I once derailed a work party like 20 years ago by putting Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie VHS on in the meeting room TV, and like half the guys there just went in there with their drinks and stayed to watch it.

oh nooooo

I'm not saying this to shame or silence newcomers to the fight. I'm saying you're joining a long tradition that dates back to before you were born. It predates the airplane, the steam engine, the printing press, and the birth of Christ. You are welcome. I want you in our ranks.

I can't fathom the mindset that the people warning us 30 years ago about our multiple present crises were alarmists now that those crises are here. If there's a hole in the roof, I am right to tell you about the risk of a leak, even if it's not raining *today*.

We're all worried about the climate crisis now, but scientists and organizers have been warning us about it since the 1970s. If they were right about that, what else might they have been right about?

Sure, we're all disgusted with capitalism now, but there have been people organizing against it since before the Civil War. What did they know that we didn't? Why were they discredited? Why are they discredited still?

There were people saying Palestine was under attack in 2023. There were people saying it in 2021. There were people saying it in 2007! There were people saying it in 1948!

If you're just realizing it now, you are welcome here, but PLEASE ask "what did those other folks see that I didn't?"

see also "financial literacy", "calorie counting", making sure your healthcare provider is "in-network", etc.

All of these things will make your life easier, sure, but why does the responsibility fall with the party spending money on it and not the party making money from it?

the weather?