Here is a deep dive into a fascinating, and at times, brutal response, to a post Stuart and William posted in the 'environment' subreddit in April this year (2021).
In that initial post Stuart and William posed the following questions;
Loneliness within climate activism, is it an overlooked issue?
Any personal experiences about this potentially hidden issue within activism?
They received a reply almost straight away from WasabiGlum3462, and promised to record a bonus episode in direct response.
This bonus episode of the podcast released today, is Stuart and William's full analysis of WasabiGlum3462 feedback.
You can find the complete original post with the following link: https://www.reddit.com/r/environment/comments/n0bry3/loneliness_within_climate_activism_is_it_an/gw60rzv/?context=3
This is verbatim, Reddit user WasabiGlum3462 reply if you'd like to follow it as Stuart and William try and confront some of the issues raised;
"It is incredibly isolating. If you're doing it right, you're likely being vilified or out right criminalized by the communities surrounding the jobs you're threatening. Sustained volunteer work takes away from other, more lucrative opportunities, and if you're already impoverished there are some inherently alienating dynamics between the college proto-liberals who are patronizing you or spending only a weekend over the summer working with your lifelong struggle. Consistent harrassment by law enforcement sucks. If you're committed to jail or prison than that is obviously isolating. There was a lot of encouragement from other crusty activists, but there were so few of us. Ofc I was an autistic, suicidal basket case whoring, drinking, and smoking constantly and skirting a range of criminal activities and always had trouble attracting friends, so I'm sure i would have felt lonely regardless. Paranoia would undercut a lot of potential friendships, though i knew i could have easily seduced any undercover fbi agent to the resistance. Ex-mil private security a-holes had the misguided notion it was their duty to protect business and never miss an opportunity to lean on or threaten you. All said, there was a lot of solidarity and better, more organized folk who could manage the support and even if i only briefly met members of the wider network, i could feel them moving with me every step of the way. I think, as an American env. activists, most of the loneliness comes more from simply being an American, than any work associated with activism. To envoke a familiar allegory: When you settle into your barstool at the end of the day, after filtering out the cracked out lumber jacks who clear cut old growth, pipeline and oil riggers, the liberal appeasers, the conservative wingnuts, the backing banksters, and the fascist pigs, there are still many people remaining who will buy you a round. Its worse for high profile activists. Fame does strange things to your social life and self image. Worse, it limits the sort of actions you can take. I'm glad i could maintain healthy consumption of earthly vices without having to worry about disappointing members of the whole damn movement, get away with petty acts of vandalism against construction and survey equipment when under the radar, or say something stupid and offensive without some damned debate ensuing. Isolation is empowering. I'm sure every lonely person feels overlooked. Though the networks activists rely on are fickle and fragile and i hear a lot of reactionary talk calling activists, of any movement, "entitled" or "privileged", ignorant of the personal sacrifices made on behalf of our quiet mother. I only hope, with the rise of modern fascism, all the various protests and movements intersect and amplify environmentalism and real, mitigative actions can be made systematically before it's too too late."
