my friend Susan Raffo sent me a message that she ok'd being reposted here: "This is so important! i was just talking with a friend a few days ago about the radical/dyke infrastructure in the 70s where we had plumbers and carpenters and electricians and food growers and distributors and childcare collectives and everything that took the concept of mutual aid and working classified it (i could have a three hour conversation about my sometimes confusion about what is perceived as mutual aid right now).... i was like, these were concrete practical skills that were learned and then shared in support of liberation and not profit." and yeah that's the thing- building independent economic and skill networks, shared for liberation not profit or control.
she added, "i would add to what i said that it's important to notice how important it was for those focused on profit and the MAGA/Project 2025 agenda who have always been here that destroying this "alternative economy" - which is what it was called - was important. these structures disappeared because 1) the man, 2) the shit we carry inside so some BUT NOT ALL of those dykes became terfs and 3) as things like the internet and a credit economy and Reagan's feeding of the financial sector as the true job (god, i remember when no one got an MBA because BORING and then in the mid-80s all of these people started getting an MBA as their degree or a double degree and that was as intentional as the Flexner Report creating the pharmaceutical/MIC approach to healthcare.... but this was the economic/money management economy that I HATE.....and trade schools/vocational schools shut down as part of the strategy to undermine unions and on and on...."
I love this so much!! I've been thinking about and wrote abt very similar things recently (albeit not as eloquent). I greatly appreciate you pushing this conversation as I find it so critical in the present moment
This is how I feel every time someone from a group goes to me like oh you deserve to be heard or oh you deserve a platform. For what lol and who am I talking to? Media and distribution we don't control or help or harm and when there's a 50/50 chance it's almost always going to the harm side. I've been trying to get a couple groups I was in to do a zine to keep the community informed for years. No one wanted to hit the library or meet up largely because turns out everyone hated each other and was just sitting on it. We could have done it but. And when they don't want to do it they won't let you do it either. I keep trying to posit it tho and don't go solo only because I need help myself. I implore ppl to consider who they're talking to at any given time. I pray going folks learn from our occasional hubris.
Love this. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I went dark on social media at the end of 2020 after it become all too clear to me that I was operating from an older age and that the platforms had successfully seized terms and concepts actions and information for algorithmic spectacle profit. (Yes, see “mutual aid” as a present day social media shorthand for charity that doesn’t want to be ID’d as charity).
As a young Gen X, I do remember the riot grrrl media blackout!
For me, there has been more potency in doing things quietly and without attention. Because, for the most part, the stuff that needs to be done does not need to be a spectacle to do it. In fact, that often doesn’t help.
Thank you, Leah. I sometimes feel like the only being in the universe who's not on social media but it's difficult because, as a writer, I do need a platform and do need to make a living. Also engaging with the news and current events. I left journalism because I couldn't stand having to constantly chase the news cycle. Ever since I had my toddler I've kind of dropped out of following the news. But I do need to find a way to engage with the world and try to do things to make it better (or at least less bad). It's something I've been struggling with for a while now and haven't figured it out yet.
really really really really appreciate this, the culture shifts around this stuff have been so mind-bending over the course of my adult life, and as someone who runs an extremely small press and zine distro I am constantly wrestling with how to do right by people's work + get them some cash + support their dignity, however that looks for them & their work, and the balance between making someone's name known, and letting their work float free from their name, and the different kinds of safety each of those come with. it's hard stuff and I am grateful to get to be part of conversatons around it.
if you liked this post (or if you didn't, or if you're just interested in reading a deep broad brilliance lamentation question about distribution, inflammation, disability, decades of cyberspace, being alive right now) you should definitely go check out @cyborgmemoir's latest, here: https://cyborgmemoirs.substack.com/p/this-machine-has-disabled-me
Brilliant, as you always are, colleague mine. It is good to see your words. I miss the days when we would cross paths at Sweet Fantasies, me eating ice cream, you on your tricycle, where we would TALK about the issues of the day. The days when I would happily buy your chapbooks of poetry (I still reread Consensual Genocide and Love Cake).
I am losing my interest in press and social media. I am already withdrawing from Facebook. Have no Twitter. And am indifferent to Discord. Thinking I will drop Instagram. My relationship with Google is tenuous as my calendars and communications are based on it.
