Posts you had second thought about and decided not to post - put them here

unperson, as I have said on this board numerous times, I volunteer for several mutual aid orgs and contribute bits of what little money i have to orgs, too. your characterization of me is utter bullshit.

believe it or not, making grand pronouncements and holding ideological firmness can be completely in line with doing on the ground, “small potatoes “ work. i do the latter because i want the change exhibited in my ideological positions to come to pass.

for example, i work with Food Not Bombs every two weeks and also deliver meals once a month for another organization. this is not glamorous work, but it is about helping my neighbors and others who are housebound get what they need in terms of nutrition and sustenance. this shouldn’t be an issue in the richest country on earth, and yet it is. the small acts of kindness and compassion lead me to the larger issues of food apartheid and inequality, which are systemic issues that need to change.

THIS is the way my world works, and if you don’t care for how i express my views about it, then fucking killfile me already, or fuck off with these attacks.

_I have a voice in local issues! I get emails about public hearings about stuff like replacing the bridge that the Montana DOT decided is no longer safe for pedestrian or vehicle traffic. Now we gotta figure out what we're gonna do about that, and where the money's gonna come from. That shit is important — way more important than railing against capitalism on the internet.

In my experience of organising, mutual aid and such I would say there's def a big overlap between ppl doing important short term local work and ppl who talk a lot about abolishing capitalism, the patriarchy and etc. Not all of them by any means but it's certainly a common combo.

No doubt people who talk a lot about abolishing capitalism and do absolutely nothing also exist, but to jump to the conclusion that someone on ILX talking about these things must belong to that group falls under the old Making Up A Guy To Get Mad At routine.

The reason you'll hear more about systemic change than short term local action on ILX I think would be obvious - this is a discussion forum and as such ideally suited to abstract discussions.

Also I recently read this older issue of n+1 that had an interesting essay about leftism and affect theory and hopelessness… by Gabriel Winant… it is relevant to this discussion idk if anyone else read it

Good points by Daniel

Granted in the space of organizing and community work, there are people who do more talking than working and focus on meetings and make the perfect the enemy of the good … but for the most part, Daniel otm ime

I like Winant, but I've not read that essay. Will look later thanks Sarah

I feel good knowing you like them, xyzzz! No sarcasm

V1nce Crudele

No, he seems to be over in Helena, which is about 350 miles from me.

No doubt people who talk a lot about abolishing capitalism and do absolutely nothing also exist

Er, hello! To be fair, I don't very often talk about abolishing capitalism, I do do absolutely nothing though.

he said doodoo

_ V1nce Crudele_

No, he seems to be over in Helena, which is about 350 miles from me.

There are always meaningful points of agreement. They can be as small as, "So-and-so needs help paying the rent. Can you kick in?"

what happens when the answer is "no", always "no"? do you know how many of my friends are homeless? do you know how many of my friends are unemployed, possibly unemployable? do you know the joke about "mutual aid" around here? "mutual aid" is passing around the same $20 bill, over and over again. there isn't _enough_, nobody has _enough_ for us to all be, you know, _housed_.

i mean, what you're doing, what you're doing is good. we need libraries. that's where a lot of us go when we need to apply for aid or apply for jobs, and the answer is nearly always "no" but we keep trying. making bridges safe for pedestrian traffic? that's good. that's important.

talking shit on the internet may seem stupid and pointless, but sometimes it's the closest a lot of us get to feeling... i don't know. empowered in our lives. it gets people to _notice_ us. that can be a double edged sword, but for those of us who put "OF in bio" in our usernames... i think it's important to respect the hustle.

we all got our own ways of doing things, all got our own ways of making meaning in this godforsaken world of ours.

There’s probably some people on ilx who could make a salient point about realpolitik & electoralism and their irritation at ilx’s marginalised people having the temerity to express their anger at the constantly degrading situations they live in. The old white guy who makes a living from his “writing” while living in fucking Montana? Do you hear yourself? Evidently not. Probably easier to push the value incrementalism when you’re going to be dead sooner than the rest of us.

An alternative view of record store owners:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vJBBpadaGg

The reason you'll hear more about systemic change than short term local action on ILX I think would be obvious - this is a discussion forum and as such ideally suited to abstract discussions.

― Daniel_Rf[

reposting this because i think it explains a lot and probably isn't as obvious as it seems

(pre-emptively defending - it doesn't explain everything, it doesn't explain every single person and every situation, some people are not abstract at all, some people live in abstraction. but i do think it explains a lot)

yeah it's a good point

Can that icon be a little larger? I only figured it out via process of elimination

There’s probably some people on ilx who could make a salient point about realpolitik & electoralism and their irritation at ilx’s marginalised people having the temerity to express their anger at the constantly degrading situations they live in.

probably not haha but shit maybe i'll try

i mean it's not so much that it's _degrading_, i don't mind the degradation. shit, you know what i realized this week? these terfs always banging on about how my gender identity is a "fetish" and i've gone and developed a fucking terf fetish. i mean i guess turnabout is fair play, motherfuckers been fetishizing me for all my life. pretty fucking awkward though, also a little on the nose - member of an oppressed minority developing a fetish for being degraded by their oppressor. sigh. it's _problematic_, isn't it?

i am still basically a pragmatist, "death to capitalism" is basically a pragmatic position for me to take. i know it doesn't seem that way to someone in unperson's position. i look at that post of his and i smdh, it feels like we live in separate realities.

except we don't, not really. except that it's people like unperson who _can_ meaningly support us. members of marginalized groups _use_ libraries, _walk_ over bridges, benefit from this stuff probably more than most people do. yeah it's frustrating, from that perspective, that i don't show up to city council meetings, that i don't _vote_, that sometimes i behave in ways that are, like, pretty self-destructive. you know, one of us got elected in montana, and they wouldn't let her take her seat, and unperson - yeah, the username does seem ironic to me, a little - he _does_ have a voice, he _can_ be on the chamber of commerce, and what am i supposed to do, say he's _bad_, say he's _fraternizing with the enemy_? he can complain about "death to capitalism" rhetoric and maybe we don't understand each other but we _live in the same reality_. when i talk about common cause... yeah, i do think that me and unperson do have a common cause.

is that salient? i don't know if that's salient.

