On the Limits of News Consumption

I believe this online forum offers a good service, a clearing house of sorts for a lot of news (and there's a lot!)

However I'm feeling a certain sadness welling up in me that this community isn't quite as activist and progressive as I had expected. The term "underground", at least since Dostoyevsky's "Notes from Underground", has always resonated with me, but I see more of a mainstream political culture at work here. I'm all for the Democratic party and have great faith in our ability to get out the vote this November and beyond. (You should see the hand-painted sign on the back of my Honda Civic) But the DU seems less about strategizing HOW to inspire voters, and HOW to evolve the Democratic vision, than about something involving news gathering and consuming. It's passive observation of what a horror the Republicans have become rather than a platform for deep dialogue, self-analysis and culture change.

DU's preponderance of news updates and tweet updates is often useful, but doesn't seem to lead to calls for action or serious discussions about social and cultural practices. Whenever I or others have tried to propose actions in this forum (such as anxious calls fir the white community to wake up to its complicity in black oppression) they seem uninteresting to this community. Very few recommendations occur – as if efforts to make change in the streets is less entertaining than the latest Trump-World gaff, or Muellarian sleight of hand. (And believe me, I'm praying for Muellar).

So where's the encouragement of creative resistance? Where's the colorful street actions of Rev. Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping? Why is Occupy Wall Street, one of the most profound change agents in our generation, often treated like a gadfly? I was physically there, and in the Philly version, and covered it for a local newpaper. That movement made criticism of corporations and the 1% normative. It broke through our bottled up national fear of discussing class issues. But the flippant comments I've seen about Occupy and other people's actions are often pretty dispiriting. Does anyone understand what I'm talking about?

There's a lot of righteous cussin' on DU, but it's quite en vogue these days (a la Louis CK and Dave Chapelle). I don't get a sense of the deeper human rights movement here (something I was immersed in growing up), nor any flickerings of the creative community cooking up (in our little underground lab), new ideas for the future.

You really shouldn't take offense at these comments, friends. Self-criticism is healthy in a democracy. I could begin with myself and admit to a certain stridency. I could also point out that it's due to losing one job after another, and then my family, due to 9/11, the exploitation of adjunct professors, and being a whistle blower against a corrupt CEO.

So, yeah, I want to see a little more creative noise and invention and strategizing for change. But maybe a different forum would be the logical solution. In the end the Democratic Underground is largely a news clearing house rather than an underground resistance group. There's nothing wrong with that, but I wish it was more proactive and less reactive. More progressive and inventive and less about wagging fingers at Republicans (as unnerving as they may be!)

Any suggestions for change? Or keep the status quo and send this angry American street activist out of the clubhouse?

With love,
Democracy Mouse

White people, wake up! Start supporting your black brothers and sisters.

Boycott LA Fitness too!!!

I and a gazillion others called for a boycott of Starbucks last week and the upsurge seems to have prompted a positive response by Starbucks within days. To be fair, the company was inclined to right a wrong. They understood the horror of one of its outlets causing the unjust arrest of two black US citizens who were simply waiting for a friend before buying coffee (has anyone pointed out how POLITE and considerate that actually was and the opposite of any reason to kick them out?).

So check out the link below. Here's an LA Fitness outlet denying the entry of an African American for no reason whatsoever. He was a paid member of the club!

Boycott LA Fitness. Boycott ANY corporation which isn't actively fixing our F-d up culture. Just by BEING a large, impersonal corporation they are draining our culture of small-scale civility. If they aren't actively re-building a positive culture (like putting the vitamins back in the mass-produced bread), they have a sum negative impact on society (in my opinion, but based on a lot of sociology).

Check out the following link... and boycott LA Fitness! We certainly can't rely on our current president, or status quo corporations, to change our culture for the better:

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/04/watch-black-man-blocked-entering-nj-gym-hes-paid-member-even-cops-confused/

Boycott Starbucks

In response to the arrest of two innocent black men in a Philly Starbucks (while waiting for a friend to turn up), I suggest we boycott EVERY Starbucks and start supporting local, family-owned diners.

Walk in, tell them they are being boycotted for treating two wonderful US citizens in Philadelphia like dirt, and walk out. If they say "it wasn't OUR starbucks" then tell them this:

"Your organization has consistently portrayed people of color as field laborers in your wall photos. Most if the authors in your older Starbucks murals are white. Last, but not least, you treat your employees like cultural illiterates who can't choose the music in the café. At the end of the day you're just another US corporation founded on the exploitation of slaves and poor whites."

And bonus points if you say: "Your pseudo-bohemian veneer doesn't fool me and my attachment to your dark roast is now kind of embarassing to me if you catch my drift."

Links to story:
https://www.google.com/amp/www.philly.com/philly/news/starbucks-philadelphia-police-viral-video-investigation-race-20180414.html%3famphtml=y

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/starbucks-philadelphia-police-viral-video-investigation-race-20180414.html?mobi=true

God, this is it. Police state.

Is anyone else as angry as I am about the Parkland students being FORCED to use see-through backpacks? And they're talking about getting metal detectors like prisons and courthouses. What has happened to our country??? It's time for a nonviolent revolution. It is time.

CNN has the story.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/02/us/marjory-stoneman-douglas-clear-backpacks/index.html

OK. Trump is bad. Is that enough to vote for Democrats?

We won't win votes by just yelling "GOTV."

A Daily Kos editorial is pleading with Democrats: Start rallying FOR Dem causes, not just AGAINST the president.

https://m.dailykos.com/stories/1752975

We won't win votes by just yelling "GOTV."

A Daily Kos editorial is pleading with Democrats: Start rallying FOR Dem causes, not just AGAINST the president and all the horror that he stands for.

And I agree. DU should not, for example, just showcase negative Trumpian news.

https://m.dailykos.com/stories/1752975