Hope Is A Discipline

The way this was my first thought and then I opened the comments

Why do we say that capitalism must be “dismantled”?

You’ll hear phrases like “Smash the state!” “Eat the rich!” and “Smash capitalism!”

And, yes, of course, but… :)

However relevant those sayings are, our work must be careful, highly organized and above all planned.

Because capitalism and all of its associated systems are not discrete, abstracted entities we can attack independently.

It is a structure, like a complicated machine with many thousands of working parts…

And right now it is connected to absolutely everything.

If we do this… [picks up huge hammer and smashes the machine]

Then a lot of vulnerable people will die.

The machine was built and improved and redesigned and patched over the course of generations. It is very good at its intended purpose, which is ultimately to generate profit.

Every human being alive today relies on the byproducts of the machine to survive, without exception.

The machine’s engineers want it to keep working like it does. In fact, they want to optimise it.

That will kill all remaining life on Earth.

So, we must destroy the machine, quickly and carefully

We must examine its deadly programs and mechanics and replace them with alternatives we built together.

The engineers don’t want us tampering with the machine.

However, we make it run…

So we can make it STOP. Together.

How will YOU help us to safely dismantle the machine?

iww.org

p.s. My computer is on its last legs. If you would like me to draw you a little cartoon and help me get a new computer, learn more at this post.

^ I think it's time to reintroduce this fella back into the online ecosystem

ok but this unironically works. talk about how the working class is exploited and you can basically sell full-on marxism to your average republican if you do it right. all you have to do is avoid the words "Marx," "capitalism," "socialism," "communism," "means of production," etc - just use synonyms. say "big business" or "corporate shareholder interests" instead of "capitalists." say "a government that prioritizes the needs of the working people" instead of "socialism." it WORKS. I've DONE it. the hardest sell are usually things like social and racial equity, welfare, things like that, because people have been primed with the racist/classist idea that those things are somehow unfair - but you can get your foot in the door to getting them to buy into those too if you start with class issues. read up on your theory, make sure you REALLY understand your own ideology, because that will enable you to reword it and successfully sell it.

brainfog girlies make some noise if you're fuckin uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

New weakness discovered: diplomacy and professionalism with people I don’t like 🤡

Found out today that the coworker I continually struggle with quietly removed my name/headshot/bio from our org's website and replaced it with info for a newer employee. I was the only employee missing from the site. This is the same website that I built, but she managed to pull that project out from under me by convincing our director that I built it under the "wrong editor" or some shit. She just didn't want my picture and my qualifications next to hers.

So nah, actually, I think I deserve to be a cunt to her. As a treat. I can be diplomatic with everyone else.

Logically I’m aware that the fifty thousand people in my notes all making the same joke are mostly harmless but also there’s a reason that water slowly dripping onto your head is a valid form of torture.

yeah.......... i truly hate the democratic party with everything i have in my soul. all he had to say was "yes, i'm defending this innocent man because he did nothing wrong but come to america seeking a better life" and he couldn't even do that. naturally the comments i've seen say shit like "i don't have to agree with you but i'll defend your rights" and i ask once again what are we disagreeing with Kilmar Abrego Garcia on???????? what did he do besides be brown and have tattoos???????? why shouldn't we defend him??????? oh my god this fucking country

malcom x was right about the fox thing

Except he is right to say it that way. I have no doubt Abrego Garcia is an innocent man, whose only crime was being brown and having tattoos. But the implication of saying that he is defendng that innocent man is that if Abrego Garcia was guilty of any of the things that is being alleged about him than his being abducted and traffiked by the federal govenrment without due process would have been acceptable, and its not.

That is base of the argument the Trump adminstration is currently making, that Garcia is really a horrible person so even if he was abducted and traffiked by the federal govenrment and was not guilty of the specific things they said he was than its ok.

Yes there is an extra layer of horror because of the blantant racism in which it is a crime to have skin darker than milk and dare to exist. Yes, due process means that he is legally innocent no matter what (I also agree that he did not do what he was accused of, to be clear). But it seems like the part to be focused on is the Federal Government abducted and traffiked people and are trying to justify it. Adding a qualifier for innocent people merely gives this adminstration an excuse.

