Still reading this piece, but needed to share right away!
I'm asking that this be a feminist discussion between women babblers.
Maybe it isn’t that informants are difficult to spot but rather that we have collectively ignored the signs that give them away. To save our movements, we need to come to terms with the connections between gender violence, male privilege, and the strategies that informants (and people who just act like them) use to destabilize radical movements. Time and again heterosexual men in radical movements have been allowed to assert their privilege and subordinate others. Despite all that we say to the contrary, the fact is that radical social movements and organizations in the United States have refused to seriously address gender violence ... as a threat to the survival of our struggles. We’ve treated misogyny, homophobia, and heterosexism as lesser evils — secondary issues — that will eventually take care of themselves or fade into the background once the “real” issues — racism, the police, class inequality, U.S. wars of aggression — are resolved. There are serious consequences for choosing ignorance. Misogyny and homophobia are central to the reproduction of violence in radical activist communities. Scratch a misogynist and you’ll find a homophobe. Scratch a little deeper and you might find the makings of a future informant (or someone who just destabilizes movements like informants do).