Ive Already Reblogged A Link To This Entire Article By @crimethinc, But I Wanted To Highlight The Excellent

I’ve already reblogged a link to this entire article by @crimethinc, but I wanted to highlight the excellent ‘resources’ section on its own as we approach the election. For an anarchist take on the current climate, a list of upcoming actions, and a dope-ass poster to print and distribute, please do check out the full article as well

Trump’s term is ending as it began, with a likelihood of street conflict. The following guides offer a great deal of information about how to participate in effective protests while protecting yourself and your community.

Getting Connected

How to Form an Affinity Group

Find a Local Mutual Aid Network

Where to Find Your Local Medic Collective—This is not comprehensive, but offers a good starting point.

Security Culture

What Is Security Culture?

Bounty Hunters and Child Predators: Inside the FBI Entrapment Strategy

When the Police Knock on Your Door—Your rights and options: a legal guide

If the FBI Approaches You to Become an Informant—An FAQ

You can find a lot of important information about general security in protest situations here.

Digital Communications and Security

Your Phone Is a Cop—An OpSec/InfoSec primer for the dystopian present.

Communications Equipment for Rebels

Burner Phone Best Practices—A user’s guide

Doxcare—Prevention and aftercare for those targeted by doxxing and political harassment

This thread spells out how to protect your privacy via proper phone safety at demonstrations—before, during, and after the protest.

Dressing for Success and Security

Fashion Tips for the Brave

The Femme’s Guide to Riot Fashion—This season’s hottest looks for the discerning femme.

Staying Safe in the Streets

Blocs, Black and Otherwise

Safety Gear

A Demonstrator’s Guide to Helmets

A Demonstrator’s Guide to Gas Masks and Goggles—Everything you need to know to protect your eyes and lungs from gas and projectiles.

You can read some more tips about protest gear from protesters in Hong Kong here.

Strategy, Planning, and Tactics

A Step-by-Step Guide to Direct Action—What It Is, What It’s Good for, How It Works

Tools and Tactics in the Portland Protests—This text offers an overview of a wide range of options from leaf blowers and umbrellas to shields and lasers.

Creative Direct Action Visuals—Making banners and more.

Blockade Tactics—courtesy of the Ruckus Society

Tips about Blockading—from Beautiful Trouble

Lock Boxes—How to blockade with

Jail Support

Jail Support

Jail Support form from Rosehip Collective—Fill this out in advance of any event at which you might be arrested and leave it with your attorney or a support contact.

NLG National Support Hotlines and Other Resources

When Things Go Badly

Making the Best of Mass Arrests

How to Survive a Felony Trial—Keeping your head up through the worst of it

I Was a J20 Street Medic and Defendant—How we survived the first J20 trial and what we learned along the way.

Basic First Aid in the Streets

First Aid for Protestors

Eye safety at protests—You can read more on how to do an eye flush here

How to Protect Yourself from Audio Attacks—LRAD, sirens, etc.

COVID-19 Safety at Protests

You can obtain more graphics on this subject here.

For Experienced Medics

Protocols for Common Injuries from Police Weapons—For street medics and medical professionals treating demonstrators.

A Demonstrator’s Guide to Responding to Gunshot Wounds—It can also be useful to read these accounts from people who have experienced gunfire at demonstrations.

These four zines from the Rosehip Medic Collective include a range of useful information.

This collection of resources that appeared shortly before Trump took office includes more topical material, addressing non-violence, solidarity, white supremacy, colonialism, patriarchy, capitalism, and more.

So you’re interested in Judaism

That’s great! I’m glad you’re on this journey. But before you start making side blogs and before you contact a rabbi, here’s some books which I think should really be the bare minimum to get you started researching. Yes I recommend them in this order.

What I Wish My Christian Friends Knew About Judaism  by Robert Schoen: This is a super great resource for learning the early stuff about Judaism. Basic overview of customs and holidays, etc. I highly recommend it if you have any background in xianity whatsoever.

