Mastodawn

DoomsdaysCW 3d ago

OpEd - No, I'm Not Going to #NoKings This Time
And neither should you

A Declining Democracy
Mar 18, 2026

Excerpt: "What does toppling the #oligarchy mean? It means boycotting the media, goods, and services they use to extract wealth from the rest of us. (See the #TeslaTakedown as a great example.) It means #activism to get state legislatures to enact #WealthTaxes. It means lobbying state legislatures to increase income taxes on the top 10% of earners. It means electing Governors and Mayors who adopt a #Mamdani / #AOC-like platform to alleviate the financial burdens of average workers/citizens. It means rejecting corporate centrism and any of their candidates, local or federal, who accepts money from PACs, particularly those that have effectively paralyzed representatives from voting against Israel or the NRA. It also means creating the networks that protect the most vulnerable: the undocumented, women who are being persecuted for exercising bodily autonomy or receiving life-saving medical care, and anyone, frankly, who isn’t white or Christian.

"So, where does one start? First, send an email to the No Kings organizers at [email protected] and explain why you won’t be joining this time or at any time in the future until they adopt a strategy with teeth:

- Protests must occur on weekdays and for multiple days at a time and to call it a #GeneralStrike.

- To use their clout to call for union leaders to have their union membership strike in solidarity.

- To call for their sponsors to contribute to a strike fund for non-union, hourly wage participants, offsetting the financial burden of participating in these actions.

- To have specific demands for our government:

* Remove and Prosecute Trump for his criminality, particularly as it relates to the sex-trafficking and rape of minors

* Abolish ICE

* Audit the 2024 election, restore voting systems where breaches have occurred, and implement federal voting rights statutes to ensure every voter is heard and every vote counted

* Ratify the Equal Rights Amendment across all 50 states, codifying women’s rights to vote, have equal pay, and access to reproductive health care.

* Adopt Medicare for All.

"Now, there is a #MayDay general strike being organized by the #UAW, but it’s being planned for 2028 which seems awfully far away and too late. I’m sure the idea was to do some union saber-rattling in the lead up to the 2028 Presidential election. However, the time to show some critical mass is right now, not two years from now, after heaven knows how much more crap this Administration will inflict or how much more suffering Americans will endure. No Kings has the numbers; why not just consolidate and do it sooner? "

Read more:
https://democracydecline.substack.com/p/no-im-not-going-to-no-kings-this

#NoKings3 #Resistance #USPol

No, I'm Not Going to No Kings This Time

And neither should you

Sabrina Alfin

Alfin seems to have forgotten "Don't make the perfect the enemy of the good."

DoomsdaysCW 3d ago

@BlueDot Yeah. I mean, I'm glad that folks are taking to the streets, but I do agree that a general strike would be a much more powerful statement. Also, maybe these events are "feel-good" for blue cities and states, but in red states, they can send a powerful message to R's -- we aren't happy, change or we'll vote you out!

#NoKings #NoKings3 #USPol

DoomsdaysCW 3d ago

Any points you'd care to share, @nando161 ? (I just started reading it the other day...)

DoomsdaysCW 3d ago

Another common element is leadership. Do we need leaders? What kind of leaders? Not egotists or power-hungry types. But yeah. Fascists and authoritarians tend to rise in the absence of good leadership. Also, individualism versus communal thinking and mutual aid. I've been fascinated by power structures and trying to figure out how things could *work* without them. @nando161 @BlueDot

@DoomsdaysCW @nando161 @BlueDot Leadership is crucial, good leadership however you want to define that, I predict ends up with the best chance of a good outcome as long as we can get the masses on the same page regarding expectations.
We tend to function as sheep, herded, and tribal. Sadly it appears average humans are just not that smart and are selfish. We tend to take advantage of one another when opportunity presents itself. This maybe our epitaph.

DoomsdaysCW 2d ago

Well, I think that being able to gt rid of bad leaders and make them accountable would be a start. Also, I suspect the best leaders are those who don't want the job, but rise to the occasion to help fix what's not working or for the common good. Bad leaders usually want the attention / adoration/ power. Good leaders shun that and just want to do the right thing. imho

@Huntn00 @nando161 @BlueDot

#PowerStructures #Leadership

@DoomsdaysCW @Huntn00 @nando161 @BlueDot I'm an anarchist, so my view is the opposite: leaders by definition centralize power and weaken movements.

I'm this view (which could, I admit, be wrong) we do need many people to inspire each other and it's fine if some people are outstanding at that and become notable for it, but what we really need is ideas (and framings that communicate them) that shift away from leadership models to per-individual shared responsibility for collective action. When every individual accepts responsibility for initiating their own plans and actions (even if they ultimately voluntarily delegate that responsibility to someone else who had a great idea), then the movement cannot be stopped by killing or corrupting its leaders, and the drag effect of everyone waiting around for a leader or hero to save them will disappear leading to greater momentum.

The "fact" that humans tend to behave like sheep and cluster behind leaders could easily be specific to "humans raised in and trapped by oppressive propaganda". Compare the behavior of wild to domesticated sheep, for example.

I think we do need people who will inspire each other, people who are brave enough to step out first in defiance, etc. But I don't think these people should lead by giving orders or even setting the agenda. And I don't think it's productive to think "we need someone to do these things" when instead we should be thinking "how can I contribute to these things myself?"

