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I get that you're angry. That's totally valid. I'm also angry and also have violent fantasies. I'm certain that everyone does, its a psychology fact. But why n

I get that you're angry. That's totally valid. I'm also angry and also have violent fantasies. I'm certain that everyone does, its a psychology fact. But why not channel your destructive urges into dismantling internalized oppression? The ways that you and I go about maintaining these very structures we are each so angry about? I'm a musician. I once played at a fancy downtown club that took my band's working/middle class crowd for granted. They had two shows every night: an early set with very expensive tickets and international artists, and a late night set with local artists and cheap tickets. They once made our audience... Hundreds of people... wait for an two hours, standing in the lobby, on valentines evening, because a bunch of drunk rich people had paid $150/ea for an earlier show, and they didn't have the guts to tell them to leave after it was over. We didn't get to sound check. I didn't get a monitor. Our friends and family waited for two hours to hear us play. We had to cut our set in half. After that I refused to play there anymore. This was a regular place at the time, but I told my friends that I was done, and explained myself. I loved the staff there. The sound was amazing. They had great food and lighting and all that. But I was tired of the management's priorities. They willingly engaged in segregating our communities to squeeze out the money. They weren't curating, they were leaching. I was over it. Know what happened? Not much at first. People kept asking me to play there. I said "nope, I'm done". Two years later, hardly anyone I know plays there ever. My little stand made a real difference. There are other venues in town that have been similarly 86'd by a few trusted leaders in the community. It makes space for new ways of doing things to let go of an old, tired staple. Why not find something like that in your life that you can do to take a stand?

