Where I live there’s no community though, there are no volunteers or “odd jobs”, people keep to themselves and don’t speak in public, there are no local groups and if there are, I’ve never seen them, the only local people I even found on the internet was randos on nextdoor complaining about street buskers 100s of miles away.
I always hear this shit about organising and community but it’s like from another dimension or something from a movie and always so vague, I’ve yet to see any organising or community IRL or any instructions as to what this actually means step by step.
It’s probably an effect of the design of your city/town/surroundings, if I had to guess. May I ask what type of place you live in? Like, is it a suburb or something similar?
Also, you might like to read this person’s story that I’ve been following along on here.
I’ll put a link for you in a minuteI’ve lived in London, UK in dense urban housing, the only time I’ve ever spoken to anyone in the area was when a neighbour below had a water leak caused by the floor caving in underneath what could only very charitably be called my bathroom.
He could barely speak English and seemed to be living in the same squalor studio but with a family of 4, he was a man and like 20 years older than me.
Then I moved out to a flat in a smaller town, very suburban, closest shop was like a 10 min walk. I don’t think I’ve seen a single person ever speaking in public apart from groups of university students, whom I wouldn’t want to approach for fear of being accused of being a groomer (I’m trans and besides that frankly I would’ve kept my hand firmly on my wallet if some adult approached me out of nowhere when I was in uni), and 50 year olds out on the town either with kids or just getting lunch for work.
I tried to organise with my neighbours once to get the landlord to install some sound insulation, but I asked them to at least stop blasting the music from speakers at night at their daily house parties of 20-30 people (they already lived in a house share of 6, packed like rats) in the meantime, which apparently crossed a line and caused a conflict that endured for years and involved attempts on their behalf to scam me into paying their energy bill by going to the landlord.
All other attempts at talking were met with gaslighting and aggression, I had to resort to discussing it with the landlord because I was worried they were gonna cave in the ceiling with their attempts at smashing things at their floor so I’d give up and leave, fortunately a guitar amplifier aimed squarely at the ceiling blasting the X-Files theme throughout the night got them to stop and we are now in a temporary cease-fire.
That’s probably the closest to earnest human communication I’ve experienced with a stranger. Fwiw I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed anyone else talking to anyone else like that either, in fact I’d say by sheer coincidence I’m the only person I know who even has seen their neighbours.
Closest my best friend got was an auto-generated emaul from their landlord’s agency filing a noise complaint on behalf of neighbours when we both could’ve sworn their place was empty of furniture, nevermind people.
He doesn’t “do politics”, and when I prompted him, he didn’t seem to even understand what the word meant or how policy would even relate to anyone’s day to day life. All he follows is K-Pop and gadgets. I only know him from school, the rest of my friends are my exes.
Some anarchist I am, huh?
When it comes to friend circles, either people are exactly as radicalised as I am in theory, but don’t bother with any praxis because they don’t know what to do either or are so incredibly depressed by even broaching the subject they avoid it altogether, apart from maybe donating to the green party or more realistically some weird debate streamer, or some of the more far removed acquaintances don’t understand politics and probably couldn’t even name who the current prime minister is, all they care about is football and maybe if they’re nerdy - FIFA on da Xbox with the lads. Nevermind politics, even basic history usually escapes them. Maybe they’ve gone on twitter once to look up their favourite brand and now say Trump seems like a charismatic funny guy.
A friend of mine used to say that about Putin - that was the extent of her political opinions that and being “kind”, despite the fact I repeatedly told her it’s not very nice when I’m a literal refugee from Russia thanks to the guy.
A mutual friend of ours did get radicalised eventually - she became a nazi, not like rightoid or alt-right but dead on “dear leader” hitler-loving nazi and excitedly once showed me a portrait of some SS guy she drew which she expected me to like despite knowing I was trans, (later, she offered me to try meth with her, which was funny but not actually that odd since we did drugs together all the time) we used to at least have stuff to talk about though because she seemed to at least think actively about the world, even if her conclusions to almost all problems were invariably some form of eugenics and “more white people”, even public transport would be solved with this, according to her.
When it comes to the workplace, I think we used to have some vaguely political discussions, but as my immigrant status hinges on maintaining a job, and it’s in tech - for what has now been acquired and is now managed by an American multinational and with that brought the attitude of that culture, I tread very very lightly.
Needless to say, the alienation is brutal. Most people generally seem like a different species, I think me and my cat have far more in common than I do with any people, whether it understands Kropotkin or not. People and events seem procedurally generated, they appear just as randomly and quickly as they disappear, no one seems to have more than 2 lines of dialogue.
Even outside of politics, most everything I am deeply invested in is something seemingly no ordinary person has ever even heard of, at least on the internet people seem real, hivemind af sure, but not as atomized. Maybe in the US people are just way more engaged with this stuff.
