So, you want to start building a new world.
Tired of seeing the problem but not having any solutions?
Here are some tips to quiet the doomsday narrative and give you a starting point.
Go door to door, or forum to forum. Talk to people about what’s lacking in your community. Where are people struggling? How can people help each other?
For example: Across America, Flock, Data centers, and different predatory surveillance technologies appear in our communities as a violation of the vision our founding fathers built for us, not corporations, to revise, remodel, and rebuild.
As they infringe on your rights, remember what’s at stake and who’s at stake: your neighbors, friends, and family. Fight to envision a world made better for them, and you.
More support = more acknowledgment = more community influence = leverage for political support.
With a government more dedicated to funding its own pockets and interests, we’ve gone from a democracy to stakeholders; not even, stakeholders reap the benefits. We are the product.
The growing expenses of all the things that used to be convenient make it easier to disconnect from the online world when you can't own or control anything in it. To take some of that power back means actively going into and understanding the things happening in your community.
What events is your local library holding? What does the community rec hall look like? What's the closest park like? Do you have a community center? Bring friends, bring your family, use the time to connect with new people and enjoy, support, and maintain local/public
Community can be twisted into a marketing ploy. It's a danger you have to look out for; when they try to sell you on it, remember the real cost.
The cost of community isn't monetary; This doesn't come by buying an AI companion, or a new phone, or whatever they might try to peddle to you to capitalize on the feeling of loneliness they helped instill. It takes discovering who you are, how you want to show up in your community, and intentionally putting yourself into the world.
The cost of community comes when you help a friend move on your day off, community is when you make dinner for your neighbor. It's asking for help and giving it.
It requires giving a shit about things and people around you.
The outcome of this November's Midterms will make or break a generation.
This November will shape Congress and the legislation it passes. All the complaints about "no one doing anything" stem from who we have across the branches.
Politicians across the aisle take advantage of the rotten system and then spin the blame on us; we fight with each other while they fail the people. It's why you need to vote, canvass, and connect. Be so involved and so annoying about it, because now is not the time for complacency. Use the cop they've trained in your head, not for your fellow man, but for your politicians.
There are resources dedicated to understanding and informing the public on what is happening within the government. Websites like POGO (Project On Government Oversight) investigate and report on government corruption, and GovTrack tracks Congress and White House activities.
Find sources you trust; look at legacy media, new age outlets, and independent journalists. Find the best media that connects with you (that is also reliable); sites like https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/ help you determine credibility and understand what you're reading, helping you form a better, more informed opinion by showing you stats and detailed info on bias and factuality.
We have to elect those in power who will give the people back theirs. The way we can do that is by looking into our representatives and elected officials, understanding who they are, how they spend their time in office, and what they intend to do if elected to better serve the people.
We must ask ourselves: how long until these structures, that have been slipped into our nation without knowledge or real functional democratic choice, are used not for us, but against us.
November is your chance to change that.
Midterms usually have lower voter turnout, yet the people on the ballot will be making policies that affect you at every level of government. It is a crucial time, so crucial, that you should do all you can to make sure the people around you who can vote will vote.
It'll take a combined, continued effort to get movement started where you are (if it hasn't already). Research candidates and ballot issues through official voter guides and election offices. Be relentless in your pursuit of freedom, even if the voices online want you to think "it's over", to go quiet and admit defeat. Become informed and share the gift of knowledge with your community.
You need to go outside and see who it is you’re fighting for, what it is you’re fighting for. The American dream as we knew it is over, and if we sleep through the construction of a new one at the hands of billionaires, trillionaires, and treasonous government officials, the future could become even more of a nightmare; if we resign ourselves to the fantasy of tech oligarchs, we will not be able to dream up a new day.
Stop listening to the for-you page echo chambers, various hot takes, and planted discourse on social media.
If you want to have discussions and probe new perspectives, get back into the world; take note of your own ideas, morals, and values, read books that interest you, try making things without artificial intelligence, learn something new about yourself every day; and fail until you feel right.
Hope is a radical act these days. Don’t be passive; be angry, be hopeful, be alive in your freedoms so they aren't stripped from you.
