Working in politics and in the nonprofit sector, one thing that is apparent is the lack of Type A personality and the desperate need for it. Any degree of assertiveness is seen as aggressive and impolite even when the world is literally burning. The general response one gets when one acts with the appropriate urgency is to be told to be quiet and go through the proper channels. That would be fine if the proper channels were worth literally anything. It applies to every issue but the environment is a particular example.
The authorities are treating nonviolent civil disobedience as if it were violent sabotage. Their message is “Obey the law! Respect the social contract! Let the people in business suits at summits fix this problem!” My response is “Go fuck yourself! At what point is rebellion appropriate? You fucking tell me! Apparently Martin Luther King was right to disobey but climate protesters need to obey the fucking law? I mean, Jim Crow was bad but the fate of the planet is significantly worse and if something is worse than racial apartheid then it’s fucking ASPD-level evil!”
If these were violent activists, that would be one thing. Yet, the panic over nonviolent protesters shocks me. The leaders at the summits apparently want nobody to do anything, including nonviolent protest, while they pretend to do something and the world literally burns. Alas, a lot of people seem to feel the same way and feel that being submissive and obedient is the proper channel for change. Apparently, there is a double standard for historical activists versus modern ones.
Historical activists can do nonviolent civil disobedience and be celebrated while modern ones get treated as if they are violent and scary. Whoever invented that double standard can go royally fuck themselves. Yes, the suffregates were right to defy society for a cause much less serious than the fate of the planet but today we must be polite and not only peaceful but completely submissive to authority. Can someone pleace tell me why what they did was right and what the climate activists are doing is wrong?
Working in politics, I get ghosted a lot with the ghosters claiming they’re busy and my response is “Doing what? You’re accomplishing nothing now and have accomplished nothing in your career and you will continue to accomplish nothing as long as you shall live. You’re going through arcane motions and debating trivialities while there is a nuclear-level disaster outside. Why can’t you fucking move! Fucking do something!”
Also, these people are increasingly weak-skinned. I mean, I work as a staffer and other legislators get offended when I DM them more than once per week. Look, it is impossible to cooordinate on legislation if their definition of harassment is that fucking liberal. They’re terrified of DMs like Gen Zers are terrified of phone calls. It feels creepy to them like they’re in a true crime show and I’m a stalky ex-boyfriend. Their sentiment is “Leave me alone! Get away from me!” Like they’re a coed in a party in a horror movie. These are adult men who refuse to do their jobs out of paralizing fear borne of pop culture trends like true crime. They’re not in congress, they’re in the state house.
They want the feeling of safety and privacy even if their fears are irrational and heeding them means thousands of people needlessly die in addition to financial ruin and injuries and everything they’re not doing because they can’t coordinate on policy because they’re terrified of their inbox for no rational reason. They have no courage whatsoever. The authorities and our leaders want a society of placid introverts who do nothing as they burn alive which makes themselves feel safe and their society stable. That when no one is safe and nothing is stable because the authorities who are desperate for those things are still in the face of existential danger.
Of course, the strong calls for complete inaction on the part of the public are from the center-left. The right-wing leaders are imploring their citizens to get up and fight. We are in a circumstance where the leaders left of center are screaming and begging the people to do nothing, take no action, and get off the streets to be obedient and submissive citizens while the right of center is screaming and begging their people to get out into the streets and rally for their world. My ultimate question is why? Why is the left doing this? The left is calling for law and order in response to activist hippies who they want to stop while the right are staging a right-wing 1968? I’ll end with this, if they criticize climate activists for nonviolent actions ever again then they lose the right to ever quote anyone from the civil rights, Indian Independence, anti-apartheid, or women’s suffrage movements.
The Autistic Resistance 