• ameancow@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    edit-2
    2 days ago

    It’s not about bathrooms, it’s certainly not about “protecting” anyone. They do not give two shits about actual assaults against women and children.

    It’s about sending a political message, a threat against a marginalized group that can be demonized for not fitting social norms, but is also not strong enough or connected enough to push back and rile up public support. Something like saying “You’re not allowed to use the bathroom” is a deeply personal and sensitive topic that will absolutely crush someone of any group and it’s prone to not getting the public attention that it needs. I mean, who wants to talk about how they need to shit?

    It’s been wildly successful too, because the people who actually care spend all their time in social-media echo-chambers, even like this one, instead of doing community organization and activism. Even suggesting it will probably draw in opposition here from people who feel helpless. And yeah, they’ll be right, it’s much, much harder now because we didn’t do this shit back when the playing field was more level and this was just 4-chan trolls and reddit communities and there wasn’t billions of dollars invested in the success of the of the distraction-campaign.

    We can still turn this around but we can’t do it the same way. We have to fight far, far dirtier, we have to make bot-armies, troll accounts, we have to put ourselves at risk, we have to directly target efforts towards libs and neo-libs who maybe, sorta, kinda care about issues that impact other citizens, but need a swift kick in the ass to realize they’re on the wrong side of history. We have to project the image of mass-support at any opportunity. When you are talking or arguing about these issues, you have to do the same thing they did, which is play up that your movement is gaining support and momentum broadly, not withering under blistering hate and capitalist efforts. We have to be less afraid of wild rhetoric and playing uncivil. Be less afraid of negative attention. We have to call people bad words and be less afraid of offending our own side, because there are a lot of people on our side who aren’t really.

    We have to actually argue with our shitty uncle and not “let it go.” We have to make friends in real-space and we have to hang out in public and be seen and stand united against hateful monsters.

    We have to be that group of San Diego citizens who SHAMED a bunch of modern klansmen (ICE agents) into retreating from their neighborhood.

    All the hard shit. You have to do that. You have to get real social real fast. Yeah, it does suck.