runehope

[runehope]

“People are inherently terrible” no!!! Have you ever seen a child wait for their friend while they tie their shoelaces? Have you ever known someone who would bring hurt squirrels and rabbits and mice to the nearest vet just so it doesn’t suffer? Have you seen someone grieve? Have you ever read something that hit your heart like a freight train? Have you looked at the stars and felt an unexplainable joy? Have you ever baked bread? Have you shared a meal with a friend? Have you not seen it? All the love? All the good? I know it’s hard to see sometimes, I know there’s pain everywhere. But look, there’s a child helping another up after a hard fall. Look, there’s someone giving their umbrella to a stranger. Look, there’s someone admiring the spring flowers. Look, there’s good, there’s good, there’s good. Look!!!!

[runehope]

i think they should allow everyone in the world to vote in american elections

[runehope]

The point of fiction is actually to put that guy in a situation™️, and he might try to tell you the point is to then get him out of the situation, WRONG, second situation

[runehope]

Bad things are on the horizon regarding pornography laws in the US, which will affect every part of the internet that you and I use, and we need to be ready. We should go forward assuming that any art which is sufficiently queer and subversive may be classified as pornography.

Continue to create, share, and support queer and subversive art. Resist all pressure to voluntarily self-censor. Do not obey in advance.

[runehope]

[runehope]

Activism is not cold-calling.

Activism is not cold-calling, and this is critically important to understand.

I'm seeing a lot of posts on here about 'building bridges' and 'finding community,' and then (extremely valid) response posts saying "BUT HOW??" And I'm going to explain something that can be very counter-intuitive: there is strategy involved in community.

As a longtime volunteer labour organizer, I’ve taken and taught many trainings on the strategy of talking. Something that surprises a lot of people is the very first thing you do in a union campaign. You sit down with your organizing committee, take out pen and paper, and literally map it out. You draw a physical map of the workplace: where are the entrances, exits, break rooms, supervisor offices. Essentially, ‘where is it safe to have a union conversation.’ Then you draw another physical chart of your coworkers. You sort out who is union-friendly, openly hostile to unions, or somewhere in the middle, and then you plan out very deliberately and carefully who talks to whom and in what order.

Consider: If Vocally Leftist Jane walks up to Conservative David and says "hey what do you think about unions," David is going to shut down immediately. He's not inclined to listen to Jane. But if Jane talks to Moderate Jason and brings him into the fold, then Jason is a far more effective strategic choice to talk to David, and David may actually hear him out without an instant reaction.

IMPORTANT CAVEAT: If Conservative David turns out to be Alt-Right David, and could be dangerous to follow organizers, we write him off. We are not trying to reach Alt-Right David. We are trying to reach Conservative David, who may actually be persuaded to find solidarity with other employees as fellow workers. Jason is a safe scout to find out which one he is. It does no one any good if Leftist Jane (or even Moderate Jane who is a visible minority) talks to Alt-Right David and puts herself on his radar. Not only has she done nothing to convince Alt-Right David to join a union - she's probably actively turned him against the idea - but now she's also in danger and the entire campaign is at risk. NOBODY WANTS THIS. Jane was NOT a hero for doing this. The organizing committee was foolish and enacted a terrible strategy to everyone's detriment.

Where you can make a difference is with people who will listen to you. You having a conversation with your well-meaning but clueless Centrist Democrat Auntie, and maybe gently helping her understand some things the media has been glossing over, is way more strategically useful than you marching up to MAGA Neighbour You've Met Once and trying to "build community" or "understand" them. They don't care. They're impervious, dangerous, and cruel. But maybe your beloved auntie will think about what you said, and then talk to her friend Anna who IDs as "fiscally conservative" but didn't vote because she can't bring herself to get on board with Trump. Then perhaps Anna talks to her brother Nic who has MAGA leanings but isn't all the way there yet. Proto-MAGA Nic would not have listened to you, nor would he have listened to Centrist Democrat Auntie, but he might absorb some of what his sister is saying.

This is not a cop-out or an echo chamber. This is you spending your time and energy strategically and safely. You are not a useful activist to anyone if you’re dead. Anyone who is telling you to hurl yourself directly at MAGA assholes like cannon fodder has no understanding of the strategy behind community building, and you should feel comfortable writing them off.

Last point: If you are tired, emotionally devastated, and/or in danger: take a break. This post is for people who would feel better jumping into action, not for people who are too overwhelmed to even think about it right now. You are worth so much even if you’re not actively Doing Activism, and your rest is worth more than “a break period so you can recharge and Do More Activism.” We all deserve the individual dignity of being worthy of comfort, rest & safety just on the basis of being human, outside of whatever we're doing for others' benefit. To deny ourselves that dignity is to devalue ourselves, and that’s the absolute last thing any of us should be doing right now.

[runehope]

i have understood so many things about online leftist culture by the fact that when i said "your local community has people you will morally and politically disagree with but you cannot lock them out of accessing any tangible service you’re organising" one of the tags responding said "this isn’t about proshippers in here you’re not welcome" like. folks. focus with me. some of us are homeless here.

[runehope]

anyway sound off. at what stage do ppl think Han figured out the Force was real. the boring answer is after seeing Obi-wan vanish but i think he could rationalise that away as his eyes playing tricks on him. what do we think.

[runehope]

is this fucking SATIRE??????????????????????

[runehope]

it turns out that actually you never needed to be understood! what you really needed was to make the rest of the world just as incomprehensible as you are!

[YOU HAVE UNLOCKED BAD ENDING #4]

[runehope]

kind of fucking crazy that I was born before same sex marriage had been enshrined in any country and since then 36 countries have made it legal total and I can remember most of them.

[runehope]

I love you PBS I love you NPR I love you public libraries I love you wikipedia I love you project gutenberg I love you librivox I love you libby I love you hoopla I love you openlibrary I love you internet archive I love you resources that make information free and accessible to the public

[runehope]

sometimes you gotta make peanut butter cookies bc you don’t get paid for another week and have to be responsible but also are craving something sweet

[runehope]

Hey while you're at it, you should contact your reps and tell them to support the No Kings Act to reverse the immunity ruling

(If your legislator is a republican, just tell them how "dangerous" it would when a leftist president has the same lack of accountability)

[runehope]

trying to get my name changed!

I've been wanting to change my name for a while, but I've never had the funds, because where I live it's $350. After recent events, I want to change it soon, in case I'm not able to later.

So I'm fundraising a bit!

please send donations to @jesrosewater on PayPal or Venmo. click here.

i am making this post immediately after disappointment standing in the district office lmao, so ill try to add incentive later.

[runehope]

today you, tomorrow me.

[runehope]

thanks to everyone for your help so far! so far the progress is at:

120/350!

that's basically half! only a little more to go! i live in Texas, so my rights to do transgender paperwork could be taken from me. id like to change my name and get a passport with an X gender marker before the changing of the guard, you understand.

trying to get my name changed!

I've been wanting to change my name for a while, but I've never had the funds, because where I live it's $350. After recent events, I want to change it soon, in case I'm not able to later.

So I'm fundraising a bit!

please send donations to @jesrosewater on PayPal or Venmo. click here.

i am making this post immediately after disappointment standing in the district office lmao, so ill try to add incentive later.