Are these goons really that propagandized to be so afraid of protesters/socialists, etc?
I mean, they know you personally or at least through work and presumably aren’t threatening toward you, right?
I’ve been thinking about this lately. How we so desperately need a common community place through which to discuss what it is that troubles people. And I think if we did we’d find out that 1) propaganda is the main factor in recklessly and misleadingly creating false fear, and 2) that most of the reason why is that we economically so many of us are disenfranchised or subject to precarity, even in the sense of not having enough free time to do meaningful stuff and spend time with loved ones.
Seems so simple and doable.
First step must be to get people away from their TVs and off social media and into community spaces to break bread and talk like human beings.
Sorry for the naivety. But there is an essence of empathy and compassion in us all that is being stamped out by reactionary propaganda.
My coworkers are typical white Texan suburbanites who haven't faced many challenges in their lives and if they have, they blame their problems on immigrants or the homeless. They live in a completely different reality than a lot of us. They don't have community and they don't want any. They don't want to know about the world, they want a white suburban bubble where they can drive around their massive truck. What they want most of all is to drive off home invaders or have a violent confrontation with a petty criminal at a Wendy's. They constantly espouse fantasies about that. One of my coworkers one time said he wished a school shooter would try attacking a local school, so he could quote "go call of duty" on anyone trying to shoot his kids.
The only things they know about the outside world are instances of propaganda. They're hardly even politically minded people, they're reactionaries in the truest sense. They only operate on gut instinct of nascent white American supremacy. They're empty, hollow people who want complete isolation. They have severely anti-social beliefs and prejudices, constantly making jokes about trans people (I'm nonbinary and they know it), or saying casual racism, or whatever.
They're not threatening to me personally and in fact seem to like me. They don't understand I'm a communist even thought I've said it directly, because they don't have a good concept of what that means. They probably think I'm joking. But I'm not counting on them to defend me if we end up on opposite sides of a barricade.
The erosion of public/community space is by design. American society is obsessed with private property and privatizing the commons. Nowhere to gather without spending money except a park or decrepit library or something.
Long term? Somehow push for an end or reduction of car-based infrastructure. Get leftists involved in organizing for better civic planning/zoning.
Short term? You got me. I've had some ideas about how to get involved with church groups, since those are often the only "third place" Americans have. They're sometimes the only people an American sees outside of work or their family.
Among ourselves? Anyone up for a board game night or something? lol
Short term? You got me. I’ve had some ideas about how to get involved with church groups, since those are often the only “third place” Americans have. They’re sometimes the only people an American sees outside of work or their family.
I mean, one thing is possibly to reconstruct the function & form of church-based organizational structures within the confines of an explicitly left-wing ideology. Like if you had a guy who's job was to read Marx, Engels, Lenin, etc. and then to go up & read passages of their works to a crowd & then find a specific way to tie those passages into their own day-to-day struggles; or into the specific struggles of the specific members of your congregation or whatever. That might actually work in some weird way, idk.
Then again, I think one possible problem with socialist organizing within the modern imperial core is that honestly a lot of people who choose to be socialists in the imperial core do so, because they are actually temperamentally highly individualistic & don't like following the established norms of the society that they're born into. Which is not to necessarily say that they're wrong to dislike the established norms of Western Imperialist Hegemony, but like there's a reason why it's a well-established truism that getting people to organize IRL is like herding cats.
Sorry for the naivety. But there is an essence of empathy and compassion in us all that is being stamped out by reactionary propaganda.
I get that feel. I get it deep in my bones. Humans are inherently cooperative. I believe that on like an anthropological scale, it is a fact of homo sapiens, it's part of who we are and will always be. Sometimes I think about that and I think about the massive network of bullshit that the reactionaries need to undo that genetic programming we have. And honestly? It gives me a shred of hope. If you have to work this hard to make people hate then it actually is a powerful argument about love and how inherent that is. Like, racism is generational. If you have to pass down your racist bullshit and corrupt your own kids its actually proof that otherwise they'd be decent people absent your fuckery.
It turns out that the people who worried about Radio, TV, and the Internet digging society into the ground were right. They all work in moderation but that's never going to happen as long as you have reactionary groups that use them to mold society the way they want.
