Why Has the Left Deprioritized COVID? : covid

[–] FishLake@lemmygrad.ml 14 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

The left needs to unite against pandemic ableism, not out of goodwill or charity towards disabled leftists, but for our movement’s survival. Organizations limit their potential membership when they romanticize pre-pandemic organizing practices, where everything happened in person and those who couldn’t attend due to disability or illness, lack of transportation, a work conflict, or family caregiving duties simply couldn’t participate.

I wish more organizations would accommodate the disabled and at-risk by doing the bare minimum, masking. It is easy. It’s not inconvenient. You sacrifice nothing by wearing a mask. It’s more than solidarity, it is beneficial to everyone. It is something tangible that you can do. Remember that we, us human beings, eradicated two strains of the influenza by masking. But community health and prosperity is antithetical to capital forces. It is such an easy trap for people to continue existing as if untold millions don’t suffer and die from preventable illness each year.

Many leftists on Lemmygrad and Hexbear lament how hard it is to find an org. Sorry, but if you’re a leftist you don’t get to whinge and complain about organizing in the imperial core if you’re unwilling to take a simple, tangible action. Wearing a fucking mask. It’s one of the few individual actions that makes an enormous difference. Anti-masking — by way of disinformation or simply ignoring disease — is a reactionary tool capital uses to keep you in a state of inaction. There is no “return to normal” when normal means more disease, suffering, and death.

I’ll never forget what u/wopazoo@hexbear.net said on this.

You cannot get people to return to pre-pandemic behaviors without eradicating the thought of the pandemic in their mind. Eliminating masks, the symbol of the pandemic, is necessary to achieve the ends of a reversion to pre-pandemic behavior.

[–] AssortedBiscuits@hexbear.net 14 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

To me, it just boils down to treatism and ableism. A lot of the plague rats here got very very mad when I said that going to a movie theater is plague rat behavior. Imagine risking Covid by sitting in a crowded and poorly ventilated room just so you can watch slop that you won't even remember a month later when you could just wait 6 months and watch the forgettable slop on Netflix. Like, people would rather risk Covid for slop than wait 6 months or just watch a pirated version instead. This is how strong treatism is even here. There's no way this doesn't reflect what goes on in real-life orgs.

One of the greatest truths that the able bodied are completely in denial about is that all it takes is just one accident to become disabled. Every day is a dice roll for an able bodied person to finish the day as an able bodied person. But this world is an ableist hellhole where the disabled are treated like second class citizens at best and useless eaters that must be exterminated at worst.

The contradiction is that disabled people are in a world of shit, but there's nothing stopping able bodied people from becoming disabled themselves but for the grace of God. What should happen is able bodied people collectively going, "We will become disabled someday, so let's eradicate ableism so when we become disabled ourselves, we won't have to face this form of oppression." But instead, the able bodied choose to wallow in denial. This denial means denial of the able bodied being able to become disabled and the concept of ableism itself. In their delusional belief, they can't be disabled, so the disabled are obviously useless eater untermenschen who deserved to be disabled and who should know their place and not inconvenient their able bodied superiors by quietly dying in a ditch. Of course, as we are seeing and experiencing with Covid, this denial itself fuels the further creation of disabled people, people suffering from long Covid for this case.

This denial is not as strong for earlier generations. I believe part of it has to do with industrial jobs. If all the old-timers are missing fingers as the article gives as an example, it's a lot harder to fool yourself into thinking that they're just stoopid while you're super duper special who can make it with all 10 fingers. If all the old-timers have lung problems from inhaling too must sawdust or knee issues or a bad back, there's clear material incentive to fight against ableism. It takes less than a second of inattentiveness to lose a hand or a finger and this realization leads people to think about contingency plans in case they do lose a hand or finger. The delusion gives way to material reality.

Plague rats, quite simply, do not believe they'll die from Covid. They do not believe they'll get long Covid. They do not believe their loved ones will get long Covid either and the people who do get long Covid are inferior to themselves somehow, whether it's because of minor lifestyle differences or gender identity or whatever. They believe Covid is "just like the flu," which they also believe they won't die from.

[–] ThermonuclearEgg@hexbear.net 12 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

TL;DR: treatler

Also, is any of the people actually a leftist movement? As another recent Hexbear post shows, the DSA is a joke, and the Democrats aren't even pretending to be left anymore.

