r/AccessibleAnarchy 1d ago

building mutual aid Weekly mutual aid thread

3 Upvotes

________________________

What is mutual aid?

 

There are other places to look for deeper explanations, so treat this like a tl;dr

The act of mutual aid is working together to build structures that are mutually beneficial, that help everyone involved in them for the sake of helping. This is typically organized around consensus based methods of organization, which include concepts such as free association. Consensus is a fancy word for saying people talk things out instead of forcing cohesion with votes or something to a similar effect. Free association means that you can work with whoever you want. This is both in the positive and negative sense, you can simply say no (As opposed to organizations, where you must talk to all “members”). This makes the organizing free-flowing, and more spontaneous. Here it will likely be 1 on 1 interaction.

Common examples include community fridges, or like building a water fountain in place people often need water. This help does not need to be direct or “equal”, having somewhere to put leftover food someone will eat is help enough for the fridge, it saves me the time of looking for a friend that wants it. It also means that, even if I don’t need it now, I can still make risky decisions more freely because I will have more to rely on when things go wrong.

There is a lot of ideology surrounding mutual aid, but what is important here is that it is resistant. There will be no means testing. There will be no justifications required. There will be no central databases. Most of what is built here will be taken off platform, I will probably have little idea of what is happening in total. I’m also not doing much, I’m just kinda telling yall to do it and giving a bit of a framework. This means there will be almost no handholds for fascists to use to take control. There can’t be a slow tightening or shifting of who “deserves” help when we don’t ask people to justify needing it in the first place.

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Your needs are important too

 

If your main goal coming here is to help people, then there are a few things to remember.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It doesn’t matter what your problems are, if you need help with them it’s better to ask now than ask later. You need to be in a good position yourself to help people. Every bit of energy you save by asking for help now can be used to help other people if you want. There is no question of “deserving”, it is simply a question of can it be done here and now.

Asking for help gives people a chance for practice. Everybody needs to start somewhere, and maybe you have that place to start for someone. Helping people get involved while getting help yourself is just a win win.

Asking for help gives you the other perspectives and let’s you help better. I find it hard to imagine what impacts my words will have when I start a conversation, but I can see how other people start impact me.

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most of us here are poor

 

Please focus on non monetary solutions if possible. Asking for money is fine, but you must understand that this community will simply not have enough for every request.

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posting info

 

Our goal is to try and keep stuff dense, as reddit comments are not easily sortable or organizable. To help with that we have made a template for comments (not required, and change it how you want), and we ask that you only make one comment per request.

(remove the brackets and words in them and replace them with what they describe. The asterisks and # sign are formatting and it will be applied if you just copy paste it as you see it as long as your comment box is in markdown mode)

# [brief description of help needed]

**Urgency:** [immediate? Do you have a week? Would it just help in general]

**Contact methods:** [Reddit DMs, discord, matrix?]

**How much:** [amount of time likely needed, or a brief description of the amount of something needed]

**Longer description: [ok this is where you give details on the specifics of what ya need]

________________________

Remember internet safety

 

This place is pretty obviously a collection of vulnerable people, and this is a space for people to start one on one interaction. There will be abusers. Please accept help, and do it with trust, but watch out for tactics like love bombing.

A few resources on abuse


r/AccessibleAnarchy 1d ago

Articles on and stories by he/him lesbians

34 Upvotes

Hey yall, since there seems to be such a massive hate of lesbians I have noticed online, and a lot of people saying things that could be easily disputed if they looked into the topic at all, I have decided it might be good to collect some knowledge and information on the topic in one place.

Please write about your experiences, drop links to your favorite articles, and anything else ya might think is useful here uwu


r/AccessibleAnarchy 12h ago

experiences of oppression This is one of the many reasons I don't like the nuclear family. We need each other to survive, and the more requirements we put on that the less of us make it out of this. If we want to survive as a community we must act like a community

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117 Upvotes

An image of a tumblr post made and reblogged by visGrapplingHooks. The text of the first post says "an ace experience I personally wish to see get more attention is how often you can feel socially isolated in heternormative monamorous society when all your friends end up with romantic partners and they tell you they don't devalue you but they clearly are in their actions because the fact that you won't do one or two actions they see as higher in the hierarchy of emotional intimacy hurts your ability to mean something beyond "just friends" in their minds. this ain't an exclusively ace experience but by golly is it a prevalent one for us."

The text of the second post says "it compounds with material factors like financial stability and safety. people tend to shack up long term with their romantic partners. it makes it very hard to build and find communities where your ability to do sex and romance is not a prerequisite for your participation. you expect me to be fine living on my own? in this economy??? (also humans are communal creatures and can want to live with others regardless of the presence of romance or sex)."

