Show Notes In this beginning episode Myco (it/its) introduces itself and discusses it's ideas behind this project as a space for challenging conversations around oppression, liberation and how we get free together.  Image Description: The words "welcoming intentions" sits against a soft orange sky, surrounded by lush greenery and some warm yellow glowing lights. Transcript: Transcript doc   Myco (it/its): Hello and welcome to the beginning of a project that I am calling Liberatory Naysayers. I want to use this space as a way to kinda chronicle and archive what my journey, and the journey of the loved ones around me are... toward building safety and healthy relationships and community and liberation as much as we can within this society. I know that a hard and sticky and messy process. I would like to have conversations with people about what that looks like for them as well. I am a bit of a perfectionist and very anxious so it's hard for me to not want to wait on this until it is perfect. Get all my ducks in a row, get all my words right. But I also know that perfectionism is rooted in white supremacy. A lot of the times the things I am self conscious about within myself, the things I consider imperfections, are actually just differences in my brain and body and how I function. The shame and fear and anxiety I feel around making mistakes is one that keeps me stuck. And keeps me from trying.  I would rather build something messy, and see how it goes and change it as needed along the way, than do nothing.   So that's where I'm starting. If you're still listening to me ramble: hi, thank you! My name is Myco. I use it/it's pronouns. I am 33 years old as I am talking right now, as I am recording this. I am queer and trans, if you didn't pick that up by the it pronouns. I am trans of the fluid/non-binary variety. I am deeply passionate about ending gender segregation. I am polyamorous. I consider myself a relationship anarchist. I believe in building relationships that are mutually comfortable and safe and beneficial. That often looks different than the societal blueprint that we are expected to follow. So being a relationship anarchist kind of gives me the freedom to explore outside of that blueprint and try new things. I'm an abolitionist. I had a very difficult journey to that belief and understanding. It's very personal to me. I was the victim of some pretty horrifying things when I was a baby. I consider myself a survivor. I find it interesting that being a survivor has both pushed me along the path toward abolition and liberatory ways of thinking and understanding. But at the same time it was a block for a while because I felt too close to it. Too afraid. Shouldn't people like the people who harmed me be in jail? Which, no. But it was a journey to get there. That's an interesting story, maybe for another day. Let's see, what else can I tell you about myself? I'm a parent. I love it. It's very important to my day to day. I don't have a lot of time or spoons, most of it goes to my little one, or my partners, or my creative pursuits. I have my fingers in all sorts of little projects at all given points in time. I'm disabled. i have been jokingly calling myself "Chiari compromised" meaning essentially that I am high risk if I get ill, if I catch a virus. Especially covid. But I am not immunocompromised. I have a condition in which coughing and sneezing, and any sort of strain can make my brain herniate further and make me very very extra sick. I don't see many people talking about that. I see mostly people talking about immunocompromised. Which is very real and fair and a lot of people experience that. But it's interesting to think of others ways there are high risk conditions that are important to protect from covid.  I have a partner who is epileptic. The one time they had covid it made their seizures very, very bad. We consider them high risk because of that. Having seizures is not a fun time. It's important we prot