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I know you're all gonna read this and just be like "Jesus, fuck that Madin guy, they're still clearly a card carrying Brotherhood member" and 1) I'm not and 2) this is important.

I don't comment on social media much or anything but there's this one lady that's being going viral on tiktok lately. Her name is Ayame and she is fuuuuuucked. So the conservatives love her.

[embedded video of a woman speaking, saying "I realize that I ask much of my fellow mutants, but we must establish limits on those perceived to be limitless. Society can only function with boundaries and rules, and we must continue to work to find a way to be a part of it; to not press so hard against those markers as to disturb the peace."]

You don't have to agree with me but it's important that you know about this. People like her? They want us back in the box. Limited. Tame. They want us to be fully managed by humans so that we're never a threat.

We don't get mutant liberation by listening to what they have to say.

(OOC: Posted here to enable use of a plot tag)

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Anyone wishing to say unkind things about Madin and that they are 'still a card carrying member of the Brotherhood' should first come and speak to me.

And by 'speak to me' I mean 'walk face first into my electrified fist repeatedly'.

Trying to be respectable enough for bigots is a fool's game. The bigot has not used logic to come to their position, logic cannot be used to convince them otherwise. The most blandly inoffensive member of a hated subgroup will never be anything but a slur to bigots.

(this is not to say that bigots cannot change, but it takes much more than respectability and a logical argument)

Thanks. Seriously, Thanks

Do we want mutant liberation? I wasn’t aware we were prisoners.

The majority is always going to want people to toe lines, what else is new?

You really should give yourself a break. You're too hard on yourself.

And also fuck prettying ourselves up to be "acceptable" by bigot standards

uuuuuuuuugh that b and if you say anything she gets her entire squad to mass report you hate her

You realise that when we talk mutant liberation, we're talking equal rights and safety for mutants?

So, yes, we want it.

Equal rights and safety for mutants 100%. We’re on the same page there.

But to do that we’ve got to work out what limits we’re willing to live within.

You can’t say someone being scared that the crazy person has the power to turn out all lights forever with a good enough EMP is being unreasonable.

But that doesn’t mean they get to throw us in a box or make us live only where they tell us we can live.

Far as I remember the speech, Xavier’s dream was about finding the middle ground.

Edited 2024-09-10 09:34 (UTC)

Except that the limit they want is that we don't exist in public at all.

How do you find middle ground with people who do not want mutants in the room at all? Who support mandatory inhibitor collars and criminalising all powers use or advocating for mutant interment camps? Because that's what they want.

You know people are working on prenatal testing to identify x genes so you can abort babies who carry possible mutations?

Not all of them. Not even most of them.

Sure, social media is always going to show you the extremes. I eventually learnt that.

But for every anti-mutant bigot and self-hating mutant on there, you see the human parents of a kid who burnt their house down but they only want to make sure he can live a life without having to fear prosecution.

Big picture isn’t where I work. That’s for the people who can stand talking to arrogant idiots with their heads so far up their asses they’re never going to see daylight.

The only way we stop any of this is by working with humans because you and I both know it’s not going to be just mutants who make people change.

And that doesn’t mean hiding. Fuck hiding. But there’s a difference between making them feel safer and hiding what and who we are.

Guess I misjudged you. I thought you cared about the systemic issues mutants face.

Not sure how you got ‘I don’t care about systemic issues mutants face’ from ‘the system won’t change unless we get a majority on board’.

Because that's literally what you said.

Not from where I’m standing.

Cool. Glad you like being a conservative and excusing the people who want to destroy us because some humans aren't bad etc etc.

You’ve been here before.

I’ve not excused anything. I just see the reality of what needs doing.

We will get nowhere if we refuse to use every tool we have, that includes sympathetic humans.

You may not like that reality but that doesn’t make it any less real.

Here's the issue though, we can't agree that Healthcare is for everyone. It that disability accommodation is reasonable. That mental health should be destigmatized. To treat animals and children and the elderly and homeless or those escaping abuse with care. That the LBGTQIA+ community should have the rights as everyone else.

If we can't agree that our most vulnerable populations should be cared for and treated with respect and dignity, why would we think that they're going to do so about a population that is *not* vulnerable in their minds?

Mutants, like any minority group, should have equal rights, protections, access to accommodation and Healthcare and everything else. But we're struggling with what should be basics. That doesn't mean you stop working towards your goals, every step you take makes it one less step for those that come after you, but this is a marathon not a sprint. We have a long way to go before mutants can take what we should already have simply by being born.

Whatever, Maya. I can't just both sides this.

You know, I don't like people who throw around big words and education as a way of shutting down marginalised voices.

Are you literally saying "we're not perfect yet, so suffer in your jocks"?

I'm not. I'm working for the same goals as you. I just want to keep it realistic. We're likely not going to get a far as we'd like in our lifetimes, but that doesn't mean we stop working.

absolutely not.

You know, I was a lot like you when I first came here.

And what? Now you better?

Here's what you don't get, okay?

I never get to go out in the world safely. There's always someone staring, or a tiktoker wanting to fight, or someone calling security or something.

I can't just be a person or queer or non binary because I'm purple first. You get to put the mutant thing away when you're done. I don't.

When I'm talking about mutant liberation, I'm talking about a scenario where I get to feel safe walking down the street. Get it?

No. I’d be lying if I ever said that.

What exactly does mutant liberation mean to you?

What changes need to happen so you feel safe?

Edited 2024-09-10 14:02 (UTC)

Now don't get me wrong about agreeing with this woman's whole "so as not to disturb the peace" talk, but ain't there something to be said for limits? I don't got much of a clue what those limits would be, and I doubt I'd agree with her, but I can see there being limits to what folks can do. And maybe that starts with training so that people are able to impose their own limits on their powers. I mean, weren't this place originally a school and that was part of it? Not to speak ill of our quite possibly ill herself visitor, but her powers were able to make it so you couldn't hardly trust the world around you to be as it was two minutes ago. What gives her the right to change the world at her will- and whats the harm of teaching someone with powers like that how to control 'em and that there is a time and place for control?

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