#cooptation

[pumpacti0n]

Function of the Democratic Party

Grassroots Mobilization Happens > Mobilization Becomes a Threat to the Status Quo > Democrats find representatives of the most moderate elements, co-opt and hire them. > Co-opted Leaders Use the Language of Popular Movement to Funnel Energy Back Into the Electoral System > Nothing Fundamentally Changes > Repeat.

In keeping with the theme of staying aware of co-optation within social movements, this graphic remains highly relevant reminder of the function of the democratic party's function, historically.

There is nothing intrinsically "progressive" about the Democratic Party -- the vast majority of all gains made in terms of establishing protections for marginalized communities have come as the result of mass direct action, not because Democrats value them over profit.

The few mediocre reforms passed by the Dems and the lip-service paid to these oppressed communities serve two primary functions: a transparent bid to garner votes and discouraging revolt. Democrats desperately need to appear as the morally superior choice to their base of voters, even if they are functionally similar to their apparent "rivals".

This deception ensures that voters believe that their interests are represented, that the electoral system can be tweaked to work in the favor of the masses, when in reality it can only ever work in favor of corporations and those of extreme wealth -- the majority of whom are white, cisheterosexual and abled.

For examples of this phenomenon, we need to look no further than the Black Lives Matter™ movement.

While activists who engaged in direct action against the state were killed or thrown in prison, "celebrity" activists who mostly stayed away from the frontlines got invited as guests on talk shows, sold their books, rebranded as influencers or otherwise continued to use their association with the movement to further their careers or work for the campaigns of whichever politician could line their pockets and use them for social justice credibility.

In order to break this cycle we must:

Maintain a security culture that is resistant to co-optation This means realizing that cooperation with Democrats will always come with the risk that our demands and goals will become whitewashed into less secure, ineffective and counterproductive versions of themselves. We must resist the urge to elevate charismatic or experienced individuals to a position of permanent and centralized leadership within our movements. We must strive to create horizontal organizations and networks, and break with our reliance on "representatives", and be diligent in creating safer networks that are resilient to infiltration or sabotage.

Resist engagement with the electoral machine. There are often arguments made by "leftists" that we can engage in direct action or mutual aid and participate in elections -- however, given the massive amounts of money and labor used for these campaigns, what is more likely is that many of our allies will become enticed by the promised opportunity to have a "greater impact" on the political landscape while advancing their own professional careers in the process. However, the short term and conditional "impact" is nearly always offset by the fact that these campaigns primarily serve the interests of the individual politicians and their corporate sponsors and benefactors. Social impact will always be a secondary concern, at best.

Change the narrative. The Democratic Party, and electoral politics generally, sustain themselves on the myth that we are collectively too foolish and lack the necessary skills and power to effectively cooperate with each other to solve the critical issues that are affecting us. The conceit is that we must rely on representatives in the desperate hopes that they'll act in our favor once elected, that they'll keep the promises they've made instead of betraying us once more for profit and power. This myth of our own powerlessness has led to a vicious cycle of dependence, impotence and fear -- and has caused even those who claim to care deeply about social issues to turn on each other and blame fellow victims of this propaganda when they dare to resist the allure of elections instead of the puppet masters themselves. If we are up to the challenge, we can instead take control of the narrative and change it to reflect the reality -- that it's us who have the power to change our circumstances, heal our communities, stop the imperial war machine and begin living dignified lives. We can decide that instead of waiting around for leaders to save us, we can save ourselves. Self-determination is an internal process. No one can "give" us freedom -- we have to take it.

