#get involved in local activism

[the-badger-mole]

I promise I am not intending to make this a political blog. Tumblr is my escape from the real world, and I will stay here on my Zutara nonsense until I find healthier coping devices and/or get bored. But what I want to say is, I feel, incredibly important.

The SCOTUS just set back women's rights by decades, took away any protection citizens had against the police, struck a blow against climate change protections, set schools up to violate students' religious freedoms, and made it harder for states to regulate gun control within their own borders. While all of that was a terrible blow to the country, they aren't stopping there.

On June 30, the SCOTUS agreed to hear Moore v. Harper, a case that could drive the country towards one-party rule by essentially giving states the power to choose election outcomes, regardless of the results of the popular election. Just in time for the 2024 presidential race.

It's not too late to do something about it. This year is a midterm year, and one thing you can do is go out and vote. There are a total of 469 seats in the Senate and House up for election this year, 385 appellate court seats (depending on where you live, appointments may or may not be decided on by vote), and about 400 state executive seats up for election, including governors, lieutenant governors, attorney general seats and hundreds of down-ballot seats. Local elections are just as important as statewide and national ones because these are the positions that will have the most effects on your day-to-day life.

Obviously, voting isn't the silver bullet to fix what's wrong with this country, but it is a solid start. Educate yourselves on what candidates are running and what issues are at stake for your home (here is a good place to start to find out who is running for what in your state). Once you've done that, look into local activist groups in your area and see how you can get involved. Things are bad now, but they don't have to get worse.

#vote! #2022 midterm elections #down ballot elections are important too! #voting is the least we can do #you can start there #but you don't have to stop there #if you can run for local office #get involved in local activism #tell your friends #tell your family #if we want to fix the US we gotta start with them 2 letters #me and you #if you think rvw was a win for you #i got bad news #eventually they will come for your rights too #in a lot of cases they already have #if you're bipoc and you support the overturn #how do you feel about the decision about miranda warnings and the courts protecting cops from financial liablity for violating your rights?

[solarpunkwitchcraft]

So I’ve written a number of posts to the extent of “don't worry about conscious consumerism, the best way to change the world is to get involved in environmental action!” But I wonder how actually accessible getting involved in local action feels to people. So, as someone who has been able to find cool activist groups to join both when I was in college and now post-graduation, here’s my advice for how to get involved in something happening in your area!

1. Just show up to stuff. Ok, I know this sounds stupid and obvious, but I do feel like this is truly the best way to get a sense of what’s going on around you. Search online for activist groups near you, check local news for references to anyone doing work that you care about. Find those organizations and see if they have any public actions, info sessions, or other public events that are coming up. This could be anything from a protest, a rally, an onboarding session, a tree-planting festival in the park, an educational event, a local union standout outside the grocery store, a farm volunteer day, what have you. You can even go to a town meeting, although I can’t promise that will be interesting. It may be that the organization you find is not working on an issue that you’re the most interested in or that you don’t like the way they operate or something, but going to events can be a great way to learn about other orgs or campaigns where you live that maybe have less of a high profile. By showing up to these kinds of events, you will get a better sense of the activism landscape, which will help you find out if there are orgs that you want to join 2. In-person events are better for getting to know people, I find, but if you aren’t able to go to in-person events for health reasons, or because you are in rural area, virtual events are great too! I recently moved to a city, but previously was working with a regional activist group while I lived in a rural area, and I basically worked with them on Zoom that whole year. 3. If you’re going to an in-person event, bring a friend! Maybe they’re also interested in getting involved in activism, maybe they’re just going to help you out, but its good to have a buddy, especially if you’re at a rally or a protest. Not only is this safer, this way you have someone to debrief with and talk through whether or not this is a group that you want to commit to. 4. Sometimes, other orgs will be mentioned in an activist meeting. If those interest you, check them out, especially if they are more aligned to the kind of work you’re interested in doing. 5. Talk to people at the event! I know this can be intimidating (believe me I’m an introvert), but this is honestly the best way to get information about the general vibe of this group, or if there are other groups in the area doing things closer to you or more aligned with the work you are interested in. In my experience, people at activist events are always excited to help other activists. 6. Keep a critical eye! All activist groups are imperfect, some are deeply dysfunctional, some are legitimately dangerous. If you’re at a group or event and you think they seem sketchy, disorganized, ineffective, or anything that you are not interested in, leave! Don’t settle to join a group that you have bad feelings about because they seem like the only game in town. That could be frustrating at best or dangerous at worst. 7. Don’t commit to anything at the first meeting! Maybe you’re at an activist meeting for the first time and you think, hey this group is amazing, I want to get involved right away! Or maybe you’re thinking, this is the only group I could find, so I guess I better commit. Don’t do that on your first meeting! Go to a few more public events, meetings, or info sessions. This will let you have a better sense of the group before you commit and will let you see if this is a group that you really want to join. If an activist group requires you to commit to anything at this first meeting (or if they strongly suggest that you do), run! That is a very bad sign, 8. This is the exception for most volunteer opportunities, which may need you to commit for a certain amount of volunteer shifts before you show up. That’s fine! Volunteer groups are also great because they’re a lot more common than activist groups in my experience and more likely to exist in small towns. Some, like Food Not Bombs, have an explicitly political angle which makes them a great place to get to know fellow leftists in the area. Others, like your local soup kitchen, won’t have that angle. But it’s a great way to get involved in your community, get to know people, and do something material to help others. Other kinds of volunteer opportunities may be helping with refugee resettlement projects, pulling up invasive plants, helping a nonprofit with administrative work, all kinds of things! 9.Be patient. I spent most of my late teens/early 20s beating myself up that I wasn’t involved in the kind of activist work that most interested me. But then I met someone at a larger nation-wide event that was from my area, asked for similar things to get involved with at a local level and joined that org. Now, I am doing the activist work that I always dreamed of doing.These things take time and you may not find the exact right kind of opportunity right away. That’s ok! Take your time, keep your wits about you, and don’t be too hard on yourself.

