Welcome to Modern Anarchy, the podcast featuring real conversations with conscious objectors to the status quo. I'm your host, Nicole. On today's episode, Corey joins us for a conversation about how the system keeps us disconnected.
Together we talk about having a full relationship with our body, time-traveler trouble, and noticing the cost of capitalism. Y'all, Corey brings some fire in terms of anarchy and challenging the status quo. I promise that you will be asking some big questions after hearing Corey speak and listening to their perspective on how, yeah, the system is really not broken but actually working for the people at the top while leaving all of us to suffer. And speaking of disconnection and capitalism and all the fun things there, I know the holidays are right around the corner and this is actually the last episode that I will be releasing of the year because I take this next week off to allow myself my own break from the capitalistic push of putting out a podcast episode every week. So I will be taking the next week off with the holidays. I want to invite you to honor whatever it is that you might need during this time, whether that's some extra alone time to process any emotions that are coming up or maybe to connect with your community that can see you if maybe your family can't. I just want to invite you to have compassion and honor the needs that come up during this time and to lean out with love to the people around you. I study relationships and it's so easy for me to give love and kindness to my friends and to even the clients that I have as a clinician. And yet it can be so difficult to extend that love to the family around me because, you know, there's been pain, there's been hurt, there's been other sorts of things in the way and we can honor that and we can also have boundaries for what we need during this time. And at least for me, I want to go into the holidays with the intention of leaning out with love when I can and offering that first, even though it might be scary.
So, y'all, whatever it is that you need during this time, please honor it. And I look forward to releasing another episode with you in 2023. Thank you for tuning in and for being a part of the Modern Anarchy family.
I cherish and love you all so dearly. Alright, tune in. Do you have any questions about the podcast, about me, before we dive into anything that I can answer?
I don't think so. I've been listening to some of your shows so I got an idea of what it is that you're up to. I'm so curious what am I up to? You know, from your perspective, what would you say? How do you feel about it? I get the impression that like personally and professionally, institutionally, you're like a brain nerd. Yeah, that's pretty accurate.
Yeah. Yeah, I ask lots of questions, frequently asking why. Hopefully we'll do that here today. I know you had some things that specifically you wanted to talk about as well. Always.
There's always lots of things to talk about and the challenge is always like, but which ones are we going to get to? I know. I've had that with multiple people. We didn't even touch on this part of my identity.
I'm like, yeah, I know. I need like a whole series with people, I think. Yeah, I mean, I had a weekly hour long radio show for five years and I don't feel like I got to the bottom of it. And a lot of times I didn't even have guests.
It was just me. So yeah, it's really easy, especially when the scope is so broad. Like the mandate of the show that I had was called Sex, Drugs and How We Roll. And so it was like sexual health and harm reduction and community wellness. But like everything fits into that.
Everything that you could possibly imagine. Yeah, there's lots of different angles. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.
Especially I feel the same way, right? Or like what I study and what my expertise is in relationships, right? And then sexuality. So relationships are everywhere.
Are you kidding me? Like your relationship to self or relationship to others, you know? I mean, yeah. So at that point it's kind of like, we could talk about anything. It's technically on brand, which then makes it very expansive. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, cool. I mean, I am part of what I like to do too is really just like not take up as much space. And so like, I want to talk about what you want to talk about, what you want to share with the world, but you want this space to be. I've had all kinds of things really.
So it's just which ones will come up this hour, I guess. My friend Jess recorded with you a few weeks ago, I guess, and connected us. So the logical joining point for me is like, okay, well, where does that conversation end off? And this conversation pick up maybe because there's a there's a relationship there in terms of like, how do Justin and I know each other and how does our work tie into each other? So yeah, maybe that's the place to start. Sure.
Let's start there. So yeah, how do you know Jess? Well, we are both students with the Institute of Somatics, Sex Education, and so we have met through school, which, you know, online school in COVID is kind of a, you know, a bit nebulous in this way. We've been in the same zoom rooms a bunch of times in different contexts, and we're like on the same Facebook group.
But then from within that, and I'm not even like, how did how did it make the jump? I took one of the classes that Jess offers periodically with another teacher, Jaden called Leisure in Your Chest, which is an exploration for transmasculine spectrum folks who have had top surgery, reconciling their relationships with their post-op bodies. And so we got to know each other a little bit more in that context and then just like had conversations that kept running after the course was finished. And yeah, and now we have this like cute ritual that we do together where we send pictures of the sunset to each other every day. Or every day that there is a sunset and it kind of started this spring forest fire season where there was just like, there was no sunsets in Portland for a number of days.
And so I was sending pictures of the sunset here down to her and then, you know, later in the summer she was in Alaska and like, there's no sunsets in Alaska. Shoot, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. In the heat of the summer, right? So yeah, so it's, you know, become this, this cute thing which now at this time of year, you know, we're getting into the fall and the sunsets happening like earlier and earlier. And it's like getting closer and closer to the time where I put my kid to bed. And, you know, I gave her the warning last night is like, there might be a period of time where you don't get anything from me because like, if it's, if that's happening in the blockout period of feed and tuck a kid in, like, all bets are off. But I'll see you on the other side of the transition when the sun is going down when I'm still picking her up from school and then you'll get the playground sunset at the after school care and like, you know, we'll get there.
That'll be soon enough. It's been a really interesting way to sort of be tracking the days and like, you know, the way that the length of the day changes and the way that the light and the weather impacts things as well as just to like have a moment. And that is like just like a stop. Do this thing that's really just about like tuning into what's beautiful. Yeah. And having that be in relationship, you know, obviously it adds a layer of being accountable to that practice, which I think is one of the things that is really hard about integrating pleasure practice and like connecting with beauty and joy is that like doing that in isolation. We can fall off really easily. Absolutely.
It's not something that we should try and go alone because we need that community to bounce off to have, you know, the sending of pictures and to connect in that it's so much harder when you're trying to do these practices alone. Yeah. So yeah, school, I guess is like school school the connection. And I'm hearing this thread of pleasure. Yes. Yes, which is very much that is sort of a common thread in somatic sex education as a practice and within the schooling that we're doing, you know, really just working on and like individually and then building the skills to support our future clients in in having a relationship with our bodies where in both, you know, pleasure and grief, but also just like a full range of feeling exists and like has permission to be there and be felt, you know, to be able to access the really like expansive potential that that our bodies and our nervous systems have when we know how to use them. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Yes. That is something I'd love to hear more about. Yeah, I mean, so I like my background is in sexual health, right? I have been working in talking about sex and bodies and pleasure and stuff for a long, long, long time.
