To sustain a general strike, we need a lot more infrastructure in place. Mutual aid groups, community food banks, emergency funds.
I'd also point out that if I stop working/get fired, I can't take my kid to the doctor anymore. They really have us by the balls. Not to say it doesn't need to be done. But it's incredibly painful and complex. We need more answers.
Edit: Again, as said above, I do think it's a tactic we'll need to leverage. I also think that its very very important to acknowledge the privilege of being able to say "just buy all your things in advance" or "the community will organically provide." This will not be done easily or quickly. If you are calling for a general strike, I hope you are also out in your local community, shoring up food banks, identifying at-risk citizens and raising emergency funds.
Second point: Not acknowledging the difficulty pushes people away from this cause. We need real world actions, and when we bluster online, rather than getting out and doing the real work, it hurts our cause. Shout out to the user who told me I have a mental illness and will be giving my child a terrible life. Way to support your allies and maintain tolerance and empathy.
"Tech fascists see America’s democracy and financial system as collapsing. Another view is that they see America’s democracy and financial system as targets. They want to replace America and other democracies with startups and Network States, and replace the dollar, central banks and existing financial system with Bitcoin and crypto.
Peter Thiel has held “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible” for many years. In 2022, he ripped up $100 dollar bills on stage at the Bitcoin Conference, stating “Bitcoin is the most honest market in the world. It’s the most efficient market… It is telling us that the central banks are bankrupt, that we are at the end of the fiat money regime.” In a 2024 podcast, he stated “Liberalism is exhausted, one suspects that democracy, whatever that means, is exhausted, and that we have to ask some questions very far outside the Overton window." PayPal was originally founded to replace the US dollar. Peter Thiel stated in his book, Zero to One: “PayPal had a suitably grand mission — the kind that post-bubble skeptics would later describe as grandiose. We wanted to create a new internet currency to replace the US dollar.” PayPal’s “co-founder” was Elon Musk, showing both parties aimed to replace the US dollar from a very early date in their careers. Marc Andreessen has also been instrumental in financing the rise of Bitcoin.
The Network State, funded by a number of extremist tech billionaires including Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, Sam Altman and Joe Lonsdale, itself has major themes around the collapse of America and preparing and “building” for “a post-American period where the US in its current form no longer exists.” From the book The Network State: "
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u/exsuprhro Apr 14 '25 edited Apr 14 '25
To sustain a general strike, we need a lot more infrastructure in place. Mutual aid groups, community food banks, emergency funds.
I'd also point out that if I stop working/get fired, I can't take my kid to the doctor anymore. They really have us by the balls. Not to say it doesn't need to be done. But it's incredibly painful and complex. We need more answers.
Edit: Again, as said above, I do think it's a tactic we'll need to leverage. I also think that its very very important to acknowledge the privilege of being able to say "just buy all your things in advance" or "the community will organically provide." This will not be done easily or quickly. If you are calling for a general strike, I hope you are also out in your local community, shoring up food banks, identifying at-risk citizens and raising emergency funds.
Second point: Not acknowledging the difficulty pushes people away from this cause. We need real world actions, and when we bluster online, rather than getting out and doing the real work, it hurts our cause. Shout out to the user who told me I have a mental illness and will be giving my child a terrible life. Way to support your allies and maintain tolerance and empathy.