“… “I’m taking action because I feel desperate,” said U.S. climate scientist Peter Kalmus, who along with several others locked himself to the front door of a JPMorgan Chase building in Los Angeles. A recent report found that the financial giant is the biggest private funder of oil and gas initiatives in the world.
“It’s the 11th hour in terms of Earth breakdown, and I feel terrified for my kids, and terrified for humanity,” Kalmus continued. “World leaders are still expanding the fossil fuel industry as fast as they can, but this is insane. The science clearly indicates that everything we hold dear is at risk, including even civilization itself and the wonderful, beautiful, cosmically precious life on this planet. I actually don’t get how any scientist who understands this could possibly stay on the sidelines at this point.” …”
Corporate media will not cover the climate crisis.
Recently a couple of the autistic kids I work with have inspired me with openly, unapologetically owning it.
Like one kid saying “if I don’t make eye contact it’s because I find that hard and it’s easier to concentrate on what you’re saying if I’m not looking at you.”
And another one asking for clarification of an ambiguous statement to check understanding instead of just hoping for the best.
And one saying “I’m going to stim now, this conversation is hard”
I have so much respect for them for being able to voice those things! It’s inspired me to try harder to do that instead of masking until I meltdown because I’m so scared of how people will react.
I’m the kind of person who will wait and wait, even hours, just because I promised someone I’d meet them somewhere. I’ve valued that ever since I was a kid—doing my part to be faithful to my word.
This is a value I wish to instill in society. But here’s the rub: If you confront the people who stood you up, you may come across as manipulative, whiny, entitled, self-righteous, or pressuring, and they may respond with anger, excuses or attacks instead of apologies. Yet if you try to lead by example instead, the very people who need to see your patience (in the face of what they’re putting you through) are the people who flaked and aren’t there to see it.
“…being a killjoy means acknowledging that there is a lot in this world to feel justifiably unhappy about, and that drawing certain others’ attention to those unjust, unhappy things will risk making them feel unhappy too (which, in turn, tends to make the messenger into the bad object, if she wasn’t already, simply by virtue of her presence). Ahmed’s killjoy defiantly resists the demand to be happy, especially if and when that happiness relies on the suppression of the unhappiness of others, up to and including their subjugation.”
-Maggie Nelson, from On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint
