Dear Readers,
I've been off twitter for a few weeks now, and there's actually a reason behind it.
A short while back I was spending a lot of time on twitter, putting out tweets and pro male survivor content, sometimes inevitably clashing with people (because, twitter, duh), and one such clash with a Welsh TERF type resulted in me being locked out. For a while I didn't know which tweet was reported and I decided to spend the break settling into my new job, which I started in December before I came back and found which tweet it actually was.
The offending tweet that I put out was quoting the sort of pro-rape tweets I've heard from feminist extremists against men as to why I loathe TERF types, and twitter decided I'd violated their terms of abuse and harassment. I appealed, but it took ages for them to respond. I eventually conceded and deleted the tweet because I thought that it could be used as ammunition against me (like with the Nazi pug guy Count Dankula). This unfortunately is taken by twitter as an admission of guilt, who gave me a 'two-strikes-and-out' type warning, which I was needless to say, thrilled by.
Just when I was going to go back on twitter, I heard that not only had Putin sent Russian troops and bombs over the Ukrainian border, but a friend's mum was trapped in a bunker in Kyiv and couldn't get out. We're still waiting on finding out whether she's still alive or not, and how she can safely get to the UK.
This was a nasty shock for us all, and I was reeling so much from it that I forgot what day of the week it was, and I see signs of idiots panic buying growing in the shops, again (groan!). While I never bothered with hating Donald Trump as much as many others did, I really now despise Putin with the same passionate loathing that people had for Trump. The man has murdered - or attempted to murder - three of his enemies in my country, the latter case actually getting people killed. I am appalled at what he has done, and it fills me with rage over the suffering that he's putting Ukraine under, but also his own people. I am so angry that it is hard to express how much, Putin is a curse on humanity, a disgusting bully at the head of a cabal of lying scumbags, and deserves to end up dead and swinging from a lamp post by the ankles.
I am angry, I am scared - I have friends in Poland nearby to Ukraine, and my own country is much closer than, say, the U.S. is - and I applaud the sadly necessary financial squeezing that Russia is about to be put under, even though I hate what that's going to do to the innocent people who live in the country. I also hate the idea of ordinary Russians suffering hatred because of this piece of shit dictator, and I'd urge you all to oppose any and all hatred against ordinary Russian citizens who just want peace and prosperity like anyone else.
Do this absence and these new distractions mean I'm no longer speaking out? Of course not.
Just this evening my boss told me about being groped by a drunk woman at a gig, and he and I came across a bloke who left his girlfriend because she'd physically assaulted him and cheated on him. I'm actually seeing a growing number of men and boys disclosing to me about being abused by women, and the feminist movement has sadly - along with #MeToo - continued to willfully turn a blind eye to it. We won't let that stand. For what they're worth I'm also going to continue to express my views on sex worker's rights, and support that however possible.
Also I'd like you to not just spread the word, but support the Ukranian people and the Russian anti-war protesters however you can. While personally I think it is sort of thoughtful to offer prayers for the Ukrainians, at the same time as an atheist I'd urge you to not count on it and offer something more tangible such as donations or however ways of helping them emerge in the upcoming months. What those are, I don't know, but we will find out.
So in the meantime, continue to #SpreadTheWord about both male abuse victims and sex workers, but stand with Ukraine and the Russian protesters against the tyrant Putin however possible.
Sincerely,
The Invisible Man
