in Gaza are being starved to death by Israel. Skeletal figures appear on the screen, motionless, fading, the sparkle in eyes lined with suffering, gone. The food sours in my mouth.

Israel calls it a "military operation" and the BBC reports Netanyahu says he's going to "expand" it.

No remorse. No horror. No regrets.

The BBC calls this outrageous display of blatant genocide a "war" - despite any sign of actual combat or military resistance - and interviews the brother of an Israeli hostage - who apparently has been starved along with his Palestinian captors. Who really starved him? Is that not Israel? Of course it is.

Some "war".

Bonfire Of The Inhumanities a.k.a. The Great Israel-Gaza Shit-Show

I just got called 'anti-Semitic' for commenting on a shared quote by JFK in the 1960s (oddly enough shortly before he was assassinated) in which he criticized Zionism, for saying that I thought it was possible that it was why he was assassinated...

The quote was later found to be fake, but nevertheless, I feel my comment was relevant in the light of the information available at the time. Even so, my suggestion was taken to be 'anti-Semitic' and 'offensive'.

'Offensive' I understand - people are 'offended' by all sorts of things all the time. Most of the time, there's an increasing reason to be offended. Sometimes, though, that reason is that they're idiots.

"Anti-Semitic"...

I shit you not.

Let's take a closer look at this issue, shall we? Firstly, do the people using it even know what anti-Semitism is?

The Pride Flag Murder - A Reflection

Last week in California, Laura Ann “Lauri” Carleton, a 66 year old woman was shot dead in cold blood by someone who can only be described as a domestic terrorist who took issue with a rainbow flag displayed outside her business. 

The terrorist in question was named as one Travis Ikeguchi, a slavering and brainwashed devotee of the Trump/MAGA cult.

While this event may appear at first glance to be a simple hate crime, or yet another commonplace shooting incident, one of many that has already taken place across the USA just this year alone, there are actually more facets to this event than initially meet the eye.

About That Blank Check

A topical favorite of religious people, particularly conservative Christians, is so-called 'sexual immorality'. 

 What is that exactly? 

To the rational mind, that would mean sexual-related activity which (so long as all participants are willing, consenting adults) results in harm to another person, or creature.

A system creates shame and then creates a means of absolving the shamed of their shame, provided they adhere to the rules of those who run the system. Convenient. 

SA Government Fails Human Rights Mandate Through Tacit Support For Ugandan 'Kill The Gays' Law

Uganda has passed the much publicized "Kill the Gays" Bill this past week.

In response to this hateful law, countries supplying aid to Uganda have suspended their aid and openly condemned these heinous acts in Uganda. Norway, Denmark and Netherlands have done so, and there is talk of the UK and USA following suit, as well as several more European countries including Sweden.

South Africa - the supposed "shining light" in Africa however has done absolutely NOTHING so far, aside from quietly releasing a very short, very weak and very vague statement on its website referring to "international homophobia" to say it will "look for clarity".

Russia Has Lost It's Soul... And Its Mind

Russia has begun a very enthusiastic crack-down on LGBT people, and it's using Christian religion and junk-science being peddled by Scott Lively as justification. It's very concerning. Unfortunately this is what happens when religious conservativism is allowed to run riot, and when that very important line between church and state is erased.

Uganda Again Set To Pass 'Kill The Gays Bill' - Followed by Nigeria

What can I say about this, folks - except "I told you so"? 

I've warned about it since I first started this activist blog, after all. 

The Burning Question

A general look at similarities between some persecuted minority groups in SA, based upon differences in  race, sexual orientation, and religion or spiritual beliefs - and the similarities in the methodology of their persecution.

In this article I will broadly discuss my perception of the current situation in South Africa, in conjunction with general reference to "the Stanton Report", a model which assesses the make-up of a genocide, and to which the UN also refers. Broadly, the Stanton Report, developed and presented to the UN in 1996, demonstrates the different stages of the development of social discrimination into a full-blown genocide. There are 8 of these stages in the model, and these show how the removal of civil rights and legal protections of a social minority group is usually followed by vilification and persecution of that group, and that the persecution of the group is the real intended goal of removing such legal protections in the first place. 

Cry, Emo Kid - They Really ARE Out To Kill You

I was shocked and saddened today, when I saw news articles of STATE SANCTIONED AND ENCOURAGED MASSACRES in Iraq. 

The target of these unholy act of unspeakable barbarism? LGBT people, feminists - and Emo kids. That's right - Iraqi religious police assisted by fanatic religious militia - and relatives of the victims, have been abducting and murdering people - including children - because they don't approve of their hairstyles, dress, or if they happen to appear a little too masculine or feminine to their liking, for their idea of "appropriate" gender! 

Nobody is safe from their brutality and terrorism - not even children! 

Monsters!

Will Somebody Please Think Of The Children?

I regularly meet a friend of mine, who is a Christian reverend, for drinks at a local coffee shop. We enjoy casual chats about religion, persecution and human needs and frailties. He mentioned to me that there is no ONE Christianity, but many, and that today there are more than 200 different formally identified "mainstream" denominations - or "churches" around the world. Ironically, each one considers itself to be the ONE TRUE Christianity, or at least, the face of it.

A Place In The Sun

No matter what I am or what I have done, I am also just as human and just as flawed and vulnerable as anyone who thinks they are perfect, or stronger, or better than me. 

 

Nevertheless, it seems there are always people who think that because I am not straight like them, and not living the gender I was born in, that I am "anti-social", have a persecution complex, a huge chip on my shoulder, and am either less intelligent than they are, or that I am just plain stupid.

Free Hate Kills

You believe in freedom of speech, don't you? How about freedom of religion? You believe in that? I know I do. But every so often there are people who come along demanding that some forms of freedom of speech or expression of their religious beliefs are actually "hate speech" - like those nasty deviants and trolls, the homosexuals. Know what I mean? 

No?

Well let me tell you. A few years ago Uganda (yes - that Uganda, the little country in central Africa that most people in the Western world need to look for on a map to see that it is an actual place and not some fictional setting in a novel or a suburb somewhere in Soweto) started cleaning house and tidying up all the loose ends. 

Home Truths

I think everyone should experience what its like to lose their rights, even just for an hour or two, so they know how it hurts when you think how it might be to go through life being made to feel like a second-class citizen - a pariah, based solely on something you ARE, something you can't change or help being - something those in power see as wrong or undesirable, particularly for no good reason other than they feel like it, or their old favorite excuse - "cos we say so".

I imagine it would do people like Errol Naidoo, the South African Deputy Minister of Home Affairs (Gigaba), The Minister of Arts and Culture (Lulu Xingwana), Pastor "God-Squad" Ray McCauley and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni (to say nothing of our own Kiddie Amin) a world of good. Dr. James Dobson too - even though he has been put out to pasture recently, he has left a legacy of hatred and prejudice (and a trail of misguided parents a mile wide) that can be called his hallmark - the so-called "Culture War" we still feel the effects of today.

Right Man Speak With Forked Tongue

The way some pastors and religious figures speak so enthusiastically and even gleefully of others they disapprove of going to hell, one could probably picture them picking up a phone (a red one, of course) and calling the hot-line to make reservations for 70 billion or so people, give or take one or two last minute changes. In the far corner, right near the flaming inferno and the tar-pits. Smoking or non-smoking?

Behind The Benevolent Facade Of Eugenics, A Genocidal Monster Lurks!

Most of us know the biblical legend of Adam and Eve. Eve, being the wife of Adam, made from Adam's rib and created (at least according to the patriarchal fairy tale) subservient to Adam. Not many people actually are aware that Eve was God's second attempt. That's right - Adam, the first man, was a divorcee. (So much for the so-called sanctity of marriage, James Dobson.) Adam's first wife was Lilith - and Lilith unlike Eve, was created equal with Adam - but she questioned the authority supposedly given Adam over her by God. And she didn't like the idea of a life in servitude. And who among us today can blame her? Because of Adam's treatment of her, she rebelled - making her the very first feminist - and human rights activist!

Consequently, Lilith is often regarded as a heroine for feminists. Lilith, for her pains and for daring to challenge Adam's patriarchal position as head of "the family", was ostracized by God, and chased out of Eden. According to lore and myth, both ancient Hebrew and Mesopotamian, Lilith was turned into a night-demon - and among other things, has been called the "mother of all Vampires". (Now there's one for the Twilight fans!)

Out Of Focus

Has anybody taken note of what's happening in our northern neighbor Zim-BOB-we lately? 

 

Not only did they refuse to include the human rights of their pink community in the negotiations for their country's new constitution - but they are now saying they will build criminalization and punishments for homosexuality into it as well.

Can't say I'm the least bit surprised.

Sad, but true.

Making The Difference

I want to focus today on Africa, and African affairs. Of late, African countries all around South Africa have been flaunting an increase in their peculiar brand of homophobia, laced with ignorance - often deliberately willful ignorance - on matters of medicine, science, fact - and tasting remarkably of religious fundamentalism. 

 

Relating to this issue, an item came across my inbox today, which was forwarded to me by a friend. It was a message from an ACDP support group on Facebook, and it went as follows:

"Jo-Ann Downs May 27, 2010 at 2:28pm Subject: DRC visit

I am off to Lubumbashi in DRC tomorrow to teach about 1000 Church leaders about getting involved in improving the country. Need lots of prayer. There are so many terrible things happening to women and children I hope to really make a difference."

This of course, is where the ACDP completely crosses the line between religion and politics, and works to blur the line separating church and state as well - which it already does, simply by existing as a registered political party.