And when I first got into it, it was, I don't even exactly know it was like the logical step of like what does someone with my positionality, you know, like as a queer trans person do as a summer student job when I was going to college to be a shop teacher. And there was an organization in Vancouver. called Youth Co. That is a youth driven HIV and Hep C community service nonprofit. So I started working there. My first gig with them was doing summer outreach. So I was like working the festival circuit around Vancouver with my little like display board and you know boxes full of condoms and live and you know going to the festivals and talking to people and you know then it didn't take very long before you know people would see me at critical mass or whatever and be like hey it's condom guy.
And yeah so you know I did that for a long time then I moved to the interior and I had a similar job there where I was running the education program and doing a lot of workshops in high schools and middle schools as well as like community programs and transitional job training things. Again with the focus on sexual health and harm reduction from this like public health HIV prevention sort of mandate right. Which is great and important and not that we didn't talk about pleasure like we definitely you know that was always a part of it but really the mandate within those settings is largely about like keeping people healthy in like a quantifiable public health sense and not necessarily like how are you well in yourself. You know then I had made some connections. I feel like there's a there's a strong overlap too in terms of people that I met and came into contact with through sort of more witchy paths and then like where the like sex nerd witchy paths like convened and I'm like oh okay now I'm studying somatic sex education okay I guess that's where these worlds come together. Yeah and so you know a lot of you know a lot of it is really about like you know for me thus far it's about like first of all learning to feel because you can't really know what feels good if you're not even feeling. As is the case with many of us who are like really intellectually hungry it's easy for me to spend my life right here you know like above my shoulders and then not necessarily have a really clear awareness of like oh does that feel good for me or not or like I don't even know how it feels.
I came across this term a few days ago actually in 2019 I was diagnosed with ADHD and when I was the doctor was like you know well everything you've told this you just gave me like a textbook version of like you know what and I'm like okay yes yes right thank you I knew that that's why I'm here I'm hoping that maybe you know getting medicated having some connections to more skills that would be helpful right and it totally is and also that is how my brain works right it is very like an impulse based nervous system so I'm like oh oh oh okay yeah yeah and one of the things that I have learned in that is this this concept house introduced to a couple of days ago at tiktoks like you know my my main education source in terms of like psycho education and what was it called the idea that like the dopamine isn't releasing when it probably should and that like a phenomenon that happens for some of us with ADHD is this thing where even when we think about something that we might want to do if our brain isn't releasing dopamine about it then think like we can't see fun in the future we have to actually be like in the thing and feeling the fun in order to get to it which makes transitions really challenging and you know also makes it really challenging to like try and develop a skill that is hard right like if you're not good at something right away and you try it and then you're like this isn't satisfying like I'm not I'm not getting any gratification from this because this is hard right right and and yeah so that process of like actually building a practice of like oh what does feel good and have that be like a really conscious thing uh recognizing that like you know maybe some of the ways that my brain is operating whether it be neurodivergence or trauma or the place where they convene it's hard to think about what I will enjoy and also enjoy it even when I'm enjoying it yeah and so to to really be to be able to work on that and cultivate that and so you know one of the things that that works for me is like I know that I'm gonna get that dopamine release from erotic engagement right that has not been something that I have been challenged by it's something that I have been you know a very horny person who has had you know enough sexual capital to be able to be you know like exploring and satisfied and so when I want to learn something new if there's a way that it can be like woven into an erotic concept great that's how it's gonna happen and so you know that's one of the things that studying in somatic sex education has been really helpful because it's like okay yeah so we're gonna start with this basic practice of like mindful erotic practice where you're gonna like be in your body with an intention of facilitating pleasure but also while you're there let's notice like know why it's happening but to just be starting the process of of opening to like oh like you know my arm is cold or you know like my leg is itchy or you know like to actually just be noticing the sensory experience of having a whole body because a lot of the time and you know I think that zoom being this place where we are seeing each other but also the listeners don't even get that they just get our voices where like the rest of us is kind of ignored I came across I don't know if you are familiar with a person named Tata Hizumi um he had a website for a long time called the selfish activist and I don't know if he's really doing much of that now but his background you know he's does a bunch around like somatics and bodies and stuff but from a perspective of his lineage is from Japan and he has this sort of like traditional animus tie in to like okay how are we doing this like modern somatics thing but also how is that actually just like ancient animus stuff um and one of the things that I heard him say at one point was that like the way that we organize ourselves in like a modern contemporary North American context when we come to the table to do business uh-huh is that we sit down and our gut brains and our sex are under the table they're not included they're not taken into consideration we are expected to remain civilized and like keep this context of like business business business as being something that really exists you know from our ribs up or from our shoulders up even yeah um and so so much of our world operates that way right and I feel like even more so uh you know as we're like you know siloed in our own little zoom studios um where you know like what you see is like from the from the surgery scars up and you don't get anything else yeah um and yeah so the the work of like oh what's what else is going on down there yeah absolutely I mean I'm resonating with you on some other levels here of like how much time I spend up here thinking hoping that like I can find all the answers to like where to go in my life what feels good to me all that sort of stuff by thinking through it logically yeah I mean that would be nice right I feel like we're gonna only get part of the picture I know and I think right exactly and I know and I think like I'm always thinking that that's the better space to be that's where more of the answers are that's where like if I sit with this Rubik's cube and I turn it over 16 million times like I'm gonna get the right answer versus like actually just tuning into the body and like seeing what's coming up for me on like a somatic level in these questions yeah which you know it makes perfect sense that we have come to think of the the intellectual and the like the brain pursuits and the the way we understand things as being superior because that's that's what empire tells us right yeah you know that so much of how capitalism operates so much of how our school system operates white supremacist thinking we are told that like you know what happens above our shoulders particularly if our faces are pale that like that's the better thing and that like everything else is like lower or less than and the reality is that like that way of thinking has got us into like really messy situations right like we're looking at a climate that may be beyond repair because choices were made here instead of here right like thinking about what makes sense also allows us to to separate you know ourselves from the ecosystems that we live in from each other from our descendants and our ancestors right it like it isolates us into this moment where our decisions can be based on what is quantifiable and what's profitable. And realistically, we also know that that's not sustainable and it's not the whole picture. And yeah, so I feel like one of the other pieces in this for me that is a worthwhile part of the story is that when I was in my early 20s, I've always been a very physically active person. And I think, you know, part of having a brain that goes like, it's helpful for my body to try to keep up with that.
Right. And, you know, so I used to do like long distance bike tours where I rode my bike from Halifax to New York and then to Montreal. And then I wasn't done. And so I got a job as a courier and I was like, I'm going to keep going and I rode and rode and rode. Yeah. So then in my early 20s, I was hit by a car while I was riding my bike. No.
No. And that completely changed everything for me because I couldn't ride for a long time, but I also couldn't really move freely. I had pretty like sudden onset mobility challenges, right? Where like stairs became challenging, moving through space became challenging, standing on my feet became challenging. So, you know, the idea that you can like think your way out of things, it is both sort of like turned up in that context where it's like, oh, my body is not participating. I need to just like go even further into like, how can I intellectualize my way through this? But also I found that like that made me crazy. That word doesn't always hit right for everyone, but like I've diagnosably speaking, I have mental health challenges and I know that when my body is not able to help process a part of what I am doing, that my brain can't actually handle it all.
