we gotta bring it in and talk for a second, I need some of y'all to figure out how to turn your activism brain OFF
I do not know how to convince you that you are allowed joy but ffs you are, not everything needs to be an activism moment or a "reminder" of the fact that the world is a raging fucking dumpster fire, we all know, we are all aware, and your activism circles contrary to popular belief do not need constant reminders that the world sucks because trust me we are reminded of it every time we wake up! You are allowed access to joy and not every single thing has to be viewed through a Working® lens (seriously I just banned a dude in my space for this because he didn't even know how to have friends without assessing them as activism tokens then wondered why no one wanted to hang out with him after a while)
If you see someone you know and trust in a fairly safe space having some hecking dang joy I am begging you to resist the urge to come in and doomdump all over it, we gotta read the room y'all
Not everything has to be a Do Better™ moment, sometimes I just want to reminisce about playing Earthworm Jim when I was young and I absolutely reserve a right to get turbo shitty at you shitting all over my childhood because you just could not fucking resist the need to "gently remind me" that the original creator was a turbo racist and homophobic asshole (which also implies that you know that I am aware of that information, and you still treated my commentary like it was in isolation).
One of the reasons I'm so hyper hesitant to play any of my old Genesis favorites from growing up on stream is expressly because I know that I won't be able to beat the allegations that I don't care about people and their needs, I didn't content warning enough, I am not talking enough about how in modern day this wouldn't have been acceptable, I am not highlighting the racism or tropes enough, etc. etc. and all I want to do is play Vectorman. That's it! If I boot up Sonic & Knuckles no, actually, I DON'T intend on talking non-stop about how Sonic is a freedom fighter, how to a degree Robotnik runs a fascist regime-love, I just want emeralds and to go fast in this case.
Like I can't go back in time and unplay those joints, and we can't all know every single thing, I am just asking people
- remember that simply speaking about something is not always an invite to correct/inform/educate people (extremely egregious issues not withstanding), nor is it some kind of loud and clear indicator that the person in question has now defected and will clearly slip n' slide their way into fascism
- stop looking at every single exchange as an opportunity to flex your activism muscle and go "well here is why that thing you like even marginally is the worst thing under the sun" because it is absolutely the more frustrating thing to be acknowledged as trying to do your best and then be gobsmacked in the face fucking constantly by overzealous activists who don't know how to engage a convo beyond 'nah that thing you like is ass'
We HAVE to be better about this!!!
we do agree with this, not everything has to be about activism. we struggle to put that into practice sometimes but we know it is important to take time and recharge and find joy in things and all that.
From Emma Goldman's autobiography:
At the dances I was one of the most untiring and gayest. One evening a cousin of Sasha [Alexander Berkman], a young boy, took me aside. With a grave face, as if he were about to announce the death of a dear comrade, he whispered to me that it did not behoove an agitator to dance. Certainly not with such reckless abandon, anyway. It was undignified for one who was on the way to become a force in the anarchist movement. My frivolity would only hurt the Cause.
I grew furious at the impudent interference of the boy. I told him to mind his own business, I was tired of having the Cause constantly thrown into my face. I did not believe that a Cause which stood for a beautiful ideal, for anarchism, for release and freedom from conventions and prejudice, should demand the denial of life and joy. I insisted that our Cause could not expect me to become a nun and that the movement should not be turned into a cloister. If it meant that, I did not want it. "I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody's right to beautiful, radiant things." Anarchism meant that to me, and I would live it in spite of the whole world--prisons, persecution, everything. Yes, even in spite of the condemnation of my own comrades I would live my beautiful ideal.
This is usually boiled down to, "If I can't dance I don't want to be in your revolution." Which is pithy, but I think this gives a much better picture of who Emma Goldman actually was.
yes! wow yes indeed. this is important, and it is a topic we once had a bitter argument about with someone we cherished, so it has high personal relevance to us...
