I really do think an important component of activism is to make sure your motivation is based on a desire to help/improve things for the people being harmed by a system, and not hatred for the ones doing the harm. both for mental health reasons, and because either way you're training your neural pathways and it's gonna turn out a lot better for literally everyone if the question on everyone's mind after achieving a goal is "how/which people can we help next, what's the next step for improving things" and not "who do we need to attack next."

I'm not saying don't be angry, there are a lot of good reasons to be angry right now and it makes for an excellent kick in the pants, just don't define yourself by it or it's gonna poison you and potentially do collateral damage.

Shy Person’s Guide to Calling Representatives

In the coming weeks and years you will be seeing a lot of requests to call your representatives about issues facing our country. But maybe, like me, you hate calling people SO MUCH. This is a guide for you.

I’m anxious on the phone. My blood pressure rises when I need to call a customer service line, or even just ask the hours at a restaurant. So calling representatives about political issues is one of my least favorite things to do. I posted on Facebook recently about my experience calling my reps and it got a good response. I think there are a lot of us who want to pitch in but hesitate to pick up the phone. With that in mind, here is my shy person’s guide to calling your representative.

BEFORE YOU START:

* Pick an issue. This week I suggest calling to oppose the incoming administration’s cabinet picks: White nationalist Steve Bannon for chief strategist Climate change denier Myron Ebell for EPA Administrator Jeff Sessions, who has a history of racist comments and voting, for Attorney General Islamophobic Michael Flynn as NSA advisor

* Know that it’s FAST. It takes maybe 2 minutes to call one person, including the time it take to look up their phone number. Think of it like ripping off a bandaid.

* Know that you don’t have to be persuasive. You are really just calling to put yourself on a tally that will be passed along to your representative. You don’t have to convince anyone and no one will try to argue with you. Just say your piece (as awkwardly as you want! they won’t care!) and get off the phone.

* Know that calling is better than emailing. I would much prefer to email, but your message is more likely to get lost in the deluge. When you talk to a staffer you know for sure that your opinion is being recorded.

* Find your reps’ numbers. Go here or here to find out who they are. Call their local lines when possible. Write down the numbers or save them as contacts so you don’t have to look them up every time.

* Take a deep breath.

DURING THE CALL:

* Start with an introduction. I use: Hi my name is _____ and I’m a constituent of Rep./Sen. ____ calling about a concern I have. I see many scripts that omit how to start the call, and it helps me to know for sure how to begin. Be sure to say you are a constituent. They might ask for your zip code, so have that ready.

* Have a script. This is 100% the best way to keep you focused and calm. There are lots of good scripts you can use here or you can write your own. Say what you are comfortable saying. Remember, you are just calling to be counted.

* Expect their response. The thing I see missing from most instructions for calling reps is what to expect in their response. Most of the time they will just tell you they will pass on your concern. Congrats - if they do this then you are done! They might read a prepared statement in response. They might even say that your rep is not going to take action on the issue you brought up. What they WON’T do is argue with you or say, “what a stupid thing to be concerned about.” Don’t let your anxious brain convince you they will do this.

* If necessary, reiterate your request. If they read a statement or say the representative will not take action, don’t get flustered. Just say, Once again, I’m calling on the Rep./Sen. to _____. 

* Thank the staffer and hang up.

AFTER THE CALL:

* Take another deep breath.

* Congratulate yourself.

* Do some self-care. Maybe start here. Or here. Do whatever makes you feel happy and rewarded.

* Know that it gets easier. The more you call, the more you know what to expect. You may even get to know some staffers. You might never like calling but I promise it gets less awful.

The noble tradition of the plastic Vuvuzela to be Really Fucking Disrupting of, well, anything, really

I don’t think people in the US got this as much as we did over here in Europe and the rest of the football (as opposed to hand-egg) loving world. But this:

is a vuvuzela. The football loving (or just tolerating, or culturally affected by) world met these things en masse during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. They were mass produced, they were fucking everywhere. They sound like this:

Over wide open terrain, perfect to summon your people for say, village council, which was what the original instrument was apparently used for. The plastic mass produced thing, in close terrain, is perfect to make it impossible for anybody to hear themselves think, let alone speak. Could it be perfect to disrupt a nazi, for instance if you are not able, for whatever reason, to punch him in the face? My friends, it just might be. Because these things were so heavily mass produced, at one point they couldn’t give them away. There is almost certainly still bunches of them sitting around waiting for the opportune moment, and the opportune moment is now.

If you’re someplace where nazis come to hate speechify (campus etc) get one. You don’t have to be super close for these things to be super effective, which is helpful if you’re not willing/able to get close up in somebody’s face - the damn things are just as disruptive from ten metres away.

It’s Vuvuzela revival time.

(Alternatively, I’ve seen collapsible ones on ebay and aliexpress for $2.50 and free shipping. Just saying)

I think it’s time we start spreading the word about what it mans to No-Platform racists and fascists

Time to arm up on Vuvuzelas

IGNORE HIM.

DON’T SHOW UP. DO NOT GIVE THIS MAN A PLATFORM BY SHOWING UP TO PROTEST.