hbt 9y ago
Violence is a proven effective tool and it is used as a last resort (to be considered justified). There is no denying people are feeling powerless and not represented. Your method of protesting doesn't work if you care about the national debt, quantitative easing, inflation, interest rates, crony capitalism, the rent economy, the value of your money growing worthless day by day while the cost of living is artificially getting higher despite technological advances. What do you do to address those issues? Not participate in the economy? Create your own currency, your own bank and somehow escape regulation? Vote? They keep pushing people into a corner and expecting us to submit. Technological innovation (e.g cryptocurrencies, encrypted wallets, globalisation etc.) and violence are the only tools we have to fight back. Any other system (e.g voting) has been gamed to serve their interest or rendered useless (e.g protesting but don't be inconvenient) Don't get me wrong, your vote still counts (in non gerrymandered districts) and I'm sure you can voice your opinion on gay marriage; but the stuff that actually matters, you are voiceless and expected to obey or die.
- macawfish 9y ago
  Proven effective? To what end? And what kind of violence? Also, b.t.w., I'm not trying to judge you if you think violence is effective. I'm just convinced that it's actually self-sabotaging in the long run. The actions I'm describing are violent, but not in the war-mongerer's way. They're violent in the same sense that Slavoj Žižek (regardless of your opinion about him) says love is violent. My point is not so much that our huge problems have easy, one-stop fixes, it's moreso that we often reinforce the bigger problems with a multitude of little, normal habits that we can exercise control over if we choose to. Go ahead and stomp out those big bad enemies with your violence. Their seeds sprout daily in most of our hearts. After the fire, what's gonna grow back if we haven't learned to cultivate justice in a positive sense? The same old shit. Paulo Friere writes about this in The Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Everyone in capitalist societies is educated to desire to become like the oppressor. Kids wanna grow up and be rich, have servants. What are we doing to break that cycle in ourselves? My example was just one wake up call showing me that I do have some power. It's rare that you get to see that your actions have consequences. This one was dramatic for me. For the record, a lot of my musician peers are cultivating their own events these days instead of using the booze/drug clubs. It's a movement, and I was a small, real part of it. Platitudes/things I believe are powerful: Fix shit instead of tossing it. Go on regular hikes instead of flying to another country every time you need a break. Cut out the petty shit talk about people. Stuff propagates fast and it only takes the right straw to break the camels back. Take care of yourself so you can shed your bitternesses. Practice forgiveness. Don't take debt, only to pass its burden onto others. Don't encourage others to take debt. Don't tell young kids to take debt because it's "what adults do". When you do this, you're propagating the very thing you wish deep down to violently destroy. Quit it with the "adultism". You're awesome. Keep learning why, so we can be free of the burden of proving yourself by putting others down. As for the housing thing... I understand that the solutions to this problem are radical and associated with stereotypes like "hippy" and "college student". We need to shed that. Here's an organization devoted to assisting people in building equitable housing relationships: https://coophousing.org/ https://coophousing.org/ Keep striving to look past peoples' educational degrees/class/race/culture/intelligence. Cut your superficial judgements out with the same violence you're imagining against "the system". Learn to recognize non-traditional intelligence. Learn to have deep conversations with conventionally unintelligent people. If you think people with down's syndrome are dumb, you are enacting the oppression you hate. In positive terms, keep striving to love and understand people, to be teachable, to be open hearted. Walk/bus/bike more. Slow down. > What do you do to address those issues? Not participate in the economy? Create your own currency, your own bank and somehow escape regulation? Vote? As much as it's possible for you. But also: divest from inequitable businesses as much as possible. I mean this in a big way. For example: stop using amazon prime when ebay would be just as good. Use the slow shipping. That itself is a small, radical act. Buy an old, used computer/phone, upgrade the ram, fix the little broken stuff. Plant a garden. Last but not least, call your representative and tell them we want score voting in the primaries.
logfromblammo 9y ago
What can you do if that fancy club that prefers rich people takes a cut of all your performances, no matter where you play?
- macawfish 9y ago
  Make house shows. Use alternative venues. Don't give them your energy.
  - logfromblammo 9y ago
    Did you understand that was a metaphor?
    - macawfish 9y ago
      No, but my response applies in the abstract
      - logfromblammo 9y ago
        If the fancy club for rich people is the US, the only way you can get paid and not have the club take its cut is to move to another planet. You might be able to get around its house rules for performances by playing somewhere else, but it is literally the only available venue within 650 miles. If you even tried to set up a stage somewhere closer, bouncers loyal to the fancy club always arrive sooner or later to kick you out and burn it down. That's more than $100 in gas money, and at least 20 hours on the road, just to get to and from a gig at a different club. So there is a cost to you in sticking it to the club management by peacefully refusing to play for them on their stage. They know this when negotiating terms with you, and it allows them to capture some of that cost from the performers. Anyone willing and able to burn down the whole club can capture some of the potential cost of rebuilding it from the owners. "Yes, we could pay you a $20 stage fee and wait 3 hours to play, and not have to drive all the way to Club Canadia #3, or you could pay us $500 to go on stage right now, and you won't die in a fire and have your ashes added to the porcelain for the new urinals." You probably won't ever have to actually do that; they just have to believe your threat is credible in order to agree to a better deal. That's what the petty violence is good for. It makes the other guy have an inkling that maybe, just maybe, this person could murder them and/or burn everything they own, and so they shouldn't act like a complete ass. It still works when that other guy is completely devoid of empathy, conscience, or courtesy. Even if you don't believe in violence on principle, surely you must recognize the perception of weakness that can generate when in a negotiation with someone who does?

hbt 9y ago

Violence is a proven effective tool and it is used as a last resort (to be considered justified). There is no denying people are feeling powerless and not represented. Your method of protesting doesn't work if you care about the national debt, quantitative easing, inflation, interest rates, crony capitalism, the rent economy, the value of your money growing worthless day by day while the cost of living is artificially getting higher despite technological advances. What do you do to address those issues? Not participate in the economy? Create your own currency, your own bank and somehow escape regulation? Vote? They keep pushing people into a corner and expecting us to submit. Technological innovation (e.g cryptocurrencies, encrypted wallets, globalisation etc.) and violence are the only tools we have to fight back. Any other system (e.g voting) has been gamed to serve their interest or rendered useless (e.g protesting but don't be inconvenient) Don't get me wrong, your vote still counts (in non gerrymandered districts) and I'm sure you can voice your opinion on gay marriage; but the stuff that actually matters, you are voiceless and expected to obey or die.

