#solarpunk rant

[itsbansheebitch]

Rants at the Hairdresser

her, behind me trimming my hair: "it's so wild how big cars are. Seems a bit dangerous, ya know?"

me, enjoying the smell of the stuff she sprayed in my hair: "Yeah, apparently that's because it's cheaper to have a car classified as a 'light truck' since you can get past safety regulations and they have different frames."

her, who has paused working on my hair: "Wait, are you serious?"

me: "Yeah, apparently it's a lot cheaper for companies to do that. And it really sucks since driving one of those cars is super dangerous, but it's even more dangerous for other people, especially if they're in a smaller car. Since it would be more safe to be another driver if they ALSO have a 'light truck,' everyone is caught in a cycle of getting bigger and bigger cars. All of which are extremely dangerous and have made being a pedestrian even more dangerous."

her: deep in thought, silent.

me, happy that someone is letting me rant about this: "Oh, the new Cadillacs are the size of tanks. That's not an exaggeration, by the way."

her, stunned: ???? "what the actual hell???"

we're silent for a bit

her, hesitantly, since I look like white trash and she has at least 10 piercings and pink hair: "I feel like America has been that way for a while... ya know?"

me: "Oh yeah, I totally get what you're saying, like, putting profit over people's safety?"

her, assured now that she knows we're both too commie pilled for this kind of conversation with someone else: "Yes! Exactly! It really sucks, right?"

me: "God, tell me about it"

I was very happy with my haircut, btw. She's so good at her job. :D

[solar-sunnyside-up]

So I've talked about little libraries and pantries to death but this Lil guy popped up in my area recently and it's blown my mind

So I went to the website on the door and it's basically the same thing as free little library where you can pay for a box from them to get it installed OR Build one yourself

[neosartorya]

So i was thinking about the whole solarpunk chobani oatmilk ad (as depicted here) and a comment someone made in a different post (that I now can't find) where they said something along the lines of (paraphrasing) 'the marketing people at chobani being unable to imagine a future where their brand had ditched single-use containers in favor of a sustainable alternative'. And I started thinking how will food packaging look like in the solarpunk utopia?

Modern food packaging responds (mostly) to the needs of the globalized supply chain, where food products need to be moved great distances without being damaged and while taking up as little space and energy as possible. Packaging also needs to be made of the cheapest materials available, hence the preference for disposable containers made of light materials (cardboard, plastic, aluminium, paper, etc.). You don't want your package to be worth more than what it contains (although with some food products, that is close to being the case).

The comment I referenced earlier suggested using reusable glass containers as an example of a sustainable alternative to single-use containers. That makes sense, and there is historical (and current) precedent for such kinds of food containers. Just ask your parents (or grandparents, I guess) how milk used to be delivered to homes in the good ol' days.

In a more recent example, some places still use reusable (returnable) containers for products such as beer and (even!) Coca-cola, where you pay an initial fee for the container and get reimbursed once you return it, or you can exchange the empty container for a full one by paying the price of the product minus the container fee.

This solution, however, is still within the framework of the global supply chain of modern capitalism. In the solarpunk utopia, the goal would be to reduce (reuse, repair, recycle) the breadth of our current supply chain by prioritizing local consumption and disinsentivizing long-distance trade.

This train of thought led me to the question of wether processed, pre-packaged food would even be a thing in the solarpunk utopia. After all, if we are trying to consume only what is locally sourced, one of the main purposes of preserved (and thus packaged) food goes away. No need for bottled orange juice when you can just go to the commons bin and grab a kilo of fresh oranges to make your own.

Further, once there is no capitalism, the "convenience" angle of processed, packaged food also appears to go away. You don't have to work 9 hours a day, 6 days a week anymore. You have the time and resources necessary to make your own damn fresh orange juice, so why bother with the bottled stuff?

Well for one, not everything is as easy and convenient to do by yourself as orange juice. Fermented foods (cheese, wine, beer, soy sauce, even pickles and yogurt), bread and pastries and cakes, carbonated drinks, jams and marmalade, butter, mayonnaise, cured meats and fish, and (yes) almond milk are all tricky to make properly, take a long time to be made and/or are energy and resource intensive. The need for these kinds of foods will remain as long as we are human and find pleasure in eating and trying new things. Also, the need for mass-produced food does not go away with capitalism, after all we have a population of 10 billion humans with different dietary needs that need to be fed. Food safety standards must still be enforced and probably will be even more stringent when corporate profits are no longer standing in the way of progress.