Settings of Silver by Stephen Wylen: This is a bit more of an academic text, but is super easy to understand and is incredibly thorough. It’s broken up into sections on Basic Beliefs, Practices and Customs, Jewish History, and Modern Judaism/Israel. I’ve included a link but it should be commonplace in most academic libraries.

To Life! by Harold Kushner. I’ve talked on this blog a few times before about how essential I see this book to be for new converts, Patrilineals, parents of Jews by Choice, and anyone who’s lost touch with their Jewish heritage and wants to discover more. It’s broken up into super easy to read sections, with introductions on every topic and a Q&A section at the end for any potential questions you may have.

Essential Judaism by George Robinson: This is a resource text with incredibly in depth answers to any Judaic question you can think of, with answers in line with that of every denomination. It’s quite weighty, clocking in at 704 pages, but I see it as a must-have in any Jewish home. (Plus you can totally find pdfs online if that’s your thing)

By this point, it should be pretty clear to you whether or not you want to convert. Your next step is not to make a blog (I don’t see why so many people make side blogs so early in their process, it’s okay to reblog pomegranates and yidquotes to your main lmao) but to start reaching out to local Jewish congregations in your area. If you don’t have a local congregation, then I suggest either finding one relatively close by that you can commute to or work with remotely, or waiting until you’re at a place in your life where you do have one. 

I highly suggest A) attending services for a while (a month minimum) before talking to your local clergy about conversion and B) emailing the shul ahead of your attending so that they know you are a safe person to let in.

In the meantime, the books I suggest are:

The Jewish Home by Rabbi Daniel Syme: This book is a guide for creating–you guessed it–a Jewish home. It has super simple and in-depth explanations of rituals, holidays, how to celebrate said holidays, life events, and appropriate prayers (transliterated!) for each.

Choosing a Jewish Life by Anita Diamant: This one is quite popular with converts. It is a guide for navigating the conversion process, with suggestions for readings, prayers, your familial connections, and what the actual conversion moment looks like.

Your People, My People by Lena Romanoff: very similar to Diamant’s book, this is a resource for conversion by someone who has been there, done that, got the t-shirt, and worked with converts for decades. It does take a lot of the view of people converting for marriage, unfortunately, but it is not solely dedicated to that POV. It’s incredibly helpful on the front of navigating the issue with your family: both your own and that of your future partner’s. I found it incredibly lovely this year as I spent Chanukah with my partner and a good chunk of it was celebrated on FT with their parents.

The Way of Man by Martin Buber: My partner would roll their eyes at my including this book, but despite the fact that it’s a pretty sexist Hasidic text, I think it’s an important message for converts: there is no one right or wrong way to find Hashem. The important thing is that you try your best every day to do good and be in His image. It’s a very short book, but take your time with it. Don’t read it all in one sitting.

You may be sitting there looking at this list going “whoa whoa whoa wait! That’s a lot of books! How much will that cost me??” And you’re right to. It’s not a pretty list to look at. Converting costs money, there’s just no way around it. You may or may not have to pay for whatever classes you take, and you may or may not have to become a member of your shul. But the price of these books is just encouragement to find them at a library, order them from used book websites, and most importantly: to space them out.

Becoming a Jew isn’t a race. It’s not about “saving your soul as quick as you can” because that’s ridiculous. It’s a lifelong commitment with no un-do button, so you better make damn sure this is what you want. Take your time with it. Study, interact with your community, study more, and did I mention study? You’ll never be finished learning what there is to know about Judaism, but this is a great place to start. The actual conversion process will take anywhere from 6 months to 2 years depending on what you and your rabbi think is best for you (also, life hack: the more studying you do on your own ahead of time, the shorter your process may end up being). And they’ll have their own book recommendations! In fact, three books on this list were ones my rabbi required of me!

You’ll notice I didn’t include any siddurim or even scripture on this list. Your siddur is a very important and special text, and I don’t think it should be purchased without rabbinic oversight. Likewise, I don’t suggest attempting to study Torah until you have someone knowledgeable in it who can help you study and interpret it.

