jayetheartist

[jayetheartist]

if you don’t remember anything else for the next 4 years, remember this: don’t be a fucking snitch.

[jayetheartist]

I miss the old Laffy Taffy wrappers because you’d often get the punchline to one joke, then a whole joke, then a setup for a third joke, and you could put the mismatched half jokes together into an absurd joke that was usually hilarious.

[jayetheartist]

Remember kids: one of the punkest things you can do right now is to look out for your neighbors and make sure they are safe

[jayetheartist]

Made it all the way through January without crossing a single thing off any of my bingo cards. Sad.

[jayetheartist]

"With Donald Trump set to take office after a fear-mongering campaign that reignited concerns about his desire to become a dictator, a reasonable question comes up: Can nonviolent struggle defeat a tyrant?

There are many great resources that answer this question, but the one that’s been on my mind lately is the Global Nonviolent Action Database, or GNAD, built by the Peace Studies department at Swarthmore College. Freely accessible to the public, this database — which launched under my direction in 2011 — contains over 1,400 cases of nonviolent struggle from over a hundred countries, with more cases continually being added by student researchers.  

At quick glance, the database details at least 40 cases of dictators who were overthrown by the use of nonviolent struggle, dating back to 1920. These cases — which include some of the largest nations in the world, spanning Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America — contradict the widespread assumption that a dictator can only be overcome by violence. What’s more, in each of these cases, the dictator had the desire to stay, and possessed violent means for defense. Ultimately, though, they just couldn’t overcome the power of mass nonviolent struggle.  

In a number of countries, the dictator had been embedded for years at the time they were pushed out. Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, for example, had ruled for over 29 years. In the 1990s, citizens usually whispered his name for fear of reprisal. Mubarak legalized a “state of emergency,” which meant censorship, expanded police powers and limits on the news media. Later, he “loosened” his rule, putting only 10 times as many police as the number of protesters at each demonstration.  

The GNAD case study describes how Egyptians grew their democracy movement despite repression, and finally won in 2011. However, gaining a measure of freedom doesn’t guarantee keeping it. As Egypt has shown in the years since, continued vigilance is needed, as is pro-active campaigning to deepen the degree of freedom won.  

Some countries repeated the feat of nonviolently deposing a ruler: In Chile, the people nonviolently threw out a dictator in 1931 and then deposed a new dictator in 1988. South Koreans also did it twice, once in 1960 and again in 1987. (They also just stopped their current president from seizing dictatorial powers, but that’s not yet in the database.)  

In each case people had to act without knowing what the reprisals would be...

It’s striking that in many of the cases I looked at, the movement avoided merely symbolic marches and rallies and instead focused on tactics that impose a cost on the regime. As Donald Trump wrestles to bring the armed forces under his control, for example, I can imagine picketing army recruiting offices with signs, “Don’t join a dictator’s army.”  

Another important takeaway: Occasional actions that simply protest a particular policy or egregious action aren’t enough. They may relieve an individual’s conscience for a moment, but, ultimately, episodic actions, even large ones, don’t assert enough power. Over and over, the Global Nonviolent Action Database shows that positive results come from a series of escalating, connected actions called a campaign...

-via Waging Nonviolence, January 8, 2025. Article continues below.

East Germany’s peaceful revolution

When East Germans began their revolt against the German Democratic Republic in 1988, they knew that their dictatorship of 43 years was backed by the Soviet Union, which might stage a deadly invasion. They nevertheless acted for freedom, which they gained and kept.

Researcher Hanna King tells us that East Germans began their successful campaign in January 1988 by taking a traditional annual memorial march and turning it into a full-scale demonstration for human rights and democracy. They followed up by taking advantage of a weekly prayer for peace at a church in Leipzig to organize rallies and protests. Lutheran pastors helped protect the organizers from retaliation and groups in other cities began to stage their own “Monday night demonstrations.”  

The few hundred initial protesters quickly became 70,000, then 120,000, then 320,000, all participating in the weekly demonstrations. Organizers published a pamphlet outlining their vision for a unified German democracy and turned it into a petition. Prisoners of conscience began hunger strikes in solidarity.

By November 1988, a million people gathered in East Berlin, chanting, singing and waving banners calling for the dictatorship’s end. The government, hoping to ease the pressure, announced the opening of the border to West Germany. Citizens took sledgehammers to the hated Berlin Wall and broke it down. Political officials resigned to protest the continued rigidity of the ruling party and the party itself disintegrated. By March 1990 — a bit over two years after the campaign was launched — the first multi-party, democratic elections were held.

