I was hoping to get this essay out in April, but I have been slogging through an incomprehensible feeling of ennui. I won't burden you with the specifics, that's why I have a therapist. But I think this struggle is reflective of how organizing spaces aren't yet structured in a way that is affirming to the totality of the human experience.

Many of us only show up for our communities when we are doing well. That's when we have the energy, and the bandwidth. When we're not doing well, we slink away into our private spaces to suffer through our suffering in the privacy of our minds.

I think the ideas I've laid out here are a good first step towards building organizing spaces that can support people through the hard times, of which there are more to come. Here's a little preview:

"You cannot talk someone into thinking you are right. If they disagree with you, they are going to do what they think is right, and probably don't care what you think. If they agree with you, they are going to do what they think is right, so they don't need to be convinced by you. Most people just do what they think is right, regardless of how other people feel about it. People who spend a lot of time worrying about what other people think rarely do much, because doing something runs the risk of disappointing or angering someone else.

But you can make someone feel like you're right. You can do that by doing really cool shit that they want to be doing. And if you're doing something really cool, something that really helps people, something that seems important, something that doesn't feel like a burden, then people will want to participate regardless of whether they agree with your politics.

And this is a perfectly reasonable principle for organizing a movement. We want the world to be different in some pretty concrete ways. And there's nothing stopping us from building alternatives to the system we live. There are actions we can take in the present that show people what our values look like in practice. Even small things can become quite important, if it's something that makes the left seem like the right place to be."

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What I'm Listening to This Week

I am once again plugging Citations Needed this week, because it is a great show and they have an excellent episode dissecting the farce that is "electability" when it comes to evaluating politicians.

As the nation gears up for the midterms, and as socialists seem poised to win a lot of their primaries, I'm sure they will be getting attacked for their lack of "electability."

You can find the episode wherever you listen to podcasts, or listen to it directly on their website at the link below:

EP 67 - The Gate-Keeping, Power-Serving Tautology of "Electability"