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@Handsome Jack
I may be a minor, but I won’t be for too long in the broader sense of things. On the contrary, adulthood looms ever-closer.
My academy allows us to found clubs of our own, but there are many issues with that:
First off, I have a. mandatory study hours Mon-Thurs and b. a curfew, unlike the actual uni students. This limits the time I have to actually plan meetings, let alone attend them.
Second off, it seems that most people go home on the weekends. My parents are over 100 miles away, so I usually don’t unless it’s mandatory or there’s medical things to be done. So I can’t run things on weekends (where I have more free time) and get a decent turnout.
Third off, you technically need approval to chalk up the campus. This is probably why the political chalk was rinsed away: it likely wasn’t approved, and the intended purpose of chalk is to tell people about clubs meeting or other significant events involving joinable groups (ex. fraternities or sororities). I may not get approval. I would also need chalk.
I want to help. I feel as if I have to, for the sake of the people I love. But what cost will it come at–in terms of currency, emotional stability, sanity, legacy, and time?
Hey I have a dumb question, what do I do when I feel doubt creeping in and feel like the bigots and people full of hatred could be right? Because im feeling doubt creep in right now, and even if I wasnt, this happens often enough for me to ask.
Also I have a really stupid joke concerning the Minnisota joining Canada thing, I just want to gage if it’s appropriate to tell it now
Good morning, everyone!
I haven’t had a chance to read the whole thread, but I figured I’d reply to one or two here that’ve popped into my head.
@Overly long name, doubt happens with setbacks. It’s normal and natural. Setbacks like this don’t make other positions right though. The bigots didn’t win an argument or a debate, and they didn’t publish a proof. They won a popularity contest. They get to be class president because they promised pizza parties every Friday and said that they were going to throw the teachers out of school. That doesn’t make’m right.
@Axecalibur, <3. It's okay to feed that anger for awhile, but you won't feel better until you stop, so I hope you can let it go once you're done with it.
@All, much love from the north. We're happy to help you once your heads are back together. Take your time.
@Troubelle
I’m a minor, so I decided that I would stop standing for the pledge every day after Trump is sworn in.
I don’t know if you’re able to do the same, but I thought I’d toss my two cents in for what it’s worth.
I can’t tell anyone not to despair right now because I can’t and won’t tell anyone what they should feel. But I will share what’s keeping me from truly despairing right now.
It’s what the reactionaries want. They want us to feel helpless. They want us to feel that it’s useless to push back against oppression and just submit it to it. The fuck if I’m going to give them what they want. Despite how worried I am about the future of our country and our world, they are not going to get the satisfaction of my despair.
It’s okay to take a few weeks or months to despair or avoid. The Cheeto Nazi doesn’t take office until late January. I’m getting the Nintendo Classic Mini on Friday and am going to immerse myself in the Mario 1,2, and 3 for a few weeks. I’m going to mostly avoid the news and sites that talk about politics for a week or two. But come January, it’s time to fight.
I also agree that the while the shitlords will gloat for the next several months, it’s not going to take long for them to run out of steam. They think a Trump presidency will mean progressives will go away forever and all white cishet men will become wealthy and have a harem of hot 18 year old submissive virgins who will become porn stars for them. That’s not going to happen. They’ll become disillusioned soon enough.
Take your time to work through your despair but don’t give up for good.
@Troubelle
You might feel that it’s a huge amount of obstacles in front of you and becoming active because you’re thinking too big too fast. You can start smaller I think, in order to get something started from which you and others can then build up.
It sounds as if you’re thinking of activism in your school environment. If that’s right, are there any organisational structures already in place?
Do you know if any of your fellow students share the worries expressed here and also want to become active? If so, it might be good to get into contact with them so you can tackle the obstacles together. Alternatively you could research what kind of activist groups already exist in your area and then just drop by and check them out, see whether you can become involved there. If you don’t have any experience in organising and activist work, it can be pretty hard to start something on your own from nothing. You can do that, of course, but even then I would suggest you try to find some like-minded people, maybe even online, to share ideas and resources.
And you can totally start small. I know it can seem like that will never be enough, but you alone cannot bring about the needed change anyway, so don’t get paralysed by putting that burden on your shoulders! You can only do a part and even the smallest part that you get done will help more than being stuck with not knowing where to start because you demand too much of yourself!
