Accountability is Action

Blame is a cheap substitute for accountability we should have always demanded from ourselves and those wronging us.

Once everyone realizes we are in this together and can only rely on ourselves and whatever ragtag communities we’ve built, this will get much easier.

We all notice things and process on our own timeline. It’s a sort of culture shock to finally see something that makes you take another look. It’s a lot to expect someone to go from finally noticing something isn’t right, to having a fully formed understanding of how deep the rabbit hole goes. The post truth world comes with a fair bit of bullshit to sift through, not the least of which our own.

It’s a bit traumatic to realize all the ways you played your role in the system, both as an unwitting contributor, and as grist for the mill. Most of us can point to cases where they were treated unfairly by a parent, partner, employer, landlord, court, or a con artist.

My bingo card is a fucking black out.

It’s not something you become cool with overnight. It takes time to make your peace with it.

Hell it’s traumatic for me to watch the Ted Talk lambasting Ballmer for my layoff, or read a book about the disorder of my abuser

By my calculations, we’re roughly in the denial stage when we are complacent. By the time you notice something wrong, which is common in abusive situations, there will be a lot of stuff you’d expect next, like: guilt, anger, blame, the sting of betrayal, nausea, and so on.

We’re all in different places on this path and will not process it the same way or on the same timeline. It’s not anyone’s place to presume what someone else’s recovery will look like.

One advantage those who noticed early had is not processing this while the thing we could see coming was in full swing. Our cross to bear was being called paranoid, fringe, conspiracy theorists, and fear-mongers.

Gatekeeping, ladies and gentlemen!

Frankly, I preferred that, rather than knowing a concentration camp can be built on our soil in 8 days and ai is being used to create a dossier and customize my surveillance as well as my ads while I’m ugly crying in the shower planning for my future as an ornamental hermit.

They want us overwhelmed so we cannot think calmly or logically in our best interests, which are not anger, hate, blame or any lower floor emotion. If we all noticed at the same time, we’d be having a collective nervous breakdown right about now.

We are in a tight spot for sure, but that one would be tighter.

Those who were shown some shit and noticed earlier, from what I’ve seen, seem to have a “this is the hand we have been dealt, it sucks, now what am I going to do to make it suck less” vibe. They may or may not be snarky about it now that the gatekeepers have peeped through the keyhole and start sniffing around.

“I can’t change the world, but I can make a dent” - Death to Smoochy

It starts with ourselves doing better, now that we know better. What that looks like will vary, but collectively, does matter. Ask Tesla.

It does not start with deciding what everyone else must do just because you finally noticed. It’s not about you, boo. It’s about all of us.

Nobody has all the answers to this clusterfuck. Anyone claiming to is suspect.

No help is coming. Anyone offering a quick or easy solution is also suspect.

I like to believe we all hold a piece of the puzzle. It’s a sneaky way to make us work together.

This is something we are just going to need to figure out together. Blaming each other for a system none of us willingly chose is not helpful or productive to our goals.

Do you want to be right, or do you want to be free, with all the privileges and responsibilities that entails?