I get it, mostly along the lines of the fact that the time for joking about this is over. It’s really not funny anymore, and I didn’t mean to offend or discourage. I just wish there was a big enough fire lit under more Americans rearends before the social security payments stop and yeah, I don’t want to think about what that means right now.
I have worked with the EFF, the CSE (which does incredible and essential work in the US south), I have helped LGBT Americans stuck in the gulf south in ways that I cannot legally discuss, I have worked with abortion funds both raising money and drumming up support, and I have been in the vicinity of stun grenades more than once. My camera has seen a lot and raised a lot of money/volunteers for orgs. I am proud of my work, as you should be of yours.
We have both done good work. We have both tried to make the world a better place.
Ah, I see you are someone doing something! Well now I know you’re not just another lethargic devil, yes there are tons of people trying to do good work but there’s tons more work need to be done. We both not only need to keep up what we’re doing but we need to do even more. People like us have our work cut out for us at a time like this.
You started this conversation shitting on all US citizens because of what’s happening. There are tons of us trying to fight it, but you used your experience and wisdom and keyboard to attack all of us in one fell swoop. To discourage people.
Seeing as my first post was an acknowledgment to someone elses post (who doesn’t seem to be getting the same pushback from you as I am for some reason?) I don’t think I started it. And when did I ever say “ALL Americans”? It says “Americans,” like, plural for American, as in there are Americans who are sitting there watching Trump tear apart their country and are doing nothing about it. That’s not to disparage the work being done over there, ffs I personally know a lot of Americans who are doing far more than the both of us combined! ::Gestures broadly at the situation:: It’s still not enough though.
But I get it man, you’re fucking pissed off and anxious as you rightfully should be, I am too. Anyone who isn’t scared right now is fucking stupid. Maybe this’ll cheer you up - I recently (sorta) reconnected with an old friend, a really good friend of mine from back in the day who I still talk to on and off. His whole life and the whole time I knew him he was the last person in the world to care about politics, classic normie American catholic who loves his baseball and fantasy sports, keg parties no shirt on the whole nine yards. He’s still very much that guy, but even he is becoming politically conscious and is starting to ask the right questions. If there’s anyone that needs to be reached it’s that complacent majority type like him, and they’re being reached my dude. Hearing him talk like that gave me an internal supernova of hope.
If only there were a list of names… and addresses…
I’m still waiting to hear what they’ve done to combat injustice in their home today. Or even yesterday for that matter.
EDIT - They responded, they’re a G.
“Earnest Hemmingway once wrote, ‘The world is a fine place, and worth fighting for.’ I agree with the second part.”
Americans really still just look on and do nothing while the Trump administration is tearing the country apart
That’s my deal. What have you done to defend your community and home today? Or yesterday?
EDIT - Assuming you’re an American resident and if not why the fuck are we having this conversation.
I feel like you’re proving my original point.
I was open enough to share a list of things i’ve done, do you mind sharing yours?
Is being smug and looking down on people from your high horse worth it? Are you enjoying yourself?
This is why I don’t share the things I’ve done to try and help, because random people on the internet who have done nothing say shit like this. Like I said, there’s no winning, i’m either bragging or lying. You asked I answered, and you’re still not happy.
EDIT - I was open enough to share a list of things i’ve done, do you mind sharing yours?
In middleschool some peers and I helped run a fundraiser and helped organize in 2003 against the war in Iraq (kinda started here, cuz I naiively thought we were past that as a species)
When living in America during my teens, attended every protest I could physically go to to march against KKK and NeoNazi rally’s, we even (foolishly) got physical with them.
November 2011 was at Occupy Wall St. where 800+ of us were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge. (first time being arrested at a protest)
2012-2013 worked with Greenpeace, Wilderness Society, and alongside with Bob Irwin (Steve Irwin’s dad) in his Fight for the Reef campaign to protect the Great Barrier Reef from coal shipping expansion (successfully managed to delay the Australian coal industries plan for a whole year, sadly they dredged the GBR anyway but I’d like to think we gave them a headache.)
2013 onwards - Attended every protest but at this point I’m past yelling and shouting, nowadays I hand out bottles of water and information on rights and what to do if you’re arrested or confronted by police.
2024 - Helped defend Plymouth UK from the fascist pogroms, same as above except also using my body as a shield to protect others from bricks. Hurt like a bitch but i’d take a million more. Also help run classes and leftist meetings alongside socialist members of government to teach members of the public everything from history of anti-fascism to safe resistance to mutual aid and preformative politics to cybersecurity to fascist dog-whistles and local fascist groups.
Does this qualify as doing something?
In middleschool some peers and I helped run a fundraiser and helped organize in 2003 against the war in Iraq (kinda started here, cuz I naiively thought we were past that as a species)
When living in America during my teens, attended every protest I could physically go to to march against KKK and NeoNazi rally’s, we even (foolishly) got physical with them.
November 2011 was at Occupy Wall St. where 800+ of us were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge. (first time being arrested at a protest)
2012-2013 worked with Greenpeace, Wilderness Society, and alongside with Bob Irwin (Steve Irwin’s dad) in his Fight for the Reef campaign to protect the Great Barrier Reef from coal shipping expansion (successfully managed to delay the Australian coal industries plan for a whole year, sadly they dredged the GBR anyway but I’d like to think we gave them a headache.)
2013 onwards - Attended every protest but at this point I’m past yelling and shouting, nowadays I hand out bottles of water and information on rights and what to do if you’re arrested or confronted by police.
2024 - Helped defend Plymouth UK from the fascist pogroms, same as above except also using my body as a shield to protect others from bricks. Hurt like a bitch but i’d take a million more. Also help run classes and leftist meetings alongside socialist members of government to teach members of the public everything from history of anti-fascism to safe resistance to mutual aid and preformative politics to cybersecurity to fascist dog-whistles and local fascist groups.
Currently diagnosed and disabled from Graves disease, but if a march were to happen outside say millionaire or billionaire gated communities i’d defy my doctors orders to show up.
Happy? This is kinda my hobby.
EDIT - If you NEED proof I can dig up the video I took back in 2011 of us marching onto the Brooklyn Bridge, but that would take effort and I don’t see why I should waste that effort on you.
What have you done?
I’m not gonna send my professional c/v to some rando on the internet. What difference does it make anyway?
If I wrote the list of actions and demonstrations I visited and helped organize in the last 15 years, I’d get accused of bragging. There’s no winning against that argument, it’s either “Show me what you’ve done” ::Shows all the things:: “You’re bragging” or ::Shows nothing:: “See? I’m right.”
Did you know you can google any company with the words “proxy statement” after it to get a full list of their executives and top investors with their pictures and everything?
Coming on a little strong if you ask me.
Nature peaked here.
::Looks at Americans really still just look on and do nothing while the Trump administration is tearing the country apart::
Yes.
The biggest and most truthful conspiracy is not that there’s some shadowy cabal puppet masters pulling all the string, but nobody has any fucking clue what’s going on and the world lives in a constant state of anarchy and our notions of “government” or “the state” is just a coping mechanism to help us believe that “somone is in control.” We feel like we need to believe in it like we used to believe in the church, until the Enlightenment of course (and we all know what that entailed.)
PS Edit - Give people bread and they will realize they hold all the power, and won’t need that sense of someone else being in control.
Ugh why is it that they always resemble root vegetables?