Fundamentally I'm of the view that leftist power discourse over the last 80 years or so has taken a serious wrong turn in looking _up_ rather than _locally_ for power.
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Fundamentally I'm of the view that leftist power discourse over the last 80 years or so has taken a serious wrong turn in looking _up_ rather than _locally_ for power.
We want to save everyone—which is a worthy goal—and so we focus on things like the Supreme Court, the Presidency, etc.
But historically that's not where our power comes from and historically your local protections matter a _lot_.
The earliest protections against child labor were because of unions, not laws.
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Escaping Galt's Gorean Gulchreplied to Hrefna (DHC) last edited by
@hrefna having kept our city council member (who is skilled in community organizing, and facing down landlords and bankers) in office, keeping a crooked ex-cop off the city council, and at least protecting marriage equality at the state level is giving me some degree of less stress.
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The earliest worker protections? Almost always came from unions, not laws.
During the "freedom of contract" and "yellow dog contract" eras—when unions were often functionally unlawful and enjoyed next to no legal protections even in the best of circumstances—we still saw huge movements among workers. Including but not limited to the Colorado Coalfield War, the Newsboys Strike in NYC, and the railroad strikes that still get talked about a century later.
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Colorado has now enshrined a right to abortion in our state constitution
We have laws in place to protect people coming here for an abortion or to start gender affirming care, including for teenagers starting puberty blockers
Can the federal government go against this? Absolutely, but it is much, much harder than in a state like Florida
These local protections _matter_. Having your city have anti-discrimination laws _matters_ even if they are stripped from you at a federal level
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Mutual aid organizations are not "passing around $20 on social media to people you barely know." Mutual aid organizations—like Food not Bombs—have a very long history in the US of helping a lot of people in a very local capacity.
Same with a lot of local religious groups. The difference between having a local community that accepts you and will protect you versus one that doesn't is massive.
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It won't save everyone and yes, we are not free until all of us are free, and also: that should not mean that you cannot accept saving some people or making their lives easier.
Or, in the worst cases, giving them more time.
We are not free until all of us are free just means that the work doesn't stop. It means that when you lift someone up they are now in a better position to help lift someone else up in turn.
Think locally. Politically, socially. Get fine-grained here.
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