It's too much. And so, you know, for the year following and then, you know, years, because realistically my recovery process did take about 10 years. Of course. Yeah, wow. That, you know, I had to learn a lot of ways of like, okay, well, if my body can't move in the same ways that I am used to, but I do recognize that like, I need my body to move to help me process some of what's happening in my head. How else am I going to do that?
Right? Like, can I can I get some of that output from coloring or doing something with my hands? Yeah, yeah, yeah, something like craft that I can do that gives me the same kind of like, lactic acid processing assistance that long distance bike to release.
Yeah. You know, it there's a lot of trial and error in that process. But really, you know, I feel like a big part of what came out of that is that like, I don't, I don't take my body for granted.
And I, I do still live with some amount of pain and, you know, a part of what I learned about my body in that process is also that like, I'm hyper mobile and I have a connective tissue disorder, which meant that putting myself back together after an impact was harder because you can put your bones back in the right places. And then they just like, it's like one of those puppet dolls where you like push the button and then the strings get loose and the deeds all fall. Yeah, you know, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so my body's kind of like that.
And so, you know, I have had to learn ways to take care of it. And as a part of like pain management. And so, you know, for me, if I can stay strong and active, I know that like, my pain is less. Yeah, but yeah, there's so many variables, right? There's so many variables and how we find balance in our bodies and our minds and, and they're not disconnected as much as empire would like us to think that like, oh, your body doesn't work. That's cool.
You can still have a rewarding intellectual life. Yes. And if you live only in your head, whatever is happening in your body is still going to impact you, right?
Like, yes. You know, if you can't move your body, then it means you're going to need to figure out the things like eating, dressing, toileting, hygiene, that like if you can't do those things for yourself, then you need help. And that has mental impacts, right? It does.
It does. And there's like all of these pieces where we are not heads in jars, right? We aren't. We're bodies, or we are in bodies and our bodies have complex systems that require lots of different things.
And we're trying to figure out different pieces and taking care of them. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
Right. I mean, body keeps a score. I mean, some of the medical model and psychology is learning to be like, oh, shit, we do have a connection to our body and some of our trauma might actually stay there and we do need to work on that. And we're finally starting to realize that, right?
The Empire's finally starting to realize this and be like, oh, we had it kind of wrong. There actually is a connection. So like, thank God, like, thank God, we're getting to this point here where we're coming to start to integrate and we're just like at the beginnings, I think of that movement and understanding like how much the body is connected to our mental health and all of that. I mean, your story is such an example of that, right? I mean, here's this horrible incident that completely changes your mobility, completely changes your connection to your body. And I mean, yeah, I know the word crazy has a lot of, you know, potential negative connotations, but like that is how you felt, right?
Yeah. And like, oh, what a tough place to be. Well, and, you know, I feel like this is one of those pieces I often describe a part of my experience in the world as like time traveler trouble, because I'm like, how are we still here?
Like, how are we still doing this? Some of these things seem so simple, you know, when I'm like, I feel like I was saying some things about the fall of the American Empire 15 years ago and people were like, yeah, yeah, tinfoil hat, tinfoil hat. And I'm like, no, but you see what I'm saying now, right? So one of the pieces that feels like an impatient time traveler trouble is the part where like, okay, we're starting to notice these things.
We're starting to have some concept that like, oh, yes. Okay, stuff lives in the body. But how that translates to like, the way that we treat children in schools, or like the expectation of people to work enough jobs to survive in a housing crisis labor disaster, that we're not actually adding all of the pieces up of like, oh, right, all of this, everything that we're doing requires the investment of individuals. And the their ability to do that is contingent on their bodies and their bodies being well and able to participate is contingent on things like learning how to feel. And being given space in that of like, sometimes we don't feel great.
Yeah. And sometimes that requires care. And that's something that like doesn't really fit well into the institutional timelines of like, you know, you got to be at school at this time and sit in your desk for this amount of time and if you want to go to the bathroom then you can ask permission to use the toilet and all of these sorts of things.
They feel like we could be past that we have enough information if we really add it all up that we could see that like maybe this isn't the way to keep doing things. Yeah. But also, there's like a lot of pieces that are really invested in maintaining that order right and maintaining things in the way so yeah.
Absolutely. I mean the people at the top that don't want to lose the control that they've already, they already have right so I mean that's what we're fighting right is that control at the top that trickles that trickles down to all of these systems right. Even you're talking about like you know the body and connection like the concept of universal health care and all that sort of like we don't even have that like we don't even have a space where we can like all people can feel safe enough to be like oh if something's wrong with my body I actually can go somewhere to get that treated and explore whatever that is like that's even something in America where people are like oh fuck like I am scared to go to a doctor because I don't know how much it's going to cost me for me to be healthy.
Yeah. And if you have that information but you don't have the resources to be able to like make the the right choice, then it's put on you as this like then there's all this blame right I've like, oh you know well you didn't take care of yourself and it's like actually I make you know it's not about making good choices as much as having good choices and the reality is that a lot of us, particularly in the context of like you know the American health care system or like the housing crisis or the education system like we're not necessarily making the best choices but that's like I'm not talking about more change but like that higher set of things is it feels powerless when you look at that and realize where we're at as a country and like yeah all of the different disparities that are going on for millions of people in this country. Totally and the way that they all weave into each other right where like I live in Canada and I do benefit from being able to access universal health care which you know it has some flaws it definitely has some like areas that it could grow and improve I don't want to say that it's a perfect system.
But I do know that if we didn't have that I don't think that myself my daughter or my partner would be alive right now, honestly, because we couldn't afford the care that we have relied on, I'm aware of that. So I do have you know I have a gratitude for that. I also, you know, as a person with disability I'm able to. to access benefits and I live in subsidized gear to income housing.
And those things are all great. I wish that everyone had access to them and I feel like it really wouldn't be that complicated for everyone to have access to them because so much of how those systems are managed and administered, they're actually set up in a way right now where the process of means testing in order to access benefits, it's really labor intensive and it's really costly in terms of the administration and it also creates this condition where the people who are able to access benefits are subject to a lot of surveillance, which then takes huge things on your dignity. So, you know, just as an example, so like I live in a gear to income housing, a part of how that is set up is that three months out of every year, I have to give my housing provider a full print out of my all of my bank accounts, everything I have spent money on, anytime that I got even $50, I have to account for it because they have to calculate if I'm receiving the appropriate housing subsidy.
