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my feed comes much more from an organizer's perspective than a pundit's perspective. theory conversations like what i have here didn't used to happen in public, precisely because organizers are usually radical and people are uncomfortable with radicalism generally
this is part of the sausage-making that nobody saw, because it's impossible to get anywhere near consensus if you end up trying to sell radical ideas to non-radical people. so it used to be done in a more in-person, less public space
generate radical ideas in that space, spread education among networks, get a groundswell going, and have it become a concept that just sort of appears out of nowhere. when it hits mainstream it can be defended easily because it came slowly from the grassroots, attached to context
that system works for moving societies gradually into a more humanist direction. but the world of online activism changes the whole dynamic in a way that we're still getting used to as a culture
organizers on here can be conversing about an idea that's not too radical to them, then a celebrity sees it and thinks it's the new activism thing and tweets about it; all of a sudden the slogan is out but WITHOUT the kind of context it used to bubble up with
and then the allies, who have not educated themselves but participate in cult of personality activism, start talking about it and have shitty answers when they're pushed back on, because they didn't feel they needed to be educated to say things
so now the organizers are like "well, that may have worked if allies on our side weren't so invested in intellectually dominating a conversation at the expense of the actual sharing of our crucial ideas, with appropriate context
but seeing as that's happened, what do we do now? because abolish the police is where we eventually want to go, but now the well is poisoned so the enemy is expecting it. is it no longer a viable platform full stop?"
then it's back to the drawing board to come up with different messaging, but the same thing will happen if we don't fix the "allies" part of the chain. why should i generate concepts just to have them wildly misunderstood and dismissed without even hearing them
these slogans aren't sticking partially because of how uneducated (ignorant, but that feels too strong? it's accurate though?) allies are, but those same allies are turning around and saying it's our fault. that's a vicious cycle of no good ideas ever getting anywhere
this'll work itself out one way or another; it's natural to have this amount of cross-purpose in a new communicational medium like social media. i just don't know how it's supposed to work itself out in a positive way, if this is where we're at right now
