#even tho i didn't vote for them i still believe that they will be able to make material changes for the better

[pinktinselmonstrosity]

even for someone who dislikes starmer, that was a very inspiring first speech

[gschamig]

your ideas of sexuality, sensuality, and relationships are very open and accepting. i have learned many new things from following you all these years. if i may ask, how did you come to these ideas and ideals? are they common where you grew up?

This has got to be in my top 3 favourite and most meaningful compliments. Thank you so much!! 🥺🥹❤️❤️❤️ I think social media or the internet plays the biggest role in this- but my mom certainly paved the way as well, as she made it fairly easy to talk about sex etc. (even if she wasn't someone who'd bring up the topic herself). I recall her buying me a magazine with a condom for a school trip when I was idk 11 years old… mostly as a joke, but I guess she's got to be an open minded person to even joke about such things. The magazines are a good point as well, condoms as a little gift weren't uncommon a decade ago and there's a famous teen magazine with a few pages dedicated to love, friendship and all things sex. Kids and teens were able to send in questions and doctors, psychologists and possibly sexologists answered their questions & offered advice. Idk if things have changed by now, but back then those pages were followed up by nude images of real life people, who then were asked about their sexualities, sex life and body. I honestly don't know if all of them were adults, if I had to guess- probably not, I'm assuming they might've been between the ages of idk 16 and 22, which obv isn't something I'd encourage now, but to some degree it normalised things back then. But yeah as I said social media and the internet played a huge role in all of this. While my mom taught me her views on jealousy and self worth in that context (there's no need to be jealous, if a potential partner doesn't value you, it's their loss) and I was raised by 2 strong women in general (my mom and grandma), who then as a result gave me the tools and the desire to not restrict myself- it was the internet who taught me about different sexualities, relationshipforms and gave me proper terms to identify myself.

In school (tho a catholic school) I was only taught about hetero- and homosexuality, so for the longest time (up until I was 16 I believe) I identified as straight, because I knew I wasn't strictly homosexual and didn't have the right vocabulary and information to explore things further, despite having had crushes on boys and girls. Back then I also had multiple crushes at a time, but polyamory was even less of a possibility or term back then. So are my views or values common here? No, there are bits and pieces that make it seem as tho we're heading in the right direction (marriage between non-heterosexual people of various genders wasn't legalised because we voted for it or the politicans voted for it but because 2 women sued the city I believe and the highest court ruled in their favour and decided them not being allowed to marry was a discrimination. That makes it a bit more stable I believe and more sustainable with the rightwing uprising). But other than that it's still a very close minded, catholic country without laws to genuinely protect minorities (there's a protection against discrimination in the workfield, but I believe no law in any other field.), where homosexuality is still very much associated with p*dophilia etc.

The key for me - is being radicalised and building myvery own radical and queer bubble lol. There's not a single woman in my circle of friends who's straight for example & if it wasn't for gschamig I wouldn't have any straight friends at all haha. I also find myself surrounded by more and more poly people.

[bonny-kookoo]

Sugar & spice

• What was the first reaction of the other members (we all know already what Namjoon thought 🙄), when they found out about Y/N or when they met her for the first time?

I mean yeah, Namjoon is kind of.. 🤧 I'll still include him tho lol

Namjoon:

"So what you're saying is-" Namjoon says, trying hard to stay composed. "-You've been hiding the fact that you adopted a fucking hybrid three years ago? And you didn't think once about telling me, or us in general?" He says, shaking his head. Jungkook is standing in his studio with his arms crossed, having somewhat expected this reaction from the leader. "She's not going to be able to handle your career-"

"You didn't even meet her yet, I've handled it fine until now-" jungkook argues back, but Namjoon won't let him.

"She's a hybrid!" He barks out, successfully shutting the younger idol up. "I.. need time to think about this." He says, and Jungkook gladly leaves his studio-

Because he's sure, otherwise he might've done something he'd regret later.

Jimin:

"You're awfully curious about her." Jungkook notices as Jimin watches you sleep with your head on his thigh.

