#people say they will firebomb a walmart etc.

[ravenkings]

do you people ever have a serious thought in your lives

[opossumanon]

I was reading the reblogs of a post that basically said "Don't be a doomer about Kamala Harris being a black woman and worrying that racism and misogyny will lose her the vote, go out and campaign and vote and she'll win because we made her win" (Correct) and man...

The amount of people who get so obnoxious screaming about how voting for anybody in this election is morally horrible (No, it's our basic right and duty as Americans), how the rest of the world matters too (No shit Sherlock) and how "The leftism is leaving your bodies the second your rights are being threatened" and no????? Since when did being leftist mean shooting yourself in the foot to protest someone else being hurt????

To be clear, leftism is at the end of the day the belief that all people matter, all people deserve rights and happiness, housing is a human right, food and water is a human right, self-determination is a human right, war is bad, billionaires should never exist, etc. etc.

Leftism also means THINKING instead of just acting emotionally. Gaza doesn't benefit if we refuse to vote for Harris. The Democratic Party won't go "Oh no, the people are mad we didn't support Palestine :C" and even if they somehow did it wouldn't matter because Trump would be President and we'd all be fucked and he'd bomb Palestine anyways and then take a piss on their ashes.

Also it's important to note that Harris was part of the reason why Biden started to swing to the middle regarding Palestine and Israel. Harris pushed Biden into doing a lot of the leftist things he's done. Harris can be pushed too, we can elect her and say "Congrats on winning the office, now do these things for us" and she'll be more likely to follow through than fucking Donald "I can shoot a guy in the middle of the street and people would still vote for me" Trump.

I won't be able to vote in this election, but my goals/hopes for our future as a country are

Elect Harris

Bully Harris into cutting off support to Israel and pressuring them into returning the land stolen from the Palestinians

Make ranked voting a thing

Demolish the Electoral College with exploding car hammers

Get Trump tossed into prison for his countless felonies, plus treason

For fuck's sake people, please understand that the best way to help Palestine and the rest of the world, as well as ourselves, is to strategize, and voting for Harris is the best strategy we got right now, because "lol I'm gonna firebomb a Walmart" is never helpful. It's just talking the talk to sound all high and mighty while being a lazy shit and doing nothing of import.

Anyways before I dip remember that voting is harm reduction, especially make sure to vote in all your local elections, donate if possible, be an active member of your community, pick a particular cause you can fight for and fight for it, and you'll be way more helpful than any of the dumbasses screaming and crying about "boycotting" voting...Cuz that's totally how this works [insert facepalm emoji]

[goodbyenorthernlights]

uspol thing i wrote originally in response to someone else talking about the primaries but then decided that person was probably venting, so here it is out of context if you wanna hear a canuck's thoughts on voting/not voting for biden:

Not a US resident but from what I've observed it seems like Biden has a much better domestic policy than the US has been dealing with for a While, but a foreign policy that's about the same.

At least one person I follow is firmly of the stance that the system is so broken that the only ethical thing to do is to abstain from voting entirely, because if you still vote for Biden his/the Liberal stance will be "I can continue to be complicit in genocide and people will vote for me anyway." Thus the logic is that a vote for Biden- or anyone- is a vote for colonization, genocide, etc.

I think the theory is that if Biden loses the election the Liberal party will respond by realizing that their foreign policy cost them the election and that they'll need to change their stance, although the same people against voting for Biden are also saying stuff about burning it all down, can't change a system from the inside, the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house, so the actual hope is that the glorious revolution will happen I guess? It's easy for me to accuse these people of slacktivism but I don't know their lives so they may well be out there putting money where their mouths are and organizing a coup.

Anyway, I'm getting onto a tangent but tbh while I can understand a bit of where these people are coming from, I feel like even if you want to change things in Palestine it still might be better to vote for Biden, because if you want to go to protests or firebomb a Walmart it's probably easier to do so if you're not also worried about being homeless or in debt, and it is probably also easier to get other people to care about Palestine if they're not also worried about being homeless or in debt or whatever other domestic issues they would probably be dealing with under Trump's government.

[salt-sass-and-lyrium]

So, my coworkers are fucking racist as shit

tw Islamophobia, racism, slurs

So, I used to have a corner of the office pretty much to myself, which was fantastic. A bit lonely, but fantastic because I didn’t have to put up with anyone’s BS.

About ... maybe two weeks ago? I got moved and some people got moved into the seats next to me. Which, aside from the guy obsessed with Minions, has been fine. Until, these two ass clowns got moved two seats down from me. And for the most part, I tune them out. They’re attention whoring wanna be edge-lords which I’m used to, so I mostly just hear white noise when they speak.

Except, when they start getting racist. Not even subtly racist. Point blank racist. Aside from the litany of black jokes they make on the day to day (despite sitting next to myself and another black man easily twice their size), today, they took it to a new level and started in on a “who can be the most Islamophobic” tirade. Idk how the conversation started, but I started paying attention when I heard something about “blah blah blah fucking bitch in a hijab”

So, apparently, 1 coworker, let’s call him... Jim. Jim was in a Walmart, where he saw a couple, presumably a husband and wife, checking out. The wife was wearing a hijab. Now, these people didn’t do anything to my coworker. By his own admission. They were checking out, minding their own business, when he decided it’d be funny to shove her “owner” (husband, but he insisted on referring to him as her owner) out of the way and push the lady in the hijab.

Purely for wearing a hijab.

Other coworker even asked “What were they doing? Were they saying anything?” And Jim said “No.” And went on on gleefully make the sound effects the woman made as she was falling, laughing at her. He, by his own admission, mind you, not hearing this second hand. This is him admitting something that he did, went up to a couple to assault them and shove a woman to the ground because he didn’t like that she was wearing a hijab.

