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What do you do when people don't care? (lemmy.blahaj.zone)

submitted 6 days ago by mjsaber@lemmy.blahaj.zone to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I'm dumbstruck as to what to do. The US is building literal concentration camps, and none of my co-workers care at all.

In fairness, I work in healthcare with an almost exclusively cishet white population who are financially well off.

Many of them espouse to be Christians, and no one cares at all that the American government is following the exact playbook from Nazi Germany.

What do you do? How do you make people care before it's too late?

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[–] balsoft@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I've never done something on the scale I'm describing, so this is mostly just speculation, but I hope it could be useful.

First of all, find the people who do care. Talk with them. Make a local antifascist group in a secure messenger (Matrix/XMPP, or at the very least Signal), or join an existing org that you disagree with the least (don't be afraid of the word "socialist" if you stumble upon them). Do not discuss anything illegal, as it could spell trouble for everyone - you live in an (increasingly) authoritarian country with a wide range of tools to repress you. Keeping it legal at least makes it less likely.

Now that you have a support network, you can start reaching out. Until/unless your organization gains serious traction, unite over common goals instead of squabbling over your differences. DO NOT guilt anyone for being financially well off, voting for the wrong candidate, believing in stupid things, etc. Find people who are somewhat unhappy or unsure about concentration camps. Try convincing them that concentration camps are bad - it probably would be easier if they are on the fence already or if they are being unjustly treated themselves. Show compassion. Do not be condescending or use the words that may trigger them (Nazism, etc), instead appeal to humanity and empathy to specific people who are being repressed. Bring some examples of unjust repression with you. Do not overdo it - you don't (yet) have to agree on anything except that these concentration camps are bad. Propose to do something together - it can be small at first, like calling your representative or organizing a picket - common action builds connections and mutual understanding.