And the first step in becoming active is not some great political action anyway. Especially if there aren’t any organized structures in your area building them up, finding like-minded people, talking to them, planning actions all these are very important steps. They are activism. They do help, because they generate the structures that later, bigger action can be build on.
I think it’s great that you want to do something, just don’t overwhelm yourself.
Maybe I am too much of a coward. I am trans, queer, mentally ill, indigenous/POC. I am afraid to organize or demonstrate. My instinct is to keep my head down and protect myself and my family, but the idea makes my conscience hurt.
There was already one shooting nearby last night (victim DOA). A friend of mine, trans woman, had her mailbox shot up a few weeks ago. I feel paralyzed.
@wwth
I wouldn’t dare.
@LittleLurker
….You’re right. I can’t let my chronic hero syndrome get the best of me. I know at least some of my academy’s on my side, at least. I need help. We all do.
@PreuxFox, your safety comes first. If you don’t organize or demonstrate or anything because you’re afraid of violence, I am not judging you.
@PreusFox, don’t feel guilty. Don’t feel guilty. Staying safe is incredibly more important. If you can find a path to help that keeps you safe? That’s great. If you can’t? That’s okay.
@wwth, You say it better than I could, as usual. This won’t be change, and the people who voted for him will realize it soon enough. Stripping LGBT rights and shutting down Planned Parenthood clinics won’t give them high paying jobs.
Here’s Keith Olbermann’s commentary on this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biYHEmzIJwo
I have to wonder if the American media is going to start taking him seriously yet or not.
@Scildfreja: Deporting all the Mexican migrant farmers will free up a lot of jobs.
Too bad they’re “$2 a day picking produce in the heat, with no benefits” sorts of jobs.
Let’s see a bunch of these Trumpkins standing around outside a gas station, hoping the next vehicle to come along is a pickup with a farmer in it and not a cop car.
@PreuxFox:
As Falconer says, don’t push yourself to do anything unsafe. No cause needs martyrs.
A safer form of activism is simply to be in contact with other people and to reassure them that they aren’t alone. For people whose lack of privilege makes them vulnerable to feelings of isolation, this can be an enormous benefit. Even if it’s just an occasional message on email or on We Hunted the Mammoth, it can help others hugely.
@Monzach
While I normally would respond to this “I got some room where to host people for a while, if it comes to that”, the sad fact is that 1) Trump is also making noises of weakening or fucking up with NATO and 2) his best buddy Putin lives next door, and he and his duma have been making noises of “Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania split from Soviet Union illegally” and “historically, Finland has been a part of Russia” and Russian air force has been zinging our airspace in a casual manner as a big fuck you, I dare you to do something about that, 3) it is not like we do not have several repugnant populists seated in our government, with bigoted ideas about everything and our own homegrown Nazi problem, who are oh so very happy that the Pepe-man got elected.
I mean, yeah — if shit really hits the fan, I can try and do my share of offering actual refuge for people from ‘States, but, everyone gotta understand that the situation over here can always escalate to even worse.
I realize that this is very stereotypical worry-response — “a Finn worries about how this will affect Russian situation” — but fuck it, I was brought up by my gran who lived on eastern border during WWII (aka ‘Winter War’ and ‘Continuation War’ for us), and who saw both bombing action and coffins coming back like a stream. And Putin, frankly, terrifies me on the same level as Trump. Him having a buddy-bud up there feels like an echo of Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.
Right now my only consolation is that “it isn’t January 20th of 2017, yet“.
I’ve noticed that those in finance and business are becoming increasingly concerned. Good. Fuck them.
Capitalists hated the New Deal. It actually saved capitalism from itself by reigning in the worst excesses and cruelty. This is actually the reason a lot of socialists were opposed to it. Because it did save capitalism and all but killed off socialism in the US because it kept civil unrest away. But the business community didn’t get that. They’ve been throwing a several decade long tantrum over it. They’ve used their wealth and power very successfully to roll back the New Deal slowly but steadily. They’ve correctly counted on bigots hating social progress and blaming that for the consequences of the New Deal rollback.