Students lead the way in Pakistan

In Pakistan, it was university students (rather than religious clerics) who launched the 1968-69 uprising that forced Ayub Khan out of office after his decade as a dictator. Case researcher Aileen Eisenberg tells us that the campaign later required multiple sectors of society to join together to achieve critical mass, especially workers. 

It was the students, though, who took the initiative — and the initial risks. In 1968, they declared that the government’s declaration of a “decade of development” was a fraud, protesting nonviolently in major cities. They sang and marched to their own song called “The Decade of Sadness.” 

Police opened fire on one of the demonstrations, killing several students. In reaction the movement expanded, in numbers and demands. Boycotts grew, with masses of people refusing to pay the bus and railway fares on the government-run transportation system. Industrial workers joined the movement and practiced encirclement of factories and mills. An escalation of government repression followed, including more killings. 

As the campaign expanded from urban to rural parts of Pakistan, the movement’s songs and political theater thrived. Khan responded with more violence, which intensified the determination among a critical mass of Pakistanis that it was time for him to go.

After months of growing direct action met by repressive violence, the army decided its own reputation was being degraded by their orders from the president, and they demanded his resignation. He complied and an election was scheduled for 1970 — the first since Pakistan’s independence in 1947.

Why use nonviolent struggle?

The campaigns in East Germany and Pakistan are typical of all 40 cases in their lack of a pacifist ideology, although some individuals active in the movements had that foundation. What the cases do seem to have in common is that the organizers saw the strategic value of nonviolent action, since they were up against an opponent likely to use violent repression. Their commitment to nonviolence would then rally the masses to their side. 

That encourages me. There’s hardly time in the U.S. during Trump’s regime to convert enough people to an ideological commitment to nonviolence, but there is time to persuade people of the strategic value of a nonviolent discipline. 

It’s striking that in many of the cases I looked at, the movement avoided merely symbolic marches and rallies and instead focused on tactics that impose a cost on the regime. As Donald Trump wrestles to bring the armed forces under his control, for example, I can imagine picketing army recruiting offices with signs, “Don’t join a dictator’s army.”  

Another important takeaway: Occasional actions that simply protest a particular policy or egregious action aren’t enough. They may relieve an individual’s conscience for a moment, but, ultimately, episodic actions, even large ones, don’t assert enough power. Over and over, the Global Nonviolent Action Database shows that positive results come from a series of escalating, connected actions called a campaign — the importance of which is also outlined in my book “How We Win.”  

As research seminar students at Swarthmore continue to wade through history finding new cases, they are digging up details on struggles that go beyond democracy. The 1,400 already-published cases include campaigns for furthering environmental justice, racial and economic justice, and more. They are a resource for tactical ideas and strategy considerations, encouraging us to remember that even long-established dictators have been stopped by the power of nonviolent campaigns.

-via Waging Nonviolence, January 8, 2025.

[jayetheartist]

Cool. I’m posting for the benefit of people who haven’t done this before and don’t know. I wish I’d had someone to tell me this stuff 8 years ago.

Lots of people get into activism with so much passion and hope, and then they have bad experiences or do a lot of pointless things and get discouraged, and they never try again after that. They just go back to their lives more apathetic than before. I don’t like seeing that happen.

I've generally been treating this blog as a refuge from...all the things. But since posts about these "protests" have been going around, I wanted to share these words of caution in the interest of helping everyone stay safe. There is definitely work to be done, but we need to be smart about it. No charging into territory blind.

Stay safe. ❤️

[jayetheartist]

Both.

Gathering for a day with signs isn’t “pushback.” If your protest doesn’t have a targeted message, including a plan for some designated people to take that message to the people it’s intended for, and a clearly stated intention to do something else if those people don’t engage with your demands, then there isn’t much point.

If it’s just “hey, we’re upset, and if you don’t do something to make things generally better, we’ll continue to be mad about it where you can see us,” then it is literally pointless.

And maybe people will network and do more, but this is the kind of protest that attracts mostly people who are brand new to activism (or who have avoided actual organizing because they mostly want to protest and do nothing else). I’ve been part of orgs started and run by newbies. It’s not the optimal way forward, let’s just say that. If you all really want to network people for action, then that needs to be coordinated with established players to bring new people in, and that’s a whole other animal.

Also, why the state capitals? I mean, I see the reasoning, but it is actually not a good plan in a lot of states. In my state the capital is not a major city. The only thing that goes on there is state government, and they’re not even in session. If this is targeted at Congress, our senators and reps have individual offices scattered around, nowhere near the state capital. Might as well protest in front of a mall somewhere.

