I haven't read this yet but I'm just so so so happy to hear what you in particular have to say. I've been waiting to hear from *you* so thank you so much, I figured on a much longer wait because holy shit what the fuck. Thank you.
Okay, I'm not even gonna finish yet because I just realized near me middle school near a church is about to let out and I have chalk. You're damn right. I'm gonna go show some loud love to them baby queers, if only even one.
Hmm, you gave me a great idea. I live walking distance from one of those churches that's so big they hire off-duty cops to block traffic when the service ends to get them all out of the parking lot... I'm gonna walk by today to see the best time/placement for some "chalk art" ❤️🔥
Oh fuck yeah that was so good, and I'm reminded of a quote I hold dear: if it’s inaccessible to the poor it’s neither radical nor revolutionary. - Jonathan Herrera
I extend that to everywhere I think someone is being blocked by another on purpose. Nah, we don't need to do that shit anymore. A lot of mages don't agree but I believe the only barrier should be respect (like with appropriation.)
And with that I'll finally quit talking but I'm gonna share the fuck out of this. Ope, lied a smidgen: One of the best freaks that I ever knew who helped me down my current path was a woman named Katix (not Katie, -icks, so cool) who said it was important to be a good freak ambassador when I can. She taught me that a smile is surprisingly disarming more often than you'd think. She also had a cocks' comb haircut that she would spike so tall she had to take the moon roof out of her neon green mid-80's Volkswagen rabbit. I was very lucky to imprint (with?) her. Her smile made a whole room change without people even seeing it and that shit is how we win. Radical love. I've helped so many people be more authentic and the thing is: love is authentic and innate, bigotry is man-made. So we can ditch it with a fuck ton of work.
Margaret, you are a beacon, an example, and a comfort. My partner and I briefly met you at the Ann Arbor book tour stop and we were delighted by your humor, humanity, and art. Thank you for the reminders in this piece, which we will be sure to share with our communities.
I'm so sorry. Your words really do help with that feeling of helplessness, watching from across the other side of the world where we've no control but will feel the effects of this also. They also help with two other political scenarios in NZ & Aus last year where my heart absolutely broke twice on the same day.
Also...I've also been fangirling your podcasts for ages! I've learnt so much and there I've of the most favourite parts of my week. Needed to wait till I was in a spot to contribute! Thank you 🌷 (I don't know if you reply usually but don't need to, save the emotional energy for the creative research things) Appreciate your work very much!
Our first step, a year ago, was to begin to disentangle ourselves from the matrix. We sold our house and all our crap to minimalize and live in an RV. That's what my page here is about. Now we will use our resources and energy to engage the enemy, as you state. We are mobile, we will fight. You are homesteaded, that's another approach as long as you've defined a good security perimiter and are self-sustaining in terms of water, food, energy. I write about that quite a bit. Let's do this.
Re: Deescalate all conflict that isn't with the enemy -
I think this is nice-sounding advice that's impossible to fully put into practice the same way that "believe survivors" is: How do we decide who the enemy is?
Some people would say it's just the ruling class but that would leave us defenseless against the red flags of people like Gazi Kodzo. Someone is dead in part because people e.g. re-interpreted Kodzo's viral attacks on Anne Frank as a more-reasonable criticism around how Holocaust remembrance has been co-opted under white supremacy. They probably thought they were de-escalating conflict between people who were on the same side but actually they were lending legitimacy to a burgeoning cult leader.
But if we dismissed everyone with any sign of authoritarianism as "the enemy", that category could potentially include every statist plus those charismatic anarchists with dominating personalities, leaving us with no one but at best our small cliques of personal friends (and whose friend groups don't even include anyone problematic?). There's inherent ambiguity and plenty of room for disagreement (and conflict!) in identifying who is and isn't "the enemy".
Not every conflict involves at least one party perceiving the other as being aligned with the enemy or being a new enemy (such as a cult leader or a revolutionary who wants to become the next authoritarian), but I think the majority probably do to some extent or another. We might *disagree* with that perception and step in to de-escalate the conflict based on that evaluation, but we could end up being the ones who are mistaken (as many an organizer who tried collaborating with PSL or negotiating with the local mayor or police department has independently discovered). And given that we're all products of the society we're trying to destroy, and all to some extent dependent on it for survival, we're probably all at least a little bit "the enemy", or have the potential to enact that. I think this is an essential part of the fabric of social struggle that we can't wish away with a simple formula.
i personally think definitions of "the enemy" are going to vary from person to person. I don't want to say "deescalate all conflict that isn't with the state" or "fascists" or whatever because yeah, people are gonna see it really differently. For me it's more of an internal thing: if i am in conflict with someone, do I really see them as my enemy? If not, I need to find a way to deescalate that conflict.
