Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️⚧️
Social justice advocacy
2024-Nov-06
Dear human rights, social justice, environmental rights advocates:
* do not despair
* educate yourselves re: root causes
** wealth: capitalism
** power: politics, judiciary
** influence: conservatism
* advocate, collaborate, inform
Reading: \1 below
Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️⚧️
/1
Reading:
Jane Mayer, Dark Money (2016)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Money_(book)
Nancy MacLean, Democracy in Chains (2019)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_in_Chains
Gary Allen, None Dare Call It Conspiracy (1970)
https://archive.org/details/none-dare-call-it-conspiracy_202101
Communicating with Memes: Consequences in Post-truth Civilization (2019)
https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498551342/Communicating-with-Memes-Consequences-in-Post-truth-Civilization
Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️⚧️
Don’t Mourn, Fight
https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/11/07/dont-mourn-fight
* capitalism prevents genuine democracy due to the influence of money in elections & elsewhere in the political system
* no easy way to defeat fascism within context of capitalist economy & a bourgeois electoral system
* that fact means organizing
* Don’t mourn, organize.
Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️⚧️
How to stay politically engaged in between election cycles
https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/07/texas-elections-how-to-stay-involved
From engaging w. representatives to joining advocacy groups, there are numerous ways to continue participating in democracy & shaping policy after polls close.
* First, understand the system
* Get involved in community organizations or advocacy groups
* Engage with elected officials
* Attend local government meetings
* Consider running for office
Atexjam
@persagen morn and fight. We lost a lot.
Feeling pain and reacting to it is human.
And yeah, fight cuz lives are on the line.
Expect to lose a lot. The people who helped this monster to power will not waste time on feeling for others so we should be empathetic even when it is seen as weak.
Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️⚧️
My dear trans community:
Once again we find ourselves front & center in times of turmoil.
To those of us who are weary &/or anxious:
* step aside; attend to your mental, psychological, emotional health
* disengage f. (toxic) social media
Frontline activism is not for everyone.
Others can/will step up.
There are other avenues:
Write: share our tribulations, triumphs
Volunteer to other causes: build friendships & allies
* political candidates
* unions; workers rights assemblies
Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️⚧️
/1 Crisis support
In crisis/thoughts of suicide?
Call or text 9-8-8
If you are
* feeling like you lost hope/struggling to cope
* dealing w. thoughts of suicide
* worried about someone else
9-8-8 is here for you
* trained responders listen w/o judging
* support/understanding
* resources
https://988.ca/about-us
Trans Lifeline’s Hotline: https://translifeline.org/hotline
* peer support phone service by trans people for trans/questioning peers
* call even if you’re not in crisis or not sure you’re trans
Robert Link
@persagen I've only recently come to worry about help-lines which perhaps too readily send law enforcement. Do you know much about this, can you help me better understand the differences among various resources?
Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️⚧️
@phaedral good to know; those 2 should be fine 👍️
Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️⚧️
New wave of movements against Trumpism is coming
https://wagingnonviolence.org/2024/11/a-new-wave-of-movements-against-trumpism-is-coming
For many of us, the immediate aftermath of Donald Trump’s decisive electoral victory has been a time of deep despair & mourning.
Our job is to translate outrage over his agenda into action toward a truly transformational vision.
As we step out of our grieving & look ahead, there are reasons to believe that a new social movement cycle to confront Trumpism can emerge.
