What are you going to do, no matter how small, to make the world a little better?
What are you going to do, no matter how small, to make the world a little better?
Lots of people are feeling hopeless and upset right now, and for good reason. It's normal to feel like no matter what you do, things are going to get much worse for a lot of people. Blame, despair and anger are natural reactions, but as the shock of the situation dulls, what's your plan going forward?
Call me naive, but seeing hate have a resurgence makes me want to do more to help the people that are going to suffer the most. I'm going to make a plan to volunteer more of my time and resources to help organizations that need it. I'm going to see if my friends can organize with me to sponsor a migrant family. I may not be able to do much, but my personal way of coping with shitty situations is to try to make the world a little less shitty.
I'm going to try to be kinder and more forgiving with people, and be a better role model for my kids. And I'm going to resist and fight back against hate when I see it.
Lastly, I'm going to be a more supportive friend to the people in my life. And to anyone reading this that feels like this world's gone insane, and you're all alone: you're not. We're still in this together, and I appreciate everything you're doing.
My toddler and I have been bringing a trash bag to the park and cleaning the place up. It's always a mess and it makes me sad to see because it's my sons favorite park.
I ride my bike/take public transit in my car-centric city
I keep extinct in the wild and critically endangered species of fish in my aquariums and am a member of a couple of fish focused associations who work with universities for the goal of preservation of species. been considering getting into red listed frogs and cactus, but the communities are smaller (so less access to species) and space is a premium when living in an apartment.
i wish there was more exposure of this hobby because it's such an affordable, easy and "low effort" thing to do, but a lot of people who care about the environment and animals basically get offended when you keep animals "locked up" in an aquarium. in my opinion, serious aquarists (not the pet store furniture mentality) are invaluable, as a lot of species has been saved from extinction through aquarist efforts and university collaboration to reintroduce them to their native ranges after restoration work is completed (at least Lenoardo DiCaprio made a little bit of social media impact for one of the associations in 2022).
I should add, overfishing is not the leading cause for extinction in freshwater fish, it's pollution from agriculture, as the vast majority of fish threatened with extinction have no utility to us (or bright enough colors to benefit the commercial pet trade - brightly colored species are generally not even found in the wild, and have their colors from decades of selective breeding by dedicated aquarists).
My current activities : -Finding caring doctors for an elderly woman
-Counsel colleagues at my work about mental health and/or unionization
-Help two refugees friends for their paperwork for citizenship.
I wish I could do more, but on top of work, I'm already exhausted.
It's a small thing I started doing years ago: whenever I see a loose nail or screw in the street I'll always pick it up and put it in the nearest trash so nobody gets a flat tire or steps on it. Small, but hopefully saves some potential misery for someone.
Pick up any trash that I touch/step on/kick and dispose of it into the nearest bin.
This started from the bottles and soda cans kicking, I just loved how they sound when kicked to the max. I still do to this day :)
My dad hated it so much. He probably smacked my young tush once or twice for that. So i would pick the dirty bottles and cans if he's in the vicinity and kick them hard out far back. Yap, I know how silly this is. He still heard the kick sounds, tho LoL
So he came with a truce: "You wanna kick bottles? Fine. You kick a bottle, you ensure a proper disposal of it on the bin."
He even gave me a tactic to kick them higher up that day LoL, thanks, dad.
I want to participate more with the food banks in my area.
My parents struggled when I was growing up. They'd bend over backwards to make sure my siblings and I always had food on our plates and clothes on our backs. While they're better off now, I still remember the times when they wouldn't eat to make sure there was some for us.
I used to be more active as a teen when I was in the boy scouts, but now that I'm working full time, I want to get more involved again.
If nothing else, people should never have to go hungry
I started the tradition with my parents and brother of saving money over the year for charity. We put up a jar at my parents house and whenever we visit and have money to spare (which for me is a fixed amount that I put aside every month), it goes into the jar. On christmas the money is split evenly among us and everyone tells which cause/organization they are going to donate their part to.
