I think that it's better that we have allies in all places - inside and outside - who prioritize getting everyone's basic needs met. This means I support work inside the political system we have now, even if I don't want to put my own personal energy into it very much. 🔚

I don't think that progressive candidates winning mayoral races, for instance, are going to take away from community-led radical change. Neither do I think that any progress on human rights in legislation is going to curtail human rights progress in non-legislative areas. 🧵

I don't personally have the patience for reform, and I'm against incrementalism (because climate can't wait, for one thing). But I'm happy that things are being done within that system that can complement the work being done outside of it. 🧵

I don't think that people should have to endure food scarcity to gain social awareness to overthrow capitalist and colonial systems. I don't think it's wrong or bad for people to try to reform things inside the system as awareness and action proceeds much faster from the bottom-up community level. 🧵

We don't have networks in place that could immediately step in and take care of everyone if we had a mass dismantling of the system. We saw that with SNAP. So I will personally always support people who work within the current system to fight for programs like SNAP to help people afford food. 🧵

When I look at some very privileged people who are empathetic and aware, I can see how many of them didn't need to suffer to gain that awareness. 🧵

I truly believe that the path to dismantling can come from better education from ground-up. There are so many resources for education in community that center empathy, critical thinking, history, skill-sharing, etc. that comes from neighborhoods and communities themselves. 🧵

I don't personally believe this bc first, I think there will always be many who don't care to fight for a better world no matter what. The best we can hope for is that they stay out of the way while others do real work. Easier if everyone can can get enough of their basic needs met. 🧵

The basic thought behind this sentiment is that if people are too comfortable, we'll never dismantle harmful systems. We'll never have prison abolition, land back to Indigenous, etc. And we'll just be locked in to a more slowly degrading situation of late stage capitalism and techno-feudalism. 🧵

The movies "Now And Then" and "My Girl", and similar movies normalized biking in suburban America