Right. But then it creates a situation where, you know, folks who are in this housing, it's demotivating to succeed, right, because like if you did do well, if you did make money, then your costs of everything go up, right. Instead, if we had a universal benefit system where we actually just said, okay, well, housing is affordable across the board, then individuals who need the housing to be more affordable wouldn't be put into this position of having to nickel and dime and be like, oh yeah, you know, like I got this $50 gift from my mom because I couldn't afford groceries, but you know, like don't ding me for it. And instead, you know, I think about how much money and time is wasted on like, not only individuals like myself preparing these reports and being subjected to that surveillance, but then if they're actually read, then it's like, then you have someone's, you know, who's waged to sit at a desk and process all that paper. And it's like, why? Why don't we just instead, this is, you know, my dream vision about it. Like, why don't we instead say for-profit corporations are not allowed to profit off of the rental of housing on stolen land, right? Like, I live on unceded Likwungen territory. There's never been, there's never been any sort of like treaty signed, there's never been any agreements. This is, this is without question, this is stolen land.
So how is it that private corporations can use their piece of paper that says that they're the ones who own the stolen land and then continue to generate profit off of letting people access the housing that's on that stolen land? Like, it's preposterous to me that that system is allowed to maintain. And because of the, the drive of capitalism, it's like on this perpetual growth line where like our incomes aren't on perpetual growth, our ecosystem isn't on perpetual growth, our bodies aren't on perpetual growth. And so it's going to come into conflict, right? If you think about it, like gears interlocking, like you've got some heavy gears meshing, and they're just like meshing harder and harder and harder.
The more that we have these systems pushing for profit, where in, you know, the only places to profit from are off of people's dignity and like profiting off of suffering, you know, like another example that really like rings out for me. So my grandmother has last year and she had dementia. She lived with dementia for like six years. And for the last three of it, I would just like go and like, you know, it was during COVID and so I would like go out her window and be like, Jesus is waiting, you can let go. Like you don't have to be here. Because, you know, I can only imagine like how scary it must be to get to a point where you don't actually, you don't live in your body, right? And what's happening in your mind is not necessarily in alliance with everything that's happening around you. I feel like that is got to be one of the most terrifying aspects that awaits me in my future. And I'm like, no, we're gonna think positively.
Yeah. But that like, you know, one of the things that really came up for me in watching her decline was, you know, that she at one point later in her illness, you know, she had to live in a hospital that had like a locked floors, right? Because she didn't know who she was and she didn't have like safety and stuff. And so she was living in an institution which 15 years ago, most of the institutions like that here in BC in the province that I live in, were an extension of the public health care system. And the previous provincial government, which was neoliberal profit machine, sold off a lot of those Crown Corporation public entities to for profit corporations.
Yeah. So most elder care in the province was sold off to companies like Revere and like, you know, these companies that they run elder care facilities all over North America. And they have stockholders that want profits in their dividends every year. And it's like, where do you think profit comes from off of elder care?
Right? Like taking care of elders is not something that is profitable. It's something that we need to do our society needs to do it. But if we're doing it in a way that is supposed to generate profit, the places where that profit can be taken from is like, the wellness of the elders and the workers, right? And so then you have facilities that are like, staffed with less and less individuals, less and less competent or trained individuals, less paid, less and less, who are given less benefits, who are given less ability to say, I don't feel well, I'm not coming into work today, which is how you end up, you know, like, I think the same thing has happened on both sides of the border. But like, because of the nature of work in those facilities, people weren't able to call in sick and not bring COVID into the hospital with them. So then you have an outbreak in an institution and you have a bunch of people who have no protection whatsoever. Often are immunocompromised. And they're subject to, you know, this pandemic that like, you know, we're trying, you know, or I feel like at this point, most people have given up, but like, there is still like, some effort to try and like, protect the vulnerable, right? But like, the people who are living in and working in the most vulnerable places, like eldercare facilities and prisons, daycares, like they weren't given the same protection because we have to just maintain business as usual. And I think that that's one of the things that, again, another like, time traveler, whoa, of like, at the start of COVID, I was like, Oh, maybe, maybe this is it, like, maybe this is when people start to see that like, capitalism can't stand, we can't keep doing it in this way. This virus feels like a symptom of capitalism.
Right. And if we could just like, pause business as usual for long enough to tune into ourselves and our bodies and resting and like, then we aren't in a position where we have to go out and we have to go to work and we have to go to the store, right, therefore exposing each other and sharing these germs. The outcome of this experiment is that we found that like, no, capitalism isn't willing to pause. And, you know, as a result, you know, the people who are the most vulnerable are an accepted loss. Right.
And that's exactly what happened. Yeah. A part of how I experienced that here, the same week that mask mandates were removed from most public spaces, my partner started chemotherapy. And so, you know, on one hand, people all around me are like, Yay, cool, it's free. We're like, so much safer now. And I'm like, Okay, but the cost of that is that like, my family is so much less safe now, we are so much less safe going to the grocery store, riding the bus, going to the playground, because we have decided collectively on whatever, you know, that like, having something on our faces to it's, it's too annoying.
It's too much of a burden, whatever. And, and yeah, like, you know, as a result, our family has just had to isolate, you know, and, and then, you know, like my five year old has like taken on more of that anxiety, because she's the only one in her class is still wearing a mask. Like she's the only one of the only kids in the school who's still masking. And so it's this thing where it's like, Oh, why, why do you still wear a mask?
Well, you know, my cocoa has cancer. And so then, you know, like, if, if we have relationships with people who are vulnerable, then we're, we will still care. But outside of the context of relationship, because we are in this, this culture that is really dedicated to separate heads and boxes that aren't in relationship with each other.
Yeah, we don't think about, about the interconnection of all of our bodies, even when there are like actual pathogens moving between our bodies and reminding us all the time that like, we are connected, really, really connected. Yeah, the people at the top are not feeling that connection, right? The person at the very top sees that worker that has to go into the elderly care facility is just a number.
That's just an employee that I pay this amount to whatever and doesn't have any sort of connection to the emotionality of like, yeah, that person's sick and needed a day off, you know, and like that connection just isn't even there. And so then we're seeing that. seeing like the realities of like that sort of disconnection, that sort of capitalistic push and all the pain, the death and the suffering that it causes to all of the people at the bottom, which makes me wonder, right, people talk about like a revolution, right, and other sorts of things happening in the future, right, as we have media, right, we're creating more of a voice for the people at all the bottom more so than ever before in our human experience on this world, especially in America, right, like media platforms were controlled by the top elite for years, like we're starting to have this different space where like people can start talking about this stuff and not have to be controlled by someone above.
And so like, is there going to be a movement in the next, you know, decade, next, you know, couple, couple of decades, I don't know, I fucking hope so, you know, what I mean to have sort of change through to a more collectivist world where like, people aren't suffering at the bottom. Well, and you know, I think that one of the things that I like to keep in mind with that is that like, that is happening. Yeah, it has been happening. It is really, you know, as much as it is hidden and suppressed, there is an unbroken chain of resistance, you know, from 1492 onwards, like there has, there has been resistance to this colonial project. There always has and there always will be.
