I have to admit to finding these things hugely entertaining. But for balance I'll point out that Housmans has been open since 1945 and Freedom since 1886. It's not the inevitable fate of radical bookshops to implode like this.
I have to admit to finding these things hugely entertaining. But for balance I'll point out that Housmans has been open since 1945 and Freedom since 1886. It's not the inevitable fate of radical bookshops to implode like this.
> The owners of the Pink Peacock Cafe faced an uphill battle against prejudice, discrimination, and hatred, making it nearly impossible for them to continue their noble mission of creating a safe space for everyone.
Top comment:
> Your place was an absolute fucking disgrace. You displayed more hatred and bigotry than any of the folk you are accusing. You didn't fall because of 'the system', you failed because you are a pseudo-intellectual circle jerk with staff who are abusive. Fuck off and good riddance.
Also:
> You failed because opening whenever you could be bothered while selling piss-poor coffee and average food in a cafe which often resembled a messy student's bedroom isn't going to bring the punters in.
> And be honest here, you're closing because you can't afford to fix the disabled toilet. You'll all be fine though. You've got trust funds and wealthy parents who'll help fund your next doomed to fail venture but those poor wee sods that did rely upon you will be let down by nobody but you.
[0] - https://pinkpeacock.gay/
1. Those who intuitively understand power dynamics and endeavor towards a "don't kill, and don't be killed[0]" mentality, even if they understand that the radical change they want is generational
2. People who want to wear the boot
To be clear, every organization and movement has #2. Libertarian conservatives are chock full of Trump bootlickers, neoliberals were basically completely coopted by corporate bootlickers, Free Software activists have an unsavory habit of falling in with whatever RMS says, anarchists have to deal with people who want to break windows for fun, socialists have "tankies" that just want Soviet Russia to invade and oppress, etc.
The book "The Tyranny of Structurelessness" covers this tendency if you want to read more.
[0] There are a lot of Floweys out there.
Umberto Eco wrote a fair bit about it. it's not exclusive to left wing movements but historically has been very apparent in such groups[1].
In short, You got a group of people whose main objective is to improve the condition of their community and it's inclined to bend the purity of their message in order to achieve some realistic objective (to the point sometimes of fully betraying the original ideology altogether)
And then you got a group of people whose idea is that philosophy trascends their or anyone else life, and the point is the fight itself. As an italian song of the '70s cynically puts it (very loosely trasnlated) "The fight has to be endless, comrade, otherwise I won't be a general for the people anymore."
Truth is, you need both of them to make a movement capable of actually going somewhere, despite ironically having in itself the main cause of its own collapse.