@sun_girlxo@QiaochuYuan If you're aware of an absence of tension, I reckon you're most of the way there! Fuel that awareness as long as you can, savour what your scrutiny uncovers. There's plenty to notice, and to notice slowly and peaceably.
@QiaochuYuan Attempt stillness. Allow stillness. Observe what is not still, and attempt to allow it to be still. This is a task of fine balance, which is easy or difficult depending on how much you've practiced it. It's easy to have never practiced it in your life.
@QiaochuYuan Aspects of relaxation come in moments of immersion in tasks, in sports, in performance.
An exercise regime of broad spectrum relaxation would need to be undertaken with great patience, as it is against your grain and just seems fruitless until it bears fruit.
@vividvoid Mandy (2018) is exquisite and feels deeply mythical and sensitively honouring of the spirit though excruciating horror - and I haven't been able to map it to a particular tradition
All the takes are correct and yet they also miss the point.
Yes, it was insane for the Democrats to think they could win by running a soullessย candidate, without a shred of progressive policy vision, pursuing endorsements from neocon war-hawks everybody hates, while arming and funding a genocide, and belittling and crushing those who have enough morality to protest it.ย It is enraging that the Democrats are so smug and blind to this.
But these are all just symptoms.ย The deeper reality is that liberalism has failed, liberalism is dead, and people urgently need to wake up to this fact and respond accordingly. It is a defunct ideology that cannot offer any meaningful solutions to our social and ecological crises and it must be abandoned.
Democrats have proven over and over again that they cannot accept even *basic* steps like public healthcare, affordable housing, and a public job guarantee - things that would dramatically improve the material, social and political conditions of the working classes. And they cannot accept a public finance strategy that would steer production away from fossil fuels and toward green transition to give us a shot at a liveable future.
Why? Because these things run against the objectives of capital accumulation. And for liberals capital is sacrosanct. They will do whatever it takes to ensure elite accumulation, it is their only consistent commitment.ย At home, they suppress and demonize progressive and socialist tendencies. Abroad, they engage in endless wars and violence to suppress input prices in the global South and prevent any possibility of sovereign economic development.
The Democrats have done all this purposefully and knowingly, for my whole life, not as some kind of "mistake" but in full consciousness that it is in the interests of capital.
And because liberalism cannot address our crises, and because it crushes socialist alternatives, it inevitably paves the way for right-wing populism.ย They know this pattern, and yet they risk it every time - this election being only the most recent example. They did it in 2016, when they actively crushed the Sanders campaign and sent Trump to the White House. They do it because ultimately they (and I mean the liberal ruling class here) don't really mind if fascists take power, so long as the latter too ensure the conditions for capital accumulation. They 100% prefer this to the possibility of a socialist alternative.
So, progressives have to face reality. The dream of "converting" the Democratic party is dead. This is now a fact and it must be accepted. The only option is to build a mass-based movement that can reclaim the working classes and mobilize a political vehicle that can integrate disparate progressive struggles into a unified and formidable political force and achieve substantive transformation. This will take real work, actual organizing, but it must be done and that process must begin now.
@JosiahHawthorne He explains himself well through his formative years in the fires of bulletin boards on the great podcast Ten Thousand Posts
https://t.co/04f8kGn4iO
@perroAsalariado@generalslug@SAMOYEDCORE "candy corn" is a US candy stereotyped for being very unappreciated, motivating the self-acceptance in the cartoon. The "cone" response amuses because it doesn't have the cultural reference, but still engages sincerely.
https://t.co/cwazF1BJt1
@IrateMaxwell @seanbeegee I occasionally search 'music video' (and exclude a couple of very productive languages), uploaded in the last week/month, and sort by most views. Plenty isn't for me, but I find it interesting to see trends, am introduced to new artists, and there's choreography and filmmaking.
@JosephOReilly3@vividvoid I only know 'TPOT'/'this part of Twitter' for describing 'the milieu of contemplative/mystic/spiritual practitioners who tweet about it'. 'This part' sounding generic I wouldn't be surprised if it's used elsewhere though
@vividvoid I'm not on that platform, but fwiw on YouTube I really enjoy 'SEEKER TO SEEKER' and 'Perlas de Sabidurรญa Milenaria' and 'Let's Talk Religion' for exploration and explanation that feels really wet with spirit, atop the responsible historianship I started out looking for.