Paul Cantrell
❝The Newsom podcasts gutted me. I’m not bothered that he’s talking to conservatives. I’m an organizer. I’m all about outreach. The idea that you should be willing to talk anybody about what you believe and why you believe it is embedded deep in my soul. But the whole reason you have conversations like that is so that you stand up for those who aren’t in the room.❞
Garrett Bucks via @beep:
https://follow.ethanmarcotte.com/@beep/114149715368953970
Paul Cantrell
❝I am told that the movement of throwing people under the bus is popular right now. It will only grow smaller, though, because it eats its own. It doesn’t matter how loud you clap for the “first of many.” By the time they get to the millionth of many, there are definitionally fewer hands clapping.❞
Yeshaya Lazarevich
@inthehands there's a stunning, and far less optimistic, passage from the Soviet author Sergei Dovlatov about Stalinism—one of the archetypal, terrifying excesses of the "throw under the bus" moments in recent history—that has bearing on this. I'll see if I can find or make a decent translation. If you're interested, loke this toot to remind me 🙂
Paul Cantrell
@alter_kaker
Do find it. I think we all need to hear both right now.
Yeshaya Lazarevich
@inthehands
"Then came 1938.
Of course, those were horrible times. But not for everyone. The majority danced to the lively music of Daunyevsky. Besides which, the prices went down every year. Caviar cost nineteen rubles a kilo and was sold on every street corner.
Of course, innocent people were being shot. Yet the execution of one was good for many others. The execution of some marshal guaranteed promotions for ten of his colleagues. A general was promoted to the marshal's spot. A colonel moved into the general-ship. The colonel was replaced by a major. Captains and lieutenants moved up, too. The execution of one minister created a dozen changes in the ranks. And all the changes were only upward. Teems of lower bureaucrats were moving up the ladder of success."
From A Foreign Woman by Sergei Dovlatov, Translated by Antonina W. Bouis
Paul Cantrell
The other side of that coin, from @alter_kaker — and I very much believe we all need to hear both right now, really •hear• them:
https://hachyderm.io/@alter_kaker/114149846696619019
Yeshaya Lazarevich
@inthehands the thing is that what most people want is to make it to tomorrow with a roof over their head and food on the table. Next to those considerations, matters of conscience, and the day after tomorrow, are of less immediate concern. This is the vast camp, which Garrett forgets about, of people who are probably not pro-repression but whose strongest commitment is to survival for themselves and their families.
And definitionally those people who are *not being repressed right now* are likely to benefit at least a little from repressions. Especially when there's high unemployment, resources become more scarce due to climate change... And horribly, those who *are being repressed right now* are out of the equation... I think that Garret's point (specifically about what's definitional) is not borne out by the reality and historical experience of repressive regimes. We need hope desperately, but it needs to be grounded in something other than an abstract belief that good ideals will win with some kind of mathematical inevitability.
Paul Cantrell
@alter_kaker
Strong yes to the last point arguing against “an abstract belief that good ideals will win with some kind of mathematical inevitability.” That is indeed a serious flaw in the Bucks piece.
Your posts bring to mind Susan Sontag: “10 percent of any population is cruel, no matter what, and 10 percent is merciful, no matter what, and the remaining 80 percent can be moved in either direction.”
What I like about the Bucks is that one part of moving that 80% is pointing out to people that yes, they really are making a choice, and yes, there are other choices. I especially like his argument that if you choose humanity, you are not as alone as you might feel. And another part of moving the 80% is Dovlatov helping us imagine vividly what happens, and you warning against passivity. It all matters so much.
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