a question: political activism and shyness (or: the social vs. the social)
(cross-posted a few different places)
I have issues with shyness/social anxiety/what-have-you, and I'm trying to re-integrate myself into political activism. My experiences with activism tell me that it's a super-social thing - networks of activists are also posses of friends. Even though activist organizations are always ostensibly looking for help, it seems a bit foolish to write or show up somewhere out of the blue and just be like "Hi, you don't know me, but I'm here to help!" Also because I lack connections to the local (New York metro) activist community, as it were, it's hard for me to suss out where my particular background(s) and abilities would actually be useful.
Any thoughts on this? Ways to go about becoming politically active when you're not already connected to it?
(It probably goes without saying if you know me but I'm talking about activism on the left side of the political fence.)
I have issues with shyness/social anxiety/what-have-you, and I'm trying to re-integrate myself into political activism. My experiences with activism tell me that it's a super-social thing - networks of activists are also posses of friends. Even though activist organizations are always ostensibly looking for help, it seems a bit foolish to write or show up somewhere out of the blue and just be like "Hi, you don't know me, but I'm here to help!" Also because I lack connections to the local (New York metro) activist community, as it were, it's hard for me to suss out where my particular background(s) and abilities would actually be useful.
Any thoughts on this? Ways to go about becoming politically active when you're not already connected to it?
(It probably goes without saying if you know me but I'm talking about activism on the left side of the political fence.)