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think one of the thing that bugs me the most about talking politics is the endless thrum of "this politician said they're going to help you; why don't you believe them? give them a chance?"
"...yes, their record is horrific, but they SAID they want to HELP"
"...yes, their record is horrific, but they SAID they want to HELP"
liberals wanting to put multiple decades of policy, public and private rhetoric, and heavy corporate donor ties on one end of the scale, and "platform on a website" and "speech they made once last year" on the other end, and insist that the latter is far, far weightier
i still feel like a lot of it is mostly just a denial mechanism as they stand before the choices of radicalizing or falling into despair. they don't want to do either - perhaps seeing radicalizing as a form of giving into despair itself - so they just revert to denial.
like yes i am extremely cynical and skeptical of those in power but i actually truly do believe good things and change is possible. it's just not going to be done through Traditional And Polite Methods. and i think a lot of people think that perspective is a kind of despair
it is very funny tho to constantly hear about what's pragmatic and the history shows the most pragmatic ways to achieve change are through various direct action, disrupting capital, being a pain in the ass and they go "no i meant pragmatic as in might persuade a bush alum"
thinking about how that guy knew his city wouldn't deal with potholes so instead of Petitioning His Local Officials and sending them letters and shit, he just drew huge unignorable dicks around them with paint, and that motivated them to fix the fucking potholes
also a favorite: a simultaneous example of how direct action gets the goods, is a crucial tool in one's belt to actually pressure politicians to do the policies they swear they support, and how direct action isn't necessarily "smash windows and shit" https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/1960s-julius-hobson-took-dcs-rat-problem-his-own-hands-180955961/
imo a lot of people unconsciously buy into a sort of fukuyama-esque belief that any sort of change that required direct conflict was In The Past and getting people to break from that is one of the few places where i see one on one discussions as actually politically useful
