intheflow
intheflow's JournalI find myself spending more time of BlueSky these days.
Like Twitter of olden days, it often has the breaking news people post here an hour or two before I see it here. Now I'm using DU more for long editorial pieces and long video clips.
I also don't post as much here any more because I suspect I've been stalked by posters who haven't appreciated my constructive criticism of some Dem leaders, to the point where I've started having posts locked or removed, basically the first time this has happened in the 20+ years I've been here. I don't care to post where I'm not wanted. Sad to say, it's not only Republicans who feel the need to silence people who they don't agree with. Or else, whoever was doing it is a troll. Whatever the case, these are reasons why I don't post here as much any more.
Are they prudes, or pervs?
They pretend they're prudes but then their leaders are constantly found to be pedophiles, adulterers, and swingers. They want to physically check the pants of girls only to ensure no one with a penis is pretending to be female at school so they can get a field hockey trophy. If you ban books about sex acts, it's easier for pervs to tell their young victims lies about what they're doing to them because the kids will be completely in the dark about their own bodies.
TL;DR: It's not about sex. It's about control.
User uploaded video on C-SPAN of Trump admitting to rigged election?
Purportedly video of him on March 7th, 2025, slipping an admittance of guilt in while signing an EO about hosting FIFA in 2026.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5156383/rigged-election-president-good-thing
C-SPAN doesn’t take credit for this but they haven’t taken it down, either.
Trump did sign this EO on that day.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/03/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-establishes-white-house-task-force-on-the-fifa-world-cup-2026/
Sounds like the fix is in.
Planning to steal votes again. Remember this when Trump holds “free and fair” elections in 2026, while also telling his base they don’t need to vote for him.
Even if true, what good does it do to lament in this way?
It sounds defeatist. "Poor us! We're doomed" Yeah, so, what else is new? We can wallow in fear and despair or we can can take those feelings and turn them into direct action. Every grain of sand in their gears disrupts their plans.
Chinks in their armor are beginning. LTTEs, Tesla dealership protests, even some Republicans beginning to push back on Social Security and Medicaid cuts, cuts to veterans jobs, the complete Ukraine betrayal, tariffs, and exactly how much power Elon has. Elon himself is beginning to crack between DOGE, exploding rockets, Tesla stock crashing, and baby mamas reaching out to him on social media. I saw a screen shot of an X by Elon the other day that begged X users to post more beautiful and inspiring things, as if he hadn't been carefully cultivating it into a sewer since he bought it.
If you give into this despair, you are buying into their propaganda. The whole point of shock and awe is to overwhelm and depress any opposition. Fuck that! I invoke the power of our American ancestors to gather strength for this fight: the men who wrote the Constitution; the enslaved people who pushed back against their enslavers in a hundred different ways; the Union soldiers and Southern white sympathizers who fought against the Confederacy; the women who fought for equal rights; etc. None of these fights were easy, and many, many people felt despair in those situation. But they didn't give up, they continued to throw as much sand into the dehumanizing mechanisms as they could.
Yes, staff.
He was one of the student leaders of March For Our Lives and Never Again MSD, two student/survivor-led nonprofits that were getting donations in the millions and had to hire staff to help them administer the donations and work on strategies and publicity to continue to work on overturning nonsensical gun laws.
We lost 2016 because of the "far left" being "delusional" about Bernie's viability,
even as he had all the momentum before the Democratic Party insisted on Hillary because "it was her time" and Bernie was an Independent and only caucused with the party 95% of the time. And her we are today: Bernie is still drawing crowds and the Clintons are doing fuck only knows what because they are 100% MIA in the present moment.
Who was delusional in insisting the arguably most hated woman in the US had to be the candidate, and ONLY her. Fuck us "far left" who have voted lockstep with Democrats for decades, and they continue to insist on marginalizing us, criticizing us, and dismissing our concerns out of hands? Who engaged in wishful thinking putting up Harris because Biden had one bad debate? I'll tell you who: NOT the "far left".
For one thing, it trains people for longer and sustained actions in the future.
The group that’s organizing this is organizing more actions targeting specific companies. If this goes well, it will empower more people to join later events. Like, what if in one day of direct boycott we tank the economy for one day. That would make a lot of shareholders get antsy.
It isn’t so much about consumption, it’s teaching people that we can wield our collective economic power. Amazon didn’t exist (or barely existed) 30 years ago. Humanity survived. We can kill it if we want. People can buy goods from lots of vendors, we don’t have to shop at WalMart or Target even if they are the only stores in a midwestern town. Any company will ship anything, anywhere. If that’s your only grocery store, you can just buy your groceries there and nothing else. These kinds of events are also teaching moments.
Finally, it’s something people can do instead of despairing. Anything that throws sand in the gears is not only good, but needed. Same with anything that gives citizens legal agency.
I honestly can’t understand why people who think it’s dumb feel the need to discourage others. You don’t want an abortion? Don’t get one. You don’t think a single day economic boycott will work? Go to the mall and leave us alone.
I'm struggling with civil disobedience.
I have been a life-long activist and have been to many, many protests against war, cuts to the social safety net, in support of both Jews and Muslim when hate targeted their communities, marched for disability and lgbtq+ rights, marched for fair housing, marched to take back the night, marched for labor, to transform Columbus Day, at anti-nuke rallies, gun control, and in support of Black Lives Matter. All through the 1990s, 2000s, into the 2020s. Most of the time I marched with small groups where it felt like we were the only people holding the candle against injustices, the only people who cared enough to show up.
Every time I see a protest on a workday, my impulse is to call in and go MARCH. But now I live 2 hours from my state Capitol and the thought of battling through crowds at my advancing age is not pleasant. So then I think, well, I can call in today as a kind of personal strike.
But here’s the thing: I’m a librarian and that’s a pretty subversive thing to be these days. I’m a local government employee who provides credible information to anyone who walks in the door, who proudly makes displays for Black History Month and Pride. In this climate, I struggle with knowing the streets need bodies to be effective, and also that providing that one trans kid a novel that speaks to their experience is its own kind of social justice direct action.
I don’t know why this is bugging me so much. No, that’s not right. I know why it’s bugging me. It feels like I’m being a good German going into work in support of a government that would just as soon see me dead and all libraries shuttered.
Anyway… Does anyone else struggle with active vs. passive activism?
What a terrifying article.
I know I’ve been thinking he’s approaching this like Twitter, killing it and then thinking he’s a successful business man because it transformed into a bastion of hate speech. Nice (?) to see that idea offered here as well. A new terrifying idea for me is that he thinks of takeovers like video games. 🎮
Thank you so much for the gift link.
Profile Information
Gender: Do not displayHometown: Sweetlea
Home country: Planet Earth
Current location: Still Planet Earth, but may be in an AU.
Member since: Mon Aug 9, 2004, 01:39 PM
Number of posts: 29,461