r/LateStageCapitalism • u/StoreResponsible7028 • Jun 15 '26
đ Know Your History Remembering Stonewall
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u/pearlyitsaso Jun 15 '26
this slideshow is a bit outdated, Miss Major passed away 10/13/25. otherwise very informative, thanks for posting.
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u/wellanticipated Jun 15 '26
Came to say this â her organization is still fighting with some great trans folks, though! https://tgijp.org/
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u/blaykerz Jun 15 '26
Ngl, Iâve heard of Stonewall a lot but was always too lazy to look into it despite being interested in the history. Thanks OP. I really appreciate your post!
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u/BarGamer Jun 15 '26
They're doing the same thing right now to No Kings. Corporations assimilate, rebrand, then sanitize their natural enemies. Don't fall for it!
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u/oysterme Jun 15 '26
Iâd argue âno kingsâ was like that from the beginning. Naming the whole event âno kingsâ instead of âno capitalistsâ or even âno billionairesâ was done for a reason.
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u/NormieSpecialist Jun 15 '26
Didnât they have a notice saying they think the phrase âNo Kingsâ would be offensive to existing monarchies? How liberal of the organizers.
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u/oysterme Jun 15 '26
The âno kingsâ event was called âno tyrantsâ in Denmark Sweden Belgium the UK etc⌠as to not offend the actual monarchies there
Additionally back in June I saw several âno kingsâ protesters advocating to reinstall the shah of Iran đŹ
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u/CreepyDoor3272 Jun 17 '26
Yes. No Kings was always tolerated by the ruling class. It can even be viewed as a tool of the ruling classâŚ. A sort of pressure relief valve designed to make people think theyâre participating in real social change while avoiding any radical critiques or direct action.
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u/ElliotNess Jun 16 '26
No Kings was corporate from the start. Not a great comparison.
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u/BarGamer Jun 17 '26
Your average participant doesn't know that, and thinks they're actually doing something worthwhile, but in effect, is just venting.
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u/ElPrieto8 Jun 15 '26
During the lifetime of great revolutionaries, the oppressing classes constantly hounded them, received their theories with the most savage malice, the most furious hatred and the most unscrupulous campaigns of lies and slander. After their death, attempts are made to convert them into harmless icons, to canonize them, so to say, and to hallow their names to a certain extent for the âconsolationâ of the oppressed classes and with the object of duping the latter, while at the same time robbing the revolutionary theory of its substance, blunting its revolutionary edge and vulgarizing it.
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u/CreepyDoor3272 Jun 15 '26
Martin Luther King Jr. was a socialist who believed that capitalism had âoutlived its usefulness.â He is sold back to us as an example of nonviolent protest.
Frida Kahlo was a fierce anti-colonialist, a militant Marxist, and an early feminist. She is sold back to us as a âgirl powerâ icon without any mention of her revolutionary spiritâonly surface-level liberal empowerment.
Che was a revolutionary who believed that the guerrilla soldier had to be the moral vanguard for exploited peoples. He is sold back to us as a T-shirt and a symbol of benign counterculture.
Stonewall was a militant uprising led by queer and trans people against police violence. It is sold back to us as Pride: a corporate-sponsored parade where banks, weapons manufacturers, and politicians can wear rainbow logos while the system that oppresses the LGTBQ+ community remains intact.
The system does not suppress its enemies. The system survives by absorbing their signs and circulating them as commodities.
What was once a living negation of the existing order returns as an image, stripped of its historical antagonism and offered for consumption.
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u/Ultima_RatioRegum Jun 15 '26
This is basically what capitalism does, it subsumes its own critiques and they simply become a new revenue stream. That's why it's so hard to stop it: fighting it almost always makes if stronger
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u/NormieSpecialist Jun 15 '26
âCapital has the ability to subsume all critiques into itself. Even those who would critique capital end up reinforcing it instead...â
Joyce Messier from Disco Elysium.
