my personal view on the mutual aid vs. harris thing
If the choice is between Trump and Harris, I think it's very important that Harris get elected, despite all the problems with her, because the alternative is significantly worse.
Likewise, I am somewhat excited about the renewed enthusiasm among Democrats to actually do anything at all, and go (relatively) on the offense. In that light, the fundraising success is a good thing! I hope she succeeds at winning the election, despite my misgivings about the political system as a whole.
HOWEVER.
At the same time, there are people on here, in *your local community on fedi*, that are literally starving, with their mutual aid requests going unanswered for sometimes months at a time. *Your* virtual neighbours.
And in that light, I also think it is a good thing that people who donate to Harris but not to mutual aid requests are being made very, very uncomfortable by angry folks, including 'polluting' the Harris hashtags.
There are sometimes situations where people need a reality check, to stop living in their political bubble where if they just find the right political strategy, everything will magically be fixed. I often say this in the context of anarchism, but it applies just as much to Democrats and their supporters.
This conflict is exactly that. It is people in poverty telling Democrat supporters, to their faces, that they have neglected to care for their neighbours despite clearly having the means. Confronting them with the harsh reality of their politics. That their supposed political ideals are worth nothing if they are not put into practice. And that is a very important message to convey.
If you are a Democrat, a liberal, however you identify, this is something you should be listening to. It's going to be uncomfortable, and it is *supposed* to be; it is meant to shatter your illusion that poverty is a hypothetical thing that happens to Other People Far Away, and drive you into constructive action.
You can deal with this either by stubbornly insisting that these 'annoying beggars' are in the wrong, or by learning from what you are being shown and taking action to rectify it to the best of your ability.
The choice you make will tell other people a lot about your politics.
@joepie91
> it is a good thing that people who donate to Harris but not to mutual aid requests are being made very, very uncomfortable
As long as that doesn't cross over from pointing out the inconsistency in what they're *doing*, to personal attacks on who they *are*, 100% agree.
@strypey I actually think it is entirely reasonable for people who have been left for dead by others, to personally attack those who have left them for dead.
I'd say this qualifies, in some cases almost literally.
@joepie91
> I actually think it is entirely reasonable for people... to personally attack
... anyone they judge to...
> have left them for dead
Um... OK.
I'm actually speechless. This is rare.
So... let me get this right. If I - a possible grifter (remember it doesn't matter) - beg for money on the fediverse, and someone doesn't give it to me, it's entirely reasonable for me to personally attack them?
Let's test this.
(1/2)
@strypey That is not what I said. Have you actually paid attention to what's going on? With people suddenly having >$300k to spend on an already well-funded election campaign while their neighbours have been struggling to collect a couple thousand for months?
And then when this is called out, they get basically told to be quiet because they are poor and, paraphrasing, they are disrupting the Important Stuff by asking for help to not die? While being called all sorts of vile shit, because people do not want to see the poor people in their nice virtual middle-class neighbourhood?
@joepie91
> people are absolutely in the right to *personally* call you out over that intensely shitty behaviour
I think there are more effective solutions to the issues you raise than people judging and shouting at each other, and calling each other names. With helps no one, ever.
@strypey I've been doing activism for 15 years by this point, and I have lost track of how often people have said "judging people and shouting at them doesn't help, you should be nicer".
But what do you know, it turns out to be the only thing that gets people moving in practice. Not exclusively, but being deliberately confrontational is *absolutely* an essential part of making change happen.
@joepie91
> I've been doing activism for 15 years by this point
Great stuff. Not that it's a competition, but for context, I'm speaking from about 30 years of activist experience.
> being deliberately confrontational is *absolutely* an essential part of making change happen
= demonstration. Appropriate for online messages directed at powerful institutions or people who have decision-making influence in them.
Otherwise, talking to people online = conversation. Difference principles apply.
@strypey Because yes, if you participate in that, and you go and act all high and mighty because of how you are doing Super Important Political Work, people are absolutely in the right to *personally* call you out over that intensely shitty behaviour.