by Comrade Black

1) One type of; tactic, tool, thought, person, strategy, or anything, is NEVER better or superior to having diversity. Our differences and our diversity make us stronger, not weaker

2) If a product has more than one type of disposable packaging it is not good for the environment, no matter what that packaging is made of or how “biodegradable” it is.

3) If it is shipped from more than 100 miles it is not sustainable or good for the environment no matter how it is made, what it is made of, how it is packaged, who made it, how biodegradable it is, or what it is being marketed as

4) If it has sugar or corn in the first 5 ingredients, it is not healthy no matter what the package says. Further if there is more than 2 or 3 ingredients you have never heard of, it is likely over processed and therefore unhealthy.

5) ALL emotions are good. Not feeling or admitting to an emotion is NEVER healthy. Bottling up your emotions or refusing to feel them only leads to self harm. Even anger, sadness, jealousy, hatred, depression, are all legitimate emotions. They are there for a reason. That does not mean you should always act based on emotions, but you need to allow yourself, & others, to feel them.

6) Just because someone only offers you a couple options, does not mean that those are the only choices that exist. Bullies will often try to trap you by ONLY offering you the options that they favor, or by rigging the question so the only option that sounds sane is the one they want you to choose. Our electoral system is a good example of this. You may have to look hard to find the other options. In some cases you may even have to create the alternatives yourself. In the end, you don’t have to settle for options that you have been presented.

7) Binaries are always false! or at least not the full story and range of options. Nothing is only black or white, left or right, etc. There is black and white, there are also the grays that come between them, but it does not end there, there is also color. This does not mean that binary categories don’t exist, but rather that there is more than just the binary. People have a tendency to try and reduce things to being simpler than they really are. This is dangerous, as it usually erases the existence of those that do not fit clearly into a binary system. Further, there is no universal cause, & therefore, no universal solution.

8) If you never assume anything, you can’t ever be wrong. We tend to assume people’s gender, sexuality, race, as well as that they are able bodied, and many other things like what we think they should want based on our experiences. We are often wrong.

9) ALL oppression and exploitation is wrong. There are NO exceptions. This is not a matter of political position or opinion, and does not change based on who is doing the exploiting, or being exploited. What you consider to be oppression/exploitation may differ based on your political position or your experiences, but the fact remains that oppression is always wrong. Therefore any solution that does not seek to abolish oppression and exploitation in all its forms is flawed, and will never lead to complete freedom.

10) You can never get more energy out of something than you put into it because the process will always take up some of the energy. If you could, then we would have invented perpetual motion. Thus, we should always be skeptical of technological solutions to problems that purport to not only create enough energy to power themselves, but to also create excess power, or technology that claims to not only not pollute but also clean up pollution. All things use energy, all things create waste. This could even be considered the inherent flaw in economic, capitalism, technology, or industry.