I've generally been treating this blog as a refuge from...all the things. But since posts about these "protests" have been going around, I wanted to share these words of caution in the interest of helping everyone stay safe. There is definitely work to be done, but we need to be smart about it. No charging into territory blind.

Stay safe. ❤️

[jayetheartist]

We were lucky nothing happened, and the bigger problem is that NOTHING HAPPENED. There was no point besides putting two sets of protesters in the same place so they could scream at each other and wave signs. No action was taken, there was no agenda, there was no purpose, nobody led, nobody benefited, no positive things happened at all. We showed up, we went home, it was of zero consequence.

That’s the experience part, too. That’s why it’s a big deal that this is leaderless and disorganized. Okay, so everyone shows up at state capitals. And then…..? Then what? What’s the agenda? What’s the next step? Protests do nothing if they have no plan beyond it. What’s the demand? What’s the message?

I know, in retrospect, that the protest I was talking about was one of many that were circulated on Facebook to capitalize on the anger and momentum to stir division and violence. That’s a thing we now know happened. And I know that because there was no leader, no organizer, no agenda, no plan. The longer you are involved in activism, the more you learn to avoid stuff that has no leader, no organizer, no agenda, and no plan. Maybe it’s not a scam, maybe it’s just a bad idea.

Don’t avoid protesting, but be smart about it. This whole idea - planned too fast, no clear purpose, etc - is a bad idea. People will go because they feel the need to do something, anything, to make their voices heard.

Best case scenario here is that some people show up in all these cities, wave signs and get a little attention, maybe someone there steps up to be a temporary local leader for the day, and then nothing else happens and maybe a few of those people find their way to actual productive activist groups down the road.

Worst case scenario here is people show up and violence does break out and there’s no medics, no support, no good advice given, and since there is no real plan and no leader, it all happens for no reason to people who didn’t know that it isn’t supposed to work like that. Nobody should be excited for people to put themselves in danger with no plan or purpose. That’s not revolutionary.

Even “decentralized” action has plans and leaders. You don’t protect people by refusing to have systems in place. If you want grassroots, it starts from the bottom. That would be like if 50 groups in 50 states were all planning action, so they all agreed to do it at the same time. If someone has an idea and tells people all over the country to do something but takes no responsibility for any of it, that’s just shitty.

I've generally been treating this blog as a refuge from...all the things. But since posts about these "protests" have been going around, I wanted to share these words of caution in the interest of helping everyone stay safe. There is definitely work to be done, but we need to be smart about it. No charging into territory blind.

Stay safe. ❤️

[jayetheartist]

hey let's start spreading the reminder now that you cannot safely self-manage an abortion with herbal medicine or essential oils. natural abortifacients function by poisoning you; you wait for your body to realize you're dying and reject the pregnancy in order to conserve resources, and hope that happens before the rest of your organs shut down.

i think there will be an upsurge soon of unscrupulous and/or malicious actors preying on desperate pregnant people; do not help them kill people. don't spread recipes for herbal medicines or ingestible essential oil mixtures that purport to cause a pregnancy termination.

[jayetheartist]

“Decentralized grassroots movement” is either shorthand for “people new to protesting are doing this without an actionable agenda and without any help or advice from knowledgeable activists” or for “people new to protesting took the bait and are unwittingly helping lend a sense of legitimacy to an event set up by bad actors.” Either way, it’s fucking dangerous.

I've generally been treating this blog as a refuge from...all the things. But since posts about these "protests" have been going around, I wanted to share these words of caution in the interest of helping everyone stay safe. There is definitely work to be done, but we need to be smart about it. No charging into territory blind.

Stay safe. ❤️

[jayetheartist]

I’ve not seen these, but I was new to activism and protesting and got sucked into going to one of these fishy (probably Russian-created) protests back in 2017. Nothing bad ended up happening, but it was clearly a setup to get opposing groups to show up and face off and increase tensions. Police had shown up early and put up barricades between us and the right-wing protesters, and they maintained presence all day, which also added to the tension. And then, at the end of the “protest,” after a whole day of yelling across the barricades (because this was completely unorganized and there were no leaders to try and keep things from boiling over), the cops just pulled up the barriers and left. Luckily, after some tense posturing, everyone on both sides backed down and went home, but you can’t convince me, now that I have more experience, that the point wasn’t to set up both sides and start a riot.

Don’t fall for it. If it’s not clear who the leaders are (and if they aren’t local or have local points of contact) and what their objectives are, don’t go. Best case scenario it’s just a poorly organized action led by the inexperienced, but it’s not exactly unlikely that outside, possibly foreign actors are posting these events in the hopes that at least one devolves into violence.

