#Repost @gogreensavegreen

You might be more than one. You might be different ones at different times. 🫶🏽🫶🏽 you might not be one of these. There are more roles 💪🏽 but this is an amazing intro.

You can’t just like the idea and envision yourself in one of these roles you have to figure out how to be about it ♥️🫶🏽

The article is under the cut because paywalls suck

These are people that believe perception and PR are everything, so they're trying to create the perception that they can destroy and remake government without consequences or constraints. And for a while people were stunned and overwhelmed by the ugliness of it all.

But now people are moving. Many, many lawsuits have been filed and the people are starting to claim their power.

It gives her a sense of peace and purpose I guess. Which is good, she’s been struggling to find that with her injuries and condition. She’s learning skills, and feeling prepared for “the worst”. Like I can’t get her to stop watching conspiracy theory bullshit on YouTube so at least this kind of content alleviates some of the anxiety the other content amplifies, because she feels like she can do something now to secure her safety later.

But to get through these conversations, I have to tell myself— hey, if natural disaster comes our way, some of this might be useful. But I know she’s not just thinking a big storm or natural disaster. She’s preparing for the collapse of society. And I don’t know how to break it to her that we wouldn’t survive that. You can make long lasting candles with crisco? Cool. Where you going to by crisco when society collapses? You’ll stock up now? Ok cool. What will you do when it runs out? Honestly, before it runs out, what will you do when people with guns come to take your various stockpiled supplies?

If we hit a point where society collapses, we’re done for. Food, medicine, etc. we can’t survive without society, without a world where people are working together trying to help each other out.

Get her into a fibercraft. Sewing, knit, crochet. Because here’s the thing:

At first, you can pitch it as “we’re all still gonna need clothes and these idiots with their doomsday bunkers can’t even thread a needle.” But after awhile—let this take a bit of time, not so long that she gets bored but long enough that she’s like “I’ve DONE this already”—introduce her to a slightly more advanced concept. She was practicing on circle skirts? Check out how to make darts. Crochet blankets? There are SO MANY cool stitches.

And then when the craft has a decent grip as a hobby….THEN you introduce her to a crafting social group.

So I started casually mentioning i wanted to do Search and Rescue- knowing my father is incredibly competitive and will try and out do me.

I was all "but we can't rely on the government to find people!"

Now he has been on 6 different tours in the US. He is a field commander and the most successful in state history.

He independently made a partnership with a Black and Missing coalition and partners with them on searches for Black Ohio and.

He called me the other day so proud he has " a Trans and a nonbinary whatever that is" on his search team. So is he perfect? No. But now he isn't toting a gun around and threatening people.

He's getting better. Sure he built a secret bunker in the basement. But he's recovered multiple bodies and reunited people with loved ones.

Sure we still can't have a conversation without him divulging into some bigoted speak here and there.

But he's been lead in recovering teens trafficked from our state and successfully recovered them in Georgia in 10 hours.

Sure he isn't perfect. But he didn't fall completely and maybe he will become even better on his own.

He has given gifts to the other inmates for Christmas using the donations people sent his commissary account.

He appears to have attempted to communicate through flashing his cell lights to show his supporters outside that he could hear them cheering for him (this exact light flashing is what inmates at the previous prison did to communicate to the news that they were in support of Luigi, so he may have learned it from them and taken this form of light communication with him to MDC.)

It is rumored he is paying for the other inmates' healthcare using donations to his commissary account.

Inmates who shared time with him at the Penn prison say he 'gave them a voice' when they 'had never had one before' (in reference to the collective shouting 'Free Luigi' the inmates did.

Part of how authoritarianism works is telling you that you can't stop it. And you can't stop it by yourself. But it wants to stop the train of thought there and let you fall into despair.

You need to remember the next part: you don't have to stop it by yourself.