Are you familiar with the concept of engaging in principled struggle? That’s how I like to assess my allies. I think it captures a lot of what you’re describing here. adrienne marie brown wrote a pretty cool book about it if you’re feeling curious.
So much state propaganda on both sides of the media sluice are hell bent on creating convenient easy cartoon enemies of 'the other people'.
I have voted left my entire life, learned my anarchist leanings from UKL (the confusing obedience vs cooperation thing hits big right now, and maybe the whole thing about being in a state of ignorance and fear of the other may actually be totally shit way to understand anything about them, 'I want to live in a world where one gets to decide what happens to one's body'... etc).
But I am glad trump won. I hate him, I was distraught when he won before, but so many terrible, terrible things were done by the 'left' that seriously advance the totalitarianism agenda. Open censorship, by an unholy alliance of gov and corporations, mandates, curfews, forced vaccination with a new tech untested on humans with no long term study done? How did the left end up cheering this insanity on? I still hate trump, but RFK in health, Jay Battachayra in NIH?
I know someone who works in public health research/policy... what went on behind the scenes is def not what was televised.... many, even policy leaders fought mask/vaccine mandates, tried to open sooner, tried to show that the real crisis occurring was the crazy spike in young people dying of drugs, accidents, suicides... the government ignored this. My friend also know what a newspaper can do with what seemed a very, very clear and sober analysis done for a press release: use words from what was written to 'not quite' claim the opposite and say they were hiding things...
There is some dark shit that has to come out, corporations should not have been able to siphon god knows how many 100s of billions of dollars from our governments and health care systems... the crunch is coming hard now, health care is fucked.... and what do you suppose might happen when the classic fascists like trump start deciding what is and is not 'misinformation'?
I am still here on the left with UKL wishing for a 'world with no laws other than those against rape and usury'.... but most leftists seem to assume I must be some sort of MAGA loving evil stupid POS. The enemy, righteously a fair target for conflict....
Can you elaborate on your point about PSL as authoritarian grifter? Genuinely curious because I haven't encountered any reason to think that. And one of the aims of this essay is to encourage building inclusive tents and coalitions, should we really dismiss them so readily?
I appreciate you so much. When things feel heavy, your words bring some lightness.
I haven't read this yet but I'm just so so so happy to hear what you in particular have to say. I've been waiting to hear from *you* so thank you so much, I figured on a much longer wait because holy shit what the fuck. Thank you.
Okay, I'm not even gonna finish yet because I just realized near me middle school near a church is about to let out and I have chalk. You're damn right. I'm gonna go show some loud love to them baby queers, if only even one.
Thank you so much.
Hmm, you gave me a great idea. I live walking distance from one of those churches that's so big they hire off-duty cops to block traffic when the service ends to get them all out of the parking lot... I'm gonna walk by today to see the best time/placement for some "chalk art" ❤️🔥
Oh fuck yeah that was so good, and I'm reminded of a quote I hold dear: if it’s inaccessible to the poor it’s neither radical nor revolutionary. - Jonathan Herrera
I extend that to everywhere I think someone is being blocked by another on purpose. Nah, we don't need to do that shit anymore. A lot of mages don't agree but I believe the only barrier should be respect (like with appropriation.)
And with that I'll finally quit talking but I'm gonna share the fuck out of this. Ope, lied a smidgen: One of the best freaks that I ever knew who helped me down my current path was a woman named Katix (not Katie, -icks, so cool) who said it was important to be a good freak ambassador when I can. She taught me that a smile is surprisingly disarming more often than you'd think. She also had a cocks' comb haircut that she would spike so tall she had to take the moon roof out of her neon green mid-80's Volkswagen rabbit. I was very lucky to imprint (with?) her. Her smile made a whole room change without people even seeing it and that shit is how we win. Radical love. I've helped so many people be more authentic and the thing is: love is authentic and innate, bigotry is man-made. So we can ditch it with a fuck ton of work.
Margaret, you are a beacon, an example, and a comfort. My partner and I briefly met you at the Ann Arbor book tour stop and we were delighted by your humor, humanity, and art. Thank you for the reminders in this piece, which we will be sure to share with our communities.
I'm so sorry. Your words really do help with that feeling of helplessness, watching from across the other side of the world where we've no control but will feel the effects of this also. They also help with two other political scenarios in NZ & Aus last year where my heart absolutely broke twice on the same day.
Also...I've also been fangirling your podcasts for ages! I've learnt so much and there I've of the most favourite parts of my week. Needed to wait till I was in a spot to contribute! Thank you 🌷 (I don't know if you reply usually but don't need to, save the emotional energy for the creative research things) Appreciate your work very much!