"Hmhm. I.. have been thinking about, you know, something like this as well." He explains, watching you snooze away while Jungkook runs his hand over your hair. "When I donated to the Busan Carecenter for the first time, last year- there was a hybrid who I've been told had been there for six years." The singer softly says, remembering the situation. "All because she doesn't talk. She uses sign language instead." He says. "Its honestly cute. Like, she signed this-" he demonstrates with his hands, "to tell me I'm handsome. So bold!" He laughs to himself, and Jungkook grins.

"Why not do it?" He asks. "I mean, it works out for me. And you're a good person, hyung."

"What if I like her too much?" Jimin quietly asks, and Jungkook shrugs.

"They're not stupid. I mean, look at us both. It's all consensual, we talked about it a lot before anything happened, and that's what's most important."

"Wait, youre-" jimin asks, and Jungkook nods, shrugging.

"We are." He simply says. "And I wouldn't want anybody else than her."

Hoseok:

"She's adorable, really.!" He laughs from his spot, watching how you run back to both Jungkook and him with your and Jungkooks jackets. "You're so fast too!" He praises, and you smile, before giving Hoseok something he receives with wide eyes. "Where'd you find that?" He asks astounded, having searched for that bracelet the entire day. You simply point towards a chair way further back, and Jungkook smiles.

"She's like a police dog in that department." He comments. "No idea how she does it."

"Sounds incredibly helpful." He laughs, smiling at you, who rather hides a little behind Jungkook who instead occupies your attention by helping you into your coat. "She's super shy, isn't she?" He says more calmer now, and Jungkook nods.

"A mix of past trauma and her general character I believe." He shrugs, putting on his own coat. "The more you get to know her, the more she'll open up, promise." He reassures, and Hoseok nods.

"Even if she stays quiet, that's fine." He says, before he looks at you. "Dont ever let anyone force you to be someone you're not." He says, and you nod.

Taking that suggestion to heart.

Taehyung & Jin:

"Well, that's certainly not something I thought to witness." Seokjin says, standing in the entryway together with Taehyung, both idols looking at the chaotic scenery in front of them.

"I'm sorry- I wanted to tell you, I promise- no wait stay still, please baby-" Jungkook struggles, holding your head still to access the damage that had occurred earlier. Vote idols had caught the singer off-guard; causing you to run a bit too fast over the tiled floors, slipping and subsequently hitting your head on the edge of the living room table.

"I- who is she even? Are you looking after someone's hybrid?" Seokjin wants to know, but Taehyung taps his older bandmate's arm, pointing around.

There's clear signs of a hybrid living here, long term, and it gets clearer the further they step into their bandmate's home. Food additives and supplements in the kitchen, a nutrition guide on the fridge, multiple coats and shoes nowhere near Jungkook's size in the entryway. You're not someone's hybrid. You're his hybrid.

"Do you feel dizzy? Sick? No?" Jungkook asks, making sure you didn't sustain any serious injuries from your fault- before he holds you close while you cry from the shock of the accident. "I'm.. really sorry. This isn't how I wanted you to find out."

"Man, I'm impressed if anything. So that's why no one's allowed to visit you?" Taehyung wonders, and Jungkook nods.

The singer had wanted to pick something up from Jungkook on his way to his own home- and Jungkook had agreed, having intended to just give it out by the door, having you hide somewhere so it wouldn't come out.

"Well.. I mean, if you're not ready to share it with the guys yet, I won't tell." Seokjin shrugs. Taehyung next to him nods as well.

"Did she hurt herself bad?" Taehyung wonders, stepping a bit closer to where you're hiding in Jungkook's chest, and the singer who's holding you shakes his head.

"Luckily just a bump on the head. Just the shock, really." He says, and slowly, you lean back, looking at the stranger with tear stained cheeks and glistening eyes.

"I'm sorry we scared you. Let's meet some other time instead, okay?" Taehyung offers, and Seokjin smiles as well- and you nod, before looking at Jungkook.

It's not how he wanted anyone to find out- but he knows to trust his hyungs. They'll keep it secret until he's ready.

Yoongi:

"Thats a lot of supplements." Yoongi comments on, looking at the small bottles of food supplements that are in Jungkooks kitchen. The singer next to him nods.

