Athena5898

Ngl, i’m just going to assume you are a neo-lib who is going to back away from those other symbols as soon as you see a homeless person just walking down the street. As an ND Queer who grew up in OK and now lives in a liberal area, it’s all the same shit. I’ve seen plenty of American flags being waved next to pride flags and shit but these same people will call the cops cause someone looks “fishy” in their neighborhood (and the fishy is being Black, but hey why do any introspective about your role in the racist system). I’ve never seen anyone who flies the American flag that didn’t come from someplace of privilege that will say “BLM!” or “Love is Love!” and then turn around and say “Maybe some conservatives have a point” or whatever.

Just letting you know, if you fly an American flag regardless of whatever else, a lot of different marginalized people are going to side-eye you and not trust you. You can’t “take back” something that is embedded in the very fabric of the creation of this country (hate, bigotry, fascism) without societal changes to the basic foundations of this country.

are we ready to admit that Joe Rogan is basically just a right wing podcaster now or are we going to continue this stupid dance of “no he’s just a centrist telling it like it is”

actually, a lot of them do think climate change is unstoppable in some way shape and form, I know cause i get told that almost every day. There are people doing it in these comments right now.

Also, I read the article, he is not ignoring the issue here, and honestly, i think this is directed at the leaders too. Who do you think is spreading this gloom and doom in the first place? Who benefits from people giving up and we just live in a worst world when there is much we can do to fight? The fossil fuel-backed “leadership”.

There are plenty of ways to fight, you just can’t do it alone. No one can fight climate change alone. Our individualism has warped our brains so that we cannot even fathom what to do at first when we ourselves cannot fix a problem by ourselves. Another outcome of hegemony and our corrupt society.

only through building community and threatening the power structure can we effectively fight for real change. “leadership” (aka people with power who are all corrupt to a certain extent) will do nothing if they do not have a legitimate fear of the people, and that will not come without community building and throwing off the shackles of individualism.

Oh don’t worry, voting to me is something that you do and then get back to the real work. You need to organize with people around you and fight everything and anything in your area. If it feels like you can’t do that in your area, then if you can, try moving to an area you think you might be able to find your community. (it doesn’t have to be far, it can literally be a town over, or even down the street). No one can fight climate change alone. It will take many people working together to make the change we need to see. Also you may be able to radicalize people in your area for even more direct action. Get people to feed into their anger, and channel it at the people in charge who refuse to change anything.

This can start out as small issues but you can wake people up that they DO have power. If we build up a coalition of power from the ground up, it will get easier and faster to do. Many hands make light work and all that, and eventually people will be willing to make people in power fear them again. Cause i’m going to be honest with you, I believe power corrupts absolutely, so anyone in power is so removed from the rest of our realities, that I do not think you can reason with most of them. The only thing you can do against power, is make it fear you. Ironically to all the “just vote UwU” people, voting means nothing if there is no consequences for going against the will of the people. Which we see time and time again. I have finally been able to be more active as of late, despite my disabilities and it gives me a way forward that I wouldn’t of had otherwise.

oh, even more things you can do. While I can go on and on about the complications of social media and the internet at large, and while direct action in person is the most effective, there are things you can do if you just can’t work in person for a variety of reasons. Before I got my boots on the ground, I was able to help out with community work with social media management. With the internet and our ability to connect long distances, you have options from home in regards to helping build community, and if you do this it may give you connections to help you get out of your situation so that you can be more physically involved in the future.

I know this is a lot, but there is just not a quick easy answer to “what should I do?” Our individualism has warped our reality to how things work, and trust me I battle with it every day too. There is no big savior coming to help us, and there isn’t some big magic fix. It will take a lot of tiny things that will build up to big changes. That’s how it has always worked, but it’s easier to conceptualize when we break it down into big chunks for history. Let alone the hegemony of the Great Man Theory of history

It’s hard to tell you what YOU can do, because I don’t know you. What CAN you do? Use the skills you have to help out a group or org in your area, if there isn’t one, then try making one if that is something you can do, or help online. Our changing climate talked about dual vision when dealing with climate change. It’s the idea of looking at what is possible in both a good and bad way and trying to walk that line. I don’t know if my organizing and work will make a difference, but all I can do is my best and constantly work for something better. The people in power have taken much from all of us, I refuse to let them take my one life without a fight, and without me finding happiness in the dark times. We don’t get to choose the times we live in, but we can help fight and build something better so those in the future will have something better. That’s just how I live and it’s what works for me.

This is a trying time, and sorry I did not mean for this to turn into a novel. Like i said it’s hard to answer the question “what do I do?” simply without coming off as uncaring or hand-wavy. TL;DR shit fucking sucks

I wish you luck in your journey and as much peace as anyone of us can have with our climate anxiety.

TL:DR kinda defeats the purpose but, Shit fucking sucks, and it’s hard. But we gotta try, organizing and direct action to the point of making those in power fear us is our best option.

as my friend says “Despair is a commodity, don’t buy into it”

get organized with people and bring fear to the people who won’t change policies. YOU cannot do anything, but WE can. No one can fight climate change alone.

yeah gerrymandering and attacks on voting would like to have a word with you.

you want politicians to listen, you make them listen. Power corrupts absolutely, if you want people in power to listen, you make them listen. It’s time politicians become afraid of the workers again, from either loss of revenue or other things.

sounds like giving up to me

If you had been listening to any anti-fascist group they could of told you this. It’s honestly not that big of a secret.

oh look people in the comments who are missing the fucking point. I’m honestly so sick of this shit. You either have rainbows and unicorns and “we’ll just figure it out”/climate deniers to “WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH” apathetic fucks who won’t do shit* because “what’s the point we are all doomed anyway” which…causes the same problem as denying does.

honestly i’ve delt with more people who refuse to change anything because “what’s the point” than I deal with outright deniers anymore.

