Eb: Bringing back this 2016 banger: Hi! During the upheaval of your glorious revolution, I need to know what kind of healthcare you'll have in place. People who depend on steady supplies of lifesaving medication don't suddenly stop existing during a revolution.

Bringing back this 2016 banger: Hi! During the upheaval of your glorious revolution, I need to know what kind of healthcare you'll have in place. People who depend on steady supplies of lifesaving medication don't suddenly stop existing during a revolution.

If you think we're expendable, I think your revolution is trash. I'm all for burning down an oppressive system, but not in a way that treats vulnerable people as acceptable losses.

The point of all this is: I'm seeing people who are pretty sure they can survive a revolution salivating at the current situation in the US. These are nominally the same people who believe in social justice and equity and all that good stuff, but: this isn't what that looks like.

So, either be honest with yourself that you really DON'T care about people at the most vulnerable, marginalized end of the spectrum or stop thinking of us as expendable.

From a thread first published on Twitter Dec 8, 2016.

Context:

Yeah, the language of "revolution" was very December 2016-specific. The sentiment of needing to plan to support vulnerable people in practical ways including making sure folks get necessary medical care? Not so specific to that time.

And for everyone who thinks I don't know the status quo sucks there's this and more:

Also, I know not everyone has access to their necessary meds already, both inside US borders and elsewhere in the world. I think about my fear and then immediately about Disabled folks in war zones. And that... makes me really angry. And sad. And frustrated. I want this all to be better.

Or as if they’re tradeable/outweighable with vulnerable people of the future who we’ll definitely start taking care of once we’re done revolting.

Actually, now that I think about it, I just described effective altruism. 😖

Just those two words together in that order provoke in me such a burning rage.

lol me too. Those eugenicist fuckers.

And that's my follow back cue.

I'm a big fan of "begin as you mean to go on".

Likewise for me, "propaganda of the deed." You can tell me all the high minded ideals you want; your actions and how you go about them are always your most honest manifesto.

The thing is what it does, always.

God, ain't it just.

I mean, I think most people DO, it’s just sometimes they SAY they’re gonna change.

Oh, I also think that.

You’re totally right but the thing is, this applies to everyone in a modern technology-dependent society. No one is equipped to survive the revolution. No one. Anyone who thinks they are, has watched way too fucking much zombie apocalypse fiction.

(Appreciate the point, and I’m more communist than anarchist, but unless you think people in Gaza are expendable then the status quo is also trash) -the most Bluesky post

I was actually just about to say something about that but my browser keeps lagging. I also did say I'm in favor of burning down oppressive systems.

And I sort of think you mean that to be derogatory, that saying abandoning vulnerable people to the upheaval of revolution is trash is "the most bluesky post", but also, what's happening in Gaza is not a revolution.

Also, I wrote this thread in 2016 on Twitter. So.

No just sort of an aside like I take your point

Yeah but i got your point like some revolution fever is like so black pilled, like caring about people isn’t a switch people remember to flip on like in a dexter episode or something

Hung with the RCYB for about a year as a teen. Quickly came to the conclusion that they were more interested in breaking than building, and ran far away.

I had a burst appendix in 2019 and I don't think people realize how many people die of pretty simple things even in good time.

Too many asshats don't really get that revolutions are hard and full of fucking depravation.

Lots of folks working on mutual aid and developing capacity to take care of one another. Fwiw I don't think anyone sees a glorious revolution coming, but if things keep being this badly mismanaged things will fall apart on their own.

Yeah, the language of "revolution" was very December 2016-specific. The sentiment of needing to plan to support vulnerable people in practical ways including making sure folks get necessary medical care? Not so specific to that time.

To be fair, around that time is when I started my own mutual aid project and then burned out two years later, so.

I just kind of bristle at the idea that we can count on the status quo continuing to meet our needs. It never met everyone's needs, and it seems like it's trending worse, even with Dems in office. Too few of us have access to medicine already.

That wasn't my point then or now.

Also, I know not everyone has access to their necessary meds already, both inside US borders and elsewhere in the world. I think about my fear and then immediately about Disabled folks in war zones. And that... makes me really angry. And sad. And frustrated. I want this all to be better.

I live on SSI and SSDI in Indiana and most of my life is trying to figure out how to survive in government-enforced poverty. I am honestly terrified at what I see coming and the only thing consistently keeping me going is that I have to take care of my dogs.

Some of us can't be taken care of without meds which require massive, extremely expensive supply chains and extremely fancy labs. Plus institutional knowledge. Look up the manufacturing process for intravenous immunoglobulin.

I'll admit I am not a logistics/global supply chain expert, but I will take your word for it. I think we should do what we can to get more involved in these systems because lives are on the line if they falter, and the status quo is seeming more untenable every day.

A month's supply of IVIG requires somewhere between 15,000 & 50,000 plasma donations in raw materials, and the purity requirements are so high that a lot of it gets thrown out. Without it, my autoimmune lung disease would gradually suffocate me.

Fwiw I'll go donate plasma on Monday. I don't have answers on how to keep something this complicated going, but I'll do what I can to make sure it does.

Thank you. The stuff is so scarce, a lot of people who need it can't get it.

Revolutionaries are usually elitists and eugenicists.

Nationalist fuckheads.

One positive of the current system is drug companies have to reveal all to get a patent. They can obfuscate it, but it's all there. Get the scientists who make the stuff on board to create DIY guides (including alternative ingredients) and you're halfway to an equitable revolution.

Unfortunately, a lot of leftists in America are resorting to this because they believe the system is truly unbreakable and cannot be resolved without bloodshed or violence.

Well, until they very tragically do. But that's the cost of a glorious revolution, comrade.

are you saying that “people” are taken care of now or that you are taken care of now and you are comfortable with your care at the cost of everyone else who suffers under imperialism and racial capitalism?

I'm saying read the goddamn thread before you try to score off of me.

i did - i was asking you a question. you seem to be insinuating that everyone who wants a revolution doesn’t do care work or simply wants people to die casually or be left behind. im just curious if that was your view.

Post