If your democrat friends start muttering about stolen election conspiracy theories, the time to have a sit down with them and express your concerns is NOW, while you still have a chance to reach them, not 6 months from now when they're fully conspiracy-pilled.
Here's some of the talking points and why they're bullshit:
'10 million votes don't just disappear!' -> Joe Biden's 81 million votes were a statistical outlier, sparked by the recent experience of the Trump presidency. The democrats failed to maintain that sense of urgency, but Harris still got more votes than Hillary Clinton, more than Obama and more than any previous democratic candidate. These numbers are not weird at all.
'The Republicans tried to infiltrate election- and vote counting organizations!' -> yeah, they did, and yet hundreds of independent legal observers didn't see anything go wrong enough to raise any alarms. Independent exit polls are also very consistently similar to the counted votes. Tons of international organizations specialized in this stuff observed the election and didn't see a reason to raise the alarm.
'But I know a dozen democrats whose mail-in votes were not counted!' -> In any election a certain number of votes are registered as invalid because something was wrong with the ballot. In a country the size of the US, that translates to many thousands of votes. The internet allows these people to find each other, creating the false impression that a suspiciously large group of voted was not valid.
'Musk used Star Link to mess with electronic voting!' -> Electronic voting machines are not connected to the internet and dozens of independent media have already debunked this myth. It is absolutely impossible to use Star Link to fake election results.
'There is voter disenfranchisement!' -> This is true. This has always been true, for every election. It's an issue worth talking about but it's not a special secret conspiracy that's unique to this election.
But just as importantly as the facts: sit down with your friend and talk about the anxiety that's behind their conspiracy leanings. Acknowledge their pain and fear. Help them find ways to feel less powerless and regain their sense of agency. Take them to a mutual aid event, involve them in a fundraising event for a marginalized group, invite them to a local community effort. If they spend more time feeling connection and empowerment and less time doom scrolling online, they're far more likely to stay in reality.
Intelligence isn't real. Locking in isn't real. Manifesting isn't real. Tryharding isn't real. Nobody has a divine feminine, or a love language, or a humoral temperament. Men aren't real. Women aren't real. The club is a projection. The world is not a hologram. There are no afterlives, sacred frequencies, or psychological archetypes. Your body is a temple but like, one of those Sumerian ones that was mainly for storing grain. Epicurus was right. Get it twisted and always be twisting it.
Shark Culling Laws Poster
Designed by Matteo Musci
"How To Be Anon" (Deluxe Paint IV + Frames from Hito Steyerl's "How Not to Be Seen: A Fucking Didactic Educational .MOV File)
THATS LITERALLY ME!!! MY NAME IS OAK AND IM GAYYYYY
ily, menswear guy
Affordable Care Act (Deluxe Paint IV, 2024)
"Death before Detransition" does not mean that I will kill myself if I can't access hormones or be referred to by my preferred language.
It means that there will always be another way. There will always be a stockpile, or distributors, or ways to synthesize the medicine we need. And even if that fails, there will always be community. There will always be identity. There will always be expression, and identity, or some piece of the trans experience, whether it be societal, physiological, or even completely internal, in perpetuity, that lives through every transgender person.
"Death before Detransition" means that the only way to erase my reality as a transgender woman is to put me in the ground.
We'll talk damage control and ways to help in the coming days and weeks. I welcome input on the topic as well- if there's a cause you want recognition for that will suffer under the new administration, let me know.
But for now, rest. Sleep. Take care of yourself.
I love you.
Maybe this will be comforting for people wondering about fighting back and project 2025. as a lawyer I’ll say that legal organizations have been going to court for trans rights for several years in both blue and red states. fighting for access to gender affirming care for minors and for the incarcerated, pushing insurance companies to cover certain surgeries, helping with name change petitions and gender markers, etc. we do this every single day, we’re used to dealing with people that are super obstructionist and I would say we’re pretty good at it
I genuinely, deeply thank you, and I want you to know that the efforts of people like you have not gone unseen.
My mentality right now is "it'll be okay, but it'll be grueling" and this is exactly why. Idk if I've posted it here specifically, but I do know that the fights work. They have to be fought, but they do work, and we do best them back.
Sometimes I wish we didn't have to.
Thank you for the reminder, and thank you for everything else <3