Social Activism in the Age of Trump: What To Do and What We Are Doing

thank you

welcome! sorry about the formatting.

There is no overstating the fear and danger currently felt by activists. It is not melodramatic for people active in today’s social movements to prepare for massive government surveillance, along with court injunctions and fines aimed at bankrupting people and organizations. Protesters fear jail and repression for using their First Amendment rights. But what organizers and activists face as political actors will pale in comparison to the danger confronted by millions of people facing mass deportation, racist and religious attacks—with activists in these targeted groups facing the greatest risk.

damn it would suck if any of those things were to happen

I think the best way to promote social activism to Americans is that it'll enhance their social status/power/personal comfort somehow. In my experience Americans don't respond to arguments for empathy, understanding, care whatsoever. We're a heartless, cold-blooded, extremely selfish people with a taste for violence and sadism. So the way to handle this is to understand that American nature and work with it, as opposed to making arguments that make no sense in American culture.

Love, care, community, understanding, solidarity, those things mean nothing to Americans, really. Social status, power, material comfort, and extreme selfish gain are the primary motivators for most Americans; of course you can't say this on its face because nobody wants to admit it, but it's the truth in my travels through life.

larry can I ask what type of neighborhood you live in

Middle class suburban NYC metro

I'm just taking it from the marketing angle. Expecting the average American to make a significant personal sacrifice for the sole well-being of another person is totally insane. A lot of people in this country would rather lure in and torture the vulnerable for laughs than help other people for no gain of their own. There's a reason Trump is president, and our other option for president was a half-step away from Trump.

Until people face this shit, it's just gonna ... keep ... getting ... worse. That's how it is. Don't like to hear it, don't want to face it, then shit ain't gonna get better. The end.

our other option for president was a half-step away from Trump

okey dokey

Expecting the average American to make a significant personal sacrifice for the sole well-being of another person

This is not what activism is

xxp I think I'll just flag that post to make myself feel a bit less covered in marketing filth after reading it

It's just a current framework we're all stuck in right now. Look at the recent social justice movement we've had. It wasn't about "all men are created equal" or "content of a person's character", it was about gaining ethical and moral superiority and using it as a cudgel to beat up the deemed ethically and morally inferior. "Male tears", "white tears", etc. Trump and his crew are the lash back from that dynamic, and why that movement made no social gains whatsoever, and are now under the thumb of literal neo Nazis.

We've got this weird dominance/submission, superior/inferior, us/them dynamic going on and everyone's at each others' throats, or they're holed up in their compounds waiting things out. That's how things are, it's just the way our culture has gone.

Hillary Clinton's campaign was condescending as hell, and used people like Lena Dunham as their banner spokespeople, a woman who's an unashamed vocal racist and incestuous child predator from the cloistered upper classes. How is that any different than Trump? People saw no difference between Clinton and Trump, sat out the election, and it's easy to see why.

Whatever's going here, it runs deep, so these fires aren't going to be put out without an equal amount of deep reflection. Inside of this framework nothing's really going to get better.

OK, I thought I was as down on Dunham as anyone, but apparently not.

i don't particularly Dunham either but uhhh what?

Oh cool this argument again

it's coming back in clearance rack form

"uhhh what?" That's exactly what I'm talking about. Until "uhhh what?" turns to understanding, then we're stuck in Trump world, which has spanned much longer and and in many more dimensions than just Trump himself. This guy didn't appear out of nowhere, and what's happening now wouldn't be possible if things weren't already suited and primed for him, otherwise what he's doing wouldn't be possible without extreme conflict, like trying to bring two incompatible systems together. Beyond people grousing, that conflict, that inertia, isn't happening, it's all running smoothly as if everything works and fits together into a well-designed machine.

And we're all products of that system, each and every one of us, and it's not possible to step outside of it and change things until we make that deep self-examination. Apparently it's a joke to you all, so I don't have high hopes for things.

larry appleton's obsession with the lena dunham thing is well established on ILX iirc

Does that make what I said not exist? It's all public record right out there for anyone to read for themselves.

It's worth noting how you and others here are trying to will what I've said here into non-existence despite what it being easily confirmed as existing. If you can't face easily confirmed facts and their obvious relations to the problems you intend to fix, why even waste time or money trying to "help", it's not going to accomplish anything, and will probably do more harm than good. So you might as well just save yourselves the time and effort.