Y’all. I was shaking so fucking bad, biting my tongue so hard I thought it’d start bleeding. But, I wait. Maybe other coworker won’t be so bad, right?

Wrong.

Other coworker lives in the Ferguson/NoCo (as we call it) area. He’s the ‘white dude in a mostly black area’ that you hear so much about. And, frankly, having lived in Ferguson for a big chunk of my life and frequenting there to this day, never really have much of a problem with the white citizens (white police officers is a different story). Anyway, other coworker... let’s call him... Jack.  Jack thinks that because he’s white and puts his kids in private school “So they don’t grow up to be ‘hood-tards’ like the other kids in Ferguson schools” (literally what he said) he’s better than them. W/E.

Jack turns and says “Oh my God, there’s 3 mosques in Ferguson. Three!!” Then shudders like he’s disgusted. Jim shouts “EWWW”! And they both laugh. I think that’s going to be the end of the conversation, when Jim says. Verbatim, hand to God: “Why don’t you just go burn them down?”

Jack looks at him, starting to laugh, when I guess he realizes Jim is serious. Jim continues: “You live over there. Just fucking firebomb the places.”

At this point, my stomach turns. This has gone from just being racist to assault  to literally you talking about potentially murdering people and burning down mosques.

Jack, to his credit (a very very minuscule amount of credit) is clearly somewhat uncomfortable, so he tries to dismiss it by saying “Well, I just don’t wanna put the energy into it.”

Jim is insistent though. “OH it doesn’t take that much energy. All you gotta do is put some gas in some bottles and... here. I’ll do it for you. Next time I’m up drinking in Ferguson, I’ll burn one or two of them down for you.”

And I’m literally shaking in my chair because I know if I open my mouth no one is going to like the shit that comes out.

Jack tries to walk the subject back some, talking about how one of the mosques was built in an old Episcopalian church, which “should be impossible” because apparently Muslims are not allowed to interact with Christians, attend Christian services or events, etc. Which, is of course, bullshit. But Jack then says “Well, they probably burned the inside down beforehand.”

Which Jim then tries to use as justification as to why it should be fine to burn down the mosque.

I start to open my mouth and literally shove my hand over it, trying to come up with something that doesn’t start with “shut the fuck up you pathetic racist pieces of shit” when Jim continues on, ranting about how all Muslims are “fucking idiots” and how they shouldn’t be allowed to serve in the military, in fact servicemen should be allowed to attack them. Because “how dare they enter my country” and so on.

I turn on my music and turn it up loud so I can’t hear anymore, then decide, I’m gonna give it 20 seconds. I send a message to my manager (who’s also theirs) and say “Can you please talk to Jack and Jim about the litany of racist shit they’ve been saying the past few days, what they’re saying right now, because if you don’t, I’m going to say some shit that no one will like”.

Few seconds later, boss messages me back, says “Yea”.

So I decide to give it a few more moments, mean while, Jim is still presumably in the middle of his racist tirade because Jack is laughing and I keep hearing words like “Fucking punch them all” and “stupid burka bitch” and so on.

They see my manager walking by and shut up, manager takes them, one at a time, into the back office for a few minutes each. Idk what was said, but I do know that Jack and Jim have not said a single word to anyone except for answering the phone since they got back. Makes me wonder if their ‘friendship’ was built on anything more than both being fucking racists.

Manager tells me that if I hear them say anything even remotely inappropriate to notify him, his manager, and our office manager and it will be handled immediately.

On the one hand, I’m still mad with myself for not saying anything. I should’ve spoken up on the spot, but, frankly, I need this job and I knew that if I opened my mouth a drink was getting thrown in someone’s face, and there’d be enough swear words to make a sailor uncomfortable. So, I’m going to hold them to it. Next time I hear either of them say anything. Any thing remotely racist or sexist, I’m reporting it. To everyone. And if nothing happens, I’m losing my shit. Because fuck this, I don’t want to work in a place where people are allowed to talk about murdering people purely because of their religion, assaulting women purely because you don’t like the religious attire they wear, or burning down mosques.

Like, what the actual fuck?

[bobthebenevolentpirate]

It is usually more useful, radical, and revolutionary to do something positive than to do something destructive.

Firebombing a Walmart might hurt Walmart’s bottom line a little. It might make a point, send a message, whatever. But like the post above says, it will also kill, maim, injure, and/or financially harm the people who work and shop there.

Giving money to the person panhandling will not in fact do any of those things, and it will mean that person does not have to steal, borrow, or do some otherwise dangerous and/or illegal thing (which often introduces police to the situation, bringing it back around to dangerous) to be able to meet their needs. They are going to do whatever they can to meet their needs, and if they can do it in a safer way that’s good!

Volunteering at a soup kitchen also does not kill, maim, injure, or financially harm anyone. It means there is one more person to help the kitchen make or pass out food. It means you have the opportunity to smile at someone who has had trash and bricks thrown at them for simply existing today.

Running a board game night for children at your local library in your free time does no harm, but it benefits the children, their parents, their peers, the library, and yourself in so many different ways.

Donating to a GoFundMe or charitable organization, getting involved in local groups or orgs or politics, etc are also better, more productive uses of your time than firebombing a Walmart or fighting a cop or even (hot take) punching a Nazi.

There’s plenty of opportunity to work towards building up those around us and the world we want to see, and it’s genuinely healthier and more sustainable than destruction.

listen i am not american. i understand that even democrats fucking suck and its a genuinely shitty situation to be in. im so sorry. but hey, hey look at me. why are you guys bullying people for saying "you should still vote blue?" Like im curious about the alternatives youve got. voting red? firebombing walmart? tumblr user catboyssepticbutthole, i know you will not be firebombing walmart.