I hope that is helpful! Please let me know if you have any other questions about my experience or my advice and I would be happy to answer them :) Solidarity!

#solarpunk #environmentalism #activism #environmental action #get involved #local activism

[dionysus-complex]

this probably goes without saying but in a country where red states are rapidly becoming overtly inhospitable to anybody that isn’t a white Christian cishet man, affordable housing in blue state metro areas needs to be a massive priority 

#thinking about what sort of activism I can get involved in as a california resident that might actually make a difference in a post-roe era #and as a transplant/former resident of two red states where abortion is about to become illegal and I could have lost my job for being queer #I think the least hopeless thing right now is working for more affordable housing locally #california can only be a sanctuary if people can afford to live here. and we're lucky to have that privilege but not everybody does.

[hella1975]

your sokka is SO sokka and i say this as someone who holds him so dear ur writing of him is amazing. tbh im sooo fussy with his portrayal but its pretty nailed. like so many fics (esp zukka and zuko centric and ESPECIALLY ones where hakoda like adopts zuko) he's constantly pushed to the side in favour of zukos issues and zukos problems when in reality sokka is very hurt himself and has suffered a lot. man i GET taob sokka i really do bc people seem to think he was a lil mean but nobody seems to realise when you're in sokkas position it would've read like everyone was against you. all the swt men, including his dad who snapped at him, and even katara and aang and suki tell him to give zuko a chance and the fact that they were trusting someone who had hurt all of them so much- because yes WE know zuko wouldn't have killed them, but the gaang didn't. not when they were being chased and terrorised, and when sokka had his trust betrayed in the prison, he had absolutely every right to hate zuko, esp when it felt like everyone who he thought would understand his feelings, including his own dad who had been hiding his relationship with zuko from him, seems against him. his conversation with hakoda was probably my favourite scene in taob just bc he was allowed to feel like that without being treated by the narrative as someone just being mean to poor little zuko. he gets to be a sourpuss and angry and jealous at zuko for feeling like hed been replaced by his own dad. all of the water tribe men get this treatment like they're not written as bad people for being wary or disliking zuko initially (even chena despite being enemy no.1 at the start). his convo with hakoda was so important bc it stressed the detail that yes zuko has suffered and deserves to be cared for but SOKKA is his son, his actual child who is so hard on himself for things out of his control and who has hurt so much and deserves just as much as zuko does. sokka is just a baby my boy. he's not the main character but he's just as complex and intricate as zuko, not just in taob but also for the times we have seen him in tams there's been keen detail to his emotion and how he's feeling pointed out

