Something I’ve been thinking about a lot is how many activists are willing to get arrested for Palestine, whereas seemingly no one in any of the sectors being illegally gutted by Trump is willing to take a similar risk.
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The Dems set things up for this moment, sorry to say, by vilifying the protesters and militarizing the response. The Dem mayor, governor, and president all played their roles. And now here we are.
The Palestine protests were mostly younger college aged students. The people being affected now I think mostly have families…. That may be the difference
I’m not advising anyone to do something stupid or reckless. I just think we have to confront that courts and legislators are not going to stop any of this and either people will fight—really fight, as in risk arrest—or it’s over. And I don’t see a lot of people really fighting.
I feel pretty good about my Union’s work at my agency at the moment.
One variable in my mind that is if you’re a public servant who views your work and service as a form of activism in and of itself you have a responsibility to keep doing that work and not remove yourself from the equation
Another thing I keep thinking about: by the numbers, millennials object to Trump more than any other age cohort. But we’re also the generation most heavily engaged in the raising of young kids right now, an activity that is functionally (if not ideologically) deradicalizing.
An important observation and one I'm really deeply. It's not just willingness to take arrest, but time to attend even low-risk events and the atomization of parenting in the US leading to the loss of organizing networks.
Some how Millenials delaying having kids is gonna lead to the fall of the republic. If my kids were ten years older I’d expect them to be in the streets and I’d be able to too!
This does not seem insightful and seems so broad as to be meaningless. No one who supports palestine is pro-elon musk and fascism. Its the same fight. Tons of ppl of all ages, ppl w kids.
on the "ideological" part: since having kids I have absolutely become more radical lol. I get what you mean on the functional side but I've tried to shift to more admin/coordinating type stuff in terms of organizing, since as you say I can't be as much of a body in the street all the time
Yeah, that's exactly what I meant. And we all have ways to contribute, I mostly have my writing and whatever it means to people, but I feel like in analyzing the lack for bodies on the street I should humbly admit I'm not the one who's likely to solve this.
In fairness to them, federal employees are legally forbidden from striking or protesting. And not in like the campus protesters “we’re making up new laws to arrest them” ways, literally decades-old laws on the books that say they can’t do it.
It’s a shitty situation, but it’s basically a catch 22. I think it’s understandable these people who are getting illegitimately fired aren’t responding by doing something that would create a legitimate reason to fire them.
I mean that ship has kind of sailed, no? I think it's more to do with instincts and self-selection, the kinds of people who get those jobs in the first place
I'm not really understanding what you're asking them to do here. What most of these people want is to have their jobs back. Literally the most immediate and permanent way they can never work in federal service again is to be arrested for something. That's not Trump; that's actual federal law.
Anti genocide protesters are naturally in opposition to The System. It is disorienting & confusing for people who work for / believe in The System to find themselves in opposition to it
Fed employees need to go through the stages of grief that no one is going to help them before they'll do more than peacefully protest. It'll take a while.
Well, the federal workers’ union and the federal employees repeatedly kept saying they did NOT want Dems to vote for cloture & that they understood the risks but were nonetheless willing to make the sacrifice, but according to Schumer, they were wrong & he knew better:
Also many leftists aren't going to feel obligated to go the distance for issues that they see as "something the liberals can handle." Dumb attitude but it's real. That's part of why they push so much harder on Israel.
I think this attitude will fade over time but I do think it's hampering rn
The Democrats, in Blue states, in Blue cities, under the last Blue president, made sure everyone understood we won’t have our rights protected, and now their best friends are in charge of deporting people to random foreign countries while they approve.
Why aren't people out in the streets protesting against poverty (like they did in the 1960s), & asking for the government to humanely end homelessness, too?
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One variable in my mind that is if you’re a public servant who views your work and service as a form of activism in and of itself you have a responsibility to keep doing that work and not remove yourself from the equation
pathetic loser
not sure we know that much about the self-selection
https://bsky.app/profile/allinwithchris.bsky.social/post/3lkcfs5bync2n
1. It's hard to protest a president this early bc he just got elected. He still has an air of popular support
2. I think there's a huge hangover from the protests last summer
3. Trump admin/police response to protests has been restrained
I think this attitude will fade over time but I do think it's hampering rn