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Old 06-24-2019, 06:24 AM
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Default Why I joined the Democratic Socialists of America

Why I joined the Democratic Socialists of America

Capitalism and consumer culture are antithetical to ecological survival, and incapable of responding to the climate crisis we are in, that impacts everyone and hundreds of thousands of species of life that we depend on to survive. Ask any scientist that studies this about how the future’s looking and the price of inaction: it is beyond dire.

We live as wage slaves on the precipice of war and disaster, in the most powerful country in the world, where we are expected to hand over to our children- and future generations- lives that will be harder, with a shorter life expectancy, on a planet being ravaged by climate extinction events.

Billionaires and multinational businesses live on the labor they steal from the working class. Neoliberal globalization schemes- inside the US and all over the world- guarantee the freedom of capital of the wealthy, and the enslavement and exploitation of the working and poor through austerity programs, and the transfer of wealth from the workers and communities to the richest 1%.

We’re right on another capitalism-as-usual economic bubble now, where every major economic indicator and reporting suggests 18-24 months until an economic collapse or depression: complex financial instruments, consumer debt, T-bill inversion, quantitative easing having nowhere to go- where the elite and powerful will immediately call for austerity- cutting access to health care services, food aid programs; cutting Social Security and Medicare. They will demonize basic human rights and needs and suggest people are unrealistic, unpatriotic, and greedy for wanting health care, or a secure retirement, or clean water and air, or an education.

Meanwhile banks and megacorporations will receive billions in government subsidies, and we’ll approve another record military budget larger than the next seven nations’ largest military budgets combined, and the media will not say much about the tax cuts for the wealthy, the drones over eight nations, the six trillion dollars and 500,000 dead as a result of the US War on Terror, or the 500,000 people sleeping homeless tonight in the US, of which over 40,000 are estimated to be US veterans.

We’ll criminalize humanity like political violence and climate refugees and force tens of thousands of men, women, children, and babies into concentration camps, what ICE and Customs & Border Protection are doing today. We’ll continue with wars like the 18-year war and occupation the US has been waging in Afghanistan, where soldiers arriving now were born after the conflict started; there are 15,000 US soldiers in Afghanistan today, right now, fighting a war that no one in the US says a fucking thing about- a war filled with war crimes and with dead, with maimed, with PTSD and traumatic brain injury survivors.

At home a militarized and unaccountable police force will continue to shoot, imprison, and terrorize communities of immigrants, people of color, homeless, LGBTQIA, and people with autism. A “justice” system will imprison 2.3 million people in the US this year, disproportionately persons of color. The US holds more prisoners per capita than any other nation in the world, while criminalizing women’s bodies, criminalizing abortion, and denying women equality at every turn.

This is not our present, let alone future, that will be solved by me voting every couple of years, or showing up once a year at a protest, emailing my representatives, or @-ing at somebody on Twitter. Electoral politics of voting has never been enough, and our relationship to politics in the US- specifically our general disengagement- my own acceptance of the lie that easy-mode participation is enough- is no longer defensible, if it ever was.

The elite own the sources of most media and actively dis-inform, omit, and propagandize for the purpose of dividing, dis-empowering, and confusing the people who would otherwise organize, rise up, and refuse to obey. We’ll be told to compromise, to give up, to think a minor concession is all one could dream of begging for, like scraps under a table.

This is a time of unparalleled importance in human history that decides the fate of billions, but billions are abstract. This time decides the fate of my life, the life of my spouse, everyone I know in the community around me- my coworkers, my friends- especially my 14-year-old son, the course of his life, and the lives of his peers and the generations to come.

Greta Thunberg and her peers understand their future is literally being destroyed in front of them, by generations in power claiming to have their best interests in mind, and sadly the youth have the biggest stake in this fight for a livable, real future. Will they stand alone?

We only get a future less-than-darkest timeline if we turn to organizing directly in our communities and rapidly building a cohesive, adaptable, and visionary social justice-class struggle movement, democratizing everything right where we live, and transforming what we can in this time of massive social, environmental, and political upheaval. Believing that a better world is possible through direct, real action in our communities- empowerment and praxis as an antidote to paralysis and despair. Starting now. And not stopping. In my opinion this is the mission of the DSA, and I can’t support it enough.

