I probably shouldn’t be making this post. I hate getting involved struggle session highschool drama shit and I won’t even point to specific evidence because frankly this shit depresses me. But here goes:
This might be a “wtf are you ranting about, Owl?” moment but there are some serious reactionary vibes in this place sometimes. Maybe it’s a holdover from the dirtbag leftist era, I don’t know, but it’s gross. I see it trying to worm its way in here and it’s a bad sign
If you ever catch yourself using the kind of shitty othering and ableism you’d see on stupidpol or a 2016 cringe compilation, go do some self crit or fuck right off
DWIs do get mentioned here as a condemnation of a person very casually - I agree. It’s up there with someone “coming to the left” after being part of the US armed forces.
A lot of people who get DWIs rightfully deserve the contempt (politicians and famous actors who outright kill people while driving and lawyer their way out of ever receiving a proper sentencing). But, if someone has a substance abuse problem and is properly sentenced and learns from their mistake - I can assure you - the last thing they need is to be shamed by their comrades because stigmatism is what they’ve been inundated with since their arrest - they have shame in spades. DWI isn’t some ignored, “benign” crime like it used to be - it is probably one of the leading contributors to state revenues after taxes in the modern day - there is a whole cottage industry around it. The capitalist state fully is onboard with legally and financially crippling DWI convicts to hell-and-back (provided they are working class people with substance abuse problems).
Obviously, driving while intoxicated should not be tolerated. Hell, driving itself should not be tolerated. We should all be doing our part to prevent the harms caused by driving inebriated by preventing our friends and family from ever considering it. But, the nature of substance abuse coupled with 95% of people in the West being forced to pilot automobiles to make ends meet and participate in society guarantees the emergence of DWIs. Yes, yes - there is Uber/taxis - but inebriated people don’t think clearly and poor people are prone to take risks (we’re all pro shoplifting here last I checked).
I don’t have a real, coherent argument above - just some insight. I’m sure the “bullying works” segment of Hexbear won’t stop their shame campaigns, but not all people who have a DWI (or multiple) are reactionaries when they are sober. A lot of them are caught in a quagmire of capitalist dystopia and with compassionate education can heal from substance abuse (or just agree to actually stop driving) never to endanger others again - making them feel like a “person non-grata” can prevent this outcome.
As an aside, the DMV (US specific department of motor vehicles) is cracking down hard on these offenders - and this is saving lives. These measures will never prevent the first infraction though, unfortunately. Access to both automotives and drugs is just too high to not expect these outcomes.
Compassion is a requirement in leftist spaces. Capitalism/imperialism is a collective and universal trauma inflicted on the world population. Everyone’s fucked up by it. To be honest a DWI is upsetting to me but I also agree with your points which you articulated well.
I still need to properly engage with Frantz Fanon but I appreciate his centering of psychology and subjective experience of imperialism. This is also found in Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed (which is basically an elaboration of Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth):
It’s deeply unfair that the victims have to carry the burden of fixing everything; yet I have to admit that Freire speaks the truth here. We are dealing with a societal problem that can’t be solved without compassion.