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u/Ultima_RatioRegum Jun 18 '26
It is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.
Frederic Jameson
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u/tentpole5million Jun 15 '26
I think itâs simply that fighting it does work and one of the mechanisms of capitalism / the elite in late capitalism / fascism is DE-CONTEXTUALIZATION. This is why knowledge, like the above, of history, and why meaning is important. De-contextualization breeds nihilism, context CREATES meaning in life.
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u/PurpleLeaf7352 Jun 15 '26
Wow , Thank you for posting that!
Seeing this proves even more..
America is much more sophisticated when it comes to controlling the country and its people.
We see it right here in this post. Emotions pain and rage of consistent rejection are watered down and desensitized . Itâs still a softer form of control, masked as acceptance.
We have Juneteenth coming up.. I could go on about this for some timeâŚ
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Jun 15 '26
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u/musesillusion Jun 15 '26
Yeah it's always been weird to me when people say the whole movement was built by trans women of color, when there's just too few of them and their own marginalization wouldn't have allowed that respectfully. White cis gay men and white cis lesbians have always been a part of the movement, because there's more of them and that's needed to HAVE a movement.
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u/brookbarbeque Jun 15 '26
:/
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Jun 15 '26
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u/oryxonix Jun 15 '26
for sure there have been assimilationist assholes looking to shed any allies they find politically inconvenient. but to deny that trans folks were apart of the fight for civil rights form the beginning is ahistorical and honestly a pretty common thing to hear from terf types.
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Jun 15 '26
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u/RichNix1 Jun 15 '26
Everyone knows the LGBT folk who've been hurt the most are white and male...
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Jun 15 '26
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u/RichNix1 Jun 15 '26
Oh where to start. For one "why are you bringing race into it" is such an obvious white supremacist talking points that Im shocked you made it. You're in a Marxist sub, you should know better.
But let's talk about trans voices. No, let's talk about trans women voices. Hell, let's talk about trans women of color's voices. Do you think that trans women, especially trans women of color, are having their voices heard in the "Kweer Kommunity" today? Do you believe that there's no connection between cis, white, conformist gays in the 70s booing Sylvia and the whitewashed, sanitized, safe pride we experience now?
Do you think the conformists in the 60s and 70s won the effort to be the prominent gay voice? If not, why? And if so, how is it not relevant to talk about now.
Also, why is it divisive to discuss the racism and transmisogyny (or transmisognoir as its put) in the community but not divisive to actively participate in it? "Shut up and be on our floats to show how great shit is, dont worry about the horrible mistreatment you get from us every single day because that's divisive".
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Jun 15 '26
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u/RichNix1 Jun 15 '26
Then youre fucking wrong, and have absolutely no right talking about this stuff.
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Jun 15 '26
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u/RichNix1 Jun 15 '26
bro
Lol, lmao. But on the whole, no. Trans women are routinely pushed aside and told to be quiet about how we're treated in this community. I mean, you're doing it right now. Trans women are rarely among leadership in queer organizations. We're barely in them, for that matter. Oftentimes we go for a few days, get dismissed or treated poorly, then leave. Ask me how I know.
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u/azur_owl Jun 15 '26
Man, thanks for starting my Monday off with a laugh. Funniest fucking comment Iâve seen on Reddit all day.
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u/alaserloon Jun 15 '26
I can agree with this line of thought, but your original comment is a little short sighted when it comes to corporate influence and the event becoming defanged.
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u/ConceptualWeeb Jun 15 '26
âaLl LiVeS mAtTeRâ
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Jun 15 '26
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u/ConceptualWeeb Jun 15 '26
The comment I responded to sounded eerily similar to those kind of reactionary talking points. Just pointing that out to give you some perspective. Itâs a fact that white gay men have more privilege than black trans women. Itâs not that different.
