twovests

twovests wrote (edited )

Reply to If you STILL aren't organizing, then you're part of the problem. by cowloom

I upvoted this post, and I appreciate the sentiment, but I think this post suffers from some Leftist Mistakes. Painting organizing as "throw away your entire way of life and do something" both (1) paints organizing as something destructive and undesirable, but also (2) is vague and not something anyone can do.

(Further, throwing away hobbies is not option. Culture and knowledge is carried through art. This isn't some distanced moral principal-- continuing to make art is an essential part of this. The Republicans know that, that's why they have "God King Trump" childrens books.)

An eight year old migrant girl was put in a cage today. What are you doing to free her?

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've not done anything to free her. Do you have any advice? What can I do?

Put your phone down, get off your ass, and start getting involved. This is not a request.

Sure, this is not a request. But it's not actionable, either. "Getting involved" is so vague you might as well not say it.

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.

For me, I'm doing peaceful disruptive protests. I'm also doing data work for my local tenant union specifically in support of homeless people in a nearby city. I'm sysadmining a few places (sry jstpst i'm cheating on you) which enables discussions like these. I'm also doing some things which aren't exactly illegal but I sure won't be talking about here.

This is on top of my day job, which I need to do to get money so I can eat and continue to exist. It's a lot of work. I don't know what I can do for the eight year old girl.

So, if the kids gloves are off, then I'm going to challenge you to be more specific.

An eight year old migrant girl was put in a cage today. What can I do to free her?

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twovests wrote

Reply to An admirable thing about the US... by nomorepie

It is one of the things I like and use a lot. I'm sorry you don't have accessible museums or libraryes :(

We have an app called Libby which is not sustainable for several reasons, but for now, lets you access ebooks and audibooks in your local library's catalogue.

It's also one of the things I'm afraid of losing. The fourth reich is here, we have book burnings, we have libraries under immense fascist pressure, and I am worried that libraries could even stop existing entirely.

Most museums here are not free, but most of them are not prohibitively expensive. (Usually, only popular museums in dense cities are expensive, and even then, those usually start at around $30, with discounts available. They make most of their money in the gift shop.)

There's a lot to be grateful for-- I could list a thousand things right now. I think capitalists defend capitalism by looking at how much worse things can be, while leftists are unified by looking at how much better things can be. We have so much wealth that we want to hold on just to ourselves and even then it's utterly wasted.

Which leaves us taking a lot for granted. Plumbing is a modern miracle. Your post resonated with me a lot and I appreciate it, and I'm sorry again you don't have access to these things.

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