Passion, we’re making progress – yes? Good thinking. Good questions. Good phrasing.
(1) By necessity, civic activists are self-educating. I promise you, us, old-timers are learning from younger newbies whose technology, social media and communication skills far surpass ours. Put the old-timers together with young newbies and they…
Passion, we’re making progress – yes? Good thinking. Good questions. Good phrasing.
(1) By necessity, civic activists are self-educating. I promise you, us, old-timers are learning from younger newbies whose technology, social media and communication skills far surpass ours. Put the old-timers together with young newbies and they are dynamite good and super effective.
On their own, newbie activists are counter-productive, even destructive. 1. They don’t know how government works and lack the civic education necessary to effect a change of policy, systems or directions. 2. They have tons of information but little experience using that information to craft a vision. 3. They lack strategic skills and organizational planning skills. 4. They are not clear on the difference between civic education and political propaganda.
I mentor several young activists and they are far beyond me in many ways, all they lack is experience. After the Roe decision came down, two of my young activists told me they finally understand how important it is to know how government works. Right now, they are studying the U.S. Constitution and their state Constitutions. Who knows how long it will be before they study state and local government. Until then, they rely on me. Passion, relying on someone else for basic 101 stuff, is not okay.
(2) Absolutely! My views on civic activism have nothing to do with politics. Pro-life activists are amazingly good. I don’t like their tactics, I don’t agree with their goals, and I fear they are short-sighted, but I have tremendous respect for the work these activists do. The commitment pro-life activists have demonstrated for the last fifty years is awesome.
Crisis pregnancy centers are ubiquitous in rural America. Women count on their support, only to discover that support ends very quickly after delivery. Over 400,000 children are already in the system, and these numbers will increase rapidly. The idea that experienced pro-life activists might walk away, now the Roe was overturned, terrifies me.
Wait a minute here. I was about to post and read what I wrote and caught something new. Is there a generation gap here? Young (age 16 – 30) newbie activists are terrific to work with. It’s the older, over 30, newbies that are so destructive. Passion, have you any thoughts on that?
Interesting observation about 16-30 yo newbie activists and 30+ yo newbie activists. There could be something about the birth cohort, or just about current stage of maturity (or some of each of course). We could check back in 15 years and see if the same pattern repeats with the same ages, or if the pattern shifts upward in age by 15 years. (Joking about doing that, not joking about that being a useful datapoint if one could wait for the results).
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So if the distinction you want to make between Stacy Abrams and Marjorie Taylor Greene is the number of years of experience as activists, how many more years of activism would the latter need before graduating from cluster-fuck to activist?
Passion, are we discussing activism, or my opinion of Marjorie Taylor Greene? If you want to discuss Greene, say so. If you want to defend Greene, do it. If you want to praise her, I’d like to hear what she does that pleases you. Your turn.
Talking about activism and the proper definition of the term "activist".
I find MTG atrocious for many reasons. The length of time she has been active is not among them, however.
But the contrast between MTG and Stacy Abrams was used above to distinguish "activists", so I'm looking for what criteria are being used, other than our liking one more than the other. We very likely agree on which of those two we prefer; that is not the issue.
Passion, we’re making progress – yes? Good thinking. Good questions. Good phrasing.
(1) By necessity, civic activists are self-educating. I promise you, us, old-timers are learning from younger newbies whose technology, social media and communication skills far surpass ours. Put the old-timers together with young newbies and they are dynamite good and super effective.
On their own, newbie activists are counter-productive, even destructive. 1. They don’t know how government works and lack the civic education necessary to effect a change of policy, systems or directions. 2. They have tons of information but little experience using that information to craft a vision. 3. They lack strategic skills and organizational planning skills. 4. They are not clear on the difference between civic education and political propaganda.
I mentor several young activists and they are far beyond me in many ways, all they lack is experience. After the Roe decision came down, two of my young activists told me they finally understand how important it is to know how government works. Right now, they are studying the U.S. Constitution and their state Constitutions. Who knows how long it will be before they study state and local government. Until then, they rely on me. Passion, relying on someone else for basic 101 stuff, is not okay.
(2) Absolutely! My views on civic activism have nothing to do with politics. Pro-life activists are amazingly good. I don’t like their tactics, I don’t agree with their goals, and I fear they are short-sighted, but I have tremendous respect for the work these activists do. The commitment pro-life activists have demonstrated for the last fifty years is awesome.
Crisis pregnancy centers are ubiquitous in rural America. Women count on their support, only to discover that support ends very quickly after delivery. Over 400,000 children are already in the system, and these numbers will increase rapidly. The idea that experienced pro-life activists might walk away, now the Roe was overturned, terrifies me.
Wait a minute here. I was about to post and read what I wrote and caught something new. Is there a generation gap here? Young (age 16 – 30) newbie activists are terrific to work with. It’s the older, over 30, newbies that are so destructive. Passion, have you any thoughts on that?
Interesting observation about 16-30 yo newbie activists and 30+ yo newbie activists. There could be something about the birth cohort, or just about current stage of maturity (or some of each of course). We could check back in 15 years and see if the same pattern repeats with the same ages, or if the pattern shifts upward in age by 15 years. (Joking about doing that, not joking about that being a useful datapoint if one could wait for the results).
---
So if the distinction you want to make between Stacy Abrams and Marjorie Taylor Greene is the number of years of experience as activists, how many more years of activism would the latter need before graduating from cluster-fuck to activist?
Passion, are we discussing activism, or my opinion of Marjorie Taylor Greene? If you want to discuss Greene, say so. If you want to defend Greene, do it. If you want to praise her, I’d like to hear what she does that pleases you. Your turn.
Talking about activism and the proper definition of the term "activist".
I find MTG atrocious for many reasons. The length of time she has been active is not among them, however.
But the contrast between MTG and Stacy Abrams was used above to distinguish "activists", so I'm looking for what criteria are being used, other than our liking one more than the other. We very likely agree on which of those two we prefer; that is not the issue.