[–] Ivysaur@hexbear.net 11 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

It is unfortunate that the author mentioned the DSA yes but like, PSL and any other fucking orgs are not really any better. There are no orgs addressing this contradiction of access, as is the crux of the article. I am not convinced any of you actually read it, lol

[–] ThermonuclearEgg@hexbear.net 5 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Although the article you provided uses the DSA and unspecified "unions" as examples, the article does not clarify explicitly whether or not other leftist orgs are masking or not.

I was simply asking a question as I'm not intimately familiar with what these organizations are doing. It's unfortunate to hear from your response that PSL and others aren't doing better, in a time when just wearing a simple cloth mask is literally more than 99% of people around us.

P.S. Honest question, you said in another comment that you were surprised by "negative" responses to the article, but if you're counting my comment above in them, were you expecting people here to be happy about people not masking?!?

[–] FishLake@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

So because the democrats and the DSA and similar orgs aren’t sufficiently left that means what exactly? Like I get it, I’m not a fan of DSA or the DNC either. That’s putting it charitably. But the article is basically a plea for people to wear a mask and how masking directly benefits organizing.

[–] ThermonuclearEgg@hexbear.net 4 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm not contradicting any of that. My original intent was to try to find out if maybe actual leftists were better, but I've already received the impression that they are few and far between

[–] FishLake@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

I’m not sure what you mean by “actual leftists” and by “better.”

I’m assuming you mean if there’s any socialist or Marxist or organizations that require masking for their in-person indoors organizing. From my understanding talking and listening to people in disability advocacy in the US, there aren’t too many. There are disability groups that require masking for in-person stuff, but calling them socialist or whatever isn’t very accurate.

My personal experience with explicitly socialist organizations in my area is that masking isn’t considered. I’ve brought it up, but there’s been push back. I don’t understand why to be honest. I get better consideration for masking from the liberal/progressive organizations in my area. They’re lip service for sure, but it’s better than a self-described leftist telling me that masking will drive people away from their org.

Edit: I’m just realizing you might think I’m casting you the “self-described leftist” in that last sentence. I’m not. That was a very real interaction I had with an organizer in the real world. Not that the geometric bear website isn’t the real world, but you know what I mean.

[–] ThermonuclearEgg@hexbear.net 2 points 4 weeks ago

I think you understood, and don't worry, I get it

[–] Terrarium@hexbear.net 5 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Depending on how you define the left in the West, it never prioritized COVID in the first place. The vast majority of self-described leftists abandoned masks the moment Biden gave permission to not care just like the other libs. And there were basically zero sustained pushes against COVID normalization or COVID conditions. The height of Western leftists prioritizing COVID was to require masks at their own indoor meetings and many couldn't even do that when it was normal to mask, let alone now.

The left is small and poorly defined in The West. We could be much larger if we were better at organizing and at fighting liberal attitudes, but most Western leftists have no idea how to do either of those things and gravitate to opportunism and slacktivism, convincing themselves that the left is larger than it is because a statement got a lot of likes on Instagram. Comrade, 97% of those likes were from people who just frustratee they aren't petty bourgeois enough and harbor the same racist and xenophobic views as the standard chauvinist. Under no circumstances are they going to actually show up to the event in your next post. Your comrades are the 50 people from 4 orgs that do show up.

PS people writing articles like these are firmly in the slacktivist category. They are not even propagandists for an org. They are just imagining that the greatest way to make a contribution to the movement is a hackneyed essay. They spend a good chunk of the essay talking about DSA's disability working group. That group is routinely ignored by the entire organization and its leadership. The working group therefore functions as a place to commiserate, not a functional organizing space, as they cannot even achieve buy-in from their dysfunctional org, let alone have substantive impact or organizing outside of it. Being of the DSA and its weird liberal-ultra mileu, they have learned that merely writing essays with left language is how you achieve change.

In short, the main intervention required is also ignored by the essay, both in content and by its nature as an artifact in the void that will never be followed up on. The intervention is actually organizing, taking concrete actions, and to attach a message to them strategically. What are the demands? What is the escalation plan? These are the natural thoughts of an organizer because theu are focused on achieving aimd through gettinh people together. So why are they absent here? There isn't even a single call to action or plugged group.

I'm sure the author is a fine person, but they are hamstrung, as are many in the Western "left", by not being embedded in the necessary tradition of organizing.

[–] Ivysaur@hexbear.net 11 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

Hello friend, how many of these organizations of yours that exist will accommodate me by masking? I’ll give you a hint, because I have actually barked up this tree, assuredly unlike you: it’s zero. Your words are just as hollow as your criticism, I have heard it all before. Come back when you have something actually materially substantial to offer.

