Comment on MFW I wake up to find Lemmy feeds full of USA stuff
Deceptichum@quokk.au 20 hours agoAll I ever hear off of here is about every mundane dull thing. Most people don’t give a flying fuck about the state of world, it’s distressing really.
I definitely get that! And it is definitely an issue. Personally, I feel like the state of the world is constantly knocking on my door. It’s almost claustrophobic. I vote for parties and politicians I believe in, I try to avoid supporting the ones who try to fuck up our world by not using their products or buy them.
But besides that, I not sure what else I can do, and I’m definitely up for suggestions.
Voting is a 5 minute activity once every few years. You generally don’t need to keep on top of news 24/7 to know which party is shity or not. I’m largely tuned out from electoralism because I find it useless.
My suggestion is to look at anarchism, look at how you can build up local community and make small scale improvements in a place you can actually effect and cause change. What I do is volunteer at my local community garden and help out with a food truck that gives food to those in need. Maybe you’re into tech and can look at stuff like 3D printing prosthetics for people who can’t afford them, sewing/knitting clothes for people to get through winter etc. There’s lots of ways to use the skills we have.
We can’t change the world, but we can improve where we live.
Even if we do all of what you mentioned, globalist news of dooming issues where we as individuals can’t do fuck all are constant. Hell, I’ve seen more news on that white woman shot by ICE than news about Europe overall, not even my home country. Not even important news, but any news at all.
My Home is more sane than All, but it’s sad the amount of focus US politics get on a social media that’s mostly Europe hosted.
Voting is a 5 minute activity once every few years
Local races>general primary>midterm primary>midterm election>general.
Its genuinely more important you make sure another Biden doesn’t win the primary than to vote in the general. If a Biden or Harris does win, your vote in the general is useless since they’re unelectable, and if they still somehow win, they’re going to betray the base by continuing and expanding republican policies until the republicans are back in power.
Not everyone is American.
Thanks! And thank you for a civil discussion. I will at some point look it up. If you have some resources you could recommend, that would be nice. I guess there a lot of good but also bad readings on the subject out there.
I’ve volunteered a lot before I got kids, where I was mentoring children of refugees. But having two kids under the age of 5 is a full time job beside my full time job, so currently there’s not many hours left of the day to do volunteering.
But I do still try to do small things here and there to improve the world around me.
That’s fair, children can take up a lot of ‘free’ time - but maybe you can find ways to have them help you out and help teach them the goodness of community support, volunteer reading at a library, carpooling with other families who can’t attend for lessons at a community centre, etc? A lot of that will depend on where you live and what’s around or what you could start around.
The ultimate resource is AFAQ. This is a ridiculously large document and not one you generally read from start to finish, but instead think of it as a guide to answer questions you may have.
If you want more ‘theory’, there’s a lot and being anarchists it’s all provided for free online and can be found at the Anarchist Library. Some decent older reads are Errico Malatesta’s - At The Café or Pëtr Kropotkin’s - The Conquest of Bread
If you’re into Sci-Fi, Ursula K Le Guin is a famous author who’s works often portray largely anarchist elements.
Want something that’s not black text on a white background, but presented in a more Web 2.0 manner? Crime Think’s got you covered.
Zines are hit or miss, but can always be interesting and give unique/local insights. A collect of many can be found at the Zine Library on github.
We run a community on Quokk.au called the Little Leftist Library - !lll@quokk.au, that links to some good reads. There’s also !anarchism@lemmy.dbzer0.com which links other readings/news.
But ultimately the main thing that sets anarchism apart from other leftist ideologies is that it’s less based on reading and more on direct action - making the changes that help the people today.
People are dying
There is literally nothing I can do about this.
rights are being lost
There is literally nothing I can do about this.
the planet’s fucked
All I can do about this is be mindful of my own carbon footprint, and recycle as much as possible.
genocide is going on
There is literally nothing I can do about this.
Pudutr0n@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
Yes, reading every horrible news article 24-7 is your MORAL DUTY and any attention to anything else, even if due to mental health concerns, makes you one of THEM and a BAD PERSON. Any distraction whatsoever is EVIL.
Have you considered the effect our emotional landscape has over our mental health, our effectiveness to pursue the world we want and the wellbeing of those around us? Sometimes people need distractions, friend.