Archival in a fascist regime
Archival in a fascist regime
Reposted from lemmy.world c/politics since it violated it's rule #1 about links.
Now that the fascists have taken over, what books, academic studies, and pieces of knowledge should take priority in personal/private archival? I'm thinking about what happened in Nazi Germany, especially with the burning of the Institute for Sexual Science(Institut für Sexualwissenschaft) and what was lost completely in the burnings.
Some of us should consider saving stuff digitally or physically.
This is ludicrously alarmist. I mean, archive whatever you want (it's good practice to back up things you think are important), but the United States is hardly a fascist dictatorship anymore than it was in 2017 (or 2021 or 2013...). The opposing party wins sometimes, and it hasn't ended the republic yet. Federal funding might be cut to new gender research, but nobody's going to go around to universities, confiscating copies of existing studies to be burned.
What checks and balances might be eroded today compared to 2017?
Considering the precedents in the US, any books about gender, sex and history.
Any specific ones in mind that are of great importance or influence?
seconding a focus on sexology; we don't need another Institut für Sexualwissenschaft incident.
off the top of my head:
- The History of Sexuality (Michel Foucault 1976 – 84 + 2018)
- Transgender Warriors (Leslie Feinberg 1998)
- Gender Trouble (Judith Butler 1990)
- Undoing Gender (Judith Butler 2004)
- Caliban and the Witch (Silvia Federici 2004)
- Black on Both Sides (C. Riley Snorton 2017)
- The Stonewall Riots (Marc Stein 2019)
including all the works of Judith Butler and Silvia Federici.
more academically:
- Kinsey Reports; The Kinsey Institute: The First Seventy Years; and any other expansions on the work of the Kinsey Institute
- Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Healthcare: A Clinical Guide to Preventive, Primary, and Specialist Care (Kristen Eckstrand, Jesse M. Ehrenfeld 2016)
you can probably farm the bibilographies on these.
Considering the precedents set in Nazi Germany... same exact things.
I would suggest medical texts, survival and military field manuals. I don't think they will be needed but it might be best to be prepared. As for culture, stash what you like.
On second thought, the medical texts would be useful either way. https://www.alreporter.com/2024/10/31/analysis-rural-hospitals-closure-crisis-alabamas-healthcare-safety-net-at-risk/ Hospitals closing have been happening for a while.
I really hope archive.org has a backup of itself somewhere.
I remember reading somewhere that there are copies of bits of archive.org distributed across the globe, but the majority of it is in US data centres. It’s incredibly big, though, so it’s hard to just take a copy of it and move it somewhere else.
I get the sentiment, but in this time and age and with the internet, I think the information most likely to be at risk of being destroyed or censored is the one that is not commonly available, or in the hands of law enforcement.
A fascist government will more likely effectively prevent creation of new dissenting works, than suppressing existing ones.
All the instances where the Dems were doing the exact same shit so they can't pretend they are the solution
What the fuck, man
Gonna get downvoted for this probably but I honestly don’t care. I’m so sick and tired of hearing all the negativity and attacks and unrealistic over-the-top doomsday scenarios, from both sides. Regardless of who won, life is going to continue on just fine. The full on meltdowns are getting so damn old and it’s just tiring.
Well you only need to worry about it from one side, so that's half your worries gone right there.