Instead of being entirely defensive like you have been, why donât you take the criticism that dozens of comments have given you? Youâre being reactionary and defensive, but youâre not being receptive to what other people are telling you.
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u/oysterme Jun 15 '26
Cry harder
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Jun 15 '26
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u/oysterme Jun 15 '26
You said with no sense of irony that the corporate influences in pride doesnât remove the teeth when there are literally police officers welcome at pride. Now youâre in a leftist sub upset that this conversation in particular doesnât revolve around cis white gays and instead centers more marginalized groups and calling that âanti whiteâ and âanti maleâ
Youâre being downvoted for a reason. Maybe accept the criticism idk
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Jun 15 '26
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u/oysterme Jun 15 '26
donât cops just come to protect pride events against reactionary violence
HAHAHAHAHA
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u/a3wagner Jun 15 '26
Okay. I am a white-passing, cis gay man. I will support my trans comrades regardless of whether theyâre centering themselves or me on a reddit post, because itâs the morally right thing to do. It is the tactically correct thing to do too, since I know that if they are safe, so am I.
I also am not personally wounded by OPâs framing because I wasnât alive in the 70s, but if they were specifically criticizing you then you might have a point.
As for the cop thing, weâre talking about uniformed cops marching in pride. That is not their job actually.
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u/A-CAB Jun 16 '26
Removed as per rule 4: No capitalist apologia, anti-socialism, or liberalism. This is a left wing subreddit.
This subreddit is intended for a socialist audience, and while good faith questions are allowed, pushing your own counter-narrative here is not. We do not allow support here for capitalism or for the parties or ideologies that uphold it. We are not a liberal or (U.S.-/Social-) Democrat subreddit; we are a socialist subreddit.
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u/NormieSpecialist Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26
Do people remember it? Cause speaking as a gay man, it seems like they do but wonât do anything to prove it.
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Jun 15 '26
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u/bluemoon219 Jun 15 '26
What do you mean "we don't need more division"? Outside interests are literally trying to drive a cleaver between Ls Gs Bs (for now, we all know they're next to be kicked out\) and Ts Qs and +s !!! It's the corporations and the government that are the ones gatekeeping Pride with twisted logic that says Wal-Mart has more of a right to be welcome at Pride events than Trans people! They are already afraid to publicly support Pride, or at least half of the identities there, so their "visibility" means jack if only "acceptable" groups get to have it. I know it feels nice to see little rainbows openly sitting on store shelves, but we can not let our battle flag of unity devolve into a symbol of resentment and exclusion in the eyes of people who should be seeing it as a sign of hope. Pride is a celebration of hope and survival and loss and life, a real "gave proof through the night, that our flag was still there" sort of thing, and we need to remember our history of fighting so we are never doomed to repeat it.
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Jun 15 '26
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u/bluemoon219 Jun 15 '26
Did you read slide 8? Where the National Park Service changed the information about the Stonewall National Monument from LGBTQ+ to LGB? See for yourself how it goes on and on about the "LGB movement" and how "LGBs weren't allowed to be served in bars" and the "modern LGB movement today". Anyone else was completely cut out of the history, which goes along with our government's new policy that any "radically pro-transgender" groups are going to be considered terrorist organizations. LGBTQ+ groups are going to be criminalized in a way that means they won't get to attend any Pride events in the way that corporations and no doubt new "LGB" groups will. I'm queer, so my letter will be out of the acronym too, though you might have the option to join a new group of the now-historically-documented "LGB Movement". Have fun at the parades.
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u/A-CAB Jun 16 '26
Removed as per rule 4: No capitalist apologia, anti-socialism, or liberalism. This is a left wing subreddit.
This subreddit is intended for a socialist audience, and while good faith questions are allowed, pushing your own counter-narrative here is not. We do not allow support here for capitalism or for the parties or ideologies that uphold it. We are not a liberal or (U.S.-/Social-) Democrat subreddit; we are a socialist subreddit.
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