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The Revolutionary Power of Joy
(inspired by a chat with a friend)
So, with all the shit going on in America right now, a lot of people are wondering what the fuck they can do, feeling like whatever they do isn't enough. Our advice: find what you can do in the long-term that recharges and nourishes you, rather than drains you. Then do it.
(An IMPERATIVE part of that recharging and nourishing is doing SOMETHING to resist what's happening. Authoritarians play offense. Retreating into a superficial bubble of avoidance and denial won't solve the problem you've got, because that bubble will not be allowed to exist for long. Don't chug sugar when what you need is protein. You have to do SOMETHING, however small, to fight, or you will succumb--to despair and learned helplessness, if nothing else.)
Everyone has different skills, different things they can do. Some of our friends are donating to noble causes. Others are on the front lines, or just refusing to comply. For us, fighting is volunteering at a library and putting more queer and immigrant stuff on the shelves. It is joining forces with someone building an archive and sharing what knowledge we've got. It's making more crisis plan and sanity-boosting resources, slapping up horny trans stickers and zines all over town, and being as relentlessly kind and helpful as we can be.
Doing these things strengthens us. They do not drain us. They may be small and unglamorous, but we can keep doing them interminably. And they also build and strengthen my sense of community, my sense of belonging with my neighbors, my city, my society, my world. I'm entrenching myself, because even if Trump and Elon Musk both got hit by lightning tomorrow, there will still be a lot to do, and if there's one thing my life has taught me, it's how to fall back to a solid position, entrench, and play the long game. All fights are long fights, everything takes forever, so you better choose something you can keep up forever. (And if you find yourself going, "Uggggggh, FOREVER?!" think of the people you love, the hobbies you love. You don't think of those with resignation and resentment, do you? You go, "I get to spend the rest of my life doing this! YES!" Sure, everyone has to put their back into miserable tasks sometimes, but nobody can do them forever; eventually something has to give. Choose wisely.)
What nourishes you? What strengthens you? What can you keep doing?
So, with all the shit going on in America right now, a lot of people are wondering what the fuck they can do, feeling like whatever they do isn't enough. Our advice: find what you can do in the long-term that recharges and nourishes you, rather than drains you. Then do it.
(An IMPERATIVE part of that recharging and nourishing is doing SOMETHING to resist what's happening. Authoritarians play offense. Retreating into a superficial bubble of avoidance and denial won't solve the problem you've got, because that bubble will not be allowed to exist for long. Don't chug sugar when what you need is protein. You have to do SOMETHING, however small, to fight, or you will succumb--to despair and learned helplessness, if nothing else.)
Everyone has different skills, different things they can do. Some of our friends are donating to noble causes. Others are on the front lines, or just refusing to comply. For us, fighting is volunteering at a library and putting more queer and immigrant stuff on the shelves. It is joining forces with someone building an archive and sharing what knowledge we've got. It's making more crisis plan and sanity-boosting resources, slapping up horny trans stickers and zines all over town, and being as relentlessly kind and helpful as we can be.
Doing these things strengthens us. They do not drain us. They may be small and unglamorous, but we can keep doing them interminably. And they also build and strengthen my sense of community, my sense of belonging with my neighbors, my city, my society, my world. I'm entrenching myself, because even if Trump and Elon Musk both got hit by lightning tomorrow, there will still be a lot to do, and if there's one thing my life has taught me, it's how to fall back to a solid position, entrench, and play the long game. All fights are long fights, everything takes forever, so you better choose something you can keep up forever. (And if you find yourself going, "Uggggggh, FOREVER?!" think of the people you love, the hobbies you love. You don't think of those with resignation and resentment, do you? You go, "I get to spend the rest of my life doing this! YES!" Sure, everyone has to put their back into miserable tasks sometimes, but nobody can do them forever; eventually something has to give. Choose wisely.)
What nourishes you? What strengthens you? What can you keep doing?
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I haven't found much outside of work that I really connect to. I used to be more helpful, but, at times, feel burned out on it (I think this surrounds issues of me not always being the best with boundaries). I do try calling my reps, but that sometimes feels like screaming into the void where no one can hear me.
no subject