wenchcoat system:
🍯 Akhra (or Melli to disambiguate), ratel.
🐲 Rhiannon, drangolin.
🦡 Lenestre, American badger.
unless tagged or otherwise obvious, assume 🍯🐲🦡 in chorus; even when that's not quite accurate, we will always be in consensus. address collectively as Akhra (she/her), or as wenchcoat (she/her or plural).
💞@atonal440
💕@cattie-grace
❤️🔥(not#onhere)
🧇@Reba-Rabbit
hug The situation is such that the only allowed options on the national level for the dem party are unacceptable by what would be normal standards. And that's the situation that the dem party has tried, and succeeded, to get more and more entrenched with each passing year. Mitigating harm in crisis is usually all that can be done in the midst of the crisis. We'll have to work to gain leverage over them to implement changes that will make actual choices available beyond the immediate crisis.
Precarity continues to spread, becoming wider and deeper. But it is also uniting people in ways they haven't been united during my lifetime. I sincerely feel that their actions that have placed them in what they see as a powerful position, have actually made them very vulnerable at the same time. An effective, and well placed fulcrum may be all that's required to create lasting change. I still think the union's plan for a 2028 general strike will likely not manifest. ...but we've got 4 years to spread the word and organize... and they're not going to be doing themselves any favors during that time. It's so far away, but that may be the best placement for the fulcrum to be successful at present.
They will continue to manufacture consent and twist our arms to elect the very people that loathe and torment us... but it will never be our choice. Our choice is just the weaker of the two opponents. The opponent that only remains in power because they are the weaker and they need US to give them that power. We can never forget that.
mainly I've just given up on changing the system from within, at least strictly so. maybe the USA is still salvageable with enough of a push from outside. but if what we saw in 2020 is barely a ripple now, if near everyone I know has completely forgotten this year's university occupations already... just feels like it's gonna have to be one hell of a push.
It will have to be one hell of a push. And I also don't think changing the system from within is attainable. At least at present. I DO think that their arms can be twisted by us for their "best interests" in the same way that they twist our arms for our "best interests" though (the fact that they were just forced to give up their well entrenched pick for president and had to go with their second choice due to his cratering polling is a good example of this).
They are, in the end, just middle management that exists to enforce the will of the wealthy. If the wealthy begin to be gravely hurt they'll order middle management to relieve their pain by any means necessary. If enough people are joined together in solidarity though, it becomes impossible to do that solely through violence, requiring concessions. If people remain hard nosed about the concessions that are non-negotiable, then we could attain a system closer to an actual democracy in which those from outside the current two party duopoly can actually serve the people and break the required "choice" of the lesser of two evils.
There's a lot of ifs and unknowns, which is why I still think the 2028 general strike is unlikely to manifest, but things can change rapidly these days so it remains in my mind. In the end, whether the leverage comes partially or wholly from outside of the system, it will still have to contend with the system. To me, that means removing power from the system, or people obtaining that power for themselves, is imperative. 😤
right now it seems like 50/50 that 2028 is too late in any case. (only 50/50, which is enough to stave off actual panic, but. yeah.)
we certainly agree on the last bit. Andrewism's usual sign-off codifies it nicely: all power to all the people.
Mmh! This reminds me, I need to watch more of Andrewism. The only problem is that I focus on it too much for it to be on in the background XD
lol I'm incapable of backgrounding in the first place so that hasn't been a problem. I do watch most video essay stuff at 1.5x tho. (except Lily Simpson who gets 1.75 or 2x lol, that Aotearoa drawl is heavy)