Malicious Compliance Options for Opt-out Lessons

 Politico reported on June 27th that the Supreme Court had ruled "that Maryland's Montgomery County Public Schools violated parents' First Amendment rights to religious exercise by not giving them advanced notice or an opportunity to opt their children out of certain lessons."

Over at tumblr, nodynastyforus responded with a rather snarky post suggesting what malicious compliance might look like: Notify the parents of everything conceivable, and be as petty as possible.

• A lesson on a particular country will mention what the majority religion there is -> Notify parents that their children will hear that not everyone has the same religion as their family.
• Women are equal citizens to men -> Notify parents, because some of them cite Bible verses against equality.
• People of all skin colors are equal citizens -> Notify parents, because some are against this, in every part of the country.
• Meat will be discussed as a food -> Notify parents, because some are vegan for religious reasons.
• Languages other than English are taught or even just explained -> Notify parents, because some of them genuinely believe that God dictated the Bible to King James in English.
• A social studies lesson about the industries of California says that wine is one of them -> Notify parents, because some of them have religious beliefs against alcohol.
• Tobacco in North Carolina -> Notify parents, because some object to smoking for religious reasons.
• A music class is illustrated with a picture of an organ in a church -> Notify parents, because some don't believe in instrumental music in church.
• Teaching evolution, because some fundamentalists believe that all dinosaurs drowned in the Flood after trying to sink Noah's Ark.
• Blood transfusions, because one sect thinks they are immoral.
• Medical care in general, because some parents believe diseases can be cured by prayer alone.
• Holidays observed by various religions and cultures--someone is going to claim those observations are demonic.
• Interfaith marriage, because you can find Bible verses against this.
• Interracial marriage, because of the curse of Ham or some such vile nonsense.
• In fact, you better not mention any religion, because an atheist parent could conceivably object.
• Weapons, because some sects are strict pacifists.
• People dressing in conventional everyday clothing, because some religions have rules about modest dress. (Of course this is mostly but not entirely used against women.)
• Gambling, which some people oppose for religious reasons.
• Geometry and trigonometry, because some say π = 3.

gas and groceries (tumblr grab)

 Why do conservatives complain about the price of gas and groceries?

If you don't like the price of gas and groceries, just stop buying gas and groceries.

What's that? That's horrible advice?

Well, that's the exact advice you've been giving to other struggling people since the beginning of time. You've been nonchalantly defending the free market whenever it was harmful to others. You convinced yourself that those who are struggling deserve it until you became one. Then, you suddenly decided that it must be some deep state conspiracy instead of accepting that what's happening to you is exactly what you dismissed when it was happening to others.

Mountain Climbing

 

Grooming

 Extremely dangerous how "grooming" in the context of child sexual abuse went from being a very specific pattern of isolation and trust-building with the aim of abusing someone to "telling children anything that contradicts their parents' ultra-conservative worldview is grooming" to "selling rainbow flags in a store is grooming" to "literally anyone I don't like is a groomer".

These days the word seems to most often be used by people who don't care about what it actually means and just want an easy "this person is irredeemably evil, kill them now" button.

self-loving-vampire

snagged from tumblr: Empathy

 

“In my work with the defendants (at the Nuremberg Trails 1945-1949) I was searching for the nature of evil and I now think I have come close to defining it. A lack of empathy. It’s the one characteristic that connects all the defendants, a genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow men. Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy.”

—

Captain G. M. Gilbert, the Army psychologist assigned to watching the defendants at the Nuremberg trials

Quoting two Redditors:

“Conservatives attack empathetic people all the time. They invent new slurs just for empathy every 15 years, like “politically correct”, or “bleeding heart”, or “woke”, etc.Restricted or nonexistent empathy is a prerequisite for conservative ideology.”

“The entire conservative ethos, everything they say and do, is completely consistent when your starting point is: no empathy.The bad part is that a lack of fundamental empathy is a somewhat innate quality, established in your first few years.  It’s very hard to acquire later in life.  So a lot of conservatives are beyond redemption.“

Ethan Grey on the pandemic through a caste lens

 

You’ve no doubt mused at some point why the logic of “If we all just got vaccinated, the pandemic would be over. We wouldn’t have to wear masks anymore!” didn’t work with Trump’s base. For starters, you’re projecting your rational desire to see the pandemic end onto them.

The most important thing to Trump’s base is not ending the pandemic. The most important thing is ensuring the pandemic cannot be used as a pretext to alter the rules of society, and this is based on an awareness of who COVID-19 significantly affects. The moment that it was understood that COVID-19 disproportionately affects communities of color, the immunocompromised, and other vulnerable populations, Donald Trump’s base decided that the viral pandemic was acceptable.

Donald Trump himself best channeled how his base views the pandemic when he said this: “if you take the blue states out, we’re at a level that I don’t think anybody in the world would be at.” From Adam Serwer’s book “The Cruelty is the Point.”

Donald Trump did not see himself as being under an obligation to act as a President for all Americans, and his base was with him that regard. In him, they saw their own desire to ignore the issue if they perceived it was just Democrats being significantly impacted.