The intervention is actually organizing, taking concrete actions, and to attach a message to them strategically. What are the demands? What is the escalation plan? These are the natural thoughts of an organizer because theu are focused on achieving aimd through gettinh people together. So why are they absent here? There isn't even a single call to action or plugged group

From the literal text within:

Faced with bad options, most people went back to work quietly, even though nothing had been done in the preceding year and a half to make their workplaces safer (provision of free N95 masks and upgrades to air filtration would have been easy, obvious measures). The capitalist government offered US workers not genuine safety but participation in a national myth of invulnerability. And in so doing – in pushing to reopen, to declare the end of a harrowing year and return to some form of “normal” – they encountered little opposition from any part of the political spectrum.

Like did you actually read any of this shit? That’s your call to action. Wear a mask! Distribute masks to your workers, and among your org! Filter the air! Accomodate those who can’t call off to attend events or risk showing up in person by holding virtual meetings, something we did for years that was very much possible and then just stopped! All things very, very doable at an organizational and institutional level — strange how none of you who speak like this will do it or work to enact any policy to help accomplish any of it!

Want to plug a group? None of them do any fucking action worth plugging in this context. The closest is city mask blocs, and guess what? That’s also mentioned in the article, and it is a poor substitute to concrete institutional efforts, which, wow, is also mentioned within the piece!

Such localized responses have done impressive work in redistributing resources to people in need and building new political formations in the process. The downside of this emphasis on mutual aid has been a lack of cohesion and shared struggle at a national or international level. Smith also emphasizes that mutual aid groups’ “acute care” responses have often been very stressful for participants, and a deeper reckoning with activist sustainability and collective care will be necessary if they’re to continue.

DSA, PSL, any of these big organizations in the US are not even at this level, which is the barest of bare minimums for addressing the primary contradiction of access in a world where COVID is still very much a threat. That is the point of the essay. Currently, the exact same thing is happening at the institutional levels (from all sides) and the individual and organizational levels: nothing! And instead of actually listening to these “calls to action”, you do this shit all of you love to do: you respond with a patronizing screed at me to get my boots on the ground and do something, to “plug a name” of a nonexistent political organization, speaking past all of us who are doing exactly this to deaf ears. Things I have done, we have done, that you and the rest of your cadre ignore to continue the outdated tactics of dead unions and political messaging from a hundred years ago or more. Not a very dialectical approach! What do you think you accomplish posting something like this, then, aside from making yourself look like a fool?

[–] Terrarium@hexbear.net 4 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

Hello friend, how many of these organizations of yours that exist will accommodate me by masking?

My org masks in all indoor spaces and most outdoor ones. If an outdoor event is very well-ventilated and we don't initially plan on requiring masks, we will still require masks if anyone requests it and this can be done anonymously.

I’ll give you a hint, because I have actually barked up this tree, assuredly unlike you: it’s zero.

You are objectively incorrect. My org isn't even the only one in my area with this attitude towards masks, there are 3 that for sure do the same kind of thing.

Your words are just as hollow as your criticism, I have heard it all before. Come back when you have something actually materially substantial to offer.

I did offer something substantial, which is that essays into the void are counterproductive, they provide a false catharsis, and our projects require actually organizing other people, something that was notably neglected in the article posted. The two are related: the essay into the void distracts the person making it and provides a catharsis that tends to displace doing the aforementioned organizing. The 3 or so orgs in my area that regularly mask? We met with one another to coordinate this and make it easier to work in coalition. We have, accordingly, done irl work to agitate otg for policy change in governmental and non-governmental capacities as well as direct action to ensure materials are available for people to keep themselves safe and to connect capitalism to COVID neglect in a way that builda orgs and ongojng projects.

Like did you actually read any of this shit? That’s your call to action. Wear a mask! Distribute masks to your workers, and among your org! Filter the air! Accomodate those who can’t call off to attend events or risk showing up in person by holding virtual meetings, something we did for years that was very much possible and then just stopped!

Those are calls to individualistic action you could pull from any liberal pro-masker. This is not organizing and not a way to actually build power and achieve our shared goals. It may seem like I am splitting hairs, but I assumed it would be understood that calls to action means things like drawing people in to an organizing space, building lists, or even just raising funds for a left org so that their organized efforrts have cash. When you make agitprop for organizing, you generally use it for a strategic purpose that builds an org, an event, capacity for action, and so on. I did not even think of a call to action that is pure individualism.