Image: Protect Our Futures march, NYC, 2024-Nov-09
Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️⚧️
Building a working class movement after Trump’s victory
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/11/10/building-a-working-class-movement-after-trumps-victory
* history of working class struggle in U.S. & how it can inform where movements go next
Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️⚧️
Let’s Start a Revolution; Usurping the Titans of Capital
https://www.projectcensored.org/start-revolution-usurping-titans-capital
* podcast ft. Ralph Nader, Peter Phillips re: latest books
* iconic consumer/civil rights activist/author Ralph Nader
* need to
dismantle corporate state
boost civic engagement f. grassroots up
demand dark money/billionaires be driven of political system
How Concentrated Wealth Threatens Humanity
Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️⚧️
/1 critical reading
R. Nader 2024
Ralph Nader: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Nader
Let’s Start the Revolution. Tools for Displacing the Corporate State & Building a Country that Works for the People
https://nader.org/books/lets-start-the-revolution
Out of Darkness
https://nader.org/books/out-of-darkness/
Peter Phillips 2024
Project Censored >> Media Freedom Foundation >> Peter Phillips: https://www.projectcensored.org/who-we-are
Titans of Capital: How Concentrated Wealth Threatens Humanity
https://www.project-censored.org/shop/p/titans-of-capital-peter-phillips
Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️⚧️
Judith Deutsch, Science For Peace
Brilliant essay! Bear through opening paragraphs; 5-10' read
Killing Knowledge
https://mastodon.social/@persagen/113283950252848660
* aggression/wars/nuclear proliferation
* narcissistic leaders
* misogyny; racism
* psychology: motives
* genocides; international justice
* 3rd world debt
* egregious wealth/tax havens
* confiscating assets
#peace #ScienceForPeace #JudithDeutsch #capitalism #corporations #LegalPersonhood #StructuralViolence #HigherEducation #IAEA #NPT #AssetForfeiture
Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️⚧️
[Nobel Lecture, 2005, Harold Pinter] Art, Truth & Politics
https://persagen.org/docs/harold_pinter-art_truth_and_politics.html
COMMENT
* dated but still relevant
* search for truth in art & avoidance of truth in politics
SOURCE: Wikipedia, 2020-04-29
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2005 was was awarded to Harold Pinter "who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms."
#HaroldPinter #NobelPrize #literature #SocialCommentary #war #fascism #politics #corruption #posttruthism
Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️⚧️
We Must Reorient Our Movements Under Trump2 Administration
https://truthout.org/articles/how-must-we-reorient-our-movements-under-a-second-trump-administration
Resisting Trump2 fascism: crucial we rethink direct action in authoritarian context
Concerns:
well-supported/systemic far-right
oligarchy woven into social fabric
far-right judiciaries incl. SCOTUS
mass surveillance/facial recog.
Actions:
direct action: civil disobedience/mass marches
establish/fortify small adaptable groups
defiance, e.g. healthcare wkr refusing to aid in criminalizing patient
symbolic acts
Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️⚧️
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Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️⚧️
If/when needed, civil disobedience topples governments, e.g. Arab Spring uprisings
Arab Spring
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Spring
Social media's role in the Arab Spring
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media%27s_role_in_the_Arab_Spring
Here in Vancouver, counter-protests (e.g. transportation artery blockades) helped limit social media conspiracy driven, far-right organized/led 2022 Freedom Convoy protests.
Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️⚧️
Likewise, protests against Pacific Northwest old growth forest logging protests / support of Indigenous protesters led to railway blockades/Canada-wide rail service disruption.
2020 Canadian pipeline and railway protests
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Canadian_pipeline_and_railway_protests
Timeline of the 2020 Canadian pipeline and railway protests
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_2020_Canadian_pipeline_and_railway_protests
Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️⚧️
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Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️⚧️
Community service
Continuing my thoughts f. the top of this thread ...
I think it's imp. to have person-to-person social interaction.
