Dr. Zalka Csenge Virág

Speaking as someone living in Hungary, to friends in the #USA:

The greatest weapon the system has is outrage fatigue. Doing so many unimaginable things at the same time that people just sigh and go on. Having so many things to protest that you run out of days and hours. Piling on so you start focusing on surviving with your bare mental health day to day.

Pick your cause and stick to it. Support others who focus on different causes. Don't try to do everything at once.

Nov 10, 2024 at 4:13pmWeb
Show threadArtseaNov 10, 2024
@TarkabarkaHolgy Thank you. This is very useful advice!
Show threadMystery Babylon Nov 10, 2024
@TarkabarkaHolgy This. Is. Critical.
Show threadJames M.Nov 10, 2024
@TarkabarkaHolgy yes, outrage fatigue has been used as a weapon by the right when they gain power. Trump certainly used it before, and so did GWB. That's one reason they're so sadistic, because it wears us out. Great advice!
Show threadClu | #RipNatenom 🕯Nov 11, 2024
@jamesmarshall @TarkabarkaHolgy Same with politicsl actors & parties in Germany. Both the 💩 (AfD) with their fascist leader (confirmed by court that he can be called that) and his lackeys as well as the CDU (the so-called „Christian Democratic Union“) with Merkel‘s successor Frierdrich Merz and his minion Carsten Linnemann and several former federal ministers play this game as well. They adopted the MAGA playbook in huge parts, spewing hate and „flood the zone with shit“.
Show threadNo Gods , no Masters! RESISTNov 10, 2024
@TarkabarkaHolgy
Great advice...
Especially about the fatigue.
I have been trying to tell my friends not to burn out , take a rest and then come back stronger.
That extended adrenaline rush isn't healthy.
Thanks for posting this!!
Show threadResistor McResistanceFaceNov 10, 2024

@TarkabarkaHolgy

"I notice few of you are using your spines, should I adjust?" - Evolution

There is no longer a need to separate the men from the boys

Show threadMystiNov 10, 2024
@TarkabarkaHolgy I’m focusing on fighting disinformation. https://indivisible.org/indivisible-trainings has a few different things.
Virtual Training & Calls

Indivisible
Show threadKellyAnn Romanych (she/her)Nov 10, 2024
@TarkabarkaHolgy and I've found working with others who value intersections, instead of exclusive silos, is powerful.
Show threaddzm 🇺🇦 🤍❤️🤍Nov 10, 2024
@TarkabarkaHolgy
Some time ago I read that propaganda acts by overloading you, until you surrender your right of critical thinking and start just taking in their message. That is why propaganda isn't really afraid of being self-contradictory, as its recipients aren't examining its message critically.
Overloading works really well through outrage, of course.
Show threadPeter BrownNov 10, 2024

@dzm @TarkabarkaHolgy Boris Johnson used a very similar technique. He would regularly come up with the most ridiculous impractical suggestions as if they were serious and the press would pick it up and run with it for a day a week a month or even longer, but most of these suggestions were only intended to provide covering fire for his real objectives.

So yes, it is important to remain utterly focused and not be diverted by dead squirrels thrown onto the table.

Show threadDr. Zalka Csenge VirágNov 10, 2024
@dzm Overloading also works for making you doubt everything you read and everything anyone says. The goal is not to believe "immigrants are eating dogs". The goal is to doubt everything everywhere until you give up.
Show threadThomas DelattreNov 10, 2024
@TarkabarkaHolgy Do you also think it is better to attack to win new rights, than fight defensively to protect the ones we've got?
Show threadDr. Zalka Csenge VirágNov 10, 2024
@tomdelattre I am not an expert by any means, but I'd say protect. Rights have been consistently whittled down over here and it is much harder to ever get them back.
Show threadaNov 10, 2024
@TarkabarkaHolgy thank you!
Show threadAlice Dubiel 🔬💉🦠😷🌬☮️Nov 10, 2024
@TarkabarkaHolgy Thanks for the advice. Mutual aid and clever humorous projects help with pacing. Liberation is a process of multiple approaches. Despite sadistic pleasures of the oppressors, they wouldn’t be trying so hard if #BLM hadn’t been so in their faces. Remember, plumbing and sewers require maintenance.
#avoidburnout
Show threadResistor McResistanceFaceNov 10, 2024

