You can’t really tell in this photo, but I am really uncomfortable. It was the first shot of the test shots, and I had just, literally just, found out about the shooting in Colorado Springs.
I couldn’t focus, this time another shooting, on an LBGTQ2S+ space, where the patrons of the club are the ones who subdued the shooter and saved countless lives.
I had chosen this outfit ages ago and was very excited about it, Noel from Surrey Shares made sure to get a full-length photo because he knows my story and he knows how wearing a dress is a big deal for me. I felt angry, I felt frustrated, on a day that I should have felt happy and excited, I didn’t feel right in my own body, and I didn’t have a second to calm my nerves.
War does that, it takes the happy beautiful moments and turns them into horrible awful reminders of how you survived and other people didn’t, so when it comes to Twitter and people talking about leaving the platform, I’m starting to get super salty. Just like this guy here.
Here’s the thing. The average person isn’t safe anymore. They are coming for your platforms, they are coming for your news sources, they are coming for your children, and they are perfectly okay with killing us in droves. They’ve proven that time and time again.
How many “angry white mental health afflicted” white guys does it take to kill how many LGBTQ2S+, Asian, Disabled, and Jewish folks, before we start to realize that they are not playing games anymore?
Twitter is the most centralized news source and network on the planet. If everyone’s not using it, then someone you know is using it. At least five people you know are on Twitter, now multiply that by nearly 8 billion people and you will see that Twitter has more access to news and updates than anyone else on this planet. It is a valuable source of information, and an almost required format of communication these days.
“I don’t give a fuck about Twitter, it’s just a platform.”
No it’s the biggest news platform on the planet, and the problem isn’t that Elon owns it, it’s that you folks think that you can just pack up, turn off your Twitter, and the world will be safer tomorrow, it won’t be. There will be other photo shoots, and there will be other shootings, but there doesn’t have to be…more shootings I mean.
I’m tired, of saying the same thing over and over again. This is a war, and it doesn’t look like one because the bombs are not going off in our country, and we’re used to the word being “war” getting attributed to the most extreme of cases, but I’m not playing with y’all any fucking more.
They are murdering people by the God damned dozens, for existing. They aren’t going after rapists, pedophiles, murderers, or killers, they are burning books, they are going after the most innocent among us, and they have money, power, and influence behind them.
Play this song while you read this my friends because first, they came for the books, and then they starved the people, and then they killed the sick, the dying, the lame, and the broken while jailing, beating, and raping everyone else.
Every one.
First, they stop us from gathering, keeping us hidden in our homes, and then they take away our rights, but this time they’re doing it all at the same time. Trans kids in Texas and Florida are in danger, and children who are raped are in danger, especially and specifically girls, how does this not feel just a little bit fucking familiar to you all? It’s happening now EXACTLY as it happened before.
I’m not comparing Elon Musk to Loki, calm down, but what I am saying is that this film scene replicates something that we are all going to have to deal with if we are not careful.
Oh, you don’t want to lose your favorite social media platforms? Then fight for them. You don’t want to lose your safe spaces to guns, gangs, and white supremacists? Fight for them.
Fight for better or get nothing. That’s the rule.
Sending all my love,
Devon J Hall
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