Social isolation doesn’t strike me as a good way to facilitate deradicalization, though.
Thank you, @gaytog, that’s exactly what made me uneasy about this too.
Also like… I probably have a weird perspective, but if you’re in social service work at all… I’m not saying you can’t or shouldn’t turn away a *Nazi,* but if a person with objectionable views still needs food, or mental health care, or various other things, turning them away does mean allowing them to come to harm.
I don’t think that is never okay, and I don’t see negative responsibility and positive responsibility as equal, but… tumblr is flip about making that decision in ways I’m not entirely on board with.
Dovetailing this, my rant about Alex Jones and crazy uncles from earlier, and some post that I now cannot find (read: am to lazy to dig up) about how suffering often makes people worse: conspiracists, fringe thought, racist, and the alt right (which are a large, interrelated complex of ideas, it must be emphasized, and not at all separable from one another) prey on the socially isolated and, if sometimes not the mentally ill, at least those vulnerable to subclinical-but-serious quantities of anxiety, disordered thinking, and paranoia. By demanding the ideologically unclean be shunned, you demand they never be exposed to views contrary to the monolitic diet of Alex Jones/Fox News/Stormfront/whatever else they’re being fed on, which is only going to make it worse. Also, you’re often (not always, but often) putting vulnerable people in a position where the only ones who will tolerate them are those preying on them either because they see them as an easy target for radicalization or because they’re literally scamming them.
We have, at this juncture, a great deal of data on what works to deradicalize people sympathetic to everything from ISIS-style religious fanaticism to Westboro-style homophobia to KKK-style racism. It involves, unfortunately, talking to people and exposing them to individuals and to narratives that counter their worldviews. At larger scales, communities are made less racist by being made more diverse; our natural inclination to empathy generally overcomes xenophobia and bigotry as we encounter more people who are very different from us.
You do not get the jolt of chemical pleasure of self-righteousness this way. You don’t get to stick it to the rethuglicans or piss off the conservatards, and you don’t get to satisfy that aggressive itch you feel when you watch Nazis get punched in the face. But you do actually decrease the amount of bigotry in the world, which, if you want to make the world a safer place for minorities, a happier and more understanding place, a more peaceful place in general, i.e., actually better, is surely more important, right? Right?
The mental illness intersection is so, so important. It’s not always easy to differentiate “bigoted ass” from “person having a psychotic or delusional episode”. A lot of people, with the admirable intention of avoiding ableism, like to claim that it’s easy, but it’s really, really not. I know that the closest I, personally, have come to believing terrible things has been when my mental health issues have been manipulated *just right*.
If you declare anyone who has casual contact with The Enemy™ to also be the Enemy™, then you are going to end up with a lot of enemies. Radicals need to win over moderates in order to enact their political agendas. That is literally how the Overton Window works. You can come up with a convincing argument for anything, provided that no one is arguing back. Therefore, we need to have people arguing back. Radicals will always exist within society, and the will find a platform. Attempt at “deplatforming” always fail, and are tantamount to declaring defeat in the war of ideas
I really wish we could banish this “evil is moral cooties” idea from popular liberal and leftist thinking. Let the right have it if they want; if they want to embrace ineffectiveness I’m happy to let them. I’m not saying anyone should feel compelled to interact with people who make them uncomfortable or unhappy, when it comes to your personal mental health and safety you do you, but if refusing to talk to someone because they talked to someone who talked to someone who has Bad Opinions becomes your radical praxis, you have consigned yourself to political uselessness. Even if we (wrongly, I think) believe that everyone with Bad Opinions is irrevocably evil, we still need people in the trenches willing to engage with their audiences, with the people on the fence. Contra moral entrepreneurs on both the right and left who want you to feel maximally embattled so that you listen to them more, there are a hell of a lot of these people, and if we decide that they too are monsters who aren’t worthy of consideration just because they didn’t immediately cut their MAGAnaut uncles out of their lives, we’ve already lost.
agree with the last couple of comments; not everyone needs to personally engage in this sense, put on your own oxygen mask first, etc, but I think that for those who can sustain it without taking too much direct damage it’s very much net-beneficial and certainly shouldn’t be stigmatized.
“Free education and healthcare sounds like a nice idea, but how would we pay for it?”
We’re already paying for it. Privatized education and healthcare are extremely not free. We spend about $73 billion on college tuition and $3.4 trillion on healthcare each year. Compare public funding plans to those numbers, not to zero.
It’s time to stop falling for “you know, ‘free’ healthcare isn’t really free” and start pointing out that private healthcare is also not free.
My friend Lar needs some help to get a new place before they’re kicked to the curb. Sharing is easy and free, but if you can also donate, that would be greatly appreciated.
If yall could boost this and consider throwing down even a dollar that would be ameezeeng.