The Democratic Socialists of America, spring-boarding off of Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential run, expanded from 5,000 to 50,000 in two years- people creating chapters all across the US. A big part of this is the YDSA- the youth and student section of the DSA, organizing on campuses.

I believe it is possible and want to build the DSA to 500,000 and then 5 million; and then 50 million. A vital, adaptable, unflagging force for social change. I want this to counter the incrementalism and obstructionism of electoral politics, and I want this to pull in young people instead of having them turn to fascism, nihilism, and hedonism when no positive, empowering alternatives are presented. An adaptable and visionary social force to counter fascists and supremacists allying with capitalist billionaires is required for survival, based on even the simplest reading of history.


The era of milk-toast liberalism and union-busting is ending. The adrift and detached aspect of meat-space community-lessness- where we know people online but not down the street- can be countered. Stand up and fight for a future worth having. What will it say in your obituary? What will you do with this, your life? I would like mine to read: threaded five impossible needles, to a future worth having, by joining together with other comrades to organize and fight.

Most of us are refugees of layers of patriarchy, capitalism, racism, bigotry, sexism, and liberalism we’ve been swimming in, and have transformations within to also manage, as we wake the fuck up. I’m no exception. I’m fighting because I hear the call, and because I want a future, and because if I don’t stand, how can I expect others to stand? I see that an utopian future is possible only if we fight for it- advocate for it.

That’s why I joined the DSA. If and when you hear the call, I hope we’ll stand together as comrades or allies and build a better world together.If you’re already fighting in your own way, salutations. If you’re working in the heart of the dragon, subvert that motherfucker. If you have a local DSA chapter, I double-dog dare you to check it out.

I am an ex-convict who spent five years in federal prison for a solo armed bank robbery in the 90's in Portland, Oregon, wherein I was shot (fairly) by the Portland Police; half political, half-suicide-by-cop wish, all tragic and foolish. I am the spouse to a woman whose love I've aspired to deserve for 21 years. I am the father of an amazing autistic teen. I am a baker of breads and pastries; day shifts, night shifts, hourly, salary. I am certainly an idealist, and a Gen-X weirdo Alaskan. A D&D Dungeon Master- of course. A nerdy cis-gendered white guy with opinions- of course. Often a mess of a human being. But I will navigate this and fight. I am telling you after seeing prison, living prison, and being “free” for these 16 years- brothers, sisters/ non-binary twisters: heart-attack serious, this society is a construct that only runs when you play along- shit’s getting real right now and the sooner we step up the sooner we can live in a world we want. Not that the struggle ever ends- that's the nature of the world. We can’t mince words and beat around the bush and hesitate, concerned that others might disapprove, in our perversely group-think society that also worships “freedom”. Because every day we aren’t organizing is another day we’re wasting. This is the time to speak plainly and stand. Not shamed into it, not coerced into it, not slyly hoodwinked or led down the garden path. If it’s not for you, that’s your jam. Maybe three-four years from now the landscape will be different and we’ll all be different, no? Maybe alliances is where we’ll find common cause in the fight that is here right now all around us; and into the foreseeable future. I swear to you the map is not the territory and the territory is changing for the better right now with you here. What if you went to a local DSA event, tabling, or meeting to find out for yourself?

Empassioned speechifying done; I’m actively working in my community to organize and empower through praxis as well as electoral means. Operational security (Op/Sec) in full effect at all times; love your comrades, adaptability, game theory, and organizing; hate class structure, injustice, ecological devastation, and the sick fucks who maintain this hellworld ship down the extinction slope for greed and profit.

-chunksmediocrites



“The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil...
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.”
- Albert Einstein, in his essay Why Socialism?, published in the Monthly Review, 1949.

“We need an economic bill of rights. This would guarantee a job to all people who want to work and are able to work. It would also guarantee an income for all who are not able to work. Some people are too young, some are too old, some are physically disabled, and yet in order to live, they need income.
We feel that much more building of housing for low-income people should be done. On the educational front, the ghetto schools are in bad shape in terms of quality. Often, they are so far behind that they need more and special attention, the best quality education that can be given.”
-Martin Luther King, Jr., in his essay published in Look Magazine, 1968, shortly after his assassination.

