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“ I have to constantly re-identify myself to myself, reactivate my own standards, my own convictions about what I’m doing and why.”

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“There is one issue now, and only one: keeping alive the vestiges of American democracy, with its commitment to meaningful checks and balances and to individual rights as well as majoritarian rule. American democracy has never been perfect, but it’s all we’ve got. When we have it, we can disagree peacefully and hope to remedy policy mistakes through discussion, legal action, and the ballot box. If we lose it, we’re done. So, whether you’re a fan of Bernie Sanders and the Squad or an admirer of Liz Cheney, we all need to stand together against Trump. To have any hope of achieving the kind of disciplined unity that will be essential to countering Trump, we also need a rhetoric and politics of inclusion. The left needs to ease up on cancel culture, rigid purity tests, and petty identity politics. We can’t give up on one another, and we can’t waste time wallowing in self-pity, or make plans to emigrate to Canada. This is our country. Around the world, millions of brave people have pushed back against far more abusive and frightening leaders than Donald Trump. If they can stand up against truly horrific regimes in their own countries, Americans can handle Trump.”

— I Helped Run “War Games” on Trump’s Plans. They Were Not Reassuring.

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Meanwhile, in the world of football, the Pop Tart Bowl had an anthropomorphic Pop Tart who asked to be lowered into a giant toaster, holding a sign saying "DREAMS REALLY DO COME TRUE"

The toaster then spat out a human-sized Pop Tart with a face for the winning team to eat

And they devoured the edible mascot ravenously

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Horace Vernet (1789-1863) "The Ballad of Lenore, or The Dead Travel Fast" Oil on canvas The painting is inspired by the ballad Lenore (1774) written by German author Gottfried August Bürger. In the poem, it is the end of the Seven Years' War, and Lenore is waiting for her fiancé; he appears in the night on a black horse, promising to marry her before dawn. But upon arriving at the cemetery, the horse rider is revealed to be a skeleton wearing armor.

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“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”

~ Howard Zinn

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hey, you said your inbox is open and I was curious if you have any ideas for someone who can't get involved irl in things like protests and local antifa groups (physically disabled and incapacitatingly severe anxiety), and who can't get involved in online activism beyond reblogging stuff (personal reasons, difficult to explain)?

I've been considering trying to put together care packages for local unhoused people, but I'm poor and I'd have to convince someone to help me put everything together so idk how well that will go.

I don't want to sit around doing nothing.

Hey anon! I am very glad you reached out, and this is a question I get asked a lot by people IRL, so you are very much not alone here.

I think the first order of business is expanding your definition of activism. We have been done a great disservice by having activism framed for us as protests, charity, & singular heroes making speeches and changing hearts through celebrity. In reality, the smaller actions in your community have a much greater impact; and most of all, the things you personally have to offer make the greatest impact.

This diagram is specifically geared towards climate action, but really applies to all activism:

For you to be an effective activist/volunteer/community member, it's crucial to find the centre of that diagram, or else you're on a one-way ticket to burnout. Don't get caught up in trying to judge which is the most "important" activism, because that answer will be different for everyone. The most important thing you can do for the world is the thing you can do.

I've done lots of volunteering and volunteer management in multiple fields, and there really is lots of choice out there for things that suit you; anything from sorting files quietly in a back room to using computer knowledge (often VERY absent in community groups lol) to help with maintaining websites & promoting community events. One of my personal favourite volunteer shifts was acting as a helper to the organizers of a queer electronic music festival, running a "build your own synthesizer" workshop. Literally I was just ticking off names on a registration sheet and doing setup and fetching things, but it was one of the coolest things I've had the joy to be involved in.

The other plus here is that activists in a given city all usually have some social overlap. If you email, say, your local community centre, explain your interests & circumstances & skills, and ask what you could do - they might not have anything right that moment, but likely someone there will know a different group that needs something similar, or they'll have ideas for who you could try next. Even if you're not finding a lot online right away, have faith in the (slightly haphazard) offline community org social scene. Same deal if you get involved with something and realize it's not your thing after all - just be honest, and ask for help in finding something more suited to you. It's so, so common, and no one's going to get angry with you for wanting to help in ways you're better suited for.

Don't mistake me when I nudge you towards volunteering - there's a certain way that well-meaning (usually) liberals treat volunteering, like they're 'donating' their time as charity, and I am not advocating for that. I'm just saying that you really don't have to reinvent the wheel. There are structures in place run by people who know well how to do it. Part of the importance is the work itself; the file-sorting, the computer help, whatever. But another part is building connections with the people around you, and also letting those people benefit from the privilege of knowing you. And that will happen naturally over time. The muscle will grow as you use it more, even if you need to start with something that feels to you like it might not be enormously significant in the grand scheme of things. Maybe you move on to 'bigger' things, or maybe you gain new perspective and realize just how significant your contributions are after all.

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water doggos 🦭

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what are your thoughts on writing/calling members of Congress and voicing concerns? Are any more responsive than others? Are there any conservative/moderates at least willing to listen? I feel so helpless.

I will say that almost no one takes the initiative to contact their congresspeople, so you will be ahead of the curve by doing so at all. You will reach an intern whose job it is to collect these comments, and they will say "thank you for calling X's office" and that will be it. You can also email, though with the phone you will be sure of talking to someone. Again, people don't often do this, so it always helps to remind the congresscritters that there are real people out there paying attention.

That said: you are limited in who you can contact, i.e. those who directly represent you and therefore you are their constituent. I mean, you can always call Mitch McConnell and tell his intern that he's a bag of dicks, but if you don't live in Kentucky (and lbr, even if you do), he has no obligation to care about that at all. If you're lucky enough to live in a swing district, you can definitely get the most bang for your buck out of contacting your congressperson, but even in safe blue or safe red districts, it's worth doing anyway.

Locate which US House congressional district you live in and who your US senators are, but also remember that a lot of the bad shit that happened over the last 4 years even while Biden was in office was driven by state and local legislatures. Contact your state senators, your governor, your state House-- hell, even your city council. They are the ones who will be making decisions that directly affect you and say, whether or not a particularly heinous Trump policy gets implemented without a fight. Decisions are made by those who show up, and there has never been a better time to get tf off the echo chamber Internet and do real work in your community. So yeah.

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Me: The Acolyte is the culmination of decades of thorough misunderstanding of the story Lucas was telling in his original six-part saga. And its depressing that at this point, the genie is out of the bottle and can't be put back in, with how pervasive the misreading of the prequels and the Jedi is.

Them: Sir, this is a Taco Bell.