About a week ago, Trump was elected as 47th. President of the United States
For some reason, if you serve non-consecutive terms, you get a new number. No real clue why it is. While I disagree with this format, I'll go along to prevent confusion.
And I've been very depressed since. To be fair, I was already a little depressed before the election results. I was dealing with some stuff at the house and work that was killing my spirit to put it bluntly, but this news just took anything I had left.
For the past week, I've barely had the energy to do anything that wasn't going to work and basic maintenance like hygiene and showers.
Sometimes i only barely had the energy for showers.
It's very rough. People have said some version of "we've survived four years of him before, we can survive four more" While I understand the sentiment, and I haven't the heart to be a killjoy while folks are seeking reassurance in these tough times, alot of folks did not in fact survive. There are lots of folks that still aren't surviving.
I don't need to go through the entire list but.....
- immigrants
- poor people
- members of the LGBTQ+ community
are just a few of the groups that were on the chopping block last time he had a turn at the wheels of power. I'm a bit more comfortable that the 2nd Trump administration will be too much of a circus to actually do any of the damaging fashy shit,
Especially seeing some of his cabinet positions. Gaetz as Attorney General? That guy couldn't argue his way to a win in traffic court. also he's allegedly a sex trafficker.
but I've still been thinking about how I'm gonna get involved locally to help build power in my neighborhood.
Alot of this is scary, especially since I really have no actual clue what I should really be doing. No clue what projects I should pursue to make my city a better place. However, one big resolution I'm gonna commit to is no more out-of-state FGC majors.
I might make an exception for CEO, since I'll wanna try it once before Desantis makes it the third reich with gators.
I'm still gonna go to events local to the GA area like Climax of Night and Max Mode. Those are relatively cheap for me to attend and enjoy myself at. But I'm gonna hold off on going to Combo Breaker at least until I feel the federal government isn't under threatening GOP rule.
The main reason for this is money. Combo Breaker cost me about a grand to attend. I saved about $450 because they overbooked and I got to stay in a nearby hotel for free, but I spent about 400 buckaroos on food, lyfts to and from the venue, and merch. This isn't even counting what I spent on the registration fees for the event itself which were like uhhh $115 dollars or so.
That's alot of money. Money that I can spend and be fine because I have an ok job and live with my family, so I have a little bit of expendable income, however, i feel that kinda money can be better spent elsewhere. think of how much that $1k could go towards direct aid campaigns?
A lot of lefties online refer to these as mutual aid, but it's usually one way, so direct aid is probably the btter descriptor. I suppose it can be mutual aid in that I can go asking for help with a gofundme and expect folks to give from their hearts, but in purely academic terms these are mostly directaid campaigns. which is still fine and valid.
mutual aid orgs? the literal hundreds of donation campaigns for palestenians asking for help to escape a genocide?
I think maintaining a strong FGC will be important in some regard. I don't think going to Combo Breaker and having the time of my life again will be the way to fight fascism, but maintaining good healthy social spaces will be good maintenance that can go towards the great power building I was talking about earlier, but spreading my wealth to others in my community that have a greater need is more important to me.
If I have money to go out of town for the weekend, I have money to donate to activists, foodbanks, and other initiatives that align with my views. If you don't want to do this, then I won't consider you to be a bad person or anything. Honestly, this resolution is a gut reaction to a major tragedy. Maybe I'll change course when im given some time to think it over a bit more. Maybe there's some way for me to do praxis AND spend money going to Chicago. Who knows?
I'feel pretty strongly about this, even though I still don't really know what to do. I still don't really know how to fight this. I know I'm no main character, and any solution to this tragedy will be found in concert with others, but I'm still gonna try. I'm gonna throw shit at the wall till something sticks or secret service escorts me from Elon Musk's desk.