Our first Book club meeting went quite well. We read Republic of False Truths, a book about the Egyptian revolution and the counter revolution that crushed it. We discussed the weaknesses in the book. Some aspects like how the author, a secular type person, really 💩 s on the Muslim Brotherhood. Some is fine, but the book essentially misses how they win out an election and then got crushed by the army and had their leader murdered in prison. Seems big. And to the point that he misses out on this aspect of a social movement, a religion, he also misses out on truly capturing the working class and some of the working class neighborhoods that he had mentions in passing. 

A big deal, if you ask me. 

Of course, we also got to talking about how protest movements tend to be crushed in different ways. How people hitting the streets illicit the worst in authoritarian types. Just look at the reaction to the largest peaceful protests in America's history. The reaction to it is still going on today. 

And we had some views from S.Korea (the good story where the protest in the 80s finally led to democracy), as well as how massacres in Mexico have helped fuel the situation there today. 

And still in the states we have a right wing resurgence of homophobia and a SCOTUS looking to turn the clock back on other issues. Crazy times, friends. Crazy times.