I don’t see any real hope for change. We have no good leaders in this country, and it’s been the same throughout our history. So many people I know have either totally lost themselves in drugs and alcohol (understandable tbh) or offed themselves (also understandable). I’d like to think I could make a difference and try to live my principles, but it never works. There’s always someone there to steal any hope.
And we have two fascists of different degrees of awful up for election again, so yay that sure feels great. I’m supposed to be grateful?
I’m not asking for a perfect candidate, but when both candidates are committing atrocities – concentration camps at the border, sending arms to a genocidal regime, hastening the death of our planet by protecting capitalism, using marginalized groups as pawns, dehumanizing homeless people, etc. – it’s not like there’s any good candidate at all. What? We’ll just harm fewer groups of people? Or different groups? You’re still causing harm. That should not be remotely acceptable.
And yeah I’m involved locally, but so what? Do you think I only care about myself? Does that help the Palestinians, or the innocent people in those concentration camps? Does it help the people being tortured? I’d have to be completely self centered to only care about what happens locally, and I never see potential for meaningful change locally. What are they gonna do? Add another park bench or walking trail while people die in captivity? I’d kill myself to help, if it would do any good.
Over a long enough timeline? Yes.
The more we can build a movement for progressive change, the more that change will filter up from the small things to the big things. The more we improve the lives of the people around us, the more energy those people will have to improve the lives of people far away. The more we can work to educate the people around us and help them break down regressive thought patterns and throw off centrist and right wing propaganda, the more receptive they’ll be to talking about progressive global politics as well as progressive local politics.
Yes, this sucks. We want to solve the big scary problems right now. We want everything to change right now. But that’s not going to happen.
You eat an elephant one bite at a time. You can despair at the things you can’t change, or you can focus on the things you can change. Those are, unfortunately, the only real choices.
And I do understand the despair your feeling. Please trust me on that. I say all of this from a place of sympathy. It’s really difficult right now, and finding hope is a battle every day.
I help people in my line of work, and I also see them harmed by the system. I’ve had family detained and deported who I’ll probably never see again, and if I try to vent about how much that sucks and how awful our government is, I get accused of supporting Trump and being a Russian bot, even though I voted for the Democrats’ horrible waste of a candidate.
That’s one of the hardest parts: So many people, both Democrats and Republicans, treating politics like some sports game that doesn’t affect them, and we’re not even allowed to complain or criticize the sitting president without being dismissed and pushed away. I guess that’s part of the marginalization, but damn I wish at least one party existed that didn’t treat people so shittily.