To add to this, a localized supply chain will make food preservation even more important. After all, if you want your population to survive mostly on what can be produced in a 100 km radius, you will have to prepare for food scarcity. Droughts, floods, earthquakes, blizzards, accidents, and even just regular ol' winter (once we've rescued it from the clutches of climate change) don't care how solar your punk is. They will wreck your food supply and your utopia needs to be ready.

So the need for packaged food will remain. The need for food that can stay in a cupboard undisturbed for months (if not years) and remain edible (and reasonably palatable!) will continue to be there.

With all this in mind... what does food packaging look in our solarpunk utopia? Single-use plastics have gone the way of the dodo, as have single-use paper, cardboard, aluminium, glass, and steel. What has replaced them?

I have some ideas, but this post is already ridiculously long, so I'll save them for later. All I'll say for now is I think glass containers are not the way to go. Glass is heavy, fragile, a poor thermal conductor (so heating and cooling processes with glass containers are energy innefficient), and takes up a lot of space. It is also very resource and energy intensive to produce and recycle (so not the most environmentaly friendly in that regard either).

What does a reusable aluminium container look like? That'd be cool I think.

[queersolarpunk]

Getting that solarpunk career

For the people that, like me, want to find jobs having a somewhat positive environmental impact but struggle to find out how the fuck to find the right companies:

Did you know there are websites exactly for that? Sorry if that's common knowledge but my depressed solarpunk ass just discovered that that's a thing. So first I found Work on Climate and felt like my (so far non existent) career isn't a completely lost cause.

They basically built a community of people working in climate related jobs or having started companies, they host online events, offer one-on-one sessions with experts to help you learn how your skills are useful in climate (for free!) and collected different resources to find jobs. So through them I then discovered Climatebase which is basically LinkedIn specifically for companies/jobs that work on climate solutions.

They also offer these "fellowships", which are several week programms where you learn about a bunch of different aspects of sustainable development. It looks amazing but is sadly expensive af

I'm about to finish my studies and I was basically just stuck, paralysed at the options of selling my soul working in biopharma or something, simply because they pay well, or rotting away in academia (don't get me wrong, that'd still be an option but it often feels so far removed from any active change).

Solarpunk communities here focus so much on aesthetics, the literature part of the movement, on gardening, and nowadays also a lot more on the political and punk apsects - and I love all that! But what about the science? I'm a science girly at heart, it's what I'm good at. I'm getting my degree because I felt inspired by solarpunk and I want to use my opportunities to get really highly educated to actually do something. I want to help find ways to make the cool technologies in those beautiful pictures reality.

[sevilemar]

'You can't do activism alone, you need to find a community!'

And how do I do that when my first thought is 'Ugh, people!'? How do I do that when I have felt unwelcome in every group I've ever been to, even those that supposedly had people with the same interests in it? How do I do that when even the thought of interacting with strangers makes me nauseous and sweaty and shaky? How do I fucking do that? HOW?

'Do it scared.'

Fuck you, I'm TRYING!! Hasn't worked yet, has it?

UGH!!!

(Knowing that this is exactly what capitalism wants and still not being able to overcome this isolation is not helping in the slightest, btw.)

[solarpunkani]

I think one thing I struggle with when it comes to wanting to write Solarpunk stories is like

I like writing conflicts. But I don’t know how to write large conflicts—so something like ‘dismantling the government to install a solarpunk society in its place’ is way too big of a fish for me to fry

But also small conflicts just don’t do it for me. I just can’t stay entertained with them long enough. So something like ‘little Maisy lost her favorite doll and its up to her older brother to find it. Oh btw they live in a solarpunk society’ wouldn’t get past like one page if I tried it

But how fantastical can one get before a society is no longer solarpunk but just… fantasy? How far out of the realm of reality can you get before it just seems hollow? But how close can you stay? How much conflict can you have before your hopeful vision of a solarpunk future is no longer hopeful and no longer solarpunk? How big of an issue can you create in a solarpunk society, what kind, while still keeping it solarpunk? While still having a problem that can’t just be handwaved with ‘that wouldn’t happen in solarpunk’?

