I think the big problem here is how stupidly huge and deeply rooted into everyday long-term-life the problem is, and brittle, tenuous social ties (lonliness epidemic still a thing!) means wrangling together enough people to agree on what can be done about it becomes a herculean task.
Neighborhood tree on fire? Do something! Cool, we bring water and extinguishers and call the FD, whatever. There’s generally an idea of what needs to be done.
There’s also been no massive campaigns pushing to ban non-firefighter use of fire extinguishers and make people afraid of them, so chances are you and your neighbors might have the tools at hand to deal with the problem.
If you run out to put out a fire by yourself, you’re hoping to be joined by others, and if you don’t have an army of committed hardcore anti-fire people behind you, you’re not gonna get singled out, dragged away, and shipped to a death camp for trying to solve a fire.
It’s a problem that doesn’t require the same kind of strategy. There’s procedures in place. Putting out a fire also doesn’t carry the fear that your anti-fire activities will get you noticed, ratted out, and abused when you discover your neighborhood actually consists of more fire-worshiping pyromaniacs than you thought.
It’s so easy for oustiders to imagine us rootin’ tootin’ ‘Muricans just grabbin’ our Winchester repeatin’ rifles an’ M1 Garands an’ stormin’ the obvious fascist regime that marches the streets in their snappy black leather uniforms, but this is another thing entirely.
This is a systemic infection of hearts and minds. We’re already struggling to make a living so our basics are covered, to know who and where our allies are, and to trust they aren’t just keyboard warriors and will actually have our backs so we don’t just throw our lives away in some random isolated act of virtue signaling.
At the end of the day, we have to live here. And we’re up against people who make it their specialty career to surveil, intimidate, coerce, arrest, subdue, manipulate, and kill. You wanna make the first move?
People are doing a lot, and we always need more! The cards are VERY stacked against us, so it doesn’t look like much is happening. It’s a massive disaster and it’s hard to identify the helpers right now. But we’re not just sleeping on it.
I think the big problem here is how stupidly huge and deeply rooted into everyday long-term-life the problem is, and brittle, tenuous social ties (lonliness epidemic still a thing!) means wrangling together enough people to agree on what can be done about it becomes a herculean task.
Neighborhood tree on fire? Do something! Cool, we bring water and extinguishers and call the FD, whatever. There’s generally an idea of what needs to be done.
There’s also been no massive campaigns pushing to ban non-firefighter use of fire extinguishers and make people afraid of them, so chances are you and your neighbors might have the tools at hand to deal with the problem.
If you run out to put out a fire by yourself, you’re hoping to be joined by others, and if you don’t have an army of committed hardcore anti-fire people behind you, you’re not gonna get singled out, dragged away, and shipped to a death camp for trying to solve a fire.
It’s a problem that doesn’t require the same kind of strategy. There’s procedures in place. Putting out a fire also doesn’t carry the fear that your anti-fire activities will get you noticed, ratted out, and abused when you discover your neighborhood actually consists of more fire-worshiping pyromaniacs than you thought.
It’s so easy for oustiders to imagine us rootin’ tootin’ ‘Muricans just grabbin’ our Winchester repeatin’ rifles an’ M1 Garands an’ stormin’ the obvious fascist regime that marches the streets in their snappy black leather uniforms, but this is another thing entirely.
This is a systemic infection of hearts and minds. We’re already struggling to make a living so our basics are covered, to know who and where our allies are, and to trust they aren’t just keyboard warriors and will actually have our backs so we don’t just throw our lives away in some random isolated act of virtue signaling.
At the end of the day, we have to live here. And we’re up against people who make it their specialty career to surveil, intimidate, coerce, arrest, subdue, manipulate, and kill. You wanna make the first move?
People are doing a lot, and we always need more! The cards are VERY stacked against us, so it doesn’t look like much is happening. It’s a massive disaster and it’s hard to identify the helpers right now. But we’re not just sleeping on it.
Thanks for this, and for what you’re doing.