[Image: a photograph of an orange sky full of smoke from a flare burning in the distance; a few dozen human silhouettes line the horizon, their legs blend into a black foreground. The text reads “Discussion Week Three”]
I’ve had an exhausting week and don’t have capacity to send a newsletter today, but I did want to present the opportunity for folks to share their thoughts, concerns, and responses to the current and escalating threats of misinformation, which are leading to the possibility of a contested election in the U.S.:
(1) Have you considered the potential impacts of a contested election where you live? If not, why not? If so, what might those impacts be?
(2) Are you preparing for conflict where you live and if so, how?
(3) Who do you see as the various “parties” (participants) in this national conflict, who will be most impacted by it and why? What goals and interests might various participants have in contesting an election? What goals might community organizers, political groups, and non-government organizations act on in response?
(4) What is the root cause of this conflict?
(5) If you don’t live in the U.S., has your country ever experienced a contested election or coup, and do you have experience or reactions to share?
This is interesting as i was just talking about this with others posing a similar question to #2 "Are you preparing for conflict where you live and if so, how?" I live in midwest America, I am Afro-Caribbean and my beloved is a Black man. We have a small but not tightknit set of friends. I have this feeling that i need to prepare for conflict or escape, but i am not even sure what kind. i compare it to how Lauren Olamina felt in Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower, and yet she knew the possible dooms she was faced with. i have asked friends to stay in consistent contact to check up on one another. i have considered setting up go-packs in case i need to rapidly leave to the next major city, ensuring that we have cash available if anything. the thing i feel is lacking is trustworthy community. wondering how others are preparing as well and to what extent.
I'm still learning and thinking about the potential impacts of a contested election - or even just general continued escalation of tensions by the far right. I definitely don't feel prepared but want to be, and I want to get involved with community preparedness. I just started listening to the podcast It Could Happen Here after hearing Robert Evans's interview on Live Like the World is Dying. It's strange to listen to it now, as it was produced last year - so much of what has happened this year has sped us up on the road to (and obviously resulted in, in some places) violent conflict between political factions in the US. Like I said, still learning a lot - interested to see others' takes.
I live in the Hudson Valley in NY. A lot of my friends who live in NYC aren’t as worried about a contested election as I am. I do think tensions run a little higher in the rest of the state than they do in the city, since there’s a significant white supremacist stronghold that is consistently agitated by living in a “blue state.” My partner and I live on the campus of a Quaker middle/high school where he is a teacher. The school has had its BLM sign stolen three times now, and the admin has gotten so many emails and phone calls from “concerned citizens,” about how the school is supporting a “terrorist organization.” Also a couple months ago there was a clash near us between BLM demonstrators and MAGA counter-protestors. A couple people were shoved and one of the organizers seems like they were pretty deeply emotionally wounded. I am white, so I will be less impacted by tensions running high than a lot of my neighbors, but that doesn't mean I just want to sit idly by. However, I am at a bit of a loss about what I will do. I’m a new mother and all the ways I used to function as an activist feel like they’ve had to shift. All the friends I went to J20 with are ready to mobilize in the same way and I don’t feel comfortable doing anything like that while I'm responsible for a baby. We have been supporting a couple of the school teens who are organizing. But nothing feels like it's enough.
This is interesting as i was just talking about this with others posing a similar question to #2 "Are you preparing for conflict where you live and if so, how?" I live in midwest America, I am Afro-Caribbean and my beloved is a Black man. We have a small but not tightknit set of friends. I have this feeling that i need to prepare for conflict or escape, but i am not even sure what kind. i compare it to how Lauren Olamina felt in Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower, and yet she knew the possible dooms she was faced with. i have asked friends to stay in consistent contact to check up on one another. i have considered setting up go-packs in case i need to rapidly leave to the next major city, ensuring that we have cash available if anything. the thing i feel is lacking is trustworthy community. wondering how others are preparing as well and to what extent.
I'm still learning and thinking about the potential impacts of a contested election - or even just general continued escalation of tensions by the far right. I definitely don't feel prepared but want to be, and I want to get involved with community preparedness. I just started listening to the podcast It Could Happen Here after hearing Robert Evans's interview on Live Like the World is Dying. It's strange to listen to it now, as it was produced last year - so much of what has happened this year has sped us up on the road to (and obviously resulted in, in some places) violent conflict between political factions in the US. Like I said, still learning a lot - interested to see others' takes.
I live in the Hudson Valley in NY. A lot of my friends who live in NYC aren’t as worried about a contested election as I am. I do think tensions run a little higher in the rest of the state than they do in the city, since there’s a significant white supremacist stronghold that is consistently agitated by living in a “blue state.” My partner and I live on the campus of a Quaker middle/high school where he is a teacher. The school has had its BLM sign stolen three times now, and the admin has gotten so many emails and phone calls from “concerned citizens,” about how the school is supporting a “terrorist organization.” Also a couple months ago there was a clash near us between BLM demonstrators and MAGA counter-protestors. A couple people were shoved and one of the organizers seems like they were pretty deeply emotionally wounded. I am white, so I will be less impacted by tensions running high than a lot of my neighbors, but that doesn't mean I just want to sit idly by. However, I am at a bit of a loss about what I will do. I’m a new mother and all the ways I used to function as an activist feel like they’ve had to shift. All the friends I went to J20 with are ready to mobilize in the same way and I don’t feel comfortable doing anything like that while I'm responsible for a baby. We have been supporting a couple of the school teens who are organizing. But nothing feels like it's enough.