Why do we say that capitalism must be “dismantled”?

You’ll hear phrases like “Smash the state!” “Eat the rich!” and “Smash capitalism!”

And, yes, of course, but… :)

However relevant those sayings are, our work must be careful, highly organized and above all planned.

Because capitalism and all of its associated systems are not discrete, abstracted entities we can attack independently.

It is a structure, like a complicated machine with many thousands of working parts…

And right now it is connected to absolutely everything.

If we do this… [picks up huge hammer and smashes the machine]

Then a lot of vulnerable people will die.

The machine was built and improved and redesigned and patched over the course of generations. It is very good at its intended purpose, which is ultimately to generate profit.

Every human being alive today relies on the byproducts of the machine to survive, without exception.

The machine’s engineers want it to keep working like it does. In fact, they want to optimise it.

That will kill all remaining life on Earth.

So, we must destroy the machine, quickly and carefully

We must examine its deadly programs and mechanics and replace them with alternatives we built together.

The engineers don’t want us tampering with the machine.

However, we make it run…

So we can make it STOP. Together.

How will YOU help us to safely dismantle the machine?

iww.org

p.s. My computer is on its last legs. If you would like me to draw you a little cartoon and help me get a new computer, learn more at this post.

I Am Not Your Asian American Doll: a comic for AAPI Heritage Month 2023

I usually spend a lot of time editing and fine-tuning my comics so that they come across as polite and inoffensive. But honestly, I’m really tired of the way Asian cultures and countries are treated / talked about while Asian people themselves are excluded, and thought it was about time I really let my rage out lol.

id in alt

bumping one last time before AAPI month ends!

I was very nervous posting this because of my decision to not restrain/limit my tone in writing this comic, but I don’t regret it one bit. Thank you for your support 💖🇵🇭🇰🇷

“I Am Not Your Asian American Doll” turns one year old today! To honor its anniversary and this year’s Maysia I’ll share some of the artistic choices behind the comic.

My main inspiration was the work of feminist artist Barbara Kruger, who you may know from “your gaze hits the side of my face” and “you construct intricate rituals which allow you to touch the skin of other men.” I wanted to pair really shocking, striking words with high-contrast monochrome images as she did.

I chose eyes (and lack thereof) as a central motif. In conversations about art and media history, the “gaze” of the audience is a way to exert power. Who is made into the passive subject, and who gets to be the all-seeing viewer? Who is the subject being portrayed for? Hiding the Asian figures’ eyes demonstrates their lack of agency and establishes them as the subject rather than the viewer.

The skyline on page 5 includes Namsan Tower, as some readers pointed out. (You may have also been clued in from the page’s respective alt text, which describes this as the Seoul skyline.) Though numerous Asian countries have been victims of imperialism several times over, Korea was specifically in mind here. It was Western powers who Korea was split into the North and South, and their colonization and exploitation has led to extreme poverty even today, despite the country’s glamorous facade and rising international stardom.

As many guessed, pink was chosen for its association with sexualization and femininity, although of course fetishization of Asian cultures affects all genders. I also wanted to pick a dark, shocking pink that reminded the viewer of blood; in fact, it is used to color blood here on page 6. I was really happy that the color palette was limited but still legible. (But drawing the large food spread on page 4 with only three shades of pink was definitely a huge challenge.)

Here are some thumbnail sketches I made when planning the comic. You can probably recognize some of the final pages — and see how others evolved!

I want to thank everyone for their overwhelming support for this comic. I never could have dreamed of such an amazing response. To my Asian siblings across the world, you made me feel less alone. To non-Asian allies who lent me their ear, thank you so much for standing with us and listening to our struggles.

Usually I’m extremely careful to write my comics in a palatable tone, but for this piece I decided to not restrain my anger. I understood that by making this decision I would be sacrificing readership, and that many people would be much less willing to listen to me because of my tone. Nevertheless, I truly believe that any and all of the harassment I received was a small price to pay for such an honest piece to be seen.

Thank you all, again! Please consider supporting my most recent fundraising project, an Inumaki Toge themed fundraiser for aid in Gaza.

Final note: THIS COMIC IS NOT FOR TERFS 🏳️‍⚧️

this thing looks like you just asked it “how’s it going” and it replied “it’s going”

really wish "abolish the police" was trending with all the news, it feels like a lot of ppl have forgotten since the height of blm

please dont tell a black person to not view police violence as a pressing issue, thanks.

my post in no way even specified the US, and it didnt for a good reason. abolish the police is an INTERNATIONAL CONCEPT.

police literally openly all over the world participate in genocide. and yes, the police in the united states participate in genocide. there are several genocides occurring. im not distracting from shit. i have the capacity to care about multiple things and so should you. im simply highlighting that cops are in fact a tool of genocides, with an 's', and my sadness comes from the sudden burst of support during blm no longer being present.

these things are CONNECTED. the iof is full of cops. the iof TRAINS COPS. even if youre only focused on one issue, which apparently you are, attack it from multiple angles.

