i am begging you all to stop treating politicians like fandom faves and start treating them as what they are: highly ambitious people juggling several different agendas who we elect in the hopes they will vote for things we support
I’m not trying to pick on this tagger but this is exactly the thing I’m talking about: as AOC advances in her career, if she’s going after genuine political power (and it’s not going to be a bad thing if she does: that’s how you turn your platform into legislation,) she is going to compromise. She is going to support bills you don’t like and not support things you do like. Right now she’s one of four hundred representatives and is in a good place to grandstand, but if she ever gets into the Senate, or the cabinet, and even if she just spends the next 20 years in the house, she will do things you disagree with and have to make compromise votes you don’t think went far enough and have to give up on legislation with no path forward that you really wanted and support things that are necessary but make you feel icky.
After which, two paths are likely to follow: she will either be Canceled, because we were all rooting for her how dare she let us down like this, it just goes to show you can’t trust anyone in the system– regardless of whether there were practical reasons for her to do what she did– or her supporters will just go into mass denial. A few years ago I had very liberal friends of mine decided that gun control wasn’t really important after all… as soon as they learned their favorite congressman didn’t support it. (Because I guess they considered “I disagree with him on this point but support him anyway because the things we do agree on far outweighs what we do not, compared to the other candidates running” as admitting defeat? I don’t know. They sure were on the gun control train again after the next mass shooting, though.)
And the reason the congressman didn’t support it wasn’t some deep moral failing: it was because he was from a state with a strong gun culture, and he wanted to keep getting elected. This is how representative democracy is supposed to work. And because of that track record, I didn’t support his higher ambitions– because while I didn’t always agree with his opponent, the gun thing tipped the scales into “agree more than I disagree, compared to the other candidate”– which is also how representative democracy is supposed to work. Right now, AOC and elected officials like her are in a position where they can support the things they support and still win, but that might not always bet he case.
I admire AOC. I respect AOC. I agree with a lot of AOC’s platform. But we’re setting ourselves up for a mess if we keep acting like AOC is a fun twitter celebrity who posts good clapbacks, and not, you know, a highly ambitious person juggling multiple agendas who we hope will continue to vote for things we like.
And as fun as it is to see AOC playing video games, and it IS fun and delightful, I worry that the parasocial relationship she’s cultivating with excited young voters is only going to exacerbate people’s feelings of betrayal when she inevitably acts like a professional rather than your friend. She is an incredibly smart and driven woman and I hope she has a long career in politics and makes lasting change and to do that, ditto all the above, she will HAVE to compromise. And the more people feel like they really “know” her, or she’s their friend, or she’s like a friend because she plays the same games as you and talks about life experiences you share, the stronger the backlash is going to be, bc it’s going to feel personal. And it’s really, truly, not.
AOC is the representative of New York’s 14th congressional district, aka Queens and the Bronx which clearly is a very liberal area. You know what isn’t? Upstate New York. Very conservative area. If she ever wants to run for senate in NY, she’s going to have to court those voters to some extent, which means at least listening to their wants and needs, if not advocating for some of the policies they support. The bigger the stage, the more the power, the more people you need to convince to actually vote for you and support you. That’s a good thing - we want people who are sympathetic to progressive policies, if not progressive themselves on a larger stage, but that’s going to come with compromise. That’s… normal.
I wonder from where so many Americans get the idea that voting is supposed to be some expression of your deepest, most beloved values and virtues rather than a pragmatic, political move meant to shift your country as much closer to your ideal as possible. This strikes me as another example of extreme individualism. Voting isn’t about *you*. It’s about your city, state, and/or country. It doesn’t have to feel transcendently good deep down in your bones. It just has to *do* as much good as you can do, in this particular moment in time.
some of you haven’t realized that improving the world is a battle of miserable inches and not something that can be done in a glorious blaze of revolution and it shows
some of you haven’t realised that choosing revolution as THE way is a privilege
and you need to realise that aiming for revolution without fighting for the miserable inches will fuck a lot of other people over
I also think it has to do with the stories we tell. And maybe that’s privilege too - the luxury of being able to choose stories for their excitement rather their accuracy, idk – but we don’t tell the stories of the miserable inches. Rosa Parks sat down, MLK made a speech, Obama was elected, and now racism is over – a nice, neat story in 3 acts that fits in a 2-hour time slot with time for commercial breaks.
