and you know: well, again, i cheerfully cop to my own cheap schadenfreude and indulgence in flame wars, but–that’s what it is, an -indulgence.- yeah, sooner or later you have to decide what’s more worth the energy and time. and: what i -really- dislike is this -unexamined- idea, okay, that we all need to wait for/rely on the Important People to speak up for us because we can’t do it for ourselves.

and, the Important People are the ones who got to the front of the line by

1) connections

2) privilege

3) shouting loud enough to get there in the damn first place.

as for not possessing “privilege,” you recognize it, but: that would be the least within any one person’s control.

but as for the other two: well? the third partly depends on risk-taking, which privilege can be a cushion for, true, but at the same time: we do all have a voice. if there are internal and/or external things keeping us from using them, then THAT is the first thing that needs “examining.” but that’s -all- we can do is USE them. we cannot control whether or not other people listen or not. just speak with the confidence that this needs to be spoken, and if it’s spoken loudly and enough, it will be heard.

and 1) is what we really need to rethink; because “connections” is exactly what we do and have every time we post a link to someone else. wherever two or three people gather together. -horizontal- connections.

it all started -somewhere.- somewhere back in the murky distance, someone or something clawed out of the primordial ooze and said/thought,

“I’m gonna do whatever it takes to survive.”

so now, in theory, we’ve evolved, and we reach a turning point.

IS this the world we want? Is this, truly, “survival of the fittest?” Fittest to do -what?- Why are the “fittest” seemingly the inane, the shallow, the glitzy, the cowardly, the greedy, the vain–if we judge by who’d got the voice and who’s got the stage? Why are the “fittest” not -smart compassionate people who know how to listen and how to adapt?-

seriously tho–this is so right on. esp the part where you say that they are both important issues, but right now, some things are more important than others. people act like cuz you keep bringing up that there are worse things in the world than to X, that what you’re saying is that there problems really don’t count. And that’s not it at all. it’s just some times, not having a home, being imprisoned for being a brown kid, being blown up by phosphorus bombs, going hungry etc–that has a way of being more pressing and urgent that being called a dyke because you don’t shave your legs. Or being called a slut because you pole dance. I don’t like that rosie’s getting slammed (and actually, i think it has more to do with her being queer than progressive), but dang, can the few women who *are* getting on television speak out about the little girls who are being imprisoned for three months at a time rather than poor poor ro? for some reason, I have a feeling her millions will get her through all this.