@TarkabarkaHolgy

"the most joyful music ever heard was born right here by slaves forced to work, overseen by whips, chains and bullets" - Something to Remember when faced with the unimaginable

Show threadJupiter SighNov 10, 2024
@TarkabarkaHolgy All of this. Also, if I may, please don't get mad at the people focusing on a different cause from the one you've chosen to focus on.
Show threadJoeNov 10, 2024

@TarkabarkaHolgy And I'll add to this an equally critical piece. The thing you are fighting and others are not isn't more important than their fight. We are parallel fighting, not working at crossed purposes.

The Gaza protests proved this point. People protesting those were so single focused they blamed the rest of us for supporting the "genocide" because we weren't equally upset by it.

Wrong, we were fighting other fights of equal import.

Show threadErinNov 11, 2024
@RegGuy @TarkabarkaHolgy the anti-genocide activists are a good example. They held to their resistance even as the state punished them by dispersing peaceful legal protests, firing professors, silencing senators. Dems (including the candidate) rejected them and refused to support their resistance. Fascism divided us and many Dems obeyed in advance, accepting state overreach towards some in favor of their own causes. We cannot do that going forward. We protect everyone.
Show threadMa’mounNov 11, 2024
@RegGuy @TarkabarkaHolgy I don’t think there’s anything that’s equally important to stop killing tens of thousands of children and innocent people. I genuinely invite you to think about how you would feel about such argument, had it been written in history books during the holocaust.
Show threadFrank Bennett 🇯🇵Nov 10, 2024

@TarkabarkaHolgy I had an outspoken colleague once who was incapable of outrage.

She would not refer by name to a particular political scientist on our staff who was an apologist for the military regime in Myanmar. She would instead refer to him as "The Academic Prostitute." Even after his promotion to Vice Director of our university. Even when he was within earshot.

She was very relaxed about it, but absolutely uncompromising.

Show threadRandall LeeNov 11, 2024
@fgbjr @TarkabarkaHolgy being outraged is an initial response of shock but it can't be sustainable nor is it doing anything. Feel the outrage but then find your focus and be methodical in your opposition like your coworker. The fascists have been methodically planning this for 70 years so we have to sustain ourselves for the long fight.
Show thread♾️🇺🇦 Vote MidtermsNov 10, 2024

Tues, November 3, 2026

ALL 435 seats in the US #House of Representatives and 33 of the 100 seats in the #Senate up for election- This is critical. Support the democratic candidate in your state. If we take majority here it would be powerful. 🚨
 
@TarkabarkaHolgy

#usa #congress

Show threadJezbers #FBPR #FBPPRNov 10, 2024
@TarkabarkaHolgy I love this post. Not just for the USA, but clearly very pertinent for them right now.
Show threadJ.Sʜᴀʀᴘ🌍🇺🇦Fʀᴇᴇᴅᴏᴍ&DᴇᴍᴏᴄʀᴀᴄʏNov 10, 2024

@TarkabarkaHolgy

Good advice. Thank you.

