Hi. I'm a progressive thinker interested in ideas and methods of developing a world in which there is as little suffering as possible.
My thinking style is a little bit futurist, a little bit hippie, and very pragmatic. I'm not into pie-in-the-sky ideas. I want to talk about actions that can be implemented to make change happen in time to stop what's coming (a terrible eco-dystopia).
I'm 50. I find most of the internet to be a childish & boring place. Most memes aren't funny. Most people that think they're comedians aren't funny either. I'd rather have a serious conversation.
I'm a cis white male. I believe in dignity and respect for all people, except conservatives.
I also believe that we need to take more direct action to make change. I think the most important conversation we should be having is akin to the trolley dilemma, except one track has american conservatives on it, and the other track has the entirety of humanity and all the other forms of innocent plant and animal life on it.
I'm pretty big into military tactics because I think this is the most direct method for change.
Do I belong here?
I miss all the fun posts
To any lurkers reading this and thinking "maybe I should do some
"... maybe try joining an org first?
I don't believe adventuring is going to get us anywhere right now. What we need is more comrades in orgs doing community work. Get embedded in your neighborhood groups, listen to the people, build a program to meet the needs of those people, build new comrades, and repeat. Someone smarter than me called it a "mass line"
It's not a glamorous process, but it is necessary to get more people to snap out of the spell Capitalism cast on them.
It's a lot easier to demonize the group burning a building than the group that fed your kids, stood guard in front of the gay bar your friend goes to, or pressured city council into fixing the bus route you rely on to get to work. And when people see it's the Socialists & "tankies" that made those material changes, not Democrats, some of them will join us.
You said it.
When someone from the broader community trusts you (and hopefully your organisation) to come through with genuine support and with accurate analysis of circumstances, you are teaching them who radicals are and what they are committed to. Propaganda of the deed like spitting on a king or throwing some graffiti up doesn't really achieve anything but a genuine and deep commitment to actual "propaganda of the deed" like what the Panthers did in their communities advances our goals. (I know, I know... I'm using that term incorrectly in the second example but you get what I mean.)
Piss on Thatcher's grave if it makes you feel good (just don't get caught while you're doing it). But rolling up your sleeves and getting involved in your community by providing support, resources, guidance, and being a hardworking, upstanding, consistent member of your community is what really gets the goods.
Act like an ambassador for your politics whenever you go in your life because, if you're lucky, you might be treated as one by your community.