The easiest way to demoralize, defang and remove an extremist’s position from any conversation is to ignore. You do not ‘challenge’ an extremist to change their views when you butt heads with them. You create a battle line, you create a clearly defined line in the sand that only furthers his cause by giving him a clear ‘us vs them’ to use for his own followers.

Defanging requires care, patience and most of all humility. We had one of the bloodiest wars in History over nazies and they’re still a thing. The hell makes you think vuvuzelas and chanting will fix that?

I don’t wanna post too much about these politics ‘cause I myself have been trying to avoid some of the bad news.

But this really is the best way to handle this.  If he shows up at your school, and you want to organize a protest, organize an ignorance.  Organize your friends and those who care to just plain not go to the event.  Get as many people as you can to quietly boycott it without a word.

Along with what was just said, it’s also like, a huge, subtle, passive-aggressive fuck you.  And that’s great.

If any college ‘books’ him, IMO students should protest the hell out of the administration until the engagement is cancelled. Letters, phone calls, getting alumni involved (that’s a big one) etc.  The best is to have him not come at all.

If he does, and you can’t get the event cancelled, see if you can get people to sign up for seats and not go. If it’s an RSVP event, fill it up with empty seats.

Keep an eye on this. 

Fill it up with empty seats and host a campus protest elsewhere instead.

“Ignore him”

Y’all must be white and sure as fuck not Jewish.

I could not disagree with @thebrayton and @icebrigadedoesthings more, and my life might ACTUALLY depend on it. Opposition must be loud, present, and constant. IGNORING Nazis and their ilk got us in this position in the first place! When you ignore someone quietly IT KEEPS ON GOING. Yeah, we had a war and it was violent and we had it because guess what??? NO ONE WANTED TO DEAL WITH HITLER. The world was economically depressed, exhausted, and had lost most of a generation to The Great War.

So people ignored the nazis, they ignored fascism, and MILLIONS DIED. But then we DID go to war, because after we ignored them and quietly stood by, shit got real and we realized we didn’t have a fucking choice. Maybe a war could have been prevented with some screaming and vuvuzelas.

And then, after the bloody war you mentioned, being a nazi, being fascist of any kind, became so anethema that they didn’t dare show their faces without enduring violence. They were the ultimate evil, the bad guy in every movie.  

But then, like the one ring (see I used a fantasy reference because that’s the only shit you people understand) Nazis went into hiding and so people forgot about them. They came back with a new face and called themselves alt-right, and they JUST TOOK OVER A WORLD SUPER POWER. Yeah that’s right, on the fcking Holocaust day of Remembrance a fascist proto-dictator just signed an executive order to turn away millions from safety and succor. One stroke of a pen to deny people who ALREADY LIVED HERE the right to get in.

You legit think just fucking ignoring this dude and people like him is gonna work? Because I promise you that will just make him stronger as people realize he faces no opposition. What’s ACTUALLY worked so far punching him in his smug Nazi face, repeatedly. We need to make nazis FUCKING SCARED and that doesn’t happen by some bullshit, milquetoast, white moderate fucking NONSENSE like ignoring people into submission. Seriously what the actual fuck are you even TALKING about?????

With the day we’ve had today, for you to say some shit like this is just… fuck you. FUUUUUUUUUCK YOU

PROTEST NAZIS

PUNCH NAZIS

SCARE NAZIS

DO NOT IGNORE NAZIS IF YOU DON’T WANT TO DIE.

IGNORING BULLIES FLAT-OUT DOES NOT WORK IT DOES NOT WORK IT HAS NEVER WORKED IT WILL NEVER WORK AND IF IT DOESN’T WORK FOR THE MOUTHY LITTLE SHIT ON THE PLAYGROUND IN 4TH GRADE WHAT IN THE FRESHLY-SHAVEN F U C K MAKES YOU THINK IT WILL WORK ON GODDAMNED NAZIS? WE MUST BE VOCAL WE MUST BE PRESENT WE MUST BE SEEN TO STAND IN OPPOSITION IGNORING NAZIS DOES NOT WORK

They’ll find enough supporters and enough curious impressionable potential converts to build their own echo chamber.

Ignoring nazis does not isolate them. Not from their supporters, and not from their victims.

Show up and protest. Share information about how fascism works, how radicalism gains converts, how bigoted ideology preys upon insecurities and fears to make itself sound attractive, how totalitarianism normalizes itself, and what sort of things the nazis did the last time they were in power.

And, if you feel safe doing so, have a good escape route, and are willing to risk the consequences, punch one of them.

The concept of “just ignore them, they do it for attention” is bullshit. Sure, they want attention—but they don’t do it for attention, they do it to drum up support for killing people.

No-platforming does not work when they already have a platform. The schools booking a nazi is giving them a platform. And cutting them a check for the luxury. I don’t know how to explain it any more clearly than that–you can’t no-platform someone by ignoring them while they take the platform. That’s also known as ‘stood by and did nothing while it went down’.

Protest, do what you can to pressure the school into dropping it, do what you can to keep students who are visibly clearly part of marginalized groups safe, organize to intimidate white supremacists to where they know it’s social suicide to attend. Publicize who does go.