Don’t rush this. It’s a beautiful thing that will take time, effort, prayer, sweat, and tears. But it’s something that will also rush past, and before you know it you’ll be a bona fide Jew. So enjoy the process of getting there, and know that your commitment to studying doesn’t stop at the mikveh.

I spotted a reply to one of my posts:

And my knee-jerk response was "no, you should hear my friends talk about their lives--"

And it made me remember something.

Back in high school, my IB class did a lock-in-- where the group of students gets locked into one part of the school overnight on a weekend-- and after junk food and video games lost their appeal, we got to talking.

Only I didn't really know anything about almost any of them. They were all friendly enough, but I kept to myself for the most part, so we didn't have much to talk about once standard small talk ran out.

So I asked one of the other people sitting with me: "what's your story?"

Your life story.

And he told me. Sixteen years or so condensed into maybe a half hour. And it was the most fascinating life I could have imagined: the places he'd been, the things he'd done, the experiences that defined him. It boggled my mind.

When he finished and turned the question around to me, I thought mine sounded really boring in comparison, but he listened open-mouthed to the entire thing. Other kids were gathering around us by now, listening in. And when I finished mine, I turned to another one of them and asked the question to them.

And just like before, my mind was blown. A completely different life, completely different focal points, defining experiences, goals the likes of which were deserving of an anime. And the same happened with the next person we asked, and the next.

By the time each one of us had finished telling their story, it was time to go home for the morning. The video games had been abandoned hours ago. None of us had slept. We were too caught up in each other's lives.

All of which is to say:

Thank you. I do lead a very interesting life.

So do you.

Before You Follow

This is a list of things I am or believe:

Ship and let ship

Your Kink/Ship is Not My Kink/Ship and That's Okay

You don't have to be a part of an in-group to like things made by and for that group

Pro-fujoshi/fudanshi/fujin, pro-himejoshi/himedanshi/himejin

You're allowed to self-ship however you like

Anti-harassment, anti-censorship, thought crimes don't exist

Prisons are obsolete

All peoples deserve equality and equity; fuck bigotry

Radically inclusive, radically compassionate

Different forms of oppression exist and intersect on many axes

I ❤ anarchy; fuck capitalism

Indigenous peoples deserve sovereignty over their land

All bodies have worth; this includes fat people and disabled people

Everyone deserves bodily autonomy

Pro-choice

I block liberally; don't be an arsehole

I've read your post about how different people show love, but do you have any suggestions for non-verbal less direct ways I can show a budding romance between a guy with low self-esteem who has never felt like anyone listens to what he has to say and an emotionally walled-off loner who has learned not to trust and desperately needs someone stable and reliable so he can set down roots? Any suggestions for ways they might flirt, or body language to employ with them?

You’re asking me to write your characters for you, and per my Rules and Considerations, that’s not a service this blog provides. I do have a few things for you to think about though.

Body language is both unique and not unique. Especially among the same culture, there are universal movements that correspond to certain emotions, but the specifics of movements can vary. It’s also important to remember that body language is more than conscious moment– a good amount of it is reflexive (like facial expressions) and can range from subtle eyebrow raises to dramatic gestures.

Writing body language has two sides: the action and the meaning. The action is no different than any form of basic description.

She rolled her eyes.

He stuffed his hands in his pockets.

She looked back at him right as she stepped onto the escalator.

The meaning is where uniqueness sometimes comes to play. It’s important to remember that context changes what body language can mean. Let’s look back at “He stuffed his hands in his pockets”.

If the weather is described as chilly and the characters are outside, it could make sense to assume that he’s just cold.

If he just gave a gift and the person is thanking him, that movement could be a sign of slight embarrassment or trying to write it off as “no big deal”.

If he’s shown to be angry, the hand movement could be a sign of trying to hide his clenched fists.

