Once again I am going to ask you to invade lib spaces and remind them that the Dems cannot save them. Give marginalised people the tools to protect themselves and their community from harm.
Show them that they do not have to rely on the Democrats, and that they shouldn't because the Dems don't care enough to fight for them. Direct them to organisations that can help them.
Let this be your chance to build a community, there are a lot of vulnerable people feeling lost right now.
EDIT: Only if you can, of course. Please don't burn yourself out or put yourself in harm's way.
- ShowThis is how libs are talking about marginalised people by the way before you clutch pearls over how civil I am.
Oh and preying on their vulnerability? By what, giving them the support and community they need in this time when they face very real danger? I'm calling on us to help people you idiot. Most of this instance is full of vulnerable people. Read the room.
Wtf are you talking about? Condescending? I don't call marginalised people libs? Do you get what I mean by lib spaces or are you just making shit up?
No, I don't get what you mean! Are the people in the lib spaces not libs? Who is, then, and where do they hang out?
I don't know if you'll even see this, as mods removed my previous comment and you've probably blocked me. I guess I don't get to be part of the community.
Liberal spaces as in liberal controlled. Lmao I can see your comment. And yeah you probably will get pushback if you come into this place looking to start shit.
So I'm cynical as fuck and I have to say, the young(ish) Libs in my life are starting to perk their ears to what I've been laying down.
I start every conversation with, "why would an elite in the millionaire/billionaire class want to help you?" And end with, "power is not elected; it's taken."
I see gears starting to turn.
to be honest, we are already stupid, resources should have been prepared months ahead of time
This is just confronting the fact that this website isn't actually a leftist organization; it's just a website with leftists on it
That may not be such a bad thing. A forum to share info and news and tactics that doesn't have confidential info on any particular organization does have its place.
After several rounds of trying to radicalize the democrats in my life, watching them revert back to their bullshit the second something bad happens — I can’t fucking do it anymore. I got my Mom and frankly that’s all I care about.
I’m not saying people shouldn’t try, I would never say that, but check out if you’re gonna loose yourself.
At this moment, it's probably easier to get them to agree to actions than to shift their worldview. As the dust settles, their viewpoints will become more malleable, especially if you're already keeping them in the loop through any actions you get them involved in now. Right now, the cognitive dissonance reached a sudden critical mass which is triggering the fight or flight response. Not great for rational thought, but we can start to hone where the fighting is directed. Keep at it ❤️
Yeah, you gotta keep your sanity. I'm not going to blame your for that. Stay safe.
Going back into the activism next week. I sort of have a history of crash and burn cycles.
Revived my Lemmy.ml account, can confirm that this has never been easier, Lemmy.ml is easy mode and even .worlders are more open than ever before. There's a great thread over on c/agitprop pinned with resources you can pull from to use, including a fantastic list from @ReadFanon@hexbear.net. Uphold ReadFanon thought!
Everything under heaven is in utter chaos; the situation is excellent.
Get out there and Combat Liberalism!
including a fantastic list from @ReadFanon@hexbear.net
Well shit, I didn't expect anyone to find it useful that I'm red, mad, and nude online. Honestly I was just venting in that comment.
You can view Cowbee's profile here @Cowbee@lemmy.ml, read through their comment logs. This is a great comment for example.
Everywhere I go I just see people saying that bad voters and non-voters have caused the end of the world.
This is some of the easiest to agitprop against, flip it on the dems for failing to cater to leftists and liberals instead of catering to the right like Liz Cheney.
Easiest are the lemmy.ml communities; start there. Copy other comrades' talking points.
100%, Lemmy.ml is easy mode, and the mods are on our side there. Lemmy.world has bigger gains if you do it right, but is much harder to get away with.
marcie does fantastic work, holy shit, saving this for later. Need to up my OpSec...
- ∞ 🏳️⚧️Edie [it/its, she/her, fae/faer, love/loves, ze/hir, des/pair, none/use name, undecided]·1 day ago
If you have questions about Tor, I can probably answer them. I spent some time voulenteering and getting into (understanding) Tor.
Do you suggest using a VPN with tor? I've seen some communities say it's a good idea and I've seen others say never.
- ∞ 🏳️⚧️Edie [it/its, she/her, fae/faer, love/loves, ze/hir, des/pair, none/use name, undecided]·20 hours ago
Depends.
I don't think you should use one just because someone told you to, but if you have thought about it and you think you would benefit from it, go ahead.
I want to read the guide more fully once I am home, I'll shoot questions your way once I get them, thanks!
No offense DirtyOwl but you're an Aussie. Idk what it's like in Australia, but on the ground here things are pretty dismal. All the Libs are scratched, the DNC already seems to be formulating a right wing shift, there's no leftist infrastructure to take advantage of.
I've lived through like 4 moments in history that should have been a wake up call to Libs, they never work. There no working class party in the US because there no demand for one, even in marginalized communities. And it's not just propaganda, it's the will of the people, American hogs love being atomized, narcissistic, individualistic consumers and will lash out at anything that threatens that.
I’ve heard many people posit the idea that Americans do not have a culture, but I think it’s worse than that.
American hogs love being atomized, narcissistic, individualistic consumers and will lash out at anything that threatens that.
I fear this just is what American culture IS.
This is one obstacle to left organizing in the States I think gets ignored. Americans have no sense of community, because Americans hate each other. Including the leftist ones. You see it here, we call Amerikkkans Burgerbrained hogs, but now you want me to organize these hogs? I fucking hate them, and they hate me. My ultimate goal is to fuck off to a cabin in the woods away from these pathetic creeps, and you want me to put my life on the line trying to give them help they largely don't want?
