elle armageddon - neither doomerism or toxicity
@ellearmageddon.bsky.social writes (July 3, 2025):
link:
https://bsky.app/profile/ellearmageddon.bsky.social/post/3lt33ar5qyc2n
"fwiw, i don’t personally think that either doomerism OR toxic positivity is what this moment calls for; i think what we actually need to be collectively looking towards is a secret third thing (hopepunk) it’s cool and important to give a shit, and to look for ways to help each other." (thread excerpts below)
Rebecca Solnit posted that and [added] this non-succinct answer ...:
There are people who genuinely share their fears and views, but others who attack mine and those of anyone who's engaged/not surrendering. What I see these people doing is first of all turning a subjective feeling ("I feel overwhelmed/I fear we will lose/I'm sad") that is true and honest into an objective statement that is false ("we are doomed/helpless/nobody cares"). The subjective truth is vulnerable; the false objectivity instead takes a stance of authority while ducking out on the vulnerability.
This is why I have been saying for at least a couple of years that I respect despair as an emotion but don't confuse it with an analysis. But when they actually have the energy to try to trash the hopeful and the engaged, to try to recruit to despair, then they're acting out of malice and self-aggrandizement, however unconscious. It is important to them that the hopeful be wrong so they be justified in hopelessness, and so they go around lashing out and cutting down (they are often nasty and sneering). And ... if there's nothing we can do there's nothing we have to do, so we're off the hook. I've been dealing with this attitude since I wrote the original Hope in the Dark essay 22 years ago.
link to Solnit post: https://www.facebook.com/rebecca.solnit/posts/pfbid0en25Xfbny2y67CptRebigBUMkkjZh1747xBqunPtfC9bDwN9tBdkv97ZQWMxe1x2l
excerpts from the primary post-thread:
i don't think that means we have to be focused on the bad shit all the time, either!
i think hopepunk actually centers around focusing on lifting each other up, and that can be independent from focusing on what's dragging people down, even though those things are inherently linked.
there is basically never a wrong time to offer to cook for someone, to offer to help with their chores, to offer to watch their kids or run and errand for them, or bring them something to brighten their day.