Note: this is an earlier post on JUL 06, 2011 that I felt was worth reposting while adding an excellent comment by SuperBowlXX referencing Mark Twain to show the absurdity of this argument we hear all too much around here about how criticism/activism is deemed worthless because it's online.
Mark Twain is my chosen example for that argument. (5+ / 0-)
Twain was a writer -- a brilliant, witty, and incisive one at that. He was never known for campaigning or raising money for specific candidates during his time. If people want to argue that blogging is tantamount to "doing nothing," then didn't Twain "do nothing" himself? I suppose it's not enough that he wrote many great books, short stories, and essays critiquing American life, culture, racism, and politics. By the logic of those who say blogging is not a valid form of activism, Twain should never have sat there and written anything, but should have instead campaigned for Grover Cleveland.
On with my reposted snarky rebuttal in addition to that brilliant comment:
Hello Kossacks. I want to talk to you about real activism, not this fake online kind we see so much here! Psst. I “hope” you have lots of time, because I am going to sit here at my computer for hours, days, even weeks if that’s what it takes, to explain to you just how much of a real activist I am while we are all on the Internet reading about how awesome my activism is compared to yours. Or we can talk about how all of you online loser activists and your progressive opinions would die without me.
What’s that? I’m on the internet right now and my time stamps on my comments show I have been here online all night explaining to all of you everything about my real activism online? You say that’s hypocritical? Heh, whatever man! You see, I’m not really here. My other car is an online activist and that’s the one I drive when I’m not here explaining to all of you losers how awesome my real activism is.
Heh, don’t you get it, man?! Of course if there are any diaries praising everything this administration does, then it’s OK and online activism is accomplishing something. It’s just that sad realistic kind that is a WOT because it is online. The good online OFA kind of activism and real life activism is the kind that is taken over by the DNC instead of given a real voice on issues in a top down fashion if the president doesn’t support them, but never forget how real we were told it was in 2008 and the dream that it would mean something tangible after election season!
That is until…
The experience of one such activist, Marta Evry of Venice, Calif., is illustrative of OFA’s stunted trajectory. A 45-year-old film editor who works on television shows and movies in Hollywood, she took off six months in 2008 to volunteer full time on the Obama campaign, ultimately working as a regional field organizer for Congressional District 36, managing some 1,500 volunteers who made more then 500,000 phone calls to swing states all over the country. Since then she has remained active as a community organizer, working on everything from healthcare reform, to marriage equality to California budget issues. Until this summer, she was working with Organizing for America. No longer.
Evry started out as a loyal supporter of OFA. In February 2008, she, along with thousands of others, participated in the group’s first national conference call, expecting to get marching orders on how they could fire up the base in support of Obama’s economic stimulus plan, which was already being whittled down by the powers that be in Washington. "But that didn't happen," she wrote in an e-mail to me back then. "Instead, we heard about house parties for the weekend and future conference calls. Building blocks for the future — yes. But action for the here and now? No." So Evry took it upon herself to start a Facebook group called "We are the Change," aimed at keeping the bill from being gutted, and within a week it had grown to 2,500 supporters who phone-banked senators and tried to shore up the bill.
For the next few months, she tried to work within the parameters set by OFA’s national and state staff but steadily chafed at being given limited and often meaningless tasks. In August, she was e-mailing the people on the We are the Change list, along with her friends in Venice for Change, a local Obama spinoff, to turn out at local congressional town hall meetings on healthcare and do battle with the tea party crowd. But she was also getting frustrated with OFA, feeling the group was too constrained by insider politics: "They had us calling into districts of lawmakers who were already on board with the [health care reform] bill just to list build." Obama’s pragmatic acceptance of the Stupak amendment to the House healthcare bill, and his abandonment of the public option, were the final straw for her:
"The thing I find completely heartbreaking about is to watch such an opportunity squandered right before our eyes," Evry e-mailed me recently. "I literally watched it happen. When I look back to how eager our volunteers were this time last year, those sea of faces in both Denver in 2008 and the inauguration in January ... [I] know that whatever movement there was is gone, gone, gone."
You see? Evry is now automatically a traitor and her activism is no longer real. She should suck it up OR SHUT UP!!! That’s what real activism is, getting behind a politician and accepting only what he wants you to advocate, not this silly independent issues based purist type of activism that worked in the 60s.
But remember, whine about 60 votes later as an excuse, but first strategically do nothing to push for a stronger economic stimulus like the president's own economic adviser wanted(Christina Romer. Not Larry Summers, the guy who attacked Brooksley Born for warning about the economic crisis he, Robert Rubin, and Greenspan among others caused but Obama hired anyway with OFA saying yay! A stronger stimulus was also one that could have prevented 2010 from being as bad as it was) if the president doesn’t want you to, because up is down, left is right, and bipartisan delirium just might give you nice dreams you can dream tonight.
THAT’S real activism even if it's not living in reality. But can you imagine what we could accomplish if we just lower the bar as we are doing right now? Imagine what we could accomplish if we accept the SS cuts and Medicare cuts along with the rest of spending cuts to tax revenue at a now 6:1 ratio on the table in the debt ceiling debate going on right now?
Imagine if we continue to ignore how our federal budget actually operates and give in to Peter Peterson's rhetoric on debt and the deficit? The magical mythical bond vigilantes will come back even though they never left, the economy will automatically stabilize and reach full employment without anymore desperately needed fiscal policy(except that silly payroll tax cut that endangers SS but if Obama says it's OK, that's fine with me. After all after the Bush/Obama tax cuts passed Obama said that was it! Of course that's already false ^ but them haters always gonna hate).
Heh, don't even bother to respond online to their online whambulance!
“Wahhh! the most successful government programs in US history are being cut! Wahhh! SS cuts, chained CPI, and seniors die! Wahhhh! The only part of the ACA that guarantees access to care is being downgraded too! Wahh! Medicare cuts are on the table!"
Pfft, cry babies. You all supposed real activists just remember to spend a lot of time online telling these so called online progressives how unserious their online activism and online POV about the destruction of the New Deal is. And if they give you evidence of their online and real world activism and it's actual proven effectiveness, just scoff at them and ask what they have done for Obama lately. And if they try to point out that you are on the Internet as we speak spending lots of online time talking about real activism online just be sure to remind them…