Fuck Biden, but the fact that "we'll be better off w out Trump" is a controversial statement among some leftists tells me we're not discussing the realities of fascism enough & that some folks aren't paying close enough attn to the horrors being inflicted on ppl who aren't them.

Trump is packing planes full of deportees who contracted COVID-19 in detention and sending them to their home countries w little to no medical infrastructure. The U.S. is a genocidal country in general. Trump is creating as many layers of that shit as he can. These things matter.

Just because you see two things as morally indistinguishable does not mean they are strategically indistinguishable.

I am aware that neoliberalism is irredeemably vile. But to fight fascism and neoliberalism, we need to understand what these things mean and how they relate to each other. It's true they have the same end game. I wrote about this back in 2018. https://truthout.org/articles/tear-gas-at-the-border-trump-and-the-endgame-of-capitalism/

I don't need Biden's horrendous nature explained to me. He's an enemy of the people. I understood that about all presidents a long time ago. But in terms of impacts, they are not all historically interchangeable.

Bottom line: When you're in a bar fight, you don't attack everyone equally at the same time, in the same way, to prove you understand that they are all bad. You pick who you swing on first, and decide when and how to strike, for strategic reasons.

I support people's autonomy & whatever they think they have to do about this election. Can't vote for a rapist? I hear that and I support you. Respecting people's autonomy when they face difficult life and death decisions from positions you prob can't fathom is a good thing btw.

More of you should try it.

Short story on how this figures into organizing: Some yrs back I was part of a team doing some rad shit. We were stealing houses & pulling all kinds of hijinx for the ppl. One day, an elderly woman in our crew took me aside. With a sad face she told me "I have to vote for Obama."

At that time, I did not engage w the electoral system at all (I still think abstention is a perfectly valid choice ftr) & she had been on that page as well, but lived off of disability and social security benefits and was afraid of losing them. She was afraid I would judge her.

I told her I was sorry if I had ever said anything that made her feel like I would judge her over such a thing. Here we were, an intergenerational crew, doing crime, fighting the good fight & she thought she had to worry about that. That's not cool. So I promised her she did not.

Can you imagine if I had judged that woman? Me, a person in my 20's at that time, judging an elderly woman w a disability, who was still doing activism, bc she felt she needed to opt for the candidate who wouldn't take her health care away? That would have been profoundly shitty.

I want some of y'all to think about that woman when you shame people. Think about how shitty it would have been of me to make a speech to her about why there's really no difference between these people, when we were literally talking about what was gonna happen to her physically.

In addition to being shitty, I would've quite deservedly lost her trust. Bc people don't trust folks who aren't invested in their survival. Why would they? Hell, I might have lost my whole team over that bc she was good comrade & they would have been right to fiercely defend her.

So my friend voted for Obama & that took about 10 minutes of her time. And w the rest of her time, she was doing some rad shit & generally being awesome. Organizing is about relationships. Can you imagine losing out on that relationship over engagement w electorialism? I can't.

Now, I could've told my friend that Obama was still a violent imperialist and that even if she personally would lose her healthcare under another candidate, in the larger scheme, there's no real distinction. I hope we all understand why that would have been a less cool move.

I am not against the strategic use of shame, but people rarely stop to think about its limitations or what it costs to employ it.

Shame can have stopping power. Shame is not as useful when it comes to generating new political action. And shaming def impacts your relationship w whoever you are shaming. That doesn't mean you should never shame ppl. But it should not be a go-to move w ppl you hope to engage.

That's why shaming people who don't vote is also not only shitty, but also an act of self-sabotage on the part of the shamer. Punishing people for not doing what you want is not how you mobilize people. That shit fosters grudges & demobilizes people, and who benefits from that?

I've gotten replies from folks asking me to justify my contention that Trump is a fascist or more dangerous than the Dem establishment. Lucky for y'all, I've already written and recorded the answers to your questions over an extended period of time. https://twitter.com/MsKellyMHayes/status/1283612155041009664?s=19

I don't even think these conversations should take up much time bc we have real organizing in our communities to focus on. Defunding the police, organizing care networks and mutual aid, eviction defense. That's what I care about & it will be needed no matter who wins the election

But if you're putting down radical folks doing radical work in their communities who are organizing against state violence and fascism, and to empty cages, bc they say it's okay to vote to reduce harm, I think that you should read more deeply into the situation.