chat

I wish these people were serious. Like, not giving up at the first sign of police repression type of serious. Because goofy or not, we do need a militant response to fascism and that requires bodies.

They aren't serious, at least not the vast vast majority, but I do think its worth doing education/recruitment over pointing and laughing, because they're sorta on the right track they just have no concept of how fucked things already were, how they're likely to get much worse, and that their beloved liberal institutions won't save them. If I knew these people I'd probably be trying to get them to read about past liberation struggles (genuine ones not privileged cosplayers) to get an idea of how the state responds to this stuff and what practical, concrete resistance can look like.

edit to add: being cringe is better than doing nothing. At least she's talking to like minded people and making connections.

keep talking shit OP. when we’re all liberated by her and speaking her made up language we wont even be able to understand your shit talking anymore so enjoy it while it lasts bucko

Some were worried waving American flags would be "triggering to POCs",

Yeah, it's the flag of a blood-soaked fascist empire that kills our families.

but then they agreed that they're gonna try and "take it back from Trump!"

And it was long before Trump.

Oh yeah she also introduced me to some 20-something in her group that seems to think she's in a YA novel. She's talking about forming an "underground" that has a goofy name like the "Sparrows" or something that uses its own special language she made up (its a simple word-key code any puzzle nerd could break). She has an alt-constitution written in a mole skin book that she showed me and I had to hold back my laughter at how badly it was written.

Incredible. First I thought "this has to be satire", but it'd be too heavy-handed.

As someone with a YA protagonist inclination, show this to the YA protagonist: https://deepgreenresistance.net/en/organization/structure/basic-structures-network-types/

It explains the social structures used for political resistance. Deciding on a topology is going to get her a lot farther than creating a cipher. And creating a name is only important in more densely populated areas when you’re looking to take credit for direct action and mutual aid. Everything has a purpose.

Also, creating plausible deniability between a political faction and a militant faction is very useful. The political faction disavows militancy and only communicates with the militants through anonymous side channels and dead drops. You could theoretically install communists in conservative city halls this way.

These are all 5-10 year goals that start with getting to know your neighbors and doing mutual aid now.

There’s also the question of how much someone is willing to sacrifice for rebellion, which is often the difference between someone larping and someone who’s serious and is just inexperienced. I’d also recommend the Boy Boy video on torture where they interview the man who was tortured by the US government. It’s heavy and it really puts into perspective what the enemy is willing to do outside of straight up murder.

I think people need perspective and resources. A lot of noobs are going to need to be fast tracked through the stages of radicalization in the near future.

"Taking back" the Amerikkkan flag

Literally my first protest experience was saying this sometime around 2008 and getting clowned on by a communist in Lafayette Square.

She's talking about forming an "underground" that has a goofy name like the "Sparrows" or something [...] She has an alt-constitution written in a mole skin book that she showed me and I had to hold back my laughter at how badly it was written.

This one has potential. This is someone who knows the system is completely doomed unless fundamental reforms are made. "The Constitution needs to be replaced" is a pretty advanced position for a liberal, but it is true. The obscene corporate money in elections, the monopolization of communications platforms, the gerrymandering, the voter suppression, the impunity of cops, the Senate, the Supreme Court. These are each, individually, terminal problems for liberal democracy, which are allowed to metastasize because the constitution provides no mechanism to do anything about them. None of these problems will be solved. They will never even be a campaign issue. I have never seen the Democrats campaign on passing a constitutional amendment in my entire life. It is not something which even exists in their dreams, where "progressives" hold a super-majority in the federal government (and in reality, the last time this happened all we got out of it was "Romneycare"). Shit will just continue to get worse while former federal prosecutors record podcasts talking about how liberal democracy is such a precious thing and we must vooot to protect it.

Let her cook. I think she will put the pieces together eventually.

Buy her a copy of The State and Revolution

it's nice we get to do 2020 again, i was getting nostalgic. now, just wait for the cops to get progressively more aggressive with protestors, amping up the tension, until people start protecting themselves from the state's abuses until we have massive standoffs in every city and then and then they can talk about how the movement lost direction and they can't endorse violence and all we can do is wait and to take back the house next year

She's talking about forming an "underground" that has a goofy name like the "Sparrows" or something that uses its own special language she made up

Try to get her to instead burn US flags to show defiance

This rules so much lol

I was just sitting here thinking about how much everything sucks and how depressed I am because of it.

I yearn for the ignorance these libs have. I just want to be a belligerent normie that still finds enjoyment in things and has hope for the future.

Sparrows

she needs to buy a gun

take it back from Trump

Like trying to take the swastika back from Kanye, lmao

Sometimes I wonder if I grew up twice or even four times as quickly as most people, given that this former landlady's YA-ass #Resistance LARP literally sounds verbatim like me when I was a preteen; and for that matter the last time I personally believed it was possible to "take back the [Seppolandic] flag" was when I was a teenager.

used to be a landlord? what?

Death to amerikkka

Start a notebook and keep profiles on all of them and their positions so you don't forget them and have clarity about where they're at so you know where to meet them. Then start working out individual strategies to move them.

Sparrows