Microblog Memes

No one, none of my friends, none of my family, nobody seemed to understand why I believed that ones actions should align with ones beliefs.

When I was in high school, I wanted pursue college to do clean energy or agricultural research. Nobody who was in a position to help me fix my education track wanted to talk about anything but careers and income. I've just been watching everything get worse and they've just been enjoying their popcorn and circuses since then.

Here's the thing: resistance movements don't happen overnight except in the most extreme of circumstances, and since our transfer of power was (technically) peaceful, people aren't feeling the kind of hurt that would drive them to protest just yet.

So, people who are wise enough to see what's coming have to start small. Start with a small protest, then work your way up. Boycotts like this one are good for getting people to do something to start off. It might not do a whole lot at first, but they'll start to add up as more and more people become aware of the movement.

Eventually, more drastic action can be taken, but getting people together and proving that they have the numbers to make a difference is vital, and unless a catastrophe happens, that process takes time.

People march in the street, they get ignored, they protest and get ignored. Nobody in power even cares about protests.

Literally nothing will happen until a mob starts "unelecting" this administration. So who is it going to be? Who is going to throw their life away for a bunch of strangers who don't give a fuck about them? Who will throw their life away for a country or society that doesn't give a fuck about them?

You realize you're asking for Jesus Christ here

Can't let people know where their power lies. If enough people believe in the ritual magic of peaceful, ignorable protests, then they will justify violence against protestors who actually put real pressure for change and the system can just overlook acts of violence against protestors rather than having to actually commit them itself.

Fight the power. ✊🏿

Mad props

It's easy to imagine yourself as a hero with a molotov cocktail. Not as much fun walking door to door with a petition.

Man this is something I struggle with outside of politics too

If you completely trust everyone in your coalition it is not a coalition.

I keep saying exactly this. It needs to be longer than a week and it can't be things like groceries or you're basically asking people to starve. And so many people who are supposedly fighting for the less well off don't seem to get "living paycheck to paycheck" and the idea that working 5 days a week and taking care of yourself/kids means that when you shop is largely dictated by factors out of your control. Its got "oh, just make your coffee at home to save up for a new house" or "blame the average person for climate change and not the massively polluting corporations" vibes.

I don't think that's fair, the fact that enough people care enough to show up and protest can have an effect by itself.

The key to non-violent protest is that you don't plan on going home afterward. You go, you stay, and you don't leave -- until somebody drags you to the jail, the hospital, or the morgue.

Most likely they are buying most of their products from Sysco Corporation. Small businesses are still not immune to large corporations. The could of course also be simply buying from a local Costco Business Center. The issue is that large corp owns and controls everything. It's already too late but do what you can. Doing something is better than nothing.

Ground level infrastructure meaning the ability to get people out to do anything from marching to rioting to picketing to canvassing to voting. The Civil Rights movement wouldn't have gotten anywhere if it hadn't actually mobilized people and thus made people aware of / afraid of organized resistance. The Black Panthers deserve a lot of credit as well for being the armed hard core of the movement.

We'd get a lot more of what we want peacefully if oligarchs were afraid we'd rally and fuck up their businesses bottom lines AND that they might get assassinated by radicals.

From the description

First published in 1971, Rules for Radicals is Saul Alinsky's impassioned counsel to young radicals on how to effect constructive social change and know the difference between being a realistic radical and being a rhetorical one. […] Alinsky was able to combine, both in his person and his writing, the intensity of political engagement with an absolute insistence on rational political discourse and adherence to the American democratic tradition.

In today's social climate with today's regard for rational discourse & democratic tradition? Are we doomed?

Not almost. It is. Cargo cult activism.

But people think it's activism to not shop when it should literally just be the default. Get out of the consumerism mindset.