Folks, I lost an eye during a pandemic because I believe so strongly in protest and the importance of accurate media coverage of it.

It is vanishingly unlikely that any talking points will dissuade me from this view. Please stop trying; I am aware of moderate philosophy already.

For those who don’t know this about me I used to run field campaigns for Democratic congressional and downballot races; I know more about the electorate and how to move voters than most folks informing me of how campaign politics work.

Non-electoral field work counts as politics

Which is to say when you’re shut out of the system, or when the electoral system only deals with your issue in anodyne ways, it becomes one’s civic duty to inform the public of any civic emergency.

Certainly extrajudicial killing by agents of the state counts as that.

Ergo: look, if the party won’t say anything too impolite because they have to worry about donors or electability in conservative areas? It’s not my job to thank the party nicely for putting an agenda point in the minutes.

People protest because not protesting hasn’t worked.

If your argument is “but people will misunderstand” then you have failed to pay much attention to the state of politics and media both, in which case your argument is a waste of time and you should be interrogating your philosophies more.

If it’s “but it looks bad when people aren’t pleasant and kind” then you have failed to understand the reason people are angry, and how utterly justified their anger is, and you should interrogate your philosophies more.

If your argument is that anger or it’s manifestations will alienate the middle, then you don’t understand how willing much of the middle is to see evil enacted in their name as long as they aren’t named personally, and you should interrogate your philosophies more.

The idea that a society is in some kind of zero-sum trade between electoral work and non-electoral civic engagement, as though politics only happens within a party framework, is not only utterly wrong it’s nearly silly. It ignores nearly all of history.

People were *just* eulogizing John Lewis.

Interrogate your politics. We all better know how and where and why we stand in this year of fuckery and fear.