; owned by big corporations, full of ads, stealing your data, experimenting on our psyche by adding & removing features, apparently/allegedly also spying on you and your face expressions through the selfie-camera of phones in the case of facebook-owned instagram.

the question of whether or not social media is even ,,good” in the first place will not be raised here. to clarify, my momentary view on this is that people can do what they like, and if the social media is free from manipulation & oppression, i see no problem with the existence of such platforms. radical green anarchism would like to disagree, but i think every humyn should be able to manage what can be toxic in their own way.

so. there exists already a big collection of social platforms that are great alternatives, all collected in what is called the ,,FEDIVERSE”.
the most known one is MASTODON, in structure like twitter, where – since the instagram boycott of 20.december.2020 – many more people (including myself) have joined.

i will now explain a little how many such platforms are built; my explanation is based on explaining mastodon, since the general structure is basically the same in all platforms in the fediverse. (i am not a nerd on this, nor do i understand everything. the explanation will be basic & you are invited to give feedback if i make mistakes you notice, and you want to and have the capacity!).
first & foremost, mastodon is open-source and decentralised, meaning:
-> there is no one who owns it_runs it_controls it.
-> instead of being funded by ads, it is funded by donations of the people using it.
-> anyone can take the coding and create their own version of it (in the definition of ,,open-source”; the source code is open to public & can be freely used :) ).
-> this also means – since this platform (and the others in the fediverse!) are ,,federated” (will explain this later) – mastodon and the similar social platforms cannot be sold, nor go bankrupt, nor be completely blocked by government!
-> when someone takes the open source code to create it into their own version – aka their own server – it has a name: an INSTANCE.
all instances on mastodon are moderated and owned by the person.s who created it, called the ADMINs (short for administrator). most of the time, admins also have their own account and use the platform like anyone else, so everything is really more horizontal.
the structure of mastodon is FEDERATED, meaning it is a group of multiple instances communicating with each other, instead of one massive server holding everything.

so. if every instance on this platform is operated privately, how do they communicate with each other?
well, since the same ,,base-coding” is used (called a Standard Protocol) users from different instances can follow and communicate with each other. in the case of mastodon, the standard protocol used is Activitypub – or, to phrase it more correctly: the standard protocol that mastodon implements is activitypub.
many other applications implement activitypub, meaning that even users on different social platforms//applications that implement this standard protocol can interact with each other (for example a video posted on peertube can be seen in the feed of someone with a mastodon account)!
all these applications, platforms with activitypub are part of a big network called the FEDIVERSE (fediverse.party).
the fediverse has many services, including event-hosting, bitcoin-exchange, music platform, and much more.
here are my 3 favourite examples – if you want to check out more, go look on the website fediverse.party.

mastodon:
-> in structure like twitter.
-> interaction works by following/being followed, and ,,toots”, like twitter ,,tweets”, except that you have the possibility of writing 500characters instead of 140.
-> you can also post images.
-> in the toots and images you post, there is the great option of adding content warnings, meaning the text or image is hidden, and only the content warnings are showed. you can click on these – they act as a ,,show more” button – to be able to see the full image or text. some examples for the uses of this feature is if the text/images mentions or contains SA, violence, nudity, sexual content, but also eye contact or other things that some persons are sentitive to. this feature is not only used for sensitive content, but also if someone wants to shorten something that is very long.
-> there are many leftist, anarchist, queer, friendly instances (a short list will come in the end!), with clear guidelines and rules (the usual no racism, no queerphobia, no hate-speech, no ableism, no nazi symbolism etc), making it a great safer space. really, go check it out!
the ,,general mastodon” is indeed also based on these principles!
-> many of these instances(servers) have a list of servers that are banned from communication with the particular instance in question. this is for safety reasons, or just generally kein-bock-auf-nazis-ruining-our-space reasons, since there are also right-wing instances, nazi instances, and still toxic people there. so, by banning an instance from communicating with one’s own instance, all users/toots become invisible to people from the nazi/right-wing/etc instances, so the risk of being harassed is greatly minimised.
here is a list of mastodon instances i personally recommend:
-> mastodon.social is the general one. the rules & guidelines are also very correct so it’s cool to sign up there.
-> queer.party is a very big, colourful instance for queers* and the like!
-> todon.eu is a general leftist instance.
-> kolektiva.social is for anarchists.
-> anticapitalist.party is for anticapitalists.
-> chaos.social is also leftist, home to many german accounts i believe.
-> mastodon.lol is a server for antifascists, members of the lgbtq+ community, hackers, and the like.
-> radical.town

from my personal experience of being on mastodon a few days, the persons there are very respectful, open and friendly – it is great fun!; but most of all everyone is just themself.