"If you deny my request for a pardon, I will serve my time knowing that sometimes you have to pay a heavy price to live in a free society. I will gladly pay that price if it means we could have a country that is truly conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all women and men are created equal." -Chelsea Manning, in her letter to Barack Obama, 2013.

“There are no emergency meetings, no headlines, no breaking news. No one is acting as if we were in a crisis. Even most climate scientists or green politicians keep on flying around the world, eating meat and dairy. … Today we use 100 million barrels of oil every single day. There are no politics to change that. There are no rules to keep that oil in the ground. So we can't save the world by playing by the rules. Because the rules have to be changed. Everything needs to change. And it has to start today.” -Greta Thunberg, teen activist from Sweden, 2018.

‘Some people say that the climate crisis is something that we all have created, but that is not true, because if everyone is guilty then no one is to blame. And someone is to blame. Some people, some companies, some decision-makers in particular, have known exactly what priceless values they have been sacrificing to continue making unimaginable amounts of money. And I think many of you here today belong to that group of people.’- Greta Thunberg, teen activist at Davos, January 2019.

'You lied to us. You gave us false hope. You told us that the future was something to look forward to. And the saddest thing is that most children are not even aware of the fate that awaits us. We will not understand it until it’s too late. And yet we are the lucky ones. Those who will be affected the hardest are already suffering the consequences. But their voices are not heard.... You don’t listen to the science because you are only interested in solutions that will enable you to carry on like before. Like now. And those answers don’t exist any more. Because you did not act in time.'- Greta Thunberg, April 2019.
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Old 06-24-2019, 02:18 PM
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Default Re: Why I joined the Democratic Socialists of America

Avoid the official DSA forums like the plague unless you like the pettiest internal fighting about the dumbest shit.
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Old 06-24-2019, 03:50 PM
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Default Re: Why I joined the Democratic Socialists of America

Holy shit, rigorist! It has been quite a minute.

:welcome3:
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Old 06-24-2019, 04:20 PM
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Default Re: Why I joined the Democratic Socialists of America

But chunks, yeah.

All my adult life, I've been this "this is it" kind of feeling. I remember with Reagan in particular, thinking that this was the beginning of the end. Then, things would even out a little bit and it'd feel normal or close to it for a while, and then it'd start all over again. But I was not wrong. This time, it's really really that bad, and just smoothing things out a little bit while continuing along the same trajectory is not OK. It's not going to work. It might not work no matter what.
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Old 06-24-2019, 08:27 PM
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Default Re: Why I joined the Democratic Socialists of America

I was co-chair of our local DSA chapter and I stepped down because I felt unappreciated and misused. Your mileage may vary, but I got fed up with the sexism and ageism and had to walk.

Yeah, I'm still hurting over it.
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Old 06-24-2019, 11:12 PM
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Default Re: Why I joined the Democratic Socialists of America

Quote:
Originally Posted by rigorist View Post
Avoid the official DSA forums like the plague unless you like the pettiest internal fighting about the dumbest shit.
I am mostly focusing on being effective in meat space and appreciate the warning.

Quote:
Originally Posted by vremya View Post
I was co-chair of our local DSA chapter and I stepped down because I felt unappreciated and misused. Your mileage may vary, but I got fed up with the sexism and ageism and had to walk.

Yeah, I'm still hurting over it.
I'm sorry, that really sucks. It was one of my concerns coming into my local chapter (really any organization); and a thing to watch for and correct. I don't claim to have a total knowledge of our chapter but so far what I've gotten involved in has been pretty welcoming of all, with lots of ages, genders, orientations in the mix as well as leadership positions.
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Old 06-24-2019, 11:37 PM
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Default Re: Why I joined the Democratic Socialists of America

I'm not going to bag on the entire DSA. Lots of good people doing good work.

But stay out of the internal politics unless you were a big fan of Atheism+

(This is probably the only place on the internet where I can make that comparison and be understood)
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Old 06-25-2019, 06:35 AM
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Default Re: Why I joined the Democratic Socialists of America

Without making this about the DSA in my head Groundskeeper Willie is shaking me by the collar and screaming, “Ye lied to me, laddie! There is nae troo Marxist-Leninist!”
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Old 08-21-2019, 07:27 AM
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Default Re: Why I joined the Democratic Socialists of America

Co-chair of the Portland DSA Olivia Katbi Smith is interviewed on the DC Sentinel podcast, on the Aug 17 protest between antifascist and Patriot Prayer / Proud Boys / numerous out of state and in state militia, white nationalist, fascist groups... clearly supported by the police, and city government.
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Old 08-22-2019, 10:21 PM
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Default Re: Why I joined the Democratic Socialists of America

Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) - Workings towards a better future for all.
Quote:
Democratic socialists believe that both the economy and society should be run democratically—to meet public needs, not to make profits for a few. To achieve a more just society, many structures of our government and economy must be radically transformed through greater economic and social democracy so that ordinary Americans can participate in the many decisions that affect our lives.
“Go Live in a Cave if You’re Really Anti-Capitalist:” On Having a Smartphone and Hating Capitalism Too - Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)
Quote:
Whether or not you consider yourself anti-capitalist, you’ve probably heard that tired retort that socialists regularly encounter: “If you hate capitalism so much, why do you have a smartphone? If you were really against capitalism, you’d become an off-the-grid caveman instead of participating in the capitalist system.” The spirit of this argument has prevailed among critics who speculate about the allegedly expensive tastes of U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one among a recent wave of democratic socialists to hold political office.

As a case in point, consider how she was ridiculed by one Fox News reader for making the modest suggestion that profit shouldn’t be prioritized at the expense of human lives and the planet:
AOC on the ideology that she calls capitalism: "We seek and prioritize profit and the accumulation of money above all else and we seek it at any human and environmental cost... To me that ideology is not sustainable and cannot be redeemed"
Someone mocked her with "As she talks on her cell phone and flies in private jets and funnels money to her boyfriend while driving her high priced car. Don't forget her high rise apartment. Yeah, capitalism really sucks, AOC. Naptime."

AOC herself has talked about capitalism vs. socialism, and I find what she says rather muddled, as if she hasn't thought it through as well as she ought to have. I say that about someone who very much appreciates what she has done to US politics, bringing up a lot of issues that many mainstream politicians have been very timid about -- at best. I also appreciate her career and her moral character and her being very thoughtful.

She is funded by small donations, and I recall an interview where she considered the conundrum of some big donor who completely agrees with her. She decided that she would refuse, because that is a dangerous slippery slope.

She also thinks that we ought to think more about specific proposals than about ideologies, like Medicare for All and a Green New Deal.

She herself has done some capitalism, it must be conceded. Back in 2012, she attempted to start a publishing house, Brook Avenue Press, one that would specialize in children's books that reflect the experiences of inner-city children. I recall a screenshot of a bit of one: M is for Metrocard, N is for newspaper, and the like. That startup flopped without any books ever published.

She sums up her political program as "In a modern, moral, and wealthy society, no American should be too poor to live."
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Old 08-23-2019, 01:21 AM
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Default Re: Why I joined the Democratic Socialists of America

I like her because she's a sorely needed counterbalance to poorly thought through yet loudly promoted and ultimately passed in to law right wing propaganda juggernaut ideas. I like her proposals just to drag the margin left, practical or not. At least the practicality is up for debate.
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Old 09-12-2019, 05:43 AM
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Default Re: Why I joined the Democratic Socialists of America

So I joined the local chapter in June. There's lots of working groups and caucuses involved in all sorts of worthwhile projects. I am currently involved in the Bernie 2020 IE (Independent Expenditure) campaign for our local chapter.

I also participate in a Brake Light Clinic (here's an article about the same project started by DSA in Atlanta and now in 45 cities); additionally I've been designing/ building banners, flyers, buttons; bottom-lined an event, and am involved in other projects I'll talk about later.

The chapter has voted to back Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination.

We're also backing candidate Paige Kreisman for Oregon House District 42; she's primarying a local union leader who voted to cut PERS, which is a badly mismanaged and horribly invested state pension fund for teachers and school workers. Kreisman talks about her life and why she's running for office: SoundCloud - Hear the world’s sounds

We're backing Albert Lee's candidacy for Oregon's third district congressional seat; he's received endorsement from Brand New Congress, and from Bernie's campaign.