I've FP'd you already, phasers set to hard ignore

More pertinent is Erik Loomis' challenge to readers on LGM: http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2016/12/do-something

This "Resist Hate RI" thing he went to sounds like a great idea. I wonder if there is value in creating a sort of support network for feds and affiliated scum in the DMV, people at different agencies who can let each other know what's being done and how to stand against unlawful expectations, collectively blow the whistle, etc. I will definitely feel better knowing others like me are in a network, meeting regularly and staying abreast of developments than just hoping I personally see stuff coming and have all my shit 100% together in the right place and time.

larry, either use this thread for what it's meant to be used for or take it elsewhere. There's plenty of space for cynical dread in other threads.

Seriously.

ban larry appleton

lol jk

or change dn to SINNICAL DRED (n otha thredz)

My invective was a little beer fueled before. http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2016/12/do-something The comments here are pretty promising. This is fertile ground to make some bigger changes to hopefully stem this virus from replicating.

That bullshit about Lena Dunham is the virus though - both in terms of its reprehensibility and its eternal nature - as long as there's someone who'd rather believe it than look it up, it'll endure.

Drink better beer!

Why do people keep making this thread unreadable?

look i know the formatting was wack

LOL @ Until "uhhh what?" turns to understanding

there's plenty of stuff you can do. there are plenty of options available. performative theorizing may be helpful for you but doesn't add much constructive to the conversation.

uhhh whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuuuuuueeeeeeeureka!

This seems useful as a basic step-by-step guide to digital security. Better to shore up everything and lock it down now.

http://marchhare.io/March-hare-communication-security-guide.pdf

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DzOz3Y6D8g_MNXHNMJYAz1b41_cn535aU5UsN7Lj8X8/preview#heading=h.fwfuc1708kuz

http://blogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/blog/2016/12/15/trumpism-and-expertise/

thank you

ditto!

Now a site/PDF:

https://www.indivisibleguide.com

I don't know if I'm being overly prissy about this, but I'm getting a little annoyed with the concept of phone calls to non-representative govt individuals as activism, i.e. either calling the congressperson or senator from a district/state you don't actually live in (and hence the person doesn't represent you), or calling, like, the DOJ or something, as though they have a request line on what to investigate or prosecute.

yea im not sure how effective it is, i don't really know. calling your own reps makes sense obv

some reps apparently have systems for tracking where calls/emails come from and ignore the ones from out of district. FWIW I also really hate the idea of calling some mortal enemy like Paul Ryan (unless he is in fact my own representative) to ask him to do anything. Feels like seeking the merciful protection of the czar or some shit.

Also, a thing I was thinking since I've been posting a lot about electoral politics in this thread: while I totally think everyone should vote and should at least minimally follow and participate in electoral politics, I certainly don't think they're the be all end all, and I think people who feel repulsed or not particularly drawn to it but are interested in other kinds of activism should do other kinds of activism, because that's all necessary too.

Went to 4 organizing meetings/social events/reading group things last week. Reminded me of the importance of doing so, b/c I hate the utterly defeated, demoralized, and most of all helpless tone I read either on other threads or on FB. Going outside and to a place where others are gathering who want to do something has an invigorating, therapeutic value that isn't really communicated online.

What makes it worse is the shrieky despair of very pampered Acela-corridor media/pundity-types who now feel completely at a loss and the need to spread their hyperbolic panic around thru their regular columns.

It's like there's no acknowledgement or realization that yeah, shit is pretty fucked up and horrific, but that it's been that way for others already for a long time and they still worked to get something done. Panic and helplessness are communicable, sociogenic things, and these fucks ain't helping at anything except validate everything Gore Vidal said about them being like courtiers at Versailles.

Oh man, that's such a perfect description.

Similarly their own political ineffectuality in this moment is just a continuation of their prior ineffectuality, except that before everything was fine for them so it didn't matter.

On the plus side, one of the working groups I was in focused on defense, both personal/physical/bodily defense and InfoSec. You had multiple people there who were MMA trainers who held thrice weekly self-defense classes trying to focus on at-risk populations, and a vet who wanted to teach basic street-level first aid to everyone she could. She had been an active-duty combat medic in Afghanistan.

Made me wonder about setting up a group and/or training module for the role of "street medic." Build a skill manual integrating what works that was learned from Greece, Egypt, Standing Rock, Oaxaca, Ferguson, etc along with transferable skills instilled from armed forces medical training. Localize into it every language possible.

Going outside and to a place where others are gathering who want to do something has an invigorating, therapeutic value that isn't really communicated online.

this is so true

Suffice it to say, I have very, very strong feelings about (learned) helplessness.

And it's always learned, isn't it

an invigorating, therapeutic value

You make it sound like this is a $5 massage you got in the basement of a Chinese restaurant.

your mom is a $5 massage I got in the basement of a Chinese restaurant