macawfish 9y ago
Proven effective? To what end? And what kind of violence? Also, b.t.w., I'm not trying to judge you if you think violence is effective. I'm just convinced that it's actually self-sabotaging in the long run. The actions I'm describing are violent, but not in the war-mongerer's way. They're violent in the same sense that Slavoj Žižek (regardless of your opinion about him) says love is violent. My point is not so much that our huge problems have easy, one-stop fixes, it's moreso that we often reinforce the bigger problems with a multitude of little, normal habits that we can exercise control over if we choose to. Go ahead and stomp out those big bad enemies with your violence. Their seeds sprout daily in most of our hearts. After the fire, what's gonna grow back if we haven't learned to cultivate justice in a positive sense? The same old shit. Paulo Friere writes about this in The Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Everyone in capitalist societies is educated to desire to become like the oppressor. Kids wanna grow up and be rich, have servants. What are we doing to break that cycle in ourselves? My example was just one wake up call showing me that I do have some power. It's rare that you get to see that your actions have consequences. This one was dramatic for me. For the record, a lot of my musician peers are cultivating their own events these days instead of using the booze/drug clubs. It's a movement, and I was a small, real part of it. Platitudes/things I believe are powerful: Fix shit instead of tossing it. Go on regular hikes instead of flying to another country every time you need a break. Cut out the petty shit talk about people. Stuff propagates fast and it only takes the right straw to break the camels back. Take care of yourself so you can shed your bitternesses. Practice forgiveness. Don't take debt, only to pass its burden onto others. Don't encourage others to take debt. Don't tell young kids to take debt because it's "what adults do". When you do this, you're propagating the very thing you wish deep down to violently destroy. Quit it with the "adultism". You're awesome. Keep learning why, so we can be free of the burden of proving yourself by putting others down. As for the housing thing... I understand that the solutions to this problem are radical and associated with stereotypes like "hippy" and "college student". We need to shed that. Here's an organization devoted to assisting people in building equitable housing relationships: https://coophousing.org/ https://coophousing.org/ Keep striving to look past peoples' educational degrees/class/race/culture/intelligence. Cut your superficial judgements out with the same violence you're imagining against "the system". Learn to recognize non-traditional intelligence. Learn to have deep conversations with conventionally unintelligent people. If you think people with down's syndrome are dumb, you are enacting the oppression you hate. In positive terms, keep striving to love and understand people, to be teachable, to be open hearted. Walk/bus/bike more. Slow down. > What do you do to address those issues? Not participate in the economy? Create your own currency, your own bank and somehow escape regulation? Vote? As much as it's possible for you. But also: divest from inequitable businesses as much as possible. I mean this in a big way. For example: stop using amazon prime when ebay would be just as good. Use the slow shipping. That itself is a small, radical act. Buy an old, used computer/phone, upgrade the ram, fix the little broken stuff. Plant a garden. Last but not least, call your representative and tell them we want score voting in the primaries.

logfromblammo 9y ago

What can you do if that fancy club that prefers rich people takes a cut of all your performances, no matter where you play?

macawfish 9y ago
Make house shows. Use alternative venues. Don't give them your energy.
- logfromblammo 9y ago
  Did you understand that was a metaphor?
  - macawfish 9y ago
    No, but my response applies in the abstract
    - logfromblammo 9y ago
      If the fancy club for rich people is the US, the only way you can get paid and not have the club take its cut is to move to another planet. You might be able to get around its house rules for performances by playing somewhere else, but it is literally the only available venue within 650 miles. If you even tried to set up a stage somewhere closer, bouncers loyal to the fancy club always arrive sooner or later to kick you out and burn it down. That's more than $100 in gas money, and at least 20 hours on the road, just to get to and from a gig at a different club. So there is a cost to you in sticking it to the club management by peacefully refusing to play for them on their stage. They know this when negotiating terms with you, and it allows them to capture some of that cost from the performers. Anyone willing and able to burn down the whole club can capture some of the potential cost of rebuilding it from the owners. "Yes, we could pay you a $20 stage fee and wait 3 hours to play, and not have to drive all the way to Club Canadia #3, or you could pay us $500 to go on stage right now, and you won't die in a fire and have your ashes added to the porcelain for the new urinals." You probably won't ever have to actually do that; they just have to believe your threat is credible in order to agree to a better deal. That's what the petty violence is good for. It makes the other guy have an inkling that maybe, just maybe, this person could murder them and/or burn everything they own, and so they shouldn't act like a complete ass. It still works when that other guy is completely devoid of empathy, conscience, or courtesy. Even if you don't believe in violence on principle, surely you must recognize the perception of weakness that can generate when in a negotiation with someone who does?