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Justice is removal of the problem

“If you hate capitalism so much, go live in the forest!”: An Analysis of “Freedom,” “Individualism,” and the discursive model of “the Forest”

In one of my classes today we discussed some of the limitations which go along with the dominant narratives of “freedom” in the Global North (namely the U.S.), specifically in the context of Climate Change and the way that ideologies of freedom both feed into and work alongside ideologies of individualism in ways which prioritize the desires of individuals over communal needs and greatly undermine abilities to organize collectively. One student made a comment to the effect that people in the “First World” do not use the freedom they have, and in fact having freedoms becomes a source of anxiety for them; people don’t choose to enact freedom, for example, by pursuing opportunities to educate themselves. This is not intended either to perfectly/accurately articulate the student’s position (I am not attempting to misrepresent them, only acknowledging my own partial perspective and the assumption that they would have more to say to defend their position, otherwise (one hopes) they would not have said it in the first place), nor my desire to repeat the discussion in class; rather it is the product of my further meditation on the subject while sitting in traffic on the drive home.

To say that people in the “First World” do not use the freedom they have does several things: first it establishes the people of the Global North as “having” freedom (which further makes freedom something tangible and able to be possessed); second, it implies the Global South is not free; third it establishes that the Global North is not only free, but uniformly and universally free, and the Global South uniformly and universally “not” free; and fourth, it leaves “freedom” undefined in ways which make it difficult to understand what is intended by this sentiment. Is it freedom if you have real social and material consequences which make it difficult or even impossible for an individual to pursue certain options? The example I used in my response in class was something to the effect of: if I am against capitalism (which, of course, I am), am I complicit in capitalism because I have to perform wage labor in order to survive? And my coworkers who are even further disadvantaged, who have to work additional jobs and cannot attend school, where is their freedom to pursue education? Is it practical (or fair) to say that myself or my coworkers are anxious about the excess of freedom in our life, rather than the limitations?

Part of the response I received was a comment to the effect of “if you hate capitalism, you are free to go live in the forest.” Why is the forest freedom? Do “I” even have the freedom to live in the forest? Who does (or even might) have the freedom to live in the forest? What constitutes “living” in the forest? Let’s look first to the forest as a discursive figure, before discussing realities. As another student pointed out during discussion, the way the forest is so centralized to ideologies of freedom is because of an (over)privileging of Thoreau. In my opinion, it centers the idea of “freedom” in a lack of governmental, social, and, in this case, corporate intervention into one’s life; is this what freedom is? Perhaps, in hegemonic discourses. I would argue that there are ways in which the forest is a space of un-freedom: while, again in the discursive model, there is a lack of intervention by social/governmental/corporate forces, many of the same concerns which appear in social spaces will still exist, even if they are articulated in other ways. Let’s say you are living in this forest by yourself (the discursive model is an individualistic one, after all): you may be free from the social influences/restrictions which come from actively cohabiting with humans, but you are not free from the cultural framework you were raised in or from isolation from humans and let’s move away from anthropocentrism, anyway–you are still cohabiting with other animals, and there is a kind of social organization involved in this so are you really free from "society”? You are also controlled by the elements, by your access to food, housing/shelter, medical care, etc; this is not to say that these are not concerns outside of the forest, but to point out that many of the same concerns which limit freedoms outside of the forest will not evaporate once one has entered the discursive space of the forest, and some of these limitations may even be heightened. 