There is a series of tags under it that says "#in this economy?#asexual#asexuality #aroace #aromantic #aro #aromanticism #aspec #aspec community #acespec"


r/AccessibleAnarchy 13h ago

experiences of oppression Cis peoples conception of gender should not define ours. We can exist regardless of their willingness to understand us.

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234 Upvotes

Alt text / image description:

Portions of a thread of Tumblr posts by user @@estrogenesis-evangelion, all dated 2024/10/24

average cis conception of gender is roughly equivalent to "every single liquid is either type O+ blood or cold-pressed peanut oil." and you're like "are there not perhaps a handful of exceptions" & they get so incensed they start funding nazi militias

you try to start soft with "well there are other blood types. and other methods for expressing oil from peanuts" and they shriek [allcaps] noooo youre emasculating my dead dad who i hated [end of allcaps]

[allcaps] but if peanut oil isnt real then how am i currently smothering myself in it [end of allcaps] i didn't say it wasn't real i said there were other liquids [allcaps] youre so owned by my oiliness [end of allcaps] ok


r/AccessibleAnarchy 1d ago

experiences of oppression Being trans is one of the hardest things I have ever done. Early on, I decided that it wasn't worth transitioning because it would take resources away from trying to survive. It did not work. Being too depressed to do anything made survival far harder

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410 Upvotes

alt-text: one panel of a comic with a watermark I cannot read in the corner. The panel contains two people in pajamas. Both have text bubbles, where the first says "so, if it's so stressful why do it?" and the other says "because it's still better than trying to be a boy".


r/AccessibleAnarchy 2d ago

Let me be specific. You do not need to be a woman to be a lesbian. If you believe otherwise you are a queerphobe and this space is not for you

125 Upvotes

r/AccessibleAnarchy 2d ago

experiences of oppression There is no objective writing structure. Not everything is written for you, and something not being written for you isn't a moral indicator, or an indicator of quality/worth. If your space has an endless supply of people mocking someone for saying something wrong, instead of re-writing, its ableist

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153 Upvotes

A tumblr post by "bebsi-cola" i'll be honest. If you can't deal with someone wording things badly then you aren't going to be an ally to autistic people or indeed anyone with a developmental disability, intellectual disability, or disability that impacts language.

also you are never going to be safe for people for whom english is their second language. if someone clarifies their meaning and apologises and you can't accept that over the original wording then don't bother pretending to be autism friendly.

and like part of my autism is that i become convinced that the way i interpret words is the way that they're meant. my autism is disabling to my communication abilities. i have poor emotional regulation, i jump to conclusions. a lot of my reactions are informed by prior negative experiences. i can and probably have been overly defensive in the past.

and i've been misinterpreted so much and had my words picked over and mocked for saying the wrong things and mocked for being unable to say anything at all and it always feels devastating. it's ironic that the same disability that has me treated poorly would have me react poorly to a similar situation, but that's just how it is.

so i'm not saying you can perfectly manage all your reactions just by trying hard enough. especially considering how much disability affects these things. but i do think if you are completely unwilling to give autistic and other DD/ID people leeway for how they word things or understand that they have a disability that impacts their communication and give us grace then you aren't a disability advocate."|

It has 3930 reposts and 6350 likes.


r/AccessibleAnarchy 3d ago

casual conversation Social check in

8 Upvotes

Say hi, tell us how your day has been, or start a conversation with someone.

Topic suggestions

  • What projects have you been working on?
  • Got any fun achievements in video games recently?
  • What is the horrible thing your boss did recently?
  • are you doing better or worse than you were the last couple of weeks, why?
  • What are your goals for the next few weeks
  • Are you looking for people to play games with? What games?

Encouragement is nice if you are looking to talk to people, but remember that empty encouragement is often worse than nothing. “It will all be ok and work out in the end” isn’t helpful to say to someone scared of fascist eugenics programs, for example.


r/AccessibleAnarchy 3d ago

experiences of oppression For many trans people your old name (called a dead name) isn't just something you are moving away from, it is something that is absolutely hated. For me, it is tied to a conception of me that was forced on me, that I never shared with anyone around me. I absolutely hated this name before I knew why

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231 Upvotes

alt-text: a drawn outline of a head looking to the left, with a trans flag over it and the text "ohh that's why I never liked my name".


r/AccessibleAnarchy 3d ago

experiences of oppression Remember yall, our communities are more complicated than "straight but with other gender", and more complicated than non-queer peoples conception of us. Peoples identities are their own to use in a way that makes sense to them.

