Brainstorming post

[sathari]

In addition to the master post of ideas and suggestions, on the encouragement of one of our wonderful mods tassosss, I'm offering up a brainstorming post for batting ideas back and forth--- things we've done that seem to be effective, ideas we have, especially for making activism easier in general... and, because of the fannish spirit of this comm, any ideas for activism/tools/etc. that you've gotten from fiction and other media? Or for that matter any stories/art/music/other creations that inspire and support your activism that you want to share?

Comments

[tielan]

I'm going to offer to make some fandom badges for the future. I'm not a US citizen, but I'd like to help however possible.

[sathari]

Ow, wow, that is so awesome of you! Thanks for helping out! (I'm trying to word some sort of apology along the lines of, "On behalf of America, I apologize for doing this to the rest of the world," because other countries are also stuck with the results of our election, after all.)

[tielan]

An Australian friend of mine said that a (one-time) mutual friend sniped at her social media that other countries could just shut up about the US Election because it didn't pertain to them.

The irony? She's UK born who got American citizenship through her marriage to a US citizen. She should know that the most televised politics in the world will bloody well affect the world!

I'm here because I have US friends who will be negatively impacted by the current administration, and not all of them have the spoons or time to act. (And because I'm hoping that seeing how you guys organise yourself here might help with ideas on how to mobilise Australian politics so that we don't end up following in your footsteps. (I think it's less likely due to mandatory voting, but I'd rather do too much and not need it, than have to fight a rearguard action on the back foot.)

[sathari]

I just can't thank you enough for this. (Not to mention that we're not only the most televised nation, we're on the short list of "best able to make everyone else's lives suck whether or not they even had a vote in what we're doing.")

[redbird]

Thank you. A bunch of Americans are trying to screw the rest of us Americans, and the rest of the world, so this is not just an American fight.

[tielan]

Most internationals who are looking at this comm understand pretty well that it's not all of America, even when we rant about "stupid Americans, what have you done?" (There's an automatic #notallAmericans clause in there, rather like any statement to which some dudebro is going to add #notallmen. If it's not your fault - ie. you voted for Hillary and the Dems - then the disclaimer doesn't apply.)

And as I said above: your politics and society is the most televised and broadcast in the world. Chances are, we'll know more about your politics and your general society than we'd know about the pockets of our own cultures. That makes you extremely influential, and when your president and government normalises such anti-humanitarian behaviour against its own citizens, it affects everyone.