So now let’s turn towards some of the realities of the forest: first of all, one must ask is this even a desirable space? Do I feel “free” because I “can” live in the forest? Am I happier with my subsistence living in the forest (presumably by myself; can I convince my friends and family to live in the forest? And am I still free if I have brought a human social order with me?) than I am with my city/suburban subsistence living? If we treat this as a viable form of freedom, how must we then consider the homeless, the unemployed? Are they “free” because they “operate” “outside” of capitalism? And is exclusion from the “benefits” of a system the same as operating outside of it anyway; and how do we know when it is one over the other, whether the person experiencing homelessness and unemployment feels it is a “choice” or an imposition? I will concede that many people do have escapist fantasies where they go live in the forest or on a small self-sustaining farm or in some other way are able to be free of the social constraints they experience. One thing I do want to add on this note is the fact that, especially in the context of climate change, this itself is a prioritization of individualism which disrupts abilities to collectivize, further privileges the desires of the individual and reifies the individual itself as a discursive figure. Moreover in an American context this fantasy has some deep underlying colonial roots (whose forest do you plan to live in by yourself? whose land will you be farming?) which fundamentally tie into manifest destiny-esc ideologies of land ownership and desirability. That being said, I will also concede that the US is a continued settler colony and there is no discourse of desire at the present time which can be removed from this criticism, and there cannot be while the US remains a settler colony.

Okay, so we’re moving forward on the basis that it is in fact desirable to live in the forest. Now let’s ask who can live in the forest, and on what terms. If we’re looking at the forest as a reality, you probably can’t actually live there. Many forests are private property, but even “public” land is government owned; you can only camp at a National Forest for fourteen days, for example. So the two options here would be to move constantly between forests or to risk the consequences of trespassing (whether on “private” or “public” lands). I do acknowledge, of course, that one could likely stay a good deal longer than two weeks at a National Forest (or longer than any set restriction placed on any other forest, private or public) by moving within the forest to avoid detection (or perhaps in some of the larger forests simply by setting up a stationary living situation camouflaged with the environment somewhere relatively remote), so my argument here is not that you could never live in a forest longer than two weeks, but rather that the forest is not a space of freedom from the government or corporations. These fantasies of isolated living still hinge heavily on land ownership which are inaccessible to many. Am I free if it’s only a matter of time before I am arrested for trespassing or poaching? The kinds of anxieties these uncertainties would generate certainly don’t stem from an abundance of options.

Finally we need to consider the accessibility of such a living arrangement: so going along with the idea that this is a desired lifestyle and that one has indefinite and unrestricted access to the space itself, we still need to consider who can actually live in this way. This not only means who has the kinds of knowledge necessary in order to survive (knowledge of hunting/fishing, butchery, agriculture, cooking, sewing, construction, etc), which many people who (are forced to) engage in urban/suburban modes of subsistence living do not have access to, but also intends to call into question the role of ability/disability. Are there wheelchair ramps in the forest? And, in the long term, what about medications? I am dependent on biweekly medication: does someone deliver my medication to The Forest or do I hike to the nearest city and hope the pharmacy accepts barter? When I have a day where I am physically unable to function due to pain and/or fatigue, do I (living by myself in the forest) call out sick to my garden, or to the river where I fish? This is not to say people with disabilities cannot or have not lived in the forest, or that they cannot/have not lived other kinds of rural lives; the inability to access certain kinds of medication has and does cause deaths, as have and do certain kinds of disabilities without access (to medical care, food, housing,etc), but communities are and historically have been able to work together to create more accessible conditions–this is just something missing from the hermit in the forest model. And to this end, I want to add that Thoreau himself, on whom this whole discursive model is based, did not live in the forest without support: he had friends and went into town and visited his mother and took home leftovers from dinner. Through my critique of “go live in the forest” as a discursive model of freedom, the point which I am ultimately trying to make is that if we choose to examine the anxieties we believe are generated by freedom, we need to consider first the perspective of those with too few options before the perspective of those with too many.

accessableimages:

feministism:

[id: a tweet by coffee spoonie (@coffeespoonie) that reads, ‘Ramps should be standard. Automatic doors should be the standard. Elevators in multi-story buildings should be the standard. ASL interpreters at events should be standard. Braille menus at restaurants should be the standard. Accessibility should be the standard.’ End id]

The irony of this being posted without a transcription is not lost on me.

wantonwhale:

chaos-monkeyy:

therogueheart:

[Image description in Alt Text.]
[ID: Red, block text on a transparent background. The text reads: ‘Fanfic Author PSA’. The dark red Archive of Our Own logo is depicted on either side of the lettering. End ID.]

