Discussion
The sordid Platner undoing only underlines the point I’m always trying to make: *stop “believing in” politicians* and *stop outsourcing the work of making change*.
Look, I, too, love Zohran and AOC, and will always have something of a soft spot for Bernie. But the work of making a world fit for us is not theirs to undertake. It’s ours.
People really seem to want some combination of ruler/hero/saviour rather than representative/partner/ally … it makes for very poor decision-making and leads to perpetual disappointment.
@DavidM_yeg This is true, but that they’d even want a good-faith “representative” troubles me. So far as I’m concerned, the theory on which the practice of decision is something that can be safely delegated to professionals misses most of what is valuable about the practice of decision.
@adamgreenfield Here's the thing though... when you personally undertake the process of changing the status quo (lets say by running for office because your ideas are better, newer, different than the current guy), you actually are lobbying to become part of the status quo... you sell your soul (eventually) to people, organizations, corporations, interested parties, etc) to stay in power. So then you say, ok, let's change the laws to limit where your campaign funds come from, or set term limits for elected officials... by... um... running for office... It's a loop. Zohran and AOC may be the darlings of the nearby far left... for now... but what happens when they decide they aren't ready to give up their position of power? Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely. The more I witness what politics does to "good" people, the more I start to believe the best course of action is anarchy...
@calsnoboarder Several things: firstly, Zohran and AOC are by no reasonable description anything other than social democrats, and are in no way “far left.” More importantly, though, direct participation in representative, parliamentary democracy is not at all what I mean by the practice of politics.
I do mean, and try to live, anarchy. It’s working out pretty well, too…locally. I think it’s reasonable to believe that not everything that works for me can be generalized, though.
Too many in America have long been trained to believe that sitting on your behind and waiting for a hero to rescue them is how it's done.
In reality, history demonstrates that "you never face monsters alone."
Form a group or join an existing pack and face the oligarchic 1% together.
Or as I would put it: we must learn the lessons from ACT UP in the 1980s. The answer to "what should I do about the state of things" is "yes"
I call this the Fulcrum Theory of democracy: while those we elect are important, they are merely a point of leverage for to make real change through the application of political action
A great podcast on this:
@jhwgh1968 Dude, I was *in* ACT/UP in the Eighties.
@adamgreenfield that's... neat is the wrong word, but you know what I mean
(And my post was mostly for bystanders, if that wasn't clear)
If you're not active on calls, emails, community action, mailings, voter registration, and calling out the bullshit AS the bullshit -- you're not really being your best civic self.
I'm broke AF, sick AF, tired AF, and in weekly stay. 5calls.org is one of my besties and should be yours, too.
When I have $1/mo to spare, I send it to the @ACLU.
When I have $2/mo to spare, I send it to @eff too.
Less consumption. More reuse.
(Generic "you" unless ya pick it up.)
#agree 🖖
@seedsignal @adamgreenfield @eff Voting and sitting on calls with Dem activists is not the action we need at this moment. In fact, it’s the opposite of what we need to do.
@oberstenzian @adamgreenfield @eff
Your opinion is noted. 🖖
@seedsignal @oberstenzian FWIW I share that opinion profoundly.
Voting quadrenially and participating in Democratic electoral politics does – to a meaningful first approximation – zero to protect your neighbors from ICE, zero to stop them dying of heatstroke, zero to fend off the local Nazis. Mutual aid, distributed support networks, direct action: these things work.
@seedsignal I think you miss my point, possibly?
So far as I’m concerned voting is harm reduction at best, and justifiable on that understanding. But everything else is the creation, operation, governance and nurturance of responsive local counterinstitutions.
@adamgreenfield Not missed. Agreed. Not sure how the mismatch occurred, but it clearly did.
Everything is responsive. It's pretending that it's not that is the root. And that's just power using plausible deniability to cloak subordination of agency, autonomy, and lived experience authority.
🖖
@adamgreenfield The Platner thing really disturbed and disappointed me in multiple ways. Because of the white supremacist tattoo thing I said early on that he was likely to be another Fetterman. People on here scolded me and said he was the only one who could beat Susan Collins…presumably because he ticked all the “working class guy” aesthetic boxes.
So much apologia for a man with so many problems, and look how it turned out.
@MisuseCase Weirdly, for reasons I don’t expect anyone else to understand, the tattoo did not bother me & his explanation thereof I found credible. But I 1000% agree otherwise, and Fetterman is *precisely* the comparison I’ve been using. Feh.
(And I will remind you of this when Andy Burnham disappoints you in four months’ time. ❤️)
This post has escaped containment, and is now circulating among communities for whom “politics” is something that exclusively involves parties and elections, and once again I’m reminded of how difficult it is to bridge the yawning gap between people who share this consensus and those of us who do not.
@adamgreenfield I have to keep reminding people that Burnham was a Blairite - he may have been marginally on the Left of that faction, but that still makes him a centrist, at best.
@adamgreenfield That long? I admire your optimism.
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