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

It's bringing out the douchemax in about 3 or 4 people as far as I can tell. Everyone else is getting a lot more interested in the universe beyond voting and that should be terrifying to status quo guardians; which probably explains mr. appleton's position more than any allegations of nihilism

I don't have to make another explainer post about what I meant, right? I mean, most of you got what I was aiming at?

"Sacrificing for someone else"...where I come from, people are working-class, they're not privileged white college kids from expensive universities. They are sacrificing FOR THEMSELVES. That's what puts me off this "altruism" bullshit. A lot of us are trying to save our own asses, trying to save our communities from neglect and deterioration that will certainly get worse under Trump. I don't have the time or resources to be "altruistic", I stopped going to church for a reason, don't need another controlling ideology in my life. There is plenty of shit where I live that needs doing and I get involved in it because my quality of life will improve.

The left has lost 100% completely and utterly. Totally decimated. Complete failure. Flushed down the toilet. Pack up the tents, it's over, folks. So that doesn't inspire some soul searching? Of course not, because that would go against the therapeutic value of all this, too stressful, too uncomfortable. Whatever, I'm sitting this shit out, I've seen how the sausage is made, and I'm good.

― larry appleton

larry, you're doing a pretty terrible job at "get the hell out of the way". this is the way, and you're standing there.

because christ on a crutch, performative defeatism is even more obnoxious than being performatively woke.

where I come from, people are working-class, they're not privileged white college kids from expensive universities. They are sacrificing FOR THEMSELVES.

^this otmfm

There is plenty of shit where I live that needs doing and I get involved in it because my quality of life will improve.

THE ABSOLUTE BASIC BUILDING BLOCK OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING, RIGHT HERE. When people say "What will I get out of this?" the answer for frontline communities is "The quality or circumstances of my daily life will improve."

Eh, whatever, this the last time I'm going to post in this thread.

― larry appleton, Monday, December 19, 2016 4:06 PM (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

larry lied, social activism threads died

TIL about the Truman Project.

https://truman.runforoffice.org/

http://trumanproject.org/home/

wait appleton isnt losted

hiya! I haven't been following this thread in detail but I know there are some good organisers and activists here - some British leftist journalist friends of mine are going to the US in January and looking to find out about and talk to people. If you are or you know anything important going on in NYC, Washington DC, Raleigh or Baltimore hit me up?

hmm pretty sure something's happening in DC in January but I just can't remember what it is

that is, presumably, why they're going

That seems kind of broad. What kinds of things? Protests? Meetings? I mean the resurgence of interest in DSA seems like maybe an interesting story.

as someone who started following/gave to DSA recently i've also started digging around various lefty forums and my god i'd sorta forgotten just how easily splintered we are over ideological purity

Has this been posted?

https://medium.com/@kaarenhaldeman/ten-pro-tips-on-how-to-survive-the-next-presidency-from-the-people-of-north-carolina-f6bb51c70624#.ydnniwrzd

just how easily splintered we are over ideological purity

Yeah, there are a lot of bad habits still around and evolving past them will be painful and stupid

That seems kind of broad. What kinds of things? Protests? Meetings? I mean the resurgence of interest in DSA seems like maybe an interesting story.

― the last famous person you were surprised to discover was actually (man alive), Thursday, December 22, 2016 5:07 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

grassroots organisations, movements, activist campaigns, seeds of protest. that sort of thing

"Purity" is a trigger word for me *ha-ha* It seems to me it's often employed when there are real, substantive differences at issue.

An acquaintance of mine wanted to find a resistance group to work with. They had trouble not over some idealized notion of radical purity but indeed real, substantive differences. Like: I believe Israel has serious moral problems and needs to fix itself; they believe Israel is a pariah, as oppressive as South Africa, and an artificial construct and that shouldn't even be on the map anyway. Later, Someone brought in a American flag that had QUEER written across it in glitter. Reportedly some were upset by the use of the flag because it stands for racism, slavery, and colonialism. There were some people who believed it was okay to reappropriate the symbol, take it back, and apply it to good purposes; others felt too oppressed by the flag's bloody history. I'm paraphrasing here for privacy but that's the gist of it.

All I can say is that I hope there are equally vociferous differences dividing the right.

There were some people who believed it was okay to reappropriate the symbol, take it back, and apply it to good purposes; others felt too oppressed by the flag's bloody history

it's not often the flag really does stand so neatly for the country

https://www.emptywheel.net/2016/12/21/draintheswamp-and-the-structure-of-power/

Chicago Review of Books says it will not cover any Simon & Schuster books in 2017 as a result of the Yiannopolous book deal:

https://twitter.com/bookschicago/status/814544045825474561

really? of all the shits who have gotten published? drama queens.

I have been hearing radio ads on a Baltimore rap/r'n'b station for this upcoming Al Sharpton sponsored Jan. 14th march in DC, but little to no mention elsewhere (especially compared to the attention the women's march the following weekend). Here's one article about it:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2016/12/15/rev-al-sharpton-to-host-rally-ahead-of-inauguration-there-must-be-an-organized-resistance-movement/?utm_term=.1af659e91d7b

Rev. Al Sharpton will bring together prominent black activist groups for a rally ahead of Inauguration Day, setting the stage for what he says will be a full-force resistance from him and other black leaders during the presidency of Donald J. Trump.

The “We Shall Not be Moved” rally on Jan. 14 in Washington will focus on voting rights, criminal justice, healthcare and economic justice. Sharpton’s group, National Action Network, along with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, National Urban League and Black Women’s Roundtable are hosting the event on the National Mall.