"She can basically eat anything, but I like to make sure she gets all she needs." He says, flipping the piece of meat in the pan. "Some might think I'm a bit too picky with what she gets to eat. I think I actually am." He chuckles.

"Nah, it's normal to be so aware, I guess." The rapper shrugs. "They're dependent on us to a certain degree, after all." He mumbles, watching the younger idol plate up your portion of dinner. "Is she always this calm?" He wonders, looking over at you quietly watching TV while both he and Jungkook reside in the kitchen.

"I mean, yeah? She gets her days where she's a little hyper, but a lot of people have told me she's really calm." He says. "Many just think hybrids are either eternal children or full on pets. It's infuriating, really."

"It really is. But they're just different." Yoongi shrugs off, turning around to get cutlery. "It'll get better one day, I hope. People like Namjoon just.. haven't really looked into it enough to understand it." He explains.

"Still... it upsets me that he's acting like she's some alien that's gonna ruin everyone's life's now." Jungkook sighs.

"Oh, that was to be expected, though." Yoongi laughs. "There's a reason some of us don't tell Namjoon everything that's going on in our lives." He laughs. "He'd lose his mind if he ever got wind of some of the shit we do in our private time." He jokes.

"I mean, there's hardly something worse right now than one of his bandmates owning a fucking hybrid." Jungkook jokes, and Yoongi simply turns towards him with chopsticks in hand.

"Oh there is." He says, grinning boyishly. "Two of his bandmates owning a hybrid."

[paradoxcase]

@maiden-roar:

I think the anti-voting people do seem to want a communist revolution, nothing else is good enough for them, there's just the small problem that conditions in 21st century USA are extremely different from conditions in early 20th century Russia

I feel like maybe I should be more open-minded towards their POV, like I appreciate it when conservatives turn away from trump, it's perfectly rational to be able to criticize your own side, and maybe that's largely what people are doing, so I should care more about their criticisms. By voting based on my fear of the other side, am I just as bad as conservatives who think gay rights and public health care will send us to the gulags? Far-right is so crazy scary tho.

I think a lot of these people are very young. And every single young person in the entire history of the world has always hated to be told by their elders that they should sit down, and be patient, and work hard, and maybe some day in the distant future they'll get what they want. They are young and full of righteous anger and are just so sure that there is a secret way that no one else has figured out to get everything they want right now

As for how you know you're not like the people who think gay people are going install Sharia Law, it comes down to where you get your information about the world from. Their problem is they rely exclusively on an echo-chamber of far-right news outlets. And like, if you start to feel like the places you get your news from are starting to become echo-chamber-like, it's good to branch out. There are plenty of reliable sources that rate news sites for bias, and you generally want to avoid sources that always validate the things you think you know already, or which are making emotional appeals or direct calls to action, even if they are sources on the left. Like, advocacy groups are fine and all, but you should get your actual news from somewhere else. And then, after reading news from multiple sources with limited bias, if you still think a Donald Trump presidency is scary as fuck, it probably is.

also MLs believe that revolution is the only way, and democratic socialism is evil, and marx apparently based his analysis on the french revolution, but like france and england and the USA all had their own paths to liberal democracy. French were extremist, USA compromised with slave owners, UK gradually expanded democracy. History says there's not only one way to do things. We don't know what the future holds. Also modern anarchists seem to be allergic to doing things.

French revolutionaries killed their political enemies, bolshevik-style, but their resulting goverment was unstable and france spent like the next 100 years flip-flopping between modes of goverment. The USA made compromises resulting in a more stable government but then people had to battle slavery for most of the following century. The UK as far as I know didn't have an equivalent event but they still made to basically the same liberal democratic endpoint.

I don't think the US and France are actually super comparable here - the US started out with a philosophy of embracing democracy. A very racist, sexist, classist kind of democracy, yes, but it was some democracy, which opens the door to gradually getting more democracy in a peaceful manner, and what do you know, that's what happened. Whereas, France was going from zero democracy to any democracy, which is much harder, and who knows if the French kings actually would have allowed that without some kind of violence? And also, the creation of the US and its nascent democracy did begin with a revolution. It was just kind of lucky that it happened in a colony where Britain couldn't oppose it as effectively and the revolutionaries didn't feel like they had to murder the king and all of his relatives in order to succeed (and also, they weren't really able to).

