Thread by @davidhogg111

This is just my own opinion-

I’ve spent a lot of time over the past near 4 years thinking about major obstacles I’ve noticed in progressive organizing currently and through out the 20th century (from research on social movements for my classes). Here are a few of the main ones

#1 The movement not taking care of itself and by that I mean the organizers not taking care of themselves. People acting as if a social movement is a campaign with a quick sprit and finish line and not an ultra marathon with no clear finish line.

#2 the orgs not having any hierarchy and being too horizontal resulting in attempts to make everyone happy ending up with no one being happy. The orgs that had a much more strict structure consistently outlasted the ones that didn’t in the 20th century.

#3 Big egos that care more about doing what’s best for themselves rather than the movement.

#4 People forgetting to have fun as they do the work especially young people. If there’s on thing I’ve learned from my research it’s that these movements can be incredibly traumatic and people need spaces to just breath and have fun as they do the work.

#5 The internal politics of leaders of organizations turning on each other when the movement hasn’t made much progress even if it’s literally no one in the movements fault and people lose hope and blame each other.

#6 a romanticizing of self harm/ martyrism not getting enough sleep, not eating, not doing stuff you enjoy, not taking a break from the movement if you need to get a job to feed yourself

#7 An emphasis on retributive justice for people within the movements rather than genuine restorative justice

TL;DR in my opinion movements and orgs fail when

-People don’t have fun
-People lose hope
-People don’t take care of themselves mentally, physically and financially
-People lack humility
-Leaders turn on each other
-There’s no clear vision or hierarchy

There will be many many people that disagree with this and that’s fine- we can still be friends and have our disagreements

If your interested in helping me write some essays on this feel free to dm. I’m in school rn so I don’t have time to write a ton so if you’d be interested in doing some paid ghost writing (while being in close conversation about the important points) lmk dm me.

I don’t have a ton of money but I feel like this stuff is important enough if could sacrifice coffee. For a month or two

You’re haha I’m proving part of exactly why I need a writter. Dyslexia is fun