1)I want to put this out there. It is better for political action to be effective than intellectually pure and theoretically clean. The lived experiences of people under oppression don’t particularly care about if it is perfect and clean, they/we care if it works. - ThreadSky

leatherboypdx.bsky.social • 110 days ago

1)I want to put this out there. It is better for political action to be effective than intellectually pure and theoretically clean. The lived experiences of people under oppression don’t particularly care about if it is perfect and clean, they/we care if it works.

Comments

leatherboypdx.bsky.social•110 days ago

2) I was in a class on advocacy and empowerment in the spring and students in this class were coming up with ways to pressure the university to divest from Isreali occupation of/genocide in Palestine. The class proposed a registration boycott, which has been effective in the past, seemed promising.

leatherboypdx.bsky.social•110 days ago

3)The prof., an academic and an adherent to pretty strict anti-capitalist theories, decided this was the time to remind the class that there was no ethical consumption under capitalism, do what we want, but just a reminder.

leatherboypdx.bsky.social•110 days ago

4)The entire class deflated and this attempt at intellectual purity and wiping our hands of any theoretical moral muddiness demoralized an entire class of very empowered, poised, and engaged grad students, and stopped an effective organizing tactic in it’s tracks. Resisting systems is uncomfortable.

leatherboypdx.bsky.social•110 days ago

5) It also demands that we equally value efficacy and ethics. We should be thoughtful and about what systems and ideals we prop up when resisting oppression, but that cannot lead to inaction. No action of resistance is theoretically pure in every body of thought. Act, learn, act again.

leatherboypdx.bsky.social•110 days ago

6) All that being said, I think so much of the online discourse lives in the place of discomfort must mean moral authority. “I feel uncomfortable, so what your are doing must be wrong.” “Well, have you thought about this?”

leatherboypdx.bsky.social•110 days ago

7) While discourse is magical and helpful and vital, only toward action. I think quite a bit about Act Up. There were many affinity groups with the larger structure. They often disagreed about which actions to take and how to take them, but the process of discourse led to those who felt able to…..

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply