Abolish Capitalism - Tumblr Posts
new favorite YouTube comment just dropped
Some info about Point In Time counts and statistics around homelessness in the United States!
[ID: Slide 1 of 9, White text on a grey background reads: "Any statistics around homelessness are greatly under-represented, here's why" next to an arrow directing to the next slide, at the bottom, it reads "chronically couchbound"
Slide 2 of 9, in the same style, reads "The numbers that tell how many unhoused people are in the United States are done using something called Point In Time (PIT) counts." the bullet point below it reads: "PIT numbers are used to identify needs for services, and help shelters qualify for funding." The last bullet point reads: "PIT numbers only count people who are legally considered homeless (couch surfing isn’t considered homelessness, legally) This means PIT counts are only counting people in shelter beds, and those visibly sleeping outside."
Slide 3 of 9, in the same style, bullet points read: "Pit counts are the only required count of unhoused people in the US across the country." the next reads: "Every other year, official PIT counts include people not living in shelters, however, many communities try to count both sheltered and unsheltered people every year." The final bullet point reads: "These counts are the closest to an accurate representation of homelessness we have in the united states, and still is lacking."
Slide 4 of 9 reads: "Why?" at the top of the page, below reads bullet points: "PIT counts are done on a random night in January every year." the other bullet point reads: "On this random night in January, it’s often freezing. When I was unhoused in New England winters, I can tell you I wasn’t sleeping outside. I’d stay up and walk around if I couldn’t find a place to crash, and sleep in the daytime. I knew sleep meant death. Most people who do sleep outdoors are usually hidden well because that means warmth and safety."
Slide 5 of 9, in the same theme, bullet points read: "Most shelters simply do not have the funding to staff outreach workers to go out to do full PIT counts. Even if they have the funding, it’s hard to find unhoused people, so staying out the whole night as an outreach worker is difficult." the next bullet point says: "From unofficial counts done similarly to PIT counts in warmer months, it’s easy to see booming numbers of unhoused people. More people aren’t unhoused in the summer, it’s just less dangerous to sleep outdoors."
Slide 6 of 9, in the same style, bullet points read "PIT counts especially misrepresent unaccompanied youth, disabled people, and other marginalized people, because they’re often couch surfing or more hidden from the public while homeless. Couch surfing is not legally considered homelessness." The next bullet point reads "Many communities report zero unaccompanied unsheltered youth, which is often inaccurate in reality." The final bullet point reads: "Lack of youth shelters, and beds in youth shelters, play a huge part of this discrepancy."
Slide 7 of 9, in the same style, bullet points read: "The lack of knowledge, safety, and support in accessing services makes it harder for youth to be connected with service providers and less likely to be counted in PIT numbers." The next bullet point reads "Increasing awareness of PIT counts, and local service providers could help give more accurate counts, but we need more youth-based services that have active outreach teams in order to achieve better (and more accurate) counts of unhoused youth."
Slide 8 of 9 reads: "What can you do to help?" at the top of the page, below reads three bullet points: "Share this post & comment to spread awareness" The next bullet point reads: "Volunteer with a local homeless service provider, such as a shelter, nonprofit, or soup kitchen to help with PIT counts" The final bullet point reads: "Share, contribute to, or create local resource guides, or add or verify information for resources online (such as on Google or the shelter app) to ensure they're up to date."
Slide 9 of 9, the text reads : "Follow for more: Chronically Couchbound" Below the text is the logo, a white silhouette of a house, in front of it, a black silhouette of the disability symbol, and behind it, a light grey "prohibited" sign. The logo is on a black square background. End ID.]
The whole core of how capitalist-approved "economics" works involves "people constantly acting only in their own self-interest"...
Which makes their systems patently false from the start.
Because humans are actually humane.
We evolved to be.
Despite them creating police forces and militaries and committing massacres and genocides, and enclosing common lands and enforcing hard borders and false scarcities and unnecessary cut-throat competition throughout the world -- they can't QUITE seem to condition human beings into not being human...
No matter what they do, humans will still crave the act of saving each other from dangers, and the act of being saved by other humans.
No matter what they do, humans will still need connections to community and to the earth, in order to thrive.
No matter what they do, humans will still want peace and pleasure and rest; the ability to create and to collaborate and to explore; and being able to accomplish tasks that have actual impact and meaning for themselves and for their communities.
The only way that the rich can keep playing this pointless, dick-waving, worldwide, world-destroying monopoly game they got going; is if they abolish humans, and create an economy out of bots.
This animation was done in collaboration with @jesilerae (on insta) who provided the audio. Jesi also gave me some creative direction for the first part and was super patient and supportive throughout the whole process! It was a healing project to work on and I'm very touched that I was contacted for this collaboration. 🦋🦋🦋 Thank you Jesi. 🙏
Some more information about the four wings of social change as taken from an article in Yes! Magazine:
//“Drawing from Grassroots Economic Organizing’s butterfly model of transformative social justice, Leah Penniman (Soul Fire Farm co-founder and farmer) described the four wings: Resisters: the people in the blockades, the protests, the work stoppages; Reformers: the folks trying to make change from within systems, including schoolteachers and elected officials, like those getting into the prosecutor’s office and working to get sentences lowered; Builders: those who create alternative institutions such as freedom schools, farms, and health clinics; and Healers: the conflict mediators, the therapists, the preachers, the singers, the dancers, the artists—“all the folks that are gonna make us well,” she said.//
To follow that, I just wanna re-iterate that YOUR contribution matters! We ALL have strengths that lift up different wings. And we all have the ability to broaden our scope and see where else we can help and see which wings may need more lifting. Your activism may look different from someone else's. That's both okay and necessary, so long as we stay connected and united. 🦋🦋🦋🍉🍉🍉✊✊✊ ~Pothos 🪴
Obvious statement: capitalism is so fucking ableist.
We're all expected to work our asses off just to have a roof over our heads and food to eat. Some- no, a lot of people can't do this. AAC is often locked behind a fuck-off massive pay wall (and so are other disability aids mind you) that leaves people without a fucking voice. Basic living expenses such as a roof, food, and a voice should be free. Everything should be free. But no, since we live in capitalist hell, one must fight for these things. Bullshit. It's bullshit to have to fight to exist. Forcing everyone into 9-5s with hardly any time to themselves KILLS people! There are people, such as myself, who cannot work due to disability or other factors.
I read about people struggling to stay housed. Will that be me one day? Why does it have to be anyone? People tell you to enjoy your life when you're young like me, but how can I when it costs money to EXIST? Living is so bleak in capitalist society, especially when you're disabled, that I cannot find the supposed joy of being young.