pixelfed:
-> looks almost exactly like instagram.
-> the general rules/guidelines are the same as on mastodon.
-> all images are shown in chronological order, unlike the toxic algorithm on instagram.
-> no ads of course!
-> mostly artists and photographers use it, for the moment.
-> pixelfed.social is the most used instance. there aren’t that many yet, since pixelfed is much smaller in number of users than mastodon.
-> anar.chi.st is an anarchist pixelfed instance.

peertube:
-> a video-hosting website, like youtube.
-> peer.tube is the general instance. i think it is filled with pornography-related content now though, since it is so free. creating an account there shouldn’t be a problem though.
-> kolektiva.media is an anarchist instance for political content
-> yiny.org is a leftist instance where there are more musicians.

there also exists diaspora*, the very first federated social platform i have come into contact with, end of 2019. it does not belong to the fediverse and its structure is like a mixture between facebook and twitter.

if you are someone who likes spending time online on social platforms, i encourage you to check out these alternatives. i also encourage you to tell your friends and comrades about them, so we can all move away from the capitalist patriarchal colonialist platforms still used by most.
thank you for reading!

i also encourage you to check out the post (one of many!) of instagram user @cisturbed, titled ,,INSTAGRAM BOYCOTT”; it explains the reasons for the instagram boycott of 20.december.2020, cause of the recent influx of new users on mastodon.

sources:
-> post by instagram user @remakegodgayagain, titled ,,Why You Need to Join Mastodon”
-> Youtube video by Mastodon, titled ,,What is Mastodon” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPSbNdBmWKE
-> Youtube video by Simply Explained, titled ,,Distributed social media – Mastodon & Fediverse Explained” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S57uhCQBEk0
-> Mastodon and Fediverse websites: joinmastodon.org and fediverse.party
-> https://www.cnet.com/news/lawsuit-accuses-instagram-of-peeping-with-iphone-camera/

written in december 2020. edited in the months after.

es gibt so momente, manchmal stunden, manchmal tage, ganz selten auch mal wochen, da geht bei mir die resilienz verloren.
was ist das, resilienz? für mich ist das wie so eine art puffer, der mir erlaubt, stark zu bleiben und standhaft, bei allem kram der einer* irgendwie an die nieren geht.
belastungen sehen für jeden menschen anders aus und auch die größe dieses puffers ist bei jeder* anders. für mich selbst ist es immerwieder wichtig festzustellen, dass es anderen schlechter geht als mir, aber dass ich vor diesem hintergrund trotzdem nicht meine eigenen gefühle ignorieren sollte. diese ignoranz lässt meine eigene persönliche resilienz dann schrumpfen. und das bringts dann auch nicht, für keine*. wichtig ist, eigene privilegien zu reflektieren. wichtig ist auch, sich nicht immer ständig an anderen zu messen.

so viel erstmal dazu. ich will nicht rumheulen, nur versuchen, mich auszudrücken.
es gibt da also diese tage, da hab ich gefǘhlt einfach eine dünne haut. da kommt dann irgendwie alles mögliche durch.. jeder scheißkommentar, der vielleicht garnicht so gemeint ist, jede nachricht im radio, die auf ner ebene heißt, dass wir in ner ungerechten welt leben, jede verschwörungsideologie, die ich dann vielleicht zufällig im internet lese. eine reaktion ist weltschmerz. alles scheiße, ich will diese tür einfach mal ein paar tage zumachen und mich unter ner decke verkriechen.
eine andere reaktion ist wut. im besten fall kann ich diese wut dann irgendwie umsetzen in was konstruktives, was, sei jetzt hier mal dahingestellt. aber manchmal, da ist da nur diese wut, kombiniert mit einer art von traurigkeit, die nicht unbedingt zu konstruktivem schaffen verleitet. was dann mir oft hilft, ist das gefühl, nicht alleine zu sein, und dass es andere menschen gibt, die ähnlich fühlen oder die kämpfen. gleichzeitig neige ich in so einer gefühlslage dazu, mich nicht mehr zu melden und mich zu isolieren. vor allem, um menschen nicht mit meinem emotionalen gedöns auf den geist zu gehen.