Even guilty people deserve due process. Even people who do bad things deserve due process. If we say This Guy deserves due process because he's innocent then they have motivation to make everyone a criminal. They're phrasing it that way on purpose to set the standard, not to slander an innocent man

Everybody is lacking the context that this was said during an interview on Faux News where the interviewer was repeatedly trying to get Van Hollen to say he was defending a member of... whatever fucking gang they keep saying Abrego Garcia is from. This was him very carefully not giving them the "See! We told you! Democrats want violent criminal immigrants in the US!" soundbite they desperately wanted while also refusing to go on record validating their assertions about whether Abrego Garcia is even a member of a gang at all. Because whether Abrego Garcia is a gang member or not, whether he is innocent or not, is something to be handled in a court of law, via the due process the current administration is denying him, which is right there in the fucking quote. This isn't a "fuck Democrats" moment; it's a "fuck conservatives and their constant lying" moment. Van Hollen handled that interview incredibly well.

Anyone posting things like this out of context and yelling about it, especially in this current political atmosphere, is either ignorant or wilfully malicious.

"we shouldn't fight to improve [small thing] because it's just a symptom of [big thing]" okay well big thing is too big to fall on it's own, so I'm gonna start by fighting to improve small thing, and once enough small things have fallen that people have the time and energy and bandwidth to fight then we can fight big thing, because until then all of the small things are weighing every potential fighter down to the point that they can't get out of fucking bed, let alone fight big thing.

I hate that attitude so much - particularly when people say it to actual activists???

People used to say it to my one friend about her work on indigenous caricature school mascots, implying she should be spending her time elsewhere, like she wasn't also at standing rock and wasn't also fighting for clean water access on reservations and wasn't also spreading awareness about MMIW2s. Each piece is part of the whole! And some people dedicate their whole lives to it and that's great, but some of us only have a little bit of energy to give and giving that energy to the fight for a small piece is Good, actually.

im so tired of being unable to say "no/please stop" because if i do the other person will hurt themself

if you self flagellate, self harm, self deprecate, etc when someone says "no thanks" to you or says "hey this made me uncomfortable" or generally sets a boundary, you are punishing for setting a boundary. maybe not intentionally, but it instills the mindset that if someone sets a boundary with you, something bad will happen.

i miss the old tumblr days when you annoyed someone even slightly and they went on a multi paragraph rant. one that started with "you know what? no. fuck this. fuck you." and contained insults like "moldy sock" and threats like "i'll steal your kneecaps". all while maintaining the attitude of a YA novel protagonist facing capital punishment rallying troops against a dictatorship.

That’s too funny, you’re not allowed to leave it in the tags.

using google keyboard alchemy to create the most miserable emojis possible

the most infuriating thing about personal growth is that even if someone else did have the answer you needed and conveyed it to you in a precise and effective matter, it won't make sense until you're ready for it. you could hear it every day of your life and it wouldn't matter a fucking bit until it finally clicks. there's very little you can do to influence when that happens, either

just saw another fic that completely misunderstood elementary schoolers. going to make a post as soon as my shift is done

i lied im doing this mid shift.

okay starting with preschoolers (3-5 year olds) they range a lot. i mostly work with nonverbal preschoolers, but i know several who are insanely verbose and use big words. one of them will answer questions in full sentences, the other doesn't even respond to her name.

kindergartners are pretty similar, but they tend to do a lot of vacant stares.

first graders looove attention. if you pay attention to a first grader you're done for. they tend to start developing their personalities to an extent at this point, and are more like little drama queens than anything else.

second graders are complex, strange beasts. they know swear words. they watch horror movies. they stay up until 8. they're real rebels. at this point they get a little meaner. more likely to point out your boogers. they still think burps are funny.

third grade is a bunch of little guys. like at this point they're at the age where they think they're basically adults and have nothing to worry about. baby talking them is a bad idea.

forth grade is 9-10 year olds and trust me, they're so much more mature than you think. they're basically like people. some of them are pretty cool. some are not.

fifth are the snootiest, smuggest little bastards on earth. they understand slurs and use them. do not talk to them.

This is one of those posts where I feel like I'm doing others and myself a disservice by not sharing. I wish someone had shown me this a long time ago.

Maybe I'd be having to do less work to break out of this shell, now.

...All of the above.

Tell your truth, and don't be afraid to have it be heard... because this is not a dress rehearsal.

It's difficult when you've spent years being a "good person", a "exceptional one" and the first time you complain, people left you. Even some of the ones who say they loved you. But once the fake people leave you, the trustful ones will be able to enter.

I am going to take a nap now and when I wake up there will not be weird problems anymore. OK? Understood?