The Panthers did free before school breakfast and after school babysitting and all sorts of actual community building like that. The PSL does protests and craft events and that's it. I guess providing consistent services is an order of magnitude more difficult than organizing marches but it just doesn't seem like the marches are getting us anywhere.
I was thinking about this today in the sense that there are so many leftist podcasts, but you can't name a single leftist leader who comes from that sphere, and is organizing on a big scale. The best ones that I'm aware of are the Trillbillies. They at least walk the walk with community outreach. They even took time off from the show during that big flood to help people out.
The rest of them do what? Come up with an hour and a half of glib reactions to the news every week?
Here are people that a lot of us on the left have parasocial relationships with. The least they could do is some sort of Jon Stewart lib ass rally for sanity. Instead most of them sell expensive tickets to bougie ass venues so we can listen to them fart into a microphone
Tune in next week where I interview some random twitter book author about exploitation where we end the podcast with a call to “organize”
Maybe if we're lucky, they'll link the bail fund for the protestors at cop city
Podcasts are entertainment and news. Propaganda. Education. You shouldn't be looking to podcast celebrities for neighborhood and city level organization.
Why not? That's exactly how people with a literal microphone obfuscate their involvement in any movement.
"The country is fucked and here's why, but really at the end of the day, we are just some silly bros who have the ear of an entire base, what clout could we possibly have?"
Bad message. Just like on here when people suggest we use this as a platform to spread information and organize them a bunch of people come out and say "nah, this is where we shit post"
There will never be organization on any scale if everyone with a presence hands it off to a nebulous call to "organize".
I live in a town of less than 400 people. They're all right wing. Ive even tried starting the conversation, and got destroyed. How exactly should I "organize" when I'm getting my ass kicked by capitalism, have to work a job with a bazillion hours and still manage to get my own shit done?
Why do the chapo boys who have to be millionaires with basically unlimited free time and a platform get to skate in the duty?
Because at the end of the day, they aren't proles. If you want to be charitable, they are a modern iteration of the artisan class. If you don't want to be charitable, they're just petty bourgeois with the same fundamental flaws that the petty bourgeoisie has.
All I'm getting at is that's not a principled stance from them, and I'm sick of seeing the "monster" that people like them create just get kicked to the curb. They basically created the "dirtbag left" and really popularized this thing we are all still doing. Then they got caught up in the Bernie bullshit, then they pivoted to movie reviews, and as I said earlier, glib takes on the news.
The Revolutionary Blackout folks all do organizing as well, they feed people, give out clothes and other necessities, and are even building a community library. They're expressly following the example of Fred Hampton and the Panthers. So there's another podcast/YouTube channel that walks the walk.
I am unfamiliar. I'll give them a listen!
Thanks for reminding me of that one. I enjoyed a few episodes before the Youtube algorithm buried it.