Obviously, wanting to conceive of the pandemic as a Democratic problem is not rational. But this calculation to not take the pandemic seriously was not being made with rational considerations in mind. It was made with notions of caste in mind.

The reality: Donald Trump’s base has a sense of occupying the dominant caste, they want to think of COVID-19 as a lower caste issue, and the dominant caste being forced to go out of its way to protect people perceived as lower in caste is a supreme violation of caste rules.

All subsequent discussion of how caste intersects with the pandemic will be based on this summary of the temperament of dominant caste behavior from Isabel Wilkerson’s book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.”

These two paragraphs make no mention of the viral pandemic, and yet I contend that they contain everything you need to explain the behavior of Donald Trump’s base throughout the viral pandemic.

Bear in mind the priorities of the dominant caste as you read ahead: to see itself as most correct. To refuse instruction from people outside of it. To ensure it has the power to put people in their places. To deny shared basic human experiences with anyone perceived as lower.

When the pandemic started taking off, the most heated debate was over having to wear masks. Why was there a debate? See this through the lens of caste: the dominant caste was being told to wear masks to protect themselves and potentially people outside of their caste. But according to caste rules, the dominant caste does not get told what to do. Not when it comes to protecting themselves, and most *definitely* not when it comes to protecting people perceived as beneath their station.

You’ve been rationally approaching the pandemic as a threat to your health & to the health of the people you care about. Trump’s base has approached the pandemic with a paranoid suspicion that the pandemic will be used as a pretext to upset a caste order that privileges them. For if those perceived as occupying the dominant caste are forced to go out of their way to protect people perceived as being outside of it, then their sense of dominance is a lie and their humiliation as seen through the lens of caste is complete.

We’ve also had debates over social distancing measures, suspending large indoor events, temporarily closing down indoor dining, etc. to control the spread of the virus. Why did Donald Trump’s base freak out when these were proposed?

See this through the lens of caste: the dominant caste, viewing itself as the zenith of society, is the one endowed with the power to put people in their places. To decide where people can go. Nobody is allowed to usurp this power from the dominant caste for any reason. What you see as rational measures to control the spread of the virus, they see as people outside the dominant caste attempting to seize their sense of power with respect to being able to put other people in their place.

Donald Trump recklessly holding rallies throughout the viral pandemic was precisely what they wanted. Because it was about reasserting the power that comes with being in the dominant caste: you can go where you want, do what you want, and behave how you want without consequences.

Their sense of identity is tied to being able to impose upon others and celebrating invulnerability from being imposed upon. That is why they view everyone who is laser-focused on following measures to reduce the spread of the virus as beneath their station.

When they speak of “freedom”, they speak of the “freedom” to not bear any responsibility in controlling the spread of the virus. Any responsibility to act better. The virus is beneath them. Therefore, the people who care about the virus are automatically viewed as beneath them. …

Furthermore, the dominant caste will immediately find the idea that people among other castes have the correct strategy for dealing with COVID-19 to be absurd. To view yourself as a member of the dominant caste is to view yourself as unassailable in knowing what should be done. …

Not acknowledging shared human experiences is the entire point of caste. Not acknowledging shared vulnerabilities is the entire point of caste. Because shared vulnerability ruins the entire point of feeling invincible, unassailable, compared to other human beings.

So let’s name the precise reason the pandemic has played out as it has: it’s because a society that responds to the viral pandemic with an earnest desire to protect the most vulnerable is a threat to caste, and that alarmed Trump’s base way more than the threat of the virus.

That’s the calculation Trump supporters made, and you know what it ultimately means: they chose caste over their own lives. They chose caste over the lives of their own children. They chose caste over your lives and the lives of your own children.

So that’s it. No more wondering what’s ultimately driving the behavior of Trump’s base during the viral pandemic. Their behavior during the pandemic is completely synonymous with their behavior before the pandemic. They are upholding America's caste system: white male supremacy.

Snagged from tumblr: Antifa

 A reminder that antifacism is a thing you DO, not an organisation you JOIN.

Calling a hotel and telling them a KKK chapter rented their ballroom for a meeting is antifa action

Pulling down posters promoting hate groups is antifa action (and if you do, use your keys, not your hands. Some groups put razor blades behind their postings to hurt anyone who takes them down)

Addressing local tensions in your community by participating in food drives and supporting disempowered folks can be antifacist, as facist groups will use community fears to stir up hate and gain power.

Going to an event where a figure whom fascists tend to align with and peacefully protesting is antifa action, whether that speaker thinks they’re fascist or not.

It’s not a club, religion, or organization. You don’t pay dues. Being antifa means actively trying to prevent fascism from being built, usually in local ways that respond to immediate community needs. If you see ANYTHING that talks about officially joining a group or organization, it is SUSPECT.

