hexFeb 7, 2025

Hey anarchists and general leftists organizing in #RuralAmerica and deep red territory! I know you exist, but a lot of folks don't. This might be a good time to share your experience so others doing similar things can learn from them.

What strategies have you used?
What lessons have you learned?
What successes can you talk about?
How do you talk about your ideas and frame your conversations?
What organizations exist to make that type of organizing easier?

Edit: I forgot about this episode
https://live-like-the-world-is-dying.pinecast.co/episode/92cbcf70/sabot-media-on-rural-organizing

#USPol

S1E71 - Sabot Media on Rural Organizing

# Episode Summary Margaret talks with Sprout and Charyan from Sabot Media and The Blackflower Collective about organizing in rural areas and how that can be different from organizing in more urban areas. Sprout and Charyan talk about the different projects that Sabot Media and The Blackflower Collec

Live Like the World is Dying
Show threadFishercat

@Hex Hey. You're encouraging folks to publicly post information about themselves that could land them in jail or in an exciting new position fertilizing someone's cornfield.

Maybe take a look at some of the stuff @hakan_geijer has posted recently about #OpSec, and reconsider.

#opsec #opsec101 #anarchism #uspolitics #USPol #anarchists

Feb 7, 2025 at 3:01pmWeb
Show threadhexFeb 7, 2025

@Fishercat @hakan_geijer I am not. The majority of organizing that folks can do is both legal and not high risk. Anyone who is doing high risk work should absolutely not share anything about that.

The majority of folks in rural areas are not nearly as scary as city folks tend to think... And most of them hate the few loud Nazis and good ol' boys who run a lot of small towns.

If you're doing things like abortion support or trans healthcare, yeah, don't talk about that. But you can just do things like organize 4H (as a leftist), organize marches with Quakers, or be involved in other community organizations, or organize folks to be more active in local government. That stuff tends to fly under the radar.

Show threadhexFeb 7, 2025
@Fishercat the big thing that folks were organizing around was saving post offices because they are community meeting spaces. There's a lot of stuff with broad popular support in rural areas that's invisible as "leftist" activity.
Show threadhexFeb 7, 2025

@Fishercat I think folks also don't realize how big the US is. It's impossible to police. The town I lived in had one cop per shift whose patrol took several hours.

Those folks are checking social media. Fash may, but they aren't trying to dox everyone all the time because they just aren't that organized.

Even if you're talking about guns, like Redneck Revolt or shit, folks probably already know you. From my experience, you're either known or you know you have to be invisible. There isn't really much middle ground.

But I don't know how well my experience has aged, so I'm open to being corrected.

Show threadFishercatFeb 7, 2025
@Hex I know how many hours it takes to drive across my state, which is comparatively small.
Show threadFishercatFeb 7, 2025
@Hex Gotcha.
Show threadMx. Luna Corbden 🐸Feb 7, 2025

@Hex @Fishercat @hakan_geijer Yeah, this comply in advance stuff on vague discussion of things that are 100% innocuous at this stage is really starting to irk me. If we're not going to organize and share tips now, here, like this, then we're lost.

And yeah, I know which houses to avoid because they've got huge Trump flags waving, but the assumption that everyone else is salivating for a lynching is part of the problem.

Have they been made to be ignorant of some things? Yes. Are they stupid, violent savages? No.

Think about what you're saying here, how that probably violates your values, and how that's a big part of the misinfo that's led us here. We're not immune to disinfo either and we need to unpack that shit. I'm entering this with an open mind and a friendly attitude, and I'll judge someone *only* once they give me something to judge them about.

I find myself unexpectedly in a hyper-rural red area, shit's about to get real, and it's either act while I can, or face down a tank. I'd like to organize, thanks. Please don't make that harder with your biases. I'd like to learn what my options are.

I haven't told the internet specifically where I am. I'm not taking pictures of the stunningly beautiful landscape here. I won't be waving signs in front of the courthouse or blocking roads like I've done in cities. It'll be making friends, or going to "PTA meetings" or whatever makes sense, talking local issues, talking about protecting local people, and avoiding all the thought-terminating nationalpol talking points.

