As we watch what’s happening to Twitter’s employees, I’m thinking a lot about workers across industries who deal with similar incompetent, unethical, and sometimes illegal management practices. And how they have to make tough choices without the kind of public attention that’s 1/ Currently on Twitter. Through the #metoo movement, the resurgence of unions, and good reporting we’ve heard about some of it.

But most stuff like this doesn’t get a public light. People resign. Companies continue to exist and people are left to deal with their trauma. 2/

This is the first time in my life that I’m turning to religion/spirituality for comfort, guidance, and community in a challenging moment.

I’d been so turned off from anything religious seeing how it’s weaponized in the US that I had to learn about and deconstruct white 1/ Evangelicalism before I was even open to my indigenous/ancestral religious and spiritual practices.

What I’m saying is that white evangelicals made me think religion and spirituality was so malicious and hateful that I had to study theirs and understand how they corrupted 2/

I want to share a convo I just had with someone about Roe, voting, and direct support in case it’s helpful to folks as they try to have convos about this.

Close family member: Hope this fuing ruling energies Democrats to get out to vote

Me: We’ve been voting. 1/ Close family member: May be more will come out this November

Me: I’m not sure what that would change

Close family member: Consequences of not voting for Hilary and helping elect Trump

Me: That’s right. About 80 million people are about to lose access to abortion. I think 2/

Watching “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” based on @adriennemaree’s recc! My god. She’s never had an orgasm.

I love organizers because organizing is about being in community and finding ways to solve problems together.

People may have preferences for strategies and tactics but organizers don’t define themselves by the tool they use.

I started organizing and became a lawyer around 1/ the same time and this was a big difference I noticed.

Organizers don’t stop organizing bc the tool they used or the tactic they used didn’t work. They keep going and working in community to take care of each other.

There’s also a really important thing I’ve noticed about 2/

Random question — if the pandemic were over tomorrow, what’s something you’d do or do differently? I really appreciated all the responses. A few reflections from me:

1) Lots of people like hanging out at bars and coffee shops in a way I do not. 😂
2) People really hang out with more than one friend at a time!
3) For a lot of folks it’s about doing things without fear or 1/

I was also without a pod physically through 2020 and spent a lot of time with my parents as a result.

With the vaccine, that got easier.

Now, in this new wave, I have set up my life a bit differently and made some choices to make all of it easier. 1/

https://twitter.com/_alexxaye/status/1479991786072326145

I think the biggest thing is that I realized the importance of having people physically proximate.

So, last summer, when @adotdar was looking to move, I really made a hard pitch for Astoria. Having her in walking distance has been a game changer. 2/

So, I think yes it is possible to organize people out of commitment to white supremacy and bigotry but I think it’s hard and takes deep investment that doesn’t align well with electoral politics.

There are models of how to do this that I’ve been looking at over the last yr. 1/

https://twitter.com/Sblahov/status/1455936421517221889

So, from what I’ve seen/read, what we’re talking about here is people’s hatred of people not like them — in the scholarship out group hatred.

This raises two questions: 1) how are people deciding which groups they’re part of? and 2) what makes them hate others? 2/

So someone reminded me that tomorrow was Election Day last year.

Remembering all the work @ElectionTask was doing last year. Including the events we were doing this time last year to explain the post-Election process to folks. 1/ Also, remembering the night of the election and being proud of the coverage and explanations we saw of the red blue shift. It took a huge coalition to inform that coverage and ensure it didn’t sow doubt in the results. 2/

It’s okay to change your mind about things or be curious about new ways to solve a problem.

I went to law school knowing our criminal legal system was broken and thinking being a “good” prosecutor is how I could help fix it.

Now I believe in abolition. I’m going to share a bit about why/how my mindset shifted:

I worked for the Manhattan DA’s office for 2 years out of law school. I wrote non-victim misdemeanor complaints up that were used at arraignment when people are first charged with crimes.

If Trump loses, a couple years from now very few people will admit they voted for him.

But we should collectively remember. Lots of people voted for him and will vote for him again.

It’s the banality of evil. Casual acceptance of fascism.

Forgetting is how history repeats. I’ve been thinking a lot about the fear and anxiety I feel in this moment.

How so many of us are just waiting for the election to be over so we can stop feeling this way.

But I hope we remember how this feels, so we never end up in this place again.

For all those worrier about the USPS, my colleagues @protctdemocracy are quoted here on countermeasures to protect it. Here’s what they said (thread):

slate.com/news-and-polit… Marsden and Schwartztol emphasize the importance of oversight and transparency, noting that Congress should investigate, and that their organization has also filed a lawsuit to force USPS to disclose its preparations for the election.

.@protctdemocracy’s mission statement is “Protect Democracy formed to prevent American Democracy from declining into a more authoritarian form of government.”

We’ve identified 6 buckets that are part of the dictator’s playbook:

https://twitter.com/Kantrowitz/status/1267590751795331072

1. Quashing dissent. Out projects to protect all Americans abilities to dissent are here and they include suing the President for 1st amendment violations: protectdemocracy.org/work/quashing-…

People have been asking what 3rd degree murder means (what the offer was charged with) and the different legal standards around some of this stuff in the case around the killing of #GeorgeFloyd. A thread: In criminal law there are two elements to a crime mens rea and actis rea.

So that’s the mental state and the act.

Different degrees of murder have different mental states and slightly different definitions of the act.

My guidelines and limits are slightly different. Thought I’d share mine too, in case they’re helpful:

https://twitter.com/ljoywilliams/status/1211359053647155201

1. I won’t attack people or name call. I can disagree with an argument or policy position but I do my best not to attack people.

As someone who has spent most of my time since November 2016 trying to stop the decline of democracy in the United States, I can’t really explain what it’s like to watch what’s happening in India (the country I was born in and am from) right now. I grew up hearing a few repeated stories about India.

One was about partition - my grandfathers on both sides were refugees from Pakistan to India.

The second was about the pluralism of India. My mom would talk about the mosque, temple and Gurdwara being next to each other.

It’s really hurtful that some people see turbans and view that as something to be afraid of.

Sikhs wear the turban/have long hair as a way to be publicly identified as in service to others. The idea is if you see someone in a turban, you’d know you could go up and ask for help. Also

https://twitter.com/aditijuneja3/status/1107328278812073984?s=21

.@JillAbramson at @the_wing about her book saying, “I did make some errors.”

She added (I’m paraphrasing) that as a journalist all you can do is try to fix errors as quickly as possible. “Whether to tape or not to tape is a great illustration of a theme in the book...my mentors definitely said ‘don’t tape, it creates a barrier’”....”it is a generational divide and a technological divide.”

Favorite podcast with a woman host? I really like podcasts that do interviews! I’ll try all the ones I haven’t already and let you know what I add to my rotation!

I don’t remember the Anita Hill hearings (I was 1), but I’ve seen the movies/documentaries and read the book.

I know a lot of people are in deep despair right now but I think that Dr. Christine Blasey Ford is another step towards progress. Still too slow. Thread: 1. I’ll say at the outset that I think it very much matters that Dr. Christine Blasey Ford is white. If this were a Black woman and a Black nominee, the dynamics and culture would be different.

People’s response to McCain’s passing and his memorial today shows me that we are very bad at nuance. John McCain fought for and served his country. He had a life dedicated to serving the public.

He also made a number of racist comments over the years and consistently voted in ways that hurt marginalized people. Also, Sarah Palin.