We ignore the quiet heroism of a black woman deciding to use the white restroom so she can do her job properly, or a black man walking across Alabama because dammit he should be able to walk on a public road without danger. Of organizations patiently, repeatedly, steadfastly filing a lawsuit every single time someone tries to get away with something that’s illegal. Of one person getting their office building to separate compost from garbage, or organizing her apartment building on a rent strike, or taking one for the team to say “that’s kinda sexist don’t you think?” when his boss commits a microaggression in a meeting. We don’t talk about writing to your city council every single time police overstep their authority, or paying attention to which textbooks the school board is selecting, or sharing art from POC creators.
So when you finally wake up and recognize your privilege and think “Holy shit! Women’s lives are harder for the stupidest reasons!” or “Oh My God, racism is out of control in this country!” or “Damn, my life woulda sucked if my parents hadn’t been able to pay for my college” or “Fuck, capitalism may have some impressive accomplishments under its belt but holy crap is unrestrained capitalism deadly!” or whatever, and you decide you can’t live with it anymore, and you’re going to do something about it, what do you think of?
Harry Potter. Les Miserables. Mockingjay. I am either going to die on the battlefield in glory or rise up. And when that’s the only story you know, it looks like the only option. Revolution or acceptance. Anyone who says “Guys, we should at least have a plan before we violently overthrow the government” is a collaborator and a quisling because this has been going on too long and change can’t wait. And like, you’re right. This HAS been going on too long and change CAN’T wait. We should not do nothing. But revolution is not the only something that can happen.
IDK, this kinda got away from me. I only know that I’ve been trying since June to figure out what a soft-spoken nerd can do as activism, and there is no answer out there. Meaningless symbolism, passive acceptance, and violent revolution are the only categories of advice I can find.
I am monumentally tired of fighting. But I’m going to continue to do so for as long as I can.
Right now I am seeing long-time followers attack Kamala Harris and Joe Biden for picking her as a running mate. I know a lot of people look at this duo and see “more of the same.” I’ve seen so many intelligent people saying they are not going to vote.
It is absolutely critical that you vote the Biden/Harris ticket. I want you to remember that while you are pointing out the flaws, and here is why.
The current president is literally a fascist. He’s slow-burning, meaning he’s slowly moving the goalpost farther right. The only reason he’s slow-moving is because the Republican party still has the barest semblance of a conscience. Think of what would have happened if #45 said “we should delay the election!” and McConnell said “yeah okay that sounds cool.”
Do you know how terrifying that is? Because if he got congress to delay the election somehow, there would be no reason to ever have a federal election again. He could just keep delaying it forever.
“But CK,” you say. “The constitution says we can’t delay a presidential election!”
Checks and balances say a lot of things. Checks and balances say that bills are supposed to be voted on and go to the president for signing or veto. Currently McConnell has found a loophole and just has 400 bills sitting on his desk, ignored.
I want you to keep this in mind: Under fascism, the constitution does not matter. They will find a way around it. They’re trying to find ways around amendments, too, poking and prodding at free speech until they can find a way to shut it down.
And if #45 decides he doesn’t want to play anymore, he’s got a whole fucking army, and he’s just proven that the secret police he has in his employ will do whatever the fuck he says. I need you to recognized that this throwing people in Portland into vans thing wasn’t the ultimate violation of freedom. It was only one step in a massive authoritarian takeover. You cannot trust the secret police to do the right thing and say no. #45 has just proven they’ll listen to him like trained dogs.