Also jumping on this as a Palestinian-American to say, in addition to everything OP said -- our liberation is as interconnected as our oppression is!!! Palestinians are deep supporters of Black liberation, and have always stood in solidarity with anti-police protests!

Plus it's fully wild to watch the same cops that brutalize BLM protestors brutalize these college students asking for divestment and go "hmmmm is this the time to talk about police brutality?" IT FUCKING IS. OF COURSE IT IS. YOU'RE WATCHING IOF TRAINED COPS GLEEFULLY BEATING COLLEGE STUDENTS, WHO ARE ASKING THE UNIVERSITIES THEY GO TO, FOR DIVESTMENT FROM AN APARTHEID GENOCIDAL STATE. COPS WHO BY ALL ACCOUNTS ARE STILL GOING AFTER BLACK AND BROWN STUDENTS IN HIGHER NUMBERS.

yeah this is the right time. it does not "take attention from the pressing issue" are you kidding me??? How can you watch what's happening right now, and not see how these issues are TIED together. BLOWS MY MIND. Any excuse to be anti-black truly.

all this to affirm... palestine isn't free until the police are abolished. palestine isn't free until prisons are abolished. palestine isn't free until black people across the globe are free.

thank you so much for your addition

free palestine. abolish the police.

Children's oppression and lack of humanization is one topic that makes my insides feel like they're rotting and I'll die on the hill of defending them and pointing out how fucking gross it is every single time people act like it's cool actually to hate a group of people who are the least able to defend themselves in any terrible situation

Y'all will scream "protect queer kids" "protect trans kids" "protect kids of color" then forget all that and proudly stand behind "well kids are fucking annoying in public actually so it's fine when I talk about wanting to have grocery stores and planes that are child free :)" individualism has killed humanity so deeply

Trade between the 2 countries was worth $6.8 billion in 2023.

diesel dyke i doodled to cheer myself up

[ID: A black and white marker drawing of a lesbian in front of a motorcycle with their helmet held under their arm. They have cropped black hair and are wearing jeans, boots, a tank top, and a leather jacket. End ID]

trans people who were born in the wrong body, trans people who were born in the right body, trans people who were born the wrong gender but are the right gender now, trans people who have never had a gender, trans people who have lived as multiple genders intentionally, trans people who identify periods in their lives by which gender they were at the time, trans people who have always been their gender and trans people who fall under all other experiences are all trans people, and deserve love, companionship, kindness and community. all expressions and experiences of transness are good and deserve to be discussed- not one overshadows the other, not one is universally right or wrong, for every trans experience is as unique as the trans person it belongs to. all trans experiences are all good

hey so rent is due in a week (May 7) for my girlfriend and so far all her job hunting efforts have been fruitless

she's been at this for over a month while being assigned less and less hours at a job that doesn't respect her time. she's had no income because of this which makes paying bills an impossible ordeal.

and personally, as her disabled partner, i can vouch for the toll that growing up in poverty and constantly working to stay barely afloat, has been taking on her body.

i wish she didn't have to work so hard. that's a "privileged" thought i think most of us multiply marginalized and disabled people have been chastised for expressing, and so we Need more robust community aid to ensure the most vulnerable among us don't become unhoused and hungry when we're unable to work whether because of disability and injury or because jobs simply won't hire us.

i really really don't want her to become houseless or to go hungry. please show up for trans women.

any amount of support would mean a lot, thank you 💗

VM: @BardicLydia

CA: $LydiaMorrigan

0 / 1000

Hi, this is for me, I've received nothing yet, rent's due in a few days.

50 / 1000

Didn't even have to check the timestamps to know these were sent after midnight

You can tell these are also post-Brony because it was largely accepted in the fandom that Equestria was some style of (at the very least) pony chauvinist state.

amazing news for the bisexual community

"oscar isaac" "kristen stewart" "vampire" "thriller" "80s" ???? please

one of my favorite things in dunmeshi is how chilchuck turns out to be the guy in the party with the least to hide despite how much he goes out of his way to act all secretive. like the more we learn about everyone else it seems like they’ve all got like trauma or crimes or even just oddities that they don’t share explicitly not bc they’re hiding anything, but just because it’s never come up, or it’s too much of a hassle to explain, or it just didn’t occur to them. meanwhile, Normal Man Chilchuck is finding new gray hairs every morning because his friends want to know how old he is and his darkest secret is that his wife left him for being… too secretive. like up against a monster-phile, a dark mage, a circus attraction and Schrödinger’s cannibal, him making such a big deal out of having three adult kids is kinda epic

worst feeling ever is when i agree with 99% of a post but then there's that 1% that makes me want to set fire to op's blog

​also "intifada" has evolved to mean uprising as we know it today but at its core the word really just means "to shake" so you would hear us use versions of it when we are "dusting" or "folding laundry" lol so I urge everyone to relax

Tags added by @feluka that killed me and I want everyone to see them too

can i be real with u for a second. i can't believe tjere's a real fandom for stuff like genshin impact. imagine if half your dash was posting about raid shadow legends. you'd think it was astroturf

"divine feminine" "divine masculine"

wrong. Divine.

The Will of This Heart 🖤