Whatever the UK did is probably a much better option than either of those. Although, I don't know a lot of the history of this time period, but I kind of suspect that the transition to democracy in the UK and other countries that kept their royals might have been influenced by observation of what was happening in France. It's kind of hard to imagine a situation where absolute monarchy transitions to democracy on a world-wide scale with no violence at all. But at the same time... the Romans had a partial democracy 2000 years before all of this happened. It wasn't actually ever necessary to go through an absolute monarchy stage, which means it's not necessary to have a revolution. Maybe if Caesar had never declared himself Imperator none of this violence would ever have had to happen.

Also I think if there's any kind of revolution-type activity happening in modernized industrial capitalist countries, it's going to be fascists overthrowing the government. There is almost zero desire for a left-wing revolution. You'd have to do a lot of convincing to get people to give up their comfortable lives and go to war and make sacrifices just to live in a communist country where their boss works them just as hard but maybe things will get better in 100 years.

Yeah, like I said in the last post, once you're in a position where you can change things peacefully through democracy, even slowly, violence becomes a lot less attractive. It's really only attractive to people who feel like they don't have the numbers necessary to get their way through democracy, and right now it's the left wing that feels secure that they have the numbers, and the right wing that doesn't, which you can tell based on which people are the ones attempting voter suppression tactics.

Communist revolutions seem to have happened mostly in poor farming economies, which then industrialize after the revolution. Meanwhile, in countries like the USA, people seem to find fascism to be a much more palatable form of violence. No waiting for the country to slowly transition from state capitalism, people get the immediate reward of killing inferior people.

I really don't think this is based on economic issues, I think it's just very hard to go from no political freedom to some political freedom, and then people look back on those early revolutions and don't understand (or forget) the actual reason they happened, which is no longer an issue in the modern day in most countries.

Also random side note, people like to say "if voting did anything, they wouldn't let us do it" when actually uh yeah the GOP actually does try to restrict voting, yes

The big problem is that no one thinks strategically or tactically about HOW to get from crappy point A to utopian point B. Just people being overly emotional on the website that rewards you with internet points for being overly emotional. Rage gets clicks, reason does not.

I mean, yeah, that's teenagers for you

Anarchists and MLs etc only want change to happen outside of voting. But realistically, the way that workers would realize they have the power to do direct action is through participating in unions. And we have parties that are more and less hostile to unions.

Yeah, definitely

[missmayhemvr]

I am probably going to ruffle a lot of feathers saying this, but I don't think liberals can actually be allies to anyone. Hear me out on this tho because I don't believe im the first to say this and that those before me often had their meanings or purposes twisted.

So first gotta define what a liberal is, I'd say it's someone that believes in capitalism first and foremost, that it can be reformed or suite the needs of many or that it isn't inherently evil or contradictory. A liberal by this definition can want social changes then right? But this means that capitalism has to remain in the end.

This is a stumbling block, this is a thing that means so much yet in the end it will not ever by definition be able to help us all and will always come back to be an oppressive force on the lives of anyone that has been marginalized, colonized, or harmed for the sake of capital.

For example let's look at wealth distrubution in the US, we all know the top earners and we all know they didn't get there from hard work. When you look at who is the poorest in the nation you see which groups, indigenous people and black people, those historical dispossessed of their land and those dispossessed of their labor. Black people have an average family weath (meaning assets transferable, houses cars, business) of a few thousand dollars. I believe it's similar if not worse for indigenous people here. A liberal thinking themselves an ally would seek to address such ills in the confines of capitalism and political electoralism which means vote for the right people and they will even the playing field (higher taxes on the rich better social safety net end legalized discrimination) all of these things however will only address symptoms and not causes. You can raise the min wage, have good social security and be allowed to vote all you want but it will never give reparations to black folks for the labor or suffering we have been put through, it will never bring the average wealth of us to be that of or white counterparts (unless through a means I'll get to later) and it will never result in the control of the land back to the hands of indigenous peoples here. This is because at the end of the day capitalism naturally prevents these things. Under capitalism is indigenous people want their land back what is their one way of doing that? Purchase, high min wage among a peoples that have faced 100s of years of genocide isn't going to get you the billions or trillions you'd have to pay and that's if they were willing to sell. And even more so if they were willing to hire you.