He has already started talking about more terms. If he discards the constitution, there will be nothing stopping him from taking them. He’s currently, blatantly trying to rig a free and fair election. This has happened in other countries across the globe, and the same people who are posting “NEVER VOTE FOR BIDEN” are the same ones who post things like “JUSTICE FOR _______” when a despot steals an election.
If the incumbent president wins another term, this will be the last election we have. This will be it. This is how fascism works. This isn’t slippery-slope talk. This isn’t “potential worst case scenario.” We are in the middle of the worst case scenario now.
Please. For the sake of the millions of people who will die under #45. For the sake of people who cannot survive another 4+ years. Think of Biden/Harris as a road block. A barricade. Right in the middle of the road. It stops traffic and doesn’t do anything to get people where they’re going, but at least it stops them from careening off a bridge.
If you never want to have to make this choice again, you have to fight to abolish the US’s First-Past-The-Post voting system, but it is TOO LATE to do that now. No third party candidate can win. Study the election results from the last 40 years and you’ll see.
Please. Wise up. This is our last chance.
As someone who is in local leftist circles, I’m seeing a lot of people mocking “vote blue no matter who”. Lately, even comparing those people with the Back The Blue movement which sides with the police against protesters. They’re saying that if you insist people vote Democrat, you’re basically a boot licker. I’ve been hearing, “time to burn it all down”.
Mmkay. When?
When is your glorious revolution going to start? Please explain your plan to me. Explain how it will topple the current government. Explain how you will install something better in its place. Explain how the new government will legitimize itself and stay in power. Now, Explain how you will do this without killing millions of poor, disabled, and marginalized people.
Oh. You don’t have one of those plans? Then you have to deal with the government we actually have, not a fantasy version of it. You have to look at what you can realistically accomplish within the two party system that we have, not the fantasy multi-party system you want. You have to look at the REAL, ACTUAL candidates and say, “which one starts closer to my eventual goal, and which one can be moved by a sustained concerted effort?” And you have to say, “which one will kill the fewest people while we’re trying to fix the problems that gave us this system we hate in the first place?”
Because you cannot campaign for a ranked voting system in the eleventh hour. It’s too fucking late. That choice isn’t on the table for you anymore. Don’t whine and kick your feet and refuse to take the first step towards fixing things because that step isn’t big enough for you. There are hundreds of notches on the needle between Biden/Harris and all the things we want: racial Justice, indigenous land reparations, universal basic income, socialized medicine. Hundreds of notches. But if we cannot even agree to pull the needle ONE NOTCH FURTHER LEFT in unison, how the fuck are we supposed to get there? How do we ever reach a destination when half of us turn our noses up at a first step?
The Right got us here because they pull in unison. They’ve been doing it for decades and every election, the whole country slides. There are more of us but we refuse to work together. We refuse to just decide on a first step and take it. We refuse so hard we’d rather say “burn it down” than comprise our political purity. But I am here to tell you that no amount of philosophy is worth an ounce of praxis and your purity will not absolve you from the moral laziness of deciding your neighbors are acceptable sacrifices in the name of a brave new world.
Change requires realistic goals and sustained effort. It requires responsibility and involvement. It is measured in increments. It isn’t glorious.
“Burn it all down” only requires you to stand back and watch. So. I see y'all.
This.
As a historian, this “don’t do anything and expect a morally pure system to spring from the ashes” argument is especially insane and maddening. Right. Okay. Don’t do anything, stand by and permit the world to be destroyed in the name of proving a Leftist Point, and then expect the shattered remnants of humanity to magically and collectively realize their error and build Utopia. It has never once worked like that in the history of the world. You know what we got instead? More suffering. And standing by to enable fascism because you’re just so morally good and can’t lower yourself to make a Flawed Choice looks a lot like… I dunno, fascism.
