Spoke to my friend who lives near St. Cloud, MN yesterday.

[brad@1040ste.net]

@artemis Being strong enough to be gentle and kind is a lot more impressive than being violent. Any arsehole can lash out.

[artemis@dice.camp]

I'm finally getting what the Jesus character meant when he said, "whoever does the work of my Father in heaven is my sibling."

What matters is that you do what you can where you can. What matters, what unites us, is doing the work & caring for each other.

That's what fucking matters.

[artemis@dice.camp]

We aren't all going to be on the streets. I've talked about this before: there are different abilities & different opportunities that we all have. What matters isn't how "important" or risky your work is.

What matters is taking whatever you have in front of you, whatever you know to do, & doing it.

Some of us may be called up to take some serious risks. Ok, fine. Be ready for that. But for now, help in the ways you know how. Anything that needs to be done is worth doing, no matter how "small".

[shiitaketoast@beige.party]

@aeischeid @artemis On top of that, the only way they’ve been taught to fight back is violence. And solo violence at that. They can’t imagine themselves as part of a bigger movement@with broader strategies than “punching the bad guys”. I mean punching Nazis is an unalloyed good. But filming their atrocities and delegitimizing them to others, feeding people, helping neighbors, slowing down traffic, etc. is how you really beat them.

[artemis@dice.camp]

If you are feeding people, that is the work.

If you are helping people with clothing or shelter, that is the work.

If you offer encouragement & support, that is the work.

If you share information & speak the truth, that is the work.

If you're setting up chairs for a community defense training, that is the work.

If it's worth doing, it is worth doing.

[artemis@dice.camp]

The best analogy I have right now is an ant colony: ants don't fret about "importance", they just do their job, & together ants are ridiculously powerful for how frickin tiny they are.

We're ants. We're small but many, & by all making our contributions, we have so much power.

All I really ask is that you give of yourself. I mentioned my big bro: he has 7 kids. I'm not going to ask him to take unnecessary physical risk. Those kids need him. But he needs to be in this.

[artemis@dice.camp]

Take setting up chairs for a community gathering for example.

A lot of people who do this kind of work don't even see that it's real & it matters.

It's not "just setting up chairs". For that meeting to happen, someone needed to set up the chairs. You decided to be that someone.

That is the work. It's a job that needs doing, & you showed up & did it. So much of what needs doing feels ridiculously "small", but that's why we are strong *together*, because everyone has *something* to give.

[robcornelius@climatejustice.social]

@artemis Hollywood force feeds us lies about brave, courageous, "manly" heroes overcoming Impossible odds to stick it to the man.

There are people who believe these myths and try to fight back against the whole world on their own. They are generally known as spree killers.

The only real power is solidarity and community. Monke together STRONG.

[artemis@dice.camp]

I've been talking about my little bro & how proud I am: some of what he's doing carries significant risk, but a lot of it is just showing up & asking "what can I do to help?"

He is in physically good shape, so beyond risky confrontational shit, he can just be a big help, because he is physically able to do a lot of things that need doing.

It's not about being a hero for him. He says he just shows up to things & says "tell me what you need me to do."

[handsomebird@kind.social]

@artemis
> he has 7 kids

That's an indication of the underlying issue.

[artemis@dice.camp]

@handsomebird
It sure is....

[lexyeen@plush.city]

@artemis If you'll pardon a quote from the /antagonist/ of A Bug's Life, speaking to his underlings, as emphasis for your point...

"You let one ant stand up to us, then they ALL might stand up. Those 'puny little ants' outnumber us a hundred to one, and if they ever figure that out, there goes our way of life!"

[artemis@dice.camp]

@LexYeen
Fantastic! Exactly.

[cedartea@social.coop]

@artemis There's a good bit in the bread book where he talks about how the Paris Commune failed because the so-called revolutionaries were making grand speeches on liberty while the people holding the barricades went unfed. The grand revolutionaries were notably all men and they neglected the care work necessary to actually sustain their movement. Feeding people was just an invisible thing that happened, not a thing "they" were supposed to do. Not "revolutionary".

[springdiesel@spore.social]

@artemis

For every Luke Skywalker, how many other folks are carrying supplies and rendering aid. I don't have to be the one in the X-wing to be helpful.

[lexyeen@plush.city]

@springdiesel @artemis Yup. Luke Skywalker wouldn't have been able to make that shot in the first place if the X-wing he was flying wasn't loaded, fueled, and in good repair, *or* if the events shown in Andor and Rogue One hadn't happened to set his sunbaked ass up for the win over Yavin.

Lots of wannabe/internet fighter jocks forget that they aren't getting off the ground without their direct support crews and the infrastructure behind them.

(PS: I'm not just talking about aircraft here.)

[springdiesel@spore.social]

@LexYeen @artemis

For real life. And every member of a support crew themselves needs food, lodging, safety for their family. There is plenty of good work to do that isn't being the hero.

Edit: yeah I guess that's "infrastructure behind them". I'm echoing. 😁

[lykso@tiny.tilde.website]

@LexYeen @springdiesel @artemis "An army marches on its stomach."

[flesh@transfem.social]

@springdiesel@spore.social @artemis@dice.camp Additional point: Luke Skywalker is a fictional character that is based both on the ideas of resistance and revolution as well as the tropes of drama and the underlying biases of the writers, including the Great Man myth.

You're not wrong for making the comparison or anything, you are making a good point, just worth also keeping in mind how the stories of great heroes we're often told are stories shaped by those telling them and the society around them. This focus on singular Great Men being one of the many ways that manifests.

[flesh@transfem.social]

@lykso@tiny.tilde.website @LexYeen@plush.city @springdiesel@spore.social @artemis@dice.camp You know what wins wars, Comrade General? Logistics!