I’ve worked 13 hours straight and had to organize a push to get us fed dinner.
There’s a good chance I’m stuck here for 2 more hours, meaning I get 0 time to do anything except sleep and do this again.
I want to quit so badly, but I’m basically forced to be here because this job market is such shit that it took a year to get this job. And I consider myself lucky to have this.
There’s a thread on lemmygrad from someone that’s also exhausted around the discourse about the American “left”. Yes we suck, yes we are privileged compared to a lot of people, yes our organizing is tame and not effective, yes my material conditions mean I’m not doing adventurism and neither are my comrades.
BUT don’t claim we’re not trying. I know people working two jobs. I technically have 2 jobs and am maybe able to get back on my feet financially in a few months. We still do what we can and it’s not enough but we’re not at that point. Yeah that’s privileged if you call being scared shitless of being homeless and being abused by literally every other human here…
I’m tired
Someone saying that you’re privileged or being angry at the class you belong to is not necessarily a personal attack against you. With respect, the ability to hold that distinction is a mark of maturity not just in social justice but in all areas of life.
Hard to tell on here. And I know I’m privileged. The whole point of this rant was shit sucks for a lot of us in burger land too. We’re not all lying around buying labubus and eating fries all day over here!
The world’s richest man is a miserable basket case with several health issues. Most of us are in shitty situations. So who exactly is happy under Capitalism?
Without meaning to be harsh, I think that it’s not (assuming by “on here” you mean something specific to Hexbear rather than neurodivergence, etc.). And even if people sometimes make comments which you feel cross a line, some of the things which other people post which bother you may also come from places of personal hardship for them. Many people are or are related to victims of the imperial system.
I am intensely sympathetic to you for what you discuss in this post. These are real hardships and I’m glad that you’re organizing and doing what you can to make a difference for yourself and others. However, privilege is not something that is concerned with whether your life is hard or easy. It is both a relative and a systemic analysis. To respond to your original post directly, you don’t feel privileged and that is completely valid and understandable. However, the privilege Americans have over people in the global south is still real, and you still do have it.
This works on the same principles as all other conversations about intersectionality and related subjects. A poor white man may not feel privileged, but he doesn’t have to worry as much about being shot while crossing the street. That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t face hardships. A poor American may not feel privileged, but he doesn’t have to worry as much about waking up tomorrow to find he is living under a neo-colonial military regime, or not waking up at all thanks to an American drone. That doesn’t mean that the American doesn’t face hardships.