Confining oneself to electoralism as the sum total of political activities, or even its pinnacle, is probably the most nihilistic and disempowering belief. That's not to say you should or shouldn't vote. You can decide on a situational basis when it's appropriate for you to take the time to do so.

The most basic social technology of organizing is meetings. That includes revolutionary organizing. It's never too late to learn how to hold productive meetings.

I used to grow these awesomely huge pumpkins that would be like 20-30 pounds each and still delicious, but then I'd have to deal with an entire one of those pumpkins at once. They're less impressive, but sometimes it makes a lot more sense to just grow more reasonable sized squash like a butternut.

"I'd die for the revolution" Okay but would you organize and facilitate meetings? Cook for people and take care of childcare so community members can attend? Do the dishes?

There's actually a ton of short and accessible media that conveys leftist theory. So whenever someone demands that we need more of that anytime they're presented with anything more challenging, we should be skeptical of the motivations.

Liberals will repeat the phrase “When you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression” and within minutes also insist that socialist revolutions that dismantle literal slavery and feudalism somehow create worse circumstances, with no sense of irony.

When people invoke "common sense" it should be a big red flag. What it means is that the individual in question hasn't considered their own biases and assumptions and possibly can't tell the difference between that and valid, informed opinions.

If we understand that manufactured poverty is the most violent and authoritarian institution, then any system that dismantles it is necessarily less authoritarian.

Liberatory economics will necessarily include creating ways to subsist that don't rely on extracting resources and labor from elsewhere, not simply distributing imperial spoils more equitably.

In their conception of direct democracy, the Zapatistas have a term that translates roughly to "bringing each other to greatness". With intentions like these we could do a lot better with our organizing.

What some folks call "lazy gardening" is generally just applying the concept "work smarter, not harder" to your gardening tasks.

You can claim to oppose imperialism, colonialism, patriarchy, or capitalism all you want, but without having an analysis of any of those things what does that even mean? This is why every liberal will claim to oppose white supremacy or colonialism or whatever but go on to promote those structures.

There's actually a really good solution to us mean, mean lefties criticizing you: stop engaging in apologia for settler-colonialism, capitalism, and imperialism. Most of the time, it works 100% of the time. 😎

Liberals have been quick to show how much they actually believe in cop logic: that it's okay to just open fire if you feel even the littlest bit threatened. The response to the SLC protest shooting highlights it.

If you want to be involved in resistance, you need to know V=IR

"When do liberals confuse leftists for being right-wingers? I never see that" they say. Meanwhile, a poorly trained liberal "peacekeeper" at a lib rally this weekend opened fire on an armed leftist who was not only experienced in community defense but also known in the community.

For the folks talking about the "3.5% rule", remember that after you come out for a rally you also need to take part in organized, effective resistance. Materially disrupt things. Make trouble. Create support networks to feed your neighbors and bail out protesters. Don't show up just one day.

Probably a good time to think about affinity groups and revolutionary orgs.

There's this weird reaction to the idea of abundance in nature, basically "ah ha, then why doesn't this strangely specific circumstance give me infinite amounts of this food with no effort?" Or "why do I need to pack food on a thru-hike if there's abundance?"

It's concerning that so many people think resistance is some sort of club or fandom that you simply need to identify with in order to be included . But it's actually a set of actions and relationships that carry a whole lot of responsibility, including the responsibility to unlearn and relearn.

The Hobbesian trope of life outside of "civilization" as "nasty, brutish, and short" was always a myth to excuse empire.

You don't get to call yourself #theresistance if you don't know a single thing about the history of liberation movements.

Isn't it weird how all the people who believe that Christians are persecuted ignore the fact that most of the real targeting of Christians in the past 70+ years was done by death squads as part of anti-communist purges?

I put in extra work now gardening while I'm relatively able bodied so that it'll be easier later when I'm probably less able.

On John Brown Day, remember Willem van Spronson.