We're also backing a ballot measure this fall the Universal Preschool Now! campaign to provide year-round preschool to four year olds, paid by a tax on the top 5% of incomes in the county.

This DSA chapter is also involved in unionizing, recently focusing on food service workplaces. Here's an article. Here's another.

On the subject of the many tendencies within the DSA, if you really want to go down that rabbit hole, this podcast episode explores in comedy skits and succinct (for leftists) discussions how Marxist-Leninists, libertarian socialists, and eco-socialists see each other and the differences and solidarities between ideologies. Revolutionary Left Radio: Marxism-Leninism in Dialogue with Libertarian Socialism (ft. Srsly Wrong) I laughed out loud, but I'm weird.

Glad I joined.
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Old 10-24-2019, 11:55 PM
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Default Re: Why I joined the Democratic Socialists of America

I've been canvassing weekends for Bernie and for Paige Kreisman's campaign, knocking on doors of eligible voters in Kreisman's Portland house district 42 currently, before we move on to canvass specific areas we've targeted based on a number of factors.

Last night I joined about 75 other people from the DSA, IWW, Burgerville Union members, and other community supporters picketing the Burgerville closest to the coliseum before the Blazer's game to store close, about 2.5 hours. We picketed both driveways and public entrances and many customers (other than a few, specifically three MAGA-hat 19-year old chuds, and an entitled white guy with California license plates) voluntarily avoided the Burgerville and honored the picket. Five local Burgerville locations are unionized, and four are participating in this strike, after 18 months at the bargaining table and no reasonable concessions from Burgerville. Actions continue today, Friday, and through the weekend; though I'll be canvassing.

For those into DSA national wonkery: here's some inside baseball on voting tallies by caucus in the 2019 national DSA convention, including a very short summary of the main caucuses; if you know better feel free to school me on any shortcomings in this analysis, but my newbie impression is it's relatively data-focused.
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Old 10-26-2019, 03:29 PM
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Default Re: Why I joined the Democratic Socialists of America

Burgerville Execs Plan to “Investigate Any Incidents of Harassment” After Patriot Prayer Members Show Up at a Union Picket

Quote:
Reporting and photos from Columbian reporter Anthony Macuk on Twitter showed Joey Gibson, the group's leader, appeared briefly at the picket with a group of no more than five Patriot Prayer members. Macuk said Gibson was "chatting with some union folks," while other protesters sang chants in a megaphone.

According to Macuk, one Patriot Prayer member brought a mic to yell things like "get a real job" at protesters.

In response, Burgerville management tells WW in a statement that it is "following due process to investigate any incidences of harassment at its home office in Vancouver."

"Burgerville strongly condemns all forms of discrimination, harassment and violence," it continued. "We support the union's right to lawfully strike."

In a statement, the BVWU said it was "appalled but not surprised that white supremacists like Gibson and Patriot Prayer are actively standing with Burgerville to defend poverty wages," and that "Burgerville has a choice to make."
Because when you're a fascist organization like Patriot Prayer, of course you want to be strike breakers for capitalist bosses. Burgerville corporate to its extremely minor credit appears decidedly nervous about getting support from a white supremacist fascist organization, image-wise.
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Old 12-30-2019, 09:50 PM
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Default Re: Why I joined the Democratic Socialists of America

Our local DSA chapter has endorsed the Universal Preschool Now! campaign- implementing preschool in Multnomah County (which contains Portland Oregon) paid for by a tax on the wealthy. This kicks off in full force in the new year.

We've endorsed and support- and I've canvassed for- Paige Kreisman, running an insurgency campaign to the left of a local establishment Democrat.

We've endorsed and support Albert Lee for Congress, running to the left of the establishment Democrat in office.

Portland Trail Blazers Announce the End of Its Partnership with Military Contractor Leupold & Stevens
Quote:
Several groups, including the Portland Democratic Socialists of America, have protested the Blazers' relationship with the company, which supplies rifle scopes to the U.S. military and other armed forces, including the Israeli Defense Force.
This is a win from September.