[screw-u-vaanu]

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[brbgensokyo]

theres a part of me that likes corpo as a term but most of me despises its common usage made popular by 2077

[pleuvoire]

sexual frustration as a component of wider social isolation legitimately sucks so so badly and i hate that the conversation has been entirely taken over by incels

[lamphous]

just met a holocaust survivor + nobel winner and he said fuck your AI "art"

[fuckyeahisawthat]

I was always meh on the fan theories that Crowley was some kind of high-ranking angel before the Fall, because there didn’t seem to be much evidence for it (in s1 he says “I helped build that one” about the nebula, not “I fucking hand-cranked the spacetime continuum into existence”) and because it seemed more thematically resonant for Crowley to have been Just Some Guy in the celestial hierarchy, rather than God’s Specialest Boy (gn).

But s2 does very much seem to be dropping hints that Crowley was an angel of some significant rank before the fall, possibly even a Supreme Archangel, and after the end of s2 that presents a new possibility I hadn’t thought of before.

What if Crowley knows Heaven can’t be reformed because he already tried it? What if cooptation was their strategy for Crowley, after he started asking questions but before the Fall?

It’s a classic move to neutralize challenges to a power structure. Take the people who are speaking out and say, hey, you make some good points. We hear you. In fact we’d like you to sit on this committee. Come change things from the inside, where you’ll have the power to get things done.

And lots of people in lots of real-world systems try this, genuinely believing they can make a difference and not realizing that there is no way to bend the system into what they want it to be, because the system wasn’t broken or badly led back when they first started complaining about it; it was working exactly as intended.

And these people either end up sucked into the system they were trying to change until it changes them instead. Or they end up bitter and checked out and cynical. Or, they refuse to yield in their calls for change and eventually get marginalized and pushed out of the system. Sound like someone we know?

From the beginning of s1, Crowley was adamant that Aziraphale’s attempts to find someone in Heaven who will listen to him and want to stop Armageddon are fruitless. There are no right people. I think he, like me, kind of assumed Aziraphale had figured that out by the end of the events of s1, which is part of why he’s so shocked that Aziraphale would even consider the Metatron’s offer. But Aziraphale hadn’t gotten there yet, and now Crowley is watching Aziraphale repeat the same mistakes he made, and he can’t convince him to stop.

[zvaigzdelasas]

Feel like it's a really damning indictment of the effectiveness of liberal cooptation of mass movements like BLM in the last few years that we're almost a year into this more active phase of Israeli genocide and this is the first time I've seen any comparison between all lives matter rhetoric & liberal zionist rhetoric

[crimethinc]

2023 in Chile: 50 Years of the Military Coup

Neoliberal Consolidation after the Revolt of 2019

http://crimethinc.com/Chile2023

In 2019, an uprising broke out in Chile, wresting control of the streets from police and politicians. Eventually, the authorities managed to redirect this momentum into an effort to replace the constitution, a relic of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. The attempt to ratify a new constitution failed, however, illustrating the risks of channeling grassroots movements into institutional reform.

As a result, a resurgent right wing has regained the initiative in Chile, while the left politicians who came to power have subordinated themselves to the market and the police. To this day, Chile is governed according to the constitution that was introduced as a consequence of the military coup. In the following account, members of the Anarchist Assembly of Biobío trace this story through the end of the year 2023, chronicling the consequences of the cooptation of the uprising of 2019.

[lesbianboyfriend]

really really interesting how people began describing wanting things (even if they are unrealistic) through the language of “being delusional” (or “delulu”). the simultaneous cooptation/watering down of mental illness and the disavowal/repression of desire. much to think about!

[limpwristjesus]

I’ve been thinking about the afropessemist horror yuri I’m currently writing and I really want to go through and re analyze Tokyo Ghoul again because they have similar themes but radically different execution and my theorizing has developed as I’ve lived through uprisings and had to navigate genocidal systems like negrophobia and my thoughts have also changed.

I feel like the premise of people who survive by eating others and their place in society is a good medium between the vampires of the early 2000s and the 2010s “zombie” apocalypse craze that caters hyperindividualiist fantasies of disposing of marginalized people. Tokyo ghoul for me is one of the most fleshed out stories that doesn’t have the workarounds that vampirism does and deals with creatures who by their nature need death to survive and that can be a great device to explore the horrors of colonialism and anti Blackness (arguably a cannibalistic system and them buckras used to eat or ancestors). I feel like while Tokyo ghoul has the foundations to examine the violence that’s tied to existing in this world as it is and how people relate to each other weren’t radical enough and ultimately end up reproducing certain forms of violence.