me rn

#BESTIEEEEEEEEE YOU GET IT <333 #like ik the atla fandom including unfortunately some taob locals are generally AWFUL with sokka when zuko is involved #but it really was only a handful of taob readers esp in the grand scheme and i do want to clarify that #but now we're on the same page. OH MY GOD WHEN I SAY I WANTED TO PHYSICALLY FIGHT SOME PEOPLE #JUST THE SHAMELESS FAVOURITISM??? THE EXPECTATION THAT I TREAT A CHARACTER AS SOMETHING NOT-HUMAN BC THEY HAPPEN TO BE MEAN TO THEIR FAVE?? #like idc if zuko means a lot to you!! idc if it's sad seeing people be mean to him bc you relate to him so much!! #id be a terrible writer if i treated the other characters as planets in zuko's orbit. THEY dont know they're in his story #and sokka is a fucking sixteen year old. like come on i get mad when people do the same with chena being a dick to zuko #but at least he's a grown man. sokka is a TEENAGER. even if he was being irrational that would be completely fair #bc teenagers ARE FAMOUSLOY IRRATIONAL!?!?!?! GO OUTSIDE??!?!?!!? #anyway. im so normal about this topic and hold noooo grudges not any haha #remembering when someone commeted saying me personally as a real life person i was insidious and evil for insinuating #that adopted children arent worth as much as biological children and i should NEVER adopt bc im clearly the Worst #when that is not only an insane thing to say to a stranger on the internet but also. not what happened #hakoda never adopted zuko. that's a joke made in fandom. jokes are when people say untrue things for comedic affect #adoption is an actual official process of willingly and actively bringing a child into your family #NOT taking some teenage symbol of your culture's oppression as a prisoner and unwillingly growing attached #and now he's someone you're fond of and feel protective over as is natural of an adult towards a hurting child #but your actual son feels replaced and it's especially cutting bc of aforementioned symbol of your culture's oppression #and also this specific kid was a dick to him. like as a pretty notable part of his character he was a dick to him #so you reassure him bc that is your actual real life son. yeah? #are we on the same page? are we good? please i dont know how much more i can take- #taob asks #ask

[communistchilchuck]

now that im back in my home city i really dont think i’ll leave again living-wise. tbh.

#i like it here and. theres a community for me here and places to work in my field and more opportunities to get involved with local activism

[theenduringsun]

welcome to america. your choices for leaders are man who openly supports genocide, collection of various fascists in a trench coat, and maybe one halfway decent individual who won't get elected because they're not part of the bipartisan hellscape. but you have a say in your democracy though :-)

#to be clear this is not a don't vote post nor is it a vote blue no matter who post it is an i'm fucking tired of this shithole country post #everything feels futile even though logically i know there are things i can do #because come november it's going to be the same fucking thing. no matter how much grassroots activism or getting involved locally we do #that's not to say don't DO that stuff i'm just. tired #i'll take the fucking juggalos at this point. i'm more okay with dirk strider being right than i am with either of the current major partie #anyway. it's late and i should sleep instead of being negative on tunglr dot hell #politics

[cinemaocd]

#hey you could watch this a couple times and get involved in union organizing and economic activism of the kind outlined in this video #by actually putting a pro-union rally on your calendar etc. #and even have time left over to do some chores and sign up for a union rally or a protest or to be attend your local primary #or you could watch the H Bomber guy video once #Youtube

[cannibaltranssexual]

avoiding the obvious one and saying: walks! and delightful finds that you encounter. always nice to see you sharing a bone fragment, a berry bush, bugs, or flowers that you saw on your walks in the server :))

WAAAH OMG YEAHH 🫶🫶🫶🫶 tyyyyy

forreal tho just being out in nature is so so important to me. and i have to tell everybdoy about it. did you know theres so many guys out there !!!

#i dont wanna just scrap my lifelong career plan of something computing related but i do want to try for a park maintenance/interpreter job #like for now its the only concrete job i can imagine myself doing and enjoying #highly recommend for Everyone to research their areas native ecosystems and get involved in local park district activities #life is so much more fun when u are friends with every native plant and passerine within a 50 mile radius #also sometimes you will see deer 🦌 #ask #i hiked for like 10 miles of rough terrain this weekend its insnae to actually be good at a physical activity for once in my life #and i saw 3 black tailed does 🫶 and an emu but that was just uh in some guys yard so

[tracksdowna]

thinking about wolf spider and kids

#local man is so upsettingly dad shaped i love him so bad #actively enjoys scaring the shit out of criminals but the moment civilians (specifically kids) are involved??? #he softens up So Fast #tell me ur an orphan without telling me ur an orphan dallas ://////// #criminals who hurt or scare kids get the worst treatment from him #he is Very biased about this fact and he will openly admit as much #hi i love e20 dallas i love him so much he's so Important to me actually

