so… nowadays, a far bit of my posts get at least a hundred notes. which invariably leads to a bunch of people commenting and dissenting and ~arguing~/~debating~

so as a gentle reminder to everyone: I cannot be reasoned with

i”m totally willing to discuss things with people. but a discussion isn”t a debate. you don”t necessarily need to prove me wrong to state your perspective and your opinion. you also don”t need to prove yourself right.

more importantly: i”m willing to listen.

when people respond to my posts with a serious, sincere, and personal reply… i usually just listen.

also? i don”t think people realize just how much i read and listen and think before i sit down and write. this post has been floating around in my brain for at least a week. by the time i”m willing to commit something to paper and push past my anxiety about fucking up/being wrong/being oppressive, i”m fairly confident in my ideas.

but if i cannot be reasoned with, what am i”m listening to?

i listen to people”s stories. their stories about themsevles, about their lives, about their oppression, about their resistance, about their failures, their successes, the mundane trivial shit they think no one cares about, their theories about whatever, their feelings, their worries, etc.

note what is missing: i”m don”t listen for their arguments, their reasoning, their ability to write coherent/long/rational treatises about whatever the fuck.

if i wanted that stuff, i”d read more academic writing (which i do, periodically). i have a giant queue of pdfs and shit waiting for me to read.

the comments and responses i tend to seriously consider usually involve someone reacting on a personal level or sincere curiousity.

re: sincere curiousity. obviously, this depends on my perception and i don”t really give a fuck. like. i can tell the difference between this ask and this ask. and no, i”m not talking about the politeness. one person is clearly asking about and responding to something i”ve written, while the other person? not so much.

but the inability to reason with me actually goes further than this

i”m very much of the sincere belief that the only way forward is to give all stolen indigenous land back to its peoples¹. is to redistribute all the wealth white people have stolen (esp. to the descendants of enslaved people in the americas). for every super rich white person whose wealth is grounded on exploitation and the destruction of the planet to be, idk, ejected into space. for trans women of colour to rule the earth (this one is more of a joke, okay?).

and? i want this all now. and i don”t really much care how this is accomplished. peaceful revolution? okay. violent revolution? okay. white ppl to finally grow a conscience and a sense of responsibility and just do the right thing for once? sure.²

look. i can see the signs: white ppl”s greed has driven the planet to the absolute brink of ecological devestation. by most scientific accounts we need to drastically change how things are done if we want a fighting chance at survival. and since all that capitalists are really doing is deferring this ecological devestation to the poc countries where they can get cheap labour, there is no real reason to believe that they”ll do what is necessary.

i cannot be reasoned with because hundreds of years of reasoning with our oppressors has gotten us to this point, which is better than 200 years ago, but isn”t nearly enough.

because….

we haven”t managed to convince them of the most basic and necessary fact:

we are human

and

we should be free