And some of the ways that that resistance has been suppressed and silenced has been brutal and genocidal. And so the fact that it continues in that way shouldn't really come as a surprise because that's how it like, you know, right? And there is some sense of relief of like, oh, yeah, okay, we do have we have the internet. And so long as the internet, you know, as long as we have a free internet, we can have this like, more broad based collectivist, you know, media production, you know, we can hear stories from people who are more marginalized. Right.
And even within the internet, we are still subject to what is profitable for the powerful, right? Yeah, exactly. And, you know, I, I noticed that a lot as someone who you know, a lot of my work, because it's about sex and bodies and pleasure, I can't promote I've actually I got a new phone and I haven't taught it how to access Facebook or Instagram because I know that what happens when I'm on those platforms is that like, I can get very thoroughly sucked in, you know, there's lots for me there. And some of it is nourishing, some of it is exciting. But also a lot of it is it's designed to keep me feeling helpless and disconnected. Um, and it's designed to uphold a moral code that I don't agree with. And, and yeah, so for me, in terms of like, you know, my hopes for the future and media and how we tell our stories, I am concerned about the overreach of the metaverse and of like, you know, the oligarchs really wanting to, to have a say about what we are allowed to talk about like, okay, yeah, you can talk about anything you can produce anything. But also, you can't promote it here. Talk about that.
Yeah, or like, you know, yeah, you can talk about sex. But if you use an action, if you use a proper spelling of the word, so that might be searchable, then like, you're right. Right. And so, you know, I think that that is something that is, it's worth thinking about and keeping in mind. And I mean, that I have not completely disengaged from those platforms because they are a part of how I am able to reach people, you know, like, I've tried to shift where like, you know, I have a Patreon and I'm like, you know, I feel more comfortable putting content here where like, you know, you can subscribe for a buck 50 a month. But that I know that like, I'm not going to be silenced for speaking my truth.
Yeah, I also know that the profits that are garnered off of my brain farts are like, not maybe not entirely, but like more so going to me than to Mark, right? I'm like, he's got enough. Yeah, so it's like, you know, I would like that.
But also, I have three patrons right now, you know, it's just, it's a small, you know, it's not an easy transition because we are, we are accustomed to being able to log on, you know, open up the app and it's all it's all there and it's all free, right? We don't think about the cause that comes with it, which is, you know, like very serious data mining, right? And the other piece that really sort of forced my hand in trying to take a bigger step away from from those platforms was also hearing about the girl and her mom who were facing criminal charges for trying to access an abortion and talking about that on Messenger in a private message, right?
And then that private message content was shared with the court system to try and prosecute her for accessing an abortion, which like, you know, there's no reason that accessing abortion should be criminal at all. First of all, right? But then, you know, further to like, okay, how much of my time and my work and my, my care, am I putting into a platform that is really actively enforcing these systems that are really violent and harmful? So yeah, but but also it's like, you know, sometimes I just need to connect with like a lot of people at once. And exactly. Exactly.
And sometimes you just want to scroll some content, you know, a little bit from the take a moment to just like, look at something else, you know, just for a moment, right? And like, I think it's so true. I mean, I've heard like really specifically about TikTok, some really bad things about the algorithm, like walking out by Poc people, people with disabilities, and like people who are just quote unquote, not pretty, like, what the fuck? Like, so like, yeah, I mean, the whole system is like, still, yes, all of this is controlled, and has so much power at the top. So like, yeah, how do we, how do we work in the system without becoming subsumed? Is that the right word to the system?
I don't know succumb to the system? Yeah, and I don't I don't know the answers to that. I mean, fuck, I mean, at least the pod, I don't know the podcast space at least currently seems to be kind of liberated. Like, I don't get in trouble for talking about sex on here, like I do on Instagram, or even trying to upload this podcast onto YouTube, I've gotten banned for talking about porn and stuff. So it's like, fuck, like, I don't even know what is a free space anymore with media to be able to reach out and do good work in the world.
I don't know. Yeah, totally. And I mean, I think that there are much larger and above my like, great conversations about, you know, net neutrality and the future of the free internet. And, you know, I think that there are, there's really valid questions that I think we could all be asking ourselves at every turn, right?
Whether it's like, you know, how we access information, how we access each other, where we buy food, where like, you know, all of the things of like, who's profiting off of this? Right. And why?
Right. I got into a bit of a conversation with my parents a couple days ago, because the queen died, and my mom's, you know, a bit more of this sort of like boomer generation, like monarchy stand thing. And one of the bits that they were talking about was, you know, like her involvement in World War Two, and a mutual friend of former friend of mine had posted something because like his grandma had served with her and whatever this whole thing.
Sure. And I was like, oh, yeah, I don't really talk to that person anymore. And the reason that I don't really talk to them is because we had, we had a disagreement about Remembrance Day. And so Remembrance Day is like the Canadian equivalent Veterans Day. So, you know, there is this sort of like annual pomp and circumstance of like, you know, we're going to put reads on memorials, and we're going to say never again, never again, like, you know, wars, you know, but I feel like I realized at some point, you know, like late teens, early 20s, that like, that was all kind of a sham and that like the war never stopped, like the war is still happening. It's just been like put somewhere else, where, you know, like, you know, like, I don't really think that war is like a war that's not going to stop. And like, you know, I don't personally feel like it does very much respect or honor to veterans who trot out this like parade about, oh, woe is war, woe is war. It's like, no, no, no, no, like, from my perspective, if you want to honor and respect veterans, you would stop war from happening. And the way to do that is by looking at who is profiting off of the war machine, right?
And so, you know, I would, if I was making a remembrance day to honor veterans, it would be about like, you know, let's look at Blackwater Haliburton, let's look at like, who in office right now is actually profiting off of the sale of arms, just as a basic, you know, like, having some like light shine on those things, that would honor veterans, right? Or like, you know, making sure that people have access to treatments. I'm definitely a proponent of psychedelics. And I feel like there's a whole other conversation that we could probably run an entire hour, like getting ourselves past the drug war to a place of like, how could we actually utilize these tools that we know about? They are well researched.
We have all of the evidence that we would need. And yet, we have a growing amount of people who are living with a level of trauma that is becoming untenable. And instead of using the tools that we know might actually help, we are continuing to criminalize those people. Oh, why?
because we have for-profit prisons. Right? And it's like, so every angle, right?
Yes. Why is this thing so fucked up? Oh, because someone's making money off of it. Yeah.
Why is this thing so fucked up? Oh, someone's making money off of it. Yep. Yep. Ooh, yeah. 100%.
