#building coalitions

[angermgnt]

No, the best answer to anger is understanding!

The problem w anger, is that instinctively your 20,000 node decision tree has realized there is an inequality happening and you cant do anything about it.

In order to over come the upset feeling, you have to sit w the anger until the tree reveals what made you upset, and document it.

Once you understand why you became angry, you have defused the anger, and can then start the process of addressing the various points that caused the anger.

The more you understand the points in the 20,000 node decision tree, the more that will slowly be exposed. So, prepare to have a conversation w people about the points you have uncovered, and see what additional points are uncovered.

So, while people see that you,re being silent, they are mis understanding how the process of resolving anger works.

You arent being silent, you just arent showing them what you are building ..

Because, what you are most likely getting angry at is .. bad behavior from someone in a position of power .. and wo allies, documentation, witnesses, support, and ways to confront the inequality .. you are just a single person saying ..

Wo ways to confront the inequality .. you are just a single person saying .. What can I do?!?! ...

What can i do? .. You can do a lot when you raise awareness.

[leonardcohenofficial]

this open letter written by the panther 21 to the weathermen (later the weather underground) is one of the best-written pieces of political critique from this era of revolutionary organizing; regardless of how much you agree/disagree with their politics, it is a remarkable document for how specifically and clearly the 21 call out weather's issues and do so in the name of building a more effective revolutionary movement

[dreadfutures]

Comrades in Arms, Brothers in Broken Chains Rated: T | Length: 2k, oneshot | Felassan & Agent(s) of Fen'Harel

At a secret refuge, Fen'Harel's Slow Arrow awaits the return of their agents from a vital mission. When things go awry, a furious ally points fingers at those in their ranks who still choose to wear their vallaslin. Felassan speaks on their behalf.

"Faith is what leads the weak to follow false gods," Geldauran snapped. "Faith is for those who have no trust in their own nobility, and strength. We would do well to cast it off, as we all should cast off our chains!" "Ah, but it is faith that led us here." Felassan smiled. "What can compel a slave to stand against a god, if not faith in oneself, and in each other, above all?"

by youworeblue (me) | narrated here by @rosella-writes partially based on codex entry Geldauran's Claim, and also inspired by @queenaeducan-writes for the Arlathan eXchange 2022: "In Masked Empire Felassan still possesses vallaslin, which may give us indication that the choice to get the markings removed was just that—a choice."

[loki-zen]

another Type of Post that annoys me:

"remember that what's happening to [multiply marginalised person] isn't just about [anti-Identity 1 sentiment]!" and then like. an actually not terrible explanation of how anti-Identity 2 sentiment plays into what's happening as well. and then, "This thing that is characteristic of anti-Identity 1 sentiment would never happen to an Identity 1 person who was not also Identity 2!"

[elalmadelmar]

I hate it so much that extremist views (in any direction) get privileged and amplified over nuanced views. There's a ton of reasons for this, some of which are socially structural, some of which are technologically structural, and some of which just boil down to how group dynamics in humans tend to operate.

"I'm supporting a good cause but I'm making deeply exaggerated and misleading statements in order to do so! Here's some stuff that sounds good but is actually false! And have something that was true when I learned it but is now out of date!"

"Hey, I agree that this thing is important, but the stuff you're saying is misleading at best and some of it is outright disproven. Here is some more detailed and correct info showing that your details are mostly off-base. Still, I support the same cause you do and I just want to make sure that we're not spreading misinfo."

"Why are you opposed to the good cause I'm supporting? You're just a plant by the bad guys!"

It's so frustrating to see this pattern play out, because in the moment, what can an individual do? If you speak up to correct misinfo, you're opening yourself up to the risk of getting dogpiled; if you say nothing, the problem goes unaddressed and gets worse.

This kind of thing also contributes heavily to political polarization; as nuance disappears and people compete to be the loudest, most extreme voices, the edges of what is considered to be "extreme" push ever outward. In addition, a mentality of "you're either with us or against us" is strengthened and reinforced, which prevents solidarity blocs from forming and which imperils minority groups in particular. If a group that represents 0.5% of the population becomes convinced that the other 99.5% are their implacable foes with whom no productive dialogue is possible, how can they productively advocate for their needs and rights?

Unfortunately, I don't know of any real structural way to put the brakes on this process and encourage people to slow down, search for common ground instead of for differences, and make genuine attempts to both listen to each other and speak so that other people will listen.

[theartthatleavesthemark]

every time i go into the black sails tag or look at notes on my posts i very unsurprisingly come across many people whose opinions diverge from mine. now everyone is entitled to their own opinion but when i feel the urge to get on my high horse about these Wrong individuals really i have to remind myself that this is the 'every character is so convinced that they exclusively are right and everyone else is wrong that they cause untold tragedy because of it' show

[setnet]

thinking about... walking back from mordor. this is a personal shorthand for a lot of things, but it mainly relates to the question of what comes after. so the dark lord is defeated, so the war is won, what now?

