The Elephant and Mice episode was so wild, because if I remember correctly, the elephant didn’t act afraid of the mouse, it acted afraid it would step on and harm the mouse; as if the elephant had a basic understanding and concern for the wellbeing of another creature conspicuously lacking in many human beasts

Yes and have you also considered that beans are evil

There was a subreddit where people took upskirt creep pics of random women, not models. If that’s happening somewhere on Lemmy I hope our instance is federated defederated with it. Porn is one thing but that was awful.

Edit: Goddamn spell check makes me sound like a fucking scumbag

I think it got banned around the same time as the jailbait sub. Reddit was and is a cesspool

There’s no jailbait, no upskirts, no fatpeoplehate, so Lemmy is still better

The truth about pandas https://youtu.be/-XEwooQ6ivg?si=8frwH6G35r89NHAY

Read Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Friedrich Engels

You never hear about all the planes that crash into the moon, that is clearly in the sky why does the government cover up the truth?

Do not be deluded by the abstract word Freedom. Whose freedom? Not the freedom of one individual in relation to another, but freedom of Capital to crush the worker.

– Karl Marx, On Free Trade

I’m an ex vegan (about 5 years) so I’ve been on both sides if it. Here’s my opinion.

When I was a vegan it was very much a part of my identity. It was something that I thought about 2-3 times (at least) per day when I ate, and any time I went to buy food. I remember being actually insufferable about it for a long time and I’m pretty sure I’ve lost friends over it, being annoying and preach to a friend’s husband and then eventually just not getting invited back for game night. So people are definitely feeling burned/rejected/otherized by vegans who, if not just coming right out and saying it, strongly infer that you are a “bad person” for consuming even small amounts of animal products, or at least let you know that you’re being judged for it. As an ex-vegan I’ve experienced this myself.

On the other hand, non-vegans are also insufferable about food. My friend in college didn’t like cheese. Hated how it tasted, hated the way it felt in his mouth. But he loved pizza. He would often buy pizzas for everyone, with cheese on, pick the cheese off himself, and eat it without. I swear that every time he did this someone would say something about it, “what? You don’t like cheese? Why?!” I personally had to endure a lot of weird questions and looks, and comments when after volunteering for a whole day at a baseball field for my son’s team, and they served pizza after which I just refused. I just quietly didn’t get myself any, and people had like 20 questions about it. I didn’t even bring up that I was a vegan, I just said I wasn’t hungry, which was odd and apparently unacceptable.

Vegans and vegetarians also get judged for their diets, there are plenty of non-v people who will become like preemptively defensive about it, and let you know they think you’re weak and unhealthy. You get otherized and judged, even if you dont care what people eat and you just patiently say that its a personal choice, for health or the environment or whatever. This actually deepens the in-group acceptance/out-group rejection of everyone involved. The next time a vegan has to hear about their choices they’ll be less patient with the person asking; the next time that person eats an egg around a vegan and gets lectured, they’ll be less patient and around and around it goes.

I have theories about why this is, some of which maybe are apparent from what I’ve written. I think people do construct identities around consumer behavior, and they feel rejected when someone doesn’t share those same consumptive habits which they take for granted. I’ll get into it if anyone gives a shit.

But I think theres a problem with public discourse that encourages this kind of ingroup/outgroup good/bad acceptance/rejection, so much that it is implied in all discourse whether a vegan or not. This is the thing that drove me away from veganism: I think that vegans are right about a lot of things, but they can’t actually see the world for what it is, they can mostly only see through this lens. This is basically the same problem with liberals, conservatives, religious, atheist, whatever. Its the cult of the individual having eroded any experience of interconnectedness, even though we are interconnected. As such, people can’t see the world for what it really is, we can only see it from behind the fences of our specific camp.

That’s how you can see the true nature of the system. It isn’t designed to maximize production, it is designed to subordinate production.

“Yes you can’t, here’s how” is my new favorite sentence

I’ll have to look into those lending libraries locally. Tbh, mutual aid isn’t really what I’m involved in, though DSA does have a national mutual aid working group, I wonder if they have any similar programs? I appreciate your insight! Even for activists who do care about inclusion and disability rights, things slip through the cracks which is why a diversity of perspectives and democratic import is so crucial if we are ever gonna change this broken system. Well, broken for us at least.

We have some comrades who take it very seriously, and all our national events require masking. Our local meetings do too but i can’t speak for everywhere. Do you think DSA doesnt take disability politics/masking seriously? What has been your experience?

https://twitter.com/dsarandr/status/1784000669541625897?s=46

Voluntarily give up your constitutional right to assemble so that you are used to it when the rest of your rights are taken away.

Go ahead and vote, but get organized and resist the other 364 days in the year

Good morning, midwestern Lemmites! Actually a Hexbear refugee, I got banned when they found out I organize with Trotskyists. Don’t worry though, my IRL organizing work creates enough personal irritation that I don’t need to harass people who disagree with me in order to get it. I’m just here cuz its a leftish space of localish people, who post memes and stories I can comment on. I like Music, art, videogames, tech, books (history, social theory, sci fi)…well I actually have too many hobbies and interests to list. Thanks for letting me in your little instance!

Political organizing and education. Most problems, especially economic and societal problems are rooted in political causes: bureaucratization, consolidation of power, bottlenecking, corruption, etc.,

Only active participation in democratic organizing of mass movements along class concerns has ever been effective at combatting these social illnesses. This starts and ends with educational development. We are kept weak through confusion and ignorance; which leads to division, opportunism, fear, and alienation.

Since even this picture their numbers have doubled.

The protest has grown significantly since this morning. There were arrests buy its only gotten larger and more organizes. Estimates have it at 250-300 people. https://www.instagram.com/sjposu/p/C6M1erVvNn7/