#let this radicalize you

[nando161mando]

[pasteldenatas]

Let This Radicalize You by Kelly Hayes & Mariam Kaba (2023)

[kitaylo]

Funny how history repeats itself, and we, as humans, make the same old mistakes. When I first learned about the holocaust, i was disgusted by people's indifference. How could the world let such thing happen? In 50 years, students will also look at their textbooks baffled by humanity's silence. And, the loop will continue. Every 50 years or so, there'll be another genocide which we will discuss from time to time and say, " Oh, that's awful!". Maybe in the future, the 50 years gap will turn to 10 then 5, and by then, we will be desensitized to the sight of such acts, even a sigh will not be spared because the corners of our lips would be glued together from disuse. Now, your silence doesn't guarantee you neutrality, for in such matters, neutrality is just a reflection of your rotten cruelty.

[pandemic-info]

https://twitter.com/JenniferLerner1/status/1698400322258104492

Just got to the part of Let This Radicalize You where they detail different responses to "major health threats" as outlined in The Psychology of Pandemics by Steven Taylor. Some ppl are "monitors", who seek out info "to cope with uncertainty."

"Meanwhile, others are prone to what's known as "blunting" behavior, which involves 'the distraction from, and minimizing of threatening information.'"

"Still others exhibit what's known as "unrealistic optimism bias," characterized by the belief that they are more likely than others to evade harm and experience positive outcomes."

[more on optimism bias]

"Research has shown that monitors are responsive to emotional appeals as well as detailed info abt risk factors & harm reduction strategies, whereas blunters are likely to avoid such messaging; for them, simple, logical messaging is likely most effective."

"Understanding these different reactions is essential to effective messaging and highlights the importance of taking multiple approaches in our organizing."

This thread is really putting into words that I think a major problem with communicating w/ loved ones who are "back to normal" wrt COVID is that many of us are using monitor messaging for folks who are more likely than not blunters.

[athena-willowthorne]

sometimes when I'm sitting on my 15 at the grocery chain I work for I can feel myself getting further radicalized. sometimes when I'm asked to pull only certain brands forward to make them look full I can feel myself getting further radicalized. sometimes when I see people resignedly at the total of their shopping I can feel myself getting further radicalized. sometimes when I feel nothing but exhaustion from the moment I walk into work until the day ends I can feel myself getting further radicalized. these conditions are not sustainable, and I've known that for a while. but it took getting a job and seeing the things I talked about show themselves to really feel it. I work in a unionized workplace, and I'm going to get involved as much as I can. if anyone else relates to this, I highly recommend you to also get involved or organized if you aren't already. we don't have to keep living like this. also if anyone's looking for a first job please don't work at a grocery store please.

[alarmist-nonsense]

While it feels bad on the days that the USA lurches noticeably closer to collapsing into a nakedly theocratic ethnostate, it’s reassuring to have an organization of likeminded folks mutually supporting one another. If you’re not already a member of the SRA, the IWW, a JBGC, or something similar, this is a great time to sign up.

[gloamists]

Humanity Craves Creativity

“Life beats us down and crushes the soul, and art reminds you that you have one.” - Stella Adler

I believe humanity has an innate craving for creativity. Creating things is humanities true nature. You can see this everywhere. There is a reason the children of rich people often become artists of some sort, whether it be musicians, painters, actors etc etc. When unbound by capitalism and not having to worry about money or resources, the human mind gravitates naturally toward art, towards creation.

When you are bored what do you do? Watch TV? Read a book? Draw? Write? Cook? Make music? All of these are forms of art. When you have nothing to do that involves monetary gain to help you survive, you naturally start consuming/creating art.

It seems to me like each and every part of our current system was created to stifle that inherent desire to create that is within all of us. Instead we spend the vast majority of our time working for a corporation of some sort. Using our time to help the ultra-rich stay rich while we get relative scraps in return. Hell, they’ve even made it hard to make a living through most creative avenues. Since of course we rely on small green paper to live. So with no other choice we are forced to stifle our creative will to instead do things we would rather not be doing. This has become so normalized that now people will ridicule you for pursuing a creative path.

So the next time you are doing/consuming something creative and feeling content, I ask that you remember this. This is how you SHOULD be feeling. This contentness is what they took from us. What we have to take back.

If that doesn’t radicalize you, idk what will.

thanks 4 reading ily guys ❤️

[sathonasthoughts]

Let This World Radicalize You

Dear XYZ, I hope this letter finds you well considering the times we lives in. I myself have been feeling a bit overwhelmed with everything going on with the senseless killing in the world and watching our governments render the occupied land I resided upon in Canada inhabitable to nature and all individuals who do not conform to colonial systems. However, it is times like these that I believe (and well many of the authors I have recently been reading believe) that we need to let the acts of injustice radicalize us. We need to pay attention to the violence, to the suffering, to the pain we (as humans) cause each other.

