"Oh no, someone's attracted to the aesthetics of my -punk movement but doesn't know the praxis and history behind it like I do--"

OK. Tell them. Make it a teaching moment. Everyone who's in your movement learned the background from somewhere at some point, maybe this is that point for that person. Give them a jumping off point that they can dive into later.

"Oh but I shouldn't be responsible for teaching baby -punks about the history and the how-tos and--"

OK. Then don't tell them. You don't have to be responsible for teaching people with a budding interest in your group the ins and outs and how-tos. That's fair and valid! It can be a lot of work. Someone else will handle it

"But I'm annoyed that they would try to claim to be part of/be interested in my community without knowing all the details that I know after being in it for months/years/decades, they're dumb, they're posers, they're--"

OK. Then don't engage with them, if it's that bad. Maybe someone else will come around and tell them the history, maybe they'll pick it up on their own, maybe they'll just enjoy the fashion elements for awhile.

"But they shouldn't claim to be part of the -punk community if they don't know the--"

I feel like we have a few options here. People can either talk to them, share the history, share the values, share the praxis. Or they can just chase off anyone who even thinks about dipping a toe in their community, and then wonder why it's dying off later down the line.

I dunno, maybe I'm too naive and patient or whatever. But if people are entering your -punk spaces without knowing The Rundown of what you feel they need to know, maybe being nice about it and informing people instead of immediately assuming stupidity and malicious intent could help you make a new friend. Even the loudest voices in a space had to learn from somewhere, and not everyone has the luxury of being in the space as the History was Happening--whether it's an age thing or a not being aware of the space thing. Or maybe I just don't see what the big deal is behind people hating people who like the aesthetic of something and don't know the behind the scenes history about it yet.

Because I believe in the word 'yet.' No one comes into this world knowing everything about everything, and we're all constantly learning new things. I'm not gonna degrade someone and call them a poser for not knowing what I know. Because if it were me, interested in a scene but getting chased out and called a poser? I wouldn't hit the books and study up, I'd go 'that fuckin sucks, those people sucked' and then avoid anyone and anything having to do with it.

So chase people off and call them posers if you want. But if your community starts dwindling, don't be fucking shocked.

"You don't need to understand someone's identity in order to respect it" is often framed as a compromise with intolerance, like it's conceding that it's okay to think someone's gender is bullshit as long as you don't say that out loud, but frankly, I think it's more concerning if someone believes they can understand the full spectrum of human identity. Doing mental gymnastics to cram everybody's lived experience into a familiar analytic framework isn't what respect looks like.

[Image Description: A tweet by user @IsicaLynn. It reads thus: I find that a lot of anti-socialist sentiment boils down to a basic belief that people are lazy and won’t do good in the world or work hard unless they are suffering. I believe the opposite. I think most people would do amazing things if they weren’t in dire straits constantly. End Description.]

This was one of my favorite things I made in school last year…!

I get what’s trying to be said here and far be it from me not to highlight issues in global food production and worker exploitation. HOWEVER it seems to me that vegans (I’m not one) are expected to bear an unfair amount of criticism over a global system that everyone is a part of. If they want to reduce their harm by not eating meat its childish it instantly be like “well what about…?!” It’s a malicious and childish attitude that says more about how what they’re doing makes you feel insecure than the political realities.

Non-vegans drink coffee, Non-vegans eat vegetables and fruits from developing countries, but this smug rhetoric seems reserved for vegans alone.

Honestly the fair production of food is too serious an issue to be railroaded with attempts from non-vegans to makes themselves feel better.

Yeah but the problem is that the vast majority of vegans are really annoying and judgey about how they presumably are doing more for the environment than the rest of us because their diet is ~cruelty free~ while the rest of us murderers have damned our souls in the blood of innocents for choosing to consume animal products. The majority of vegans also have this pesky habit of claiming that they have the most environmentally friendly, cruelty-free diet on the planet without being willing to discuss the realities of food production, or the ways in which veganism causes damage (like by leading to the colonization of native food-ways, or the insistence of putting plant agriculture on land that is not at all suitable for it, or the demonization of anyone who disagrees with them). Then of course there is the view that runs like a cancer through the vegan community that animals are more valuable than people, and we should be focusing all our efforts on ensuring that animal lives be saved and damn to hell those immigrants working for pennies in the fields. There is also a racism that is inherent to veganism that this picture seems to be getting at which absolutely has to be discussed. Veganism can’t tout itself as the answer to all our woes when it has deeply racist roots.

