The certainty--or the illusion of it--provides a comfort. We all want our anxieties soothed. I sure do! But it seems this is yet another case where it isn't so simple. And saying so isn't just unhelpful both-and-ism. Have appreciated you + Kelly speaking to the challenges of uncertainty over the yrs
Thank you for sharing these. I had not seen them. Will check them out today. The complexity of the space between block + build and other principled positions that also want to build something is disorienting. There may be no fully satisfying approach.
Thank you! Registered. Are you referring to the Sat "inside/out" session specifically?
And if not, are you in a position to write it? I've been working through it all in my head but it's a jumble and I think a lot of us would benefit from a breakdown of the streams of thought and action on offer, the dynamics between them, and what will be true beyond November whatever the outcome.
We need a principled, nuanced, multiplicity-embracing written breakdown of our situation, outlining the 2 main Left streams re: election (block and build vs. reject Harris in hopes of building third party/revolutionary power), the stakes for the world, the possible outcomes etc. Has it been written?
People often point out a public figure's hypocrisy ("He said X, yet refused to fund Y! Interesting!"). But I'm reminded of what @mskellymhayes.bsky.social@prisonculture.bsky.social say: it's not hypocrisy, it's hierarchy. This applies to data like this too. Budgets are ideological instruments.
Last year the NYPD spent $150 Million to catch people who weren't able to afford to pay the subway fare. They collectively owed just $104,000 in fares. Instead of funding cops to shoot people, why not use the money to make public transport free for people who can't afford it?
The massive increase coincided with just a two percent decrease in serious crime.
Jason Lydon? Good people! Ashon's + Roberto's 'Spirituality & Abolition' volume is great for this. I have attempted to contribute something too 🫣 nyupress.org/978147982385...
Uncovers the inherently religious structure of the criminalization of Black, Indigenous, and dispossessed peoplesMost popular critical accounts of mass crimi...
Which is why abolition has to make sense for people on an existential, mythological, even spiritual/religious level!
Indeed. Here's a good quote from David Garland, _Punishment & Modern Society_. Foucault + Saidiya Hartman explore it too. If we can't reckon with the existentially significant, mythological, meaning- and world-making function of subjugating/sacrificing others, we'll never displace it.
"Police in the US use force on at least 300,000 people each year, injuring an estimated 100,000 of them, according to a groundbreaking data analysis on law enforcement encounters." www.theguardian.com/us-news/arti...
Exclusive: groundbreaking Mapping Police Violence data estimates scale of physical force and civilian injuries