A similar situation becomes clear when you look at the black belt or the hood, you're not gonna make back enough for it to ever matter if you arent Beyonce and even then the structure is working against you.

Finally we look globally towards Africa and south America where regardless of the nation the population size or the volume of rare and pricy minerals or oil, these countries not only remain rather poor but the economy tends to still be run by the very nations or corporations that colonized in the first place. Because by no rule of capitalism will you ever be able to buy your way out of this oppression.

Liberals commitment to capitalism will always be greater than their commitments to people. A system which the only equality it can ever truly provide is by dispossessing few that would be seen as middle class and putting them in the same level of poverty as bipoc. Liberals as such will always push against us when we choose to fight back in meaningful ways and would rather ally themselves with fascist if and when able as they don't challenge the system of capitalism but just reinforce it. You can see it would the people's of various African nations sought to take back the farm land being used for cash crops so they could feed the people and not be reliant on other nations, liberal people and institutes sided with the settlers who stole the land in the first place. You see Biden who is truly the face of liberalism literally holding the hand of an Italian fascist turned pm.

So I don't think bipoc, queer or oppressed nations can trust liberal allyship. As it confines us more than uplifts us.

[creepykuroneko]

The revolution isn't coming because nobody is trying to make it happen. Continuing to fall in line with the system will not guarantee change.

On paper Biden sounds really good but in reality it's been 4 years and marginalized people are still suffering under him. I know because I am one of them! I'm not a psyop and at this point I believe anyone who uses that term is pushing propaganda whenever anyone criticizes the candidate they like.

You talk about voting for the candidate who will do less harm but what about the US citizens in America who vote for that candidate who will still be harmed by them? Why should the people at the very bottom have to hold up the people in the middle just so the people at the very top don't fuck the people in the middle? When you tell people vote for the Lesser evil, what you are really saying is "I personally don't want to be screwed over if this person of wins. I don't care if you are tho". Back when Trump won, a lot of christian, able-body, cishet white people were talking about how they were going to move to a different country because they didn't want to be harmed by Trump's policies even though they were the least likely to be affected by him. You know who I never heard talking about moving to another country people who were disabled, immigrants, queer, and/or poc. The people who we're most likely to be impacted by his policies.

I know I've been posting more about politics lately, and it's caused me to lose a chunk of followers.

But I'm a queer person with a degree in political science and its an election year. I'm old friends with several of my city council members. I've been to trainings on how to run elections. I spent my college years working for nonprofits (and being the world's worst canvasser). I'm close with more than one person who works for unions, and I have family members who work for government agencies.

I think about politics in a very pragmatic "I know how the sausage is made" kind of way. We're in a vice press, and there's only one way to release the pressure.

The revolution ain't coming. There is no one to save us but us.

So yeah, I'm going to be pissed if your answer is "let them tighten the vice -- there's no way out of the vice, it doesn't matter if they loosen or tighten it."

There's a difference, and anyone telling you otherwise is likely a psyop or someone who fell for a psyop. This literally happened before, and it's happening again.

Stop falling for it.

[thetaoofbetty]

okay going into this like archie: about to rely on jughead to get me through it

jughead's robe! and lying. i see you 👀

you guys did not tell me pop was there? this is a betrayal of the worst kind

okay but the article isn't wrong so...

is this the writers idea of meta?

will it be important later that archie is lying to jughead before he speaks? seems important

there is still hay on the floor of nana rose's, uh, prison room? and yet, i don't question it

people would pay good money to have penelope blossom call them a two bit trollop, i vote it's how they make the cw profitable

i keep thinking that "babylonium" isn't a real name because that seems like it's too obvious with the whole vale thing but it? is? real? wild

it also sounds like a weird fake lunch meat so there's that

i am pretty indifferent to archie 90% of the time but he is definitely more aggressive than before. gonna say that's important too