November 22 I helped organize 44 bakers and dishwashers locally to card-sign to unionize, and December 12 they won their NLRB unionization vote 29 to 9, with over 76% supporting; now we work towards a first contract. I'm pursuing continuing organizer training through our Labor Working Group.

I continue to canvass, fund-raise, and table for the DSA's Bernie 2020 IE campaign, and will likely produce a banner specifically for the Medicare for All campaign.

I've been involved in design of buttons, stickers, t-shirts, and of course banners.

Met a lot of amazing people in the past six months and am looking forward to working with our chapter going forward.
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Old 01-04-2020, 07:29 AM
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Default Re: Why I joined the Democratic Socialists of America

Misc thing I found:

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Old 02-09-2020, 04:11 PM
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Default Re: Why I joined the Democratic Socialists of America

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Originally Posted by lisarea View Post
But chunks, yeah.

All my adult life, I've been this "this is it" kind of feeling. I remember with Reagan in particular, thinking that this was the beginning of the end. Then, things would even out a little bit and it'd feel normal or close to it for a while, and then it'd start all over again. But I was not wrong. This time, it's really really that bad, and just smoothing things out a little bit while continuing along the same trajectory is not OK. It's not going to work. It might not work no matter what.
Matt Christman from Chapo Trap House had this to say on a recent podcast, (54:29 in) and it made me think of what you said, and resonates with me and a lot of people I know.

Quote:
One of the things you all know in your bones, and certainly something we've talked about a lot on our show, is just how shitty it feels to be alive right now. We all have stuff, we're not, you know, in the worst physical circumstances, but everything just feels hollow, and cynical, and empty. And I really do think that one of the big reasons for that is we all know, deep down inside, there's something wrong with this country, this world...with this fucking social order. We know, deep down, that no humane society would be organized this way. This stuff is just not...if good people of good faith like the people you know in your life got together to create a society right now, they wouldn't make this one.

But, that knowledge sits right next to the message we get every day from our parents, our fucking bosses, from the media, that this devil's bargain we've struck—where you get creature comforts and you get convenience in exchange for precarity, and alienation, and fucking despair, and the steady erosion of the fucking living environment we need to survive—is some sort of choice that we all made, and we all opted for this option; we all opted for the 30 brands of tooth paste that Bernie talked about when he was debating Hillary in 2016.

But we know in our hearts that that's not fucking true. We know that we never asked for this, we never wanted this. But the problem is is that we're all fucking powerless against it. As an individual, what are you supposed to do? Against these massive, world-spanning powers that determine the world you live in. [Vote.]

And so, you're left in this position of being hyper-aware of the awfulness and the rot of the world around you, coupled with the complete and hyper-specific knowledge of your own inability to do anything about it. And what that does, over time, is that it starts to eat away at you. And honestly—I'm speaking for myself anyway—it makes you start to hate yourself a little bit. You hate yourself for how fucking powerless you are. And more importantly, and even worse, and more insidiously than that, you start to feel complicit in your own misery. You start to feel complicit in the misery of others. You start to blame yourself because why aren't you doing anything, but what's to be done?

And this campaign, and the Bernie Sanders campaign, I swear to god, guys, it's the first moment, this is the first movement that any of us have seen in our living lives that has the promise of bringing a mass—a critical mass—of people to the realization that they aren't alone. That there's such a thing as a common—that there is a common dream of a more humane world that we can fucking make. But, it's because, yes: none of us, by ourselves, can do anything. That's what they tell you every day to keep you where you are. But what the Bernie campaign can tell you—what the Bernie campaign is telling you, and what we're all telling ourselves, what we're all telling each other, what all you fucking canvassers are saying, what people are saying at dinner tables, what people are talking about, what people are saying more and more—they're saying it more and more, folks [Cheering][So many people are saying it! So many people.]—is that all of us, together, can do anything. [Cheering "Not me, us"]
Working with other people in our local chapter to fight to change this world has been very rewarding for me emotionally and socially; and done a lot to break the paralysis and despair that I've struggled with and which seems IMO so much a part of our national psyche.

