This is a really good thread from mastodon about the counter culture scenes of the 1980s and 90 and how they were destroyed and what we can do to rebuild them.
thoughtportal reblogged
Like it cannot be overstated how collective change is built by a collection of small, sustained individual actions. You giving what you can to one person, you helping one person when you can, you communicating with one person, sharing with one person, everything, it all adds up. That is how we build community. Its not big and dramatic and all at once. It is mundane but continuous.
We can also see how community can be destroyed the same way. Once a destructive ideology takes hold within a few people, left alone too long, it can spread, it can slowly become a "norm" that people embrace over their community. If it's easier to fall into this ideology than it is to build community -and that is usually the case- then something seemingly trivial can bring down years of work.
read books from publishers like AK Press Verso Books Haymarket Books
thoughtportal reblogged
A Vietnamese-American man’s thoughts on Henry Kissinger, the vitality and life of ongoing Vietnamese culture despite his actions, and Palestine.
Here is a link to his art for Palestine, which he says is free to use.
Here is also a link to donate to the PCRF.
A few years ago, a man who called himself Stephen became a fixture in Manhattan’s Riverside Park. After his body was discovered, a woman who knew him made it her mission to bring his story to light.
{listen}
Good Trans News!
this is why it’s so important to show up to your local government meetings. Send letters. organize with your neighbors
When formal government entities provide community services, it’s usually more of a transactional experience than a relationship. The patron arrives seeking a specific type of support, and if they meet certain criteria set by the agency then they’re granted it. GPLXC did not want to replicate that sterile experience of receiving aid and has made a point to invest in neighborhood relationships and demonstrate community consistency.
thoughtportal reblogged
i think my favourite part about solarpunk is that we are fighting. i love fighting with peace almost, that beautiful juxtaposition. i love fighting for others and that idea that all this will help other lives. i love how each and everyone of us can make a difference, and solarpunk is almost a gateway. even if its a trend, even if the trenders only plant one plant each, that means thats one more plant in the world, one ton of co2 gone, per every single fucking person. we can do that so easilt, isnt that incredible?
i personally dont tend to look on the technology side, but one thing i love about solarpunk is how diverse it is. there are groups of solarpunks working on removing rubbish from the ocean, and others guerrilla gardening. people who just plant vegetables at home and full on vegans. so many people, and so many lives. isnt it amazing?
we’re fighting for a future. people have been arrested for some of the things we do, but we push forward. i find that wonderful. its a future we might not even see, but we’re striving for it anyways. thats the best thing about humanity.
You can not crush the human spirit
***
Sometime around the start of the pandemic, a young, blonde woman I’d never met sent me a message on Twitter.
She promised damning information about deteriorating conditions at a notorious Texas prison — and said she had video to prove it.
The clips were short, but they showed a darkened prison pod with black smoke wafting through the air. In the background, people screamed. I’d never seen such raw footage before, and when I messaged the woman some follow-up questions, she said she’d ask her source and get back to me.
Her answers came far more quickly than I expected and eventually, I realized: The young, blonde woman was not young, not blonde and not a woman at all. She was a middle-aged man in prison, using a contraband phone and fake online persona to draw attention to worsening conditions behind bars.
Until then, most of what I knew about illicit electronics came from press releases and news stories that offered example after example of all the bad things people could do with contraband phones, things like trafficking drugs, making threats and running scams. While it’s true those things can happen, over the past three years I’ve also seen a lot of people use their phones for good. Some use them to self-publish books or take online college classes. Others become prison reform advocates, teach computer skills, trade bitcoin or write legal briefs. I’ve seen a whole plethora of savvy and creative uses that fly in the face of stereotypes about people behind bars. “Our cell phones have saved lives,” a man in prison in South Carolina told me. “There’s times we’ve called up front to the administration building for help, when something happens and there aren’t enough officers here on the unit.”
He, like the others quoted in this story, asked to remain anonymous. Although some jails and prisons have allowed prisoners to have cell phones, since most don’t, there are major risks to having illicit electronics. Getting caught with a contraband phone can result in losing privileges, spending months in solitary confinement or catching a new criminal charge.
community building online
As the maker of small things I found this manifesto to be incredibly inspiring and hopeful.
small technology, small economy, small community
#small things#mutual aid#solarpunk#solar punk#zines#Social media#Society and Culture#capitalism is a scam#fediverse#music#artists#writers#am writing#art#collective action#community#copyright#video games#games#game design#IP#Monopoly#cultural critique#cultural criticism#article#technology history#technoculture#technology#economy#economics
Consumerism and community