@HaplogroupNews That's a great idea! Or if not weekly at least 2x a month or something.

I like calling it a fair too. We could make a hashtag for it, and if folks don't wanna see it, then they can filter out hashtag, while the rest of us enjoy having fun in the fair and building community.

@SquidlyCo Welcome!! It's such a crucial topic too. So many of us struggle to survive and use social media to help us. So if Mastodon wants to be a better and more inclusive and equitable alternative, then folks here must be willing to act the act. This includes diversifying mutual aid efforts and supporting folks trying their best to earn or fundraise what they need for necessities. It's part of community building.

How we care for our most vulnerable reveals the true nature of our being and culture.

@fonecokid @disabilityjustice I never mentioned monetization though?

Mutual aid efforts to help support one another is not that. Sharing folks shops to help them survive and get seen is not that. I want folks to see how crucial such sharing is and boost it rather than report our harass folks for needing aid.

No one is asking for monetization here.

@khoonez @disabilityjustice

I'm sorry you've got to deal with that too. I get it. TERFs are freaking everywhere. I had to block a few myself. thankfully admins/mods on my instances are good with acting on reports. IDK about your instance, so I hope they will act when you report.

But I can't agree it's worse than Twitter. That feels like an apples to oranges comparison and shifts the convo away from my point.

And honestly, the fascist harassment campaigns to terrorize and spam accounts get stopped/ banned more often here, especially in a well moderated instance. Also, Fascists now rule Twitter and have gotten most anti-fascist orgs and people suspended. That's opposite of how things run here where fascist instances get defederated fast. So I don't understand the comparison.

Mastodon got problems for sure. But folks here skew Left more, so more instances actually will ban folks for transphobia. I couldn't get twitter to suspend anyone for transphobia. Twitter left up horrific accounts that doxxed us. Most instances on Mastodon banned those accounts right away.

But although folks fight fascists and TERFs better here, that isn't too say this place doesn't need to unlearn racist, transphobic, and ableist practices that crept in because all places do. Without intentional work and practice, our society's socialization and bigotry will creep into what we build. That's part of community building is unleaening and dismantling that socialization and bigotry, to create a more safe place.

I'd like to stay on the conversation about how Mastodon can be more accepting instead of comparisons to the hellsite of Twitter? As comparisons not really helpful.

Definitely share experiences of what being on your instance here is like, but please don't drag in twitter again.

I'm working on changing Mastodon for the better. Not comparing the two. Thanks for reading!

@AVeryBadPerson @disabilityjustice Yes. That's why I spoke of community building.

We can't build a better world if we rely on current shitty systems. Those gotta be torn apart and built for us not to oppress us.

But as we work on that longer goal, we MUST adapt to a new way of doing solidarity so that folks can meet their needs and are able to thrive. It's hard to work toward justice when starving or without a safe place to sleep. Mutual aid helps with that, but it can't end there.

And the weird hostility folks have toward these asks is definitely them still stuck in the harmful ableist capitalist ideology that folks must work to have any worth or care.

We gotta unlearn that and instead view each other as inherently worth it regardless, to think in terms of solidarity and community not individualistic "bootstraps" methods.

@denebeim @disabilityjustice

There are hashtags. Just filter out #MutualAid or MutualAidRequests if folks are so anxious to not see any.

Do y'all just not listen to disabled folks or talk to us?

We had specific hashtags for these things on all sites we've been on, and we don't have massive walls of "spam" as you call it. Which is really aggressive and harmful way to approach this topic. That perception required a lot of weird assumptions and leaps about how this would work out. Instead of coming on here to aggressively tear down the idea with a false perception and assumption that we don't know what we're doing, maybe ASK questions on how it'd work?

Assuming it'll turn into a bout of endless "spam" is a really harmful take and privileged take. As if our needs are just "annoyances." You do realize how you come off here?

Not all disabled folks will be doing "endless bouts of requests" as if it's some sort of flood to annoy you. We do it in times of crisis, and we have hashtags and some norms built up around that from having to do it for so long due to shitty societal systems that want us dead.

In case you didn't know, there are many disabled community leaders in the Disabled community that create threads for people to post their links. We've done this for decades. That style of threading is a bit harder to replicate here due to how posts show in the timeline, but you can set your timelines to not see replies to original posts.

I am baffled by your suggestion of "mutual aid society" as there is no centralized society for mutual aid, and it's a confusing suggestion to make on a platform that prides itself on decentralization.

Mutual aid groups may exist in various cities but they are not and never will be "societies" or nonprofits as then they cease to be mutual aid and violates the community-built and anti-state nature of those groups. Not all places have these groups either. The digital component to mutual aid needs to be built up again -- we had one on Twitter but it's been shredded to pieces. By providing space here for folks to build those groups and networks, we can cultivate a more helpful atmosphere that provides support for all people. It will even eventually benefit you if you have the willingness to imagine such a thing.

This isn't on us to fix -- you have the tools to filter us out if you consider us such annoyances and "spam." Take your false sympathy elsewhere if you are uninterested in asking questions and learning about how this all works.

And yes I'm being very blunt because I don't know how else to make it clear how aggressively invalidating and ableist you have been by assuming it'll just turn into a wall of spam that "is very annoying" as you put it. It shuts down those most affected because you used a term that invalidated our needs and privileged your comfort over our lived experiences.

So I'm asking you to listen more. Ask questions. Actually engage us instead of coming in here with your privileged attitude and putting your comfort before our need to survive.

And please read Mutual Aid by Dean Spade to better understand what it is and how to build it more effectively. Also, read Care Work by leah lakshmi piepzna-samarasinha to explore the many ways Disabled folks have built communities of mutual aid and care.

I'll answer questions to explain further, but if you continue to treat us like "annoyances" then I will not engage further as that is a signal that this is a bad faith discussion. Treat us like human beings worthy of care, ok?

@denebeim @TheBird @disabilityjustice This is exactly the attitude that so deeply harms disabled people who are just struggling to survive in a world that cares very little for them - who are so often seen as less than, in so very many ways - especially during this pandemic!

To be seen as "spam" instead of people who need help, is so horribly, painfully dehumanising.