It is dismal here too, yeah, and I can't even begin to imagine how horrible it must be for my US comrades, but if we can protect some vulnerable people from those scratched liberals by directing them to leftist orgs that can help them, shouldn't we?
Like, what should we do? Nothing? Nah, doing nothing is for libs.
I know it probably isn't my place, sure, but I don't want you guys to give up hope.
Listen. I’ve been organizing, agitating, doing anything at all that I can for nearly two decades in this shitheap of a country. Do you know what I have to show for it? Piles of corpses and social murder galore. I got a world that is happy to tell me to get bent every time I have the displeasure of committing such a radical act as walking to the fucking grocery store. It’s not going to get better. @Diuretic_Materialism@hexbear.net is basically correct. After witnessing the general population’s COVID response, their response to ongoing genocide, the absolute bipartisan (universal!) public health collapse, and living in this atomized, individualistic hell for nearly four decades now, I have complete confidence in saying this. We should take advantage of this specific moment? Not a global fucking pandemic? Not an ongoing genocide? Not centuries of racism, slavery, poisoning of native lands, the earth we all share? None of this has been what makes us failures, apparently, but a Trump victory that everyone is replaying 2016 for is the straw that breaks the camel’s back, what really makes us dumbasses for failing to capitalize? We fail to capitalize because this population does not want it. Tell my immunocompromised, disabled ass to self-crit over this, whatever. I’ve done plenty. I’ll fight til there’s nothing left because I don’t know anything else, but you cannot make me have hope. I hate all of these people too.
I mean, you can wear a mask and organise.
And like, obviously I'm not going to judge people who are burnt out for bowing out.
I mean, you can wear a mask and organise.
Let me tell you how well that’s going, because I actually have done this!
They call me a wrecker. They call me a fed. They tell me COVID is over, it’s just a cold, and I am overreacting. Only sometimes do they say they will accommodate, and then they still don’t. I show up to demonstrations & events I was promised would be “fully masked”, “masking enforced”, and there are no masks on any faces; there is no enforcement of anything. At best, single digit numbers among 40, 50 people, on average for the kinds of things I try to attend. Anything larger? Hell the fuck no they won’t. And this is in one of the most “progressive” cities in the country!
This is a thought-terminating cliche at this point.
Gah, that sucks. I dunno what to say.
Fucking COVID denialism pisses me off.
I can't blame you at all. Know I'm not calling people like you stupid, at all.
I guess I'm just frustrated and wish we could do more? Like what else can we do? I guess online mutual aid stuff?
I’m sorry for coming so hard at you specifically, I like you a lot friend owl. You are funny and cheerful and I appreciate that, but I radicalized a lot younger than most people I know of and this is just the reality I have been experiencing for my whole life.
I am always looking for some light at the end of this tunnel, a hopeful answer to give, but I think what’s most likely to happen to empire now would be like what happened to Rome: the population dwindles — due to endless war & mass death, fleeing — until there is nothing left to churn through and things cease to function. Even that is optimistic. I do not put it above this country to blow the world up before that can happen, and regardless of anything else further pandemics are guaranteed as the global population’s immune systems get cumulatively destroyed by endless COVID and other unknown pathogens emerging due to increasing climate disasters altering the environment. Tuberculosis was thought to be, essentially, gone; it is now surging around the country in numbers not seen for something close to the last century. In all cases, the prognosis is still extremely dire to me. I don’t know how one can see what’s happening around them and deny it. We can and should build ad-hoc collectives and communities and extend that influence where we can, but I do not think that power extends beyond this small footprint until the complete and total collapse of empire, and I know that’s not a good answer, but until I find a better one (and I haven’t yet; I really, really am trying) then that is how I predict things playing out. This is the most optimistic thing I can say.
That doesn’t mean do nothing. Like I said, I still fight because I do not know how else to live. But god damn it am I sick of hearing this sentiment from “leftists” whose first taste of anything was Bernard fucking Sanders eight years ago. “Just organize”, “touch grass doomer”, “get involved with your community, lib” ad nauseum.
doing nothing is for libs.
Can we make this the site's official motto? I am completely serious.
There's really no orgs with the resources to do anything in the US. In most cities the left can barely pull off a crappy soup kitchen.
I mean yeah we should try and do something, but I'm not going to lie to people about their prospects. And honestly it may be better for peoples mental health to accept defeat than struggle on in futility, at least then you can
We really need to re-emphasize reading theory to everyone here again huh
Idk I heard this Mao guy had some cool ideas
I made a theory intro guide (focused on Marxism-Leninism and intersectionality), feel free to let me know what you think! Trying to fill in any gaps and trim any fat from a basic reading list
Looks good!
Only book I’d suggest adding is Capitalist Realism by Fisher, because I found it really helpful in orientating myself to Marxist analysis in a more modern context, but I think a lot of comrades would have good arguments on it’s lack of utility.
Also given the context of the US election, including some of the Black Panther’s literature on organising probably won’t go amiss
Only problem is that it is at the limits of a Lemmy comment... anything you'd recommend taking out?
Honestly, if you can't fit any more I wouldn't sweat it, it's more important to cram all the basic, easy to understand stuff in first. I don't think there's really much you can take out from the resource as is
I was thinking about swapping Mao out for Oppose Book Worship and Combat Liberalism, as a bit of a call to action (that's the point of the end, plus the mini "what is to be done"). However, I think On Practice and On Contradiction serve their purpose a bit better.
if you mean you're looking for lib-friendly talking points, look here. if you mean how can marginalized people protect themselves and their communities, idk
Death to America
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy: