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At book club last night (highly recommend Serviceberry) I had two realizations that feel important: 
1/n
1) bridging ideas (library economies) are super important to helping people move toward change
https://brightgreenfutures.substack.com/p/episode-25-library-economies-and
(she/her) @susankayequinn@wandering.shop2) we had a discussion about “making friends with the neighbors” vs. “making your friends into your neighbors (co-housing, buying out the neighborhood etc)” (latter is a real trend people yearn for; former is something we struggle with).
My neighborhood has many conservatives. My take: you’re not going to “make friends” w/ conservative neighbors without a lot of (probably fruitless) emotional labor on your side.
I see a lot of advocacy for this & I think it’s actually not the right approach...
3/n
"Work harder to connect w/conservatives" seems like moralizing (we *should* do it) or wishful thinking (we *wish* it was possible).
It’s posed as a solution to the fact that people love fascism, as if they’ll turn away if you just do more hard work to convince them...
4/n
You can make the effort to connect w/conservative neighbors but the culture doesn’t support it & it’s a honey trap for well-meaning liberals.
(No similar effort/push on the right—they’re cheering when their families lose their gov't jobs & when their neighbors get hauled away).
5/n
#fascism
So either you go completely counter-culture and import your friends to be your neighbors (this is happening more) or you look for opportunities/crisis and lean into that... like what happened recently with my HOA...
No way my neighborhood would come together for anything… but being sold out to a hostile corp HOA management company? That did it.
It disrupted the status quo enuf: people were roused self-organize & put aside any differences (politics literally didn’t matter) & work together.
7/n
#solarpunk
The critical difference: people were self-motivated.
This required no big emotional labor on the part of liberals, no hectoring & an actual problem to work together on.
Out of that grew the desire to get to know each other better, have block parties (again), etc.
Less happily, climate disasters provide status quo disruption (ask anyone who's lived through one).
Or when the immigrant who runs the Mexican restaurant is hauled away by ICE&the community rallies: people may might not have much in common, but they all like tacos.
Disrupt the status quo in a way no one likes & they're willing to put aside differences to fight it/change it.
(Of course not everyone will, but it doesn’t matter—you only need a majority to change the character of a town).
10/n
But be alert for when the crisis (or status-quo disruption) hits & be prepared to lean into it—because that's the real opportunity for change (and you'll be ready to meet the moment cuz you've been practicing).
If there’s one thing I’m sure of, it’s we’ll all be having crises going forward.
12/fin
@susankayequinn
Interesting thoughts.
In Germany we talk about similar strategies using the #solidarischesPreppen, I think.
I feel like it is beneficial to at least know your neighbours before the crisis hits.
Collaborating with complete strangers may be harder.
@Hippie I disagree, mainly because I *know* folks who have been through disasters and the neighbors who were strangers before *became friends* in the disaster
that's how that works
Would it be great to know your neighbors before a crisis? Sure. But the crisis is actually the *way* that people come together in reality (unless you already have some commonality).
Not saying don't try if you want — I'm saying don't feel like you have to or that it's necessary
@susankayequinn I live in a mixed rural village of progressives (a lot of tech folks who commute to a city 35 mins away) and a broad spectrum of Anabaptists (from more 'modern' Mennonite to Old Order/Amish etc.) Lots of religiosity, and some people certainly may hold "traditional" views but you will still see signs of support for all communities here. Perhaps it helps that many Mennonites are social justice oriented, I don't know. 1/2
@susankayequinn I'm on the local library board and I can tell you we do not get requests to remove books like in some places. You may not "win people over" exactly to your point of view, but if you can at least build a culture of mutual respect and tolerance hopefully leading to trust, it's a good start. 2/2
@mark yes but did you "build a culture of mutual respect and tolerance" or did your neighbors already have that culture and the fact that you do not have book bans is a reflection of that? Did you actively go out and convince them to have mutual respect? Or tolerance? Or was that already present and you were part of that as well?
These are critical differences.
The hectoring is that it's the left-leaning people's job to create that culture when they are not the ones who destroyed it.
@susankayequinn Good questions. I think it's a bit of both, as I mentioned many Mennonites are social justice oriented, that likely helps, but the community itself through the library, ag society, township sponsored community events, etc. do bring people from different backgrounds together regularly (kids/family events etc.) so there is a lot of mixing and socializing.
It may also help that there are no folks actively stoking division.
@mark ah, so you've got infrastructure in place that brings people (physically) together, and I would agree strongly that's key to building the kind of culture you have
So if the argument was "liberals, go out and build more infrastructure to bring people together physically so the magic can happen!" I would agree strongly with that. But that's not what it's saying. (I'm speaking now of the vague hectoring) The argument is that we have to "reach out" more and that's just not how it works.
@mark although the "sorting" of people into an urban/rural divide is broadly true and increasing with political divisions as people actively move to where there are more people "like them" it has always been true and remains true that there are people of all kinds of politics everywhere. It doesn't surprise me at all that you could have a mix that's "atypical". We need to get rid of our stereotypes for sure — but that's a point that's separate from the one I was making.
@susankayequinn
I, , ,
errrr
not sure where to go with this.
our neighborhood is a sort-a village, ie, older than the govs that regulate it.
def leans 'conservative'
they 'know' us
'come-heres'
not
'from-heres'
our hippy ways, prayer flags, etc
not a secret
lots of 'over the fence' barter goes on here
we've got chickens, eggs, maple syrup, etc
neighbors make lawn art,chop firewood, veggies in season, share gossip, etc
we all live here
&
we're all we've got
zoned R1, nobody GAF
@susankayequinn
@
*all* media
every single bit
is hell-bent on driving wedges into places like this
but only with partial success
riding my bike home after dark
I see all the TVs, blasting living space with fox news
I also see the local guy with a pickuptruck plow (with no plates) on the tail of his plowing
&
I have to press him to take a $20 (for fuel)
before he'll take it
@cpm if you've *already* got community with your conservative neighbors, that's great — I'm speaking to the current pressure being put on people to "reach out" and connect with conservative neighbors, as if it's their job to bridge the divide.
@susankayequinn
it is
esp now
certainly so
our 'consevative' neighbors are being force-fed poison with a firehose, & they can barely keep up with it
*some* are starting to choke on it
fingers X'd
more will
folks are just folks
@cpm IMO this falls in the category of "if you're in a position to do something, do it"
if you have a conservative parent who will *listen to you* then TALK...
if you have a neighbor who is poisoned by FoxNews but you share a hobby and have influence then *use that*
I have a friend who has a Trumper neighbor whose relative got deported... that's an opportunity to have a *discussion* and my friend def took advantage of that
But not this vague "it's your job to fix these people" no it is not
nope, not my job
if I knew who's job it was?
Love to hear from them.
in my lived experience?
tell'n others how to live, what to think, etc, is pretty much a 'did-not-finish' right out the starting gate
@cpm Right
Which is why I side-eye a lot of these supposed pushes... it seems like an intentional effort to waste a bunch of time/energy to keep people from doing things that will actually work
@susankayequinn
yeah
I don't want to read too much into it, but (however?)
I think (I hope?) that the hard reality of click-tivism, slack-tivism just doesn't carry weight.
Being out here, in the world, engaged to the point we are able, otoh, does broaden horizons
might not 'change' minds, for-what-that's-worth, but may help give folks some reason to pause, & maybe(?) even think.
otoh?
folks who openly/ferverently want us all dead?
yeah
uh
no.
but they are more rare than many would imagine