*not sure if anyone in the comments is an apathetic "do nothing though tbf and honest. So there is my disclaimer don’t @ me.

I’d love to be wrong. But i dont think this bill will do anything.

oh yeah that’s way more accurate

I would strongly recomend listening to 99% invisible Freedom House episode. This has happened before. In the past we didnt have ambulances services and cops would often throw a dying person in a paddy wagon and then take them to the hospital…hopefully i don’t have to explain why this is bad. When the first ambulance service was being organized the cops through a fucking fit about their “jobs being stolen”. There have been a number of programs trying to take off like the Denver Star program that do similar things. They take on wellfare cases. There have also been things proposed for other types of issues that cops do. A exercise is to start thinking of cops as “murder squad”. Do you need the murder squad to take care of X? Do you need them for tickets? Hell sometimes if the answer may seem yes, but the way they do things as reckless and bloody as possible has shown that it is often not effective. High speed chases down packed streets? Shoot outs they start in heavily crowded areas? A kid who shoplifted candy and surrendered and got murdered anyway? (Know one of those). We have got to deprogram ourselves in thinking we know what police do, because what we were sold is no where centered in reality.

Another title for this is KKK member releases another KKK member for doing KKK shit. ACAB

That’s the neat part, they don’t most of the time. But people get this idea that “well if they are not voting Biden then they are voting trump” then go shock pikachu when the numbers of those who don’t vote come out. We ignore it or blame it on the youth for being stupid and then we repeat the mistakes. Because that’s easier then dealing with the cognitive dissonance

People don’t have to vote for trump if they are disillusioned, they just don’t vote. If someone has to take a day off of work when they are already struggling for people who dont do shit for them in either direction, then why go vote? And i know what you are going to say, but maybe you should blame the system and fight it (cause you need more then just voting anyway) then the people who are being beaten by the system trying to survive. It honestly it amazing to me that people like you cannot fathom the apathy and lack of energy as the real issue. For some people it is a big issue to vote because of the systematic issues put before them, because Republicans and Establishment Dems alike know that if they vote they loose. Do you think i want trump to win? Im a Nonbinary autistic living with my trans wife. But you better fucking believe im going to call out the dems for this bullshit. If they fought just as hard against anyone slightly progressive from getting on ballots as they did for people to vote more easily then things would be different, but they enjoy their money just as much as the Republicans, their grift is just nicer in comparison to literal nazis. And they use that against us over and over but in 2016 they miscalculated (of course they did they are more out of touch each year). I hope a Republican doesn’t win but im not going to be shocked if they do and the dems are more to blame for this then voters who can’t vote for a variety of reasons.

Lol its amazing people can say shit like this with a straight face after Bernie. The democratic party said “no fuck you, its us or trump take your slightly socialist dude and fuck off” and a lot of young people did. Thankfully a lot of them took their work in politics and moved it to labor organizing, but please miss me with the “young people just need to get involved” shit when it has proven that any time they do, they get slapped down by said establishment dems. Systematic problems need systematic solutions. If “go vote blue no matter what” spent just as much energy fighting against systematic barriers to voting like gerrymandering, days off, mail in ballots, etc as they did finger wagging and yelling at younger people (cause you know, that’ll help) we might be somewhere different.

Don’t even get me started on the fact that we need more then voting.

“illegal immigrants” is always fun when talking about the US. 1. classic dehumanizing tactic. These are not people they are ILLEGALS! 2. kinda hard to be a “legal immigrant” when it’s fucking impossible to be one unless you have money, connections or…oh but that’s the point isn’t it? Also if it’s impossible for them to be considered “legal” it means these people can be exploited, constantly all the way up to the legal form of slavery in this country. (prison)

Also, there is a very good chance all of these “illegals” that some of you clutch your pearls over pay more taxes than you do while also having fewer protections and more harassment. https://www.vox.com/2019/3/1/18241692/undocumented-immigrants-pay-state-local-taxes

they belong in the country more than you do asshole. Also i must ask, do you enjoy having such lack of critical thought that it allows people to control you with fear and manipulation? aka do you enjoy being a good sheepy doing what your betters tell you to do? feel how they tell you to feel?

“battle against inflation” what battle? I don’t see us going after the corporate profit greed that is causing all of this. They use the word inflation like it’s some weird mystical word that we need to go to the profits (economists) for answers for. It’s corporate greed and late-stage capitalism, always has been and always will be. If little number has to always go up and can never stall or go down, you gotta start squeezing water from the stone at some point. Infinite growth is bullshit in a world that doesn’t have infinite growth. Most of the companies that are charging more and more for shit are doing stock buy backs, employment cuts, etc. People need to wake up to the reality of the fact that this shit isn’t some mystical mumbo jumbo, it’s very straightforward, the ruling class just doesn’t want you to understand it.