PS: the dissertation i didn’t get to write on Latin American neobaroque aesthetics ―from colonial times to then, the 1990s post-juntas years―, was gonna be me flexing post-structural hermeneutics based on the works of Derrida, Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari but especially 1990s up and coming scholars like Chakravorty-Spivak and Kosofsky-Sedwig. and that means i actually read Nietzsche, upon which a lot of their work is found.

all this to say, #deconstruction is absofuckinglutely my lane.

1. stop parroting the faux intellectualism of fascists. #deconstruction is an antifascist form of academic analysis. what they mean is destruction.

2. #EpistemicViolence is censorship of all kinds. it’s meant to create a false narrative of agreement.

3. like “Gulf of America” #EpistemologicalViolence is meant to completely change reality by destroying all social contracts.

recognize these forms of violence. violence isn’t only by guns. it’s always by ideology first and foremost. /

@atax1a @eri As a white person who has unpacked some of these feelings in myself, not just along demographic lines but other lines as well, like towards children, I can confirm. It's subconscious, so I felt honest in saying I wasn't racist, etc, that I believed in equality, but really I didn't know what equality *felt* like. It was just words I'd been taught to associate with "good," and I'm good, so the reasoning went that I'm those things magically without having to work on it.

Learning about validation really helped with that as I forced myself to actually listen to people whose views I didn't understand (starting with my children). The term "testimonial injustice" was later helpful in expanding that, to realize there were classes of people who I was more likely to believe or even listen to than others.

We're definitely programmed with these to become instincts understood below the verbal/rational level, that are impossible to recognize without unflinching hard work towards increasing self-awareness. It takes courage, but it is also personally freeing.

And it's a constant process. As they say, love is a verb.

@SallyStrange

The best personal benefit is that it's SO FREEING. The White Construct is a cult that also limits the freedom of those who count as white. You'll know if you cross those lines, because you'll lose privileges. Don't be queer, disabled, fat, express incorrect religious views, be "liberal," antiracist, antifa, a loud woman, or many other things, or you lose at least some, if not all, perks. Not only is it the right thing to do, it is to your direct benefit to learn about the mental ropes that bind you and trick you into binding others along identity lines.

Ask how I know.

It's funny because when I was raised LDS, they'd say, "We're not materialistic and greedy and pompous and power hungry like those wicked evil Catholics and their pope in his big ridiculous expensive hat designed to intimidate!"

Then they put on the outfit that has represented Earth's most powerful men for the last 100 years.

(I've learned as a writer that metaphors aren't always intentional, and in fact, the less intentional they are, the more profound they can be.)

I think it's funny that Clark Kent doffs his business costume to put on the silly red underwear to express his power. There's certainly something psychological to examine there. In a phone booth no less.

What a metaphor.

Perception is power. Humanity knows this in our subconscious. We see it in words like "prestige," which used to mean "trick, illusion, imposture." And in "glamour," which meant "magic, enchantment."

We teach everyone mathematics, but not the mechanics of power, which are knowable. If everyone understood how power works, it would stop working the way the powerful want it to. Because *they* know how power works.

To truly democratize society, we have to teach everyone how to consciously wield power to become empowered. Starting with 1+1 – Power is the ability to make decisions for yourself or others. Power is at play anytime two or more beings interact.

That isn't just about voting. It's everything from how you hold yourself to how you think about certain groups of people to where your money comes from and where it goes. If you're not thinking about it, you're most certainly being controlled by someone.