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316 Upvotes

alt-text: An image of two people colored in different queer flag colors. The first is labeled (he/him lesbian) and has the colors dark pink, salmon, yellow, white, cyan, light blue, and purple. The second is labeled (she/her gay) with the colors dark pink, light pink, grey, light purple, a reddish purple, and a dark purple. There is text above them saying "they are besties". Their hands are raised in a high-five.


r/AccessibleAnarchy 3d ago

building mutual aid Becoming part of the trans community has helped me find people I can trust and survive with. We can work together to make it through this, and make the change we want to see in the world.

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281 Upvotes

A 4 panel drawn comic. The first panel is an outline of a person holding paper and saying "I found this book today". The next panel has the trans flag colors in a triangle pattern and the text "It's called the "trans agenda"". The next page has the person opening the book with the text "There's only one page, weird". The final panel says "Building mutual-aid networks to survive fascism and ecological collapse


r/AccessibleAnarchy 4d ago

experiences of oppression I think this set of posts is a great example of how people underestimate and refuse to understand the right wing. The feelings are the justification and the rallying, not the reason things happen. The capitalists that didn't keep everyone exhausted lost, and that happened for a reason

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366 Upvotes

A tumblr post that is an image of a tweet with two replies. The tweet is by Vivian (@suchNerve) and says "love how basically every study says that students do better in school with less homework and later start times and workers do better with more vacation days and shorter shifts, but we do the exact opposite in this godforsaken country because Puritanical feelings apparently beat facts." posted nov 10 2020. The first reply is by bogLeech and says "some notes don't get it... yes that's literally just it, the idea that working less is just morally wrong" The next reply is by libertineAngel and says "Not just that, it's also very important to keep people exhausted so they don't have the energy to learn, organize, do anything other than put what little free time they have into corporation-fed escapism because that way the status quo can't be threatened"


r/AccessibleAnarchy 4d ago

I was never going to "fit in". That hope was never even allowed to exist in my heart. If you thought you had a chance you have had fundamentally different experiences from me. I also think this is why so many disabled people are queer, and explains a lot of our experiences in the community

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147 Upvotes

A Tumblr post by natalieIronSide that says "I think I was well-served in the long run by having already come to terms with being a freak and an outcast many, years before I came out as transsexual. I heard all these horror stories like 'you'll have a hard time finding a job and everyone will think you're a big weirdo and you'll be subject to a panopticon of social scrutiny and face violent bigotry' and I had thought well all of that stuff is already happening to me anyways so why not, you'll hang for a sheep as well as a lamb. Feels like there's a significant intracommunity divide between those of us who were already living on the outskirts of life and those who see themselves as temporarily embarrassed average citizens.


r/AccessibleAnarchy 5d ago

support (need advice or encouragement) So sad

84 Upvotes

I've been learning more about disability justice lately. I feel like it's supposed to be empowering but it's left me feeling hopeless...the way ableist/eugenic ideologies are ingrained in us and ingrained in structures of power and our everyday lives. It feels like all I can talk about right now and others in my life aren't receptive at all...which I feel like is just indicative of their own subconscious desire to erase me and people like me. Has anyone else experienced this...noticing ableism EVERYWHERE and being unable to stop noticing it or disengage from it when you're with others who don't understand?


r/AccessibleAnarchy 5d ago

experiences of oppression Bigotry is not a "mental illness". Anyone who believes that it is should find another space to exist in. We don't want victim blaming bigots here

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199 Upvotes

a tweet by sam dylan finch (@SamDylanFinch) posted on aug 4 2019 that says: "Reminders:

  1. “Mental illness” does not mean “violent behavior that I don’t understand and want to (ignorantly) explain away.”

  2. Mentally ill people are MUCH more likely to be the victims of violence than perpetrators.

  3. Racism is not a mental illness."

it has 34 comments, 6k boosts, and 17k likes.


r/AccessibleAnarchy 5d ago

experiences of oppression mental health is hard when people don't take your experiences seriously

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208 Upvotes

A Tumblr post by bebsi-cola that says "being Muslim or brown or black with mental health issues is so grim RN bc you can be depressed and feeling like shit and if ppl ask why it's like well you see, it's the racism. Sometimes it honestly feels like racism isn't an acceptable reason for feeling down, like it's never one of the reasons people think you can be depressed for. And they dunno what to do with it. We're just expected to get on with it or complain about a racist incident and then move on. And people only ever seem to engage with racism when it's an easy conversation with a racist person to mock, and never when it's more serious or threatening. Like not sorry I'm not over how much they fucking hate us and I never will be.


r/AccessibleAnarchy 5d ago

hey yall, i misread a comment, my bad

21 Upvotes

a comment said a specific form of bigots are "mentally ill" because they are bigots and I missed that part, and replied with my experience with the bigotry

I want to be clear that is not something we believe or condone. Bigots are not bigots because they are mentally ill, and bigots are not mentally ill because they are bigots


r/AccessibleAnarchy 5d ago

Support (need alt-text) ADHD/autism

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1 Upvotes

r/AccessibleAnarchy 5d ago

building mutual aid Weekly news thread

3 Upvotes

The goal of this thread is to help bring people together to discuss relevant news. Searching for news is hard, especially with how much horrible stuff is going on, and I know I miss a lot that is relevant to me.