Yeah. I'm doing all of my clinical work right now in a place where we do ketamine assisted psychotherapy, since that's what's legal. But like, we do a ton of psychedelic stuff. And like, yeah, I think this is asking a bigger question of like, what is war, right? Especially in our current day, when maybe it's not like what it was in World War I of like the trenches where you go up into the dead man's land. Like what is war today currently, right? And obviously this war has been going on for like marginalized people for forever, right? But like looking at it now, like to honor the life sacrifices and all of the things that veterans have done of like fighting for our freedom, fighting for our happiness and our liberty, like what sort of things are currently challenging that in our world and yeah, creating continued war here on a personal level to ask those questions of like, yeah, how do we honor that?
Maybe it is by asking more questions to challenge the war that is currently happening specifically for marginalized people in America. Totally. Yeah. And, and I mean, even just that, that notion of like, you know, you fought for freedom, freedom for what? Like freedom to subjugate other people, like freedom to extend empire. I think that it's really important for us to really take some of these notions apart about like, what is the glory of war? You know, I, one of my favorite quotes and I might not be able to get it exactly, but like in true blood, there's this conversation about like the glorified dead or whatever and and there's this bit where they're like, there is nothing glorious about war.
There has never been anything glorious about war. And when we are talking about the glorious dead, we are talking mostly about young boys who were used as cannon fodder for someone to profit like whatever conflict, whatever war you're talking about, you're talking about people who, and you know, I think that particularly in the current military industrial complex, like where do, where do people come from? People come into the military because there is no other way out of their small town. There's no other way to access affordable education.
There's no other way to access the health care that they might need. And so it's like, how is that? How is that like economic draft? Not a war of itself, right? Like the economic conditions that create the possibility for the war machine to continue, that is war.
That is war at home. It's a question of consent. Like, can you fully consent to the choice to enlist in the war when your social and economic conditions have put you in a space where that seems like the only option and it might be the only option for the circumstances for a lot of people, right? So like, is that a fully consented option? Yeah. Like, I'm going to say no. Right.
I'm going to say that like, you know, we, we have this like idea. I've lived in a bunch of communities here in Canada that like the communities themselves sort of have foundation and were built up as places that were known to be more progressive by the fact that they were places that draft Dodgers settled, right? People who escaped going to Vietnam, fled to Canada and then, you know, built communities in the interior on the Gulf Islands. You know, there are like places that that essence of like, I'm not fighting your war for you was like at the foundation of like, what's starting this community, right? Sure.
Yeah. And I think that one of the things that we miss right now is that there, you can't dodge an economic draft, right? Like the dodging of an economic draft leads directly to the opioid crisis, right? So, and then you have, you know, then you have the glorious dead on that side of things, right? Where it's like, okay, you know, our society is really good at dismissing the deaths within the context of overdose as, you know, being again, an acceptable loss when like, it's not, it's like, there's no, there's no reason that it should be an acceptable loss. I've lost far too many people based on, you know, the fact that they weren't able to safely access the care that they needed, right? They weren't safely able to access the medications that either resolve their physical or psychic pain and efforts to try and find some out or some relief or some comfort in the nature of prohibition drug market means that, that, yeah, that, that effort is not survivable for a lot of people in, in my province with their, I'm not sure if this is like, currently accurate. It may have gone up, but like the last number that I heard was that for at least the past four years, we have five people die every single day from opioid overdose in our problems. Wow. And so it's like, this isn't an excusable, allowable, acceptable death, especially when, when we start looking into the way that business operates and like, oh, those workers, they're just numbers.
It's like, okay, but now we're getting to a point, right? I live on an island accessing the island requires fairy service and the fairies are operating on reduced salings because they can't staff the boat. Our construction industry is like, you know, there's no one to work. There's no one to work. And it's like, okay, but first of all, you're not really offering much in the way of, you know, what am I, what am I going to work for?
Right? Like, is this job set up something that is still going to allow me like health and well-being and connection with my family and all those things. But also this question of like, there's no one to work. Somehow we feel comfortable ignoring the fact that like from COVID and fentanyl and suicide that like, we've actually lost a lot of fucking people in the last few years. And so like our labor pool is a lot smaller than it was five years ago. And, and, and that's not even taking into consideration the amount of us that like are, we're still here, but we're not able to work in the same way that we maybe used to be. Right.
Because our bodies have given out or minds have been like, no, can't do that anymore. Yeah, that labor doesn't pay enough to be able to support your family, single mom with two kids. You can't just work on a ferry.
It's not going to work. Yeah. I mean, you know, like I will say that, you know, the the ferry as an example is like, it was for a long time, like one of the good jobs, right?
Like it's, it's union. They got benefits, you know, like, and still, you know, when you can't keep people in the good jobs, there's some bigger questions about like, okay, well, how are we going to, how are we going to keep doing this then? Because like there isn't the population numbers to maintain the game that we've been playing. Like there's a, I think about it, you know, like the game of Monopoly is, you know, it's interesting in the history of the game and the fact that like, you know, it was kind of invented to expose all this, but it does a really good job.
When you play the game of Monopoly, there is a point where you either have to say like, okay, you won game over or that everyone gets frustrated and flips the fucking board. Yeah. Right. And we're at that point right now. Like we're there.
Right. Are we going to just keep going around and keep fucking doling money out? Cause three parking isn't even giving money anymore. Right. The parking pool has been empty for a long ass time and we're, you know, rents going up and rents going up and rents going up and like there's nothing available.
You can't buy into the market. Yeah. So, so like at what point do we realize like, okay, this game is not fun anymore. Right. Right.
We don't want to be playing this game anymore. And yeah. So, you know, I think that there are more and more people who are at that point. Yeah. And we're like, I just know, I'm not sure where to like put my hands under the board to flip it. I'm ready, but I don't know.
How do I do it? Yeah. Yeah.
Or like I want to do that, but I am scared because I don't feel like I, you know, I don't want to put my health or my children or my housing security or, you know, whatever at risk. Right. Like I need to be able to know I can participate in this resistance without ending up being someone who is living in the park and subject to having my tents stolen by bylaw officers every two weeks, you know, like. Right. Absolutely. I mean, that metaphor hits for me.
Right. I mean, the amount of times I've played Monopoly and you get to that point where people start to lose and one person's going bankrupt and other, another person's winning and everyone's just like, you know, like, I think we've played enough. The board game, it's been eight hours.
I'm kind of done. Maybe a different game. Yeah.
Let's play something else. Yeah. And I think, you know, like coming back to the beginning of our conversation too, talking about like tuning into the body and like that felt sense.
Like it's so hard to have these, like these conversations are important, right? To like recognize like all the ways that this system is broken. This system is a hundred percent broken. And at the same time, while we're in the system, like, what do we do? How do I maintain my semblance of health? How do I help other people?
How do I flip the board? You know what I mean? Yeah.
