Apropos of absolutely nothing, or maybe everything, idk whatever.

I was part of a “big tent” activist org which ended up imploding very messily and publicly, and the best lessons I learned from that experience were:

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1) Big tent sucks, working in small affinity groups with people that have the same ideals and goals as you is much more effective to get shit done. If you try to incorporate too many people with varying ideals into an org/group guess what happens? INFIGHTING
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2) Networking is good tho, knowing other people who aren’t in your affinity but that you trust to work with and can pull their affinity into working with yours on common goals is helpful
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3) Vet is not a 4 letter word. I know it sounds gatekeepy as fuck, but you should pretty much never work with people you don’t know personally, or have someone you trust vouch for them
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4) You can’t trust anybody/everybody is a cop. This doesn’t mean literally everyone is a cop, but it’s the same thing as your phone is a cop. People do stupid things and they can get you in trouble unintentionally
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5) People from marginalized communities can be reactionaries, chuds, nazis, or just shitty people who happen to be on the left of the political spectrum. Just because someone is oppressed does not mean they are fighting the same fight you are
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6) Trust takes time. Self explanatory
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7) This is not a dating scene. This should be self explanatory but it’s very obviously not.
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