1789 was a year famous for its health insurance and job stability.
Comment on It's a wild life out there!
PlasticExistence@lemmy.world 1 day ago
The key context to the USA’s relative passitivity with protesting is that we can easily lose our jobs for one of several reasons (none good) if we go protest AND that almost certainly will mean we will also lose our healthcare insurance.
The average person cannot weather an extra expense of only a few hundred dollars, has no savings, and borrowing money in that position usually leads to a debt trap where you’re continually punished for being in a temporary bad spot.
And that’s before we consider what cops and ICE are like here. They’ll just straight up murder us without consequences.
I get that the world is frustrated with us, but I also get that the world fails to grasp how much more desperate things have to get here in order to overcome the hurdles put in front of us.
Hapankaali@lemmy.world 1 day ago
zoloftt@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Ah yes, measuring against standards from 200 years ago. Classic way to do things. Literally.
Hapankaali@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I suppose one could also measure against current standards in France, Spain, Albania and Serbia.
It doesn’t make any sense to say that people should first have to be comfortable and secure before they can protest. If Americans had the standard of living of a prosperous country, they wouldn’t need to protest.
zoloftt@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Sure but your comment was a reply that was about the ALMOST 1800s.
Also, I already commented a link about the No Kings protests earlier in this post.
PlaidBaron@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Surely if people do nothing that situation will get better, right?
the_q@piefed.social 1 day ago
No sacrifice no change.
PlasticExistence@lemmy.world 1 day ago
You first
the_q@piefed.social 1 day ago
It’s even easier to only care about any of this when it starts effecting you.
PlasticExistence@lemmy.world 1 day ago
That’s a nice assumption you’ve got there, but you know fuck all about what I’ve been doing for the last ten years.
Enjoy your distance from the problem and the arrogance of assuming you’d do better.
Fishy@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Do you think other countries subsidise protesting? Yes your healthcare makes you all less free. Isn’t that worth protesting more? While a may be committing a false dichotomy it sounds like the choice is effective slavery or protesting.
PlasticExistence@lemmy.world 1 day ago
That is not the choice we face. Disruptive protesting gets you killed in this country unless you’re “protesting” for fascism.
I do think other countries risk less when they protest, yes.
PlaidBaron@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Ah yes, the Arab spring was famous for being low risk. Nobody died or risked their lives at all.
Jesus, this does not help the stereotype of Americans being ignorant as fuck about the world.
PlasticExistence@lemmy.world 1 day ago
That’s a strawman argument. The Arabs were united enough to succeed.
Jesus, this does not help the stereotype of the angry internet commenter upon whom nuance and understanding are lost.
Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
I’m sorry but comparing protesting in Europe to protesting in the Arab spring is nothing but auto-fellation.
Arcanepotato@crazypeople.online 1 day ago
Why is cooperation and mutual aid so invisible to americans
PlaidBaron@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Community engagement has been slowly and deliberately eroded by both government and corporate interests.
painteddoggie@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
We all live 25 miles away from our closest neighbor and we are incredibly stupid also
faythofdragons@piefed.social 1 day ago
Define mutual aid. My local group has been recently focused on bolstering the local food bank, since we found out the state funding was getting stuck in the urban area and not making it to the (largely immigrant) communities of people who cant afford to live in the city.
The local food bank is entirely volunteer driven, they only have a facebook page, and no way to accept donations online. It directs people to mail a check, but most people just venmo the urban food bank and assume the money will come our way eventually.
Due to lack of funding, they don’t even have refrigeration, and thus can’t accept fresh produce donations from the local farms or community gardens.
Here in a few weeks, we’re planning a big donation drive and awareness campaign about the lopsided funding structure, and county council has been invited to hear us talk about implementing a more decentralized food distribution system.
Opinions on the fediverse seem to think this is just more ineffective shitlib harm reduction nonsense, and we shouldn’t be wasting our time on it. I want to know why they don’t want us delivering food boxes to neighbors targeted by ICE.
Arcanepotato@crazypeople.online 1 day ago
I’m not saying that your plan is bad or wrong but it’s not necessarily mutual aid.
What you are describing is one way aid, unless I am jumping to conclusions about the people who are organizing it. The problem with one way aid or charity is that it doesn’t build parallel systems to protect people when the state takes away things they depend on. This is why it’s not an effective support for direct action. If the people supplying the aid get scared or they lose their privilege, the aid stops.
I’m going to use strike support as an example. Striking workers may get strike pay, but it’s not enough to live off. They depend on the support of friends, family and other workers who are not on strike to meet their needs so that they can continue to strike until a fair(er?) deal is made. The idea is that when these people are back at work they can support another group who is striking.
In a more general example, I am a gardener. I can take my time to teach others how to garden. I can share my seeds and my produce. Maybe my neighbor can put aside his raked leaves for me to mulch my beds with? It might be easier to think of mutual aid as an informal economy where the goal is to distribute resources and knowledge for the purpose of making sure people are taken care of vs profiting. IRL my neighbor has offered his front lawn for more growing space, but I haven’t been able to take him up on it because poor health has stopped me from using all the land I have already. He can’t spare the time or labour to help rn but I know our produce delights him so I’m not going withholding it because I’m not getting anything in exchange.
Seettu is another example although it’s not a static thing and different applications may be closer or further from mutual aid than others.
I hope this helps.
Good luck with your food drive.
faythofdragons@piefed.social 1 day ago
How is that not what I’m describing though? We want to break away from the formal system, that has failed us, and set up a parallel system of localized support.
I fail to see how bidding on a pot of money is more closely aligned with mutual aid than helping your neighbors distribute produce from the community garden.