I've generally been treating this blog as a refuge from...all the things. But since posts about these "protests" have been going around, I wanted to share these words of caution in the interest of helping everyone stay safe. There is definitely work to be done, but we need to be smart about it. No charging into territory blind.

Stay safe. ❤️

[jayetheartist]

🐈‍⬛🍀.

[jayetheartist]

[jayetheartist]

[jayetheartist]

OMG it happened, just as foretold!!!

Ace of Cups and The Hermit

You will get up in the middle of the night for a drink of water.

[jayetheartist]

Me, A Witch, On Every Major Holiday: Oh hey yeah there’s a thing today

[jayetheartist]

25 ways to be a little more punk in 2025

Cut fast fashion - buy used, learn to mend and/or make your own clothes, buy fewer clothes less often so you can save up for ethically made quality

Cancel subscriptions - relearn how to pirate media, spend $10/month buying a digital album from a small artist instead of on Spotify, stream on free services since the paid ones make you watch ads anyway

Green your community - there's lots of ways to do this, like seedbombing or joining a community garden or organizing neighborhood trash pickups

Be kind - stop to give directions, check on stopped cars, smile at kids, let people cut you in line, offer to get stuff off the high shelf, hold the door, ask people if they're okay

Intervene - learn bystander intervention techniques and be prepared to use them, even if it feels awkward

Get closer to your food - grow it yourself, can and preserve it, buy from a farmstand, learn where it's from, go fishing, make it from scratch, learn a new ingredient

Use opensource software - try LibreOffice, try Reaper, learn Linux, use a free Photoshop clone. The next time an app tries to force you to pay, look to see if there's an opensource alternative

Make less trash - start a compost, be mindful of packaging, find another use for that plastic, make it a challenge for yourself!

Get involved in local politics - show up at meetings for city council, the zoning commission, the park district, school boards; fight the NIMBYs that always show up and force them to focus on the things impacting the most vulnerable folks in your community

DIY > fashion - shake off the obsession with pristine presentation that you've been taught! Cut your own hair, use homemade cosmetics, exchange mani/pedis with friends, make your own jewelry, duct tape those broken headphones!

Ditch Google - Chromium browsers (which is almost all of them) are now bloated spyware, and Google search sucks now, so why not finally make the jump to Firefox and another search like DuckDuckGo? Or put the Wikipedia app on your phone and look things up there?

Forage - learn about local edible plants and how to safely and sustainably harvest them or go find fruit trees and such accessible to the public.

Volunteer - every week tutoring at the library or once a month at the humane society or twice a year serving food at the soup kitchen, you can find something that matches your availability

Help your neighbors - which means you have to meet them first and find out how you can help (including your unhoused neighbors), like elderly or disabled folks that might need help with yardwork or who that escape artist dog belongs to or whether the police have been hassling people sleeping rough

Fix stuff - the next time something breaks (a small appliance, an electronic, a piece of furniture, etc.), see if you can figure out what's wrong with it, if there are tutorials on fixing it, or if you can order a replacement part from the manufacturer instead of trashing the whole thing

Mix up your transit - find out what's walkable, try biking instead of driving, try public transit and complain to the city if it sucks, take a train instead of a plane, start a carpool at work

Engage in the arts - go see a local play, check out an art gallery or a small museum, buy art from the farmer's market

Go to the library - to check out a book or a movie or a CD, to use the computers or the printer, to find out if they have other weird rentals like a seed library or luggage, to use meeting space, to file your taxes, to take a class, to ask question

Listen local - see what's happening at local music venues or other events where local musicians will be performing, stop for buskers, find a favorite artist, and support them

Buy local - it's less convenient than online shopping or going to a big box store that sells everything, but try buying what you can from small local shops in your area

Become unmarketable - there are a lot of ways you can disrupt your online marketing surveillance, including buying less, using decoy emails, deleting or removing permissions from apps that spy on you, checking your privacy settings, not clicking advertising links, and...

Use cash - go to the bank and take out cash instead of using your credit card or e-payment for everything! It's better on small businesses and it's untraceable

Give what you can - as capitalism churns on, normal shmucks have less and less, so think about what you can give (time, money, skills, space, stuff) and how it will make the most impact

Talk about wages - with your coworkers, with your friends, while unionizing! Stop thinking about wages as a measure of your worth and talk about whether or not the bosses are paying fairly for the labor they receive

Think about wealthflow - there are a thousand little mechanisms that corporations and billionaires use to capture wealth from the lower class: fees for transactions, interest, vendor platforms, subscriptions, and more. Start thinking about where your money goes, how and where it's getting captured and removed from our class, and where you have the ability to cut off the flow and pass cash directly to your fellow working class people