Like, not to be an anarcho-communist on main
but i’m so tired of hearing liberals talk about how “can’t we just have one day to breathe” literally every single time anyone criticizes B*den or H*rris. Y’all wanted “one day” during the entirety of the election process, then election day, and the days following, and now inauguration, and probably for the next four years
because it’s so much easier for y’all to ask for more time to enjoy yourselves vs actually acknowledging that Tr*mp was a symptom of a system working exactly as it was designed to and that B*den isn’t going to fix everything for you if you ask him to, pretty please with a cherry on top, and then doing shit beyond pushing people to vote as if that’s the be all end all of activism
so, no. you can’t have “one day.” you’ve had too many days. and we’ve lost too many people.
I am begging people to understand what activist burnout is and why shit like this is so harmful. “Can’t we just have one day to breathe” isn’t privileged people flippantly asking for it to be over already so they can just go back to their daily lives, it’s the natural result of people seeing horrible things every hour of the day for years until they physically, mentally, and emotionally can’t stand it any more. “You’ve had too many days” no, we’ve had none, because every time there’s been a win there’s been people clamoring to say “Don’t you dare rest, don’t you dare celebrate, it’s not over”, to make people feel guilty for feeling anything but despair, for taking the smallest bit of time to not hurt, for doing anything but constantly reminding themselves of how awful the world is and how they have to fix it all before they can rest.
Guilt does not motivate. Shame does not motivate. They make the guilter feel better by establishing their moral superiority, but they only wear people down even faster. You have to let people rest. You have to celebrate small victories. You have to tune out and take a break sometimes. Because if you keep pushing everyone to be 100% all the time and treat things like rest and recuperation as something hedonistic and selfish (”enjoying yourselves”) rather than essential to the work of activism, you’re going to burn out. It is not selfish, it is necessary.
In prime of example of “two things can be true”, I’m gonna break out a choir metaphor.
You know those impossibly long sections of held note? Nobody holds the note the whole time. The whole group works together to sustain the note, with individuals dropping out for a breath when they need it. The overall momentum is sustained, with breaks on an individual level.
We cannot rest, but you can. And should. On a person to person basis, breaks are essential to keep up momentum.
So no, we cannot have one day. We cannot let up the pressure in this seemingly sisyphean effort. But yes, please allow yourself whatever rest you need to make your effort effective. Sustained, systemic effort will make a change over time.
Take a breath, celebrate our wins, rest when you need to, so that you can hold the note while someone else breathes.
I’ve noticed it’s the people most affected that ask for a rest only to get shouted down by wokeTM people.