Ohh there's no edit button, I made predictive typos whoops
Our first step, a year ago, was to begin to disentangle ourselves from the matrix. We sold our house and all our crap to minimalize and live in an RV. That's what my page here is about. Now we will use our resources and energy to engage the enemy, as you state. We are mobile, we will fight. You are homesteaded, that's another approach as long as you've defined a good security perimiter and are self-sustaining in terms of water, food, energy. I write about that quite a bit. Let's do this.
This offered me a lot today. Thank you.
Thanks, Magpie. Needed this today.
How to de-escalate conflict with non-enemies sounds like a great topic for LLTWID. I definitely need to be better at this.
Re: Deescalate all conflict that isn't with the enemy -
I think this is nice-sounding advice that's impossible to fully put into practice the same way that "believe survivors" is: How do we decide who the enemy is?
Some people would say it's just the ruling class but that would leave us defenseless against the red flags of people like Gazi Kodzo. Someone is dead in part because people e.g. re-interpreted Kodzo's viral attacks on Anne Frank as a more-reasonable criticism around how Holocaust remembrance has been co-opted under white supremacy. They probably thought they were de-escalating conflict between people who were on the same side but actually they were lending legitimacy to a burgeoning cult leader.
But if we dismissed everyone with any sign of authoritarianism as "the enemy", that category could potentially include every statist plus those charismatic anarchists with dominating personalities, leaving us with no one but at best our small cliques of personal friends (and whose friend groups don't even include anyone problematic?). There's inherent ambiguity and plenty of room for disagreement (and conflict!) in identifying who is and isn't "the enemy".
Not every conflict involves at least one party perceiving the other as being aligned with the enemy or being a new enemy (such as a cult leader or a revolutionary who wants to become the next authoritarian), but I think the majority probably do to some extent or another. We might *disagree* with that perception and step in to de-escalate the conflict based on that evaluation, but we could end up being the ones who are mistaken (as many an organizer who tried collaborating with PSL or negotiating with the local mayor or police department has independently discovered). And given that we're all products of the society we're trying to destroy, and all to some extent dependent on it for survival, we're probably all at least a little bit "the enemy", or have the potential to enact that. I think this is an essential part of the fabric of social struggle that we can't wish away with a simple formula.
i personally think definitions of "the enemy" are going to vary from person to person. I don't want to say "deescalate all conflict that isn't with the state" or "fascists" or whatever because yeah, people are gonna see it really differently. For me it's more of an internal thing: if i am in conflict with someone, do I really see them as my enemy? If not, I need to find a way to deescalate that conflict.
Are you familiar with the concept of engaging in principled struggle? That’s how I like to assess my allies. I think it captures a lot of what you’re describing here. adrienne marie brown wrote a pretty cool book about it if you’re feeling curious.
So much state propaganda on both sides of the media sluice are hell bent on creating convenient easy cartoon enemies of 'the other people'.
I have voted left my entire life, learned my anarchist leanings from UKL (the confusing obedience vs cooperation thing hits big right now, and maybe the whole thing about being in a state of ignorance and fear of the other may actually be totally shit way to understand anything about them, 'I want to live in a world where one gets to decide what happens to one's body'... etc).
But I am glad trump won. I hate him, I was distraught when he won before, but so many terrible, terrible things were done by the 'left' that seriously advance the totalitarianism agenda. Open censorship, by an unholy alliance of gov and corporations, mandates, curfews, forced vaccination with a new tech untested on humans with no long term study done? How did the left end up cheering this insanity on? I still hate trump, but RFK in health, Jay Battachayra in NIH?
I know someone who works in public health research/policy... what went on behind the scenes is def not what was televised.... many, even policy leaders fought mask/vaccine mandates, tried to open sooner, tried to show that the real crisis occurring was the crazy spike in young people dying of drugs, accidents, suicides... the government ignored this. My friend also know what a newspaper can do with what seemed a very, very clear and sober analysis done for a press release: use words from what was written to 'not quite' claim the opposite and say they were hiding things...
There is some dark shit that has to come out, corporations should not have been able to siphon god knows how many 100s of billions of dollars from our governments and health care systems... the crunch is coming hard now, health care is fucked.... and what do you suppose might happen when the classic fascists like trump start deciding what is and is not 'misinformation'?
I am still here on the left with UKL wishing for a 'world with no laws other than those against rape and usury'.... but most leftists seem to assume I must be some sort of MAGA loving evil stupid POS. The enemy, righteously a fair target for conflict....
Can you elaborate on your point about PSL as authoritarian grifter? Genuinely curious because I haven't encountered any reason to think that. And one of the aims of this essay is to encourage building inclusive tents and coalitions, should we really dismiss them so readily?