i like how theyre all waiting patiently for the courier to finish speaking
HAPPY MARIO DAY! To celebrate, all Paper Mario pins, stickers & prints are 25% OFF in my store until March 15th!
Anarkata is usually my happy place, ideologically speaking, so lets dive into Move Like Mycorrhizae
What are mycorrhizae?
mycorrhizae (pronounced “my-core-ih-zigh”) are mutual relationships between fungi and plant roots. They move nutrients between plants they are connected to. They can also sap nutrients from one part of a fungal network. They spread vastly within an ecosystem in ways that prevent researchers from being able to trace where the network begins or ends. They play both pathogenic and symbiotic roles. They develop in very steady, slow ways. Occasionally you see mushrooms sprouting up, aboveground, but mycorrhizae are primarily an underground entity. In this Kickback we see them as emblems for what Anarkata movement building feels like, since we work from the ground (or underground), and work from the roots (as Black Anarchic Radicals).
I cannot tell you how much I love the fungal comparison for underground/criminalized socio-political actions and spaces, I've been spinning up about it since I first heard it and I'm prolly gonna ramble about that more later lol
I imagine they'll get to it, but part of what appeals to me in that metaphor is the feeling of taking root. Mycorrhizae are critical to the rooting and uprooting of plants. When the Mycorrhizae network is damaged, plants are less resilient and less capable of self-propogation (aka more reliant on intentional spread/cultivation by "predators" and less capable of producing healthy, self perpetuating plant ecosystems).
The goal of Anarkata, to create with direct action and mutual aid the rooted networks of stabilization and survival, is one that serves to cultivate our own essential relationships with those networks, with each other, and with our own sense of agency and selfhood. The collective of individual entities acting in ebb and flow with one another to respond to critical needs triggered by environmental or circumstantial changes. I find the imagery of unseen entanglements that influence and restrict our decisions an incredibly apt analogy for socio-cultural descriptivism, and love the soothing of how raw many of us feel about our responsivity/reactivity to each other in the world. The idea that reactivity/responsibity is its own form of communicated knowledge, and matters in how we make decisions, even as we may often find ourselves needing to let the sensation surge and recede without intervention. There is normalization of the "yes, and..." response to emotional cues that can be so empowering and self-validating.
SAY IT WITH ME: MEDICAL GASLIGHTING IS MALPRACTICE
If you're something else, maybe a Dating Shoes isn't right...?
Maybe I could interest you in a GamersShirt?
Just me, a goblin, up again in your wrightworth feed with some fanart inspired by 80s David Lynch
Don't ask, "How was prison?" (Answer: traumatic!)
Do ask, "What are you most looking forward to doing again now that you're out?"
Don't ask, "How long were you in for?" (Answer: too long!)
Do ask, "Is there any technology or pop culture I can help catch you up on?"
Don't ask, "How are you going to avoid getting back into bad behaviors?" (Leave the paternalistic bullshit to their PO.)
Do ask, "How's your support network? Do you have people helping you adjust?"
Don't ask, "Do you have a job yet?" (Their PO is asking them ALL the time, don't worry.)
Do ask, "Are there any opportunities I should keep an ear out for and let you know about?"
Don't ask, "Do you have an ankle monitor?" (And definitely don't ask to see it - no one likes to be gawked at.)
Do ask, "Do you have parole restrictions we need to accommodate when making plans?"
Don't say, "Hey, you shouldn't be doing that - it's against your parole!" (A lot of parole restrictions are bullshit, and they are an adult who deserves agency, even the agency to take risks.)
Do ask, "Are there any bullshit parole restrictions you need help working around?"
Don't ask, "Are you an addict?" (Not everyone in prison is, and they'll tell you if they want you to know.)
Do say, "If there's stuff you might get in trouble for, like empty alcohol containers, I can throw them away at my place."
Don't say, "It's probably best if you put your whole prison life behind you and start fresh." (Just because it was traumatic doesn't mean important experiences and relationships didn't happen there.)
Do say, "If you have letters from friends on the inside that you don't want your PO to find, you can keep them at my place."
Don't say, "You paid your debt to society." (Regardless of what they may have done, harm cannot be repaid through senseless suffering.)
Do say, "You are more than the worst thing you've ever done."
Do not ever ask "What were you arrested for?"/"What did you do?"/"Were you guilty?"
People are more than the worst thing they've ever done.
x
I know I'm an art page but I had to share this thing I made because I think it's funny. sorry
memes and fandom, queer positive, anti oppression space hi there
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