Fuckful Friday: BFD
Fresh periphery fuck
Extra Fucks to Give
50 Fucks Given #59
Writer, historian and activist Barbara Ransby has some advice that’s helped my sanity in the last month, and hopefully into the foreseeable future. It’s about how to handle life when everything is a big fucking deal.
Barbara is sort of an unofficial hub of knowledge for many overlapping rights and justice groups, and a regular guest on Palestinian advocacy webinars. She always has practical advice about how to protect ourselves from apathy and emotional exhaustion. She doesn’t mince words—she tells you the work of liberation and freedom is hard work.
I like her approach because she doesn’t minimize how many things functionally are a big fucking deal. And I like that she encourages responding to systemic failures and injustice in strategic ways, to create collective beneficial changes. Most of the webinars I’ve seen her on are educational and collective action events—either writing or calling Congress about bills, funding, or general hey what the fuck are you guys doing with our tax money statements and questions.
The most important notes I took during the last webinar are Ransby’s 10 key actions for practical, sane survival as we head into 2025. Earlier today someone mentioned the list in a chat about homeless services (things are very bad in the homeless sphere right now,) and I made a mental note to share the list with everyone, as per advice #6.
Although this advice is focused on mutual aid, nonprofits, and political action groups, it’s also solid advice for our individual lives.
Connect and protect each other
Build mass organizing on broad platforms
Create new avenues of resources and funding
Have a communications plan B
Plan for local, state, national needs
Share knowledge and experience
Be visible and vocal
Support alternative press and media
Check on people and use opportunities to support
Be strategic with planned actions
Ransby noted it was important to distinguish between disagreement with opponents, and enemies. She said we should protect each other and our fundamental rights, even when we vehemently disagree, even with opponents. An enemy is someone who wants you personally, or people like you, dead. There is no disagreeing or negotiating about the value of your very existence.
The big message I took away from the list is that improvement is always slow and steady work. And that problems happen a lot quicker than solutions. Which is why we have to be strategic about how we better connect, and stay connected, during increasing upheaval and fuckery.
This is the group work part of life. Yayyy…
I’m going to try and spend the next year maintaining my existential victory of still believing things can get better, despite everything being a big fucking deal, every second of every day.
I know good people doing amazing things to sustain their communities. I know people struggling for their life. A lot of people are doing both.
Big fucking deal; slow and steady.
Survival at the periphery.