To me, hero mythology might as well be fascist propaganda, because it implies that *only* heroes can change the world, when in the past significant changes have always been accomplished by mass movements.

DoomsdaysCW 2d ago

Well-said, @tiotasram ! And yeah, I can see how "hero mythology" can be used as propaganda -- both in ancient times and most certainly today. The Aeneid and Odyssey are examples of how the ruling class justifies their ruling over others -- using heroes and mythology! @Huntn00 @nando161 @BlueDot

@tiotasram @DoomsdaysCW @nando161 @BlueDot I agree with elements of your position, but this is precisely the challenge, finding the right balance. There is nothing imo that asserts anarchy is inherently better. What is required is common vision of what is fair and reasonable, neither gluttony or corruption can be allowed, and selfishness must be tempered with an understanding of group security and benefit. Yes, easier said than done. 😉

DoomsdaysCW 2d ago

Building community, mutual aid --both of those are so important, @Huntn00 ! And anarchist friends of mine have been very good at doing both of those things. @tiotasram @nando161 @BlueDot

@DoomsdaysCW @tiotasram @nando161 @BlueDot My focus is not to rag on anarchists, nor promote central power, but search for a balance that works for a super majority, moves the species towards the standard that might be describes as the socialist utopia* possibly an impossible task considering the nature of humans. 🤔
* happy to clarify what I think that means, if requested. 😉

DoomsdaysCW 2d ago

Seriously, @Huntn00 ! I would love to have a socialist utopia, but human nature and toxic individualism (is that a thing? It should be...)

@tiotasram @nando161 @BlueDot

Tiota Sram 2d ago

@DoomsdaysCW @Huntn00 @nando161 @BlueDot in my opinion what we think of as "human nature" is much more malleable than we're led to believe.

I imagine that if you described states and city life to humans 10,000 or at least 100,000 years ago, they would have told you such things were impossible because humans' independent and free-spirited nature would make such large-scale (and particularly oppressive/destructive) organization and hierarchies impossible. You don't even really need to lean on a "noble savage" myth to believe that at least, today's society would be incomprehensible to them and would seem counter to "human nature."

What I hope for (or more accurately optimistically expect) is that a future society which seems incomprehensible to many of us now will exist and that it will be better than today's world.

I can imagine it will be better because capitalism and the growth cult are inherently unstable. They cannot help but destroy themselves. As long as we avoid extinction (not a guarantee) their successor will likely be at least more stable over long time scales, as their predecessors were (some of which persist on the margins and will hopefully outlive the current era themselves). These currently-persisting social forms aren't by any means perfect, but they're certainly preferable to our dominant imperial-cis-hetero-patriarchal-capitalism/fascism, and they're living examples of how to organize successfully on 10,000-plus-year timescales.

I do admit many people have wildly different experiences with "human nature" and that despite my divergent views, many heads thinking about (and even disagreeing about) ways to the future are better than one dogma. If my presence for non-hierarchical organizing is thwarted but we end up in a different kind of sustainable society, I won't be too mad. The piles of evidence about even the most-liberal "democracies" we have now make it hard for me to imagine this outcome, but difficulties of imagination are something I'm constantly asking others to challenge :)

Kim Spence-Jones 🇬🇧😷2d ago

@tiotasram @DoomsdaysCW @Huntn00 @nando161 @BlueDot
Today’s Western societies are incomprehensible to me — and I was brought up in the 1960s and 70s.
Back then I did not possibly imagine that the current tilt towards cruelty and selfishness is something that would happen in my lifetime.

@tiotasram @DoomsdaysCW @nando161 @BlueDot
“I can imagine it will be better because capitalism and the growth cult are inherently unstable. They cannot help but destroy themselves.”
Capitalism could work, oversight is required, average people must stop functioning as sheep.
•There must be limits on wealth accrual, no gluttons allowed. 1:2

@tiotasram @DoomsdaysCW @nando161 @BlueDot
•Stability, health of the infrastructure, institutions, education avenues, health, food, housing, safety nets must be prioritized over profits.
• No Corruption allowed. 2:2

DoomsdaysCW 2d ago

Hear hear, @Huntn00 !

@tiotasram @nando161 @BlueDot

Tiota Sram 2d ago

@DoomsdaysCW @Huntn00 @nando161 @BlueDot

Not a plan I hate, but not one I think is good, because to me it sounds like "sure this boat can drive on the highway, you just need to..."

To be clear, when I say "capitalism" I mean the "ism" which places capital as the means by which we should allot power/prestige/worth. As an anarchist I'm against "isms" in general because they're prescriptions for how to set up a hierarchy. But capitalism in specific says that those who have accumulated the most wealth should have the most influence. In practice, this has allowed them to corrupt all of the institutions that were designed to limit their power. Many people right now keep saying "just one more chance, I'm sure we can set up the correct system of checks and balances this time!" But some of us are out of patience for that game.

To the people like you who at least acknowledge the necessity of checks and balances, although I think that project is doomed and a waste of valuable organizing energy, I can at least see where you're coming from and that you might think similarly of the anarchist project as I once did. Even if you aren't anarchist, saying things like "we need to prioritize X over profits" means you're an anticapitalist of a sort, since capitalism necessary necessitates putting profit above all else.

DoomsdaysCW 2d ago

That sounds way better than the #ShipOfFools we're on now, @tiotasram !

@Huntn00 @nando161 @BlueDot