In the second comic, which is from the Monster’s point of view, the Monster says that this has to happen; it can’t come with the Warrior, and there will always be another.  It tells the Warrior to use what they have learned to fight.  It wants to die knowing that the Warrior has hope for the future.  It dissolves into mist, and the exhausted Warrior collapses. The new baby Monster comes and brings the Warrior some water in a leaf.  Because we are reading this in the Monster’s voice, we realize that it is a new Monster, but also somehow, magically, the same.  We also see that the Monster is not inherently evil.  It is only very strong, and inevitable.

The third comic is a dialogue between the Monster and the Warrior.  The Warrior is exhausted and horrifically wounded. The Monster is also horribly maimed.  They are both dying. The Warrior doesn’t want to fight anymore.  The Monster tells them to rest and heal. The Warrior hands over their amulet, and we see the Monster’s paw become a hand just before they both dissolve into mist.  It clears, revealing that the Monster has turned into a beautiful humanoid, who says they will take care of the new baby monster the Warrior has turned into.  The two have changed roles.  The Warrior takes up the former Warrior’s gear and strides into the new year with the new baby Monster riding on their shoulders.

care for gaza - focuses on providing food and essential supplies. donate here or here.

connecting humanity - securing internet access via donations of virtual sim cards (esims). if you can't afford a whole plan yourself, crips for esims is a communal pool that will use your donation to purchase and maintain esims

gaza soup kitchen - provides food, medical care, and classes for children. also has a gofundme

glia gaza medical support initiative - provides medical care through field clinics and tents at hospitals. donations can also be sent through their website.

ele elna elak - provides clean water, food, clothing, and shelter. they also have a gofundme

life for gaza - raising money for the gaza municipality to repair water and waste management infrastructure

taawon - partners with local civil organizations to provide food, water, medical care, shelter, and basic supplies

the sameer project - running various initiatives providing tents, medical care, and necessities. they have their own encampment project focused on sheltering families with children, sick and disabled members, or members in need of perinatal care

islamic relief worldwide's gaza emergency appeal - provides food, water, hygiene kits, medical supplies, and psychological support

baitulmaal - provides a variety of necessities, including food, water, shelter, and medical supplies

gaza mutual aid fund - distributes food, hygiene products, water, and other essential supplies, including financial support. run by @/el-shab-hussein's amazing friend Mona. updates can be found on her instagram.

hygiene kits for gaza - provides hygiene supplies including menstrual products, wipes, and toothbrushes/toothpaste

anera - provides a variety of necessities, including food, water, hygiene supplies, medicine, blankets and mattresses, and psychological care

palestine children's relief fund - provides supplies and support with a focus on children. also has an initiative for lebanon

dahnoun mutual aid - provides water, food, tents, baby supplies, financial support, and other necessities. updates can be found through their instagram

Harm reduction is sexy! Community care is sexy!

I grew up in Connecticut, not too far from Greenwich and all those super expensive places. And it was really formative; as to how I saw class and economics.

It's back on my mind lately - with politics being what it is.

I used to dumpster dive behind the malls around Greenwich, in the early 2000s, before they installed trash compactors that crush everything inside. And the waste, from designer brands, was insane. All sorts of luxury fashion, spray painted orange or slashed to destroy it, and thrown in the trash. Well, I was a grungy bitch who had paint thinner, and a needle and thread. So I pulled out anything I could find made of real leather. (Because, luxury or not, pleather and fake fur are trash IMO)

Even the designer shit made its way back to the trash; them shoes hurt and I was too young and dumb to know how much they would have sold for.

Anyway - it really painted a picture of a group of people too afraid to let their status indicators fall into the hands of someone poorer. And ironically, made me see designer goods as trashy shit, because I couldn't shake the feeling of "That looks like some crap you'd find in the dumpster" when I see it.

As I got older; I started to see that the predominant way the ultra rich reacted to me was fear and discomfort. Not that I was doing anything wrong (or not tooooo much :) ) - other than being in their spaces with a non-normative look.

Who are you even talking about?

