Progressives aren’t quite the same as infighting discord leftists and socially isolated teenagers who think we’re going to topple capitalism aaannnny day now.
There are millions and millions of people who we would consider “progressive” and they tend to do things like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmwvHyJJr50
I think they’re confusing “progressive” with “Performative Discord Leftists Who want to have intellectual arguments but are afraid of real conservatives so they just infight and purity test all day” or “Lemmy users”
The military is often far better trained and disciplined and follow their rules and guidelines and can actually shoot what they aim at and don’t mag-dump a random car when a squirrel drops an acorn on it.
You can be a cop with a high-school diploma and a few weeks of training, and it’s almost impossible to get booted from the industry once you’re in.
Even fewer requirements for ICE and the other goon squads who are cosplaying all over the place right now.
You are absolutely right, just look at the popular investment subreddits, they don’t talk about long-term goals and successful investment strategies for retirement, etc. They talk about what the latest fast-buck is going to be, what the newest short or pump-and-dump is doing, they report on when a rug gets pulled or a bubble bursts so that their buddies can stop working in inflating it.
It’s an entire industry of scams and cons, from crypto to the stock-market broadly, it’s all about short-term rewards at any cost.
It’s not about bathrooms, it’s certainly not about “protecting” anyone. They do not give two shits about actual assaults against women and children.
It’s about sending a political message, a threat against a marginalized group that can be demonized for not fitting social norms, but is also not strong enough or connected enough to push back and rile up public support. Something like saying “You’re not allowed to use the bathroom” is a deeply personal and sensitive topic that will absolutely crush someone of any group and it’s prone to not getting the public attention that it needs. I mean, who wants to talk about how they need to shit?
It’s been wildly successful too, because the people who actually care spend all their time in social-media echo-chambers, even like this one, instead of doing community organization and activism. Even suggesting it will probably draw in opposition here from people who feel helpless. And yeah, they’ll be right, it’s much, much harder now because we didn’t do this shit back when the playing field was more level and this was just 4-chan trolls and reddit communities and there wasn’t billions of dollars invested in the success of the of the distraction-campaign.
We can still turn this around but we can’t do it the same way. We have to fight far, far dirtier, we have to make bot-armies, troll accounts, we have to put ourselves at risk, we have to directly target efforts towards libs and neo-libs who maybe, sorta, kinda care about issues that impact other citizens, but need a swift kick in the ass to realize they’re on the wrong side of history. We have to project the image of mass-support at any opportunity. When you are talking or arguing about these issues, you have to do the same thing they did, which is play up that your movement is gaining support and momentum broadly, not withering under blistering hate and capitalist efforts. We have to be less afraid of wild rhetoric and playing uncivil. Be less afraid of negative attention. We have to call people bad words and be less afraid of offending our own side, because there are a lot of people on our side who aren’t really.
We have to actually argue with our shitty uncle and not “let it go.” We have to make friends in real-space and we have to hang out in public and be seen and stand united against hateful monsters.
We have to be that group of San Diego citizens who SHAMED a bunch of modern klansmen (ICE agents) into retreating from their neighborhood.
All the hard shit. You have to do that. You have to get real social real fast. Yeah, it does suck.
My one regret is that I will never be able to find all the really stubborn, dimwitted assholes on reddit who were screaming bloody death-threats at me for warning people that NFT’s were a scam, and be able to just verbally ream them out, fucking rub their faces in their own shit.
I bet some of them are out there, reading this maybe, maybe they even recognize me.
If so… hi. How you doin? 😊
can you hold the tiger’s tail just long enough
The answer to this is also usually “no” because the people who set up the scamcoin usually don’t like to leave things to chance and have a plan for when to time their rug-pull.
Trying to get in on these grifts is like spotting a bank-robbery in-progress and trying to join the crew and get paid. Sure it can happen, but you’re not exactly playing with the best odds of success.
Uh oh, you’ve offended the people who are prone to falling for scams and grifts. Across multiple generations.
nonbinary
In this scenario that’s considered “analog” and you need to look at where the little-hand is in relation to the big hand.
Depends. If you’re a straight male, haha no that will never happen, we have done everything as a society to ensure it will be a thousand years before gender roles are abolished enough that we will treat men and women as equally-powered individuals in any relationship.
If you’re a straight woman, then congratulations, you’re in a “brave” hollywood perspective of homosexual relationships where gay people are never allowed to have a “normal” relationship, and it always has to be either tragic or unrequited, because we broadly associate being gay with something negative and we never want to see gay couples live happily ever after, particularly lesbians, they die faster than people of color in a horror movie.
If you’re a lesbian or bisexual woman, then you’re entering some world of mystery and fear that mortals will never know without the aid of a warp navigator and a series of ancient artifacts that grant protection from the arcane.
