Tavin (she/her)
@tavin-tavin.bsky.social
I will either post thrice a day or like once a week
(🧵22/22) If anyone is interested in reading the paper, drop your email and I’d be happy to send it to you. (I got an A on it and I’m proud of it)
September 17, 2025 at 5:18 PM
(🧵22/22) If anyone is interested in reading the paper, drop your email and I’d be happy to send it to you. (I got an A on it and I’m proud of it)
(🧵21/22) Frankly I have nothing to really add here. I just want people to know that the attacks on trans people are coming from a centuries old play book that is designed to legitimize harm.
September 17, 2025 at 5:18 PM
(🧵21/22) Frankly I have nothing to really add here. I just want people to know that the attacks on trans people are coming from a centuries old play book that is designed to legitimize harm.
(🧵20/22) The co-opting of intellectual language by the right wing is exactly the way that they will succeed in normalizing the harm of trans people at large.
September 17, 2025 at 5:18 PM
(🧵20/22) The co-opting of intellectual language by the right wing is exactly the way that they will succeed in normalizing the harm of trans people at large.
(🧵19/22) As a student of history, few things bother me more than the adage “history repeats itself”. The story of humanity is not prewritten, it is not destined to be in a cycle of oppression. But oppressors can absolutely take inspiration from those who came before.
September 17, 2025 at 5:18 PM
(🧵19/22) As a student of history, few things bother me more than the adage “history repeats itself”. The story of humanity is not prewritten, it is not destined to be in a cycle of oppression. But oppressors can absolutely take inspiration from those who came before.
(🧵18/22) Bringing it back, seeing loud and popular voices screaming for the extermination of trans people, often on TV or with a fancy blue check mark on twitter, just reminds me of what has happened.
September 17, 2025 at 5:18 PM
(🧵18/22) Bringing it back, seeing loud and popular voices screaming for the extermination of trans people, often on TV or with a fancy blue check mark on twitter, just reminds me of what has happened.
(🧵17/22) As an aside, after WWII these tactics were absolutely used and abused by the USA, specifically the CIA, until the mid-1970s when shadow funding was exposed and anthropologists began to refuse research assignments.
September 17, 2025 at 5:18 PM
(🧵17/22) As an aside, after WWII these tactics were absolutely used and abused by the USA, specifically the CIA, until the mid-1970s when shadow funding was exposed and anthropologists began to refuse research assignments.
(🧵16/22) They had mouthpieces screaming that the science supported their crusade against these groups. They were calling them subhuman and other species. They were saying that society would obviously crash if these people were allowed to exist.
September 17, 2025 at 5:18 PM
(🧵16/22) They had mouthpieces screaming that the science supported their crusade against these groups. They were calling them subhuman and other species. They were saying that society would obviously crash if these people were allowed to exist.
(🧵15/22) Here is where it begins to tie back in to my very first entry. The nazis made a point to fund research that could be used to justify their systemic oppression and eventually extermination of Jews, Roma, queer folks, disabled people, and so many more groups.
September 17, 2025 at 5:18 PM
(🧵15/22) Here is where it begins to tie back in to my very first entry. The nazis made a point to fund research that could be used to justify their systemic oppression and eventually extermination of Jews, Roma, queer folks, disabled people, and so many more groups.
(🧵14/22) The very science used to other non Europeans was turned on themselves. WWI ends eventually, the propaganda fizzles out. But here comes Weimar Germany. For all intents and purposes, they actually do good research. Until the economy absolutely crashes and the nazis come around.
September 17, 2025 at 5:18 PM
(🧵14/22) The very science used to other non Europeans was turned on themselves. WWI ends eventually, the propaganda fizzles out. But here comes Weimar Germany. For all intents and purposes, they actually do good research. Until the economy absolutely crashes and the nazis come around.
(🧵13/22) This relatively unified front of eurocentrism began to crumble as World War One began to encroach. All of a sudden, the “white race” wasn’t much of a thing in European circles. Each power funded messaging to spin opposing European nations as subhuman and barbaric.
September 17, 2025 at 5:18 PM
(🧵13/22) This relatively unified front of eurocentrism began to crumble as World War One began to encroach. All of a sudden, the “white race” wasn’t much of a thing in European circles. Each power funded messaging to spin opposing European nations as subhuman and barbaric.
(🧵12/22) Come late imperialism in the late 19th and early 20th century, governments were ACTIVELY funding anthropologists to go out, take measurements, pillage civilizations, and reinforce ideas of racial supremacy. It was a world dominated by the white Europeans.
