I’m gonna ignore the middle part because I’m sorry, I can’t take it seriously, and you are making a completely false equivalence. Are you genuinely worried about North Korean sympathizers blowing up the White House right now? I mean, c’mon. You’ve got real problems to deal with over there instead of imaginary ones.
Since the good faith trial period lasted so little time after I thought we made some forward progress and then realized this morning we hadn’t, I feel the need to address this. This was not what I was saying at all. I’m not worried about NK sympathizers blowing up the white house, don’t be absurd. I’m worried about hitting challenges trying to recruit people who are fed up with how awful everything is all the time to mutual aid projects and community defense groups because their only experience with The New Left is a bunch of online bullies bullying them. I’m worried about normalizing pro-authoritarian rhetoric in the spaces that I am working in to try to build a better world repeating all of the same mistakes of not just the last century, but of even just the last 15 years.
Unserious online nonsense has a way of making its way into the real world and then I have to deal with it. I already deal with it. There’s a pro-genocide authoritarian in my town who believes that we, here in America, can’t overthrow our shackles until every Ukrainian is dead because he truly believes all Ukrainians are Nazis. This makes it harder for me to get my neighbors to come with me to our community defense training because they’re worried he might be there because the community defense group doesn’t want to kick him out because he opposes Donald Trump. I can get hem to come with me to our mutual aid group to help distribute toys, clothing, and food, but his presence in my town makes readying ourselves to deal with ICE more difficult. The absurdity of course being ICE can’t differentiate a Russian and a Ukrainian.
That’s all I was trying to say. When you leave stuff like this alone it ferments into real world problems that someone else has to deal with.
There’s a pro-genocide authoritarian in my town who believes that we, here in America, can’t overthrow our shackles until every Ukrainian is dead because he truly believes all Ukrainians are Nazis.
If they’re bringing that sort of thing up when it comes to ice watch stuff then it sounds wildly out of place, from an organizing standpoint. The marxists I know doing community defense/ice watch don’t talk about geopolitics at all when doing local work- there are bigger fish to fry.
he doesn’t talk about stuff at meetings but he won’t shut the fuck up outside of them. should have made that clearer. but inviting my Ukrainian neighbors to come with is a non starter since they know he’ll be there and they don’t feel safe around him.
EDIT: also i wouldn’t call him a marxist. he’s an online troll came to life who wears an ushanka instead of a redhat. he has no deep political beliefs other than being a contrarian
doesn’t sound particularly principled from how you describe, particularly if he’s reveling in upsetting people irl. I’ll consider myself lucky not having run into someone like that so far as it sounds pretty odious to have to deal with in a small group.
absolutely. online trolls come to life are the primary reason i don’t take lightly to ignoring places where they find eachother and gas eachother up, regardless of the aesthetic they brandish. it creates real world risks that put vulnerable people in danger. for the last decade it’s been right wing terrorists finding eachother and getting violent away from their keyboards. now, more and more what i see are left wing asshats making organizing difficult
Since the good faith trial period lasted so little time after I thought we made some forward progress and then realized this morning we hadn’t, I feel the need to address this. This was not what I was saying at all. I’m not worried about NK sympathizers blowing up the white house, don’t be absurd. I’m worried about hitting challenges trying to recruit people who are fed up with how awful everything is all the time to mutual aid projects and community defense groups because their only experience with The New Left is a bunch of online bullies bullying them. I’m worried about normalizing pro-authoritarian rhetoric in the spaces that I am working in to try to build a better world repeating all of the same mistakes of not just the last century, but of even just the last 15 years.
Unserious online nonsense has a way of making its way into the real world and then I have to deal with it. I already deal with it. There’s a pro-genocide authoritarian in my town who believes that we, here in America, can’t overthrow our shackles until every Ukrainian is dead because he truly believes all Ukrainians are Nazis. This makes it harder for me to get my neighbors to come with me to our community defense training because they’re worried he might be there because the community defense group doesn’t want to kick him out because he opposes Donald Trump. I can get hem to come with me to our mutual aid group to help distribute toys, clothing, and food, but his presence in my town makes readying ourselves to deal with ICE more difficult. The absurdity of course being ICE can’t differentiate a Russian and a Ukrainian.
That’s all I was trying to say. When you leave stuff like this alone it ferments into real world problems that someone else has to deal with.
If they’re bringing that sort of thing up when it comes to ice watch stuff then it sounds wildly out of place, from an organizing standpoint. The marxists I know doing community defense/ice watch don’t talk about geopolitics at all when doing local work- there are bigger fish to fry.
he doesn’t talk about stuff at meetings but he won’t shut the fuck up outside of them. should have made that clearer. but inviting my Ukrainian neighbors to come with is a non starter since they know he’ll be there and they don’t feel safe around him.
EDIT: also i wouldn’t call him a marxist. he’s an online troll came to life who wears an ushanka instead of a redhat. he has no deep political beliefs other than being a contrarian
doesn’t sound particularly principled from how you describe, particularly if he’s reveling in upsetting people irl. I’ll consider myself lucky not having run into someone like that so far as it sounds pretty odious to have to deal with in a small group.
absolutely. online trolls come to life are the primary reason i don’t take lightly to ignoring places where they find eachother and gas eachother up, regardless of the aesthetic they brandish. it creates real world risks that put vulnerable people in danger. for the last decade it’s been right wing terrorists finding eachother and getting violent away from their keyboards. now, more and more what i see are left wing asshats making organizing difficult