I bet there’s even more ways to interpret that depending on the setting, mood, and character personality. There’s a decent amount of psychological-behavioral information around body language so I don’t think you’d have too much trouble doing some research.

With any growing relationship, platonic or romantic, showing it usually comes from falling layers of boundaries. A character can allow something that they may not have before, they may react in a less tense way, become more open to things, etc. The specifics of how that happens is determined by character personality. 

Second thing I want to mention is that you should check your unrealistic  romanticizing. Low self esteem and insecurities, at least on the level of importance you’ve implied based on wording, very easily destroy or prevent relationships. Those kind of people are not stable and reliable for setting down roots, especially not in a healthy way, and desperation in romance is  an easy path to destruction. The “emotionally walled-off loner” who doesn’t trust would also not realistically enter a relationship (at least not a healthy one) without some therapy or delusion. Romance doesn’t fix people; it can actually make things mentally worse for both parties if codependency drops in and especially when they naturally start taking out their issues on each other. The chances of these kind of people getting together, without professional help or some independent character growth, are slim to none and problematic if it happened. If things fall into place, then all those issues are more likely to actually get worse over time once the honeymoon phase of romance wears off, assuming it wasn’t already on destroyed foundation. Those characters need help if they are serious about anything romance-related.

It’s not that insecure people or those with issues can’t enter relationships or be in good ones, but it’s a lot harder than it looks and they have to be reasonable flaws inside an otherwise okay mental state. If they are in a really bad place, then they need to be willing to constantly work on themselves, be self-disciplined enough to stick to it, and the partner has to be in on it too. One “broken” member of a relationship with a trusted partner can work to a point; both “broken” people is endgame before it even begins. Everyone has baggage, but there’s a big difference between someone who occasionally doubts their abilities and has down times vs someone who genuinely doesn’t believe they’re lovable and their partner is just as stressed. Romance doesn’t fix people in the real world.

Now, if you’re actually writing this realistically and it’s supposed to be a twisted story (that’s okay!) then the specifics behind flirting and other love-related behavior typically come from how that character was shown affection in the past, especially in the younger developing years. You read that post on how people show love, so you should be using that to extrapolate your own answers. This is where backstory really matters, since the most common form of “first love” (not romantic) is between parent and child, plus, depending on age of character, they may have been exposed to parental love the most so it would have the biggest effect of all others. Friendship-love isn’t usually seen until people become teenagers and start forming bonds beyond play-dates, but it’s possible for older developing people to pick up multiple love languages depending on upbringing and environment. 

A character with a poor parental relationships may borrow some love language from friends– however that does’t just erase the messed-up way they’re going to see “love”. There’s a reason the cycle of abuse exists. There’s a reason kids from dysfunctional households end up in toxic relationships, even after they realize what the family put them through. Awareness doesn’t help without action and motivation, guided by someone who’s trained to make it better. It typically takes professional help, along with high levels of self-discipline and self awareness, to break out of that kind of thing.

This relationship isn’t going to be healthy– but your characters probably aren’t going to notice. That’s a HUGE thing with people with low self esteem or similar big problems that affect emotional intimacy; they just don’t see romantic situations clearly. They can’t. They get in their own way. One character with major issues can sometimes be aided with professional help and a partner who’s willing to work with them; two characters who have no clear headlamps are going to keep crashing into each other in a true, emotionally intimate relationship. If they don’t get emotionally intimate, then that’s not really a relationship, they’re FWB (maybe not even the “friend” part). The characters can think they’re doing well or that being together is a good idea, but it isn’t.

I’d probably read that trainwreck. Good luck!

Thinking of asking a question? Please read the Rules and Considerations to make sure I’m the right resource, and check the Tag List to see if your question has already been asked. Also taking donations via Venmo Username: JustAWritingAid

For fanfiction download - I really recommend Calibre for library management, and the Fanficfare extension! Fanficfare allows for download from multiple sites, and can updated existing ePub files (and you can easily use calibre to change the format to your preferred type)

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