September 17, 2025 at 5:18 PM
(🧵12/22) Come late imperialism in the late 19th and early 20th century, governments were ACTIVELY funding anthropologists to go out, take measurements, pillage civilizations, and reinforce ideas of racial supremacy. It was a world dominated by the white Europeans.
(🧵11/22) There was science to back up bigotry. The issue here is that the science was obviously tainted. Throughout the 18th and mid-19th century, these publications were more or less done by individuals who had the money and social position to publish.
September 17, 2025 at 5:18 PM
(🧵11/22) There was science to back up bigotry. The issue here is that the science was obviously tainted. Throughout the 18th and mid-19th century, these publications were more or less done by individuals who had the money and social position to publish.
(🧵10/22) There was a widely accepted theory that only white Europeans (to be clear, white Americans are included here) were true Homo sapiens, and that all other races were divergent species. There were ideas that brain power was inherently different.
September 17, 2025 at 5:18 PM
(🧵10/22) There was a widely accepted theory that only white Europeans (to be clear, white Americans are included here) were true Homo sapiens, and that all other races were divergent species. There were ideas that brain power was inherently different.
(🧵9/22) See how African slaves were treated as livestock for a strong example. Anyway, this idea of speciation just kept rolling because it was convenient. This persisted even after Darwin’s theory of natural selection became mainstream and the idea of “God” ordaining oppression fell out.
September 17, 2025 at 5:18 PM
(🧵9/22) See how African slaves were treated as livestock for a strong example. Anyway, this idea of speciation just kept rolling because it was convenient. This persisted even after Darwin’s theory of natural selection became mainstream and the idea of “God” ordaining oppression fell out.
(🧵8/22) And the reason why these thoughts persisted so strongly was that they were convenient. If a government, a dominant socioeconomic group, a colonizer, adopted this idea of pure otherness. Ideas that the species themselves were different, then there was no issue with abusing them.
September 17, 2025 at 5:18 PM
(🧵8/22) And the reason why these thoughts persisted so strongly was that they were convenient. If a government, a dominant socioeconomic group, a colonizer, adopted this idea of pure otherness. Ideas that the species themselves were different, then there was no issue with abusing them.
(🧵7/22) These questions led to so called sciences that basically said “Hey, so these people you are subjugating aren’t actually people. Notice how a dog and a wolf and a fox are similar but different? This is you and the African, Asian, Aboriginal, etc.” Much worse words were used though.
September 17, 2025 at 5:18 PM
(🧵7/22) These questions led to so called sciences that basically said “Hey, so these people you are subjugating aren’t actually people. Notice how a dog and a wolf and a fox are similar but different? This is you and the African, Asian, Aboriginal, etc.” Much worse words were used though.
(🧵6/22) The difference is that when colonialism really kicked off, the European powers all of a sudden had to justify why they were “allowed” to decimate indigenous populations. Why they could enslave at will. Why their actions had no consequence.
September 17, 2025 at 5:18 PM
(🧵6/22) The difference is that when colonialism really kicked off, the European powers all of a sudden had to justify why they were “allowed” to decimate indigenous populations. Why they could enslave at will. Why their actions had no consequence.
(🧵5/22) From my research, anthropology as a recognized academic field really only started to happen when colonialism started. This isn’t to say people haven’t been analyzing the human condition before this, we always have been fascinated with differences.
September 17, 2025 at 5:18 PM
(🧵5/22) From my research, anthropology as a recognized academic field really only started to happen when colonialism started. This isn’t to say people haven’t been analyzing the human condition before this, we always have been fascinated with differences.
(🧵4/22) I wrote my undergrad thesis about how anthropology as an academic discipline has historically been rooted in pseudoscience and governmental influence. Specifically, I touched repeatedly on the colonial and imperialist nature of ideologies of “otherness”
September 17, 2025 at 5:18 PM
(🧵4/22) I wrote my undergrad thesis about how anthropology as an academic discipline has historically been rooted in pseudoscience and governmental influence. Specifically, I touched repeatedly on the colonial and imperialist nature of ideologies of “otherness”
(🧵3/22) It had me thinking about a lot of personal research I have put into topics similar to this. That being the usage of pop-science and pseudo-intellectualism to justify racist/supremacist/exterministic beliefs. Ik exterministic isn’t a word, but I think it is applicable here.
September 17, 2025 at 5:18 PM
(🧵3/22) It had me thinking about a lot of personal research I have put into topics similar to this. That being the usage of pop-science and pseudo-intellectualism to justify racist/supremacist/exterministic beliefs. Ik exterministic isn’t a word, but I think it is applicable here.
(🧵2/22) This may be a long winded thread but bear with me
September 17, 2025 at 5:18 PM
(🧵2/22) This may be a long winded thread but bear with me