I’ve jokingly described the politics of Tokyo ghoul being akin to those niggas who think dressing up and roaming in search of brunch in itself is revolutionary and that Malcom X’s revolutionary fervor was contained in his suits meets the fbi perversion of MLK jr’s politics that the use to shut down uprisings and that’s probably the best way I can sum it up.

This is entirely my reading of it but another unintentional layer to the tragedy so central to Tokyo ghoul is the liberalism and cooptation.

I also want to do a deep dive on Tokyo ghoul’s politics :re formulations of the strong vs the weak and the nature of harm.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil: Illegal Mining Regains Strength, and Malnutrition Becomes Part of the Routine for Yanomamis

Folha was in the Auaris region, which is near Venezuela and is one of the main focuses of the current stage of the humanitarian crisis

The reactivation of illegal mining fuels the humanitarian crisis among the Yanomamis, impacting access to food and leading to successive malaria outbreaks in the territory. The malnutrition of Yanomami children is as visible as the exploitation of gold, and they are directly proportional.

Auaris is currently one of the main health crisis hotspots. Access to communities is through two-hour flights, making it difficult for assistance and evacuations; mining is spreading in the region without repression by regulatory agencies, security forces, and the military; there is cooptation of adult indigenous people, impacting crop production. It is common for children to be malnourished and with malaria at the same time, in addition to a high incidence of opportunistic hunger-related diseases: pneumonia, diarrhea, anemia, and parasitic infections.

Continue reading.

[nsomniacsdream]

What will we see first?

[kitty-pelosi]

it has been validating to see folks broadly wake up to the fact that the Democratic Party doesn’t really do anything, and that the middle class is generally only on the side of black and poor people when Republicans are in power.

America is a festering corpse, with a gas bubble about to blow its rib cage out and launch whale viscera across the beach. the concept of “harm reduction” and putting Democrats in power is a fallacious idea that’s been identified for what it actually is - feminist imperialism seeking to preserve and maintain the privilege of the empire over its subsidiaries. This is done often through the cooptation of queer and black folk - who are literally not being helped but are being used as props to accrue tokens of diversity, equity, and inclusion which the upper middle class identifies as Ultimate Justice

and at the same time I couldn’t be more disgusted with my people who throw their heart into the Democratic Party in hope - out of naïveté or stupidity or callousness. what these people don’t know is that they won’t ever be loved by the system that they want to love them, and by doing so they have lost the love of the only people who would have given it to them

[dailyanarchistposts]

Innovation and Cooptation

With Musk’s purchase of Twitter, we see the conclusion of a cycle of innovation and cooptation in the field of communications. In the late 20th century, the dominant political and technological models were monolithic and unidirectional: network television, mass-based political parties. In response, anarchists and other rebels experimented with independent media and underground networks, producing innovative horizontal and decentralized models like indymedia.org. Tech corporations eventually monetized these models as the participatory media of Web 2.0, such as Facebook. Yet from the turn of the century through the uprising of 2020, the lingering horizontal and participatory aspects of the internet in general and social media in particular continued to empower those who sought to achieve more self-determination—witness the “Thank you Facebook” graffiti in Tunisia after the so-called “Arab Spring” uprisings of 2010-2011.

Over the past decade, however, corporations and governments have introduced more and more online surveillance and control. Musk’s acquisition of Twitter is the latest stage in a reactionary clampdown with grim implications.

Musk and his colleagues see capitalism as a meritocracy in which the shrewdest and most hardworking competitors inexorably rise to the top. Hence, presumably, their own success.

