YOU are speaking!

Have you made any poignant commentary on the recent election in the U.S.? Do you have a good response to liberals who are upset with the results or process of the election? Have you written or seen something as a comment reply/post that you think has standalone value? Did you see a new take or analysis you hadn’t previously considered?

Whether it’s a long idea with lots of context, or a short and sweet one liner, we want those thoughts aggregated here. This post is intended to be a resource for comrades to draw from when having actual discussions outside of Hexbear both online or IRL regarding the election.

Consider this a mini-effortpost aggregator. This is not for shitposts, but humor is completely acceptable if it helps make the point.

  • Ivysaur [she/her]
    ·
    6 hours ago

    I have come across a somewhat uncomfortable scenario more than once this past week that I need some advice on from non-white folks here as a white woman in real-world organizing/activist spaces that do not necessarily lean very far left. I do not know how to approach BIPOC folks in these spaces (or even just in the general public I’ve encountered) espousing the virtues of voting Kamala Harris. I feel like @Angel@hexbear.net’s response to this in here is absolutely the correct perspective, but…is that even my place to say? I do not want to tell any non-white person how to express their frustrations and especially not as a white person, but…voting for Kamala was not it. It was never going to be it. I heard the same things back in the Obama days, too, and we have the benefit of hindsight now to tell us how poorly that goes. But I feel like I can’t be the one to say it. Is that the correct way to handle stuff like this? I feel very stuck.

    • CoolerOpposide [none/use name]M
      ·
      38 minutes ago

      Respectfully, this applies to irl spaces too.

      Show

      If you are objectively correct, you can’t live in constant fear that somebody might think you’re wrong. Beating around the bush and appeasement IS doing harm. Of course you don’t have to be rude, and I know you understand that this is obviously a very sensitive issue, but when push comes to shove it’s important to make your stance clear.

      Be kind, be compassionate, be understanding, and make it clear that you stand on the objectively right side of the issues. In real life spaces, as long as liberals know you disagree with conservatives from the very beginning, they are far more likely to listen to what you have to say. Most people are not the online frothing-at-the-mouth liberals we talk so much about

    • homhom9000 [she/her]
      ·
      4 hours ago

      There was discourse on tiktok where a white leftist called out democrats and Kamala. Kamala liberals then went on to smear them for being racist or whatever. Then other leftist, including POC, came to their defense because they were right. I don't think people changed their minds after but even if you're right, you'll have to be strong enough to take whatever backlash comes, even if wrong or in bad faith. The people who are open to dialogue will follow.

      I don't technically think it's good to self censor but if you need to talk around something for people to understand better then by all means do that. Ask questions and make it a conversation, if they're dead set on holding onto liberals then move on, it's not your fight.

      Never talk down on BIPOC people either because then it'll be harder to defend you. You may know more than SOME but lived experience is a bitch, dismissing or undermining that will backfire. Eventhough you and I are likely on the same side, I still take your word with caution because white folk are finicky. It's nothing against you personally.

      • ReadFanon [any, any]
        ·
        1 hour ago

        Wanna know something interesting?

        That creator has ADHD and they suspect that they have undiagnosed autism. ADHD comes with auditory processing disorder at a really high prevalence rate (~40%, from memory). Autism and auditory processing disorder occur so frequently together that they might as well be considered a package deal, although I'm not aware of any studies that have looked into prevalence of auditory processing disorder because it's almost like looking for tiredness in insomniacs.

        People went after them in part for saying Kamala wrong, claiming the way they said it was racist. Thing about auditory processing disorder is that it can cause people to mispronounce words.

        This person actually mispronounces things fairly regularly. There's a video where they mispronounce about 3 words in the span of 30 seconds. Not in an egregious way but enough that it pings my decidedly unexpert radar. So as far as I'm concerned there's a lot of evidence for them likely having auditory processing disorder. (Armchair diagnosis of people especially remotely via media is a loathsome habit but I'm okay with breaking personal policy in this instance.) Meanwhile evidence of their being racist is nonexistent.

        I did drag one person who came for them asking them if there was any circumstances under which mispronouncing Kamala's name would be permissible to them. They said no, of course (which is, ironically, racist to expect that everyone knows Kamala Harris and knows how to pronounce her name correctly). So I figured to fight fire with fire and if baseless accusations of racism are okay then I'm well within my rights to accuse this dingdong with being ableist. I'm sure that they didn't consider that disability might be the cause for mispronouncing Kamala's name but then ignoring the challenges that people with disability face is inherently ableist anyway. So I levelled that accusation against them and gave the reasoning for the likelihood of the creator having auditory processing disorder and how this would explain a mispronunciation of an unusual word like an uncommon name such as Kamala. Of course, immediately they accuse me of making a diagnosis.

        The exchange we had didn't prove anything besides the fact that this type of person operates without any semblance of good faith.

        Did I bait them? Sure. Was there going to be any personal expense whatsoever for them to make an admission like "Well I guess I didn't think about how a person who survived a stroke might have a good reason for why they mispronounce names"? Nope.