I'm not sure when it'll collapse, but it's definitely a giant bubble. Between the LLMs, the massive enshitification the last couple years with almost every company trying to squeeze their users and business partners at the same time, and now most of their leaders openly aligning with fascists, it's gotten really bad really fast. The fact that OpenAI said they were loosing money on their $200/month plan shows they have no clue what they're doing, and are probably just hoping it improves into AGI so they can have automated slavery.

l'ésprit de la douche

I addressed some of these points in my reply to twovests, but I wanted to address mutual aid here. I don't know what kind of mutual aid work you're doing, so if it's not what I'm about to describe, feel free to ignore this comment. But a lot of "mutual aid" that I've seen is usually something like giving out free groceries/supplies to hungry people, along with zines. And while it's a good thing to give hungry people food, ultimately it's just charity work, not a genuinely revolutionary activity. There's a really good video that talks about the difference between "red charity" work and organizing. My organization was stuck in the red charity trap for a while, and I tried talking to them about how we weren't actually building towards anything (including showing them the above video), but it took them a while to understand. Once they pivoted to tenant organizing, then they saw the difference between treating the symptoms of capitalism and attacking the disease itself, and they wrote a self criticism of their previous "mutual aid" work.

Not at all, I understood your intent, and I always appreciate principled criticism!

I appreciate your response; it seems like there were a couple of misunderstandings here that I want to clear up. I wasn't trying to say people should throw away their hobbies, far from it! Having a way to unwind and relax is healthy and needed. What I meant to say was organizing is more important than doing hobbies; so if a progressive person is spending 100% of their free time doing hobbies and 0% of it organizing, that is what I am saying is a problem. Because nothing will change if they keep hoping someone else will do the work. This post is aimed at those types.

The thing is, we can't be in every fight. You have to be in some fight, but you can't do anything if you try to be in every fight.

I agree with this, too; you can't solve all the world's problems at once. Since the post was aimed at people who aren't doing any organizing, I simply chose one example from the many problems we are facing right now, to illustrate that their "thoughts and prayers" are not materially helping. It was meant to spur them to action. I think it's very good that you are already helping out with several struggles, so don't push yourself too hard and burn out. Since you are doing what you're supposed to, the message wasn't directed at you.

If you said, "Look up your local tenants union" or "Get a pistol permit" or "Take a first aid class" or "Put money toward mutual aid rather than toward video games", then that might be something.

I mean I did say to join their local communist party (and if they're worth their salt, they will probably be doing something like tenant organizing), but I get what you're saying. Talking about what kind of organizing is the right thing to do is a whole other essay though, and I wanted to keep the message of this one simple. I guess I could've linked to this at the end, which does give some actionable first steps.

I also want to say, as far as peaceful protests go, I don't think they accomplish the goal most people think they do (i.e. persuading the government to change its mind on a certain issue). Because as long as it is peaceful, the government can simply ignore your demands. That's not to say they are completely useless, though, as they do bring together like-minded people. So they can be useful as a recruiting tool for an organization.

i did that a few times, it was great. i keep thinking "i'm gonna do that again" but then not.

It’s 9pm somewhere

but i did not ...'perhaps tomorrow'

I've always thought puerto rico was a bad game so I feel validated

board games are wild!!!

like catan changing its name doesn't make it less about being a settler

I shoveled my elderly neighbor's driveway and she was very thankful, love her

I appreciate the thoughtful response, thank you! I've definitely seen that kind of response before, and I get your need to vent about it, like holy shit.

I can relate to not being cut out for organizing, but I don't think giving up is the right answer either. It takes practice to get good at it. To quote Pearl, "Deep down, you know you weren't built for fighting, but that doesn't mean you're not prepared to try." I was awkward when I first started out, and made plenty of mistakes, but I had to keep trying to get decent at it.

As for what exactly to do, I can't give you a clear-cut answer, because it all depends on what it going on in your location. I think the first step is to figure out what issues the people are facing, and see which of them are suitable for a campaign. Maoists call this "social investigation and class analysis." Here are a couple good articles written about how to get started from scratch:

https://jiminykrix.wordpress.com/2016/09/14/some-suggestions-on-how-to-help-others-become-marxist-leninist-maoist-organizers/

https://libcom.org/article/building-solidarity-network-guide

Hi, apologies for the late response, I wanted to wait until my emotions were in check so that I could give a proper response. You're right that this post wasn't aimed at anyone in particular on jstpst, as I posted this on several different platforms. It's aimed at everyone in the US who could be doing something, but isn't. If you are doing something to fight back, that's good, and that's why I put the "this post isn't for you" bit in there. flabberghaster is right that this is sort of a vent post; I've been trying, more politely, to convince people to stand up and do something for years, and the response is usually lip service agreement, followed by no action. Which is a problem, when the situation requires mass action, hence my frustration and tone in this post. When I was a kid, if I refused to get out of bed, my mother would try politely coaxing me out first. But if that failed, she'd eventually have to resort to wringing out a wet washcloth over my head.

Regardless, I accept the warning, and won't post anything this aggressive again.

Being nice to random strangers is very fun to me.

One of my favorite parts of day to day life after transition is the exchange of compliments. Being nice to people feels good, and it feels good to have that reciprocated.

My partner and their family got nearly their whole neighborhood in on a mutual aid thing which is so nice

This is what I want to do next. Not sure how to get there but we will figure it out.

Being nice to random strangers is very fun to me. The drivers on my bus route always seem really happy to see me since I am always saying good day and thank you and suchlike. Some have checked in on me after I was gone for a long while.

I should talk more to my neighbors, we've never done proper introductions or anything. I've only seen a few of them since moving in.

My partner and their family got nearly their whole neighborhood in on a mutual aid thing which is so nice. Been doing it for decades now.

No more citizenship

No more gender

No more pie

Because of Woke..........

Trump unintentionally ends the concept of citizenship, becoming the hero of anarcho-marxists worldwide

It's a Sugondese expression

My neighbours are all old ladies who are gossiping behind my back :(

thanks for this <3

This was a candy in Wonka's factory! What da hell

I really hate that this exists