ich zieh jetzt mal ein paar schlüsse für mich aus diesem nächtlichen geschriebsel.
es ist erstmal überhaupt gut, dinge wahrzunehmen. dicke panzerung gegen die ungerechtigkeit lässt auch nur abstumpfen (notiz an mich: manchmal ist diese panzerung aber unheimlich hilfreich).
es ist auch gut, diese gefühle umzuwandeln in taten, die im besten fall irgendwas ändern.
es ist gut, wenn ich darüber nachdenke, inwiefern ich die emotionalen kapazitäten anderer menschen in anspruch nehme. es wird dann kritisch, wenn ich davon ausgehe, dass ich das immer tue und anfange, mich meinen freund*innen gegenüber garnicht mehr emotional zu zeigen. alle gefühle immer in den raum stellen, halte ich inzwischen für problematisch, nie gefühle zu zeigen aber genauso.
ich hab das gefühl, nie genug tun zu können. gleichzeitig ist das ein längerer prozess, rauszufinden, was ich genau tun kan und will. dem muss ich mich aktiv stellen.
wenn es mal tage gibt, an denen ich kein bock auf aufstehen hab, ist das okay. wenn es mal tage gibt, an denen ich einfach nur möchte, dass mich wer in den arm nimmt, ist das okay. was okay für mich ist, bestimme ich. manchmal muss ich mich selbst aber daran erinnern.

resilienz ist nicht immer gleich groß. jetzt gerade ist meine eher klein, ich hoffe, sie wächst in den nächsten tagen wieder.
und ich sag mal so: vielleicht würde es auch helfen, abends keine verschwörungidiot*innen mehr im internet zu recherchieren, und mich dann damit stressen, dass ich zu wenig schlaf krieg. nächstes projekt für die resilienzförderung: früher einschlafen! aber bloß kein stress und kein selbstoptimierungszwang.

geschrieben von m, irgendwann im mai oder juni 2020.

Veröffentlichen – ein schwieriges Wort für mich, die ich nicht daran gewöhnt bin, Sachen, die ich denke, irgendwo hochzuladen, sodass theoretisch alle sie lesen können. Erst recht nicht, wenn ich das mit Leuten zusammen mache, denen es ähnlich geht, und keine* von uns so richtig weiß, wo’s langgeht. Aber das ist vielleicht der Punkt: Bei Angry Ink geht es (auch) darum, die eigene Stimme und ihre Relevanz zu spüren, es ist also ein emanzipatives Projekt.

Dann gibt es in meinem Kopf meistens einige Abläufe von Selbstzweifeln, die da anspringen, zum Beispiel: “Dieses popelige Mini-“Projekt”, wer wird das lesen//hören//irgendwie interessant finden… Noch dazu so wenig faktenbasiert und rational..”
Diese Art von angewöhntem Kleinmachen ist aber vielleicht gerade ein Grund, sowas zu machen. Es ist nicht unwichtig, zu lernen, sich selbst zuzuhören, auch politische Aussagen zu machen, die auch anzuzweifeln, daran zu arbeiten. Nur weil ich nicht so ablabern kann wie die*der (gefühlt) politisch komplett gebildete Aktivist*in, heißt das nicht, dass ich mir keine Gedanken machen sollte. Und auch nicht, dass wir unsere Schritte nicht teilen können.

Meine Einschätzung von mir, mich als nicht aktivistisch genug, nicht politisiert genug und zu wenig organisiert zu betrachten, hält mich teilweise eher davon ab, an all diesen Sachen weiterzuarbeiten. Gleichzeitig sollte und kann es keine Ausrede sein. Manchmal ist es vielleicht schwierig, sich auf ein Thema festzulegen, wenn gefühlt an vielen Stellen alles Mögliche anbrennt.

Mir ist sehr bewusst, dass es viele Menschen gibt, die überall wichtige Dinge tun, und auch schreiben, filmen, veröffentlichen. Dafür bin ich sehr dankbar. Angry Ink soll für mich keinesfalls einen ähnlichen informativen Status erreichen. Es ist ein persönliches Projekt, und vielleicht finden das andere Menschen interessant, was wir so denken und reden und so. Ich finde es jedenfalls hilfreich, gemeinsam Sachen zu besprechen, einfach als einen Startpunkt.