But also see the joy that community and comradery give us. I ask (and I understand how taxing this can be, so don't feel bad if you do not currently have the energy for it) you to imagine a world with me. Find whatever it is that you catch yourself dreaming about while you are surrounded by the architecture of human design. The "what ifs" and the "maybe one days," and write to me about them. Let what you see and experience in this world radicalize you and guide you into imagining a better world, and tell me about it all so we can make it happen together. In coalition and solidarity, Sath

[fwdmuseums]

I am so excited to share that we have two book available for review! As an academic journal that looks at not just museums but cultural institutions as a whole we're always on the look out for new books that aim to grow ones understanding of the injustices around us and how to change museum and archival practices for the better. That's where you, as a potential reviewer, come in! Reviews provide a critical analysis to new books coming out to help solidify their place in certain areas of study, connect them to other relevant literature, and help folks understand methodolgy used. If you're interested in reviewing the two books I have listed below please shoot us an email (fwd.museums@gmail.com) with some info about yourself and why you think you'd be good for this review!

What fuels and sustains activism and organizing when it feels like our worlds are collapsing? Let This Radicalize You is a practical and imaginative resource for activists and organizers building power in an era of destabilization and catastrophe. Longtime organizers and movement educators Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes examine some of the political lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the convergence of mass protest and mass formations of mutual aid, and consider what this confluence of power can teach us about a future that will require mass acts of care, rescue and defense, in the face of both state violence and environmental disaster. The book is intended to aid and empower activists and organizers as they attempt to map their own journeys through the work of justice-making. It includes insights from a spectrum of experienced organizers, including Sharon Lungo, Carlos Saavedra, Ejeris Dixon, Barbara Ransby, and Ruth Wilson Gilmore about some of the difficult and joyous lessons they have learned in their work.

The past several decades have seen a massive shift in debates over who owns and has the right to tell Native American history and stories. For centuries, non-Native actors have collected, stolen, sequestered, and gained value from Native stories and documents, human remains, and sacred objects. However, thanks to the work of Native activists, Native history is now increasingly repatriated back to the control of tribes and communities. Indigenous Archival Activism takes readers into the heart of these debates by tracing one tribe’s fifty-year fight to recover and rewrite its history. Rose Miron tells the story of the Stockbridge–Munsee Mohican Nation and its Historical Committee, a group composed mostly of Mohican women who have been collecting and reorganizing historical materials since 1968. She shows how their work is exemplary of how tribal archives can strategically shift how Native history is accessed, represented, written, and, most important, controlled. Based on a more than decade-long reciprocal relationship with the Stockbridge–Munsee Mohican Nation, Miron’s research and writing are shaped primarily by materials found in the tribal archive and ongoing conversations and input from the Stockbridge–Munsee Historical Committee. Miron is not Mohican and is careful to consider her own positionality and reflects on what it means for non-Native researchers and institutions to build reciprocal relationships with Indigenous nations in the context of academia and public history, offering a model both for tribes undertaking their own reclamation projects and for scholars looking to work with tribes in ethical ways.

[smudgekip]

What i make in a month and where it all goes. United States.

Working an honest job will never make you rich, will never even make you a yearly vacation.

Fight this system into the ground. If you don't, it will kill you.

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

want some positive world news? yesterday, in a truly historic moment, Colombia elected its first left-wing president. after 20 years of far-right rule, the traditionally conservative country has elected the remarkably progressive candidate Gustavo Petro (and his running mate Francia Márquez, who will be the first black woman to serve as the country's Vice President!)

for context, imagine if the U.S. had successfully elected Bernie Sanders (after 20 years of republican presidents). that's how big a deal this is. amidst a dangerous global rise in conservatism, this is an enormous win and a cause for hope.

[marcos--budt]

Have fun being "feminist but not like THOSE feminists" while your rights are being taken away :))))))

[vitagraphia]

Let this radicalize you rather than lead you to despair.

Mariame Kaba

[dizzydeadeye]

animals (affectionate)

[ricky-mortis]

Howdy hello- guess who made a wings au :)

More to come with this eventually- I’m working on my designs for other characters at the moment, but for now we’ve got Red-Tailed Hawk for Curt and Eagle Owl for Owen.

For DMA I had Barn Owl wings because a) Barn Owls are beautiful and I wanted to draw the wings for them, and more importantly, b) Owen would probably want to disguise his wings, and it would make sense if it was as a different type of owl. I just assume he’d dye his feathers in some way or another. Look- just don’t think about it too much.

[hella1975]

it's been pointed out on here before that a lot of terf arguments are actually rooted in sexist idealology that feminists fought and died to unnormalise decades ago and that's its own kettle of fish but one thing i also find very frustrating about this so called 'radical' feminism is that it's so... defeatist? like the moment you categorically label an entire section of society as Bad and Inherently Evil then there's also the implication that nothing can be done about it, and it completely takes all accountability away. saying all men are evil is just another way of saying boys will be boys. he raped her because he's a man. he hit her because he's a man. he didn't listen because he's a man - it's almost offensively oversimplified. there's no point trying to fix this issue in society because men are just Like That, okay! so now what? it's not like they're going anywhere, so you just accept that 50% of the population are evil and will forever treat you terribly and there's nothing to be done about it bc they're biologically predisposed to it? like is that fr the argument here? you're soooo radical for that