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Feb 08

workingclasshistory: “On this day, 8 February 1943, Lepa Svetozara Radic, a 17-year-old anti-Nazi partisan from Bosnia-Herzegovina was captured by the Germans. She was to be hanged, but as the noose was tied around her neck her captors offered her...

workingclasshistory:

On this day, 8 February 1943, Lepa Svetozara Radic, a 17-year-old anti-Nazi partisan from Bosnia-Herzegovina was captured by the Germans. She was to be hanged, but as the noose was tied around her neck her captors offered her her life if she gave up the names of her comrades, but she responded that she was not a traitor and her comrades would reveal themselves when they avenged her death.
By 11 February German soldiers reported the execution had taken place and that the “bandit” had “shown unprecedented defiance”.
Learn more about working class resistance to Nazism in episode 4 of our podcast, on your favourite podcast app or here on our website: https://workingclasshistory.com/2018/04/04/wch4-anti-nazi-youth-movements-in-world-war-ii/ https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1344670492384764/?type=3

The road to fascism

queeranarchism:

participatorydisillusionment:

queeranarchism:

I’ve been reading Martin Kitchen’s book ‘fascism’, who has an interesting theory about the rise of fascism. The theory is incredibly complex and those that love dense theory should probably read it themselves, but I’ve put together a little adaptation of my own (that Kitchen would probably criticize on many points): 

 

1. First you got your early fascist fringe groups, founded mostly by frustrated middle class men. Since the violent language of fascism is considered impolite in middle class circles, the first public supporters are frustrated working class men. At this stage there are sometimes attempts at a fascist coup. 

2. With increasing power, the basic language of fascism is gradually normalized. Within this period, fascists spread the idea that there is a threat (jews, immigrants, muslims, etc) that could destroy all you love. Sometimes part of the tone is anti-capitalist but in that case the target is not the whole middle and upper class but a segment of it (’the jewish capitalist’, ‘the cultural-marxist elite’) so the middle class supporters can feel safe knowing that they will not be a target. Being a fascist is not yet socially acceptable in middle class communities at this point. 

3. If there is an economic crisis or great economic uncertainty, the working class shifts to the left. But the middle class starts to consider fascism an acceptable option. Democratic politicians seem to fail to protect them against financial loss, scary foreigners and the growing of the left, so one strong leader who is going to restore traditional values and punish the rebellious sounds attractive. Most fascist supporters are lower-middle class who have property and could realistically lose that property and become poor. Being a fascist becomes socially acceptable in middle class communities. 

4. Once a part of the middle class openly accepts fascism, there is often a very quick development where the economic upper class (rich capitalists) start embracing fascism as well and pumping their money into its election campaign. The media also joins in at this point. If fascism ever had an anti-capitalist tone as part of it’s anti-establishment image, it now drops this tone. With a small but weaponized segment of frustrated working class men, a large middle class voter base, media support and MONEY, it becomes almost impossible to stop the fascists rise to power. 

5. Once voted into power (either alone or in a coalition), fascism suppresses left-wing movements and dismantles democratic systems. Disagreement within the fascist group itself is removed during this road to dictatorship. 

6. At some point, the dictatorship reaches a point of no return. It is so powerful and controls such a large amount of unquestioningly obedient violence and intelligence agencies that only massive armed struggle can destroy it.

So in short:

  1. Middle class founders with working class fight club
  2. Normalization of fascism 
  3. Economic crisis, middle class openly support fascism
  4. Capital and media support fascism, it becomes very difficult to stop
  5. Voted into power, removes political enemies & moves toward dictatorship
  6. Strongly established dictatorship can only be removed by force


Kitchen argues that this process can only take place in a late capitalist state with high levels of economic uncertainty, where the political left is large enough to scare the middle class but not strong enough to resist fascism.

I would add that a conservative right-wing that responds to crisis by expanding state force and dismantling human and civil rights does a big part of making the road from being voted into power to full dictatorship easier. 

I’d argue that a lot of European states are currently at 3 or 4 with a lot of the road to dictatorship being paved by the established right-wing, while some states already have fascists in their coalition (step 5) and the US has a significant number of fascists in positions of political power (also step 5). How much of the system has been dismantled towards dictatorship varies. 

Finally, it’s important to keep in mind that these processes are not always strictly linear and there are always competing fascist movements. Often a brutish loud fascist movement will be the first to normalize fascist language while a more polished, educated and polite fascist movement will be the one to win the support of the middle class and achieve power. 

