Y’all, public health and aid distribution are servants of the same goal: helping and protecting people. We can move towards that goal through many different paths, but we are all worse off with lateral contempt and the undermining of parallel strategies. Don’t turn against one another.

That's kinda my point tho, right? Like acknowledging other people are also fighting and winning? But I'm sure we'll both wake up tomorrow doing the same things we planned on to help people. I'm not phased here. I'm also not the target audience for phone-your-reps call to actions so it's whatever.

You can’t control other people, only yourself. And you’ve got to lead with love and not take personally the shortcomings or gaps you perceive in others strategy and communication. Erasure is bad, so are purity tests. In the end, we have to be on each others side.

I was just giving feedback to another organizer who shrugged it off, and then I disengaged. This isn't a big deal.

Agreed. All Colin had to say in response was “yup, you’re right. My bad. This is just another important thing you can do and other ppl have been doing a lot of effective things already. Thanks for the reminder.” Instead he used sarcasm and “hope this helps.” That’s mean. 😢

Eh true but I'm not taking it personally. I said my piece and moved on.

Oh of course. Same lol I just want bystanders to read my thoughts and apply them to themselves in future situations :)

Sometimes the time to not take it personally is at the front when we feel someone is marginalizing something we value enough to want to see included at the front of their message. It reminds me of when men pull out “not all men” because someone’s sincere outrage produced a non-nuanced commentary.

I say this from the position of having learned a lesson about stepping in with commentary from my own defensiveness.

I appreciate you sharing but I wasn't saying to put anything "at the front". Just not to use language which excludes a whole bunch of other successful work. I'm not advocating for my own thing, nor emotionally involved here. I don't care that much. Just providing some pretty minor feedback.

For me I really just don’t think it’s necessary to say stuff like “this is the first time you can fight the trump admin as a non lawyer!” It’s just not true lol besides erasing other ppl’s work, it’s not effective in getting ppl to act or understand the system or issues. It’s different from saying

Sorry, I could’ve said that better. Rather than “put at the front”, maybe I should’ve said “acknowledge existing efforts in a call to action”. I’m not keen on the response you got either. Your comments elsewhere about “working with vs having a drink with” sum it up well. Activism requires some 🤷🏽‍♂️

A big part of being in community is hearing constructive feedback & thinking about how to do better. I don’t think gently suggesting that other ppl’s work not be erased is unreasonable & if someone responds unreasonably to that suggestion (like w sarcasm), the original person isn’t at fault. Shuttin

down feedback like the original person’s is more what destroys community in my experience. :(

💯 Also, Hi Shirley ❤️

Hi Sarah!! 🥰 hugs and kissessss

Hi folks. From an earnest place: the phrasing in the post was not only intentional but thoughtful, and aimed to mobilize the large number of people who reply to my posts saying nothing can be done. Threading organizer discourse on public health professionals’ posts right now… is a bummer.

so don't read'em and get to work