Twisted Sister - We’re Not Gonna Take It [Extended Version] (1984)
Over three decades later, this song continues to be one of the most important anthems against abusive authority, censorship, and forced conservative values ever written.
When the music industry was faced with censorship from the likes of Tipper Gore and the “Parent’s Music Resource Center”, Dee Snider of Twisted Sister personally made a powerful speech against it at a Senate hearing in 1985. Ever since that fateful clash between conservative values and rock, the PMRC no longer exists, and music continues to be allowed freedom of expression.
1. don’t be telling people they have to be angry all the time unless you want at least half of them to go over the top and end up uselessly ‘radical’ yellers and the other half to develop caring fatigue and start erring on the wrong side of what’s actually important because they no longer have the energy to care about every single insignificant little thing
2. people shouldn’t feel worse about their lives after listening to you, and if they consistently do, you’re going to fail
3. if you’re not instilling a solid sense of hope that things can change for the better you’re going to fail even more
4. have a workable system of what is the most crucial issue at a given time and place. if you’re insisting every single thing is the same amount of bad, all at the same time, you’re going to burn people out - see point 1.
5. have a workable system for which members of the opposition could be made into your allies and which ones are more trouble than they’re worth. discarding everyone for very differing levels of Bad is unsustainable and you’re going to fail.
6. unity over minute differences. UNITY OVER MINUTE DIFFERENCES. sincere support and similar goals should win over ideological purity and identical opinions every.single.time. if it doesn’t, you’re going to fail even more.
7. promote a clear plan of action with different ways of work that are accessible to different people. online activism, for example, has its uses, but sitting on your arse arguing online about which piece of media is the most Problematic should take a backseat to joining an actual grassroots organisation and doing some of the dirty work.
oh, i’ve got another one:
8. Clean up your own messes. The submovements that go extremist are merely taking your idea that was fucked up in the first place and taking it to the next level. Feminism doesn’t get to look away from terfs and swerfs, kink-critics and shit like “men can’t be raped”. Marxists don’t get to look away from sexism, ableism, homophobia and tankies. Veganism doesn’t get to look away from racism, classism, and food-shaming people to the point of ortorexia, malnutrition, and straight-up parents starving out their kids. Etc. You want people to listen to you? Clean up your own goddamn mess.
“if you’re not angry you’re not paying attention” used to be such a powerful phrase but now it’s more accurate to say “if you’re not angry you’re probably exhausted by 5+ years of Panic Outrage Mode and are nearing the limit of your emotional range for reacting to this shit”
or alternately
“if you’re not angry it’s probably because you just plain can’t get outraged any more, are sick and tired as a result of being repeatedly lied to, guilt tripped, or even victimized by a scammer, but you also don’t say anything because you don’t want a new asshole to get ripped open by saying something that contradicts the prevailing sentiment on a website that you found fun before”
See the big thing is, it’s not new. The big new problem is that we have a generation and a half who got taught some pretty damaging shit, like everything needs to happen now, everything is political, and you are your labels.
Ever wonder how older activists avoided this burn out? They recognized that slow change generally lasts because it changes at a societal level, they knew that, no Professor Ineedtenure, not everything is political. They knew the only label that actually matters is human, everything else is just ephermal.
The biggest probpem is, we have people taught both academically and societally by people who only want them as numbers for a paycheck, who act like they have good intentions all the while will do anything, including poisoning the well, to ensure that they never have to worry about their paychecks.
The amount of “Activists” Activity stirring the pot to keep their meal ticket rolling is fucking disgusting and sours the well for generations just for their own fucking ego’s and ease of living.
Nothing’s going to stay fixed with these people around.
I mean fuck, want to know how fucking ecstatic I was in 2012? Like holy shit I was fucking in middle school when DADT was implemented took 20 years and likely wont come back. It took work to get there, and the only people who were massively butthurt were profs and people who treated the community like a fucking cred generator.