Thursday, July 14, 2011

I don't have the stomach to write much about this

I see via antiwar that horrible Wired has finally released the full Bradley Manning/Adrian Lamo chat logs, and my (and a bunch of other people's) feeling, based on the bits that had leaked out already, that Manning has been misgendered this whole time seems to have been correct (assuming, that is, that the log is reliable).

I have no doubt that the guards who forced hir to stand naked with legs spread and hands behind hir back, and whoever gave them their orders, know that.

Incarceration is not something that improves when you do it while trans.

PS I only read the top, like, twenty lines, and my god is Adrian Lamo even more disgusting than I thought.

8 comments:

Justin said...

Sometimes I start wondering if the reality of our situation is proportional to my thoughts and conclusions and my revulsion. Am I making too much of a big deal of things? Am I over impassioned? Then I think about things like what our government has done to Bradley Manning, the what has been an ongoing condition of torture and humiliation, a footnote in the pile of crimes just like it being committed all the time in the context of the wars on terror and drugs, and I am feel absolutely certain that no matter what, the only thing to do is to say no.

Ethan said...

Yes to that.

Phillip Allen said...

Incarceration is not something that improves anyone, period. There are rare individuals who manage it and provide the rest of us with remarkable writing, inspiration for struggle (i.e., Malcolm X, George Jackson, Antonio Gramsci, Mumia abu Jamal). For most incarceration is a vast machine for grinding corpses, whether they're dead or not.

ms_xeno said...

I had a hard time reading the main article. Salon didn't want to make the obnoxious ad window go away.

Still, I guess it's not news that Wired is owned and operated by "team-player" assholes, is it?

:(

JM said...

In what way can we say "No" exactly, Justin?

Justin said...

JM,
That's for you to ask of yourself and find your own answer. I am choosing to stretch myself into voluntary poverty so as to withdraw my support as a productive member of this society on the terms of productivity it believes in, which needs plugged in, consumer tax payers as a base of support. That is my way of saying no.

In addition, I am taking steps physically to make the consequences of saying no in the form of withdrawing taxes or direct civil disobedience easier to handle; minimizing any apprehension I may have about going to jail by addressing whatever it is that makes me feel uneasy about having to do that to say no.

You'll have to think on it in your own way to figure in what ways you are saying yes, and then think on how you can start saying no. No one is going to ever have that answer for you, only you can answer it, asking someone else to give you the answer when it is so obvious is a stalling tactic, a favorite of the left, generally.

Justin said...

A less blehgy way to put it, JM, is that I return a question back at you. Tell me in what ways that you think you are saying yes now, and I'll tell you how to say no.

Ethan said...

RedPhillip--You'll get no argument from me on that. In case it was unclear, I was trying to say that the always brutal experience of incarceration only gets worse if you're trans.

ms_xeno--that's one of many reasons why I only read Greenwald via other people. And no, not news--isn't Wired Conde Nasty?

Exchange between Jenny and Justin--I feel like I should have something to say, but I don't know what, so instead, I acknowledge.