What’s stopping you from organizing and/or developing a community in your local area? (hexbear.net)

submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by WithoutFurtherBelay@hexbear.net to c/chapotraphouse@hexbear.net

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I do not mean this as a rhetorical question: I mean it literally. Tell us what’s stopping you! I don’t want to invalidate you, but the opposite. I’m sure people here would love to help if it’s possible. Post away!

Personally, I think Covid and the general amount of work everyone does are the two biggest obstacles to community building. Not just for me, but everybody I know. It’s nearly impossible to build a community when nobody has the energy to even play a video game together, and actually meeting up in person can literally kill you. There are definitely solutions, but we need to realize them as problems first to find them. If you have suggestions, please share them! Same goes for the issues everyone else shares (if they’re ok with help, of course).

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[-] axont@hexbear.net 3 points 8 months ago

Yeah you're getting it. The average American still has too much hope. They're still sold on the idea that it's possible to get that house in the suburbs and the car if they hold on just a little longer. Pay off the credit card, get that promotion, finish the second degree, and eventually something will come along to secure the dream. Absolute cult of optimism that permeates too many brains.

I really believe the true death of leftist organizing in the US was the Reagan administration's loosening of housing regulation. Once housing became a commodity for the average person, an investment rather than a necessary place to live, it's like a button got flicked in people's minds. The "temporarily embarrassed capitalist" button. People think of their houses as a little business they're running. Eventually it'll get sold and they'll buy another, nicer house. Maybe they'll even rent a room or buy a second house to rent. Everyone got real estate and landlord brained over the 80s.

And how are you supposed to sell a person like that on socialist organizing? "Hey I know you've been working on this mortgage for the past 10 years specifically out of a pipedream to make $200k in profit but do you wanna help advance the interests of the global proletariat?"