Hey everyone, thank you all for boosting the signal on this and helping my friend.
the people in grenfell died because they were poor.
the people in grenfell died because their landlord chose to spend money on flammable cladding because rich tenants in nearby penthouses didn’t like the ugly council building ruining their view.
the people in grenfell died because their landlord chose not to spend money on a centralised fire system or sprinklers or an additional fire escape.
the people in grenfell died because the tories voted against a law that would force landlords to make their buildings inhabitable and safe for their tenants.
the people in grenfell died because of the privatisation of social housing.
the people in grenfell burnt to death with their children in their arms because they were poor.
more than a year has passed, the tory government has done basically nothing, we haven’t forgotten
HOLY SH*T. THEY FOUND NITROGEN-FIXING CORN BRED BY INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN MEXICO. @botanyshitposts
“The study found the Sierra Mixe corn obtains 28 to 82 percent of its nitrogen from the atmosphere. To do this, the corn grows a series of aerial roots. Unlike conventional corn, which has one or two groups of aerial roots near its base, the nitrogen-fixing corn develops eight to ten thick aerial roots that never touch the ground.
During certain times of the year, these roots secrete a gel-like substance, or mucilage. The mucilage provides the low-oxygen and sugar-rich environment required to attract bacteria that can transform nitrogen from the air into a form the corn can use.
“Our research has demonstrated that the mucilage found in this Sierra Mixe corn forms a key component of its nitrogen fixation,“ said co-author Jean-Michel Ané, professor of agronomy and bacteriology in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at UW–Madison. “We have shown this through growth of the plant both in Mexico and Wisconsin.”
…
“
Researchers are a long way from developing a similar nitrogen-fixing trait for commercial corn, but this is a first step to guide further research on that application. The discovery could lead to a reduction of fertilizer use for corn, one of the world’s major cereal crops. It takes 1 to 2 percent of the total global energy supply to produce fertilizer. The energy-intensive process is also responsible for 1 to 2 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
“
I’ve written about this before, this is one of those ‘saving the planet’ levels of discovery. No joke.
Corn’s heavy need for nitrogen is also why it’s traditionally been grown together with nitrogen-fixing beans. Often as part of something like a Three Sisters plan, which further helps prevent erosion among other benefits.
That gets trickier with modern commercial monocropping (with its number of other environmental drawbacks). But, it’s possible to get some of the same benefits just from using a nitrogen-fixing cover crop between corn seasons. That can apparently provide about half the nitrogen the corn requires, along with other nutrients.
(For that matter, how much might fertilizer requirements be reduced by combining strategies, and growing a variety like this along with other nitrogen-fixing crops?)
But, there are already other ways to approach this problem. Many of those also starting with paying attention to the folks who really know corn, with a history of growing it extensively in more sustainable ways.
And have not tended to grow it as a monocrop, I have to say again. I’m really not that optimistic about the overall results from using the same large-scale commercial growing techniques, but with nifty “new” varieties in hopes of environmental harm reduction.
ok but why is ‘potato’ always used negatively in phrases? ‘couch potato’ and ‘he looks like a potato’……… what the hell have potatoes ever done to you? potatos are the mvps of the food world, the backbone of many dishes. they never let u down. potatoes are the real winners here and we should feel honoured to be described as one
I can think of at least one time potatoes have let down a very large group of people.
That was not the potatoes’ faults! That, like most things, was on the British.
It turns out that Border Collies are an ideal breed for this specific type of job. Bounding through miles of forest terrain requires not only speed, intelligence, and endurance, but also a willingness to stay focused and not get distracted by wildlife. Border Collies were bred to herd sheep, so they’re not as likely to run after or hurt other animals in the forest.
This system is also more efficient than having people spread the seeds manually. These speedy canines can race through a forest and cover up to 18 miles a day. Humans, on the other hand, can only cover a few miles each day. These pups can scatter over 20 pounds of seeds, depending on the terrain. While robots or drones might be able to disperse seeds too, dogs aren’t as pricey to handle. Most importantly, they leave a lighter carbon footprint.
Francisca and Constanza put special backpacks on the dogs, fill them with native seeds and then it’s off to the races. Once the dogs have emptied out their bags, Francisca and Constanza give them plenty of treats, refill their bags, and release them again to dash around the destroyed forest, sprinkling more seeds in their wake. The end goal of all this, of course, is to restore the damaged ecosystem and have the wildlife return to the forests.
Patty Stonefish, of Arming Sisters, asked me to create flyers for the #WeWontForgetMMIW*, a campaign that brings a timeless ritualized gesture into today’s social media. I have had the privilege of working with her for almost two years now and her commitment to the rights of indigenous North American women is a permanent source of inspiration.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
You must be logged in to post a comment.