Unions: A tumblr Grab

rowantheexplorer 

Unions are why you have 5 day, 40 hour full-time work weeks. Unions are why they have to pay you in actual dollars instead of “company credits” that you can only spend at the company-owned stores. Unions are why there are f-- fire exits at your place of work. Unions are why it’s not okay for your supermarket ground beef to be any percentage human.

You think your company pays you out of the goodness of their hearts? Or even out of “market pressure?” The “job market” is a myth perpetuated by the capitalists. Corporations would pay you nothing if they could get away with it. And you argue “oh, but if they paid me nothing I’d just go to another one.” Wrong. Because to maximize profits, they all want to pay you nothing. Corporations exist to maximize profits while reducing risk for investors. It’s part of their entire function to find ways to cut costs as much as possible, and that includes finding ways to pay you nothing.

Unions are your defense against that. You think all a union does is strike? If you pay union dues, a lot of that is spent on lobbyists in various governments reminding your lawmakers that you have rights as a living human being that a corporation should not be able to stomp all over. Unions hire lawyers so that if you’re fired for bullshit reasons, the union can stand up for you against your boss. They’re called unions because workers are uniting to pool resources so that they can stand up to these corporate overlords with more money than God. Unions exist because you might not have the words, resources, or time to fight workplace injustices all by yourself. That’s the whole fucking point.

And if a business shuts down because a union is striking, it’s because the business was abusing people and didn’t deserve to be in business anyway. Don’t make excuses for the corporations. They already have trillions of dollars and a couple million lawyers to do that for themselves. They don’t need your help.

starfleet-louvelune 

All that and also, the idea that unions go to war whenever anything is done to any employee even for good reason, is: a lie.
It’s the same PR scam as the “old lady sued McDonald’s for millions because her coffee was hot” shit.

The *company* is the one that wants you to believe, just because they said so, that the firing was legit and the employee’s fault. But guess what? Doesn’t happen. When someone is fired for refusing or failing to do their job, the other employees are *relieved*, because they’ve been the ones catching the consequences.
Look a bit closer, and you find the union’s strike responds to OUTRAGEOUS moves, either “she got cancer and it would have been a drag on the company to finance her sick leave”, or “we made profit this year but not enough to our liking, so we’re cutting off 10% of the workers to pocket more."

Snagged from tumblr: Compensation

You cannot simultaneously demand a service, while dehumanizing the person who provides you with it, and demanding they not be compensated fairly.

howprolifeofyou

I work in a hospital. It’s also the worst flu season in recent years in my hospital. You know whose job is one of the most crucial for EVERYONE, doctors and medical staff included? Janitors. Go ahead and try to have a safe working environment, ESPECIALLY in the medical field, without them.

Tell me, do you know how to best create a medically safe work environment? Because I sure as fuck don’t, but the janitors do, and they know this while being on their feet and performing manually exhausting tasks for 8+ hours straight surrounded by caustic chemicals.

Same goes for fast food workers. Do you have any idea how much knowledge and physical work goes into working in a kitchen? Wanna tell me you put out grease fires, what temperatures different foods are stored in, and how to keep a safe working environment for both customers and workers in a job surrounded by hot oil, ovens and chemicals? Not to mention, again, being on your feet for 8+ hours in a hot kitchen being yelled at by customers constantly.

I promise you that these people do a more difficult and oftentimes more important job than a large portion of office jobs I’ve been in.

apersnicketylemon

Fun fact: In my neck of the woods, hospital janitorial staff union wanted a pay raise. Their workers were struggling. The hospitals laughed at them, so they went on full strike.

The hospitals were in crisis mode within an HOUR.

Surgical rooms were not being cleaned, toilets and patient rooms were not cleaned, garbage was not picked up, instruments that get reused were not being cleaned (i.e. scalpels, patient beds), laundry wasn’t done, floors were not clean, biohazard waste wasn’t collected.

The hospitals folded the next day and the union got EVERYTHING they asked for.

Now, you may not work in a hospital @purest-rain but wherever you do work, just imagine what might happen if… suddenly no one cleaned. No one picks up the trash in that fancy office. No one vacuums or sweeps, or cleans anything. Nothing. Not the toilets, not the offices. It might take a little longer, but pretty soon, those fancy law-offices look pretty gross, don’t they? Especially the bathrooms. I’ve cleaned bathrooms, I know exactly how disgusting people are when they use a toilet they don’t have to clean.

Stop shitting on low-wage workers just because you don’t understand how important their job actually is. You cannot simultaneously demand a service, while dehumanizing the person who provides you with it, and demanding they not be compensated fairly.

zombieabbyka

The fact that so many people are getting so defensive about this is disgustingly sad. If you think “anyone can do it” then YOU do it. The job is necessary for your convenience, so fucking be a little more goddamn appreciative.

lynati

Also, I suspect those who assume that the only people making poverty-level wages these days would be surprised to learn just how many “skilled” jobs, including those that require college degrees, are part of what we’re discussing.

And that given how many jobs *period* require college degrees, shitting on janitors and fast-food workers and such for not “earning themselves a better life” is synonymous with shitting on anyone who simply *couldn’t afford* to go to college in the first place.