Traverse Fantasy

Updated a zine I wrote last year during the pro-Palestine student protests. Printout on Itch . 1. Current Day In April 2024, hundreds of students at Columbia University began peacefully protesting the school’s investments in companies (Israeli and American) that support the war in Palestine. As they were met by repression from the university, which sicced upon them riot police, they were joined by faculty and New Yorkers. Police arrested over 100 protesters, enabled by the admin revoking students’ enrollment to mark them as illegal trespassers. Students across America took to their schools’ streets to protest in solidarity, demanding their admins disclose and divest pro-Israel stock. Why were they protesting in the thousands, and why were they met with violence? 2. Creation of Israel Zionism is an ideology that Jews must create a nation-state to ensure their existence. It was inspired by European nationalist ideologies, the same which oppressed Jews and other racialized peopl...

Digital version of my pamphlet on Itch ! Investigating the historical context and legacy of Thomas Paine's  Common Sense , written to proselytize radical liberalism right before the American Revolution. 1. The Colonies In 1764, the English Parliament began imposing taxes on American colonies to recuperate the costs of the French-Indian War. Although the constitution of England gave all citizens the right to representation, the colonists did not have a voice in Parliament. “No taxation without representation!” American colonists started boycotting English goods and protesting against the rule of Parliament. The more they voiced their opposition, the more Parliament punished them, causing protests to escalate into riots. In 1774, Parliament began to violently repress the colonists: restricting trade, housing soldiers in private homes, and imprisoning people without trial. 2. Common Sense Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense in 1775 at the cusp of revolution, when the original ...

Digital version of my eight-fold zine on Itch which itself is an abridged version of my webpage Talking Trans ! 1. The Trans Question Over the past few years, trans people went from being relatively obscure to being a political boogey. Republicans spent $215 million in the 2024 election attacking trans people, with the intent to dismantle their rights and eliminate them from society. Democrat politicians in turn distanced themselves from trans issues, advised by consultancy firms like the HRC who purport to represent LGBT people and yet regularly throw trans people under the bus when expedient. Trans people are at risk of losing both their healthcare and legal recognition. Platitudes and pronoun circles are not enough to protect us from this threat. Trans issues need trans voices. 2. The Basics Trans people are those whose gender/sex differs from that which they were assigned at birth. Trans females went from male to female, and trans males went from female to male. One sh...