I went to a “non-partisan political organizing day of action” or whatever (kinda pop up ngl) and it felt like AA mixed with church camp. It was very obvious that these people at this meeting were very atomized, hurting and desperate but were ultimately told that the solution is local electoralism.
On one hand, I guess it’s a super awesome way to get people to touch grass in this capitalist hell hole we’re all in and get to know community members. On the other, the end goal is liberalism.
I don’t want to say it was a cult or anything because there was a clear way to opt out, but as soon as people started to mingle and form bonds or something, they were immediately shut down to move forward with a very pointless agenda which helps no one.
Go to your room, young man? Your other mother and I are disappointed in… Something?
Hopefully this helps.
But yeah, every attempt at doing electoralist organizing is constructed around preventing anyone from discussing anything outside of electoralism and corralling people into solutions guaranteed to fail.
non-partisan political organizing
It sounds like they were trying what’s known as a world cafe. Not a great way to meet people, but a decent way to brainstorm.
Was it the first meeting?
Ahh fascinating! I guess these people come from all over the state to these events when they can and this was the first of the year, yes. There’s a political undertone—a nonpartisan one (you can’t really say “capitalism” for example)
I could be very paranoid and anxious, but I see I all this energy being channeled into what is essentially going to be another failed 3rd party and I guess it makes me sad :/
imma be honest I would not go to something like that. at least DSA or whatever isnt explicitly anti communist. partisans are the good guys actually
yeah I shoulda phrased that way differently
what I mean is that DSA isn’t as focused on atomizing you and preventing any real organizing as described in the OP, you can meet actually cool people there and they have caucuses or whatever that are a lot better than nat’l DSA (which while bad is still an improvement compared to “nonpartisan” BS)
Anyhow I would highly recommend just ignoring that rule if you have any inclination to work with DSA for any reason, but yeah DSA certainly aren’t great
Organization and community are not goals in themselves. We gotta ask who organizes in which way for what excat purpose imo (You basically did that, this is not meant to diss you, just general thoughts). Turns out the grass we touch can also be astroturf or full of pesticide
