2025: Another World is Possible
January 15, 2025
Sorry it’s been a while since I posted. I needed to take some time off over the holidays, but I did not realize I needed even more time to decompress from 2024. I plan to be back to weekly posting schedule next week (and more frequently when the times require it).
We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable – but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings.
- Ursula Le Guin
First up, some program news. I will be making some big platform changes soon. However, fairly soon I will cease posting on any Meta platform (Facebook, Instagram, Threads) or Twitter. I will cross-post a few times before ceasing altogether, so that I phase out rather than abruptly stop posting. I will not be deleting my profiles for two reasons: (1) so no one impersonates me by using my handles and (2) so folks can still get in touch with me if that’s the only way they know how to. You will be able to find me on Bluesky and Substack Notes, as well as in your email inbox if you subscribe to this newsletter. (It is free so I encourage you to subscribe; but I do appreciate paid subscribers - last year, my subscribers helped pay for my travel expenses while volunteering on the campaign trail and allowed me to devote more time to writing.)
Nothing is changing about this newsletter. I am staying on Substack and do not see that changing.
I am sure most of you who use social media are already aware of the cesspool that is Twitter and how Zuckerberg is planning to follow Musk’s example on Meta. I am not going to participate on algorithm-based platforms without content moderation that cater to billionaires and fascists.
Frankly, I am not sure whether Facebook or Twitter can get any worse (I know: famous last words). Over the past several years, I have reported so many posts and accounts on these platforms for outrageously racist, transphobic, homophobic, misogynist, and antisemitic content and almost every single time the response from the platform has been that the content did not violate their “community standards.” I think that term means something different to Zuckerberg and Musk than it does to me. If their communities tolerate that behavior, I don’t want to be part of them.
Source: Another World is Possible NYC
Second up, content: I am working on a piece (or perhaps a series of pieces) on mutual aid right now. The new political landscape for 2025 and beyond may require us to think more seriously about prioritizing mutual aid. We need to work more directly with communities in need, not just because they need the help or because we might need their help (the mutual part of this), but because it will help us organize politically. I have written a little about this previously here.
If you can help out the folks in Los Angeles right now with either your labor or money, please go to the Mutual Aid LA Network for a list of ways you can do so. My good friend Arrica Rose has a nonprofit (I HEART Inc) that is giving micro-grants to those in need who have been unable to get help from larger nonprofits that are overwhelmed right now. They can also use some cash to support these grants; you can donate here.
Republicans are talking about making aid to California dependent on policy changes - conditions never applied to hurricane relief in Florida or North Carolina, or any other major disaster. Meanwhile, over 10,000 homes have been destroyed in LA. The cruelty of Republicans and their supporters in this country cannot be overstated. If they follow through with this threat, perhaps Californians should refuse to pay any more federal income tax.
Last year, State Farm canceled the home insurance policies for over 70,000 homes in California - including at least 1,900 homes that were destroyed in Pacific Palisades. After all, insurance is about making executives and investors rich. Paying claims to homeowners who have dutifully paid their premiums for decades is no way for State Farm executives and investors to get richer. So, they’ll cut them off before their homes are damaged and just keep all those years of premium payments. If for-profit insurance companies cannot - or will not - cover homes that they collected years of premium payments on, perhaps capitalism has failed here. This all seems awfully similar to how health insurance is a capitalist failure as well. Of course, those getting rich off of the rest of us probably think that’s all that matters. That may be the ultimate failure of capitalism - that it only works for the few.
Remember: we are in this together. Solidarity is essential, particularly now.
Do not be like State Farm: be a good neighbor.