seema commented on a post
"Since we did not always have this knowledge and now feel motivated by it's, it's easy to assume that if others knew how bad things were, they, too, would want to take action. This assumptions can sometimes lead activists to beecome walking, talking encyclopedias of doom"
Hello, that's me👋🏽 a recovering encyclopedia of doom🙃 I know how frustrating it can be to scream at the top of your lungs the injustices of the world, to get angry at people for deciding to look the other way and only get involved in the issues that affect them. But lately I've been thinking of empathy as a muscle, something that must be trained. I was on tumblr in the 2010's where everyone was a social justice warrior, so I have been training my empathy for more than a decade, but we must give some leniency to those who want to learn but are still making mistakes.
Now this is work for the people who want to be organizers, as I always like to clarify, we should not expect marginalized people to educate their oppressors!! But I (and so many more) have decided to make it my life goal to do it. Because I have faith that people can change and can improve, and that most people hurt each other because they don't know better. The first chapter talks about the power of storytelling, how facts alone are not enough we have to get people involved. I used to get angry when I thought about homophobic people who only started caring about lgbtq+ communities once someone they loved shared that they were queer, I thought it was selfish, and that it meant that they could only care for the issues that affected them. But by thinking of empathy as something that has to be trained, I realized that once you start caring for people you are more likely to spread that empathy towards other communities, but it has to start somewhere.
If we give our backs to the people who want to improve but make mistakes, they will never join our cause. For example, most antivaxxers are afraid and don't know who to trust, and if they are treated as stupid when searching for information, then they will go to the communities that embrace them. That's why the labor of organizers it's so important, because we can open the doors to people who want to be part of the change, who want to imagine a better world for everyone but have been coluded by capitalist propaganda.
seema commented on Claire's update
Claire started reading...

A Man Called Ove
Fredrik Backman
seema commented on baileyisbooked's update
Post from the Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care (Abolitionist Papers) forum
How do we hope without a map—without being able to glimpse some identifiable point in the future where things might get better? And how do we act, if we don't know where our hope will come from?
Hey is it normal to already be near tears just at the promise of reading a book full of people "stubbornly practicing hope" amidst these very bleak times? Asking for a friend... (as shocks no one, it's me, I'm the friend, in a phase of life where I'm very much looking to better align my behavior (job/hobbies/general approach to life) with my beliefs)
seema commented on seema's update
seema started reading...

Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care (Abolitionist Papers)
Kelly Hayes
seema started reading...

Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care (Abolitionist Papers)
Kelly Hayes
Post from the Like Water for Chocolate forum
I'm sorry, she's not even 18 yet??? How did I lose track of that I feel like she's lived 100 years worth of experiences.
Also, the way this book goes from food magic to violence/SA and right back again has me stressed outtttt 😭 I had no idea how much heavy content would be in here and the tone stays so casual all the while
seema commented on ChaosReader's update
ChaosReader started reading...

The River Has Roots
Amal El-Mohtar
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seema commented on seema's review of An Education in Malice
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seema commented on midnight_ruffles's review of An Education in Malice
It was okay. I enjoyed it in the beginning because I came up with (I say came up with because idk if was right) some parallels to the original Carmilla retelling. My interest took a nose dive when Isis was introduced. Everything after that, wasn’t really entertaining for me. I started disconnecting from the story.