I think the idea of the 1% as the exploitative class is all wrong; it's a misdirection. Look at this graph of the average person's wealth per percentile. (source) (And just to frame this graph; this is just talking about the US, one of the richest countries.)

The top 10%, middle 40%, and bottom 50% all blend together into one line, that is so negligible that none appear to even diverge from the X axis. I'm an engineer and I'm solidly in the middle 40% for reference.

The 1% is the orange line, sliiiightly above. People like successful small business owners, dentists and doctors, etc... They have a chance of landing here.

The purple line is the top 0.1 %, and the 0.01 is magenta. They have the kind of money you can only get by being in the owning class, and gatekeeping access to resources IMO.

And their wealth is increasing exponentially. (hi compound interest. you make it real easy to turn money into more money, if you start with a lot)

Billionaires aren't even plotted on this graph; they're rarer than 0.01% of the population.

It seems like even references to the top 0.1% often get scrubbed from the internet; see this since-deleted article for an example.

So what's the big secret?

Rich people are really fucking scared of us. They know they're the country's biggest minority, and are utterly terrified of the rest of us noticing they exist.

No, not even afraid of us doing anything. Just speaking of their existence or looking at them is enough to freak them the hell out.

The word "Exclusive" is thrown about a lot; and to be blunt about what it really means? You need a certain level of wealth (or highly invasive background checks, for staff) to gain access to an exclusive space.

I think that exclusivity is often seen as snobbishness. But as someone who grew up very close to it, and yet outside of it; I think I saw it for what it was - fear.

I'd often pull up to 'exclusive' towns because fuck it, I like the beach, I like nice things, and I'm creative enough to find a way around quite a few barriers to entry. (Or, lacking creativity, sporty enough to just leg or bike it in to places that were designed to be car-centric and access-controlled.)

And my being working class, and being there terrified them. I grew up in a hunting community, and the biggest secret of the ultra rich? They're used to going unseen. If you do see them, they look at you with the eyes of a prey animal. Real deer-in headlights ass looks.

How do you even find these exclusive places?

Look for a void. Look for the places on Google maps that are unlisted. Look for the areas on Google maps that have no street-view. Their presence is exposed by their silence.

None of this crowd have social media, or at least not under their real names. Their homes aren't registered under their real names, they're registered to trusts or businesses. Often, many layers of them, to obscure their presence.

Look for where you can't easily get to. Look for hostile infrastructure, and look for a way over it. Look at how highways are used to red-line neighborhoods and render areas inaccessible.

Look for where private jets land. Then look for how the 'help' gets to work. Look for golf courses, grab a drink at their bar.

And if you go, and you want to freak out a 0.01%er?

All you gotta do it look at them.

few years ago I was trying to find a road my highschool teacher took us on to the top of a hill over looking my town. I kept trying to find a way but every road that lead up there seemed to terminate and become an "invisible road" that OP mentioned

turns out? All of that up there in the hills had turned into high class ranch getaways and fancy spas, it didn't look like it from satellite view but doing little digging told the truth

And even more wild? So theres this tiny road down below by my old house, one that I literally walked/drove by throughout my childhood, this tiny obscure fork right? All my life I'd just walk past it because it was at the end of a sort of corridor houses at the end of a really rural foresty road, and it was marked but two ancient stone pillars (theres lotsa that stuff around there) with really old wood signs saying keep out and private road right? And theres plenty of those around, so who cares right?

So surprise google street view don't go down it right? But the satellite imagery shows that its just a narrow road that should just take you out to the middle of nowhere? Out away from any towns or amenities? Seemly just a few ranches?

NO. Turns out that furtive pygmy of a fork in the road leads to a bunch of exclusive getaway joints that don't even have websites that normies can access, but I found enough forum posts about people who had driven out there on a lark and found out they were gated rich people ranches out there with security that won't even let you drive up to the gate unless you have authorization

That and posts from people who had gone up there to do plumbing work or electrician stuff and had an escort with them the whole time to make sure they do their job and leave immediately