Thanks for linking that post, it’s a neat story, but it seems to start in medias res of having already organized an entire event, not exactly helpful instructions wise, but inspiring for sure.
I’ve got to say, a lot of your responses seem like you are pre-convinced that there isn’t any solution to your problem. I think that’s why you’ve been getting so much snark/pushback. (Are you looking for genuine help, or just needing to vent? Either way, it’s ok. Separating the two might be beneficial to you though, that’s all I’m saying here)
Did you read Schmorp’s full story, or just the one link I sent? I know it’s not step by step instructions, but if you’re serious about organizing something I feel like there are a lot of good tips you could pick up on from the way that they did/are doing things.
Do you have any libraries you could frequent? Many of the unknowns you have could be addressed at a library and I think they would have much more relevant answers pertaining to your locality.
Also, here’s a link to something that I just saw here, that seemed like it could be potentially relevant/useful: https://mobilizon.fr/
Alienation from other people and thinking they are not worth the bother is a relatively sure sign of depression.
I am not saying its only a you problem, and people around you are probably depressed as well, but I think it’s worth viewing your interactions with other people through that self-reflective lense some time.
Put up a flyer, write whatever it is you’re willing to volunteer for. Put a Google voice number on the flyer. ??? Profit
I don’t think anyone reads flyers, and what would I write? “Willing to volunteer for something good” lol I don’t think that’s very serious.
Also, what is a “Google voice number”? Ive literally never heard of it, so I don’t think that’s going to be effective, is it an American thing?
DIY friend. Nobody is going to do it for you.
Yeah I DIY all the time, and I didn’t ask anyone to do anything for me, but usually when you tell someone it’s good to do something, it is good to specify what it is exactly you want them to do, so they can do it by following instructions at least using them as a jumping off point.
The issue I have is everyone parrots this organising and community stuff but no one ever specifies:
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What the practical purpose of this is and how or if it benefits anyone? Generally people will team up with strangers for some mutually beneficial specific goal, not a vague reference to political theory they’ve never heard of, what is this goal here?
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What constitutes a community in this sense (a definition would also be a good start, people throw this word around a lot, i.e. the “gay community”, the “trans community” but it is clear there’s no such thing, this is only used to avoid saying “trans people” by the press)
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How to start and/or join a community. What’s is/are the website(s) where such communities are advertised? Especially in non-American countries? Or if it requires interaction IRL, what is the socially acceptable way to do so, because it is not really acceptable (or gets people onboard) to go talk at random strangers on the street and is a good way to get the police called on you.
Unless all those things and much more is elaborated on at length, then the call to action doesn’t really specify what the action is. You can absolutely go donate food to the homeless but it has zero to do with any community, just go buy sandwiches at the store and hand them out and feel good afterward, so that’s what I’ve done before, but this community/organizing stuff seems to go over my head.
Forgive me if I’m being dense, but I’m starting to think that either the phrase “organize a community” has some sort of inherent meaning I am simply unable to comprehend (perhaps it makes more sense in closed suburban housing in America where people talk to and know their neighbours, unless that’s just in movies), or it has no meaning at all.
Ah ok, you’re willfully ignorant.
I’m sorry but it’s pretty clear that by the upvote count I am not alone in this. The left is ineffective, this is why.
Come off the high horse and enlighten us bud, how does one go from no strangers have ever spoken to one another in public to some mysterious Hollywood fantasy of “community”?
Ah good, the intellectual right has come to save us from ourselves. Thank you savior. I’m so happy you and your alts on an anonymous forum can show me the way to properly understand a meme.
What the practical purpose of this is and how or if it benefits anyone?
ape together strong
i.e. the “gay community”, the “trans community” but it is clear there’s no such thing,
hmmm i don’t think everyone would agree that’s a true statement.
How to start and/or join a community
Folks seem to like meetup, facebook, plura, eventbrite. One group of I know has an email list and website. You can often advertise in bars or smaller locations.
I don’t know a lot about organizing groups.
I know folks who do stuff for queer community. They organize picnics, happy hours, concerts, discussion groups, and more. So far as I know, they started with someone going “I wanna start this group here.” Advertise on meetup/facebook/whatever, and be ready for minimal turnout for a while. But over time you accumulate more people, and more options open up. With enough people you can accomplish more- lobbying, volunteering, making people feel less alone and terrible.
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Google Voice is google’s free telephone service. I’m not 100% certain it exists in the UK, but a quick search makes it look like it does. It’s safer than putting your real phone number because it’s more transient. You could probably also use email, signal, discord, or whatever, but phone numbers are the most ubiquitous.
As to what to write, since you don’t know of anything happening, you might have to start the group. Is there something you want to volunteer to do? Litter cleanup, volunteering somewhere, helping people register to vote (ok that’s probably a dystopian task specific to the US), or whatever?