I'm likely running for an external organizing committee (EOC) position in my local chapter this year.
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  #18  
Old 08-04-2020, 06:14 AM
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Default Re: Why I joined the Democratic Socialists of America

Yeah Chunks isn't here anymore so let me tell you why I don't like the D.S.A.

1. they have a libertarian caucus WTF.
2. They have groups like Bread and Roses, which if find to be a straight up co-option of my family's struggle.
Seriously, my family was harassed, fired and not hired for their politics. Which were straight up socialist. Thanks for giving me a reading list and not working on get all
3. they are all too fucking happy to co-operate and concede to Democrat party politics. For example the only real issue they've been successful at in Oregon is getting a universal pre-school ballot on the next election. Now they're talking about merging it with the "let's not charge wealthy people for universal pre-school" people about combining forces
4. they suck at tactics, including, but not exclusively engaging and retaining membership.

5. Libertarian caucus? Really?
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  #19  
Old 08-04-2020, 09:54 AM
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Default Re: Why I joined the Democratic Socialists of America

Dafuq is a libertarian caucus anyway?

Tell chunks to come back, though. I mean I know he won't but still tell him.
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Old 08-04-2020, 10:40 AM
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Default Re: Why I joined the Democratic Socialists of America

I DON'T KNOW libertarian has nothing to do with socialist or Democrat, and in the USA Democrat means Republican lite.


Chunks isn't coming back, and damnit, I found you all first.


Guess I'm just a second fiddle anyways.

Still pissed a bunch of democrats, which in the EU would be the labor party or some such, are co-opting the movements my family lost their jobs and lives for, but I guess they are here to school me on how all Americans are living on stolen land (yes hello we know, also some of my family is actually native to the area) and have such great tactics of ... not doing much at all. Not standing as allies or who are they again?
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  #21  
Old 08-04-2020, 10:41 AM
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Default Re: Why I joined the Democratic Socialists of America

sigh.


I'm mostly irrelevant.

Although I'm a good cook.
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Old 08-04-2020, 10:54 AM
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Default Re: Why I joined the Democratic Socialists of America

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Originally Posted by Qingdai View Post
sigh.


I'm mostly irrelevant.

Although I'm a good cook.
Thank you for sharing what you do when you do.
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Old 08-04-2020, 11:56 AM
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Default Re: Why I joined the Democratic Socialists of America

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Originally Posted by Qingdai View Post
and damnit, I found you all first.


Guess I'm just a second fiddle anyways.
MASSIVE SOCIALLY UNDISTANCED HUG.

You are much more important than chunks and must not leave and must not feel undervalued.
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Old 08-04-2020, 12:42 PM
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Default Re: Why I joined the Democratic Socialists of America

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Originally Posted by Qingdai View Post
sigh.


I'm mostly irrelevant.
No, you're certainly not. You will never be irrelevant here! :glare:
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Old 08-04-2020, 01:47 PM
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Default Re: Why I joined the Democratic Socialists of America

You are definitely not irrelevant, Qingdai. For what little my opinion is worth, I always appreciate your posts. :hug:

I was anti-political before we started this forum, and have only been marginally political until this moment in history. Lately I have* been consuming so much political content it's obscene.

I haven't been around here enough in recent years so I never saw this thread until today, but if I had read it a year ago I probably would have thought something like "wow, good for chunks finding a way out from under the crushing weight of cynicism!" It wouldn't have sold me on the DSA though, because the DSA is a group and, rightly or wrongly, I literally have never comfortably identified with any group (men, US Americans, sports teams, white people, Democrats, etc.) I don't think this is a noble position, it's just how I am.

All that being said, I have recently started becoming more comfortable with the idea of identifying as a Socialist. Part of what makes me comfortable saying that despite my dislike for labels is the realization that Socialism is a pretty huge tent that encompasses a lot of ideologies I agree with and some I don't, and that's okay. I have always believed that all people should have equal opportunity and treatment and in the idea of "from each according to their ability to each according to their need" economic model. Now I'm just learning the common language to talk about that with others.

I really appreciate you sharing your opinion of the DSA because although I agree with much of what I have learned about them in the past couple of weeks (and all of what chunks says in this OP), I am still unprepared to align myself with any label more prescriptive than "Socialist".


*an earlier version of this post said 'haven't', because I am an idiot.

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