Bike infrastructure is (IMO) the best you will get from a midwest metropolis. Many parts of the city have designated bike lanes, lots of those DIY bike rental kiosks in the bougier parts, bike racks by social hotspots etc. Public transportation is above average as well (buses, trains, the L, etc.)
As far as local activists goes the Teacher's Union is still on of the strongest non-pig unions in the country, but as far as local orgs my only real direct experience is a pair of cliquish marxist reading groups before moving around so I am not a good source for this question.
E: To be clear this is in answer to your questions, I won't make any strong endorsement to take the job and move knowing nothing about your situation.
"Vote to make trans people suffer just for teh lulz." is a popular, reliable GOP policy that guarantees them victory almost all the time (not that the dems being controlled opposition is completely off-limits.) I would make a case that it's culture war.
I know I'm being a doomer here, but it's disturbing how almost universally despised civil rights are in the US. Nor am I trying to be :stupidpol: and say we should be more transphobic/racist so the normies will like us.
I say this because, the very nature of the culture war is for it to serve as a Distraction. It's not that Trans people having their rights stripped from them is just a simple distraction, it's that describing it as just being part of the culture war, only makes it seems as though it's some lighthearted 'pwning the Libs'/the 'other side winning', which, imo, only serves to passify concerns surrounding issues like, ya' know, Trans People having rights.
It's also because we only end up buying into frameworks that reactionaries thrive in, because they know the 'Culture War' is one of the only ways for them to gain any political influence.
Growing up in the mid 90s, I remember a local controversy. A high school teacher told his class he was gay (mentioned that gay men like him were killed in the holocaust, that was literally it). Created a huge uproar, lots of parents wanted him fired. A year ago, that incident felt like a foreign country to me. Really thought we advanced well beyond that. But now we have "Don't Say Gay" bills that are trying to push us back 25+ years.
So what's different? Personally, I think basically no one over 65 right now in Amerikkka has changed their minds about LGBT issues. In the mid 90s, it was still socially acceptable for adults to talk about homosexuality being a "sin" and calling gay men deviants, pedophiles, etc. A very large number of the over 40 crowd then had absolutely despicable views about LGBT. Over the years, they found more social ostracism, anger and outright rejection from their family directed at them. This culminated in that one landmark scotus decision in 2013 that made gay marriage legal. But the boomers never changed their minds, they just learned to keep their mouths shut. In the face of white conservatives losing their grip on power and waning privilege and respect, they got more insular and dejected.
Then the Trump movement came along. Trump taught white conservatives to fight back. He taught them if you're willing to wear the black hat and be the people everyone else hates, you can actually turn back the clock. Let them hate you, they'll be forced to bend the knee to your political power. Who cares if your kids won't let you see your grandkids anymore? You have your like-minded Facebook friends. You have QAnon. You have power again. And that's all you need.
The death rattle of white evangelical conservatism is gonna get way worse, IMO. They are primed to follow - and I'm not exaggerating - a fascist as evil as Hitler if it means we are all forced at gunpoint to bend the knee to them.
I think you've been living in a bubble where virulent, violent homophobia isn't normalized. If the electoral map is red homophobic social violence is normal and actual physical violence is a real and constant threat. If you live where it's blue that's still true but you can find bubbles where you mostly don't have to deal with it on a daily basis.
Washington is unlikely to be able to pass any anti-trans legislation on the outside chance that the Republicans ever manage a full sweep of state offices. Which is tremendously unlikely, because if the Dems lose votes in their enclaves in this state, they're as likely to go to DSA candidates as Republicans.
I know this is a lib take I made, but also Washington and more specifically the Pacific Northwest, hence why nazis target portland a lot. They seem to have an almost perfect combat record there, so we know the nazis that ARE there are some of the nastiest, most organized hogs out there.
I know California isn't really all that better as I know that a lot of Eastern California is hog territory.
They really don't have a perfect combat record. They just don't get arrested because the cops are on their side. But they do get the crap kicked out of them on a regular basis. Also, a lot of local antifascists have found that the best way to deny them the opportunity to get violent is to restrict their access to their event, preventing them from massing up in the first place.
a lot of local antifascists have found that the best way to deny them the opportunity to get violent is to restrict their access to their event, preventing them from massing up in the first place.
We lost the culture war, didn't we?
Are California, a couple enclaves in New England, and occupied Hawaii the only semi-redeemable spots in :amerikkka:?
Please tell me there's at least a one redeemable place in middle America...
Illinois is pretty cool. safe abortion and trans state as far as i know. Also weeds legal here.