Of course, if Musk wishes to prove that his success is not just the consequence of privilege and luck—of fortune and good fortune—he could demonstrate this easily enough by giving away his wealth, cutting his social ties, changing his name, and repeating his supposed rags-to-riches feats a second time. If he were able to climb the pyramid a second time without the benefit of growing up white in apartheid-era South Africa (setting aside the question of his father’s emerald investments for now), we might have to grant a hearing to his claims that the market has elevated him on account of his personal qualities—though that still would not show that capitalism rewards the efforts that are most beneficial for humanity.

According to the Silicon Valley narrative, platforms like Twitter are the inventions of individual entrepreneurs, propelled into being by the finance capital of canny investors.

But Twitter did not simply spring, fully formed like Athena, from the head of company co-founder Jack Dorsey. In fact, it was a modest refinement of a model already demonstrated by TXTmob, the SMS text messaging program developed by the Institute for Applied Autonomy for protests at the 2004 Democratic and Republican National Conventions.[1] Blaine Cook and Evan Henshaw-Plath, anarchist developers who worked alongside Dorsey at his previous company Odeo, helped refine TXTmob and later took the model with them into the conversations with Dorsey that gave rise to Twitter.[2]

If the unrelenting urgency of social media in general and Twitter in particular can be exhausting, that’s to be expected—the infrastructure of Twitter was originally designed for street communications during high-stakes mass mobilizations in which information must go out immediately, boiled down to its bare essentials. It’s not a coincidence that, despite its shortcomings, the platform has continued to be useful to street activists and conflict journalists.

The point here is that innovative models do not necessarily emerge from the commercial entrepreneurism of the Great Men of history and economics. More often, they emerge in the course of collective efforts to solve one of the problems created by the capitalist order. Resistance is the motor of history. Afterwards, opportunists like Musk use the outsize economic leverage that a profit-driven market grants them to buy up new technologies and turn them definitively against the movements and milieux that originally produced them.

We can identify two stages in the capitalist appropriation of the TXTmob model. In the first phase, a framework that was originally designed by volunteers for the use of ordinary protesters was transformed into a publicly traded corporation, around the same time that the open spaces of the early internet were being colonized by the for-profit surveillance systems of Web 2.0. In the second phase, this publicly traded corporation has been transformed into the private plaything of a single entitled tycoon—with consequences that remain to be seen.

Musk claims that his goal is to open up the platform for a wider range of speech. In practice, there is no such thing as “free speech” in its pure form—every decision that can shape the conditions of dialogue inevitably has implications regarding who can participate, who can be heard, and what can be said. For all we might say against them, the previous content moderators of Twitter did not prevent the platform from serving grassroots movements. We have yet to see whether Musk will intentionally target activists and organizers or simply permit reactionaries to do so on a crowdsourced basis, but it would be extremely naïve to take him at his word that his goal is to make Twitter more open.

[racefortheironthrone]

As a non-America, I just wondered with town is more associated with Halloween/spookiness, Salem, Mass. or Sleep Hollow, N.Y. pr another option like an Anne Rice-sy New Orleans or an Edgar Allan Poe-ish Baltimore?

As someone who went to high school in suburban Massachussetts, I've been to Salem several times for the witch museums and tours as school trips and did the whole new agey Wicca stores and the Haunted Happenings thing too...and I find the whole thing deeply cringe, in part because I've been down that route as a dumb teenager and managed to grow the fuck up - so why can't they?

I find the neopagan cooptation/appropriation of the Salem Witch Trials to be really gross, especially when it's linked to naked commercialism.

I've been to upstate New York plenty, but I don't specifically remember visiting Sleepy Hollow. That being said, Washington Irving was a lying hack and I'm not a fan. The cartoon was fun.

I do like New Orleans, although I've generally been there earlier in the year as opposed to Halloween.

[rdela]

Great CS Lewis quote via Bill Bridges in a letter to Harper’s about Hari Kunzru’s porous overview of the Italian fascist cooptation of JRR Tolkien: “When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”