We had a gathering recently of all kinds. Long time radicals, newer folks struggle to reconcile with the status quo, but largely all under the typical formulations of a non-profit movement space. My interest was not so much the event itself, but capturing the would-be disenfranchised who will realize how far this space does not go and the frustrations of who inhabits said space.
At a personal level, my approach to this was correct, and it did happen, but even moreso than I anticipated. One person even let me know through a post-it that I was the reason they continued to remain in the org because my politics presented a breakaway to heavily summarize what they wrote.
This is nothing of a report back, but one of the constant frustrations kept happening that I recognized as a constant byproduct of “mass” organizing. The trainings, the events, were always a “101” type of event with people from primarily outside the organization presenting to the organization. It was trash in multiple ways with the primary drivers of said trash always revealing themselves to be Leninists or some variant of authoritarian socialist. The last gathering a year ago had people motivated and for many, this was their second time, but the distaste and conflicts emerged in a way they hadn’t prior. Folks felt largely like they were being told nothing new with back-to-back crammed sessions that felt short. I could blame the organizers of the event, and I do, but the attitudes of membership also revealed this constant catering to the lowest denominator.
During one breakout, a person commented that the org’s social media videos were too long (despite being less than two minutes) and a video that wasn’t like at most thirty seconds wouldn’t work.
I had to fight every frustration not to be rude. We’re seeing military occupations coast to coast, parking lot raids, concentration camps, and your community cannot be bothered to watch a minute that’s less than two minutes providing an analysis of said military occupation and perhaps what to do about it?
At a certain point, we have to abandon this counter-insurgent kindness, which really is harm displacement. I’m kind to you now, so that you may better be a victim down the line, because you can’t get your head in the fucking game.
If your community’s survival is dependent on thirty second videos or forms of information that exist that are smaller than in zine format, then let’s get the preemptive mourning out of the way because your community should start digging their own graves, if that isn’t too much effort.
We can only breakdown information so much and at a certain point, if we are catering to the shallowest of analysis, then we’re watering ourselves down to be so diluted as to be ineffective. It is not our problem that our accessible resources cannot stretch the concept of accessibility further without fundamentally destroying what it is able to accomplish.
I have severe ADHD and my kidneys cannot handle the medications that would benefit me most, so I must find ways to navigate how to educate myself at odds with my ADHD, but I do so because my loved ones are my priority. It doesn’t mean theory is impossible to me, it means there are more challenges to theory, and I appreciate the ability of those to make it more accessible, but at some point,
I have to PICK UP A FUCKING BOOK AND READ IT.
I cannot process the information for you and if you cannot process it for yourself, despite whatever efforts we make to get you said information, that is on you.
You are on your own.
But again, this is the problem of thinking everyone needs to be catered too. It’s like when we cater to the fence sitters of genocide rather than cater to those who already have the values, the politics, and merely need to be driven into action.
I know how unkind this sounds, but it is far less cruel than giving every excuse under the sun for people not to do the work of self-organization, to do the work of self-liberation. Your freedom is not alone the pursuit of others, and the work of liberation is not a task you can pawn off on the most able. If you believe that is the case, then let us get right to the mourning, so we won’t squander our tears by the time the inevitable happens.