Bizarre that anybody still trusts/listens to sharpton but sure u go bro

whatever you do, keep it outside the caca Democratic Party

yes, teaming up with the KKK and the FSB is a much better option for real change. That's what you're doing, right Doctor?

The real resistance: sniping from the sidelines at people who give a shit, while constantly claiming that you actually care about stuff

oh i give a shit

it's too bad it doesnt matter

teaming up with the KKK

you're really an asshole, as ppl who barely know you are fully aware

Pot kettle! I have been able to string a coherent paragraph together from time to time, something that's consistently beyond your abilities

hey i know my limits

I like this bit on the problems with consensus decision-making on anything larger than a small group:

http://berkeleyjournal.org/2015/05/the-theology-of-consensus/

Which I think is going to be increasingly relevant as you get more and more people getting active whose last experience with any of this was Occupy, and so still have the unhelpful habits in place.

on the other hand some people whose last experience with any of this with occupy might now be allergic to consensus.

the process is v useful in places i think but you don't forget spending 5+ rainy hours failing to come to a decision on whether to a) allow traffic thru the major artery separating yr two occupied park blocks or b) take the police charge in the morning

Yeah, which gets mentioned in the piece. It's like an even worse version of Wilde's attributed quote of "socialism takes too many evenings."

Bizarre that anybody still trusts/listens to sharpton but sure u go bro

― Οὖτις, Saturday, December 31, 2016 2:15 AM (three days ago

I don't trust him but he has an audience. My point is Sharpton is reaching out via ads on Baltimore rap/r'n'b radio to an audience with a sizable amount of Black Americans for his upcoming rally on the 14th, while the Women's March on the 21st isn't doing as much to reach beyond its white women led leadership.

Should we have a thread for Chapo Trap House and the dirtbag left

the process is v useful in places i think but you don't forget spending 5+ rainy hours failing to come to a decision on whether to a) allow traffic thru the major artery separating yr two occupied park blocks or b) take the police charge in the morning

Yeah, the Portland camp had that weird aspect, didn't it, not just one park but trying to maintain the two.

And that stupid rain.

But it also consistently empowered cranks, malcontents, and even provocateurs to lay claim to a group’s attention and gum up the works, even when groups adopted modifications to strict consensus that allowed super-majorities to override blocks.

Consensus can easily be derailed by those acting in bad faith. But it’s also a process that is ill-equipped to deal with disagreements that arise from competing interests rather than simple differences of opinion.

This has been my experience too. I've been in meetings/strategy sessions where someone with dubious motivations can make everything about themselves and there's no rigor, no structure to tell them to have a seat. Esp if that person is a member of an already marginalized group, it's super dicey.

Should we have a thread for Chapo Trap House and the dirtbag left

Might as well, seeing as how it's going to pop up in the other threads increasingly

An acquaintance of mine wanted to find a resistance group to work with. They had trouble not over some idealized notion of radical purity but indeed real, substantive differences. Like: I believe Israel has serious moral problems and needs to fix itself; they believe Israel is a pariah, as oppressive as South Africa, and an artificial construct and that shouldn't even be on the map anyway. Later, Someone brought in a American flag that had QUEER written across it in glitter. Reportedly some were upset by the use of the flag because it stands for racism, slavery, and colonialism. There were some people who believed it was okay to reappropriate the symbol, take it back, and apply it to good purposes; others felt too oppressed by the flag's bloody history. I'm paraphrasing here for privacy but that's the gist of it.

― troops in djibouti (Ye Mad Puffin)

in my line of work we call that "scope creep"

always reread The Tyranny of Structurelessness

Yeah or "feature creep."

This has been my experience too. I've been in meetings/strategy sessions where someone with dubious motivations can make everything about themselves and there's no rigor, no structure to tell them to have a seat. Esp if that person is a member of an already marginalized group, it's super dicey.

Yeah, my gf's activist group falls prey to that too, where a couple rather zealous members go overboard in the otherwise valid desire to include victims or lived experience. Like there's a confusion between hearing the experience someone had with the problem or conditions you're working to improve, and foregrounding them as someone who would know best and should lead the group. As if direct experience automatically imparted deep wisdom on how to change it.

Freddie DeBoer will bring up the term "the politics of deference," which seems to apply, in the privileging of identity or victim-status over, say, actual content of argument.

Officials of the N.A.A.C.P. and its Alabama chapter occupied the Mr. Sessions’s office in Mobile, Ala., demanding that the senator withdraw his name from consideration to be the next attorney general.

NY Times typo in there

One thing anti-Trump activists need to prepare for is the apparent willingness of Trump to use violent force against any opposition. Given his cheerleading at his rallies in favor of his supporters beating up protestors and his supporters' consistent attitude that anyone who opposes trumpism is not a legitimate American, I think we can expect an atmosphere of violence and intimidation that only stiffens in the face of resistance, just as there were millions of Americans who vocally insisted that the students shot dead at Kent State "had it coming".

This kind of violent polarization was rampant in the 1960s and 70s and has only been about one inch below the surface of politics for the three and a half decades since then. Don't be shocked when it fully emerges, be prepared.

violent force against any opposition

the left is p used to this ime

ust as there were millions of Americans who vocally insisted that the students shot dead at Kent State "had it coming"

One of these being my own mother, who didn't exactly say it in these words, but voiced shockingly irritated sentiments about her fellow students getting straight murdered by the State, as she was a Kent State student teacher that year.