7.25.2016

Grassroots Angryizing

This has been on my mind a lot lately, and I made the comment on a few different threads and I think people get the term I have started using, "Grassroots Angryizing". It is an adoption from the term "Grassroots Organizing" that was used for so many years. Interestingly in writing this I tried to find a good definition of Grassroots Organization, or advocacy there wasn't one to be found. I found a few quotes that I liked: 

"Grassroots movements and organizations utilize collective action from the local level to effect change at the local, regional, national, or international level." - Wiki HERE

“Organizers are activists who, in addition to their own participation, work to move other people to take action and help them develop skills, political analysis and confidence within the context of organizations.” Article HERE

So here is where my problem is lately. Not sure to decorum of the way people talk to each (that is a compounding issues but I wanted to list it first), but the fact that most people who are trying to organize are not actually asking people do something, they are just trying to make them mad about what is happening. So it is just poking a stick at a problem, with no idea on how to solve it, and I might suggest, no actual intent to solve it, but just the happiness of riling people up. 

I see it here locally all the time, but to see it go nationally is maddening. I mean look at how Trump rose to power? No plan, just making people angry, usually about stuff that isn't true, and they love him for it. So how are some responding? With more of the same... starting rallies with no purpose but to come and be angry together, to protest instead of registering people to vote, to complain instead of taking action, to just enjoy making more people angry. 

You see it in how people talk... insults as punchlines and questioning someones intelligence just because they have a different opinion is bully behavior. That isn't how you rally a team, it isn't how you organize to create change, it is how you make yourself feel better about yourself. 

As the campaign gets worse and worse... and we all know it is going to get ugly, lets try to figure out what we want, and help others read more, debate more, and have healthy conversations. Cause if all you are doing in your debates and discussions is insulting people you are no worse than Drumpf.