thoughts not yet fully formed but I have feelings about the Vaguely Socialist Resentful Doomerism that feels like the dominant politics in my microcorner of the Internet
the basic tenets of VSRD are:
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the ideal form of government is something like socialism (vague leanings toward anarcho-ish or ML-ish both fall under the VSRD umbrella, as long as they remain vague).
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due to the deeply entrenched, self-perpetuating power of capitalism and colonialism, plus a poor long-term outlook for humanity, we will never achieve this ideal form of government or anything close.
and, like, I'm not sure I fully disagree but it's a very depressing worldview that leaves few action items besides "comfort each other as we spiral down," and it's taken over a lot of online spaces I exist in to the point where people will outright correct someone who expresses any kind of hope about the future.
not ending this on a strong call to action, I'm definitely not trying to steer this towards "actually the Democratic Party has it all worked out and only needs you to Believe," but I think tying leftism so closely to cynicism is a mistake that needs to be untangled.
Building hope is one of the most challenging things to do but is absolutely necessary in order to motivate yourself to actually participate in any kind of successful organizing. Even if we are in the sunset of humanity we can still slow and ease that sunset so that there is less pain and suffering and a greater chance of rebounding in a healthy sustainable way with a way towards ecological healing.
Hope is not the same thing as uncritical faith in government institutions, non-profit establishments, or niche cults. A dash of skepticism is important. But doomerism paired with the correct critiques of society is not a recipe for a better world. The uninformed masses aren't taking any less political action but at least they aren't as depressed about the world they aren't trying to change.
I'm able to devote energy to union organizing because I truly hope we can win our contract demands and in doing so improve life for thousands of people immediately and even more people long term. I have hope because in Philly labor worked in solidarity with activist groups to out-organize fascists so hard we completely disarmed the threat. And if we had not had the hope to organize, we would have been overrun.
Sometimes at work our air conditioning will break and the jaded older staff will tell me not to even bother calling for a tech because the powers that be don't care about us and won't send a tech. But I insist on trying anyway and y'know what, we got the AC fixed. It's not about if the powers that be care about us. It's about if we have the chutzpah to force them to give us what we need anyway. Hope is confidence and strength. You have to be willing to try.
I think a thing that's been a major ideological realization for me in the last 5-10 years has been the idea that utopia is not a permanent end state, but a garden that needs to be tended and nurtured. There's always going to be cruelty to push back against, but just because A Perfect System Isn't Possible doesn't mean there's no point in striving for one and helping people in the process.
I feel like that's a good argument in favor of looking locally as well. National politics are a big focus in the US and it can be really tempting to just look at the big stage and fret about what to do on a national scale. And it can be hard to keep focused locally when you can see- and even know- people elsewhere suffering from problems where they live. But it's a lot more feasible to make a difference in a community, or a town or city, than it is to change a national law, and that ain't nothing.
