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Comment by yingw787 | Hacker News Reader

Yeah, that is interesting. I donate to the ACLU monthly and I haven't gotten anything related to the pandemic, just regular board of directors voting.

...are they working on the EARN IT act by any chance?

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In Robert D. Putnam's Bowling Alone, he talks about how several independent studies have elucidated that in modern times, civil engagement is at an all-time high when one considers the average number of civil group memberships per American (It's greater than one!), however the average number of Americans holding leadership positions within a civil group has plummeted. We also attend far fewer in-person events.

The reality is clear. Civil leadership has been consolidated into the ranks of middle management and ad executives. Modern civil activism is pay-by-mail, one-newsletter-at-a-time, simply install and forget.

If you find yourself frustrated with the leadership of the civil groups you maintain, consider splintering you and those in your groups who trust you into a new civil group which focuses on a local level: Local canvasing could be far more effective than distributing online propaganda.

>Local canvasing could be far more effective than distributing online propaganda.

I tend to believe that, but are you aware of any studies that try to show that?

Nothing comes to mind, but I'll ping you if I come across any.

Their current efforts are focused on getting lots of people released from jails and prisons, since they might catch COVID-19 if they're in jail.

See I don’t get it. If one of these people who get early release so much as go fishing somewhere they can end up back in jail. That seems perverse to me.

That helps with social distancing. It's not a bad thing given the circumstances.

Cool. I'll keep my donations flowing.

Well it's far more important to have the ACLU working on advocacy and rights for LGBTQ+ where there are demonstrable acts of violence and systemic oppression rather than waste time hand holding individuals who think they should be able purchase an Arsenal of firearms and spread Covid by not obeying and respecting their fellow citizens through their non compliance.

I'd say they are definitely where they need to be.. It's prudent and wise they not be involved with rabble rousers who through their non compliance, indifference, and questioning of authority silently slaughter members of minority communities that this disease adversely affects more than wealthy elites who miss their bed bath and beyond or their tee time.

Right, this is the kind of position I was referring to. The modern ACLU tends to direct their attention towards specific identity groups they feel are most deserving. I don't think they're quite as far along that path as you are - I can't imagine an ACLU representative implying you have a civic duty to unquestioningly accept the government's pandemic control measures - but maybe I'm wrong.

I wonder if they're just avoiding it as a tactical thing. Lawsuits aren't the quickest form of change, they might just not see any path to actually moving on those questions before they become moot. If they're planning for the long term, it might make more sense to see which forms of government overreach stick around too long.

I think that's the most likely scenario, but I'm not sure the implied tactics are actually accurate - many religious groups have been able to get swift injunctions.

So just quickly glancing at Wikipedia [0] it looks like most of the major line items for the LGBTQ+ agenda have been part of US Federal law for about 5+ years.

The LGBTQ+ community are basically ordinary people from all walks of life, including prominent names like Tim Cook and Pete Buttigieg. The community has I believe explicit public support from culture generating machines like Hollywood and political entities like the Democrat party. These aren't exactly wilting lilies in terms of power and influence.

It isn't obvious that supporting their liberties should take precedence over supporting anyone else's.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_the_United_Stat...

There are still a few residual gay rights issues, but over the past few years, LGBTQ+ rights has come to primarily refer to trans rights. One of the ACLU's major recent campaigns is that trans girls should be allowed to play on girls' sports teams, for example - that's seen as an important right nowadays, but it's not on the checklist because it was never relevant for gay people.

>One of the ACLU's major recent campaigns is that trans girls should be allowed to play on girls' sports teams, for example - that's seen as an important right nowadays

Of course, that's very much a nontrivial issue even among progressive circles. Your view is far from consensual.

>trans girls should be allowed to play on girls' sports teams

Why do we have girls' teams at all?

Isn't it sexist?

Like, I don't know, saying "You cannot compete with men, go play dolls"?

One of the unfortunate side-effects of having a few things on the "bucket list" ticked off is the conservative pushback gets targeted at the most vulnerable.

At present, that is frequently trans people. Often trans kids.

>Well it's far more important to have the ACLU working on advocacy and rights for LGBTQ+

Important for who, may I ask? Aren't there many groups fighting for that?

How many groups are working to promote civil rights?

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