"the battle for riverdale's soul" with the camera directed straight at archie, said by jughead? yeah, that's not on the nose about what's to come or anything

i miss betty

it's like, super obvious that this pickens guy is...someone or something else right? i mean, sure, maybe not but he's giving me big lou cypher vibes

pls stop showing me food commercials, i am very hungry

that is a very shady way to play whack a mole with kevin

benjamin moore better lower their prices if they're out here doing product placements on this show

is abuelita's godson taking reggie's place as veronica's go to helper dude for all things illegal? how dare

truck punch! because we need to remember archie is strong™

pause for croissant, too hungry to keep going, i may not make it to the end

cannot believe that pickens is out there knowing about jughead's mind reading and there's a whole population of people that want us to believe that all of this is on the up and up

ahhh there we go, cheryl. we've been waiting for you

i want to be able to just randomly show up, unheard or unseen, like this pickens dude does

hear me out tho, rivervale was like, the "picture perfect" version of riverdale right? so is pickens trying to recreate that or something?

"it's like he didn't even exist before he showed up in riverdale" 🙃

betty!

is betty's power going to morph into something further if it's already causing other issues? i am ready for her cyclops arc then i guess

currently treating archie's house like the hellmouth until proven differently. not weird at all that the super-villain guy wanted to buy his house, the place where the bomb went off, ground zero of rivervale's creation

also assuming that's the same pen that the devil had in vale. no reason. because i want to

[doodlebeeberry]

hey hey hey can you give us silly sodascentpack headcanons i love how you write their dynamic a lot

HELL YEA ive got SO many silly little ideas for these fellas you have no idea

also for reference the majority of these exist within this one really self-indulgent post-cannon au sorta thing i started cookin a little while back where they just like live together and hang out

- soda is hands down the best cook out of all of them despite the fact that liam cooks most out of all of them. amelia just kinda sucks at it tho

- amelia and soda tend to bicker alot, albeit in a friendly way. liam gets the distinct honor of being the deciding vote whenever they disagree on dinner options, which he views as an absolute win

- the little apartment they live in is an absolute aesthetic mess, mostly cause its a mix of what they'd managed to bring from their old homes n random bits and bobs they found at thrift stores and yard sales that they thought looked funny and/or neat

- building off of that, they also r absolutely the kinda folks who just take things folks leave on the side of the road once theyre sure its not infested with bugs or something. theyre firm believers in giving love and a space to things thatve been left behind. like, they found an old crt television in a ditch one time where the top-left corner of the screen was completely shot but they still keep it around n use it

- amelia n soda are kinda protective of liam, for lack of better term. normally its subtle but whenever he gets sick or hurt they get all worried n worked up, even if its minor

- theyre all very physically affectionate. they just wanna be close.

- you know that thermal equilibrium dynamic, where one character tends to run warm and the other cold, thusforth balancing each other out? Liam is the warm one. he tends to wind up in the middle cause hes cozy

- they all have wildly different views on cereals that they absolutely bicker about every time they go grocery shopping. they will stand in the cereal aisle for like ten minutes going back and forth on weather or not they should get off-brand cookie crisp or the special k with the little berry bits in it. Amelia doesnt even like cereal but still has opinions on it as a matter of principle.

- they develop this very specific habit where whenever one of them wakes up, they tell or give some sorta indication to whoever's still sleeping that they're just getting up, that they didn't disappear while the others were asleep, if that makes sense

- soda is the only one who doesnt have any siblings. they tease him for having only child syndrome from time to time

- amelias really afraid of the others disappearing, while liams really afraid of disappearing himself. sodas afraid of either one, though hes more so frightened of the idea that he wouldnt be able to do anything about it

- liam n amelia are about equally athletic, just in different ways. amelias real flexible while liams got good endurance. soda isnt athletic in the slightest

[butts-bouncing-on-the-beltway]

@trans4transbian I don't know it will help you to hear how some folks are wrestling with these thoughts/questions themselves, but figured I'd offer mine in case.