The audacity to add your ‘Do Nothing In Style’ politics to a Jewish person’s post!

People shit on clicktivism or online social justice shit a lot but here’s the thing:

I’ve been on this garbage website for three years as of this month and I can say with absolute certainty that a lot of what I now know about intersectionality and gender and race and class and ableism can be directly traced to this website. It’s because tumblr (and Twitter to a lesser extent because of the character limit) is a really accessible way to see mini essays explaining shit to me from tons of different perspectives.

Like you get these really digestible posts that clearly spell out either theoretical concepts or their practical applications. And I sure as shit don’t get that in school or in my daily interactions.

I feel like people shit on clicktivism because they think it stops there – with me reading stuff on a screen. But it doesn’t because I for one take the knowledge I gain here and transfer it into the world at large: my interactions with my friends and family, my conduct in the classroom, and the entertainment media I consume.

Real-world revolution has never once just fallen out of the sky, guys. It always starts with an exchange of ideas. Tumblr and platforms like it facilitate that exchange.

So like don’t ever let anyone tell you that you’re less of an activist because you started learning shit from social media. Social media is a gift to activism.

BLOW this Shit UP. The woman on the phone has a smart ass mouth, so be ready for her. #WhathappenendToSandraBland

Boooooooooost!

they’re straight up hanging up on a lot of people now so call this number if you’re having problems getting to the first one.

This is Xiao La and her girlfriend, Maizi. Xiao La has been taking this photo all over China, photographing them “together” for her birthday. Maizi can’t actually be there because she’s in jail, and has been for a month as of this week. She was arrested for being a women’s rights and LGBT activist.

Her and 4 other women are in prison right now, but a huge global outcry could call attention to their situation and #FreeTheFive.

Add your name now: go.allout.org/en/a/freethefive

another source about the situation i found 

One Month on, China Ignores International Calls for Release of Detained Feminist Activists

You know what? I’m gonna say it.

Demonizing online activism because it isn’t the same as physically protesting is ableist as shit.

Some people CAN’T stand around for hours and hours and risk getting kettled in by police because of their conditions. Some people are just terrified of protests, and do what they can on the Internet.

So shut the fuck up about hating on online activism.

You can’t say shit about ANY form of activism if you’re the kind of person that just spends their time arguing and debating people just to look smart, instead of actually lending a hand in status quo changes.

She cussed out the governor! I live!

Can this woman get an award

The Hulk ain’t never lied.

I can’t even express how much respect I have for Mark Ruffalo.  The dude’s on the US terrorism watchlist for fuck’s sake.

Omg, it’s true. 

"Actor reportedly put on US advisory list after organising screenings of documentary criticising natural gas drilling" i can’t

[Pictured: four images displaying a Facebook “fan page” titled “Confused Muslim girl. The photos include three memes posted by the page which feature a Muslimah in a hijab making sarcastic, incredulous face behind captions including: “When your dad trades you for a camel.” “When your mother does not wear her burqa” and “When you cousin crashes a plane into an American building and forgets to invite you”. The fourth photo is a status update by the page saying: “who wants to blow up some shit? ;)”.] Hey there Tumblr! I heard you hate racism! Cool, me too. I hate racism a lot. So I need your help. The above photos are screenshots taken from this Facebook page. Content/trigger warning on that page - they’re not restraining themselves from joking about suicide, rape, and abuse. According to Facebook rules, hate speech and speech that attacks a protected group should not be allowed. This page is a clear violation of that rule - it is a constant stream of Islamophobic vitriol and ignorance, mixed in with a fuck-ton of orientalism. Please report this page for hate speech and spread the word, and don’t let these fuckers get away with this blatantly racist minstrel show. Thanks.

Done. This page has been reported.

Thanks for nothing facebook…

Facebook is known for ignoring hate speech.

I highly doubt they will remove this page and the 28480258 others that are hateful

This is what they sent me too

They finally removed the page!!!!

The internet changed the outernet. Removing the anti-homeless spikes

don’t let any fucker tell you activism doesn’t work. online or offline.

If the answer to every problem were "that's life," we would make absolutely NO progress in ANYTHING. You were beaten up because you're transgender? That's life. You got shot for "walking while black"? That's life. You got fired because you rejected your boss when they sexually harassed you? That's life. You see where I'm going with this? I feel like it's such a lazy person's way of saying, "That sucks but someone else can deal with it because it doesn't personally affect me so I don't have to do anything about it." It's too easy.

I feel like not enough people care and that worries me. People either have compassion fatigue or they never tried to be compassionate. This isn't some kind of sentimental bullshit I'm spewing. I don't think I've ever been more disappointed in [people] as I was that day because I had that sudden realization that they don't see beyond themselves. They have the capacity to but they just don't. I can't talk about these things with most of my closer friends and I wish I could. They'll listen but sometimes even they will shrug off the issue and say, "That's life." No, that's not life. That's bullshit. That's a problem. A problem shouldn't be so easy to surrender to. A problem shouldn't be acceptable to anyone. Is asking people to give half of a fuck more than they do (or don't) too much?

KONY 2012

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