Disciples Of Chaos

senior logistics strategist at Hewlett Packard. $140,000 / year. requirements: three separate MBAs, fifteen years of business experience, no "ethnic" grandparents, unearned sense of confidence

"customer success ambassador" at Glurp. $70,000 / year, give or take, since 90% of your pay is based on commission. requirements: associate's degree, no experience, has never heard the phrase "pyramid scheme," no sense of shame

You fight for the rights of racialized trans women first and foremost, because they are the most marginalized out of all of us. That's the only way you get rights protected for white trans women, for non-binary people, for trans men, and yes even for cis women.

You cannot guarantee any of our rights if you try to deny the rights of racialized trans women. And I don't mean that as purely a moral statement, I mean you physically cannot do it. If you make allowances for one marginalized group to continue being oppressed, then you've left the door wide open for all of us to continue being oppressed. And the fascists will walk right through that door with ease every single time. Just look how they carved out exceptions to deny trans women bodily autonomy, which then led directly to abortion rights being overturned.

You fight for the rights of racialized trans women first and foremost, because they are the most marginalized out of all of us. That's the only way you get rights protected for white trans women, for non-binary people, for trans men, and yes even for cis women.

You cannot guarantee any of our rights if you try to deny the rights of racialized trans women. And I don't mean that as purely a moral statement, I mean you physically cannot do it. If you make allowances for one marginalized group to continue being oppressed, then you've left the door wide open for all of us to continue being oppressed. And the fascists will walk right through that door with ease every single time. Just look how they carved out exceptions to deny trans women bodily autonomy, which then led directly to abortion rights being overturned.

You fight for the rights of racialized trans women first and foremost, because they are the most marginalized out of all of us. That's the only way you get rights protected for white trans women, for non-binary people, for trans men, and yes even for cis women.

You cannot guarantee any of our rights if you try to deny the rights of racialized trans women. And I don't mean that as purely a moral statement, I mean you physically cannot do it. If you make allowances for one marginalized group to continue being oppressed, then you've left the door wide open for all of us to continue being oppressed. And the fascists will walk right through that door with ease every single time. Just look how they carved out exceptions to deny trans women bodily autonomy, which then led directly to abortion rights being overturned.

You fight for the rights of racialized trans women first and foremost, because they are the most marginalized out of all of us. That's the only way you get rights protected for white trans women, for non-binary people, for trans men, and yes even for cis women.

You cannot guarantee any of our rights if you try to deny the rights of racialized trans women. And I don't mean that as purely a moral statement, I mean you physically cannot do it. If you make allowances for one marginalized group to continue being oppressed, then you've left the door wide open for all of us to continue being oppressed. And the fascists will walk right through that door with ease every single time. Just look how they carved out exceptions to deny trans women bodily autonomy, which then led directly to abortion rights being overturned.

You fight for the rights of racialized trans women first and foremost, because they are the most marginalized out of all of us. That's the only way you get rights protected for white trans women, for non-binary people, for trans men, and yes even for cis women.

You cannot guarantee any of our rights if you try to deny the rights of racialized trans women. And I don't mean that as purely a moral statement, I mean you physically cannot do it. If you make allowances for one marginalized group to continue being oppressed, then you've left the door wide open for all of us to continue being oppressed. And the fascists will walk right through that door with ease every single time. Just look how they carved out exceptions to deny trans women bodily autonomy, which then led directly to abortion rights being overturned.

You fight for the rights of racialized trans women first and foremost, because they are the most marginalized out of all of us. That's the only way you get rights protected for white trans women, for non-binary people, for trans men, and yes even for cis women.

You cannot guarantee any of our rights if you try to deny the rights of racialized trans women. And I don't mean that as purely a moral statement, I mean you physically cannot do it. If you make allowances for one marginalized group to continue being oppressed, then you've left the door wide open for all of us to continue being oppressed. And the fascists will walk right through that door with ease every single time. Just look how they carved out exceptions to deny trans women bodily autonomy, which then led directly to abortion rights being overturned.

