“I wish it need not have happened in my time,“ said Frodo.
"So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
As a 30 year old man who escaped the Alt-right pipeline, you’re not going to be happy about the answer.
All I hear from leftists is how much they hate me for my immutable traits, how much they blame me for everything wrong with the world, how much they want me and everyone who looks like me dead.
Whereas Alt-right types would call me “brother” and welcome me into their ranks so long as I hated the right ways.
Do you understand the difference?
I’m an ally and support equality because I feel it’s the morally correct choice to make, but holy fuck is it difficult to reconcile that with the fact that means fighting for a lot of people who see you as the scum of the earth.
Read this and then read it again and then read some fucking bell hooks because this is a legitimate problem on the left.
“To create loving men, we must love males. Loving maleness is different from praising and rewarding males for living up to sexist-defined notions of male identity. Caring about men because of what they do for us is not the same as loving males for simply being.” – bell hooks, The Will to Change https://bellhooksbooks.com/product/the-will-to-change/
ive seen people say the left should appeal to men more but not ask why it doesnt already. well why do all these right wing grift influencers appeal to men?
its because they target impressionable young men who just got rejected and wanna hear that its womens fault no 1 wants to fuck them. i swear we need a big oily hyper masculine dudebro to start making videos titled “how to be instantly attractive to women” “15 male self improvement tips” “how i became an alpha male in 30 days” and the videos are just the guy sitting down and saying “hey dont stress about how you look or what other people think of you because the right person will love you for you. remember to take accountability for your actions and treat women with respect even when they reject you and see woman as people and not potential girlfriends” or something along those lines. like all his videos are just teaching self love, compassion for women, how to react to rejection ect then i swear there would be way more guys on the left
May I introduce you all to Dr. Nerdlove.
Harris O’Malley is a deeply compassionate man who saw this exact issue of young men not being met where they are and getting sucked into hate movements like Gamergate and Alpha Male dating optimizer bullshit. So he started a dating advice column to counter it. (Plus other social skills that isolated young men are missing out on).
He’s a really great example of a leftist man who took on the work to be there for young men in danger of listening to grifters. I don’t really see him talked about on this website. Good follow on Blue Sky, though.
“Helio da Silva, a retired business executive from Brazil, single-handedly planted over 41,000 trees in his hometown of Sao Paolo over the last two decades.
Flying over the Brazilian metropolis of Sao Paolo, it’s tough to miss the 3.2-kilometers-long and 100-meter-wide green strip of trees wedged between two of the city’s busiest roads. It is known as Tiquatira Linear Park, and it is the work of a single man who worked tirelessly for over 20 years in order to transform a previously dilapidated area into an actual jungle within the urban jungle that is Sao Paolo. Originally from the town of Promissao, about 500km from Sao Paulo, Helio da Silva was a successful business executive for many years, but after retiring, he took it upon himself to transform the degraded banks of the Tiquatira River into a green oasis for his community. He started planting trees there in 2003 and hasn’t stopped since.
73-year-old da Silva recently told AFP that he wanted to leave a legacy to the city that adopted him decades ago. Within the first four years of his epic project, he single-handedly planted 5,000 trees in an area that had long been abandoned and known to be frequented by drug dealers and users. His impressive feat prompted the municipality of Sao Paolo to recognize his efforts and acknowledge the area as the first linear park in Sao Paulo. This only emboldened da Silva, who continued planting native trees.
By 2020, Helio had planted more than 25,047 trees over a 3.2-km-long area, achieving a survival rate of 88 percent. For every 12 trees, he planted a fruit-bearing species in the hopes of attracting birds and animals to his green oasis. His bet paid off, as according to the municipality, 45 types of birds have been identified in the park. Today, the Tiquatira Linear Park numbers over 41,000 individual trees, and Helio da Silva doesn’t plan on stopping planting until he reaches at least 50,000 of them.
“My motivation comes from the trees themselves because trees give us flowers and fruits, absorb rainwater, attract birds and provide us with wonderful shade and fresh air,” da Silva told Common Earth.
The retired executive estimates that he spent about $7,000 per year on his tree-planting efforts since 2022, but the way he sees it, it was a worthwhile investment for himself, his family and the whole of Sao Paolo. Plus, he saved a lot of money by planting the trees himself.
Once labeled as crazy for spending most of his time planting trees in an area most people avoided, Helio da Silva is now hailed as a local hero. He sometimes receives help from like-minded nature lovers, but he is still the driving force behind this amazing project. Every Sunday, he comes to Tiquatira Park to plant more trees.
Over the years, the city gym and playground equipment, tables, benches, toilets, and Tiquatira Linear Park eventually became one of Sao Paolo’s most popular areas.”
-Article via OddityCentral, October 4, 2024. Video via France24, September 26, 2024.
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Note: ONE SINGLE PERSON CAN MAKE A SUCH A DIFFERENCE
I feel like people miss the point of the “war is bad” message
What it’s supposed to mean is that war is terrible, it’s destructive, it ruins lives, it leaves scars, and you should only partake in it when there are no other options, because even if you win, even if you survive, you will not be the same, which is why the phrase used to be more commonly known as “war is hell”
But “war is bad” seems to have been construed by people in fandom into “any fighting is bad, if you fight you’re morally terrible and impure, you should not fight at all, no matter what”, this is annoying in fandom, as it often misses the point fiction is trying to make, but what’s worrisome is when people apply this to real life, as I have seen people do regarding russia’s invasion of Ukraine
And that’s almost never the point of “War is Bad” works
Works like Lord of the Rings, Avatar The Last Airbender, Transformers, The Clone Wars, Halo (especially Reach), etc all have themes on how horrible war is, but they categorically do not say it is wrong to fight, what they say is usually along the lines of “war is terrible, and what makes it so terrible is that we have no choice but to fight, it would be ideal if we didn’t have to fight at all, but we must fight, because not fighting is not an option, because not fighting, not opposing tyranny, conquest, and evil only allows those things to exist unimpeded”
I feel like Trump voters think they’ll face less scorn now because their cult leader won a second time. We must prove them wrong and treat them with contempt for the rest of their miserable lives. We must never waver that supporting Trump is completely unacceptable and they’re forever on the wrong side of history.
Yes treat the cult members like garbage so that they have every reason to sink deeper into their beliefs and never escape the cult.
It’s not their victims’ fault to rehabilitate them, dumbass.
People who are experts in deradicalization can do that. A lot of them are already. I’m not one, and being nice to them and validating all their beliefs does the opposite of help and puts me in danger so I’m in fact going to continue to ignore them, thanks.
amhrancas 