Komme ich mal zum nächsten Thema: Netzaktivismus. Jetzt gerade ist ja Corona-Pandemie, und manche Menschen sind bisschen vorsichtig, was Ansteckungsgefahren und die Verbreitung dieses Virus angeht. Das finde ich wichtig und auch eine ernstzunehmende Gefahr.
Gleichzeitig passieren die ganze Zeit -jetzt, und auch davor- Dinge, die nicht einfach hinzunehmen sind – ich habe eine Aufzählung versucht, die aber abgebrochen, da sie sowieso nicht vollständig wäre. Jedenfalls können die Kämpfe, die gekämpft werden, nicht ins “Homeoffice” verlegt werden. Sie müssen auch im Draußen stattfinden.
Trotzdem kann mensch, so wie wir, einen Podcast machen. Warum auch nicht (siehe oben).
Ich finde es nur wichtig zu sagen, dass das nicht die einzige Form von Aktivismus sein kann, auch nicht im Moment. Denn es gibt Sachen, die auch im Draußen passieren: Geflüchtete, die in Lagern in Quarantäne gesteckt werden, Menschen ohne Obdach, deren Hilfsangebote eingeschränkt werden, Rassist*innen und Verschwörungstheoretiker*innen, die gerade Demos veranstalten, der Kapitalismus, in dessen Zuge vieleviele Menschen ausgebeutet werden…

Deswegen, und vielleicht bleibt dieser Text dann auch so kurz:
Respekt für alle die kämpfen, die informieren, die lehren und lernen, die Gedanken teilen und die stark bleiben – und lebendig.

Und wir machen hier weiter, und freuen uns gehört zu werden, mindestens von uns und vielleicht von ein paar anderen.

von m. geschrieben am 03.05.2020

Disclaimer: All thoughts and explanations written here come from a very personal place of the author and are not yet backed up by external sources. Hence why it is ,,a rant” on the topic.

When i write of whitewashing, i write of the cinematography-based definition.

This word does have other meanings, especially in a historical sense, and the film-based definition is to my knowledge not an official term, but one widely used by individuals and forums on the internet.

A Merriam-Webster definition of whitewashing in cinematography: [W]hitewashing refers to casting white actors as characters who are non-white or of indeterminate race […], over equally qualified people of color, as in the Oscar nominations.

(Note: i am not sure how i feel about the use of the word ,,race” in these types of dialogue. This word always seems inherently wrong to me.)

I just have to write this down. I watched an action movie with my family yesterday (I am spending some quality quarantine time with them) and of course, i was bugged by the usual: under-respresentation of wxmen and non-white folx, cisgendered heteronormativity, the normalisation of a violent, war-infiltrated, ableist, (post-?)colonialist reality because it is simply how ,,the world is”, and other things.

One thing bugged me specifically though, to the point where i decided to write about it.
There was one chapter where some characters went to somewhere on the ,,African Coast” because there was a very specific type of material you could get no where else. They went to the underground facility where the material was being handled and processed and after that ensued a long fight scene, both in the facility and then in the nearby town.

Now, first off, the underground facility did have Black men working on the raw materials, but they were only shown on screen for a few seconds at a time. Their leader was… guess what… white.
Fine, i thought, maybe it is realistic in a colonialist sense: the white foreigner sent by a first-world country to lead a facility to continue to exploit and plunder the resources of an already ,,poorer” place (don’t have to explain where this poorness comes from, do i?).

The fighting scene then moves to the city, where ultimately, civilians are seen running away and the police and military are shown approaching the situation. And this is where it gets very… illogical?
Yes, the majority of the crowd scenes show Black people running away and screaming but for every close-up of a Black person (leaving their car or screaming in fear or something similar), there is a close-up of a white person. Not to mention that the Blackness itself of those Black people is never more than in an ,,acceptable” degree of darkness. Plus, in many scenes where the Black civilians are in the forefront on screen, white people are shown in the background.
But wait, there’s more. When the police and consecutively the military show up, some are shown in close-up pointing their guns at the raging battle that is happening. And literally, more white people were shown in close-up than Black people. I think the proportion was about two to five (this number is a guessed estimate and is very possibly inaccurate, because i have not proof-checked it). That got me quite angry. For me, the entire scene (it was quite the long one) was a perfect example of whitewashing.