For a variety of reasons, I will be Literally Unable to vote this year. I've been trying really hard to get that addressed, but the amount of money I'd have to spend just to get my documentation up to snuff, let alone the time to submit and follow up on those applications has been proving not just difficult but impossible for me to overcome. I still have October to figure something out because I live in a same-day registration state, but I'm not really optimistic.

So! What's a "literally been campaigning for democrats longer than I could walk and has never not voted in their adult life" non-voter to do?

I started by calling my local Democratic Party chapter and asking them who was coordinating in-person canvassing shifts. When the answer was.....less than acceptable ["oh the national level is handling that." Me: are you sure about that because when I called THEM, they told me YOU were handling it. ".....well we don't have anyone trained on votebuilder yet...." me: it's AUGUST why the FUCK no....never mind I'm doing this now.] I started talking to other coordinators and volunteers about getting a boogie on that.

I've also been emailing my representatives to the point that I stopped getting replies from staffers and now they talk to me directly [I like to believe this is because they fear my detailed source citations].

Outside of the election itself though, there's still a lot that needs doing. My wife and I have been noting and sharing sightings of white supremacist gatherings [both formal and spontaneous] in the region for both the sake of other marginalized people trying to avoid runins, and the sake of local activists arranging counter meetups as needed.

I've also been restoring the land I live on to reduce the impact of climate-change related weather disasters on residents. Managing floodwater pathways, cultivating rain gardens, restoring local wetland and riparian zones to reduce the scale of regional flooding, etc. I do this at my own expense (tho now that they know me the local nurseries will sometimes give me their less sellable plantings for free when I come in to make purchases and I love them for that, they gave me a weeping willow 3 feet taller than I am for $20 because I came in asking about creek-side trees and they got SO excited for my project that they weren't willing to let me leave without it even tho I didn't have the money for it's pricetag). I really expected it to be more expensive than it has been tho. Plants come cheap and seeds come cheaper when people realize what you're doing and you start making connections. Hell, even the local agricultural research center sends me 3 packets of free native edible plant seeds every spring and fall! It makes a much bigger difference than you'd think, and despite how violently the hurricane winds touched down for us this past month (and boy howdy did they) we only lost one tree, and nothing flooded, not even the *literal* floodplane we live on.

My plan, once the land starts to stabilize and produce crop, is to build a little farm stand at the entry to the neighborhood. It's right off the freeway, which means tons of people will pass it every day on their commute and be able to stop if they want. And the neighborhood is a web of interconnected dead ends and loops, so that means all of us residents will also be driving by it on our way home. I can stock it with eggs, squash, cardoons, edible wild flower bundles, dried herbs, stone fruit, etc, and install on of those little "take what you need leave what you can" drop boxes for anyone who wants to leave money in exchange for what they take. The more my restoration progresses, the better I can stock the stand.

More than anything else though, I've started meeting my neighbors and talking to them about what we think of our home, the things we need that get overlooked, and the ways our represemtatives have been selling us out to land developers, corporations, and hedge funds. I sympathize, I share my own concerns, and I agitate for us to DO something about it all. Sometimes I bring little baskets of goodies from the garden or my craft bin. Sometimes I make my way to houses I know have children, elderly folks, people living alone, disabled folks, etc during utikity outages to see if they need anything (batteries, torches/candles, food that doesn't need cooking or refridgerating, medicine storage, all that jazz). Once I had just finished running up and down the street hollering for the dogs who I thought had accidentally been let out of the yard, so after I found them sitting happily on the deck like they hadn't just scared me half to death, I took another walk through the neighborhood to thank everyone who stopped and helped or asked if I was okay or whatever.

The problem, I find, with asking "but then what do I do???" Is that it assumes there's a specific answer that's a universal fit for "meeting my moral expectations of self under concerning socio-political circumstances" when there just isn't.