Don’t blame the Trump voters if (and God forbid) the Democrats lose this election. They showed up and voted for their guy, abhorrent as he and they may be. They took part. If we lose swing states that Biden/Harris would have won without pointless fucking third party votes, I swear to Jesus, the blood is on our hands. We don’t and won’t get the luxury of blaming it on Trump and his calamitous administration any more. Right now, we still have a chance. It’s a narrow one, it’s not the one we may have wanted, and it’s going to be hard as hell even if this election was fair (and thanks to the Russians, Facebook, etc, it’s not, but still). It’s there.
The problem is that America has become a society so deeply catering to selfishness and self-interest that we just can’t bestir ourselves to do something that Isn’t Good For Us Personally. If you’re deriding people who won’t wear masks in a pandemic and then refusing to vote for Biden/Harris: congratulations, you are part of the problem. You are giving into the exact “me first/won’t do it if it doesn’t help me” sociopathic selfishness that late-stage capitalism has deliberately bred into us. You might think you are taking a principled stand and you’re rejecting the system, but that does… absolutely nothing. It’s not a protest. It’s not a moral choice. It is a surrender. And I’m so goddamn tired of a bunch of whiny Twitter pissbabies acting like our current Democratic choice (which has plenty of good things, even as everyone is neurotically fixated on the flaws!) is worse than another four years of the Trumpian corporate death cult. Because. Nah bro.
The accelerationist theory of social change (currently beloved by both the extreme right and extreme left), I.e. things will get bad enough to start a war and said magical new system will emerge from the ashes, is a HORRIFYINGLY white supremacist, racist, classist, homophobic, xenophobic, etc theory. It predicates that you, the genius suggesting this, are white, middle class, and in a comfortable enough position to survive the horrors going on to those other people, and whose deaths are an acceptable collateral of your Ideology. A core of progressive belief used to be that no single ideology was more valuable than actual living people. But that has been totally sacrificed on the altar of Purist Woke Points. The ideology trumps all, literally. Because in this case, if some of you don’t get your fucking acts together, Trump’s ideology will trump all, and then we are fucked.
I study this kind of thing professionally. I have written many posts about the lack of historical memory and the crisis it is causing. I’m saying that again right now. I’ve said it in polite ways and academic ways and even funny ways. I am saying it in a deadly serious goddamn way now. I’m tired. I know we are all tired. But refusing the single biggest choice we can make to change the way things are currently going in this country is tantamount to lunacy. No other way to put it.
Don’t be a whining pissbaby who makes the rest of us die. Wear a mask. Grow up. Learn some history. Do whatever nose-holding you have to and vote Biden/Harris 2020.
The Outbursts of Everett True was a comic strip that ran in papers from 1905 to 1927, wherein the aforementioned Everett True regularly beat the everliving shit out of rude people as a warning to anyone else who might consider being rude. Men have not only been taking up too much room on public transport for about as long as public transport has existed, but the people around them have been irritated about it for at least a hundred years. The next time someone tries to claim that manspreading is a false phenomenon, please direct them to this strip so that Everett True can correct their misconceptions with an umbrella upside the head.
I have never before heard of Everett True, but if he “regularly beat the everliving shit out of rude people as a warning to anyone else who might consider being rude,” I have a strong spiritual connection with him.
I fucking love him
i can imagine this guy’s voice very clearly in my head but i couldn’t put a name to it
He also jabs racists in the eye!
I love the justice grandpa of fists
I’m very lucky to own a book that’s a collection of most of these comics (sadly not all of them) and would highly recommend hunting these down if you can. Sorry for the lack of a scanner but phone photos will just have to do.
He was a enjoyable cuss who didn’t care for war mongering.
Especially profitable war mongering and excuses for it!
He certainly didn’t like selfish husbands and fathers!
Politicians who turned on their words once they got theirs weren’t safe.
He said fuck the police!
He absolutely didn’t like people ruining little things for kids.
He stood up for foreigners. Especially those doing their best to communicate with limited second language knowledge.