And of course logically I know the answer is different for everyone. But like. Still. How derivative can you get, how much conflict can you add, before a story intended to be solarpunk just becomes ‘random urban fantasy but with round roofs stained glass and a lot more greenhouses?’

[anipgarden]

The Secret Other Thing: KILL

This is my eighth post in a series I’ll be making on how to increase biodiversity on a budget! I’m not an expert--just an enthusiast--but I hope something you find here helps! 

KILL, TEAR, RIP, MAIM. 

You may have seen this sentiment a few times on gardening and wildlife blogs and been incredibly confused. Isn’t killing things the opposite of what you should be doing to protect habitats? In some cases, it really is necessary!

Invasive Plants

Invasive plants can do more harm than good, taking up space and nutrients and providing little in return to local wildlife--while spreading and choking out the native plants that would provide the most to our native fauna. Learn how to identify invasive species in your area and how to properly dispose of them, and do so whenever you have the opportunity! You may even be able to find volunteer groups/events where you can join up with like-minded people to remove a specific plant from an area.

(This image refers to the United States specifically--these plants aren't invasive or native everywhere!)

Pro tip, though; if you take out an invasive species and leave empty soil where it was, it’s likely another quick-growing invasive species will just move in. We don’t want that! Try to plant something in its place! If you’re going out on a mission to take out invasive plants, try to keep some native flower seeds or seedlings on your person while you do this work.

Different plants are invasive in different places, so be sure that the plant you're targeting is actually invasive to where you are. You don’t want to rip out a beneficial plant because it’s invasive somewhere else! Social media sites like Instagram and Tumblr are great for spreading information about invasive plants, but they can often be a bit… US-centric. Even I'm guilty of this, plenty of times! Plants like garlic mustard, kudzu, butterfly bush, Amur honeysuckle, wild radish, and Japanese knotweed are high-profile invasive plants that I hear about all the time here in America--but they came from somewhere, and are a part of the environment in these places! Likewise, many plants that are branded as pollinator-friendly and biodiversity boosters here in the states can be awful invasive species elsewhere. Even plants and animals that aren’t invasive in one part of a country or continent can be detrimental in another--Canadian waterweed is native to North America, but it’s actually invasive in Alaska.

(Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) vs Coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) vs the yellow variety of Coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens))

Be sure you’re taking out the right plant--be very confident in your ID before you take any action! Amur honeysuckle and Japanese honeysuckle, for example, may be invasive in the US--but coral and northern bush honeysuckles are native and key species in their environments. You don’t want to do harm while trying to do good--double check your IDs. Being certain with your IDs can also prevent you from doing harm to yourself and others--some plants produce toxic smoke when burned. Stay well-read on how to dispose of the invasive plants you’re targeting. 

(Garlic mustard pesto! Can't say I've ever had it, but I've heard good things about it online!)

With that being said! Some invasive species can be eaten. It’s free food! And you’re helping the environment? Win-win! Try looking up recipes that use these plants, or see how you can substitute something else for them! Foraging guides and blogs would likely be extremely helpful for this.

A super easy way to help curb the spread of invasive plants is to not grow them yourself! Double check any plant you’re considering buying or growing from seed--some sold in stores like butterfly bush are often touted as great plants to add to a pollinator garden, but in reality are an invasive species that eagerly displaces native shrubs here in the states.

POV: you're working the garden center at the Blue Big Box Store, you care about the environment, and every day you watch people buy Butterfly Bush and can do jack shit about it asides from try to gently steer them towards something else (but the other next best option was also Invasive Tropical Milkweed because its easier for Big Box Store to sell) I have a personal vendetta against people who grow Butterfly Bush (I live in The States) (If you didn't know Butterfly Bush was invasive in the US before now you're valid but also please god consider replacing it with an alternative ASAP)

Invasive Animals

POV 30 to 50 feral hogs are running into your yard within 3-5 minutes while your small children play

Invasive animals and insects compete for resources, take over habitat, and can even spread disease--all while pushing native species out or dwindling their numbers. Keep track of invasive animals you see and report them. Depending on the severity of the situation, killing them can be necessary and even encouraged. Do be sure it’s an invasive species and not a look-alike. If you’re unsure, take pictures, do research, and take action the next time.

