Thread by @JuliusGoat

Coming to the conclusion our biggest problem isn't people of bad intention. It's an attitude of pre-defeated cynicism called "realism", which its practitioners consider wisdom, which only thinks of reasons why things won't get better, and refuses to imagine ways that it can.

If somebody suggests a solution to a problem, and the problem is real, and the solution is necessary, and your first response is to explain why the solution is impossible under present conditions, rather than to think of ways to change conditions, you are abetting the problem.

It does double-harm:

1st, it certifies the present conditions as inevitable and immutable. As the way it needs to be. As what's "real"

2nd, it drains energy from people of resolve and imagination. There's little more demoralizing than one who only agrees with you in principle.

People of bad intent have led us here to this bad place*, not because we were always here, but because they believed they could get us here by imagining it and fighting for it.

(*not to say we were in a good/great/perfect place before, but this is a worse place)

Their "unrealistic" belief that they could force a change to circumstances, to lead us from a better place to a worse one, is their advantage.

It's an advantage we give up, by insisting on being "realistic."

The only sure thing in the world is changing circumstance. Tomorrow WILL be different than today. We can imagine it better, or we can cling to the "realism" of present circumstance, and cede the great "unrealistic" power of imagining that difference to people of bad intention.

Believing that the situation as it stands now is the way it's always going to be, or that circumstances cannot be changed by imagining it and then working for it with determination, is the most unrealistic belief I can imagine.

Every "realist" I talk to seems to believe it, tho.

I deleted some tweets yesterday because they were prescriptive remedies, they pointed toward what we need to do to change unacceptable aspects of our society.

They received SO MANY reflexive answers along the lines of "that can't happen."

I just didn't have the energy for it.

Be "unrealistic." Imagine what needs to be done. Then imagine changing all circumstances that sit between present circumstance and that needed remedy. Then work for it—IT, not some 'realistic' compromise, not some half measure, with determination. Demand it. DEMAND it.

People of bad intent are going to imagine, they're going to work with resolve. They're going to demand.

We'd all better do the same.

Or, if you can't, then at least shut up. You're draining 'unrealistic' people of imagination who are doing crucial work.

Just being realistic.