Probably easier to push the value incrementalism when you’re going to be dead sooner than the rest of us.

― Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac)

...i'm not terribly sure he's going to be dead before i am, haha. i mean, i'm doing my best. like i said, it's not the degradation... it's how much _shorter_ my expected lifespan is than his.

“No doubt people who talk a lot about abolishing capitalism and do absolutely nothing also exist”

this line of thinking is total bullshit, should they quit their jobs or something?

Protestor, remedy thyself

It’s totally fine to complain about systematic bullshit

people love to complain, but nobody really enjoys listening to it

that's why the Blues never really took off

so I guess that's they call it the blues

I'm happy listening to people complaining about how shit their circumstances are because of hard govt austerity/exploitation poverty wages etc, that can only get more severe under capitalism. Been there, lived it and still am living it, it's comforting to know other people are pissed off and have diagnosed the root of the problem correctly.

Sounds like a very selective kind of complaint you enjoy. Let me tell you about my sinuses. I could go on about them all day.

yes it is selective, and your point is? Sorry to hear about your anuses

Probably easier to push the value incrementalism when you’re going to be dead sooner than the rest of us.

I might have had third thought about posting that one.

aimless, listening to you complain about your sinuses would be _far_ more pleasurable to me than most of the stuff i've heard you complain about.

it's one of the great pleasures of growing old, as far as i'm concerned - the ability to complain about one's deteriorating health. when i was 20, i didn't want to hear people go on for ages about their health problems, but these days, i find it delightful. i, too, have terrible issues with my sinuses. please. tell me about your sinuses, and i will tell you about my sinuses. i had turbinate reduction surgery in 2022. didn't do a goddamn thing. i could go on! i would love to go on!

I might have had third thought about posting that one.

Because it's a really shitty thing to say to/about someone with a chronic medical condition? Yeah, but... *80s sitcom music plays* ...That's Our Gyac!

Fwiw it was referring to the fact you’re several decades older than the people you’re berating, rather than having a chronic health condition which I was unaware of. Thankfully none of the people you’re berating have either chronic health conditions and less economic security to deal with them!

I'm happy listening to people complaining about how shit their circumstances are because of hard govt austerity/exploitation poverty wages etc, that can only get more severe under capitalism. Been there, lived it and still am living it, it's comforting to know other people are pissed off and have diagnosed the root of the problem correctly.

you know what i'd love most, aimless, about hearing you talk about your sinuses? i'd have no reason to dispute anything you're saying. they're _your_ sinuses. _you're_ the one who has lived experience with them. whatever you say about your sinuses, i can trust, totally and completely, that you know what you're talking about. i might be bored, but i would never, ever be offended.

i know some people object to tendency to talk about myself. understandable! it's the only topic i can speak with any authority at all about, however.

xxxp
and you are such a hothouse flower, aren't you? it's not like you ever give a shit about other people with chronic medical conditions who might not be as privileged as you in the post that started this.

otm

We need to have a Trading Places feature where posters can live in each other's circumstances for a week, learn to empathize and then post as the other person.

I think you're more thinking of Freaky Friday, I don't remember Trading Places having a speech by Eddie Murphy's character about how now he's learned life is tough for rich dudes too.

speaking of needing a better library, it does seem like the "be reasonable, accept incremental change" faction helped vote in the mayor who cut library services in order to massively increase cop budgets to fight a nonexistent crime wave and arrest NYU students.

We need to have a Trading Places feature where posters can live in each other's circumstances for a week, learn to empathize and then post as the other person.

― Halfway there but for you

see the interesting thing is that i know what life as a cishet white man is. and it turns out it's not actually because i'm a white trans woman. see, as far as i can tell, everybody has to know what life as a cishet white man is like! because they're "normal" and basically everything has to be done with their approval or shit doesn't get done.

i also wouldn't trade places with anyone for a week, if i had a choice at all about it. i'm pretty happy with who i am, overall. also, the last time i let somebody else post as me, he made death threats against a united states presidential candidate and i got kicked out of college. so _that's_ not happening again if i can help it.

If you’re not a serial killer targeting investment bankers can you even claim to be anti-capitalist?

I've def been having more fantasies of being a billionaire assassin lately

unless you’re “doing something” you’re not allowed to complain, I learned this from white men during the nfl “stand for the flag” nonsense

i don't want to kill billionaires, i just want to make them have to pay me rent

that sounds like it'd be a pretty sweet gig

I’m sorry but the “you are going to die sooner” remark is gross and also makes no sense… someone closer to death would be more likely to want faster change … because they have less time to lose?

Honestly ILX is for complaints of all kinds

Based on generational attitudes toward climate change that is appears to be untrue.

Exactly, didn’t think it was a very abstract point I was making.

Based on generational attitudes toward climate change that is appears to be untrue.

"I’m sorry but the “you are going to die sooner” remark is gross and also makes no sense… someone closer to death would be more likely to want faster change … because they have less time to lose?"

Absolutely not. Older voters who have pensions and mortgages paid off lean conservative. A lot of them go on several holidays a year and have no idea why younger people are struggling.

They voted in the system, it worked for them. A lot of them are in denial about climate change.

Honestly ILX is for complaints of all kinds

OTM