So I recently got into it with a liberal* friend online and, as my brain always does, turning that conversation around in my head has spawned Some Thoughts.
image from Existential Comics here
*in case you don't know me or it isn't clear, I'm a leftist. When I say "liberal," I mean, "centrist who cares more about tone and optics than actual issues or changing anything." I do not mean it the way rightists use it, as in, "anybody to the left of Ronald Reagan."
During our conversation, I asked her to stop with the liberal habit of calling Trump names like we were all kids on the playground. Hashtag resistance liberals LOVE doing that, and when it first started, I didn't care; I thought it was kinda funny when Trevor Noah I think it was did a whole bit about "Drumpf" - but after so many years, it grates on me. Why? Not because I like Trump. But because I feel like it minimizes the very serious issues we are dealing with. Calling him "tRump" is equivalent to calling him "President Poopybuttface" and isn't exactly helping anyone, let alone your argument, be taken seriously. It shows a disrespect for people suffering and the very real dangers people face. I asked her if she didn't say Hitler or Mussolini, and she said YES, because she felt like saying their real name gave them power.
Okay, wait.
Because it's the opposite, imho. Let me explain.
somebody crossed the Banksy image with the graffiti left on a wall in Brazil that means, "against all authority except my mom."
When you don't say precisely what the problem is, it's pushing it under the rug. If you just all quietly nod your heads that things are not right, but nobody says exactly what isn't right, you can't figure out what to do about it. It allows things to continue as they are, and the only hashtag resistance is exactly that - hashtags and shaking heads. It's the liberal equivalent to thoughts and prayers. Nothing gets done. Nothing changes.
It's abdicating your responsibility to do something about it.
It's failing the anarchy test. Which a lot of people do, honestly.
A lot of liberals are big on voting, right? Sure, I vote, because it generally matters on local issues and even if federal/larger issues are cheated on left and right, it doesn't hurt for me to do it as long as that's not all I do. Too many people think their responsibility begins and ends with voting, and that's where the problem lies.
Once in a discussion about police violence, I said, why don't we vote on police like we vote on judges? Then if there's someone who is a known problem, the community can vote them out. YE GODS the vitriol that that off the cuff comment spawned. So many people telling me that they don't have the time, do you know how much effort that would take, how many cops there are, etc., etc. A lot of people said that they even skipped the voting on judges part of the ballot, because they couldn't be bothered.
You know, the part of the ballot where your vote is more likely to be counted fairly and has a very real effect on people's lives.
So people are fine with whinging about corrupt judges and killer cops but aren't willing to do any work to change it?
a YouTube video once said, "anarchy is democracy taken seriously."
(sorry, I can't remember what video it was. LOL)
People need to be willing to get off their proverbial ass and DO SOMETHING about the problems in the world. This doesn't mean the same thing, it just means something. Research, donate, protest, vote, make art, mutual aid, share information, teach, educate yourself, whatever - but something.
But here's the thing: if nobody names the problem, how do you fight it? "Things are bad" doesn't exactly give you any idea of where to focus your efforts, does it? Neither does "politicians suck" or "President Poopybuttface."
Keeping it vague and unnamed is what gives them their power. If nobody has their lights pointed at their actions in the shadows, nobody sees what's going on and does anything about it.
So.
If you think the police state is bad? Name it. Police brutality, police state, state oppression, people being disappeared into unmarked vans, secret police, etc. Don't just say, "oh, it's a shame" when you hear about someone being murdered.
If you think American imperialism is bad? Name it. Imperialism, colonialism, expansion, bombing sovereign nations, killing innocent civilians, illegal wars. Don't just scream vague jingoistic platitudes about supporting the troops when the system doesn't support them, either (how many homeless vets? not getting healthcare? active duty not being paid enough such that their family is on food stamps?). Work on helping them if that's your cause. Flag waving doesn't give the guy with PTSD living on the street a roof over his head.
If you think it's not okay that both Trump and Clinton and how many other people were buddy-buddy with Epstein and there's not even an investigation happening? Name it. Sex trafficking, pedophilia, child rape. Don't let it be forgotten. There are still victims being trafficked in the world right now.
If the environment is your cause? Name it. Talk about the harms of oil pipelines and air pollution and industrial waste and big ag runoff causing dead zones and coral dying and extinction and deforestation and there are so many things you could name this list could be a novel. One of the problems with big-scope terms like "climate change" is that people can't wrap their heads around it; it seems vague and too big and in The Future. But that oil pipeline they want to run through your nearby wetland, that you can specifically do something about.
Poverty is your driving issue? Name it! Talk about the systemic causes of poverty and how the cycle is nearly impossible to escape from and inequality and lack of opportunity and resource extraction and exploitation and yes, solutions. Don't just brush it off with, "we will always have the poor." There is so much abundance in the world there is no reason why everyone can't have their basic needs met except greed. One of the great things about the crypto space, imho, is that it gives us at least one route to wrest power away from centralized banks controlling economies and people's access to resources. I know some of y'all are into this, teach the people who don't understand what crypto is at all and think they're witty when they call it "magic money in your computer" without any awareness that that's what their bank account is.
remove the systemic barriers
So yeah - there's my rant du jour. Don't minimize the problems you see by not talking about it or by calling it a childish name; point out precisely what the issue is and you'll have a better idea of what to do about it. Use your words.
When you were a kid and you had a fight with your sibling, and you told your parents that your brother was a poopoo head, did they say, "oh well, yeah, he is a poopoo head!" or did they ask you to elaborate and tell them what happened? You had to tell them that your brother stole your Barbie or whatever, right? And then they would make your brother give you back your Barbie?
That's how life is. You don't get things fixed if you just stomp around and stick out your tongue.