Some high-profile invasive species in the US are spotted lanternflies, cuban tree frogs, hammerhead worms, feral swine, zebra mussels, lionfish, asian carp, burmese python, and others. Again, do make sure you’re targeting species that are invasive in your area; I doubt Asian carp are considered invasive in Asia, for example. Similarly, the American bullfrog is native to the eastern US and Canada, but is quickly becoming an invasive species around the rest of the world. Not to mention, the racoon problem in Japan… 

Some invasive species can be eaten as well! Some of them taste awful, and some can even be dangerous to eat or handle without caution. I would do a good amount of research online before trying to cook up just anything.

Doing it Right

If you’re trying to handle invasive species, you do have to ensure you’re doing it properly. As you do your research, you’ll likely see if the species should be photographed and reported and to what channels. Also in some cases, going about destroying them incorrectly could unintentionally help them spread--some plants spread quickly through rhizomes into disturbed soil, and hammerhead worms can actually regenerate from pieces into fully-developed new worms when you try to cut them up. Some invasive species are even actively harmful to humans, so I cannot emphasize enough that you need to be sure about what you’re dealing with and be careful about it. Giant Hogweed, for example, has toxic sap that’ll cause severe skin inflammation and painful blisters if it contacts skin and is exposed to sunlight. The blisters last for months, and the skin may develop long-term sensitivity for sunlight. 

If you’re unsure about how to handle an invasive plant, or are unsure of it’s identity, try contacting your local university co-op extension service if you’re in the states. They can tell you how to remove it safely and effectively. I can't say for sure what other channels would be the best option for someone living outside the states, so if anyone knows, feel free to chime in!

Pets

POV: ur little outdoor kitty Firestar is destroying the balance of your local ecosystem plz keep him INSIDE

Please keep your pets inside, or at least on a leash. An outdoor cat can do a lot more damage than one might imagine, as well as unrestrained dogs.

That’s the end of this post! And... technically, the last post in the series! My next and final final post is gonna be basically a giant list of all my sources that I used to make this post! I hope this post series was informative, helpful, interesting--anything of value, really! Feel free to reply with any questions, your success stories, or anything you think I may have forgotten to add in!

[necron123-block]

Solarpunk needs its own 1984

After reintroducing myself to degrowth and more specifically solarpunk again. The idea that solarpunk must be optimistic in some sense and never dystopian struck me with fear.

I admire the principles of solarpunk and also wish that we could live in a more sustainable world.

But by saying that solarpunk can never be dystopian, we open the door to uncritical optimism. The idea that Solarpunk is THE solution, we just need to find the best and fastest way to get there.

I could spend my time critiquing solarpunk and how it could indeed lead to dystopias. How it promotes techbro thinking where any problems with subsistence lifestyles are whisked away by 'the tech will get there'. Or how abstaining from wasteful practices is incompatible with the ideals of healthcare as it has no upper limit to how much it might waste.

But that whole line of critique is a priori rejected in favour of optimism. That we don't need any more hopelessness. However, Solarpunk wants itself to be more than an entertainment genre: an ideological movement.

You don't nuh uh critique when you want to change society.

One of the elements of 1984 is that when we're scared we can blindly run into the arms of authoritarianism. Much the same, when we feel hopeless about climate change we might blindly run into the arms of solarpunk's hidden horrors.

And I believe that by excluding dystopias, we fail to uncover those potential horrors.

[lesbiianboyfriend]

when i get a house with a lawn best bet that i will be planting garden after garden in that shit. cutting down grass with my scythe dnd

[ratcharlie]

ramble ahead

i think there are a few aspects of solarpunk living that really tickle my noggin, like diy, displayed by how much i love sewing and mending and fixing things up and giving life back into stuff. ive always been a crafty/crafty adjacent person and finally finding a lifestyle where its finally "worth" (used loosely bc you dont need a specific reason to make stuff, you can just make stuff for the hell of it) modifying clothing to better suit your style or shortening bag straps to suit your height or darning holes in socks feels so refreshing to me rn .

like i dont have that annoying ass bitch ass voice in my head telling me "why do you have to put energy into fixing things when you can just buy a new one" or some shit. very relieving 👍👍

[panpiepid]

I SWEAR TO GOD I KEEP LOOKING FOR SOLARPUNK AESTHETIC INSPIRATION IMAGES AND I KEEP FINDING GARDENS BY THE BAY, IRL SINGAPOREAN LANDMARK

ITS A GARDEN NO SHIT THERES PLANTS THERE

IN THE SUPERTREES ARE ATAS ATAS RESTAURANTS ONLY IF THIS IS YOUR IDEAL FUTURE THERE IS SOMETHING DEEPLY WRONG WITH YOU

[solar-sunnyside-up]

Since it’s reaping week I’ve got a rant! I am SO SICK of being in such a car-oriented world!!