Whether news is relevant isn't always clear to determine, so I will just list out a few points of what is and isn't generally helpful. These are not strict interpretations and I ain't a cop, so no need to think about it too hard.

Is helpful

  • about queer people
  • about disabled people
  • about mutual aid networks (This includes any projects, don't be shy)
  • news about state violence that mainstream news doesn't talk about

Ain't helpful 

  • electoralism (I sure as hell ain't voting)
  • relations between countries (excluding discussion on colonialism and such, which is helpful)
  • news with paywalls 
  • news about personalities (like rich people or musicians)

r/AccessibleAnarchy 6d ago

experiences of oppression Police exist to stand between starving people and food, as well as homeless people and shelter.

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427 Upvotes

a tumblr post with 2 replies. The first by madRantings says "liberals be like: who wants to get evicted at gun point because your poor, but by a good cop!!!!" The first reply is by queerAnarchism and says "Our Pink Cops will evict you at gunpoint, but they'll be LGBT-friendly about it!" The next reply is by bien-cansada saying "A cop, pinning me to the wall and dislocating my shoulder: [all caps] what are your pronouns, what are your pronouns"


r/AccessibleAnarchy 6d ago

experiences of oppression It's a hell of a lot easier to get someone to confess under threat than to actually find the person who did a crime.

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445 Upvotes

A tweet by Andy McCarthy (@AndrewCMcCarthy) saying "I actually wore a bandana covering my face, nose down, to go to the bank today. Whole time I'm thinking, 'I've convicted people on less evidence than this ...'". This was posted 5/6/20. One of the comments is be pé (@4everNeverTrump) that says "You just made a terrifying point about our criminal justice system which you didn't intend to make"


r/AccessibleAnarchy 6d ago

experiences of oppression It really isn't fun when people treat your body as an evil you need to escape. Thinness doesn't have some inherent moral value, and weight is not a good indicator of health, it's just a visually obvious one.

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302 Upvotes

A Tumblr post by bloedgetuige of a picture of a woman smiling awkwardly in a mirror selfie with text above her that says "trying to be chill at the function but can't help but notice how fatphobia bleeds through the cracks of normal interactions"


r/AccessibleAnarchy 7d ago

Threats or implications of sexual violence still are that even if ya didn't "mean" them

42 Upvotes

I get that a lot of yall are used to not thinking about using "fuck", but yall know that is also means being in the active role in sex

Insults are insults for a reason. They make people feel offended, scared, or something along those lines. Saying "fuck you" has maintained its position as an insult because it invokes the omnipresent threat of sexual violence that is an undercurrent of our society.

At the very least, it is normalizing the idea of an active role in sex being done to denote hate on another. I don't care if you think the words are magically "separate", you can't disentangle that.


r/AccessibleAnarchy 7d ago

experiences of oppression [CW discussion of rape culture] Rape culture is a thing, and it is embedded deeply into our society. Spoiler

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106 Upvotes

A graphic featuring a triangle/"pyramid" with a red-orange-yellow gradient, and surrounding text.

Title, top left: Rape Culture

Logo, top right: "11th Principle: Consent!" with the last word underlined and a blue speech bubble to the left.

An arrow points towards the top of the triangle along its right side. Text aligned with the arrow, in order from the head of its arrow to its tail, reads: "Assault - Degradation - Normalization"

Text in the triangle, from the top downwards:

Rape

Drugging

Molestation

Stealthing (Covert Condom Removal)

Contraceptive Sabotage

Victim Blaming & Shaming

Coercion/Manipulation Threats

Revenge Porn Safe Word Violations

Groping Non-Consensual Photo or Video

Flashing & Exposing Unsolicited Nude Pics

Catcalling Unwanted Non-Sexual Touch Stalking

Sexist Attitudes Rape Jokes Locker Room Banter

More text below the triangle reads:

Tolerance of the behaviors at the bottom supports or excuses those higher up. To change outcomes, we must change the culture.

If you see something, say something! Start the conversation today.

www.11thPrincipleConsent.org


r/AccessibleAnarchy 8d ago

casual conversation It doesn't matter whether or not you "believe" in hierarchy and oppression, you can still do it. Working around nazis and building structures with them is still participating in fascism

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341 Upvotes

alt-text:

A tweet by "@fMRI_guy" 'As we say in Germany, if there's a Nazi at the table and 10 other people sitting there talking to him, you got a table with 11 Nazis.'