Sometimes I think about that Aldo Leopold quite about how being a naturalist is living in a world of scars not everyone can see. And then I think about what it's like having an actual grounding in human history and social sciences while living in this culture. 😞

To make a mass movement you need movement and not just the mass.

It's a mistake to identify with the settler colonial empire. You gain nothing from doing that and just hinder your ability to imagine a better world.

We won't win by watering down tactics until they're useless just because not everyone can engage in the effective version. We need to find the roles that are appropriate for different people, and where possible make some actions more available.

Make sure you have a good pair of boots in decent condition. Something you can walk in for a while.

Have you read the Simple Sabotage Field Manual?

If you can watch Star Wars and understand why the Empire needs to be defeated, you're fully capable of understanding why the USA needs to be dismantled. If you can't, you're either misinformed or fully in denial.

If they're sending masked, unidentified goons to likely disappear you to an offshore slave prison without any process or redress, there's no reason to not use any means necessary to resist their kidnapping.

A lot of people ask "where can I find community" and the answer is you're already in one, it probably just sucks and is dysfunctional and unorganized.

Pointing out that the USA is fascist with or without Trump isn't distracting from the urgent necessity to resist the Trump administration, but it does distract a lot of folks from the lie they tell themselves that they're opposing fascism and not just pushing for a return to the status quo.

The struggle against fascism isn't new; fascism isn't new. So if you think that the fight against fascism is limited to getting the Trump administration out of office, you aren't prepared to actually fight fascism.

I'm tired of hearing "we need to start somewhere" from people who ignore existing movements and refuse to learn from the history and veterans of the struggle. We already started. We don't need to "start somewhere" multiple times a year because you just discovered activism. Start by learning.

The primary barrier to engaging in collective dialogical learning is that so many of the people around us and in our circles are only prepared for debate bro style interactions. We have almost no culture of collaborative knowledge creation.

Each of us needs to ask ourselves if we're aiming for the abolition of capitalism, imperialism, colonialism, and cishetereopatriarchy, or if we simply want a return to a more polite imperialism. Ask if your current actions are consistent with your aims.

it's lovely for people to get out and great for movements to be inclusive but dictators don't bow down to signs

Remember it's "ALL POWER to the PEOPLE" not "please, capitalist politicians, do slightly less violence"

Accurately criticizing the ineffectiveness of milquetoast politicians isn't "letting the perfect be the enemy of the good". It's not purity testing. It's simply not buying in to the establishment narrative that symbolic actions without further real action is just theater.

People need to stop pretending that this overt fascism from the administration is anything but purely American. This is a distinctly US fascism produced as the predictable result of imperialist settler colonialism.

I use tons of wood chips in the garden. Actually, more like 10+ tons some years. All the paths get an inch or two of hardwood chips when I can manage to get loads dropped off, and they've been inoculated with wine cap mushrooms. At this point most of the area produces mushrooms periodically.

I try to feed my chickens with as little store bought feed as I can get away with, but I console myself when buying it that it'll become soil soon enough and that fertility will be reused multiple times.

It's Mom and Pop Business Day, so here's your yearly reminder that small businesses aren't inherently better than big ones. Sometimes they're more exploitative and mistreat their workers more.

Intellectualism isn't synonymous with academia. We need to understand that knowledge production isn't limited to professional academics.

When I worked at farm supply stores, we always made sure to tell people that "chicken wire" is for keeping chickens in, not keeping their predators out. If you're looking to make a predator proof fence, you need something stronger.

I know it's unpopular to say, but no, simply wanting to help people doesn't make you a leftist. It's a good start, but plenty of people with regressive and reactionary beliefs want to help people and think their oppressive behavior helps.

I don't know who needs to hear this, but not every person who has a bad opinion about the necessity of revolution is a Fed. Sometimes people are just wrong, even if they're mostly right. Engage with them to point out why Badjacketing people you disagree with is weird conspiracy theory behavior.