#literally no one is worth voting

[noirineverysense]

looking at the ballot for the uk elections was the most depressing thing in the world. literally no one is worth voting for. i hope this country burns tbh

[onethousxndvoices]

Been working on cleaning up/making my Ko-fi page a bit more robust and found an option for monthly subscriptions. I already have a $1 tip jar tier up just as kind of a test run to see how it works, but it's got me thinking:

Price wouldn't be very high, probably capped to $3 a month (price subject to change, idk yet). I'll be using that space to post page wips, extra doodles, and, when it comes time to start posting the next track, Ko-fi members will get to read 3-4 pages ahead. Or something along those lines. Would that be something y'all would be interested in?

[bougiebutchbitch]

wow I've sure blocked or unfollowed a lot of people I used to really like and respect over their absolutely abominable opinions recently

[skadream]

if you genuinely think it sucks that you are telling people to register to vote i need you to get a grip and think about the tangible and immediate consequences of having any more right-wing politicians in positions of high political power than there already are. maybe you need a reminder of the 2016 election and how not voting period or not voting for the OBJECTIVELY less terrible option affected our government for literal decades to come. direct action is great but the system will literally NEVER change if people don't actually participate in the system, and believing that boycotting one election will do anything but put us and people our politics affect in a worse spot is naive and selfish

girl i do not need a reminder of the 2016 election, that was literally my first presidential election i voted in. stop acting like people who feel disillusioned about the electoral system are stupid. seriously telling ME to get a grip. about MY job that i already said i am continuing to do.

[marklikely]

the results of that "is fanfic a book" poll have shown me one thing and its that this site never graduated past that absolutely insufferable phase in 2013 where everyone acted like every book is the single most sacred thing on earth

[thompsborn]

sorry just the genuine anger people are apparently feeling over a fucking poll ?? like?? it’s just. it’s. it’s “gay pirates or gay soldiers” and that’s literally it. it’s not that serious. it’s fictional characters. if anything at least the pirates actually kissed. like. take an internet break. it’s literally fine.

[faerociousbeast]

i hate fandom poll tournaments!! like actually

[nightmareonpeachstreet]

when the interim results for CYL7 are posted in alphabetical order and for a second you’re so confused

[sturionic]

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.

[hellfridge]

This is important, but let's avoid immediately ending USA's democracy first, yeah?

Do not let this keep you from voting. You can vote and criticize and do activism about that criticism. Inaction never helps.

If you're not voting, ask yourself right now what you're doing instead. And if you have a strategy, great! But if your answer is waiting for a better option you're gonna watch the world burn, and waiting for someone else to put out the fire is only gonna get you so far.

The Democratic Party: "We are the champions of democracy! We believe in voting rights!"

Also the democrats:

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-allies-plot-thwart-third-party-bids-that-threaten-his-reelection-2024-01-18/

[pascalscoffin]

LISTEN the amount of people genuinely pissed off about something as petty as sexiest man alive (which none of us even think about until the next day) like I absolutely love Pedro and I do feel like he absolutely should’ve won but to shit on John Krasinski? Weird

Y’all are thinking about goofy John Krasinski when he hasn’t looked fucking goofy since the office

This is the John Krasinski that won

Not this one

I mean do you think Pedro would like to know that you guys are on here calling people ugly and saying “fuck them and their whole families” because he wasn’t put on the cover of a fucking magazine? Genuinely he would be so thoroughly fucking disgusted with you.

