#defeatism — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

Chris Hale @[email protected] · 2026-04-08 · 19:19 UTC

How is it that Americans who affiliate themselves as Democrats are so afraid to talk about #Palestine? After all this time?

It's because they've been successfully socialized not to talk about it, our activists have been made the villains, reinforced by their political party and their "trusted" news organizations. This was clear to me in 2018 when any mention of Palestine on #PBS was accompanied by an interview with the ADL.

I have a media-adjacent job myself, and I've also experienced this when I filed an ethics complaint against my own employer who tried to shut me up for making a lukewarm statement about Palestine. The clear intention is to suppress speech.

It's because we've allowed this tactic to be effective, it continues to be used. We must speak up, not resign ourselves to defeat. The surest pathway to defeat is acting like we've already lost. #defeatism is the enemy here, not so-called #idealism

#palestine #pbs #defeatism #idealism

Chris Hale @[email protected] · 2026-04-08 · 19:19 UTC

How is it that Americans who affiliate themselves as Democrats are so afraid to talk about #Palestine? After all this time?

It's because they've been successfully socialized not to talk about it, our activists have been made the villains, reinforced by their political party and their "trusted" news organizations. This was clear to me in 2018 when any mention of Palestine on #PBS was accompanied by an interview with the ADL.

I have a media-adjacent job myself, and I've also experienced this when I filed an ethics complaint against my own employer who tried to shut me up for making a lukewarm statement about Palestine. The clear intention is to suppress speech.

It's because we've allowed this tactic to be effective, it continues to be used. We must speak up, not resign ourselves to defeat. The surest pathway to defeat is acting like we've already lost. #defeatism is the enemy here, not so-called #idealism

#idealism #defeatism #pbs #palestine

Farhad @[email protected] · 2025-12-18 · 17:19 UTC

As long as "progressive" Americans are such pathetic morons, their country can never see real change.

Instead of fighting the politicians and demanding them to represent people and give up their loyalty to the war machine, imperialist geopolitics and being a tool of corporations and supportive of the genocidal regime of Israel, they attack the ones with dignity and conscience.

#USpol #Dumbfuckistan #Election #TwoPartyScam #Dumbfuckistan #Defeatism #PEFP

#uspol #dumbfuckistan #election #twopartyscam #defeatism #pefp

Tâi Siáu-káu 台痟狗ㄊㄇㄉ 🇳🇫 台灣國 @[email protected] · 2024-06-16 · 20:19 UTC

🇳🇫 #TAIWAN (#台灣): ❝[#President #William_Lai (#賴清德 #總統, #DPP)] warns against #defeatism at ceremony❞
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2024/06/17/2003819455
#失敗主義

#taiwan #台灣 #president #william_lai #賴清德 #總統

Kent Pitman @[email protected] · 2024-03-29 · 10:16 UTC

@simon_brooke @ksaj

(There's haiku/senryu/poetry at the end here. Those who tuned based on hash tag, feel free to scroll down.)

Actions still matter. Leadership matters.

In the US, I think with Bernie or Warren at the helm, we might have bent capitalism more. Biden wasn't up to that. He's not the guy that's best for the job. But two party democracy without rank order voting makes it not about what's best but what's better. The choice in 2024 in the US is only how not to slide backward, as we would under Trump, not how to best move forward, as neither really promises. Still, even this matters.

Biden is the must-vote-for option in the US. Third parties have no chance. Not voting or voting for a third party, is equivalent to a half-vote for Trump and a half-vote for Biden. That's a TERRIBLE way to protest.

The slim hope is that Biden will change, learn, grow. Or if he passes, maybe Harris will be less centrist. There is no similar hope from the GOP.

Other countries face differences in detail, but there are analogs globally. We need to support the best political voices that will help us more, but only to the extent those voices can be elected, not so as to get distracted about getting the electable-but-only-better-not-best candidate from getting in.

And we need to support democracy, because under democracy there can be dissent, and climate leaders who are unelected can still influence. Under autocracy, as Trump promises, and others elsewhere do too, such thoughtful climate dissenters will be silenced.

Get the word out. Find doable options to suggest or do. Contribute how you can. Bolster others who can do more.

Yeah, it's hard some days to know if there's hope, but don't let that worry distract you. I recently wrote this haiku, hoping to provoke folks a bit:

Climate work to do.
But, to paraphrase Zevon,
We'll do it when dead.

But maybe the tone was wrong. Maybe instead I should have channeled Zevon differently, in a more upbeat way:

Climate work daunts us.
May be already pointless.
Ponder that when dead.

In other words, let's just presume there's hope, as we can't prove there's not. Hope isn't a probability, it's a oath. Erring on the side of defeatism, presuming there's no path when maybe there is, is a risk of giving up unnecessarily. There's time enough for being defeatist once we've killed ourselves from being hopeful.

#haiku #senryu #ShortPoem #climate #defeatism #hope #leadership #ClimateHope #ClimateLeadership #Election2024