I moved houses recently and I’m still living in the same town but the time I use to get to work with walking vs driving makes me so annoyed. Moving has added to my walk time but driving is still basically the same!! And it takes so much more time to walk!! And driving can be scary and annoying!!! I also can’t take the bus because I don’t want to pay fare every day and the only bus that goes anywhere near the new house has a weird route that doesn’t get me anywhere near where I need to go!! I want public transit to be better so badly!!!!

I could also get better biking gear because biking doesn’t take super long but we can have such unpredictable weather sometimes and I’m also just annoyed at having to pay for every little thing in my life aaaaagh

Omggggg I feel this so hard. It totally shouldn't be on you to solve this puzzle it should be intuitive and easy. Otherwise there's a mental cost associated with it!and that's deeply unfair to all citizens!!

The fact that it was done to your city intentionally is the worst! The idea that transit must be unaccessable, underfunded, and stripped of basically every comfort under the guise of "safety" for some reason is horrendous and you deserve to be able to take it!

Part time drivers should be insentivized, comfort on transit should be expected, easy and fast transit is the minimum for a society that takes taxes for said system.

I'm so sorry your stuck there and within the system were in. You deserve better.

[trkkr47]

Okay, so, I am loving this solarpunk thing, I am a about relearning how to make stuff and grow stuff and fix stuff.

That said, I know there is an idealistic idea of everyone being self-sufficient, making their iwn stuff instead of buying it, but my concern is that is unsustainable. Like, yes, in our society, a single individual hunting and fishing for their own meat is better for the environment than factory farming. But, if everyone did it, deer would go extinct in a week.

Also, it is of course unrealistic to imagine one person or even family can make everything on their own. The skills take years to master and the equipment is often large and difficult to make or obtain.

Of course, this suggests that small communes are the answer. And I do feel like that makes some sense. I think our "tribes" have become far larger than our individual social evolution can cope with, especially now that anyone can talk to anyone anywhere in the world. So yeah, small communes? Sounds better. But then you get into the problems of the communes interacting, and who and how they decide how conflicts are resolved and who gets what resources, and you end up back with a global society anyway.

I think all I'm really trying to say is that economy of scale is a real thing with real benefits. The problem is with the distribution of those benefits and the system for sharing the labor. It's also with the priorities of our current system, which downplay real, permanent consequences to our enviroment, society, and souls, while wildly overvaluing the financial profit of a relatively small group of people.

Aaaand. Now I am writing a manifesto on tumblr. Which is very helpful for everyone I'm sure. Definitely I'm going to save the world with my pseudointellectual ramblings.

Sigh. I think the real fantasy is not the saving the world, it's the idea of waking up in the morning with no responsibility beyond survive the day, feed the goats, sit in the sunshine. Deal with the immediate and the real instead of a life ruled by conceptual numbers and invisible boundaries.

I think I will post this, wildly against my better judgement, and mostly because I hope no one will see it.

[solarpunkliving]

Sorry for the rant, just getting some emotions out. tw: depression

The winter months are always difficult for me when it comes to my mood, motivation, and happiness. I've had depression for...15 years now? Something like that, I try not to keep tabs on it at this point, but this year has hit me like a ton of bricks.

It's been about two months since I've really felt motivated to do...anything. My hobbies like app design, development, a coffeeshop food truck idea that's been bouncing around in my head, or even planning my wedding with my fiancé. I just can't find the motivation or the desire to jump into it, even though I know I enjoy it and I know it will be helpful for me.

I feel like, without that outlet, I'm just feeling a bit lost. What do I do when I don't have the energy or motivation to do anything? What do I do when this baggage and these emotions are just along for the ride? I feel like I'm in a sort of "maintenance mode", where I'm just fixing up things that are "broken" and getting back to a sense of safety and comfort.

