Thread by @gwensnyderPHL

I understand what you're trying to do here, so I really am saying this sincerely and with warmth-- a huge part of what these guys do is accuse women they dislike of hysteria/obsession/instability.

So saying stuff that reinforces that narrative is harmful.

https://twitter.com/MrGoodally/status/1268737255356669952

This is a critically important juncture for the popular left, but a big chunk of the popular left is actively refusing to acknowledge the racial justice aspect of police brutality bc these podcasters have created a culture where it's ok to pretend that racism isn't real/important

Contrary to popular belief I actually haven't been paying much attention to these guys outside of pointing out how dirtbag left bullshit reinforces and feeds into the reactionary racism we're seeing in response to these protests.

However, I also have a big platform, and when people come in here and use my replies to get their racist, misogynist bullshit in front of more eyes, I call it out and use those callouts as teaching tools to help folks understand why their reactionary racism is real & poison.

I'm an intersectional feminists organizer and writer, and when people come to my timeline to practice reactionary racism/ableism/misogyny or try and characterize intersectional feminists as petty or otherwise not worth listening to, I often push back.

It's partly because I do not want people to think I am simply willing to let that shit stand, and partly bc using their telling on themselves as object lessons about the reality of their disingenuousness, misogyny, ableism, & casual racism, and the danger that poses to the left.

There's just truckloads of evidence showing them for who they are, and how they are introducing racism and misogyny into our movement and convincing new converts that it's okay to be racist/sexist/ableist just as long as you have superficially decent class politics.

That's an absolute cancer of an ideology that will destroy the left from the inside, and I will be damned if I let that happen without at least putting up a fight.

I also know from experience that when class reductionist white bros get disillusioned with the left, they become easy pickings for Nazis who recruit by giving lip service to class issues while feeding their white dude resentment of women and POC's perceived success.

I write about and research online Nazi/fash communities for a living, and I literally watch them talking about how they're recruiting on forums like r/stupidpol.

Then I go to r/stupidpol and see them doing it and see dirtbag "leftists" liking it.

I'm very much tired of this pettiness/obsession narrative, especially since, like... literally the only two professions I've had are organizing on the left and trying to fuck up Nazis and their recruitment.

Dirtbag racism is extremely relevant and urgent on both fronts.

Folks need to understand that yelling at me for talking about the fact that I see the dirtbags as an urgent problem is like going to a grocery store and complaining that the cashier is obsessed with bar codes.

I'm literally doing my job.

If folks don't like or agree with my analysis, that's fine, but literally the work I do to pay my rent is analyzing potential and emerging feeders to far right online terrorists.

There's a metric shit ton of evidence that the dirtbags are nurturing an emerging feeder.

I also love the left and have given a lot of my life to the left and made huge sacrifices in service of the left.

I am very invested in the left, and it breaks my heart to see it become a vehicle for reactionary hate just because some assholes want to make a quick buck.

I also very annoyed that dirtbags spent two months accusing me of being an online grifter, pretended not to notice when I got teargassed/shot at/arrested/basically tortured by cops, then suggested that I should kiss Menaker's feet bc he spent 2 hours detained on a bridge.

That may not be as compelling an argument as "it is literally my job to do this" and "they are actively ruining a movement I've put my blood, sweat, and tears into," but also, jesus christ, they are such absolutely disingenuous little shits.

I am very tired & still very sore and very worried that I may be coming down with COVID, bc police deliberately put us in conditions that maximized the likelihood of transmission & now my throat is sore.

I very much wanted to spend tonight just making fun of James O'Keefe.

But bc the TrueAnon dickwads sicced their trolls on me for tweeting something snarky this morning about wondering if dirtbag podcasters actually bothered to show up at protests, I'm facing a torrent of misogynist, ableist abuse that's really stuck a fork in that plan.

The dirtbags and their trolls introduce these narratives about obsession and hysteria, they direct them at people and especially women who offer legitimate criticisms of them, and then they overwhelm our accounts to the point where we really can't not respond.

Then when we're finally like, "for the love of christ fuck off and by the way these two hundred tweets accusing me of something I didn't do are lies," they're like SEE I TOLD U SHE WUZ OBSESSED THIS PROVES IT

The alternative is just let them silence you, log off, and leave those lies out there uncontested and let people believe them and repeat them ad nauseum.

They're still getting repeated anyway, but at least I've challenged them, now.

So again, don't feed the narrative about obsession and mental illness and pettiness when I'm just doing my job, trying to defend the movement I love, and expressing some pretty justifiable irritation at these guys for spreading disinformation about my organizing and my beliefs.

Even if it's coming from a place of genuine concern or care-- and I really do believe that's where this latest tweet of yours is coming from-- it lends legitimacy to the trolls' ableist narratives and suggests that women should respond to silencing behavior by going silent.

To be vulnerable for a moment, it's also just hurtful to see people seem to take the word of misogynist trolls over my word, simply because they have ganged up on me to give the appearance of negative consensus about me in my own timeline.

(And by the way, it's not like there's a way to prevent it--blocking barely slows them down. Some of these guys are on their fifth or sixth sock puppet accounts and bragging about it.)