[dbssh]

i fucking hate this post man neither of you are helpful

#i get the first person in the doom mindset happens to the best of us but u nihilistic bastards cant give it 20k notes #and then the 'eweeeh just kill them U_U' smugness like shut up oh my god #no we're never going to individually save the planet or whatever but if you dont believe in SOMETHING youre going to die miserable. #do what you can to make things less horrible for u and yr community. compost if you believe in it bike to work if it makes you feel better #grow food if you have the space and share the crops. get involved with local activism #do SOMETHING. we have to do SOMETHING we have to believe in SOMETHING or else whats the fucking point of being here. #until one of you ponys up and actually kills a billionare i dont want any more of this #'we should just kill billionares problem solved' is not a catchall for you to not have to get involved in anything #and in fact doesnt help the nihilist doomer shit. #red.txt

[lzrdprsn]

it's the yassification of activism

#i just dont think that sharing instagram info graphics makes you an activist #ive said it before and ill say it again if youre able to get out there in a real way you gotta do it #you need to vote you need to show up to protests you need to donate to your local orgs and a national one too if youve got the resources #you have to get involved with your local government #do you know whos on your school board? thats the front lines of deciding what your kids learn in school #do you vote for small local office like mayor or district representative? #do you know who your state superintendent is? #do you vote in your governor stste senate and state house elections those honestly are probably more important than presidential elections #in terms of who gets a say in what your everyday life looks like #instagram and twitter have created an illusion that activism only happens on a grand and public scale and thats not true

[cutebutalsostabby]

A Reminder

Palestine is not over. Palestine is not dead. Gaza, the West Bank, the entire region between the river and the sea, and the various countries across the world where refugees have fled to, house a surviving people and surviving culture. Palestine is not dead, and WILL NOT die.

I'm seeing a lot of very valid despair online, but if you're someone like me, living a privileged life in a Western country NOT under active bombardment, and which is actually COMPLICIT to some degree in that bombardment: we don't get to give up. Not now, not ever.

You can still get involved in protests or direct actions (e.g. blocking supply), you can still donate eSims or fund UNRWA on your government's behalf, you can still hassle the crap out of your local MP. No, it won't roll back the harm that's already been committed, but all of those things are STILL WORTH DOING. PEOPLE ARE STILL ALIVE OVER THERE. PALESTINE IS STILL WORTH SAVING.

If you've bothered to read this far, you're probably already aware of what's going on over there right now. If not, check out Al Jazeera's fantastic coverage. But also remember that Palestine, and Palestinian culture, is more than just death and despair. Examples below:

Long live Palestine, from the river to the sea.

#free palestine #palestine #shut it down for palestine #palestine will never die #Youtube

[cajynn]

and i’m feeling community here in this chili’s tonight

#god it has been so refreshing diving into activism in my community #esp with other anti zionist jews #i feel a part of something so much bigger #and it makes the reality of a free palestine feel even more tangible #get involved with your local orgs!!!! #it truly is the best way to enact change #gaby.txt

[neverendingford]

.

#tag talk #funky to think about how I'm making thing biggest most positive changes in my life while I see posts about ongoing genocide actively. #some people might feel guilt. but I need to live too. I am educating where I can and spreading the information I am able #but I have to live too. no one reasonable is going to tell me I cannot take care of myself until Gaza is safe. so I don't tell myself either #but it feels strange; to post about how happy and euphoric I am. how my life is coming together finally. how I am happy to be alive #while so many people are having their lives destroyed. lives of investment into career and family.. wiped out. #but also! look out for local rallies and protests. similar to the aftermath of the roe v wade overturn. #that's an accessible way to get involved locally. and if protests already happened? look at connecting to the groups that held them #that's my plan once I'm not. you know... fighting for my own life vis a vi mental health status

[ms-demeanor]

how do you find love?

You have to be willing to be hurt and trust people not to hurt you.

But also go out and do regular activities with people who share similar interests. I'm extremely unromantic in terms of how friendships and relationships are built. Go out and spend time with people who are into the same stuff that you are into and eventually you will probably find someone in that group who you are romantically compatible with and who is open to a relationship at the same time you are.

Like there are tons of jokes about various communities being insular and socially incestuous but, like, the reason improv groups have all dated each other is because they spend a lot of time together doing things they like and that's actually a pretty good foundation for a relationship.

