A lot of people right now are experiencing a crash course in the fact that people with institutional power have power. Much of the magical thinking about "getting involved" and "making a difference" appears as obviously absurd in this situation. I can't "be the change" of releasing NIH grants. - ThreadSky

adamkotsko.bsky.social • 1 day ago

A lot of people right now are experiencing a crash course in the fact that people with institutional power have power. Much of the magical thinking about "getting involved" and "making a difference" appears as obviously absurd in this situation. I can't "be the change" of releasing NIH grants.

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adamkotsko.bsky.social•1 day ago

The spontaneous ideology of American liberals is that the state and the market are just pass-throughs for what "we" want, which suggests that the most effective political action is basically to clap your hands if you believe in Tinker Bell.

adamkotsko.bsky.social•1 day ago

"Easy to snipe from the sidelines, what's your alternative?" I'm saying we have almost all been on the sidelines the whole time. I don't know exactly what to do, but not believing false and absurd things seems like a reasonable first step to figuring it out.

jdryan08.bsky.social•1 day ago

The obvious things that people on the sidelines did not do were 1) educate themselves about how the government institutions actually work 2) learn how to defend them, rhetorically and otherwise, from attack. These are admittedly not easy given the complexity of the system, but obvious enough.

prisonrodeo.bsky.social•23 hours ago

Se we have:

1. Go Luigi
2. Hack + break their systems (figurative)
3. Be better at red voter suppression next time
4. Go all "weapons of the weak"
5. Lawsuit everything

What am I missing?

prisonrodeo.bsky.social•23 hours ago

*So

shaniaviram.bsky.social•23 hours ago

I think it’s difficult for ppl on the to let go of the fantasy of what can be achieved without falling into despair and helplessness instead of landing in “we don’t know”. And I say this learning from long time activists. It’s a balancing act of equanimity and fortitude in the face of reality

adamkotsko.bsky.social•23 hours ago

A lot of "activist" strategies seem to be the equivalent of "I'm looking for my keys under the lamp because there's more light here."

xanaxides.bsky.social•20 hours ago

If one has to eventually walk home, the street lamps would be where the sidewalk is… but the activists’ lamps may not be.

Sorry, overthinking

andytobo.bsky.social•1 day ago

It’s perpetually maddening that in a country founded by violent revolution, glorifying property damage (eg the tea party), the moderate liberal position is that simply revealing the presence of a mass desire is the main condition for change

brandontbishop.bsky.social•1 day ago

I keep coming back to thinking about Egypt's Tahrir Square in 2011, and later.

The main use of big public protest is clarifying, definitively, if "the people and army are one hand."

Short of that I'm not sure what the goal is. Likely mostly pointless outside of the National Mall, I think.

olavelgvin.bsky.social•1 day ago

Partly true, but part of the reason why horrible people have reached this level of institutional power has to do with movement building and people "being the change" on the right. See this stellar article on the NRA for example: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/704329?mobileUi=0&journalCode=jop&

adamkotsko.bsky.social•1 day ago

Movement building is different from individual "being the change."

olavelgvin.bsky.social•23 hours ago

Both agree and diasagree. Movement building is MORE than being the change, of course. But it's a robust finding across many social movements that behavioral change and commitment among adherents has a tendency to strengthen the movement and make it a stronger political force

adamkotsko.bsky.social•23 hours ago

But even that is organized and intentional across the group rather than simply self-selecting individuals deciding what to do on a one-off basis!

olavelgvin.bsky.social•22 hours ago

On that I fully agree! Individuals in isolation can obviously not achieve very much at all

posttim.bsky.social•23 hours ago

I feel like this also helps me better understand the Dems. They knew this and knew that institutional functions require people in power to follow all kinds of norms. But they gave up the argument that gov bureaucracy is good bc of GOP attacks & so had no response when GOP said to hell with norms.

posttim.bsky.social•23 hours ago

Yeah, calling and leaving messages for my rep about how cuts to medicaid will devastate healthcare in our area while she’s on Twitter ranting about woke ideology is probably not going to do much to shift things.

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