They’ve gotten what they wanted and are perhaps discovering that bringing the gilded age back is not what it’s cracked up to me. The very, very wealthiest are secure no matter what. The moderately wealthy are not. They do better when they share the pie with the rest of us. A society with a healthy middle class is more stable and prosperous as a whole. Growing income inequality is simply not sustainable.
I am absolutely, positively not hoping for another recession. The business/finance community potentially learning the error of their ways is simply not worth the pain that it would cause. But the possible silver lining if we do wind up in a recession again, we could get a New New Deal (one that doesn’t racially discriminate this time). Personally, I’m not sure that capitalism is worth saving but I’m not confident that socialism will ever take off in the US and capitalism lite is better than capitalism on steroids. I’m trying to something, anything positive away from this anxiety. I don’t blame anyone for not joining me in it. I’m just sharing my thoughts.
My coworkers and I have been talking about things very quietly. Boss is a Trump
supporter. It seems like all the men in the office aside from myself voted for Trump. One of them said it was because ‘at least something will happen now, whether it’s good or bad. We won’t be stuck in the status quo any more.’
(I didn’t have the energy to punch him so I still have a job for now. Of course I work at a bank so if the market keeps responding to Trump the way it has been, we might all be out of our jobs soon either way.)
Ok I’m done dumping doom and gloom on everyone here. Real talk, I’m available if anybody is feeling suicidal and needs somebody to talk to; otherwise my plan right now is to lie low, watch what happens as the year comes to a close, keep writing my novel with renewed vigor because I know a novel about young queer POC would piss off some of these bigots if I ever get it published. And we will see what happens I guess.
@PreuxFox: Good luck with your novel, it sounds amazing.
@Skiriki
Oh I wasn’t trying to imply that Finland was some sort of earthly paradise. It’s not. We’re living in quite interesting times for sure and the situation across our eastern border freaks me out. It just seems that pretty much any part of the Western world will be preferable to the US under Trump for minorities. And besides, Finland is a rather nice place, at least for now. If the “Basic Finns” get into power though… 🙁
@PreuxFox *hugs* and what everyone else said. Take care of yourself, and go from there.
Good advice for everything, methinks.
PreuxFox – I am sort of in the same boat, but at least the people in my building are all Hillary folks, and can understand and I don’t have to feel like I want to punch them in the nose.
In addition to the President, we have to deal with the fact that our state just elected the man hand-picked and paid for by our Tea Party favorite governor because the other candidate voted against the Death Penalty and has not let the governor stomp all over teacher pensions. I suspect my pension is gone for good, and with the Republican Congress having carte blanche with our Social Security, and with my being over 50 and therefore unlikely to find another job in a field that hates experience now (education) and only wants those right out of school…well, things definitely are grim.
And Trump will not realize he did not get a mandate, especially since the popular vote apparently went to Hillary.
You’re not a coward. Your life is important to you, it’s important to us, it’s important to the world. You do whatever you think it’ll take to help yourself. Keeping yourself alive is a fight in itself.
Question, white men, what the fuck is wrong with status quo? No one was DYING in status quo. What the fuck is the deal with these white fuckers who fucking want status quo gone?
You know what isn’t fucking status quo? A woman president!
That was, in fact, one reason why my mom didn’t vote Clinton, because it was just “too different”, especially since we had a black president.
So, again, what was wrong with status quo? Was it because status quo didn’t have a fucking white man at the wheel anymore? Please tell me.
I felt terrible yesterday morning because I was dreading this. Now that it’s come, I feel calm. I am no longer afraid. I will not be erased. WE will not be erased.
Let’s stick together, look after each other, and keep fighting once we feel able to again. Big hugs for anyone who wants them.
I would just like to say: Fuck everyone who voted for Trump for the sake of “breaking the system”. As bad as the current system is or might be, there are worse systems.
@wwth, my worries are for a recession as well, but, well. More than that.
Apparently Putin announced that he was going to enter into negotiations with Trump to immediately “restore relations with the United States.” (I’m so sorry, Skiriki) What do you figure the odds are that those negotiations are going to be behind closed doors? It sounds a lot like a pre-emptive Treaty of Westphalia.
Stay safe out there.
This. So much.
We’ve all seen what being president does to one’s hair. Maybe Cheeto Mop will “step down” when the dyes and combovers stop helping.
/laughing so I don’t cry.