Raise your hand if you or someone you know:

• might associate suffering with The Good Work I Must Do (Even Though It Hurts).⁠
• sometimes believes there is no choice but to suffer, and makes themselves choose among impossible, shitty choices.⁠
• sometimes gets stuck on situation and problem analysis and fails to move into taking action on solutions.
• in general prioritizes social change over most other things, including over personal growth
• acts as if there is a gold star for never being near a “bad” thing
• Punts fixing problems to “after the revolution”
• Struggles to connect having an improved life with the justice we seek for all
• Focuses on what should not be true instead of what could get shifted or changed
• May be afraid to change due to being unsure of your identity if it’s not centered on subjugated experiences, eg “who am I if my life doesn’t suck?“

This summer my friend and fellow coach / facilitator Pippi Kessler and I jammed out on what it’s like to coach activists, leftists, progressives, movement folks, and generally anticapitalist punks and we noticed a few threads within these groups of people.

Pippi and I reflected on the ways we practice loving and supporting the growth of those with their hands raised to the above. The ways we nudge and challenge. The ways we’ve ourselves had to grow. ⁠Mooshy stuff…

We published an article, outlined a workshop, and recorded a video) — but lets start with the fun stuff.

Also, we made memes.

Memes, because it’s been too problematically hot this summer to think too hard.

(and memes because I am running a content type, topic, and format experiment. Always be experimenting, friends!)

Thirsty for more context, content, or memes?

Pippi and my article is called Lets Talk About Self-Sabotage on the Left, you can read it here on Medium. It has more memes and a LOT of words and ideas, and is certainly still missing words and ideas it should/could have. I’m curious what you think, and we’re both curious about what to do with these ideas next: workshop? podcast? video series? TikTok?

We both also have a lot to say about unacknowledged downwardly mobile class dynamics and I bet you do, too. More on that soon.

I leave you with: