Melbourne

It’s great to have got the libs out.

But I still feel uneasy. In addition to Cheeto Chaplin’s attacks the UK recently ruled that trans women legally aren’t women and are banned from women’s bathrooms, and so of course in Australia there have been recent protests against trans people and against anti-hate speech laws protecting LGBTIA+.

The arsetrumpet catchphrase about not needing to be welcomed to your “own country” (it’s not white peoples country) led to it being shouted and booed at an Indigenous elder speaking at an Anzac service.

There’s also been a lot of anti-immigration sentiments being fomented and backlash against harm reduction like injecting rooms. Even with the election over that has to have stirred a certain element up.

Regardless of laws Australia picks up culture wars like a sponge.

Also on a personal level there are groups that I can’t form community and solidarity with past an ideological level due to the credible risk of harm to me. 😐 I both support harm minimisation but can’t do irl outreach like volunteering with people who have been intimidating me, stealing from me and trying to break into my house.

I could lobby for methadone to be subsidised to try and reduce the desperation and crime in my area but I don’t have the resources for activism, particularly the organised kind. I’m barely keeping myself and puss alive.

And the left loves eating itself. I’m hesitant to get involved with any of the groups even if I was well enough. Purity spirals I’ve experienced in the past actually led to me distancing myself for a long time and it seems to be kicking up again.

Also marginalised groups I’m trying to be an ally to online (according to actions they’ve said they want) are locked in a defensive stance, reacting with suspicion and shade.

No idea what I could even do that wouldn’t be derided as performative and tokenistic