Right now I still have freedom of speech, and I'm going to use it wisely. But I'm GOING TO USE IT.

Show threadhexFeb 7, 2025

@corbden @Fishercat @hakan_geijer my best advice, more than anything else, is just listen to people and ask questions. Most folks who are trapped in cults free themselves when given space and a gentle mirror, but dig deeper when pushed.

Listening is the most powerful work you can do in that space, IMHO.

Show threadMx. Luna Corbden 🐸Feb 8, 2025

@Hex @Fishercat @hakan_geijer As a cult researcher, YES. This is 100%. Avoid the hot political and religious talking points. If they get defensive, you've stepped on one and time to shift tracks. Ask questions, drill down to core values, and genuinely seek to understand. Curiosity is the best antidote to dogmatic thinking. Both inspiring their curiosity, and maintaining your own. People want to feel heard. Dig deep to their real concerns, which are going to be personal. Share whatever of your own vulnerability and personal story as you feel safe.

(But don't waste time with folks who are clearly into hate for hate's own sake. You get a feel for how to tell after awhile.)

Show threadCyFeb 8, 2025
I really tried to capture that in my revamping of Rekindled Embers. If I can ever get it in a completed state up to chapter 37, at least. It's my absolute favorite part of the story. Well, my version of it at least. The original had the character peppering the cultist with loaded questions, and logically disproving everything she believed in, and then... she agreed with him and gave up her faith. Crazy how some people think that works.

CC: @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected]
Show threadFishercatFeb 8, 2025

@corbden @Hex @hakan_geijer I don't encourage anyone to comply at all, let alone in advance.

I misread the post of Hex's I was responding to. I thought he meant "share everything with everyone in the fediverse." Whether that was specific or vague, innocuous or spicy. That's why I responded the way I did.

I'm sorry I irked you.. I'm still learning this space's culture, and trying to do better. Organize. Share tips. Build community and relationships. That's what I'm here for, too.

Show threadMx. Luna Corbden 🐸Feb 8, 2025
@Fishercat @Hex @hakan_geijer Yay! Glad we're on the same page. Welcome to fedi.
Show threadFishercatFeb 8, 2025

@corbden @Hex @hakan_geijer

Me, too. Thanks! :-

Show threadFishercatFeb 7, 2025

@Hex @hakan_geijer

I'm glad to know I misinterpreted you. Thanks for telling me. What I read from what you wrote was a general encouragement to share, with no caveats. That's why I responded the way I did; it's reassuring to know that's not what you meant.

I don't know enough about folks in rural areas to really have an opinion about them one way or another. I'd guess that they're a mix, just like everywhere. But when loud Nazis and good ol' boys run a place, it's easy to be concerned about the dangers of not flying under their radar.

My other concern is that it doesn't much matter whether one's activities are legal or not. Fascists gonna fash.

Show threadhexFeb 7, 2025

@Fishercat @hakan_geijer rural areas are strange. I had a Nazi try to convince me the race war was coming after I gave him a computer I salvaged. A friend of mine, who's black but can be white passing, had a dude try to teach him the 14 words and he was just like, "dude, I'm black. The fuck are you doing?" Then the dude tried to back track. Weird shit happens. It can be dangerous but a lot of the time even the worst of them are either too cowardly to actually do shit, or just never considered the possibility that they were wrong.

Now, if you were doing police accountability work in rural areas you'd absolutely better be invisible because there are all kinds of Nazi cops running meth and shit. If you're putting the good ol' boys in danger, you could disappear and no one would bother to investigate... And also cops know which roads *they* aren't allowed to go down because they aren't always the biggest fish in the pond.

You might get attacked because you have the star of David in your window, but you might be a black dude who tells a room full of Nazis to go fuck themselves and have one of them come and apologize to you after. It all depends on what you're doing and who has your back.

All that's to say, the rural threat model is weird, custom to the situation, and unlike anything you find in cities, IMHO.