The Big Hello Thread

[luka]

No its not all about me. But it's partly about me and i dont think youre totally wrong but you do need to think about beam in your eye

 

[pattycakes_]

I think we both want this forum to reach it's potential. At the moment I'm trying to do my part in nudging it in that direction. There's a lot of talent here and maybe with some reflection and stern words we could recalibrate and get back on track to realizing some of it, who knows. I just don't like seeing it so stagnated, and I think certain elements have been keeping it in that state. See: several posts from people saying they don't feel like participating much. Imo it's going to be more productive to cultivate healthy competition and constructive criticism over just walloping any seedling that sprouts up with a hammer. Also, I honestly think bullying sucks. Especially when it's being sold as just a laugh or even for someone's own good (fkn lol) when it's clearly just a bunch of jackals taking a sly bite of an already down antelope. Everything in moderation, but when it's the overarching tone of a place, that doesn't engender productivity. Just my pov

 

[pattycakes_]

And don't get me wrong, it shouldn't be a creche where all the walls are painted in primary colors and we've got our poster paints and drawings on the wall. There's ways to do this without it being infantilizing. I think my main point is trying to allow things to breathe a bit more

 

[pattycakes_]

If yourself or anyone have any specific questions about jailing, I was a correction officer on Rikers Island. Please feel free to ask. I doubt that beyond mentioning I did the job, I am still processing retirement and am not quite adapted to just being ‘me’, whoever tf that is, I certainly didn’t join this forum to tell ‘war stories’. In my pre-CO life I was jailed for short periods @civil disobedience. So, I had a fairly unusual perspective having been on both sides of the bars to some extent.

How did you end up on the other side eventually?

To your question about like-minded individuals: I am assuming you mean politically/class conscious???

Yes, although I'd wrongly assumed you were a policeman, and from there I was wondering how many other officers are reading Fisher in the break room down at the station. Question still works for a CO though

I Met/worked with a handful of fellow officers who were interested in, or knew something about working class politics and/or leftish type talk/books/ideas.
Particularly when Bernie Sanders made his first run (2016) there was more support for him than I expected. Probably, and I’m just speculating based on demographics, but I would say there was more open/enthusiastic support for the 2016 pre-cheated by/yet still agreed to corral what passes for the left in the U.S. electoral reality in CDNY than in the NYPD or FDNY. It’s speculation: NYPD has a workforce Btwn 40-50k officers. It’s difficult to compare. FDNY which is not law enforcement but a premier uniformed civil service has a much closer size department.
8-10k service members.
There is a stark racial dynamic as well.
CDNY is @93% non-white (European Heritage). Very similar to the inmate population interestingly enough.
FDNY is I think about 80% ‘white’ particularly from Irish/Italian working class nieghborhoods. I take no pleasure or pride in saying that Dept. Is 90+ % Trump types of on stripe or another(???)

Good stuff. Glad I asked

Capitalist Realism is the book that put the hooks in me. Inho it is the most important book maybe since debords ‘Society of the Spectacle’

Even though I haven't read Debord, the concept of the spectacle is huge. I read a book partly inspired by SotS from Chris Hedges called Empire of Illusion - the end of literacy and the triumph of spectacle, which breaks it down in a more modern context. Should probably read the Debord, maybe put it on the top of the to do list

 

[sus]

Everyone is on their best behavior. You love to see it. You dread to wonder how long it lasts

 

[sus]

To me, dissent is fine but it should come from a place of connection. Disconnection is dissonance. Connected dissent is dialectic.

 

[sus]

Do I actually understand this person

Am I trying to actually be understood and persuade or just dunk on someone

I am of course indicting myself; this is what aversion accused me of yesterday

 

[sus]

Aversion. Haha!

 

[pattycakes_]

We're all guilty of it and it's fun a lot of the time but there are periods where it goes to far and becomes the default and that can fuck up the flow of the spice

I'd say we're due some spicy flow