Intolerance
Hot weather and fascist hellscapes
It’s too hot. Halifax is in the middle of a heat wave; with the humidity, temperatures feel like they’re in the high 30s. I learned that autistic people are more heat intolerant than the general population, and it makes a lot of sense. I never really liked bright, hot and sunny days because I would be more prone to headaches; add an SSRI to the mix and my tolerance goes down even further. There are things I would love to accomplish on any given day, but for now I just want to spend my evenings laying in bed with the fan on.
I don’t have any new stories, just the same old thoughts that have swirling around in my brain for years. The same thoughts that tend to make their way into my posts here.
I should try to spend less time on my phone. Social media’s such a time-sucker; I don’t know what I’m even looking for when I open it anymore.
It’s just so disheartening to read the news, especially the last glut of SCOTUS decisions that came out1. The Leonard Leo Six may as well have ended their 6-3 rulings with “HAHAHAHAHAHA!" I think being exposed to white evangelical Christianity has made me a little hypersensitive to the worldview that Project 2025 is hoping to impose on the United States (and by extension, the world), but I don’t think a lot of people really understand just how organized, prepared and entitled those who subscribe to that ideology are. As much as they use words like “freedom” and “liberty”, it’s really just the newest manifestation of the drive for power and control, couched in religiosity as if invoking God somehow legitimizes their cruelty and joylessness.
Whether there’s a God or not should have no bearing on how we treat people. We may be responsible for the well being of others, but the idea that some people are intrinsically property to control is just abhorrent. That’s why I can’t get behind the whole “parents rights” movement that’s rising in opposition to LGBTQ rights, and that’s why Dr. James Dobson has been such a toxic influence on society2. I’m disgusted that the powerful are looking for ways to make even more people vulnerable, to force them to choose between exploitation, punishment, or death. When you gain a certain amount of power over somebody, keeping that power often becomes the primary goal.
I keep thinking about when the Taliban blew up those giant Buddhas in Afghanistan years ago. I can see a Christian Nationalist government doing something similar to pretty much anything that doesn’t reflect their beliefs.
This song originally came out over 40 years ago, but it’s probably even more relevant than ever these days.
I had similar feelings when Roe v. Wade was overturned, and even wrote a blog post right after it happened. It probably expresses my thoughts more clearly than I’m able to these days.
If you want to learn more about the damage he inflicted, I recommend the podcast Focus On Your Own Family Trigger warnings abound, of course.
Great post. Thanks for sharing Bronwyn. I agree with everything you are saying, particularly the "parents rights" - forcing children to go against their intrinsic natures, catastrophically damaging and, in my opinion, child abuse. Children need adults in their lives who will accept them for what and who they are, and denying minorities access to medical professionals who are compassionate, who understand what it is to be trans, is horrible. I fail to understand why the J.K. Rowling cadre are so invested in persecuting people who are already marginalized, already in danger, and are harming no one. I am so sorry, I understand why this is depressing and heartbreaking to try to process. We seem to be going backwards, yet, one thing I am hopeful of, is that transphobes will be on the wrong side of history. To me, it is inherently idiotic to believe there is some sort of deity that disapproves of what gender one identifies, or whom one chooses to love. My father was raised in draconian Catholic boarding schools in the 1950s, and, as a child, he recognized the hypocrisy of sexual repression of monstrous church representatives.
Funny how the Bruce Cockburn song that's been replaying incessantly in MY head lately is "If I Had a Rocket Launcher."