isabel @dxciBel@antinetzwerk.de

Friendly, joking, we-all-know-we’re-kidding style “light” bullying sucks. Sorry. It’s a shitty way to interact with friends. It’s hurting someone in the group more than you or they know.

I got a lot of that from my friends in high school, and I swore up and down I didn’t mind, but it fucked me up. It taught me that to be close to people I had to accept mistreatment and I am only really figuring out just how much that got in my head now that I’m almost 40.

Be nice to each other. Nice is good.

RT Twitter 19FebruarHanau

Am 19. Juni werden sich Hunderte von Radfahrer:innen aus vielen Städten und Gemeinden Südhessens und Nordbayerns zu einem regionalen „Ride to Remember“ nach Hanau auf den Weg machen. Schließt euch an!
#SayTheirNames #SternFürHanau

Vollständige PM:
https://19feb-hanau.org/2021/06/03/pressemitteilung-stern-fuer-hanau/

first of all, disclaimer: i'm anti-authoritarian, i want some form of anarchism, this thread does not advocate for authoritarianism and if anything shows how democracy is often authortitan.

quick intro: in switzerland we vote on most political decisions, and you can quite easily make your own referendums. we are probably the closest you can get to direct democracy (it's technically partially representative, but that's a detail). generally most swiss people have the feeling that they actively participate in political decisions, that their vote matters. this is not entirely untrue, however:

1. this feeling of participation manufactures consent. once something was decided, however slim it was, people will generally say 'WE' decided this, it's what the majority wanted, so be it. this makes questioning established political decisions HARD, people will simply dismiss your criticism by claiming WE all collectively wanted this, sometimes even for older referendums.

2. the power and money imbalances between capitalists / the establishment and working class people leads to campaigns leading up to votes generally being dominated by the more powerful side. they often use fear mongering and half truths in their campaigns making it hard to campaign against them, because you FIRST have to debunk the other (more powerful) sides claims.

3. a lot of decisions we have referendums on are laws created by parliaments being challenged by outside groups. uninformed voters will usually side with the parliament, assuming 'they probably do their job properly and good'

4. the general mindset that WE the people decide everything extends to the point where people will talk about parliamentary decisions as if they were collective decisions by US.

5. MAJORITY decisions cannot and never will respect any MINORITIES, per definition.

(direct) democracy creates an illusion of political participation, an illusion of consent and thus actually enables the government to much more easily pass laws against everyone's interests, with much less resistance.

it also further hinders actual change by telling people who stand up for their rights, protest, riot or just do their own thing to simply "participate in the proper process" instead and painting big movements as illegitimate.

können wir bitte mehr sozialistische feiertage und weniger religiöse haben? 8.märz, 1.mai, sowas kann ich mir merken, easy. der erste donnerstag 57 tage nach dem ersten vollmond im frühling, und dann nur in manchen bundesländern? ja nee kannste voll vergessen.