Tumblr User Insert Name Here thinks feelings will save the world

[apiphile]

You're mostly motivating me to hate you, Big Name Poster

As much of a bauble of bullshit
As the pioneer pinafore America
The Hopescold sits yellow-fronted
On the Path(ology) beside my window;
Screaming TO DESPAIR IS TO BE THE ENEMY
Every day in at me as I write.
White paper, black ink, black thoughts,
White lies, truth-or-lies, consequences,
For inadequate Hope; whatever happens next,
will always be my fault;
I have the responsibility,
and none of the power;
As much of a pinafore of circumstance
As the nut-gathering bullshit,
The Hopescold trills: EVERY DESPAIR
IS WHAT BABY FUTURE FAMILY KILLS
LOVE HOPE HOPE LOVE, OR FASCISM ELSE;
I've been washing out the milk bottles,
Reducing the heating by degrees,
Foregoing the escape routes by air,
Land and sea; Because if I don't,
The Billionaire Bloat drowning the sky
will always be my fault;
I have the responsibility,
but not the power;
Can't even shut this fucking bird up.

Comments

[wolfy_writing]

Because if I don't,
The Billionaire Bloat drowning the sky
will always be my fault;
I have the responsibility,
but not the power;

Really good and accurate. (I liked actually having hope, but I fucking hate the idea that despair is a crime against others and you must constantly force particular beliefs and emotional states lest you commit the sin of having feelings wrong. And from a persuasion front, it's cheap and sloppy. They are appointing themselves public voices to be listened to, and positioning themselves as on the side of Hope, but they can't be bothered to give anyone a reason to hope, instead going with their preferred strategy of dishing out shame, shame, and more shame.)

[apiphile]

I fucking hate the idea that despair is a crime against others and you must constantly force particular beliefs and emotional states lest you commit the sin of having feelings wrong.

That is very much the tenor of the Tumblr Hopescold and it's driving me fucking nuts. There are, apart from anything else, OTHER EMOTIONAL STATES than "Hope or Despair".

They are appointing themselves public voices to be listened to, and positioning themselves as on the side of Hope, but they can't be bothered to give anyone a reason to hope, instead going with their preferred strategy of dishing out shame, shame, and more shame.

It's so fucking Christian.

[wolfy_writing]

The usual flattening out the nuance into a binary to position themselves as emotionally superior.

It is excruciatingly Christian.

[apiphile]

YES.

Literally, too: Despair Is A Sin, etc. It's not a very motivating emotion, to be sure, but treating it as a source of shame and political burden and something to yell at people over rather than a naturally occurring emotion that needs to be given a reason to disperse, is pretty COUNTERPRODUCTIVE.

[wolfy_writing]

Exactly! I think a lot of people online are interacting with other people based not on the stated goals, but on emotion-driven goals like "I want to hurt people and still feel like I'm the right" or "I want to shame and control people."

[apiphile]

Sometimes I am compelled to ask "hey have you found shaming people about their perceived sin to be a particularly effective method of making them have hope for the future" but I do not, of course, go through with it. Hence: poem.

[wolfy_writing]

Yeah, I would be tempted, but I'm sure they'd just double down and give a self-righteous lecture about "doomers" choosing to despair for morally bad reasons.

[apiphile]

THAT'S the fucker. That's it.

[wolfy_writing]

Yeah, "I don't like what they're doing, so they're guilty of Choosing to be Bad for Bad Reasons" is a common trick to feel better about making demands on people and being mean when they don't comply.