I would expand point 5 to be about three steps, but its still alarmingly close to what we have seen

Yeah, or more. Establishing dictatorship tends to involve (without a strict order of events)

- suppressing political enemies

- suppressing people who could challenge the road to dictatorship from within your own movement

- supressing communication that disagrees with you (controling the media, setting up elaborate surveillance agencies, etc)

- getting unrestrained control of the political decision making process

- getting unrestrained control of the legal process (judges etc)

- ensuring unquestioning obedience of the forces of violence (cops, soldiers, etc)


Generally with a lot of little steps, each time testing obedience. Another terrible policy is announced. Do the cops follow orders? Who resists? Who publically disapprovs? Obedience is mapped and a next step is taken, and another.

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puzzlingfrost:

arsonforcharlie:

harrowsbarrow:

inu-demon:

gonanatop:

stereofeathers:

What I expected moving to texas: oh hm, cowboy boot… steak..,? the ole’ prairie. youve been invited to,come lasso a tumbleweed,! ‘howdy there sherriff’ as a tramp stamp tattoo. Sweet teA hp potion… country girls make do

What I got when I moved to texas: i cant really leave the house bc theres about 20-30 of these big blue crabs that came up from their underground tunnels bc of the wet and rainy weather all standing on the patio having a fucking clawnference meeting

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Texas:*spawns crab* *spawns crab* *spawns crab* *spawns crab* *spawns crab* *spawns crab* *spawns crab* *spawns crab* *spawns crab* *spawns crab* *spawns crab* *spawns crab* *spawns crab* *spawns crab* *spawns crab* *spawns crab* *spawns crab* *spawns crab* *spawns crab* *spawns crab* *spa

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@softbutchtaako oh so we’re just in texas huh???? i figured our your tricks

It’s true, all the accents I’ve done so far have been attempts at texan

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systlin:

the-awkward-turt:

nanonaturalist:

starcults:

a-wandering-intern:

terrible-tentacle-theatre:

nanonaturalist:

thegreatpigeonking:

nanonaturalist:

nanonaturalist:

nanonaturalist:

alwayshere195:

fireheartedkaratepup:

thebeeblogger:

foxthebeekeeper:

jumpingjacktrash:

libertarirynn:

bollytolly:

l0veyu:

viva-la-bees:

fat-gold-fish:

how do u actually save bees?

  • Plant bee-friendly flowers
  • Support your local beekeepers
  • Set up bee hotels for solitary bees
  • If you see a lethargic bee feed it sugar water
  • Spread awareness of the importance off bees

+Don’t eat honey✌🏻

NO.

That will not help save the bees at all. They need the excess honey removed from their hives. That’s the beekeepers entire livelihood.

Seriously refusing to eat honey is one of those well-meaning but ultimately terrible ideas. The bees make way too much honey and need it out in order to thrive (not being funny but that was literally a side effect in Bee Movie). Plus that’s the only way for the beekeepers to make the money they need to keep the bees healthy. Do not stop eating honey because somebody on Tumblr told you too.

excess honey, if not removed, can ferment and poison the bees. even if it doesn’t, it attracts animals and other insects which can hurt the bees or even damage the hive. why vegans think letting bees stew in their own drippings is ‘cruelty-free’ is beyond me. >:[

the fact that we find honey yummy and nutritious is part of why we keep bees, true, but the truth is we mostly keep them to pollinate our crops. the vegetable crops you seem to imagine would still magically sustain us if we stopped cultivating bees.

and when you get right down to it… domestic bees aren’t confined in any way. if they wanted to fly away, they could, and would. they come back to the wood frame hives humans build because those are nice places to nest.

so pretending domestic bees have it worse than wild bees is just the most childish kind of anthropomorphizing.

If anything, man-made hives are MORE suitable for bees to live in because we have mathematically determined their optimal living space and conditions, and can control them better in our hives. We also can treat them for diseases and pests much easier than we could if they were living in, say, a tree.

Tl;dr for all of this: eating honey saves the bees from themselves, and keeping them in man-made hives is good for them.

✌️✌️✌️

Plus, buying honey supports bee owners, which helps them maintain the hives, and if they get more money they can buy more hives, which means more bees!

I tell people this. About the honey and what to do to save bees. I also have two large bottles of honey in my cabinet currently. Trying to get some flowers for them to thrive on. Support your bees guys

… uh guys… the whole “Save the Bees!” thing is not about honeybees. It’s about the decline of native bees almost to the point of extinction. Native bees do not make honey. Honeybees are domesticated. Taking measures to protect honeybees is as irrelevant to helping the environment as protecting Farmer John’s chickens.

