25 Comments

Margaret Atwood thought she was writing speculative fiction but she has such a clear vision of what people at their worst are capable of that it is no longer fiction. One day we hear about controlling girls’s travel out of state, the next we hear about a registry for pregnant women and non governmental agencies funded to act as overseers of the pregnancies. It starts to sound like East Germany when every apartment building had at least one Stasi agent, Secret Police, to spy on the neighbours. I think there is a reason the costumes of the Handmaids are red. And there is a reason republicans are moving closer and closer to draconian authoritarian government legislation. The root source of their psychology is likely a childhood of being bullied and mistreated at home and on the playground until they protected themselves by becoming the bullies, determined to hide their feelings of inadequacy and lack of self confidence behind a narcissistic macho veneer of power. These are the childhoods of Hitler, Trump, and Putin. The misogyny, the hatred of women and the desire to control them by keeping them weak and powerless permeates every action. Like every stalker and abusive partner of women in shelters and morgues. Strong smart women scare them shitless and this is why they want women pregnant and acquiescent, dependent on dominating males..

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Margret Atwood has said that everything she wrote in the Handmaid's Tail was something that had already happened some place in the world. She didn't think it was speculative, just that she was putting the pieces together in a tail that was, for now, fictitious.

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Margaret Atwood was writing her book The Handmaid’s Tale in the early 1980s. She has recently commented that she thought then that she was writing fiction, not making a prediction, and yes, she has also said that every action in the book is based on real human activities.

When one writes about a potential future based on the reality of the present, one is speculating about what the future might become if one possible trajectory charts the path. If this set of circumstances is the key point, what might happen next and next and next based on what has been happening at each previous point.

Another excellent example of speculative fiction is the 1992 book Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, which also won the Arther C. Clarke award, though neither work is traditional science fiction. If you think corporations are organized variations of psychopathy now, just wait as Stephenson’s future surges closer and closer.

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We have American kids dying everyday due to poverty. Kids in this country aren’t even guaranteed BASIC HUMAN NEEDS. But yeah they care SO MUCH about kids and are SO “prolife”. 🤮🤢🤢🤮🤢🤮

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Jan 27, 2023Liked by Jessica Valenti

Dammit. Just when I give Nancy Mace credit last night for being reasonable with the committee seat mess in Congress she pulls this shit.

This is so terrifying.

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founding

Yeah this is what passes for 'reasonable' with Republicans these days. They seem to have figured out that no matter how nuts they are, so long as someone else in the caucus is worse, the media will brand them as 'moderate'. It's a variation on the 'both sides' problem.

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Wow. I can’t believe we have 5 kids dying everyday from guns and 8 getting shot daily from family friendly fire BUT this shit is happening. The red mist is really impeding my ability to even function properly in this damn society and fucked up country that treats women like garbage.

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We don’t even want to change policies for these guns but they definitely want policies changed for women. We are really treated like morons. It’s sickening

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Jan 27, 2023Liked by Jessica Valenti

I know this won’t pass, but how stupid do they think we are? It’s actually insulting.

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Jan 27, 2023Liked by Jessica Valenti

The disrupter part of me thinks this website could be super vulnerable to crashes should it catch the attention of those who can create a very messy data situation.

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author

👀👀👀

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Not with my fucking tax dollars! Just like they didn’t want to support women’s health with theirs! Bullshit!

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author

TOTAL bullshit

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founding

Interesting. So they're doubling down. The bill goes nowhere because of the Senate and WH, but, they REALLY want to be on the record supporting this?? If Democrats can't score political points on this (and the scary thing is I'm not sure they can) then we need big changes on our side.

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It would be interesting to know more about any links between the for-profit adoption industry and funding for anti-choice lobbying groups and CPCs.

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author

Oh I feel certain there are links there - will investigate!

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founding

Good question, that I haven't heard asked before.

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And Nancy Mace constantly tries to pass herself off as a “moderate, reasonable” Republican........

#oxymoron #liar

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Jan 27, 2023Liked by Jessica Valenti

I'm thankful for the excellent work you do researching and keeping us informed.

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author

Thank you!

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Big Sister is watching. Brave New World, indeed. 😡

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“Standing with moms act” JFC. That name. Is repulsive. Jeez.

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I can’t get over “life.gov.” Vomit

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The concerned women too. Wow. Makes me physically I’ll

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absolutely vile.

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