I'd amend to say Chicago-land, anything outside of the suburban ring may as well be Indiana or Iowa
Been mulling over a job offer in Chicago, how's the bike infrastructure/local activists (in general, non identifiable terms obv)
Bike infrastructure is (IMO) the best you will get from a midwest metropolis. Many parts of the city have designated bike lanes, lots of those DIY bike rental kiosks in the bougier parts, bike racks by social hotspots etc. Public transportation is above average as well (buses, trains, the L, etc.)
As far as local activists goes the Teacher's Union is still on of the strongest non-pig unions in the country, but as far as local orgs my only real direct experience is a pair of cliquish marxist reading groups before moving around so I am not a good source for this question.
E: To be clear this is in answer to your questions, I won't make any strong endorsement to take the job and move knowing nothing about your situation.
The state of chicago and it's outlying minor counties.
Making it a matter of the 'Culture War' is the wrong way of framing it.
It's a fine line between Culture War and Fucking Genocide, and the GOP is dancing on the other side at this point.
How so, if you don't mind me asking?
"Vote to make trans people suffer just for teh lulz." is a popular, reliable GOP policy that guarantees them victory almost all the time (not that the dems being controlled opposition is completely off-limits.) I would make a case that it's culture war.
I know I'm being a doomer here, but it's disturbing how almost universally despised civil rights are in the US. Nor am I trying to be :stupidpol: and say we should be more transphobic/racist so the normies will like us.
I say this because, the very nature of the culture war is for it to serve as a Distraction. It's not that Trans people having their rights stripped from them is just a simple distraction, it's that describing it as just being part of the culture war, only makes it seems as though it's some lighthearted 'pwning the Libs'/the 'other side winning', which, imo, only serves to passify concerns surrounding issues like, ya' know, Trans People having rights.
It's also because we only end up buying into frameworks that reactionaries thrive in, because they know the 'Culture War' is one of the only ways for them to gain any political influence.
Thanks, this clarifies it pretty well. :rat-salute:
Culture war has always been a propaganda facade for genocidal violence.
Growing up in the mid 90s, I remember a local controversy. A high school teacher told his class he was gay (mentioned that gay men like him were killed in the holocaust, that was literally it). Created a huge uproar, lots of parents wanted him fired. A year ago, that incident felt like a foreign country to me. Really thought we advanced well beyond that. But now we have "Don't Say Gay" bills that are trying to push us back 25+ years.
So what's different? Personally, I think basically no one over 65 right now in Amerikkka has changed their minds about LGBT issues. In the mid 90s, it was still socially acceptable for adults to talk about homosexuality being a "sin" and calling gay men deviants, pedophiles, etc. A very large number of the over 40 crowd then had absolutely despicable views about LGBT. Over the years, they found more social ostracism, anger and outright rejection from their family directed at them. This culminated in that one landmark scotus decision in 2013 that made gay marriage legal. But the boomers never changed their minds, they just learned to keep their mouths shut. In the face of white conservatives losing their grip on power and waning privilege and respect, they got more insular and dejected.
Then the Trump movement came along. Trump taught white conservatives to fight back. He taught them if you're willing to wear the black hat and be the people everyone else hates, you can actually turn back the clock. Let them hate you, they'll be forced to bend the knee to your political power. Who cares if your kids won't let you see your grandkids anymore? You have your like-minded Facebook friends. You have QAnon. You have power again. And that's all you need.
The death rattle of white evangelical conservatism is gonna get way worse, IMO. They are primed to follow - and I'm not exaggerating - a fascist as evil as Hitler if it means we are all forced at gunpoint to bend the knee to them.
I think you've been living in a bubble where virulent, violent homophobia isn't normalized. If the electoral map is red homophobic social violence is normal and actual physical violence is a real and constant threat. If you live where it's blue that's still true but you can find bubbles where you mostly don't have to deal with it on a daily basis.
Washington is unlikely to be able to pass any anti-trans legislation on the outside chance that the Republicans ever manage a full sweep of state offices. Which is tremendously unlikely, because if the Dems lose votes in their enclaves in this state, they're as likely to go to DSA candidates as Republicans.
True, but that's not necessarily middle America.
I know this is a lib take I made, but also Washington and more specifically the Pacific Northwest, hence why nazis target portland a lot. They seem to have an almost perfect combat record there, so we know the nazis that ARE there are some of the nastiest, most organized hogs out there.
I know California isn't really all that better as I know that a lot of Eastern California is hog territory.
They really don't have a perfect combat record. They just don't get arrested because the cops are on their side. But they do get the crap kicked out of them on a regular basis. Also, a lot of local antifascists have found that the best way to deny them the opportunity to get violent is to restrict their access to their event, preventing them from massing up in the first place.
Storing that knowledge for later.
Minneapolis is about it. It's where all the queer people in the Midwest go if they can't get to Chicago.