I won't be able to vote this year. And given the reasons for that and the political context of those reasons, there is a solid chance that 2022 was my last chance to vote ever. But that really doesn't matter. I mean in the grand scheme of things of course it matters that I and so many others functionally cannot vote, but for the purposes of how I decide my actions? Literally couldn't matter less. To know what needs doing, you need to be in complex and consistent conversation with the communities you are attempting to work within. You need to actually know (not just assume or decide on others' behalves) what their concerns actually are, and what kinds of barriers are going to show up as you explore solutions. You need to be willing and able to focus on empowerment, autonomy, and interdependence, even when people do things with that you wish they wouldn't. And you need to be willing to stop looking at political actions through the lens of "which person who is not me can I trust to act on my behalf without sacrificing more than I can afford" but rather through the lens of "what do I want done in my name, and what pieces of that process am I willing and able to commit my time/energy/resources to?"

I think it's important when people vote. I think voting serves specific and valuable functions that are not always served by other methods. I also think that voting is not actually DOING anything. We treat it like it is, because we feel like we NEED to be DOING something and we know good and goddamned well that for most of us the things that need doing (giving money, protesting, weapons supply chain disruption, community organization, etc) are INTENSELY costly to us. We may not actually be able to do much of it if any and that often leaves us feeling helpless and trapped. But voting is explicitly not DOING anything yourself. It is simply the naming of a person to Do In Your Name. And like. There are a lot of needs that simply can never be met by delegating it to a public servant.

So. Vote. Don't vote. Vote for Harris. Vote third party. Do whatever you need to do to put your conscience on paper at the ballot box.

But stop treating your vote like an action and start thinking of it as buying a service that will perform an action on your behalf. That's the first step to even being able to see the asks your community might already be making of you.

I'm to the point where if I hear you're endorsing/voting for Kamala Harris and you're publicly getting mad at people for not voting for her, I'm not even going to listen what you have to say, you've made it clear you have to strong principles to guide your decisions beyond "what's worse for me personally?" I think Harris voters have no actual ideologies to live by, despite claiming they do, and I fundamentally don't respect them for it. It's one thing to be angry at people who won't vote for Harris, but it's another thing to pretend you're doing it because you have some sort of moral authority and not basing it off pure selfishness. You think that solidarity is posting about things and that's it. You refuse to make yourself uncomfortable, even momentarily. And you get mad at people who are willing to go through discomfort for the sake of others. You call them names, ans claim that THEY are the selfish ones in this scenario. You've given up on making a change in the world for the better, or maybe you were never interested in it. All of your arguments pale in comparison to reality, because Harris is actively funding a genocide. She has even refused to acknowledge a reality in which she does not fund that genocide. Has made such a thing clearer and clearer. All my problems here in the imperial core are secondary to that. I'm about to go through multiple personal issues that are made increasingly hard by political factors and I still think that's nothing in comparison to what Palestinians and Lebanese are going through overseas. You've placed yourselves as the ultimate victims in the world and to me it's laughable and completely out of touch with just how fucked everyone else is because of the imperial beast that is Amerikkka. And speak nothing of the way the victims of Amerikkkan imperialism on Turtle Island bear the brunt of societies' woes for your personal comfort and refusal to make any meaningful change. Not ev baby steps! You think trump is an accidental anomaly and not a product of a larger issue within white amerikkkan politics. Is it not shocking to you that so many people here are voting for trump so enthusiastically?

Seeing things like the weaponization of personal identity, like "Muslims for Harris," used so plainly is an insult to the ideas of internationalism that you all claim to follow. What use is solidarity with the victims of imperialism if you refuse to acknowledge the entirety of the imperial complex? That includes the democrats you hold so dear as well as the Republicans? What use is any of this if you only think for yourself?

You claim to be thinking of others, and that's why you vote for Harris... but what is so incomprehensible to me is the comfort in which you accept the inevitability of Palestinian deaths. Why are you so willing to accept that reality? Why are you comfortable with that reality? It shocks me and disgusts me in a way that I can not really describe. You lot argue and argue and argue, but in the end, the difference between you and me is that I refuse to engage in a reality where Palestinians must die in any case. You have yet to refuse that. In actuality, you all refuse the baby steps, the bare minimum, of refusal to engage in continuation of that reality. And because of that, I do not take you seriously, nor do I view you as being moral in your decision to sacrifice Palestinians.