Comrade I Picked A Bad Time To Get Radicalized When It Comes To Safe Organization. Ive Already Linked

Comrade I picked a bad time to get radicalized when it comes to safe organization. I’ve already linked up with my local DSA chapter but there’s really not much I can do except for attend zoom meetings and kind of just sit around with my dick in my hand. Besides sending money and going to more outdoor protests, do you have any suggestions on what to do about direct action while a meet up with my local groups is pretty much impossible?

First of all, welcome to the insurrection, friend! We’re glad to have you on!

I don’t think you’re alone in this boat. Material conditions are such that lots of people are getting radicalized-- they’re being evicted, they’re fleeing climate apocalypse, they’re seeing their loved ones die from cops and coronavirus and they’re helpless to stop it. They’re getting deported and fired and laid off and atomized and can’t even afford to subscribe to shitty streaming services as a palliative force.

Your first instinct-- to find others-- is fundamentally correct. We can only effect real meaningful change in large numbers. We don’t have the cash, but we have the people and we got the guillotine.

Do you have a job? Do you have a union? If the answers are yes and no, respectively, now is the time when you can organize more easily with your co-workers outside the control of your boss. Test the waters in friendly conversation with people you can trust not to snitch, and consider organizing your workplace. The IWW has a very useful guide on how to do so.

Do you rent? Consider forming a tenants’ union. Organizing one of these is less dangerous than organizing your workplace, as you don’t report to your landlord regularly. If your landlord tries to kick one of you out, all of you can strike.

Many mutual aid efforts are still ongoing in the face of lockdown. Now more than ever, we need to care for each other. Food Not Bombs probably has a chapter near you, and the ones around where I’ve lived continue to operate (albeit with precautions like gloves). Join one of those efforts. I’d focus on housing and food-related mutual aid.

Finally, use this time to learn a useful revolutionary skill. You can grow a tiny garden even if you’re in an apartment, you can learn to brew cider, mead, beer, and wine. You can learn to sew and mend, build structures, forage, survive in the woods, read revolutionary lit, and shoot with/care for a gun. Get comfortable carrying heavy things on your back, and expand your cardio abilities (lots and lots of running). Not everyone can run, of course, but do whatever you can to make it easier to escape or throw a punch (when we get back into contact with each other, take up a self-defense art). Once you know the basics, teach them to someone else.

If anybody else has ideas, please put them here!

And again, welcome, comrade, and good luck.

'American Gothic' but make it two cannibal Overlords with big smiles.

Solarpunk and the Internet Or: How to Unfuck the Internet?

Okay, I just gotta talk about this. Because it is actually quite a headache.

How do we unfuck the internet?

Because let's face it, right now the internet is a fucking shitshow for so many different reasons. For the most part because it is so centralized on just a few platforms - and those are very much controlled by advertizers and in many cases also some algorithms that are basically a blackbox for the users.

I first got access to the internet in 1999, though I only started using it for real in 2001, because only in 2001 I got access to somewhat higher speed internet. (The kind where you could at least show a jpg without waiting 10 minutes for it to load). Hence: I do remember the time when everyone was mostly communicating through forums, while a lot of people had their own pages and where there were tons of different fansites out there to a variety of topics.

And sure, there are still some fansites out there, but a lot of that these days is actually channeled through all sorts of Wikis, rather than classical fansites. While a lot of the other stuff is somewhat centralized.

And don't get me wrong. Technically speaking that centralization is not a bad thing. It allows you to see a lot more fanworks, for example, than otherwise. And as a creative it allows you in turn to get more eyes on your stuff. But we do have to reckon with both the thing about algorithms and the fact how much it controls what we can post.

Basically there are right now not many platforms on which you can post explicit fanwork, or generally anything explicit in forms of creation.

And outside of the creative sphere there is always a good chance that a lot of information can be suppressed on those centralized platforms. We have seen the stuff of people posting about Palestine being banned from a variety of platforms for all sorts of vague reasons.

Sure, a lot would probably be unfucked, when the platforms would be handed to the people. That is rather than being controlled by some CEOs and boards of directors be controlled by the community itself.

But there is also the two-sided issue of the centralization. Because on one hand it is good. Because information can travel a lot further and a lot faster with it. Still, it also does bring a variety of issues with it, that are... less easy to solve.

For example the quick proliferation of information can also lead to a lot of misinformation spreading. Something that has definitely been increased through social media being a thing.

And exactly that is the point that gives me a headache.

The internet is amazing. Especially from a solarpunk point of view. You can share information online for free. You can also use it to help with organizing of stuff. You can connect with people all over the world so easily.

But there are also some inherent dangers - and I am not sure that we have the ability to tackle them right now.

Hebden Bridge, Calderdale, West Yorkshire (England)

Group art therapy or teambuilding exercise or something, Hell if I know.

This is the current boycott list my family is using

If anyone wants to add some more things to their boycott list but aren't sure what. I got this list from a video of Palestinian children holding up the brand logos asking us to boycott these brands. If anyone has that video feel free to attach it.

Here's the list:

Coca cola

Sprite

Lilt

Fanta

Pepsi

7up

Tango

Pringles

Walkers (Lays)

Starbucks

Dominos

Mcdonalds

KFC

Dairy Milk

Snickers

Doritoes

Pizza Hut