He was not having any tomfoolery when it came to gun safety and laws. Especially with youth involved.
You had better not abuse a animal with him nearby. He’d right that wrong real quick!
And best of all him and his wife were both prickly cusses together. Relationship goals.
I have a new role model
😍
“justice grandpa of fists”
It’s nice to see a fat dude in a political cartoon that’s NOT being used as shorthand for greed and corruption.
i miss her so much i think about her every single day (the local library)
not to be librarian on main, but for everyone who relates to this post, please check your local library’s website.
it is the responsible thing right now for libraries to have their buildings closed, but many of us are still providing services including reference (that’s librarian for “you can ask us questions about anything and we’ll find you relevant, accurate information or refer you to someone who can”) and virtual programming. Our library also offers free telehealth counseling services with a licensed social worker. You might not know all the services your library is providing until you ask, so it’s worth reaching out!
We’ve noticed our reference stats dropping since we closed our physical doors and are thinking that people assume because we’re not at the building we’re not available, but we are still here for our community! Your librarians are probably there for you too. Please check their website and social media pages!
not to be children’s librarian on main, but please check your library’s facebook, twitter, and even instagram and youtube! my whole system is posting weekly follow-along programming like storytimes, painting classes, playing D&D online, and sharing resources to help get us all through this. like and share their content if you can! it really helps the branches out and gets our services out there.
Remember that you will NOT be able to make someone feel better. You can make them feel relieved, or less lonely, or even make them laugh, but if someone is considering suicide, there is an underlying problem that you alone will not be able to solve. You cannot cure them, and you cannot control them, even if it’s for their own good. Don’t let that upset you.
Instead, focus on taking practical steps to help them.
Lend an ear. Listening is really important. You don’t have to have a solution to their problems; sometimes that human connection is enough. Sit with them (even if it’s on skype) and let them get it all out.
Help them see a therapist or a doctor, especially if they are already seeing someone. Therapists are trained in this sort of thing, and a doctor would know whether this is a medication symptom, etc. Encourage them to make the call or do it yourself.
Inquire about a method. If someone has a method planned out, take steps to prevent their access to necessary components. Carefully take away all their sharp objects and stow them somewhere else, like in your own home or with a supportive friend. Be suspicious if they say they want to jump off a bridge and then suddenly want to take walks alone.
Keep them busy. When these sorts of things set in, the best you can do is distraction. However, don’t expect a lot out of them, as it is a symptom of depression to stop enjoying hobbies and to lose all your energy. Try to engage all their senses. Burn some incense, watch some nature documentaries on TV, listen to music you both love. Give them something to do with their hands, like knitting (if they already like to do that), playing a video game, or squeezing a ball while they lay on the couch. Obviously, let them choose, but don’t settle for them flopping over and yelling “I don’t care!”
Encourage them to do self care. Many times, suicidal people don’t see the point in eating or taking care of hygiene, and that can make them feel worse. Taking a shower won’t cure depression, but help them take steps to minimize their suffering by taking care of their health. Procure some relatively healthy food (Chinese take out counts). Toss them a wet washcloth if they don’t want to shower. Try to get them to drink some apple juice. Paint their nails for them and take selfies together.
Do not be afraid to call an emergency number (911, etc) if things get out of your control. You are not a professional, and that’s okay. The people at the ER can keep your friend safe while they, their family, and the doctors decide what is best for them. Don’t feel silly doing this; this is a life-threatening situation, and people make use of emergency medical services for psychiatric reasons all the time. Don’t be shy!
I’ll repost this whenever I see it on my dashboard.
fuck…
So, one thing you can do is use Firefox instead of Chrome. Another thing you can do is use duck duck go instead of google search. In fact you know what let me get on desktop and make a proper reply, give me about an hour and I’ll hook y’all up with some privacy
ok I took a bit more than an hour, I have time blindness don’t @ me.