In a literal sense, sam and frodo don't walk back from mordor. They're rescued and airlifted to safety and healing. they don't have to do the whole ugly slog across the polluted lands in reverse. the eagles are deux ex machina in that sense, but it doesn't feel unearned after frodo and sam have gone to the brink of their own destruction in destroying the ring.

but in a more psychological sense, frodo and sam spend the rest of their lives walking back from mordor, where mordor is the shadow of the ring and the wounds they experienced from their journey and from carrying it.

the scouring of the shire is about walking back from mordor, when the shadow of mordor comes to your door. it's about undoing the pointless and cruel rules imposed by sharkey-saruman and frodo keeping the hobbits from killing surrendered enemies.

I'm fascinated by the after. maybe it comes of reading history, I don't know. few of the sff books I read seem to be similarly fascinated. authors don't seem to be so keen on the hard slog of rebuilding as they are on the revolution.

[needlesandnilbogs]

Every time I see people responding to less than perfect institutional responses to their demands by scrawling “I’M NOT READING THAT” over them (either on the paper or in photo edits) I want to shake them

[cushfuddled]

I finished Hazbin a bit ago and call me crazy but I honestly hope Sir Pentious' ascension had nothing to do with redemption as a concept.

I hope it was just a glitch in the matrix from like, the raw, holy power of Adam's laser blast + whatever magical artillery Pentious had revved up at the helm of his ship. I just think it would be VERY funny if Adam accidentally baptized some guy so hard he rebooted him to Heaven.

[leonardcohenofficial]

huey newton really nailed it when he said (in regard to marx) "in every discipline you find people who have distorted visions and are at a low state of consciousness who nonetheless have flashes of insight and produce ideas worth considering"; it's such an obvious and basic tenet when it comes to ways of approaching critical thought but it's a good reminder when it comes to considering the impact(s) of both theory and praxis and the ways we can critically discuss orgs and individuals without either offering uncritical total praise or flattening accomplishments for the sake of over the top criticism

[audible-smiles]

I can't responsibly let my main reference point for Nazi-era German history be some guy's podcast, so I'm listening to an audiobook of one of the better known Hitler biographies. In the early 20s there were about a million little German ethnonationalist political groups that all went by acronyms, and it feels exactly like this:

Dipshit #1: Are you the Anti-Judean People's Front?

Dipshit #2 Fuck off!

Dipshit #1: What??

Dipshit #2: Anti-Judean People's Front...we're the People's Front of Anti-Judea! Anti-Judean People's Front...*scoffs*...wankers.

[twochildreninamoteldemo]

Every time I go look at anti/anti adjacent Samgirl blogs I regret it why do they always talk shit about us and when will they realize that the ppl they hate so much built this fandom :/

[hussyknee]

re conditional privilege:

whether it comes to race, ability, gender, sexuality or class, people are really hung up on this idea that ambiguity affords protection, which is the same as privilege. as though having camouflage means you aren't hunted.

only the oppressed are concerned with our own variation and degree of difference. there is no ambiguity in the eyes of the oppressor. the reality is that the oppressors don't care how like them you are. in fact, being like them is all the more reason to punish you and keep you in your place. the project of exclusion is not to force conformity, it's to find people to make an example of so that others try to buy safety by trying to obey the most cruel and arbitrary rules. the more people try to conform, the narrower the criteria becomes, the more they fail, the more can be punished. that is how systems of power propagate themselves, because power can only be retained by exercising it, by whichever rationales necessary.

i understand that "identity politics" is a word that's been weaponized by the right wing, but it's a legitimate criteria of criticism for the left. when something moves from self-definition and community to tribalism, policing and self-branding, it has become a project of neoliberal hyperindividualism. identity politics focuses on defining ourselves by the extent to which we are punished as individual groups and under what criteria, imagining a rational and restrained power matrix that metes out punishment according to the degree of difference and perceived threat. it imagines an oppressive power structure as a methodical, conscientious gardener pruning a rose bush, rather than a brutal machinery that has invented arbitrary rules to violently subjugate and systemically mass murder the lives it needs to sustain itself. instead of building a community around the fact that we're all being hunted by the same beasts, idpol would rather build a hierarchy of prey animals according to the ways we'll be skinned and cooked, stopping only short of putting us on a menu with accompanying prices.

i suppose when you define yourself according to the appetite of the thing that wants to eat you, you end up weirdly attached to the romance of being eaten, and hate to give it up.

[racefortheironthrone]

Just read your comment regarding the german FDP party (and its non-support for low-cost public transit). Ideologically, they are in the culturally progressive / economically right-wing quadrant, for which the support is notoriously small. Still, the 5-10 % of votes they get is often enough to be part of coalition governments in Germany. I wondered if your expertise could help with the following question: How could these people be rendered less awful as part of coalition building?

My first instinct is to say, "just give them ministries that focus on the culturally progressive side" so they can do some good and the least amount of damage, but the problem is that IIRC the FDP tends to be very insistent on getting economic portfolios in coalition governments.

So I don't know.

[sexchangedotcom]

swedish politicians should probably kill themselves for real

[briony-tallis]

currently working on some intensive research on the midcentury civil rights movement and it's becoming clear that one of the defining characteristics of leftist activism in the digital age (and why that activism never seems to do anything useful for the cause despite occupying the largest communication network in history) is that the majority of participants are acting with the intent of signaling virtue to the in-group and have no interest in doing the necessary outreach to bring about material change.