Now then, how was this chapter partaking in whitewashing? Last i checked, the ,,African Coast” is home to mostly Black individuals. Why would the makers of the movie have to compensate the displaying of a mainly Black society by over-representing white people, other than to avoid uncomfortableness of the viewer and perhaps the moviemakers themselves? Why can’t they just let Africa be Black?
It was, like most mainstream media up for consumption today, a US-American movie and from what i have gathered, anti-Blackness in the USA is still engrained in every surface and crevice of the societal structure.
I asked myself: why in the hell would every other place in this movie be more or less specified to a city and country and only here, in this chapter, would the location be narrowed down to a vague ,,on the African Coast”? Well, they needed a ,,foreign” place, far away and exotic, to explain the origin of this rare material, but in filming it they made sure it was not ,,too exotic”, lest anyone be ripped out of their comfort zones by seeing a Black society with little to no white people present.

Well, perhaps the thought behind this was ,,well-intentioned”. Perhaps, in their learned, most probably subconscious white-supremacist way of thinking (because that is simply how our dear Western civilisation is built. White supremacy is sadly a part of all our brains, no matter how inclusive we are, because it is in the very tissue of our societies and is what our world was built on), the makers thought ,,ah well we are making sure to be inclusive by paying attention to having Black people (and women) playing important and sub-important roles, so it is only logical that this inclusivity goes both ways, i.e. we have to include lots of white people in a mostly Black society”. But this way of thinking cannot be well-intentioned. It is extremely harmful and feeds to the self-sustaining anti-Blackness (and other non-whiteness threatening white supremacy) engrained in this system corrupted by decay.
It is a reflection of the white-colonialist way of thinking: that whiteness needs to be incorporated everywhere, that it needs to be seen and heard. I say to that: don’t worry, whiteness is seen and heard and felt plenty enough. It’s this reaction of fear: ,,if non-white communities are starting to elevate their voices, then we have to make sure that our white voices are elevated just the same amount!”, except that it is completely, utterly, totally disproportionate. It just suppresses the suppressed even more and makes sure that the white-supremacist system, built by and for brutal, misogynist, rich, violent (and frankly, in my opinion, psychopathic) individuals, stays intact.

Now i won’t go any deeper than this, because this is only an introduction to the topic, and also going deeper would require me to start citing sources and do some more specific research.
For now i only hope that this written text was a prod for your brain, an invitation to think of the existence of whitewashing and its harmfulness any time you watch a movie (or similar).

This is the very first time i try and write down my ,,critical thinking” instead of just thinking about it and staying silent, so it is not very structured and i just wrote it all down in a flow directed by emotion, letting my fingers write as my heart told me. I thank you if you have read this far! As i disclaimed in the beginning, this was not meant to be a definitive ,,explanation” of the topic, nor is it the Final Word. So feel free to make up your own thoughts on this, keeping in mind what privileges you have and don’t have, what privileges lead you to reacting a certain way to certain things, and which thoughts are simply the noxious mantras our system feeds to all of us as children! It’s a long journey, dismantling the violence of state-oppression we have been taught to inflict on upon ourselves and others, but it is ultimately also a journey of healing, and it is the one that leads us towards creating a new world. <3

NOTE: Yes, there are places in South-Africa that are more predominantly white. But the rest of the coast is much larger, and with such a non-specific indication of the location, is that the place one should automatically think of first?

Completely impossible to sleep. I am so excited. As new thoughts have entered my mind. Forbidden thoughts about the coronapocalyps. Its not making any sense. Today police broke up people in the park, gatherings of more than 2 people. It feels like suddenly living inside some dictatorship, except for the lazy non aggressive tone of the cops, and the fact that it is done with mass consent and public fear. Oh wait. Really., all my alarm bells are ringing. Why didn’t I see it before?

And now I am concerned on other levels. And motivated.

Its like I got the missing piece of the puzzle. The main anxiety creator. The fundamental feeling that something is really wack right now. And I feel alone in it. The realization that everyone might be wrong, and this is really also a huge contributing factor to my anxiety – because the idea of questioning the belief that has been regarded as fact, not only by people that I normally don’t agree with but also within my anarchistic peers. That creates anxiety because I basically put part of my identity within this group, and my safe space is within this angry against capitalism, patriarchy and fascism scene – and I don’t want to loose my friends. Which creates a major dilemma, cause my friends are my family, and I deliberately chose to be around people where I don’t have to question if we stand on the same ground because I assume we do. But maybe this is also a way to learn to check it, and realize social behavior on a much deeper and personal level. I believe my deep anxiety was rooted in a feeling of disagreeing with not only the rest of the world but also people I rely on. That is it. This made me unable to be true to myself, and also for me, what I see as being true to reason. And not just acting in fear.