To help save native bees, yes, plant NATIVE flowers (what naturally grows where you live? That’s what your bees eat!), set up “bee hotels,” which can be something as simple as a partially buried jar or flower pot for carpenter bees, and don’t use pesticides. Having a source of water (like a bird bath or “puddles” you frequently refresh) is also good for a variety of wildlife.

Want to know more about bees that are not honeybees?

Dark Bee Tumblr is here to help [link to post chain about forbidden bees]

ALSO also also

Every place has different types of bees. Every place has different types of plants/flowers. Those hyped-up “save the bees” seed packets that are distributed across North America are garbage because none of those flowers are native in every habitat. Don’t look up “how to make a bee hotel” and make something that only bees from the great plains areas would use if you live on the west coast.

Look up what bees you have in your home! Here’s a great (excellent) resource: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/630955-Anthophila

This is every bee that has been observed and uploaded to the citizen science network of iNaturalist. You can filter by location (anywhere in the world! This is not restricted to the US!), and you can view photos of every species people have added. Here’s the page for all bees, sorted by taxonomy, not filtered to any specific location [link]. Have you seen a bee and want to know more about it, but you don’t know what kind of bee it is? Take a picture, upload it to iNat, and people like me will help you identify it–and it will also become part of the database other people will use to learn about nature!

Some native Texan bees I’ve met!

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A sweat bee! [link to iNat]. These flowers are tiny, no larger than a dime.

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A ligated furrow bee! [link to iNat] They burrow and nest underground.

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A longhorn bee! [link to iNat] I don’t know where they nest, but I often find them sleeping on the tips of flowers at night (so cute!)

Meet your local bees! Befriend them! Feed them! Make them homes! Love them!

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This is one of the native bees I met in Arizona! This handsome man is a male Melissodes sp., AKA a type of long-horned bee. I saved him when he was drowning in a puddle.

I love him

This is a great post all in all but I’d just like to note that colony collapse syndrome is definitely a thing, so domestic honeybees are absolutely in danger as well

Europen Honey Bees are an invasive species in the US and compete with native bees.

Native bee populations are specifically evolved to pollinate certain native plants. Most are unlikely to have a significant effect on the pollination of the non-native crops that people need to grow to survive. It’s true that honeybees will compete with native bees as well, and can be classified as an invasive species, but so long as native bees are supported and native flora is maintained, there is no reason why they shouldn’t be able to coexist. And while there’s a whole different argument to be had about the negative effects of growing nonnative crops at all, if they fail, as they likely would without the honeybees that a large percentage of farmers keep to pollinate their and other local crops, the effects on humanity will be catastrophic 

Lest people think I am anti-honeybee (no? I love honeybees?? They are precious??), the above is correct. Like it or not, the way we grow our food (much of which is not native to where it’s farmed) absolutely requires pollinators like honeybees. We would have a hugely massive food crisis on our hands without honeybees.

But, because so much $$$ is tied into the continued production of food, governments and food production companies will do whatever they can to mitigate the effects of colony collapse and other honeybee health issues. What can you do to help honeybees? Buy and eat food. Easy, right?

What is being done to protect native bees? Well,

1) Scientists and researchers are feverishly trying to get them listed as protected species and absolutely failing (see @thelepidopteragirl’s post about colleagues of hers: [link]).

2) Scientists and researchers are trying to get pesticides known to have devastating effects on bees and other pollinators banned and absolutely failing ([link]).

3) Scientists and science communicators (like me now, apparently) are trying to spread this information about native bees and their importance so more people can do little things like plant native flowers (lookup North American species for your zip code here: [link]), change how often they mow their lawns ([link]), and vote out the assholes who are profiting by destroying our environment ([link]). Success on this one: TBD, and by people like us.

As a gift to the honeybee lovers out there, please accept this photo of one making out with a stinkhorn mushroom:

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^An excellent post on the complexities of the “Save the Bees” movement

To add, honeybees are also having problems in, you know, Europe and Asia, where they are native!

I feel like that gets forgotten by many, as Tumblr is very USA centered. 

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DIY pallet garden with worm tower - GreenShortzDIY

socalledunitedstates:

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itsrosewho: “ FAMOUS AUTHORS • Classic Bookshelf: This site has put classic novels online, from Charles Dickens to Charlotte Bronte. • The Online Books Page: The University of Pennsylvania hosts this book search and database. • Project Gutenberg:...

itsrosewho:

FAMOUS AUTHORS

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