I think that's one of the things that's attracted me to solarpunk in the first place as an ideology. It's a community that is there for everyone else in the community. Burdens are shared, there is a sense of belonging, and the focus is put on the person, not on their economic value to some capitalist society.

I'd like to participate in the community more, but I always feel like I'm someone who is always just on the outskirts of a community, like a guest, I guess is the way to word it. I'd like to find a purpose within the community, one that allows me to appreciate and utilize my skills. Which in turn are used for the betterment of the solarpunk community at large, or even within someone's own little community, whatever that may be.

One idea I've had is an open source app for the solarpunk community. A way for a community to manage shared resources like vehicles, shared spaces, and more. To connect and communicate with other solarpunk communities and individuals around the world. I think, ultimately, I'd like to use my skills in app design & development to provide free open source apps and software for people to use as needed, removing capitalist intentions & gross venture capitalist and exploitative practices from harming the community.

I don't know, and I guess it's okay to not know. I'm going to keep chugging along and do what makes me happy. And right now, what makes me happy is cooking some rice and reheating my curry.

[solarpunk-0possum]

finding the balance between being understanding and sensitive to the fact that everyone is doing the best they can with what they have and also holding people accountable and to a higher standard of sustainability has been a challenge for me.

like i know blaming the consumer is a way to take the blame off the large corporations doing the damage. but as consumers we are complicit in this, even if we don't have a choice otherwise. We have fallen for the allure of convenience at the cost of humans rights and the world we live in. We get to live a cushy life filled with conveniences like delivered meal kits that take any sense of place, identity or locality out of food that produce tons of waste, or we get to buy beautiful healing crystals mined by children we'll never meet or even see evidence of unless we look for it. we get cheap clothes made by people who will never be properly compensated. people whose names we will never know die for our luxury every day and we just... carry on.

but then i understand we're all just trying to fucking survive and we're doing our best. i get it. i do unsustainable shit too. i smoke carts and throw away the packaging, i don't recycle, i drive an oldass car, etc etc etc, but i also try not to be too hard on myself because I know if I could change it, I would. But I wonder if not everyone feels that way... some people seem really attached to their simple conveniences and easy life, and they're happy to ignore the consequences. i don't blame them. They say ignorance is bliss, and I agree. There's a part of me that would love to live in a world where I can be blissfully unaware of the horrific injustices going on in places I will likely never visit. As a white middle class american I might even have the privilege to not care if I played my cards right.

But I'm reminded of the quote- ignorance is bliss, but it doesn't lead to liberation. i will choose liberation over bliss. but i have a hard time understanding people who choose bliss.

really this post says a lot more about my own extreme self-criticism. it's striking to me when others aren't so hard on themselves, but I also think a lot of us have some room to hold ourselves to higher standards in terms of our consumptive habits. especially those of us with disposable income.

Capitalism makes money the ultimate power... so spending your money somewhere is in some way, a transfer of power. We have no choice but to spend our money at unethical places but we should at least attempt to give a fuck. i like to look at it from a harm reduction standpoint but that's a different post.

so yeah. there's two wolves in me: one sees and even honors the imperfections of all humans. we are are struggling under a brutal system. the other wolf wants to hold others to a higher standard in spite of that. both have good points. the ideal behavior is some nuanced balance between the two that I haven't quite found.

hope ya'lls holiday has been restful. free palestine. the most ethical consumption is not consuming at all.

[solarpunkani]

Ok fuck it you know something I've never really quite understood about part of the Leftist vs Liberals debate on voting.

So so so many people act like its either-or. Like you're either dedicating your entire life to voting and promoting politicians and phone banking or whatever, or you're a True Rebel waiting for The Uprising to Come and Solve Everything.

But like. In my experience. Me voting is just me kinda go 'which person seems kinda good? Which one at least sucks the least? ok lemme go vote.' and then its anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour tops of my life. And I still have plenty of time to do Stuff and participate in Conversations about Other Important Things. And also you can admit and acknowledge and understand that the system As Is kinda sorta really sucks ass, but also still admit and acknowledge and understand that at this current point in time we are still living in the suckass system and do something to alleviate the suckass At Least A Little while also working to bolster/create/advocate for Other Systems.

I guess just like. it's not a black or white thing. Between 'top 500 volunteers for a specific politician/voting office/etc' and 'absolutely positively not voting at all' there is a gray area called 'vote and then just do other stuff'.