S.ToriAm I supposed to introduce myself and #introduction ?..I confess I have never known how to use the social internet properly and the Fediverse confuses me a bit, but I feel strongly in the need to carve out alternative social spaces on the Internet. So excuse any social faux pas on my part. I am an educator and musician in New Zealand with a passion for writing complaint letters, bringing the social sciences into everything and dreaming of a world where we radically take care of each other.
MrAndrewD@Torithom What is your best ever complaint letter?
@MrAndrewD I was writing letters to the government to stop ignoring Long Covid but then I ran out of energy (ironically). In reality all I can do as little chips away at things rather than achieve concrete results on my own, but I did manage to get my building to put a bench in the foyer for people to sit on rather than the floor. A small win but a tangeable one!
@Torithom I watched a cycling advocacy video yesterday and one of the points they made is to avoid ",you vs the world".
Connect you to others with the similar issues and suddenly you have a community of people who politicians are going to find it much more difficult to ignore (vs ignoring an individual).
@MrAndrewD I'm also fairly involved in cycling advocacy haha! I write letters and share them in the communities I am a part of for input and ideas. It's the extent of the energy I have to contribute to collective action at times but yes, 'you vs the world' is problematic due to the powers that be thriving of us working in silos. I'm also involved in union work as of recently to try and become more collectively strategic in my complaint letter hobby (:
@MrAndrewD also are you able to share that video? I probably need to see it to keep my cycling rage in check
5 Mistakes That Kill Bike Advocacy (And How to Fix Them)
@Torithom It's a bit North American, but the key message about getting critical mass (pardon the pun) of transport reinvention is relevant globally
@MrAndrewD well it is disconcerting to see people riding on the other side but it seems pretty relevant to here, and ideas transferrable to other advocacy contexts too.