Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 02-Aug-2024 09:06:10 JST Paul Cantrell

   Dahlia Lithwick writes of “years of doomerism and nihilism…foisted on the country by a determined and omnipresent sense that MAGA was not just inevitable but undefeatable (even in defeat)”

   “Experts on authoritarianism have been warning for years that fostering hopelessness, powerlessness, and political depression is a deliberate tactic of most totalitarian leaders”

   ☝️☝️ THIS ☝️☝️

   I keep saying: Despair is surrender. Cynicism is surrender. Nihilism is surrender.

   https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/07/harris-trump-2024-kamala-vibes-trumpism-loses.html

   • GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 02-Aug-2024 09:09:12 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     Lithwick connecting this Laurie Penny quote on depression to the tactics of authoritarians is •profound•:

     “One of the symptoms reported most frequently by people with severe depressive illness is lack of ability to imagine the future. It’s not just that they can’t imagine anything good happening ever again—they can’t imagine a future at all.”

     GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 02-Aug-2024 09:19:04 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     If authoritarian creep feeds on a kind of induced collective depression, then hope and joy are not just feelings. Lithwick: “It turns out that hope doesn’t just float in on feathers. It can actually take out an eye.”

     Every time you laugh, a Nazi gets punched in the face.

   • Embed this notice
     klausfiend (klausfiend@dcerberus.com)'s status on Friday, 02-Aug-2024 11:41:55 JST klausfiend

     in reply to

     @inthehands This is of course why autocrats go after artists almost immediately after they've finished punishing the first tranche of their political adversaries.

   • Embed this notice
     cwicseolfor (cwicseolfor@urbanists.social)'s status on Sunday, 04-Aug-2024 03:00:30 JST cwicseolfor

     in reply to

     @inthehands on repeat:

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 04-Aug-2024 03:16:56 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Lisa
     • cwicseolfor

     @medievalist @cwicseolfor
     Huh. I’d never put that together!

   • Embed this notice
     Lisa (medievalist@writing.exchange)'s status on Sunday, 04-Aug-2024 03:16:57 JST Lisa

     in reply to

     • cwicseolfor

     @cwicseolfor @inthehands Tolkien was a life-long, devout Catholic, and a Medievalist. Despair, or Accidie to a Medievalist, is one of the seven deadly sins, annd as such, is a doorway to other "sins" or problems.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 04-Aug-2024 03:25:52 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Dror Bedrack

     @DrorBedrack
     I’m sorry. It’s easy to understand why that would cause despair.

     Living through 4 years of Trump here in the US, I didn’t realize how tightly the psychological tentacles had got around my head until he was out. But we need to fight them, keep ripping the tentacles off over and over and over. Our despair is their tool.

     Keep fighting.

   • Embed this notice
     Dror Bedrack (drorbedrack@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 04-Aug-2024 03:25:53 JST Dror Bedrack

     in reply to

     @inthehands i'm in Israel under .... Nethanyahu and co. It's really hard not to despair.

   • Embed this notice
     your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦 (blogdiva@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 04-Aug-2024 10:58:00 JST your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦

     in reply to

     "Despair is surrender. Cynicism is surrender. Nihilism is surrender."

     embroider that. make it a prayer.

     @inthehands

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 04-Aug-2024 11:04:40 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦

     @blogdiva
     Oh, I would luiuuuv to have that embroidered.

     My embroidery dream has long been the Prince symbol along with “Poor lonely computer, it’s time someone programmed you”

     (lmk if you haven’t heard the song, it’s so good)

   • Embed this notice
     Tofu Golem (tofugolem@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 04-Aug-2024 11:24:09 JST Tofu Golem

     in reply to

     @inthehands
     Maybe I've been guilty of pushing despair. That's not what I was going for. I saw too many complacent people, and I was trying to get across to people that the situation was very serious and warranted more than just going along with the status quo.

     But despair is a tool of authoritarians.

     Hope is an important counter to despair, and thus important to anyone who wants to oppose authoritarianism.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 04-Aug-2024 11:24:09 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Tofu Golem

     @tofugolem
     Despair is not the same as alarm, and I don’t think raising the alarm necessarily cultivates hopelessness. But it can, and we do need to be careful how we do it.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 04-Aug-2024 11:33:21 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Tofu Golem

     @tofugolem
     Indeed, and I think I’ve been guilty of it when trying to raise the alarm.

     There is no clear line between alarm-raising and doomerism, and the line is different for different people. It’s tricky. It’s work.

   • Embed this notice
     Tofu Golem (tofugolem@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 04-Aug-2024 11:33:22 JST Tofu Golem

     in reply to

     @inthehands
     I've been accused of doomerism multiple times while trying to raise the alarm.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Dec-2024 01:35:36 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Icarosity

     @nancywisser
     Ugh, that does sound like depression. Take care of yourself, even if you only post in jest!

   • Embed this notice
     Icarosity (nancywisser@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Dec-2024 01:35:37 JST Icarosity

     in reply to

     @inthehands The only future I can think of is when I can go back to bed this evening and let sleep kindly render me unconscious again.

   • Embed this notice
     Icarosity (nancywisser@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Dec-2024 05:34:55 JST Icarosity

     in reply to

     @inthehands Luckily today was my therapy session and I'm now feeling marginally better. Did talk with her about this feeling.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Dec-2024 05:34:55 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Icarosity

     @nancywisser
     I'm glad to hear it! We all really need to take this kind of feeling seriously when we experience it. And of course depression is a weird condition that causes you to not want to treat it…which is why help is so important.