The people I take issue with are the leftists who don’t want to plant trees they won’t sit in the shade of, and reject all forms of helpful engagement unless it makes them feel a civil war is about to start for their personal amusement

Yeah, I learned what that's called recently lol. Putschism. I have a good friend who thinks that way. I think they're just frustrated and desperate, which I can totally understand, but I agree it's not the way forward. I think they also tend to be white (and I mean, same lol), and I saw a quote that said, "White men are the most socialized to glorify violence and the least likely to be impacted by the consequences of it." I think that reality lends itself to putchism too. The intentions fundamentally are good, I absolutely disagree with you framing it as being "for their own personal amusement", but the thought pattern is not particularly realistic imo.

The dissolution of active community-building is what sank progressivism in the US, the right kept power because they still unite and connect through gun culture and mindless stupidity and waving the flag, while the left retreated to the far reaches of the internet sulking in their atomized spaces that the other leftist group wasn’t inclusive enough or had a “bad tone.”

Absolutely, completely agreed. I saw it said that a lot of these leftists come from evangelical backgrounds, and just replaced the term "sinful" in their vernacular with "problematic". Though of course I think some discourse and strife is healthy, we have to 'keep our eyes on the prize' so to speak.

If we can restore communities, of almost any kind, from small groups of outdoors gardeners to apartment blocks looking out for their neighbors, AND use that momentum to actually elect real representation, we can repeat what’s been repeated over and over again recently in progressive politics.

Also totally agree with this. I went to WalMart once recently - it was literally the only place that sold the item I needed except Amazon - and I had to ask where to find an item. I approached the worker and said, "If I'm not interrupting you too much, could you show me where to find (item)?" He was actually taken aback by this incredibly basic level of humanity. He said something like, "Oh I don't mind being interrupted", and as we were walking over to the section with the items, he told me that people just didn't treat him like a human anymore. He said "it's like, like slave labor" and that he remembers the 70's, when things weren't as bad. I'm like 99% sure he was a Filipino immigrant, so I would've thought the 70's would be more racist and all that, but I got the impression that whatever shit he had to deal with back then was less hurtful than the way people treat him now.

I posted that story on Pixelfed, and someone asked, "Okay, well what do we do about it?" And my answer was, "Start growing food." Unless you have a lot of money, or maybe a connection to get him into a better job, then you can't help that man today. You have to help the children who will grow up into that man, or someone in even worse circumstances. (Though I'd like to go back and at least talk to him again some day, it's a big WalMart and it might be unlikely I'd see him again.)

That was a longer tangent than I intended, but my point mostly being, we are each others' only way through this, whatever "this" turns out to be. That approach is the only reason we survived humanity's near-extinction during an ice age (I think it was a mini-ice age rather than "THE" ice age).