The jar thing is not ideal because I rarely have cash on me so I always have to go to the bank first and then when it’s time to donate, the cash money has to go back into the bank. But it’s nice to look at and it doesn’t tell exactly how much is in it from a glance, so it’s a bit of a mystery until Christmas. I might propose to go digital for next year though.
I miss having spare change. Everything is so much more convenient with a card and as a result I have no coins on me at any time. The hardest hit are the homeless, and you see them outside the stations really struggling to get anything
Help my people with my time when I can.
I took a drive today. Around my old stomping grounds, streets I haven't driven down in years if not decades. Past the hospital where I was born, past the high school I graduated from. Down the highway where my driver's ed teacher when I was 15 kept bitching at me to lift my head off the headrest. I made sure to drive that stretch of road with my head on the headrest.
I drove past my great grandmother's old house, where some of my earliest memories were formed. It's been standing abandoned long enough that trees are growing through the porch now. Past the Yamaha dealership where I bought my first motorcycle, which is now a machine parts warehouse. Past the airport where I got my pilot's license.
I stopped at the lake by my old college and walked the trail around it, stopping at some of the little fishing piers, benches to look at the lake and the woods. I stopped at the foot bridge over the creek that feeds the lake and just looked upstream and listened to the water babble over the tree roots.
The entire time I was out, my mind could only do two things: hum Auld Lang Syne and envision swimming straight out to sea.
On a related note, the above text felt like an answer to this question.
I'm feeling big "connect with my people" vibes so so far I've made my sister and her family dinner, baked some cookies for clients tomorrow, will host a Friendsgiving this weekend, and have a dinner set with friends to discuss building an intentional community. Not world-changing but things ripple...
4B. Women if you want to know message me.
OpenStreetMap editing.
I'd love to see a street view equivalent to this project.
We have Panoramax and Mapillary. The first one is federated, the latter is controlled by Meta.
So the way to go is Panoramax: https://panoramax.fr/
Oh heck yeah! Help fellow editor. =)
Come join us if you haven't. Even if you only have 10-15 minutes to do something, it all helps in the end. There are plenty of things to do and no pressure for you to do all of them or even most of them.
That's a great idea, I think I'll do that as well!
No longer letting my family member rants about [insert today's Russian propaganda] go unchallenged.
- Crime is going up. Oh no, can you show me a chart with a source? Can't be just something you find on the internet (they're always ranting that you can't trust the internet).
- You can't trust the weather reports. They're just using the internet to make all that stuff up. Explain how the internet allows for a 100 fold increase in sensors that can report back to a centralized meteorology facility for number crunching
- Ukraine shot first Explain a timeline of the Ukraine war
- Moon landing was faked. (I actually like this argument the best because it's been so thoroughly debunked)
On the weather front (lol) one of project 2025s goals is to break up the NOAA. They want to do it specifically to hamper the ability for anyone to show the ongoing effects of climate change. If anyone thinks this is a conspiracy theory, it's an actual conspiracy, and here is the direct quote from project 2025.
Together, these form a colossal operation that has become one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity. This industry’s mission emphasis on prediction and management seems designed around the fatal conceit of planning for the unplannable. That is not to say NOAA is useless, but its current organization corrupts its useful func- tions. It should be broken up and downsized.
I do like the the moon landing one since I always say the government payed Stanley Kubrick to film the moon landing but he demanded to shoot on location.
I always say the moon landings were faked dozens if not hundreds of times and only done for real a half dozen times.
I try to get people to read Marxist theory, and correct common misconceptions. Part of why people feel despair right now is because they don't see a way out of this, because they don't have a background in leftist theory. I keep a basic beginners reading list I can link, if anyone wants it, I'll spare the copypasta.
It also includes a section at the end with my own personal practical suggestions for how to conduct yourself in your daily life to remain effective and optimistic.
I also try to combat problems like queerphobia, racism, and misogyny when I see them.
How do you get past the initial brainworms even bringing up the word communism? Like someone else said above, I feel like I can't even bring up an alternative path or get them to pick up a book without them yelling about China and Tiannamen Square, or Stalin and his killing a bajillion millon people, or how "communism has never worked". It's so annoying to have to go back to these basic, first-grade points every time.
As much as you can try, debatelords will be debatelords. You can be 100% correct with flawless evidence and debate skills, and some will cry and bleat about whatever. Those people typically are never going to be convinced by some magic formula of debate or combination of words.
Instead, I meet people where they are at. I let them know I can try to answer any questions they have, I can provide a basic reading list, etc etc. I don't speak about what I don't know, I speak on what I do. I pick my audience based on those who are receptive. My goal is to educate those who want to be, and help guide radicalization, which happens without my will simply due to dying Imperialism every single minute of every single day.
At the end of the day, there will be debatelords, you can chuck Yellow Parenti and Blackshirts and Reds, but that's about it unless you have a lot of time and can debunk every bit of gish gallop so others watching can see. Other comrades are great at that, so I try to fulfil a gentler role that catches others.
I would be interested in your list if you don't mind sharing :)
Here it is, Cowbee's "Read Theory, Darn It!" beginner reading list. All except one work has an audiobook alternative linked, otherwise there are text links directly to said works. It starts off with foundations, then builds on said foundations, ending with some practical advice on how to conduct yourself as a Leftist in general. I also include intersectional theory regarding trans and enby liberation, gay rights and history, and decolonialism.
Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions!
during the hiv/aids crisis; people who had spare bedrooms; or could afford to cook extra meals; or took it upon themselves to distribute those extra meals; or volunteer basic healthcare services for free (ie candy stripers); etc. would put up "help offered" posters in gay safe spaces with contact information on them. the posters where mostly hand made back then, but i've seen a more modern day version of it with home printers and the bottom section of the paper scored off so that people can rip off and take the contact information with them and i've seen a newer version of that with the mutual aid community in hexbear: https://hexbear.net/c/mutual_aid
any leftist safe space, both virtual and real. will have something like this; seek them out and you can ask someone in person what you can do to help that's tailored to you circumstances. (and to set your expectations: it's probably going to suck a lot; that's why they need the help)
I'll just keep volunteering to be honest, I'm a volunteer EMT a few times a month right now but I'm thinking of volunteering with the local theater and possibly the warming center as we enter the colder months.
That's amazing, keep up the awesome work!
That's really cool. How did you get started as a volunteer EMT?
Real small relative to the other comments but if a loose cart is nearby in the grocery parking lot, I'll go out of my way to return it. I know I hate seeing an "empty space" and there being a cart in the way and in that case it'll likely never get moved.
I know that this might present a feeling of trolling or annoyance, but I take my hat off to Cart Narcs for taking it even further, to call out these people.
Thank you on behalf of someone else who gets super annoyed with loose carts and lazy people!
Every little thing helps.
It all adds up.
I have very few resources to offer anyone in need, as it's really only by my basic unfair privileges as a cis white man that I even have a place to sleep, but I'm just trying to make it clear to the people I know that I have the space to house them/feed them if they are in crisis. Without much else to support them with it feels like the best I can do.
I miss doing this. I pretty much stopped inviting people over once some housemates reacted really badly to it
Just letting one person know you've got their back can mean the world to them. That positivity is so infectious that even RFK Jr is going to take it seriously.
(I am stealing that rfk line)
I guess I'll keep trying to get out of the house, despite my anxiety about that now. That way, the folks in my community will be able to say they personally know (of) at least one trans person, which will hopefully inspire them to oppose any anti-trans policies that come up.
I also want to be a role model for all the eggs out there who might otherwise be too scared to come out.
You are a brave and wonderful person.
I give my comrades a lil cash when they need it
Also try and join a SAR team but alas going nowhere fast with that
Political assassinations