(Published on Patreon May 15, 2019)
First thing's first: I am so sorry this is late! I was so caught up with my studies that I genuinely completely forgot! Thank you for bearing with me while I get this place into shape - eventually, lol.
"Utter" Art Credit: Simone Alaine Polo
CW/TW: social justice, activism, human rights violations, social justice violations, violence.
It seems that the cycle of "nonsense", of exhaustion and hurt, of violence (both external and lateral), etc etc etc, is constant. So many of us are feeling as though the world is on fire. Day in and day out we have breathed these words, until finally the culmination of it simply became: H E L L W O R L D.
I have lost count of the number of seemingly impossible atrocities and human rights violations that been occurring as overtly as they have been locally - not to mention those occurring across the province and country. Further not mentioning the number of those occurring covertly, or what has been normalized. A side not here to note that I am a persons of privilege as someone living in the Western world (North America). I have watched as all the work we have done as been not only undone, but countermanded. I have watched as we have taken decades worth of steps backwards. And this is only the beginning.
Yet at the same time, I find that while this is the worst it has ever been in my lifetime and in my locale, I am also in the best possible place and state of mind to manage it. If only to manage myself, at least. Because that is what we need to do, we need to take care of ourselves. Those of us who can fight, will. Those of us who can teach, will. Those of us who can repair and transform, will. Those of us who can support each other and care for each other, will. But we must also self care. (Gotta get them-there ~*positivity*~ uWu in there. sorrynotsorry?)
Self-Care uWu (TM) aside - how the fuck do we navigate Hellworld? I don't have a simple nor straight answer. There isn't a road map nor a guide for this place. We can't traverse this plane alone but we must also rely on ourselves as well. And what complicates this is that we too are each perpetrators of oppression and harm.
That is A Lot to take stock of. Hell, I don't even know where to begin. Solidarity. Patience. More importantly: accountability, self-crit, unpacking and unlearning. All of this has always been important, and it has always been the core of my praxis and rhetoric. But this must be practiced beyond instance based interactions, encounters, and discourse. The instance based reactions have been coopted and driven by those of privilege and power, those wielding moral superiority and virtue signalling. It is never as simple as yes or no.
At the same time, I want to clarify the following:
I do not oppose cancel culture in and of itself,
We do not have to hold space for those who harm and oppress us,
There are points at which it is just "yes or no".
What my point is, is that navigating Hellworld in this time as marginalized and oppressed folks who may also be harmful is incredibly complex, difficult, nuanced, and a whole other field inside of Hellworld. What am I talking about exactly? Lateral violence. And I am talking about reparative and transformative justice. But I also want to make the disclaimer that such requires extensive emotional labor and education, and that I certainly do not expect anyone to provide such or do such. Simply, I am saying when we have the opportunity to do such - those of us who can will try to do so.
At this current moment, I am not going to go into the details of lateral violence, or reparative and transformative justice. That's a whole article on its own, let alone a blog post. But I wanted to bring them up because they are important, and very much relevant in the wake of what I will now dub The Kenney Effect (like The Trump Effect of 2016/2017). That is to say a lot of reaction is going to happen, a lot of radicalizing and chaos is going to occur. And it is all absolutely necessary. I would not be where I am right now, nor able to educate and provide emotional labor as I do if not for some of my less...eloquent moments of social justice and activism. Again, not to say anyone must be """eloquent""" but that it got pretty wild for a bit there lol. It was, how you say, A Time.
SO. IN SUMMARY.
Welcome to Hellworld. Keep fighting. This is a new wave of fucking god damn bullshit, radicalization, chaos, and activism. Some of us are just gonna yell and be mad. Some of us are gonna teach and hold hands. Some of us are gonna cancel. Some of us are gonna shape and transform. It is all valid. But make sure you Self Care uWu.