For now, it feels like the intense anxiety I had for five days is being replaced with a great energy force within, raising to create mayhem. I want to rest, but I just cant, my mind is racing and I see so many ideas and feelings arise with almost every thought, and more thoughts spring from that first thought. Like a wave of sparks.

I felt so alone the last days. Not only because I literally was alone, but also because I have been feeling mentally and emotionally alone. It has completely triggered my feeling of being abandoned, and left alone. Raising a lot of dark feelings inside. Feelings of not being understood, and feeling greatly misunderstood. That has actually been a major healing experience for me to learn from, these feelings arising, leading me to feel that this time really is a healing time, but for all kinds of reasons that one can not anticipate. The time of yin, of experiencing my repressed introverted side and learning to express myself and speak my mind as well as listen to unwanted truth.

And here it comes: looks like the world is going through a major trauma response based on fear. This does not make sense as a ground for making political decisions. I long ago stopped trusting most governments way of dealing with almost anything; with refugees, with gentrification, with the environment, with housing, with distribution of goods, with inequality, the rights of humans, animals, and plants, and basically anything!! Why would it then suddenly make sense what they are doing? Why would their actions in a time of great fear suddenly by reasonable?

Under the cold war, or other times of critical world tension, big leaders and nations walked in front making decisions that had absolutely no sense, and people stood behind them, mainly because of fear. Why would this be different now? In a time of major crises, why would big nations for (almost) the first time in world history make reasonable decisions? In the cold war there was great fear about communism and the soviet, and the capitalist won, but where did that took us? The fear makes one run towards something else, and we need to question where we are running and why.

Every event in the history of the world is followed by another event, what is right and what is wrong is up for debate in every situation. Most people would agree that war is bad. Yet most people would agree that the decision by the allies and Russia to go to war to fight the Nazis doing ww2 was a good thing. That was a response. And action and a reaction that was necessary to free the world from the evil that was the Nazi empire. What followed was the division between ideologies, the division of the world, creating a glorification of the west and a taboo on the east (winner writes history). In that time the constant threat of nuclear war was a reality, this was the norm. This was terrifying. This was great nations! Putting everyone in a state of fear, pushing forward that the other group was the enemy one needed to be protected from. One evil followed with another one, because this is how hierarchical structures of domination works. Like shit

Now we stand here. In a global pandemic, and where is the enemy? The same place it always was. Within the human condition. The constant creation of “an outside enemy”, and fear, is nothing new. Now the outside enemy is everyone that is not within our household – I know it is not really our enemy, people are kind and express solidarity with one another and they don’t see everyone else is an enemy, but there is a fear rising in connection to human contact and gathering. I find this disturbing, in my deep gut feeling, something tells me its wrong. Yet I know this is not a well made argument, what it is is the feeling inside that lead me to think critically and question the reality. Something that is a good thing.

We live in capitalism, and capitalism doesn’t care about the people in Lesvos, being trapped 22.000 people in a refugee camp with no access to proper medical care and no chance of quarantines. Capitalism still doesn’t care about the people living on the street. Capitalism still doesn’t care about all the normal people, with normal jobs, now not able to pay their rents, food, and lives. Capitalism doesn’t care about the people in the risk group. Capitalism doesn’t care. It never did and it still doesn’t. Who is in close contact with capitalism? The government, a government and democracy shaped by capitalistic interests and fueled with the mentality of colony America as the main propaganda source since the cold war ended. Solidarity came out of fashion, as it got washed away with the communists and the socialists it was no longer hip. Guess what? Solidarity is back. People are helping one another, because that is what people do. People are relating to each other as fellows in a shared struggle, on the same side. This is wonderful. More empathy, more connection. I really salute this. This I feel in my heart is right and good. This is what we need. Yet my thought is that this must be the big rehearsal, for the real show, which is called global freaking warming, and (hopefully) the fall of capitalism, where we are gonna need the skills of community and empathy to get through to the other side.