Many people who read fanfiction also require the assistance of text-to-speech or audio description software. Blind and visually impaired people are very much present in the fanfiction and fandom communities, but are so frequently disregarded or forgotten about.

If you are writing a work and like to utilise paragraph breaks, please do not use combinations such as the following:

[Image description in Alt Text. I have used an image to avoid what I will describe below.]
[ID: Four examples of punctuation and icons that are disruptive when used as line breakers. The first line is a series of O letters. The second is a series of asterisks. The third is a series of dots, circles and stars. The last is a series of tildes. End ID.]

The software will read these combinations out loud letter for letter or symbol for symbol. For example; it would read to the user the word ‘asterisk’ six times in a row, or the word ‘tilde’ five times in a row.

This is unpleasant, confusing and often irritating for blind or visually impaired readers. If you would like a similar sample of what it would sound like, enter one of the above combinations into Google Translate and use the audio button.

Here is a postby@ao3commentoftheday​ that also details this difficulty and provides links to downloadable audio transcribers and fanfiction audio readers. These are also helpful for if you simply wish to listen to fanfiction but can’t find a podfic of the work.

Screen Reader Friendly andScreen Reader Compatible are AO3 tags that help visually impaired readers track and access fanfiction that is consciously created with their needs in mind.
Please consider adding these tags to your works in order to expand the range of works that visually impaired readers can safely and confidently access.

Alternatives to these are:

• Utilise HTML or embedded line break functions where possible, such as the feature on the Archive’s editing functions. Most screen readers should be equipped to understand these.
• [Line breaker] can also be read by most screen readers. While not as aesthetic, it’s still functional.
• Use an image divider/breaker and utilise the Alt Text or [ ] descriptor functions to label it as a line breaker.

Reminder: ‘liking’ this post does not spread awareness.

I don’t know whether breaks with #’s cause the same problem (I assume they do), but as far as I know the rich text line breaks, dashes, or just empty enter spaces are fine.

I use screen-readers and personally I don’t mind a single symbol like a tilde (or two) used as a break. I actually prefer it, bc my screen-reader (Voice Dream) just sort of blows through those horizontal breaks like a car zooming through a red light at a traffic stop and it can be confusing.

But that’s only my preference, and I’ve seen this sort of accessibility commentary enough that it leads me to believe I’m… In the minority about that to the point that I myself use horizontal breaks, so… I don’t know. I assume it works differently with different software, and I don’t know how common it is for this “running the red light” issue that I experience with my own TTS (text to speech) is for others.

(I think it would be sort of fun to use fwoom!Orwhoosh!as a scene break, but that’s just me.)

Though, if you use an “advanced symbol” (including non-Roman characters) be aware that there’s a chance that:

1. Screen-reader can’t read it
2. Screen-readercan read it and it drops a “GU!” or something in the middle of your fic bc you didn’t realize that’s what that character sounded like.

The OP links to this postby@ao3commentoftheday and I’d like to put in my two cents of recommendation for Voice Dream, too. One of my favorite features (it was a big deal to me idk about you) is the fact that you can download the pdf of a multichap fic on Ao3, import it to Voice Dream, and it will provide you a table of contents to navigate with.

It is so much more usable for me than the built-in accessibility features of IOS, and now runs for about $20 in the Apple App Store.

Peter, my English reader, is so good to me. He struggles a bit with the Star Wars, bless him, but he does his best. (Peter is also available as a “Sad Peter” option which amuses me endlessly.)

This is how he reads some common page breaks:

• ******* becomes “group of asterisks”
• ——– becomes “group of dashes”
• -*- becomes “dash asterisk dash”
• The horizontal line break does not exist in his world, and thus it does not exist in mine.

Not all TTS software is created equal, and how things get read (or if they get read at all) can vary. I’d love to see the community share and compile how different TTS read out some of the more common linebreaks, including the horizontal line bc I’m guessing there’s a lot of disparity there.

This world was made for healthy people.

It’s not always going to be accessible, it’s not going to always have what you need. But you know what you need.

You have to make the world accessible to you.

No one is going to do it for you because this isn’t a chronically ill world, it’s a healthy one. And the best advocates for your needs is you.