Like, I get that fair food production is an important issue that affects everyone and that everyone needs to discuss it. The problem is that vegans have put themselves in this place where they have claimed that their diet is the answer to all food production woes without acknowledging the extremely serious problems their diet generates. We will never solve the world’s food problems my forcing everyone to go vegan, and it is high time that vegans started critically looking at exactly what they’re advocating for.

This is exactly what I'm taking about. You're whole argument is based off the anecdotal premise that vegans are preachy and annoy you. Which comes back around to the why do they make you uncomfortable question.

Also given that half of South Asia eats a largely vegan diet the "inherent racism" argument that I've heard a lot is deeply flawed. Unless you only count Americans? Which is exactly the kind of narrow minded thinking you're accusing vegans of.

In fact this whole line of thought feels like a self-congratulatory pat on the back, which is also what you're accusing vegans of.

This was one of my favorite things I made in school last year…!

I get what's trying to be said here and far be it from me not to highlight issues in global food production and worker exploitation. HOWEVER it seems to me that vegans (I'm not one) are expected to bear an unfair amount of criticism over a global system that everyone is a part of. If they want to reduce their harm by not eating meat its childish it instantly be like "well what about...?!" It's a malicious and childish attitude that says more about how what they're doing makes you feel insecure than the political realities.

Non-vegans drink coffee, Non-vegans eat vegetables and fruits from developing countries, but this smug rhetoric seems reserved for vegans alone.

Honestly the fair production of food is too serious an issue to be railroaded with attempts from non-vegans to makes themselves feel better.

— Sam Pizzigati, The World Would Be a Better Place Without the Rich

The minimum wage must reflect the cost of living or it serves no purpose but to lock people in poverty.

The Struggle of Optimistic Solarpunk Blogging

I follow about 500 blogs - all so I could see optimistic, solarpunk stuff to repost from. I’ve also unfollowed about 500 these last couple years because their reblogs turned negative, off topic, toxic, they stop posting, or etc. Few of my posts are rb’d from my feed. Most posts on The Carbon Coast have to be sought out - searched for proactively. I have to dig deep to find optimism about society and our planet’s environment, even when everyone I’m following seemed to crave that and only that, at one point. I just wanted to highlight the constant struggle to find “optimistic sustainable earth content”… it doesn’t just show up on my doorstep. You have to fight to allow yourself to deserve optimism, faith in yourself and society, and the changes needed to make our planet not literally die. That’s the one thing I’ve learned from this. We all have to literally fight and struggle to maintain the idea that the world will get better and the people deserve that instead of hatred and destruction and self-loathing like a majority of us are currently clinging to. Remember that solarpunk is destined to never grow because it believes in sustainability and abundance, and our society thinks that’s about as appetizing as brussels sprouts. They’d rather drink the caffeinated, sugary, toxic rush of dystopian thinking, and I *don’t* just mean in literature and movies and games. Most people secretly crave the horrors and the drama of the tumultuous and diseased planet & socities we’re all currently exposed to. Don’t let their sick obsession with suffering tarnish your inner child-like dream of a better world built on sustainable energy as well as sustainable relationships. The planet can regrow, the people can regrow. Let what will wither, wither. Plant new seeds. Don’t water dead plants. Fight to grow the new, weed out the invaders of your optimistic garden. Yank them right out of the dirt and toss them to compost. This is our future, goddammit. Our future to cultivate, not theirs to hedonistically masturbate into annihilation with perverse fantasies of negativity and destruction. Choose life, growth, positivity, optimism, and faith.

^ Thank you for this

Y'all: Gen Z and Millennials are differentiated by-

Actually: Generational categories are mostly bullshit created by advertisers, and in social justice spaces they’re being increasingly repurposed to mystify class relations and obscure on-going racist and other unequal dynamics.