Show threadSyl ⏚Nov 10, 2024

@TarkabarkaHolgy

Check out The Shock Doctrine. That's what they are doing...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg3tl5yDb1E

The Shock Doctrine - the rise of disaster capitalism - 2009- documentary

YouTube
Show threadSaxonbowmanNov 10, 2024
@TarkabarkaHolgy Outrage fatigue pretty much sums the situation up.
Show threadfloydgumpNov 10, 2024
@TarkabarkaHolgy Yep but I see greed/money pretty much the root cause of all the sickness here and around the world.
Show threadhallunke23 🇺🇦Nov 10, 2024
@TarkabarkaHolgy “outrage fatigue”. Never heard of this term before. Now I need to find a German translation for that. Maybe Empörungsmüde?
Show threadcobalt going beige todayNov 11, 2024
@hallunke23 @TarkabarkaHolgy Like “compassion fatigue”. That’s when even listening to friends who are describing ongoing challenges on financial issues or health concerns becomes too much for you because you have heard so many such stories you’ve got to take a break from hearing more for a little while. So “outrage fatigue” is like hearing or reading so many horrible actions taken by a government body you can’t deal with all at once or hearing too many stories so you need a break to regroup.
Show threadJohn MullinaxNov 11, 2024
@TarkabarkaHolgy wise words!
Show threadBob Blaskiewicz 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇬🇱Nov 11, 2024

@TarkabarkaHolgy

I intend to take this to heart.

Show threadIvan Sagalaev Nov 11, 2024
@TarkabarkaHolgy speaking from the experience of watching protests in Russia fizzle out after 2011-2012 — this is exactly true.
Show threadnoplasticshowerNov 11, 2024
@TarkabarkaHolgy excellent advice
Show threadChristopherNov 11, 2024
@TarkabarkaHolgy
Get outraged at anyone who is focusing on causes other than the ones I've picked? Sounds like a plan! /s
Show threadCharles J Gervasi ⚡🛡️🥥Nov 11, 2024

@TarkabarkaHolgy To prevent outrage fatigue, I would like a news filter that only tells me actionable information about the fascists. I only need to know if I can write a letter to an agency, attend a demonstration, or get out of the way of some violence they're planning.

My background is related to information theory. Communicating a certain event transmits no information. An account of Trump saying something offensive or fascistic isn't really news or information.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_content

Information content - Wikipedia

Show threadtrumpresistanceNov 11, 2024
@TarkabarkaHolgy
Thanks for the advice, send more any time. We are new at this and need all the help we can get.
Show threadMark Wyner Won’t Comply Nov 11, 2024
@TarkabarkaHolgy thank you so much for this. I’m going to take this to heart. Especially as someone with ADHD. This is all so overwhelming.
Show threadSusan PotterNov 11, 2024
@TarkabarkaHolgy this is why I recently had to part ways with someone who demanded I have the same energy for all her issues as issues closest to my heart. Even after explaining I was reserving my productive energies for my own causes, she couldn't accept that my progressive priorities were different.
Show threadThe Enemy is WithinNov 11, 2024
@TarkabarkaHolgy 👍⬆️👍⬆️ good advice 👍⬆️👍⬆️
Show threadMGVMNov 11, 2024
@TarkabarkaHolgy I live in the United States. I believe we wear out so quickly because that cult of the family cocoon we call The American Dream has kept us in such a narrow range of life, that everything outside this bubble is a major threat. No wonder we grow up without the skills to deal with the changes that will come, whether we like it or not.
Show threadteledyn 𓂀Nov 11, 2024

@TarkabarkaHolgy @aram

Perhaps some philosophy student can help me here, but wasn't it Kierkegaard or Kant who said a government's best response to protest is to ignore it for exactly this reason?

Show threadGGNov 11, 2024
@TarkabarkaHolgy This makes perfect sense, thanks for the reminder. 🙏🏻🙏🏻
Show threadCody Casterline 🏳️‍🌈Nov 11, 2024
@TarkabarkaHolgy Already feeling the outrage fatigue. 😞
Show threadMa’mounNov 11, 2024
@TarkabarkaHolgy I think this is the kind of advice that everyone will easily agree with, and yet everyone will continue to do it.
Show threadCaroCardoSalutisNov 11, 2024
@TarkabarkaHolgy This is also why reducing working hours is so important, it can lead to many other advances