Go make this world your world, and advocate for you.

Accessability: In which I talk about my kitchen. It’s slightly more interesting than it sounds

One of the hidden truths of being disabled is that you can always get more disabled. Another hidden truth is that often the problem isn’t one of disability but one of accessibility.

On a related note my kitchen is even less accessible than I thought and now I’m sitting here hungry and waiting for takeout.

Feeding myself shouldn’t be this hard. Even during lockdown it shouldn’t be this…

View On WordPress

stede-bonnets:

Help a disabled LGBT person make accessible clothing!

Hi! I’m Bun and I have Crohn’s Disease. This is a disease that affects my whole body, but primarily my digestive system. This leads to daily bouts of vomiting and diarrhea, along with constipation, chronic bowel blockages, hemorrhoids, fissures, strictures, and ulcers from my mouth all the way down. The chances are that in the next few years, I’m going to require a colostomy bag.

In the meantime, though, I have to go into hospital every month for an infusion of a drug called infliximab. This helps reduce inflammation in my body and lessens the symptoms of Crohn’s, but it also leaves me highly immunosuppressed.

When I go in for my infusions, I get a cannula put in my arm. Usually in the bend of it on the other side of my elbow. This means that I need to take my jumper off so that the nurses can access my arm, but that means I get really cold over the 4 hour infusion.

So, I’ve came up with this.

It’s a zip in my hoodie sleeve. But this zip means that I don’t have to take my hoodie off during infusions, which means I stay warm the entire time.

I’ve talked to a manufacturer and they said that the minimum they can produce is 75 hoodies costing £1800 in total. This is for unisex hoodies ranging in S to XXL with zips in BOTH sleeves.

Unfortunately, I don’t have £1800. So, I’ve decided to try and crowdfund my way to it. These hoodies are brilliant for a number of people, if you’re receiving blood draws, chemo, infusions, dialysis, or even just having your blood pressure monitored regularly.

If you can help out at all, even if you just put in a couple of pennies, it’s greatly appreciated.

This is my P*yP*l. Any amount seriously helps get this project off the ground.

Thank you ❤️❤️❤️

mateo-of-avalor:

we need to talk about the disney+ closed captions

first of all, i have an auditory processing disorder. it’s comorbid with my autism and adhd. for those of you that don’t know what that means: i can hear you, i just can’t understand you. talking louder won’t help.

i’m very lucky as that i am able to go most days with only one or two misunderstandings, but because of the fact that it can kick in at any second, i usually watch tv shows and movies with captions on.

i’ve found that the closed captions on many disney+ shows and movies are inaccurate. sometimes they get the general sentence through, but don’t have the exact words. that is already an issue. closed captions should say exactly what the audio says. if a character says “look tim! it’s spider-man!”* the captions should say exactly that, not “it’s spider-man!”

i’ve noticed this especially seems to happen with older shows, namely ducktales 1987 and darkwing duck 1991. but it’s not limited to old shows with bad audio quality, it happens in pretty much every show/movie i’ve seen.**

sometimes the captions will state character a as saying something, when it’s actually character b. i can distinguish voices pretty well, but someone who is hoh or deaf might not be able to. the viewer should know exactly who is talking, if a character speaks offscreen it should have their line attributed to them correctly

the far worse thing though, is when the captions say something completely different from the line.

there is a line in amphibia, s1e15 “wally and anne”, where anne says “i’m one-shoed anne” the captions list it as “i’m gonna shoot him”. not only is this NOT what anne said, it makes no sense at all in the context. people who need captions deserve to know what’s going on.

obviously all streaming and video services are going to have errors in closed captioning sometimes, it’s inevitable. but this is a constant and persistent problem with disney+. they need to fix their system.

given the recent release and popularity of hawkeye, a show with a deaf main character, it’d be nice if disney cared enough about those of us who need captions to allow us to watch movies.

*not a real line, just a random example

** i have not seen everything on disney+, so it is possible that this is limited to cartoons and that live-action movies are treated differently. even then, it’s still a major problem.