This is so fucking sick and deeply disturbing.
Are these goons really that propagandized to be so afraid of protesters/socialists, etc? I mean, they know you personally or at least through work and presumably aren’t threatening toward you, right?
I’ve been thinking about this lately. How we so desperately need a common community place through which to discuss what it is that troubles people. And I think if we did we’d find out that 1) propaganda is the main factor in recklessly and misleadingly creating false fear, and 2) that most of the reason why is that we economically so many of us are disenfranchised or subject to precarity, even in the sense of not having enough free time to do meaningful stuff and spend time with loved ones.
Seems so simple and doable.
First step must be to get people away from their TVs and off social media and into community spaces to break bread and talk like human beings.
Sorry for the naivety. But there is an essence of empathy and compassion in us all that is being stamped out by reactionary propaganda.
My coworkers are typical white Texan suburbanites who haven't faced many challenges in their lives and if they have, they blame their problems on immigrants or the homeless. They live in a completely different reality than a lot of us. They don't have community and they don't want any. They don't want to know about the world, they want a white suburban bubble where they can drive around their massive truck. What they want most of all is to drive off home invaders or have a violent confrontation with a petty criminal at a Wendy's. They constantly espouse fantasies about that. One of my coworkers one time said he wished a school shooter would try attacking a local school, so he could quote "go call of duty" on anyone trying to shoot his kids.
The only things they know about the outside world are instances of propaganda. They're hardly even politically minded people, they're reactionaries in the truest sense. They only operate on gut instinct of nascent white American supremacy. They're empty, hollow people who want complete isolation. They have severely anti-social beliefs and prejudices, constantly making jokes about trans people (I'm nonbinary and they know it), or saying casual racism, or whatever.
They're not threatening to me personally and in fact seem to like me. They don't understand I'm a communist even thought I've said it directly, because they don't have a good concept of what that means. They probably think I'm joking. But I'm not counting on them to defend me if we end up on opposite sides of a barricade.
The erosion of public/community space is by design. American society is obsessed with private property and privatizing the commons. Nowhere to gather without spending money except a park or decrepit library or something.
What can be done to push back against this? Anyone thinking of saying "nothing, give up" is wasting their time.
Long term? Somehow push for an end or reduction of car-based infrastructure. Get leftists involved in organizing for better civic planning/zoning.
Short term? You got me. I've had some ideas about how to get involved with church groups, since those are often the only "third place" Americans have. They're sometimes the only people an American sees outside of work or their family.
Among ourselves? Anyone up for a board game night or something? lol
Hey, Settlers of Catan is pretty good once you get past trying to explain the rules to someone.
I mean, one thing is possibly to reconstruct the function & form of church-based organizational structures within the confines of an explicitly left-wing ideology. Like if you had a guy who's job was to read Marx, Engels, Lenin, etc. and then to go up & read passages of their works to a crowd & then find a specific way to tie those passages into their own day-to-day struggles; or into the specific struggles of the specific members of your congregation or whatever. That might actually work in some weird way, idk.
Then again, I think one possible problem with socialist organizing within the modern imperial core is that honestly a lot of people who choose to be socialists in the imperial core do so, because they are actually temperamentally highly individualistic & don't like following the established norms of the society that they're born into. Which is not to necessarily say that they're wrong to dislike the established norms of Western Imperialist Hegemony, but like there's a reason why it's a well-established truism that getting people to organize IRL is like herding cats.
I get that feel. I get it deep in my bones. Humans are inherently cooperative. I believe that on like an anthropological scale, it is a fact of homo sapiens, it's part of who we are and will always be. Sometimes I think about that and I think about the massive network of bullshit that the reactionaries need to undo that genetic programming we have. And honestly? It gives me a shred of hope. If you have to work this hard to make people hate then it actually is a powerful argument about love and how inherent that is. Like, racism is generational. If you have to pass down your racist bullshit and corrupt your own kids its actually proof that otherwise they'd be decent people absent your fuckery.
It turns out that the people who worried about Radio, TV, and the Internet digging society into the ground were right. They all work in moderation but that's never going to happen as long as you have reactionary groups that use them to mold society the way they want.