Also, real talk: you have to be okay with being alone. You have to like yourself enough that it wouldn't be the end of the world if you were all you had. That is really difficult for a lot of people, but genuinely one of the ways to start liking yourself more is to go out and do things that you think fun and interesting people would do until you discover that you have tricked yourself into becoming a fun and interesting person.

But also take that with a grain of "I lucked into a long-term relationship at eighteen because I met someone cool at a coffee shop where I worked."

(however, being regulars at a coffee shop did legitimately used to be a way to meet people, I know lots of people who met at the coffee shops I worked at and found their partners there, but that's because coffee shops used to be the kind of place where people would go and hang out for hours after work every day and interact with new people and I'm not sure how much that's a thing anymore, which is why you have to manufacture it by, like, joining an adult kickball league or getting deeply involved in your local larping scene or whatever)

[genderqueerdykes]

as someone who has been scarred for life by experiences at gay bars, i need people to understand it's beyond tacky to mock people who want queer spaces beyond queer bars- it's dangerous.

let me explain. i went to 2 of my local queer bars a lot last year, as much as i was able to despite being poor. i witnessed a fist fight that was so bloody that ended up with a transmisogynistic drag queen getting hit in the head with a metal baton. the sight caused me to uncontrollably throw up in the bathroom of the club because of how gruesome it was. they had to close down the club and forard people out the back door because of how out of hand this person got- he was screaming transmisogynstic slurs and phrases at the bouncers were were transfem.

i was also sexually assaulted at these places, i was repeatedly groped by several people who i was not interacting with in the first place who found me attractive and decided physically grabbing me on numerous occasions was the way to get my attention. being femme in a queer bar is dangerous even if the people groping you are gay men.

i am also a recovering addict who dealt with alcohol issues in the past and could be considered a recovering alcoholic. i don't want to be around alcohol. i don't want to smell it. it triggers awful memories and also sometimes makes me consider getting a drink, but i can't have one, because the medications i take will cause a fatal reaction- i don't want to be tempted to drink, because it will kill me.

it's not right to mock someone or call them childish or whatever for not wanting to go to a club. whenever alcohol is involved, people's inhibitions are gone and they will do whatever. this includes fighting. i witnessed several other fights. just because it's a queer bar doesn't mean there won't be fights. and it especialyl doesn't m ean that you won't get groped or assaulted because, like i said, since alcohol is involved and it's a bar, there's a high chance this can and will happen.

queer people are not inherently safe angels to be around by virtue of being queer. there are still transphobes in queer bars. tranny chasers come to these bars. homophobic lesbians show up and lesbophobic gay men show up. drag queens and performers bring their cishet friends and family to support their shows. these are not perfect havens. they are not safe. we should not force other queers to interact with inherently dangerous spaces if these are supposed to be our safe spaces.

also these spaces are not friendly to people with disabilities; wheelchair users have nowhere to go especially when it's very crowded. other mobility aids get kicked and knocked over. neurodivergent people can get overstimulated by the deafening music very quickly. photosensitive people can have seizures due to the strobing lights. people with emetophobia like me run the risk of running into those types of triggers. people who are overstimulated by intoxicated people have no choice but to deal with it. dancing is one of the only activities to do other than drink and not many disabled (or even abled) people can dance for extended periods of time comfortably.

not to mention these spaces are not geared toward aromantic or asexual people at all, either. there is a long list of reasons why bars should not be our primary venues of interaction with one another. they serve a specific purpose- for people who want to cruise- but for the rest of us, it's really crucial that we have spaces that provide meaningful interactions with other queers on other levels of our identities.

some people just want to hang out with other queers in a quiet environment and craft, or shop, or drink coffee, or read books together, or just about any other activity on planet earth, and that's not "lame" or "cringy" or bad in any way- these are extremely normal and necessary parts of human interaction that we all require and crave and it's normal to want to do healthy, domestic things with other queers. we need this in our lives.

please take it seriously when people attempt to create queer spaces that don't involve alcohol and bars. it's necessary for our survival and well being as a community.

#lgbtqia #lgbtq #lgbt #queer #gay #lesbian #bisexual #aromantic #asexual #trans #transgender #non binary #nonbinary #enby #ftm #trans man #trans men #trans boy #trans girl #trans woman #trans women #trans lady #transfemme #transfeminine #transfem #transmasculine #transmasc #genderqueer #gnc #drag