I have two mantras that come to mind when this conversation comes up.
"Let your front door and back door open to your thoughts and feelings, just don't serve them tea."
"What a liberation it is to realize that my thoughts and feelings aren't who I am. Who am I then? The one that realizes it."
"Department of Homeland Security" is almost as oxymoronic as "Military Intelligence" or "Department of Justice"
Is your argument is that anyone who is unwilling to nuke their entire life for the movement is insufficiently motivated and shouldn’t even bother getting involved?
No this is not my argument, and I never said these words. If that's what you interpretted, then either I am communicating poorly or your projecting something else onto my words.
Being that you and I have similar experience in activism and direct action, don't you also have a feeling of futility? I mean we've helped make minor iterations, made minor accomplishments, but what has it been worth when you look around at the state of things? Have the billionaires who roadblocked every legal court battle, every protest, every movement, every innovative patent for alternative energy/plastic products, every bailout, every recession, do you really believe that continuing to occupy some insignificant sidewalk is doing anything anymore? Did it ever?
I'm not asking for a "vanguard movement" of blood and carnage, I'm simply asking about moving the crowds outside their mansions with zero violence would be lightyears more effective than what we're doing. It's far time we at least take that next peaceful (with strong implications) step, that we are clear and concise about who/what our problem is, and where, where they can see us. I'm not physically able to attend protests right now, but the first mass gathering outside a mansion that occurs I swear on my health that I'll turn up to add to the numbers. The world is going to shit, what are we doing? The same old shit. Yay for us? I'm trying to avoid bloodshed, not welcome it, and if simply gathering outside the homes of oligarchs are met with a firing squad then that makes the conversation much clearer for everyone.
I also apply this logic to animals. A lot of people, even some pet owners, are quite far divorced from our connection to animals, and don't spend enough time with them. Even wild animals, they are far more intelligent, inquisitive, emotional, and communicative than most people give them credit for, and coexistance with them would actually be a wonderful thing. I'm not religious, I don't say grace, and I eat meat... But anytime I eat an animal I try to at least be mindful and thankful for the animals sacrifice.
"Humans are the weakest of all creatures, so weak that other creatures are willing to give up their flesh that we may live. Humans are able to survive only though the exercise of rationality since they lack the abilities of other creatures to gain food through the use of fang and claw."
Ah yes, the "poverty builds character" argument that's often used to justify poverty.
Rationale is just as often, if not more so, as emotions to commit atrocities. It takes a great deal of rationale and emotional disregard to dehumanize people, and the "high horse of rationality" and "predicting models" is often required to cause things like the holocaust or to rationalize the genocide in Gaza ("Killing children is wrong, BUT....") No emotion required, in fact, rationalizing against emotion is the requirement.
I've been out protesting for 14 years before last august when a fascist pig threw a brick at my knee during the pogroms in the UK. Now I can't walk and have been diagnosed with numerous autoimmune disorders, so I physically can't even leave my house. Perhaps it's too much to ask you to pick up the torch.
And for the record, you're already seeing MAGA rat out anti-MAGA to deport them, pretty soon you'll be seeing anti-MAGA reporting other anti-MAGA to protect themselves from MAGA, and the "I have kids to take care of" crowd will be the first to turn on their own for the sake of self preservation. Your job, rent, mortgage, bills, and kids are all at stake here, and more of a reason to start knocking on the oligarchs door. Are you saying you prefer your own protection vs the future for your children?
"Mommy/daddy, did you fight for our future?" "No, I continued going to work because the mortgage was more important."
Ikr? Those protestors really went out of their way (on their day off) to really stick it to trump (who was happily playing golf). Goes to show how ineffective and purely symbolic these protests are.
So we should continue wasting time, effort, and energy to NOT pose as any threat? So what's the point?
If you want to piss off a Sociopathic Oligarch, then protest at their place of business. Block their entrances, interrupt the flow of business, make it difficult to do business, inconvenience their employees, irritate their neighbors, embarrass them to their neighbors, etc.
So how does gathering outside the White House or town halls move us towards this goal?
Then why aren't you being downvoted to oblivion?
Why should anyone need to experience poverty in the first place?