I just got a WhatsApp message from my friend in Tehran.

[remittancegirl@mstdn.social]

I want to tell you a little bit about my friend in Tehran. She's a psychoanalyst. We met studying Lacan in a reading group online.

I know one thing for sure - she doesn't generalise about people, ever. She understands that no matter what nation we come from, we're all unique individuals who have our own points of view and feelings.

So, please don't worry - she doesn't think ALL Americans are awful. She knows exactly who is answerable for her pain. On her own side, and in America.

[johnrohde@helvede.net]

@Remittancegirl I work at a local tv station where our principal editor is from Iran. He is a great guy and very talented.
He usually travels to Iran once a year or more. Because he have a lot of family in Iran.
He actually once encuraged me, a scandinavian paleface, to visit the country. That were six months ago.
Things are a lot more complicated now for everybody.

[anniebuddy@thecanadian.social]

@Remittancegirl

I'm so sorry.

[jwcph@helvede.net]

@ahumanbeinz @Remittancegirl Just a heads-up: Even people who aren't currently living through unimaginable horror are unlikely to buy that you don't have the means - we can see the problem from across vast oceans, that you have them but are unwilling to use them.

I know most Americans oppose the MAGA regime in principle but it behooves even those people to be prepared for the fact that people will refuse to forgive you failing to put your opposition to work.

[shadsterling@mastodon.social]

@jwcph @ahumanbeinz @Remittancegirl just what means do you think we have?

[zoeking@mastodon.social]

@Remittancegirl I’m keeping her in my thoughts.

[jwcph@helvede.net]

@ShadSterling @ahumanbeinz @Remittancegirl The fact that you're asking me doesn't help your case.

[remittancegirl@mstdn.social]

@AnnieBuddy me too

[remittancegirl@mstdn.social]

@zoeking thank you. It’s illogical I know, but I feel it helps somehow

[remittancegirl@mstdn.social]

@johnrohde they sure are. He must be very distraught

[geonz@mathstodon.xyz]

@Remittancegirl @c_merriweather We hope.

[geonz@mathstodon.xyz]

@ShadSterling @jwcph @ahumanbeinz @Remittancegirl It doesn't matter.
We need to recognize the feelings.

[ahumanbeinz@mindly.social]

@jwcph @Remittancegirl
@ShadSterling

"be prepared for the fact that people will refuse to forgive you failing to put your opposition to work..."

You're not wrong.
However, we're simply trying to get out from underneath a brutal Fascist President and his MAGA supporters---much similar to the beginnings of Hitler coming to full power in the late 1930's.
Protesters are being shot and killed here.
I'm certain you know that already. ICE has infiltrated every state of the lower 48 states in the US...more so in the Northwest than the East, i.e. New York.
BUT, Their presence here is very noticed.
Incidentally, I'm 76 yrs old and a retired Union Organizer. I know that it takes a great deal of verbal "push" to get "white people" to standup and take high risks...
I've DONE that 25 years ago...FYI..
(@jwcph ), I noticed that your profile says "End Capitalism".
Have you put YOUR opposition to work, "Ending Capitalism??"
We anti-MAGA progressives haven't done that by volume either..
It's not like we're sitting on our own bottoms, twiddling our thumbs...
It's a process that requires "learning to walk before running".
So please spare the judgement.
Suffice to say we're in a work-in-progress...
Rick..
️️♾️

[shadsterling@mastodon.social]

@jwcph @ahumanbeinz @Remittancegirl if you want me to believe that you have some special insight that’s been missed by all of our activists and concerned citizens who are leading opposition based on decades of experience working in and studying our political systems and power dynamics, then you’re going to have to share something about what that insight consists of

[remittancegirl@mstdn.social]

@guayabito She got back online later and told me more. I am like you - I really don't know what to say to her that won't sound stupid and trite, so I just keep telling her that I'm listening.

[remittancegirl@mstdn.social]

@geonz No, she's really alive. And smart, and careful. And very traumatised. But alive. And that is something to be happy about, if only to honor her perseverance. @c_merriweather

[geonz@mathstodon.xyz]

@Remittancegirl @c_merriweather Thank you. When it said connection lost... I wondered.

[zoeking@mastodon.social]

@Remittancegirl we are animals with bodies and feelings, as well as logic. I think we need to tend to both parts.

[ahumanbeinz@mindly.social]

@ShadSterling @jwcph @Remittancegirl
I don't expect you or want you to believe anything. I just told my experience into trying to get large groups of people to make decisions to change the way this world works, together.
️️♾️