With that said, neither the quoted passage nor the article actually call on anyone to do these things. There is not actually a call to action there. The closest it gets is at the very end where there is the typical "what must happen is..." statement that includes mask mandates. Which is not a call to action but a policy plank attached to no vehicle. This is another tendency of anemic Western leftist approaches. It does not make you or the author a bad person or anything, but it is counterproductive to give it any real value. It is not actually going to do anything positive but it will lead people to feel it is important work, and so they start doing the same and doing it over and over again thinking that spinning those wheels is getting somewhere.

All things very, very doable at an organizational and institutional level — strange how none of you who speak like this will do it or work to enact any policy to help accomplish any of it!

I have done that, actually. I don't want to doxx myself as I am not sure how common the policy outcomes were elsewhere, but I will say that we used a coalition to get tangible, material results.

Want to plug a group? None of them do any fucking action worth plugging in this context.

If you know what action is worth plugging and know how to organize with like-minded people, you could of course create an organization and plug that. I am not being snippy, I just want to repeat what our ability to effect change looks like. It is to get people together to learn and take action, with a panoply of tools at our disposal all based on mass (per various definitions) action. One example of using agitprop to actually do something is to plug an org so that those who are agitated by what is written can become personally engaged, join actions, and otherwise build power with us.

The closest is city mask blocs, and guess what? That’s also mentioned in the article, and it is a poor substitute to concrete institutional efforts, which, wow, is also mentioned within the piece!

Mentioning things is not plugging them for people to get involved. "Concrete institutional efforts" does not provide any onramp for someone that agrees with the author. They can think, "yeah that sounds nice" and then maybe Google a little to see if there is already a web presence for that in their area or something, but most people will just keep reading because there was no specific ask. These are the core tools of organizing, of getting people to actually do the things you believe need to be done. Requests must be directly, repeatedly, and strategically.

DSA, PSL, any of these big organizations in the US are not even at this level, which is the barest of bare minimums for addressing the primary contradiction of access in a world where COVID is still very much a threat. That is the point of the essay.

The DSA is a dysfunctional, liberal organization that has no rudder whatsoever and is dominated by chauvinists and constant grievances between members. I still sometimes point people to it because you can gain organizing skills there if you are picky about what you work on and because just being part of the wider community overcomes the greatest barrier to being a lifelong organizer. PSL has a silly line on masking under the pretense that it makes it difficult to connect with everyday people. Maybe if you were going after chuds it would, but we should not try to coddle chuds to agitate. So in that sense I agree. But what has my agreement accomplished? I already had that opinion. Most people don't even know what the DSA is, let alone PSL. Who is the audience and what are they supposed to do as a result of reading this?

Re: primary contradiction of access, I have no idea what that means. What dialectic is posited? What are the other contradictions of access to consider?

Currently, the exact same thing is happening at the institutional levels (from all sides) and the individual and organizational levels: nothing!

If we consider institutional levels to be liberal institutions, then yes, of course. Capitalists want normalization of the pandemic for various reasons. If you include left spaces, it is a mix where most are ableist and following liberals' lead while some do a pretty decent job, all things considered.

And instead of actually listening to these “calls to action”, you do this shit all of you love to do: you respond with a patronizing screed at me to get my boots on the ground and do something

It feels like you are implying that you are the author, as that is who I addressed. You may want to keep your hexbear account and the identity of the article's author distinct, even if the author's name is a pseudonym. InfoSec is undervalued. I will edit and delete this part of my comment if this is the case and you would like to similarly delete this portion of your comment for InfoSec reasons.

Anyways, I don't think your comment applies to me. Aside from therr not being calls to action in this essay, I do actually do irl work on this topic.

to “plug a name” of a nonexistent political organization

I did not tell you or anyone to do that.

speaking past all of us who are doing exactly this to deaf ears.

I don't understand what this means. The author is not doing the things I mentioned, the absense of which is my critique! I am not speaking past them and do not presume to even be talking to them, though the critiqur criticizes their approach. The actual audience of what I am saying is whoever happena to come across this ppst. This is the first time I have replied in this comment section. How could I be speaking past anyone? And why do you falsely assume I don't do any of this kind of work? This is not a productive way to engage with comrades. It is purely wasted energy in the defense of another waste of energy. Think of what else we could be doing.