And is there any? Any advice you give, you know, when you see the board, what would you say? Yeah. I mean, I think to continue that analogy, right, like a part of what feels challenging about like how do we get away from this game, it is contingent on the fact that like we're sitting at a table and that like our heads and hands are in the game. But like the rest of our bodies are not and that like maybe we can't flip the table, but we probably can stand up and walk away. And that like the more opportunities even like, you know, I think about like taking longer bathroom breaks, you know, of like, oh, yeah, I got to go to the bathroom and I'm going to like, I'm going to take my full 15 minutes. You know, like I think about that dead press song, hell, yeah, of like, you know, you better believe I'm dropping dishes, right, because like, you don't pay me enough to care. And I think that there are ways like that of like, you know, people really take your breaks. Yeah. Take your, you know, if you're entitled to medical leave, take your medical leave.
Yeah. If you're entitled to unemployment, take your unemployment. There's so much shame that is put on needing help or needing to step out of the trajectory of success. But our bodies know that like, if we don't schedule maintenance, we're just going to have a shutdown, right? Like that that's we do have to have ways that we can like do things more sustainably than we are being expected to do. So any little place where we can take that space, right? And like breathe a little deeper, feel a little more, you know, and I think that that is about like building small practices. And, you know, like I said about social media, you know, like recognizing the ways that a part of what is being offered to us within this structure is, you know, this expectation that we will like work and work and work and work and work. And that when we're not working, that we'll just like tune into things that make us feel helpless.
That does its job. And I will say about the system, like, I don't think that it's broken. I think it's operating exactly how it was always designed. Fuck, fuck.
It's operating exactly as it was always designed and that like staying in a historical context where we understand that like mythology that has become a part of the soup that we're all in, you know, things like Puritan ideals and like white supremacist ideals about like, you know, the doctrine of discovery, right? Of things where it's like, oh, there's no one here. This land is free to take. And it's like, well, no, actually, like this land was occupied.
It is occupied. And this idea of like a neutral, unfarmed land, like we actually know that was never true. We know that the prairies were actually like large scale, long term permaculture projects that there there were food forests that existed and maintain large populations of people for thousands of years on both coasts and all around the continent. Right. And that those things existed in some cases still exist in, you know, in small, like little sites of resistance. But that like this idea that we have been told that like, oh, there is nothing.
And now we have this better, this better like civilized option where we're going to pave it all and put a bunch of identical strip malls that that's not actually progress. No, there's multiple pieces, right? It's diversity of tactics. You have to be able to like open your eyes to what is happening around and to be able to see and to be able to parse out, like which pieces of this are a mythology that we were indoctrinated in so as to keep the system running and which pieces of this are true.
Right. And that's hard to do because, you know, like we aren't really taught critical thinking systems of how knowledge is legitimized have also been controlled by supremacy and empire. And so the idea that like something is like, well, it's scientific. It's like, yeah, I mean, racist genocide was like, it was. Yeah, it amized by science, too. Right. And so we have to be able to really ask those questions of like, where is this coming from, who's profiting off of it?
And is there a way that I can divest or challenge it or like be a part of creating a parallel alternative? Also, I'm really into it. Like I love TV and movies. And I feel like, you know, one of my favorite genres is the like post-apocalyptic.
Sure. And that like, you know, we have become indoctrinated in this idea of like what revolution looks like, you know, as this idea of like, oh, well, someday, someday the revolution will happen. And it's like, the revolution is happening.
It's happening right now. Yeah. And the choices that we make in terms of how we relate to our bodies and each other and our children and the earth, that is the revolution. And that is the revolution that every day we get to wake up and decide how we want to show up for it.
Um, given understanding that like, we will make the best choices we have to make and that we're not given all the best choices. Right. Right. Right. So I mean, yeah, and I appreciate you here to like have this call to action, right?
Or like, I guess it feels like a wake up call, right? Of, hey, like, ask these questions, take a moment to reflect on the practices and the things that you're doing and who they're contributing and what voices are being left out of the conversation. Right.
And also taking this moment to, to honor what you need, especially in a capitalistic structure of slowing down and maybe starting there. Right. I always come back to that too of like, you can't put up, uh, you got to put on your mask first and then other people's, right? That's what they say on the plane too. Yeah.
Like just take a moment to like honor your needs and the struggle that is existing in this system that is not benefiting all of us. Right. I mean, totally. Yeah.
I really appreciate all of that. And you bringing this on to the podcast. Yeah.
And I think that again, the way that the empire thinking tells us that like, you know, if we don't have a solution, there's no point. Yeah. Right. Like we have to have the answer.
Otherwise don't bother asking the question. And I think that like we are at a time right now where we have to ask ourselves questions that don't have answers. And I think as a trans person that that is one of the reasons that we see as much backlash and legislation coming down that is really stifling full breadth of gender expression, because I think that trans people, particularly trans people who live at multiple intersections of oppression are the ideal leaders and architects to get us out of this mess. Because the nature of living in a trans body is that you have to be willing to believe in something that no one has ever given you the option of.
And to be able to invest everything, like to risk everything. Yes, you might lose your family. You might lose your job. You might lose your housing.
And you might even lose your ability to feel pleasure in your body in some cases. And is living into truth? Is it worth it? Yeah. Okay. So people who have gone through that process and who go through that process all the time where we're like, yeah, actually, like I can't live. I can't keep living unless I make these choices, unless I take steps towards being more true to who I am. That like we are the people our society needs in order to see us out of this mess. I think about that Ursula Le Guin quote of like, you know, living under the divine right of kings surely felt like that was all there was. Right. But to get past that, we have to be willing to entertain the impossible. We have to be willing to engage in imagination and to ask questions that don't have answers yet and to feel into what the answers could be.
Yeah. And I mean, I think the other part of that is one of the things that I have been learning, you know, is like patience practice in studying somatics is what if it's not an instruction as much as it's an invitation, right? I'm not going to tell you how to breathe or how to feel, but I am going to invite you to notice that those things are already happening. Right. I'm going to invite you to notice what is happening, what the sensory information that your body is already getting. And then you're going to make the choices that you're going to make about that, but you can't make the choice without the awareness. Right. Right. Which is what I think you're doing here in this space, right? As a trans person, as someone who asks all these questions as a leader in this sort of movement, right? Is you're doing that work of, even in this conversation, not necessarily providing the instructions for how to flip the board game, but inviting people to notice, to notice these things are happening and to take awareness of that. So yeah, I mean, you, I really appreciate all of this. I mean, I can feel it in your body and I am connecting with you and it is a powerful message. Um, there is one question that I ask everyone on the pod.
cast as a closing. And it is, what is one thing that you wish other people knew was more normal? Yeah. The thing that is going to come up for me in this question is really about some like my experience as, as growing up without any sort of diagnosis or intervention or support around my neurodivergence, which was pretty typical, you know, like I grew up as a girl in the 80s and 90s. And the diagnostic criteria didn't even exist. Right?