It will ask if you want to import all your bookmarks and saved passwords from your current browser/s. Do that. It will also ask if you want to make it your default browser. Do that too.
You will be given the option to create an account, but it’s not mandatory. It’s just a convenience service if you want to access your bookmarks and saved passwords on different devices.
Firefox has a load of built-in privacy protections but we’re going to install some addons to make it EVEN BETTER. Don’t worry they’re all free and once you’ve installed them you don’t have to think about them again.
First, Duck Duck Go Privacy Essentials. Firefox does still set your default search engine to Google, we don’t want that. You could manually change it but the Duck Duck Go addon gives you some tracker blocking, encryption, private searching, all set up and ready to go
Do you use farcebook or any related product like instagram? Facebook Container automatically puts those in a little quarantine pen so they can’t follow you around and spy on what else you’re doing
If you have multiple accounts (eg. work/school, family, public, personal, private) you can use Firefox Multi-Account Containers to manage them and keep their footprints separate
Privacy Badger and HTTPS Everywhere are published by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and those people are serious as a heart attack when it comes to online privacy.
Privacy Badger sends a do not track signal, and also breaks link tracking by sites like facebook, twitter, etc.
HTTPS Everywhere is… ok there’s a lot to explain here, and we’re already longposting so just, every time you connect to any page it makes it more secure.
You could stop here, that’s pretty good. But you can do more.
You could install NoScript. A big warning with this one, it can break half the internet. It’s a LOT more user friendly than it used to be but if you can’t figure shit out by fucking around you should probably skip it. It blocks scripts from running without permission, protecting you from drive-by scripts that give your computer herpes, but also sometimes protecting you from script-heavy sites working at all.
Lastly an honourable mention for Ghostery. Ghostery has been a solid privacy addon for years, and now has adblocking powers. Honestly I haven’t used it in ages, a long
time ago it conflicted with something else I deemed more important so I
removed it and I never got around to picking it back up, but it has a great reputation and is trusted by a lot of people who I trust.
Now, this all only covers your browser activity, which is a lot but you will still need to manually adjust privacy settings on your google/gmail/youtube account/s if you have any, your facebook/instagram account/s if you have any, and your actual gotdamn operating system if you use windows. I know it seems like a lot of effort, I’m a lazy bitch too, but it’s very set-and-forget, you only need to do it once, and then just review it a couple of times a year.
Here’s some stuff about Windows 10 privacy settings
And here’s an honest explanation of what a VPN really does and does not do, why you don’t actually need one, and the few real reasons you might ever want one
This is by no means the limit of the steps you can take to secure your
online privacy, if you want to go deeper you definitely can. But if you
don’t want to or don’t have the time or aren’t very technically minded,
this will still put you way ahead of the pack. It won’t make you The
Most Private but it will make you Much More Private Than Most, and it should take you less than an hour or two, depending on how many accounts you have on predatory datenkraken sites.
Now go hide your panties from the evil empire.
You can also use Invidious to use youtube privately, and there are extensions like Privacy Redirect that’ll send youtube links directly to it. The subscription page can be a little unreliable, so I just send my youtube notifications to my email with RSS instead
ProtonMail is a free email service that’s not google (already a good start), but also encrypts all your mail so no one but you and the person you’re emailing can read it
From experience, Tor is a lot more user-friendly than you might think. It does take a little bit of fiddling and getting used to, but the payoff is that all of your traffic becomes extremely hard to track. They have a desktop browser that’s built on Firefox and comes pre-installed with many of the extensions listed above. I recommend trying it on without uninstalling your current browser, just to see how you like it
switching.software and privacytools.io have tons of recommendations for privacy-friendly alternatives to google software and tools that can be used to avoid surveillance. But remember that this isn’t yours or any other user’s fault - we shouldn’t be expecting every single person to load their computer up with encryption to avoid surveillance that private companies shouldn’t be doing in the first place. Lay the blame where it belongs, on google and facebook, and hold them responsible
