Greta Speaking in Grand Rapids and Detroit (Farmington Hills), Feb. 22 and 24!

CFI and Birmingham Temple logos

Hi, all! I’m speaking in Michigan in February — in Grand Rapids on Feb. 22, and in Farmington Hills (a suburb of Detroit) on Feb. 24. If you’re in the area, I hope to see you soon!

DATE: Wednesday, February 22, 2017
TIME: 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
LOCATION: Women’s City Club, 254 E. Fulton St., Grand Rapids, MI
TOPIC: Practicing Atheism in Everyday Life
SUMMARY: So you don’t believe in God. Now what? The way we deal with life can change dramatically when we stop believing in gods, souls, and afterlives. When we leave religion — or if we never had it in the first place — where do we go? How do we deal with love and sex, pleasure and death, reality and making stuff up? How do we decide on our values, and how do we live them?
COST: Free (suggested donation $5)
HOSTS: CFI Michigan
EVENT URL: http://www.cfimichigan.org/events/event/w-lecture-022217/
FACEBOOK : https://www.facebook.com/events/1301724013184454/
MEETUP: https://www.meetup.com/cfi-mi/events/237368909/

DATE: Friday, February 24
TIME: 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
LOCATION: Birmingham Temple/Congregation for Humanistic Judaism, 28611 W 12 Mile Rd, Farmington Hills, MI
TOPIC: Practicing Atheism in Everyday Life
SUMMARY: See above
COST: Free (donations appreciated)
HOSTS: Birmingham Temple/Congregation for Humanistic Judaism, and CFI Michigan
EVENT URL: http://www.cfimichigan.org/events/event/se-lecture-022417/
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/events/170895550064620/
MEETUP: https://www.meetup.com/cfi-mi/events/237196590/

Greta Speaking in Grand Rapids and Detroit (Farmington Hills), Feb. 22 and 24!
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Resistance, and Being a “Sore Loser”

resistance-image-black-ohm-on-pink-background
Ohm — a unit of resistance.

I keep seeing arguments against the massive uprising in protest of the DT regime, on the grounds that DT won the election and we should accept it gracefully and not be sore losers. Weirdly, I don’t just see this from Republicans: I see it from some Democrats as well. So here’s what I want to ask:

Are you arguing the the citizens of a democratic country should not press our elected officials to do what we want? That we should not, as the First Amendment says, peaceably assemble and petition the government for a redress of grievances?

Are you arguing that once a president is elected, citizens should let him do whatever he wants with no opposition, regardless of whether it’s grossly immoral and indeed illegal?

Are you saying that we should sit back and do nothing while incompetence, raging bigotry, xenophobia, kleptocracy, and contempt for the constitution all become entrenched in law and policy?

Are you arguing that we should ignore the gross irregularities in this election — the widespread and systemic voter disenfranchisement, the interference from a hostile foreign government, the absurd electoral system that allows someone to become president when they lost by three million votes — and accept the results of this election as if they were normal and legitimate?

Are you arguing that the problem with contemporary US politics is that citizens are too engaged, and that our political engagement should involve voting and nothing else?

And are you arguing that people who recognize the warning signs of fascism — who are listening to the historians who study fascism when they say that yes, this is what the rise of fascism looks like — should sit back and let fascism rise, for fear of looking like poor losers?

We are not the ones dividing the country. The people who want to kick out immigrants even if they’re here legally, who want to let poor people die for lack of health care, who want to decimate public education, who want to permit open discrimination against LGBT people, who are tolerating and even encouraging the massive increase in bigoted hate crimes — they are the ones dividing this country. Are you arguing that we should be in unity with bigoted, hateful, kleptocratic fascists?

What’s happening now is exactly how democracy should be functioning. What you’re advocating is a four-year dictatorship.

Resistance, and Being a “Sore Loser”

8 Great Reasons to Take Some Pleasure in Activism

Silhouette of protesters under banner

There’s a nasty strain of dourness in leftist politics. All too often, we run into the idea that activism is only valuable if it’s solemn, focused entirely on the harsh realities of the present or the grim possibilities of the future. This attitude was encapsulated perfectly in a Washington Post column by Petula Dvorak, opposing the pink pussyhats in the Women’s March after inauguration day. “This is serious stuff,” Dvorak said. She argued that the Women’s March was about serious issues of suffering and danger, so the imagery shouldn’t be playful or fun. “The Women’s March needs grit,” she said, “not gimmicks.” (Note: Many trans women and women of color found the pussyhats exclusionary, and there are good arguments against them. Dvorak’s column isn’t one of them.)

Dvorak’s attitude is common. And it needs to be loaded into a cannon and shot into the sun. Pleasure, fun and joy are enormously valuable in activism. Pleasure isn’t a requirement for everyone, of course: different people pursue activism in different ways, and that’s a good thing. But of the many tools in our collective toolbox, pleasure is one of the most powerful. Here are eight reasons why.

*****

Thus begins my latest piece for AlterNet, 8 Great Reasons to Take Some Pleasure in Activism. To read more, read the rest of the piece. Enjoy!

8 Great Reasons to Take Some Pleasure in Activism