>Hear people constantly complaining that the current union leadership is super corrupt, it's all just the same ten guys making all the decisions in secret and nobody else in the union ever gets to know what's going on

>Go to the monthly union meetings that are completely open to all 1200 union members

but like literally in my early 20s I started going to my local party's meetings regularly and with-in a few months they were like "hey you want to be on the committee to re-write our by-laws?" yes, yes I do thank you. "hey you want to get elected to be one of our representatives to the meetings of the state party?" why yes thank you so I got to go and debate the budget of a swing state Democratic Party.

I had to move for work not that much after that but like people I know from that have been delegates to the DNC, have elected officials come to their homes for events. Literally there's a middle aged lady I know who when Hillary Clinton decided to run for President, Hillary started with a small tour on a van, she called it her Scooby Van, and her first stop in New Hampshire, with its "first in the nation" primary was to a bakery in my home town and the person she sat with at what was her first or second official campaign stop of her run for President is a lady I know who isn't some super secret Democratic overlord or anything but a local lady who volunteers a lot.

Just the other day I got invited to meet my Senator (again) tomorrow I'm going to meet my state's governor (again) because I volunteer, if I wanted I could likely get to be a delegate to the DNC

In my first three years on the library board, we

a) lost a librarian to a car accident,

b) hired an interim librarian,

c) hired a permanent librarian,

c) wrote an anti-censorship policy,

d) balanced the library budget three years running,

d) started a Friends of the Library group,

e) organized our social media campaign,

f) joined the statewide electronic catalog, and

g) quadrupled our library membership.

So when I ran for library board for my second term, I got voted in with 100% of the votes cast... and I also won an open seat on the school board as a write-in candidate with 19 votes; and I lost an election to the Select Board (our 'mayoral' system is a 3-person board) by just 38 votes out of 450 cast.

So now I'm solving library problems on the one hand, and solving school board problems on the other hand. It's an education in educational policy and finance — federal and state aid programs, local policy on athletics and sports and core education vs arts funding, union negotiations, and more. If I ever decide to run for select board again, I'm going to be much better informed and prepared to understand the issues. Meanwhile...

Just yesterday, I drove through a town of 65,000 people. There was a group of people on a street corner holding up "pro labor" signs and "free Palestine" signs and "anti-war" signs, and "Jill Stein for President" (mind you, this is March 2025 -- there isn't a presidential election until 2028!) and "The Green Party wants your vote!" signs. There were maybe ten of these folks?

So when I got home, I went to their city's "Boards and Commissions" website. They have 19 vacant seats on various committees and boards and commissions, including two (the Wetlands Commission [wouldn't that be a Green Party issue??], and the Diversity Commission) that don't have enough members right now to hold meetings under state quorum rules. And there are 85 people on other commissions and boards that are up for re-election this year, and more than half of them don't want to keep running for these seats; they'd welcome a challenger.

In other words, the local community is STARVING for people to fill local government responsibilities.

I joined the board specifically because the balcony decks were rotting. It was a huge issue that affected the entire building: being as we were all in the same building with the same exterior cladding, we couldn’t all just individually pay to fix our own balconies, it was a systemic issue of the entire building. It required that we get one huge loan, managed by the HOA, then take off the exterior cladding not just for that side of the building but three sides. Once we did so we realized that the original construction company hadn’t put in waterproofing…….IN OREGON.

I see people on here declaring that HOAs are universally racist or have problematic histories and I’m like, “Yeah, so do unions!” The union movement in the U.S. was literally started because white workers didn’t like Black workers sharing the same benefits as them!

That doesn’t mean these community-based organizations aren’t open to change and open to your fucking participation!

If you don’t like how your union is run, PARTICIPATE.

If you don’t like how your HOA is run, PARTICIPATE.

If you don’t like how your HOA is run, PARTICIPATE.

(That person is usually a 70+ year old person who has Nothing Better To Do With Their Time and They Are Petty AF. Community apathy and fear is their Greatest Friend.

Does anyone really care that you haven't mowed your lawn yet? Not really. But That Person has Nothing But Time and Bylaws on their side because no one shows up.