So I don’t believe that the global quarantine is the best possible reaction to a global pandemic. I don’t believe that the “leaders” creating FRONTEX, and engaging happily in the weapon industries are suddenly able to make logical decisions regarding all of societies health. I believe it does what it needs in order to protect the privileged and the wealthy, like its mostly been doing for the last decades. So, what other proper responses are there to the current pandemic? I don’t know, I honestly don’t have a solution right now – and this is where some people will say – How can you criticize without having a better option? To that I say, are we only allowed to think critical if we already have a better solution in mind? If we encourage free thinking, instead of condemning it, this text would not be provocative because we would live in a society where we welcome different ideas and criticism because we want to create the best possible solution for our problem. The best possible solution would be created by people analyzing and thinking together about the problems within a structure, and jamming ideas of how it could be better. That’s also why I say – its not necessarily a problem that the world has reacted like this, but I believe its time to a call for action instead of just a reaction. Protesting against this violence. Because this is state violence, violence of human rights. Again I will say- it is one thing to encourage people to stay inside, but to uphold this by law, and making the law into action by people in uniforms with weapons, is scary. It was always scary and it is still scary. I was never told by the police I could not play freesbee in the park in the sunlight before, until today, because we were three people. Where is the logic? And the police was literally in a group of 15 or something, all gathering together (not even walking two and two) – where is the logic? Thinking about other options, there is of course still the option to make a basic income, so people don’t HAVE to go to work, making it possible for a lot of people to stay at home -no problem. If we lived in a more social way, the people that were healthy would work in food production and healthcare, and many people could easily help because it would be an innate part of the system to help each other. About the dangers of the virus, I don’t see why people cant gather in groups of 5 and less, instead of 2 and less. It makes sense to cancel all big events, but not to be able to meet in small groups? The people in those groups will meet anyway one on one, which result now in a total lock down where no one goes out anymore. How many people are suffering severely under this? EVERYONE. But some are much more hit. People in abusive relationships, on the street, and in many other people. Children cant play with each other or go to playground no more, I am sure both parents and children are suffering under this – and the parents are STILL EXPECTED TO WORK AT HOME.

An idea for a solution I heard about is focusing the energy on all the people in the risk group (infected or not) and making it possible for them to isolate, while not everyone else has to isolate. Making it clear that all elder people, people with weaker immune systems, and other people in the riskgroup have delivered food, medicine, and healthy things to strengthen their immune system so they don’t have to go outside.

Btw. what about all of us strengthening our immune system? I know that that doesn’t apply to everyone, not everyone can just do that. Yet generally, because of prices and society, it is more expensive to buy organic food instead of food with pesticide, it is more easy, accessible and affordable to decide to eat things that weaken our bodies instead of strengthen them – with a virus exactly like the covid19, it seems like our health and eating habits actually can have an effect on weather our bodies can handle the virus by itself.

I am not claiming this is the end solution, I am just jamming ideas. Also we have overworked hospitals and under worked people in their homes, maybe there is a way to equalize this as well, and make it possible to help and support solidarily in the healthcare? First of all the people working so hard in this field should have a raise and better work conditions right now, besides that more people could participate in the health sector to ease the load and make it less risky for people to work with infected people. Another problem with the pandemic is the lack of space and health resources/materials can occur, what about collectively remaking some buildings to make more space, and people going to work in production of the materials needed. If we lived in a different societal structure, it would not be so problematic for people to work in a sector they are not used to, and if they did it for the reason of helping instead of money because everyone would have basic income.

With a collective effort we wouldn’t maybe have to have most people stay inside doing nothing, and a few people working their asses off in food production and healthcare. With a more decentralized system, people could all just go on the down low for a while. No big gatherings, concerts and events. Schools, bars, restaurants and such could still close, but encourage people to meet in smaller groups and take care, while staying out under open sky (Yet not enforced by authorities with uniforms and weapons – never enforced by authorities with uniforms and weapons).

So after writing these personally deeply liberating thoughts exploding out of my mind, I might be able to calm down and rest. I finally feel like I start to understand my own point of view on this situation. And all it took for me to break through to the other side was a day out with two friends that generally also felt like this, getting harassed by the police for being together outside, going through mental exchanges with each other based on this experience, remembering how it feels to play music together (jamming has not occurred since the pandemic started), listening to reggae for half a day, and lastly smoke a joint and drink a few beers with a shot of schnapps on the side. Get loose, let go, and you never know what kind of things will occur to you. Ah the smell of freedom, the smell of anarchism. Fuck the rules. ACAB.