Thread by Rizoma Field School
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- Sep 28, 2022
- #Politics
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look here is a brief history of rizoma politics so you can all just stop projecting your black pill fantasies onto me.
I am from a working class Chicago family. Grew up on the south side in a racially diverse public school. Then catholic high school.
I am from a working class Chicago family. Grew up on the south side in a racially diverse public school. Then catholic high school.
My parents lean conservative but aren't super political. I got a scholarship to college and became a leftist, as one does.
My first political foray was campaigning for Obama in 08. Truly believed in the actual rhetoric he was spouting against financial grifting and war.
My first political foray was campaigning for Obama in 08. Truly believed in the actual rhetoric he was spouting against financial grifting and war.
He got elected and immediately betrayed everything he campaigned on, red pill.
I stopped paying attention to politics while I did a series of international overland trips which I saved up for by nannying for cash in Chicago. Then I was a truck driver, different story.
I stopped paying attention to politics while I did a series of international overland trips which I saved up for by nannying for cash in Chicago. Then I was a truck driver, different story.
During this time I read a lot. Ed Abbey. Wendell Berry. John Muir. Erich Fromm. Morris Berman. John Michael Greer. The Collapse of Complex Civ. I found Vandana Shiva + Joel Salatin. Was getting pretty radicalized against modernity and living in the chaos of a dying empire.
In 2012 I was in grad school with a husband and had already bought land with plans to move to Uruguay. It was at this point where focus on the thriving of my future family became a priority over politics. Everything was about getting ready for my kids.
So that meant getting higher degrees, being debt free, saving money (husband worked as HS teacher), buying land in a safe place and building a home outright.
From 2012-2016 we did nothing else but this. 2 kids later we finally moved to Uruguay in 2016.
From 2012-2016 we did nothing else but this. 2 kids later we finally moved to Uruguay in 2016.
I am sorry but at this point in the story I need to tell you that I am way ahead of the game of many of you. I've been preparing and building something beautiful for my family my entire adult life and realize the fundamental folly of depending on politics for my thriving.
Trump was elected in 2016 and I basically tuned out completely and focused on building up my life in a new country and getting my kids settled in here.
In the meantime my main ideological activity was pushing back on mainstream environmentalists for being too ivory tower.
In the meantime my main ideological activity was pushing back on mainstream environmentalists for being too ivory tower.
I wrote an academic article and a book as well as some popular articles pushing back on the elitism in academia and environmentalism. I would talk about and advocate for traditional family farmers and ranchers whenever possible.
In 2020 I had my third baby at home and almost awoke out of a daze of not paying attention to US news or politics for so long, focused on raising my babies and building up my homestead and community here.
Stuck at home during the pandemic I got back online, started watching YouTube videos like @krystalball and @esaagar on The Hill, and some IDW videos, then started following @mtaibbi's coverage of the 2020 elections since I love his work and trust it.
Basically being out of politics so long I just assumed I was still a Bernie leftist. I never even thought to look on the right for a home. I supported him to the tune of maybe $20? lol and got really upset during the obvious DNC controlled Iowa primaries.
Red pilled again and I started to look into the 2020 protests and here is where I started to really converge from the wokeism and elites that I'd been fighting in academia. I got on twitter to share some insights I've had during my time building a homestead in Uruguay.
So I am simultaneously sharing the message of making a home, natural childbirth, attachment parenting, traditional and homeschooling, homesteading, home economics, etc and also seeing things just get worse and worse. At the same time I find work with American universities.
I basically decide to focus my account on positive things that people can do to avoid the worst of the chaos. I started a podcast called @DoomerOptimism with my buddy @cognazor that focuses on all these alternatives. Not just homesteading, but family, childbirth, marriage,
Alternative political systems like distributism, reactionary feminism, homeschooling, regenerative ag, localism. The politics are all over the place but the interest is on solutions that work *right now* for people.
I am dipping my toe into publishing some of these ideas and the most comprehensive overview is in my recent @FrontPorchRepub piece. It's mostly not political. It's some sort of weird coalition between RWBB, homesteaders, chuds, and based mommies.
www.frontporchrepublic.com/2022/09/the-jeffersonians-on-the-margins-of-natcon/
www.frontporchrepublic.com/2022/09/the-jeffersonians-on-the-margins-of-natcon/
I am fully aware of the political chaos that's been going on and I think spending too much time focusing on it is a waste of my time and insights. I have this giant repertoire of real solutions that work differently in diverse places that I am trying to get into people's hands.
I tell this story so that you can see people's trajectories right now are totally chaotic. The alignments and realignments are all over the place. Some women focus on family for a time. Some people have extra-political priorities. But if someone wants to be your ally, let them!
If anything my political project is expressly to defeat nihilism, in all its various forms. People have so many reasons to give up right now and it's bullshit that people peddle as doom merchants, putting forward false solutions.
My meager goal is to write a bit about tested solutions that work in real life, not in utopia. I am not interested in some system that hasn't been proven. Give me solutions I can learn tomorrow. And to amplify the people who have figured this out already, there are many.
If my interest in solutions overlaps with yours, take the W! If they diverge, fine! You all sound like communists talking about "what is your stance on..." Solutions need to be case specific. They are diverse. They work in different circumstances.
If any of you that got blocked in the wreckage of me being a normal person and defending myself against purity policing, feel free to appeal for a block jubilee! I believe in redemption. Lol
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Daniel Vassallo @dvassallo
ยท
Sep 28, 2022
Great thread btw!