Things I have done, we have done, that you and the rest of your cadre ignore to continue the outdated tactics of dead unions and political messaging from a hundred years ago or more.

Me and the rest of my cadre? What? You don't know anything about me, let alone what work I have done in this context. Please be more comradely in your responses.

Not a very dialectical approach!

What would be a dialectical approach? I have not set that bar up anywhere in this conversation, so I wonder at what you think it means.

What do you think you accomplish posting something like this, then, aside from making yourself look like a fool?

My goal would be to agitate people away from the false catharsis that dominates anemic and often counterproductive Western leftist patterns of thought.

[–] Ivysaur@hexbear.net 5 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

You are objectively incorrect. My org isn't even the only one in my area with this attitude towards masks, there are 3 that for sure do the same kind of thing.

I am involved in COVID-based organizing, one group in my city who has managed to maintain through collective bargaining mandatory masking at a single small community center, and we are a huge, huge minority in any other capacity and do not accomplish much more than mutual aid. This is not an explicitly communist organization at all. I know of none that are, and this is not a small city. Extremely jealous that you are somehow involved with three other (!) supposedly communist orgs who mandate masking all immediately accessible to you (“contradiction of access” means this is not the case for everyone, “objectively”) and of this miraculous (American?) city you live in that actually listens to you or any disabled people for that matter about policy. Can you tell me what communist orgs you are involved with or know of that still mandate masking policies to participate, or support remote organization for members with limited accessibility or work requirements? Because I don’t believe you.

[–] Terrarium@hexbear.net 5 points 4 weeks ago

I am involved in COVID-based organizing, one group in my city who has managed to maintain through collective bargaining mandatory masking at a single small community center, and we are a huge, huge minority in any other capacity and do not accomplish much more than mutual aid. This is not an explicitly communist organization at all. I know of none that are, and this is not a small city.

I have been involved in work that spans entire regions. Cities vary wildly in how active they are and what tendencies they are populated by (e.g. mostly Trot city vs. mostly DSA libs vs. almost nothing, and so on). I'm sure there are enough reasonably large cities with very little work on this topic that you could be in one.

Extremely jealous that you are somehow involved with three other (!) supposedly communist orgs

I didn't say they were communist.

orgs who mandate masking all immediately accessible to you

I guess they are accessible. They are orgs my org works with or otherwise has collaborated witb.

(“contradiction of access” means this is not the case for everyone, “objectively”)

Does it? It sounds like pseudoleft jargon and "primary contradiction of access" is nowhere on a Google search. "contradiction of access" appears as a critique of Latino representation in academia. It seems odd to expect anyone to know what you are referring to and I am still unclear on your meaning. Particularly given that your previous comment would be the one wearing the broad brushing hat in this scenario.

and this miraculous (American?) city you live in that actually listens to you or any disabled people for that matter about policy.

For infosec reasons I am not describing the level of government at which tangible results were achieved. But it is not miraculous to organize and achieve tangible results, even on this topic. What would be miraculous would be an internet screed leading to such policy impacts.

Can you tell me what communist orgs you are involved with

No and for InfoSec reasons that is not an appropriate question to ask on this kind of forum. Please do not ask that of others.

or know of that still mandate masking policies to participate

Same answer because this would give away my region of the world and possibly my org by association.

And again, why do you keep bringing up communist orgs? I haven't said anything about communism or communists.

or support remote organization for members with limited accessibility or work requirements?

While I won't name them for the same reasons, there are even more orgs that will do this than who require proper masking and similar COVID prioritization. Orgs I actively dislike and have not yet mentioned will regularly have remote meetings to accomodate exactly that - particularly those with work schedules that disallow in-person meetings. I have helped them mediate conflicts and worked in coalitions with them in the past.

Because I don’t believe you.

You are free to not believe me if you'd like, but that wouod not be a reasonabke conclusion.

[–] FishLake@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

My org masks in all indoor spaces and most outdoor ones. If an outdoor event is very well-ventilated and we don't initially plan on requiring masks, we will still require masks if anyone requests it and this can be done anonymously.

Oh cool. Wanna DM me a link to your org’s anonymous masking request page? I’ll request everyone wear masks for you.

[–] Terrarium@hexbear.net 2 points 4 weeks ago

No. I practice good InfoSec and recommend you do the same.

And the situations where we do not, by default, require attendees to wear masks are fully outdoor spaces where we do not expect tight crowds and do expect a green safety level.

covid

COVID MINIMIZATION = BAN