Chris Ash (they/them)

The Transformative Power of the White ‘Race Traitor’

"The first person to be executed for treason in the US was not a spy or someone who sold secrets to a foreign government. It was not a Confederate general who took up arms against his government. It was an abolitionist named John Brown." from @nhannahjones.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/m...

Image is an ad for a NICABM training. It’s a drawing of a sad man walking and the title is “How to Work with Deep Feelings of Emptiness”

It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize this was a training ad for therapists to support clients with feelings of emptiness and not just capitalist “self help” propaganda to keep the labor gears turning during global collapse.

Image is an ad for a NICABM training. It’s a drawing of a sad man walking and the title is “How to Work with Deep Feelings of Emptiness”

It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize this was a training ad for therapists to support clients with feelings of emptiness and not just capitalist “self help” propaganda to keep the labor gears turning during global collapse.

Mm-hm.

Everything happening now has a precedent. This is not new. Please understand that everything happening now is very American. The only change is that it is happening on camera to middle income white people. Ask BIPOC and low income white people about abuses by the state.

The problem with ICE is not insufficient training or even training content.

It’s creating an agency where you give people guns and tell them to terrorize Brown people and then recruit people excited to do that.

they didn’t leak it to make the shooter look innocent, but to make the victim look guilty. not guilty of a crime. guilty of having a visibly queer wife. guilty of liberalism. guilty of opposing the regime. they don’t seek to exonerate themselves, only to demonstrate who deserves to die.

This is the point of the video leaked by the shooter. It is a rationale for erasing her humanity, thus making her murder justifiable by any standard, no matter how meaningless.

She was a person with a life. Jonathan Ross stole it.

See this thread for me.

Fox News claims to be airing the "entire video" -- but they're cutting off before the officer says, "fucking bitch."

Austrian nuns win reprieve in abandoned convent - if they stay off social media The three nuns say they were taken out of the convent against their will and placed in a care home.

How is this a real story, and who is turning it into a musical ASAP? www.bbc.com/news/article...

The Department of Education, led by the wife of a former head of the WWE, has declared nursing to no longer be a professional degree.

It’s a war on so called women dominated professions

It’s also devastating for the disability community

We need nurses

They’re an invaluable part of the care team

If you are watching NC’s incredible resistance against ICE with awe (possibly with surprise because you think we’re all right wing hillbillies) donate to Siembra NC. They’re the ones providing specific ICE resistance trainings to community members. secure.actblue.com/donate/siemb...

Delighted to co-author this piece urging the de-silo-ing of anti-trafficking work, & genuine solidarity with grassroots movements.

Evaluating Anti-Trafficking Interventions Explore the complexities of trafficking and the importance of effective evaluation in anti-trafficking interventions and measures.

Despite huge sums spent on anti-trafficking, there are staggeringly few evaluations of interventions & growing evidence of harms caused.

This new edited book with @uclpress.bsky.social is our attempt to help change that. 1/

Open access with free digital downloads: uclpress.co.uk/book/evaluat...

My kids had friends (17-18 years old) who stayed home from work today out of fear of ICE. To be clear, they’re documented and here legally. But ICE has made it clear that doesn’t matter.

New article in Journalism Studies “Judged, Misrepresented and Misunderstood”: Human Trafficking Survivors’ Engagement with Journalists” by Barbara G. Friedman, Andrea Lorenz, Chris Ash, & Ethan Czuy Levine.

Abstract: This mixed-methods study surveyed 49 human trafficking survivors in 2024 about their experiences with media to understand why they engage (or do not) with the news media, and how they characterize those interactions and expectations. A qualitative analysis yielded five themes related to motivation, preparation, consent violations, setting boundaries, and backlash after sharing their stories with media. Based on findings, we recommend journalists adopt a power-sharing model to improve coverage and to give trauma survivors more control over how their stories are represented to the public.

Excited to see this published: peer reviewed publication on trafficking survivors’ experiences with journalists. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

It’s almost like they knew this would happen.

The cruelty is the point.

Canada's Supreme Court ruling ignores safety and lived experience - FreedomUnited.org Canada rules to reaffirm the criminalization of many aspects of sex work—and once again silences the very people most affected by these laws.

Canada’s Supreme Court ruled to uphold laws criminalizing sex work, ignoring voices of 23 sex worker-led and migrant advocacy groups. The ruling perpetuates unsafe conditions, isolates workers, and reinforces vulnerability to abuse and exploitation.

www.freedomunited.org/news/canadas...

You don't baptize a whale literally; it is a metaphorical title for Episcopal priest Andrew Kadel's new book, "How Do You Baptize a Whale?: An Encouragement to Compassion". The book uses the question to explore themes of human compassion, faith, and our relationship with other living beings. The title is a metaphor: It is not a literal guide to performing a religious ceremony on a whale. The book explores compassion: The title is used to prompt readers to consider their own capacity for compassion, and how they treat other humans and all of God's creation.

Searched on Google for @drewkadel.bsky.social’s new book to snag the link, & Google AI was very helpful in reassuring me that I should not literally try to baptize a whale.

If you aren’t fond of authoritarianism, a great place to start thwarting it is your local police force.
You will likely discover it is the top publicly funded vehicle for fascism in your city.

This is not the behavior of a civilized democracy.

Whaaaaaaa…

7. Our demands are moral, just & reasonable. The Times could enact them TODAY! There’s no reason not publish in @theintercept.com @mondoweiss.net @literaryhub.bsky.social @thenation.com & other places which are not prone to genocide peddling nor to publishing shoddy investigations (ie “Screams”)

Meanwhile my friends in government don’t have their paychecks and there’s moms in the local Buy Nothing group asking for formula and diapers because their WIC stopped

Nothing quite like having a court-ordered name change and Cashapp replying to every attempt I make to update my name with a request for a divorce decree. It doesn't matter how many times I tell them it was a court-ordered name change and not via divorce decree. Fucking wild.

YouTube video by LastWeekTonight Bari Weiss: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Holy shit go off John Oliver youtu.be/gieTx_P6INQ?...

“Western theorists and researchers consistently conflated indigenous peoples with past peoples; to journey to Africa or to the Americas or to the Pacific Islands was to go backwards in time, sailing towards the origin of humanity.”

Great piece worth a read.