[musashi]

posts about the alt-right pipeline being compassionate towards young men while radical leftists shun and shame them are not fucking saying "the men are becoming violent because feminists are too mean!" and if that is your takeaway you need to get off tumblr until you've better honed your critical thinking skills.

those posts are talking about how effective the language and approach you take in your activism can be. this is literally cult deprogramming 101. if someone is being taken in by a violent or dangerous group, that violent or dangerous group is usually offering them compassion and solace while working hard to convince them everyone else in the world is their enemy. you are under no obligation to coddle or act compassionate toward these men and their violent ideologies, but if you have the means to try, it is something that you can do to make a tangible difference.

radicalized people are often only one loving friend or family member or external voice away from being de-radicalized. of course that is not always the case, but it very often is. a lot of y'all rightfully understand that you do not carry the burden of being that voice, but a lot of y'all also have a lot of internalized ideas about morals and punitive justice and have simply written off these people as deserving of only the worst and not worth saving.

ten years ago, my grandmother was a fox news watching republican who voted red in every election and very well could have fallen down the qanon rabbit hole if not for me and her daughter challenging her compassionately, walking her through hypotheticals that validated her feelings & proving why they were false, & being patient with her despite our extreme division in political ideology. it was frustrating fucking work! but i decided i wanted to do it, because i could see the horizon and i could see me making a difference!

"misogynists have been saying feminists are too mean for years, get new material" that is not the fucking POINT. the point is that you, feminist, can be the compassionate voice that guides your brother, your father, your cousin, your grandfather away from fucking becoming or staying a nazi. you can show them compassion and companionship. you can be the woman they think of when their alt-right bros try to convince them that women are the enemy. and you can choose to crystallize that image of yourself so wholly in their mind's eye as worth protecting that they may very well choose to reject those harmful ideas.

it's not saying you HAVE to do it! it's saying you CAN do it! don't you 'firebomb a walmart' people all love taking change into your own hands? where the fuck is that energy right now, huh?

[aroaceofthesea]

If puigdemont escapes it will be so fucking cool

[anarchopuppy]

Don't believe me? Just take a look at the notes 👇👀

Never forget that during the 2020 US presidential election season, while one of the largest popular uprisings in human history was occurring, mutual aid networks were seeing an unprecedented surge in response to the pandemic, and fascist violence and rhetoric was ramping up rapidly, liberals were still pissing their pants and hollering "well what ELSE do you EXPECT us to DO!!!!" whenever the thought of taking some kind of action other than just voting was brought up

That was when I realized that reaching out to "blue no matter who" libs is just as hopeless as reaching out to conservatives. We'll be here when you decide to pull your heads out of the sand - until then, I'm not wasting my time

[jvzebel-x]

🦋

[directactionforhope]

Don't let people tell you that voting doesn't matter

My grandparents came to this country from an authoritarian dictatorship that literally threw out all the votes. And literally falsified the election results. A country where literally no one's vote mattered - and that was during the years you could vote. (You know, all the things people say about the US to try to convince you that your vote doesn't matter.)

It was a country that literally assassinated their political opponents. And literally sent people who spoke out against them to prison for years of hard labor. (You know, the things Trump has openly talked about doing in the US dozens of times.)

My great-grandmother and great-grandfather were both arrested for refusing to join the governing party. They were both imprisoned for years. Their daughter, my grandma, had to live in a boarding house.

My grandpa, her future husband, was imprisoned for two years because of his country of origin.

My great-grandmother forced them to let her out of prison after two years, but only by virtue of being extremely lucky, tough as nails, and willing to potentially die in the process. My great-grandfather was imprisoned at a work camp for seven years, until his legs stopped working from digging holes in the ground in subfreezing water, at which point they threw him in the snow outside the front gates. The only reason he survived was because of the kindness of strangers who drove by.

My great-grandparents lived the rest of their time in that country with surveillance equipment in their home. Hidden microphones and tapped phones, and my great-grandfather's deep-seated fear that his wife's unwillingness to stop talking shit about the ruling party would land them back in prison.

They tried to assassinate my grand-grandfather. They shot at him while he was walking home from the neighbors', and barely missed. They successfully assassinated his cousin, and almost assassinated eight or so other members of his family in the attack.

Voting matters. The right to vote matters. Imperfect elections still matter.

Trump wants to take us to a country like the one my grandparents moved here from. Don't fucking let him.

And don't let anyone persuade you that it's worth the risk to not vote or vote third party.

The country my family is from is now a democracy. Let's keep the US as one too, please.