But since communications in Toronto are the pits (the days of simply opening up Now Magazine on Thursday afternoon to see what was going on are long gone) this is becoming my battle.
my friend Susan Raffo sent me a message that she ok'd being reposted here: "This is so important! i was just talking with a friend a few days ago about the radical/dyke infrastructure in the 70s where we had plumbers and carpenters and electricians and food growers and distributors and childcare collectives and everything that took the concept of mutual aid and working classified it (i could have a three hour conversation about my sometimes confusion about what is perceived as mutual aid right now).... i was like, these were concrete practical skills that were learned and then shared in support of liberation and not profit." and yeah that's the thing- building independent economic and skill networks, shared for liberation not profit or control.
she added, "i would add to what i said that it's important to notice how important it was for those focused on profit and the MAGA/Project 2025 agenda who have always been here that destroying this "alternative economy" - which is what it was called - was important. these structures disappeared because 1) the man, 2) the shit we carry inside so some BUT NOT ALL of those dykes became terfs and 3) as things like the internet and a credit economy and Reagan's feeding of the financial sector as the true job (god, i remember when no one got an MBA because BORING and then in the mid-80s all of these people started getting an MBA as their degree or a double degree and that was as intentional as the Flexner Report creating the pharmaceutical/MIC approach to healthcare.... but this was the economic/money management economy that I HATE.....and trade schools/vocational schools shut down as part of the strategy to undermine unions and on and on...."
Beautifully written and important. Thanks for sharing this!
I love this so much!! I've been thinking about and wrote abt very similar things recently (albeit not as eloquent). I greatly appreciate you pushing this conversation as I find it so critical in the present moment
This is how I feel every time someone from a group goes to me like oh you deserve to be heard or oh you deserve a platform. For what lol and who am I talking to? Media and distribution we don't control or help or harm and when there's a 50/50 chance it's almost always going to the harm side. I've been trying to get a couple groups I was in to do a zine to keep the community informed for years. No one wanted to hit the library or meet up largely because turns out everyone hated each other and was just sitting on it. We could have done it but. And when they don't want to do it they won't let you do it either. I keep trying to posit it tho and don't go solo only because I need help myself. I implore ppl to consider who they're talking to at any given time. I pray going folks learn from our occasional hubris.
Love this. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I went dark on social media at the end of 2020 after it become all too clear to me that I was operating from an older age and that the platforms had successfully seized terms and concepts actions and information for algorithmic spectacle profit. (Yes, see “mutual aid” as a present day social media shorthand for charity that doesn’t want to be ID’d as charity).
As a young Gen X, I do remember the riot grrrl media blackout!
For me, there has been more potency in doing things quietly and without attention. Because, for the most part, the stuff that needs to be done does not need to be a spectacle to do it. In fact, that often doesn’t help.
Thank you, Leah. I sometimes feel like the only being in the universe who's not on social media but it's difficult because, as a writer, I do need a platform and do need to make a living. Also engaging with the news and current events. I left journalism because I couldn't stand having to constantly chase the news cycle. Ever since I had my toddler I've kind of dropped out of following the news. But I do need to find a way to engage with the world and try to do things to make it better (or at least less bad). It's something I've been struggling with for a while now and haven't figured it out yet.
really really really really appreciate this, the culture shifts around this stuff have been so mind-bending over the course of my adult life, and as someone who runs an extremely small press and zine distro I am constantly wrestling with how to do right by people's work + get them some cash + support their dignity, however that looks for them & their work, and the balance between making someone's name known, and letting their work float free from their name, and the different kinds of safety each of those come with. it's hard stuff and I am grateful to get to be part of conversatons around it.
if you liked this post (or if you didn't, or if you're just interested in reading a deep broad brilliance lamentation question about distribution, inflammation, disability, decades of cyberspace, being alive right now) you should definitely go check out @cyborgmemoir's latest, here: https://cyborgmemoirs.substack.com/p/this-machine-has-disabled-me
Your, and your friends piece are both brilliant. Thanks so much.
reading is FUNdamental. Thanks for sharing your words with us nerds.
You’ve given us much food for thought. Gonna be digesting this till our next lunch.
Brilliant, as you always are, colleague mine. It is good to see your words. I miss the days when we would cross paths at Sweet Fantasies, me eating ice cream, you on your tricycle, where we would TALK about the issues of the day. The days when I would happily buy your chapbooks of poetry (I still reread Consensual Genocide and Love Cake).
I am losing my interest in press and social media. I am already withdrawing from Facebook. Have no Twitter. And am indifferent to Discord. Thinking I will drop Instagram. My relationship with Google is tenuous as my calendars and communications are based on it.
But since communications in Toronto are the pits (the days of simply opening up Now Magazine on Thursday afternoon to see what was going on are long gone) this is becoming my battle.