I am atheist; I categorize religion as a subbranch of philosophy:
https://persagen.org/wpi/docs/wpi-ontology.pdf
However, there are 2SLGBTQIA+ affirming congregations:
https://persagen.org/wpi/docs/wpi-ontology.pdf
Vancouver Unitarians
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver_Unitarians
* birthplace of Greenpeace
MCC: Metropolitan Community Church
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Community_Church
Other outlets:
* volunteer at food banks
* help the homeless
Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️⚧️
The worse the chaos, the sooner the eventual revulsion/turnaround
https://www.nationofchange.org/2024/11/15/the-worse-the-chaos-that-results-the-sooner-the-eventual-revulsion-and-turnaround
* gullible population let itself be bamboozled
* only consequences will ult. persuade people what a catastrophic mistake they made
Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️⚧️
[Ontario Federation of Labor] Break the Silence: End Gender-Based Violence/Intimate Partner Violence by Participating in 16 Days of Activism
https://ofl.ca/16-days-of-activism
* violence against women, girls, transfeminine folx, gender diverse, 2-Spirit people remains most widespread human rights violation around world
* Canada: 44% of women ever been in intimate relationship reported exp. violence by partner at some point
#OntarioFedLabor #DomesticViolence #IntimatePartnerViolence #activism #solidarity
Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️⚧️
... follow-on/background readin):
[2010] The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party
https://archive.fo/MtPAZ#selection-526.0-526.1
The superb Jane Mayer ("Dark Money"):
[2010] Covert Operations
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/08/30/covert-operations#ixzz1eHXoSCJ6
https://archive.ph/GU4Bd
Those sources (MacLean; Collins; Mayer) provide foundational understanding of the current state of politics, the GOP, push to libertarian white nationalist theocracy.
Another Mayer piece (2024):
Pete Hegseth’s Secret History
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/pete-hegseths-secret-history
https://archive.ph/GU4Bd
Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️⚧️
🇺🇲 Christofascist operatives ...
Clarence and Ginni Thomas: Politics, Power and the Supreme Court
https://persagen.org/docs/frontline-2023-05-09-clarence_and_ginni_thomas.html
How Ginni Thomas, wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, influences the Supreme Court
https://persagen.org/docs/how_ginni_thomas_influences_supreme_court.html
Is Ginni Thomas a Threat to the Supreme Court?
https://persagen.org/docs/jane_mayer-is_ginni_thomas_a_threat_to_supreme_court.html
Ginni Thomas Email Praised Group Opposing SCOTUS Reform
https://www.propublica.org/article/ginni-thomas-email-scotus-ethics-reform-first-liberty-institute
Clarence Thomas Secretly Accepted Luxury Trips From GOP Donor
https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-scotus-undisclosed-luxury-travel-gifts-crow
...
Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️⚧️
...
The Other Billionaires Who Helped Clarence Thomas Live a Luxe Life
https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-other-billionaires-sokol-huizenga-novelly-supreme-court
Clarence Thomas Raised Him. Harlan Crow Paid His Tuition
https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-harlan-crow-private-school-tuition-scotus
Alito Took Unreported Luxury Trip With GOP Donor Paul Singer
https://www.propublica.org/article/samuel-alito-luxury-fishing-trip-paul-singer-scotus-supreme-court
Senators Ask Paul Singer, Leonard Leo for Accounting of Gifts to SCOTUS Justices
https://www.propublica.org/article/senators-ask-paul-singer-leonard-leo-accounting-gifts-supreme-court
We Don’t Talk About Leonard: The Man Behind the Right’s Supreme Court Supermajority
https://www.propublica.org/article/we-dont-talk-about-leonard-leo-supreme-court-supermajority
...
Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️⚧️
Required reading - How Democracies Die: Levitsky & Ziblatt
https://mastodon.social/@persagen/115220413754250226
* clearly delineates v. limited powers of U.S. Constitution vs. POTUS
* democratic norms & informal rules of behavior are crucial for democratic stability
* erosion of norms around presidential conduct threatens democratic institutions
* significant attention to executive power/orders
Trump v. United States
https://mastodon.social/@persagen/114308551822875742
* authoritarian actions POTUS can commit w. impunity
Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️⚧️
Required reading - Counterrevolution: Extravagance and Austerity in Public Finance -- Melinda Cooper, 2024
https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9781945861154/counterrevolution
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melinda_Cooper_(scholar)
Thorough investigation of current combination of austerity & extravagance that characterizes gov't spending & central bank monetary policy
... superb follow-on to Democracy in Chains -- Nancy MacLean, 2018
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/533763/democracy-in-chains-by-nancy-maclean/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_in_Chains
💰️ Capitalism: Malignant by Design
https://blog.Persagen.org/capitalism_cancer.pdf
Wealth <-> protects <-> power
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