Yes, but the problem is gay media will turn our children gay and the secret magic formula from SATAN is so clever that it only works in one direction and watching straight media doesn’t turn gay kids straight! Look, it makes sense when you don’t think about it!
She was also immediately identified as such a threat to status-quo that a lot of effort went into associating her name with “cringe” and people pushed that kind of reaction real hard and it worked. I cannot believe how many arguments I had with other environmental leftists and liberals on places like reddit who hated her but had no idea why.
“Her message is great, but maybe we don’t want her representing these causes” is the line a lot of people defaulted to, and when pressed, proceeded to drop the flimsiest and most half-assed reasoning like “Well her parents are wealthy so it looks bad” or “she’s going to be a distraction” and other nonsense where people simply couldn’t connect the lines and realize they were already influenced by manufactured “online reactions” and memes that associated her name with a “child doing public speaking” which makes people really uncomfortable.
Now she’s an adult, she’s remained consistent in her tone, messaging and passion, and people STILL connect her to “child making an ugly face while shaming grown ups” and this is why she’s in so much danger right now. She’s a threat to power and they used a lot of their bigger cards to smear her enough that a large portion of the world wouldn’t mourn if she were “accidentally” killed in service of her messages.
Can you imagine how much better our world would be if people who formed radical opinions about things actually investigated the things they’re terrified of? I’m reminded of a recent story about a community forming a reading group to actually read the books that local conservative community leaders were trying to bad from the schools, and something like 99% of the books were reinstated because the citizens group found nothing offensive about them.
But a lot of our “internet culture” has formed this “double down forever” mentality in people where we’ve adapted and socialized ourselves to not even READ the things that run against our current stances and opinions, to not even address arguments, to not listen to the person debating us, and so on. These kinds of stories are just going to get more and more rare, particularly as we all start growing up with AI that kisses our asses and praises our every fart.
People in cars do sometimes shout nonsense as they pass pedestrians, but that’s just noise. Never respond to it, never think about it, never let it bother you. It’s the same as leaf-litter. You walk through it, you don’t let it even impact your stride. Purge from your memory as it happens like so much ballast.
Now for police, that can vary a LOT depending on where you live and what your skin color is, but there aren’t many places where people just can’t walk around for fear of police intervention, because at least in America, despite all the media horror and fear, there are millions and millions of people walking their dogs, walking to the store, picking up their kids at the bus stop, carrying groceries, exercising, and so on. The chances of having a serious encounter with law-enforcement isn’t zero, but it’s probably significantly lower than the chances of developing type-2 diabetes from not going out and exercising.
I’ve never heard of this as an arbitrary thing that just “happens.” Yes there are neighborhoods that are overly policed and have racial tensions, but if you’re in that kind of environment, you go out and stay with groups, you work within the system the best you can, you make planned events working with community organizers. It takes more planning and care, but even in those hostile urban environments, people go out and do things all the time. There is almost no place where you can’t just go out and walk somewhere, unless it’s such a dangerous area that a curfew is in effect. And really, if you live somewhere like that, you got bigger concerns.
There is a LOT of overhyped media about American neighborhoods, they hype it in both directions. Depending on what side of the political spectrum you connect with best, the algorithm will attempt to make you afraid of going out because you should be scared of police, or scared of the citizens.
In the vast majority of suburban neighborhoods and urban higher-density areas, there are always people walking around, walking their dogs, going to the convenience store, etc. The only time I’ve EVER been hassled by police was one time many years ago I was taking trash out in my own yard, but I was carrying a big black flashlight, carrying a trash bag and had a dark hoodie, and from a distance I looked just like a potential burglar. The cops asked me what I was up to, I said taking out the trash and they were kinda assholes but then left.
I really am glad to know that I’m coming off as a dick on this, that is my every intention, we need more people willing to break social convention and say “Hey this thing that makes you comfortable? It’s fucking your life up. Stop it.”
That’s what I’m doing, thank you for the feedback, if it’s not impacting you the way you want, I don’t really care because I do get enough positive feedback in other environments that I don’t feel I’m actually harming anyone by saying “thing you don’t like.”
We need to read more things we don’t like. We need to be challenged. We need to know we can change, we can hold others to this same standard too.
If we don’t, we’re going to lose thousands of years of progress as our species degrades further and further into isolated headspaces.
That looks like a cool zombie-defense weapon and a terrible actual weapon for self-defense or war.
I like my bugs fried in coconut batter.
Really, I see a lot of people act absolutely revolted at the idea of eating cricket cakes and the like, but will absolutely destroy fried krill patties and similar dishes.
I might even commission this artist.