Right? Like there was it wasn't it wasn't that I was missed. It was that like, they're actually just they weren't diagnosing people who were living in my gender experience as having autism or ADHD. And so a lot of us have, you know, internalized our failures within the system and, you know, come to believe that the ways that the system was not designed for our brains and our bodies is like a personal failing. And that, you know, there's there's so much trauma from that. And there's so much like, you know, self defeating, like, you know, which again, I feel like it's not broken. It's operating the way it was always meant to. Right? It's like keeping people disempowered, people keeping people feeling like it's their fault that the world sucks.
Like that that serves the present order. And so I think that the thing that is more normal is like, you know, understanding that people of all different kinds of bodies and sex configurations and gender presentations exist in ways that can include, you know, being on spectrums of neurodivergence. And that part of what has happened for, you know, a generation plus of us that haven't been given the support and accommodations for that. You know, we've developed a lot of coping strategies, some of which are like, not really very healthy or sustainable. And this process that I think more of us are doing, especially in the in the last few years, where, you know, we have had more opportunity to step out of business as usual, as evil as the TikTok algorithm may be, I do credit it for giving me the best psychosocial education that I have had about how to exist as a neurodivergent, undiagnosed adult, because that's where my peers are.
And that's where that information sharing is happening. And, and yeah, this process of coming to terms with that, and, and like, you know, letting some of the masks go feeling okay about asking for the accommodations that we need. You know, like, and, and again, it's it is this question of like, just feeling and noticing, right?
Where like, for a long ass time, I lived my life in such a way that like, you know, I would become really overloaded, like I would have a sensory overload. And that the way that that would end up being expressed was like, you know, it was anger, right? Because like, you know, was waspy, approvable emotions, right? Like, you can be happy or sad or angry. So like, if, if life isn't going the way that you needed to, there was a lot of anger. And at this point in my life, you know, I'm not going to say that I'm past that. But the ability to know that like, that will feel less overwhelming. If I can like, put in some earplugs, or like, turn the lights lower, or like, walk away from this crowd that feels like I'm obligated to be a part of that there are actually things that I can do.
Yes, in my body to make this existence more tolerable. And that that isn't a personal feeling. Yes, yes, not internalizing the messages of the patriarchy that have created all that negative, this is your fault, something's wrong with you. It's like, no, this system does not work for me. And we need a different paradigm.
Yeah. And I have a daughter who's in grade one. And there are definitely ways that her brain is very similar to mine. And, you know, her sperm donor, who was one of the one of the folks that I mentioned in terms of like the the lives lost in the opioid crisis. They were one of the most brilliant people that I've ever met. Also, highly neurodivergent people that I ever met. And living in living in this world with the brain that they had and the trauma that they carried and their gender experience, it wasn't tenable.
They couldn't they couldn't survive. You know, raising my daughter and seeing the way that like, you know, she's in the school system. And just these little things, you know, these little things where like, I can see that she's like getting in trouble for not sitting still instead of being given the option of like how she could sit, you know, and so, you know, as a parent, I try to do what I can to advocate. But also, there is still this like broad ignorance of the fact that like, little girls can be neurodivergent too.
Absolutely. And so, you know, like her her classmates who are living in more of a male gender expression, they're receiving the accommodations. And when I talk to the teachers about it, it's like, Oh, well, she's performing very well. And it's like, the goal is not actually to perform well. Like, that's not that's not why I'm sending her here.
Like, I don't want her to feel like she has to perform well all day, because I see what happens when she comes home from right, right? On the longer term, what happens? Like, the the macro of like, what happens at the end of the long day, being diagnosed with ADHD and coming through my own process of like, Oh, maybe I'm also on the spectrum in my 30s, like, that's the end of a very long day. Yeah. And I know what has like, accrued along the way. And I would like to prevent some of that for the next generation, you know, like, yeah, of course, right. The goal is not to perform well, but to be well, like how is your daughter being?
Well, what does she need? Right? And the institution isn't set up in a way that it can meet the needs of individuals.
Yeah, right. Like, the institutions operate in a way, largely again, for profit motives, but like, how do we get large amounts of people through, you know, and I've seen the same thing in the cancer treatment process, and in kindergarten, and I'm like, institutions are unwilling to bend when they're dealing with people, they're in relationship with people and people need some flexibility. We don't we don't follow a universal plan.
And so if our systems are set up in such a way that they're only for what is like the universal plan, then we end up back in that like acceptable loss, right? Right? Where like, you know, right? Oh, okay. Like, it didn't work for you. Too bad. Yes.
I'm not willing to just like, say that that that can stand. No, we know that we're not alone in that energy, and that there's a chain of people who were all working together to make this change and do the best that we can. Little bits every day. Yes, I appreciate so much, so much of everything that you brought onto this space. Thank you. Thank you.
Yeah, thank you. Thanks for having me. Of course. Is there anywhere I got like five minutes, but is there anywhere where you would want to plug people to that are connecting with you in your message today?
Totally. So I have a website that is my name, Corey Dodie dot com K O R I D O T Y dot com. And you can find the link solved the other things there. I did mention I have a Patreon same name, Patreon slash Corey Dodie. I host a monthly event. I was calling this x-y show until we're sort of like, maybe moving into broader but it's still it's monthly event.
Sure. That is around pleasure and bodies and connection and the toys and tools that we use in order to unlock those things. And I have a podcast as well, which I sort of started and then paused with this whole cancer business. But it is called Imagination Revolution, UBI. And it's conversations with folks about what we would do if we didn't have to make ends meet because I think that there is a part of like the neoliberal framework around universal basic accommodations that like, well, people are lazy and they wouldn't do things.
And I actually just don't, I don't agree with that. I think that lots of people have really brilliant, beautiful creative things to do that they really want to do and that they can't because they can't afford the time to do that. And I think that like that some of the solutions that our world needs is probably like, it's locked there, right? Like, I'm really excited about talking to more people about like, okay, well, if your needs were met, what would you do with your time?
And to really lean into that in like a visionary future dreaming kind of way. Yes. And yeah, I feel like those are kind of the things.
Absolutely. I mean, that's tapping into that imagination we talked about earlier of how we get out of the solution or how we get out of this problem, right is tapping into imagination. So you're, you're doing that work and it's very meaningful and it sounds very important. And I'll make sure that there's links underneath in the show notes that way people can just like click away and find everything they do exactly. Awesome.
Thanks to God. Yeah, of course. If you enjoy today's episode, then leave us a five star review wherever you listen to your podcast. And if you're a part of the anarchist community, then follow us on Instagram or nominate a guest for the show by sending in a letter to modern anarchy podcast at gmail.com. Otherwise, I'll see you next week.
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