This is a wonderful summary of our predicament, Micah...very similar to what happened to many of us during Trump 1.0 in terms of the cycle of outrage, increasing activity, exhaustion, scraping along, building momentum again, that we experienced in 2017-2020. But maybe magnified 10x. I have heard variations many times, of what that person said in frustration at the dinner. "Just tell me what to do - I don't want to think about it too much." Absolutely understand that feeling - but let's not let that lead to makework responses to our problems. Our problems are bigger this time - our responses have to be bigger.
Interesting! I was on the first One Million Rising zoom call and on a national DSA call, and thought they were, roughly speaking, sort of at different ends of the spectrum. But thanks to your update on the third One Million Rising call I realize they’re closer than I thought, as one of the most compelling parts of the DSA call was a report from a tiny chapter in Northern California that drove Avela out of town!
I think that the amount of information coming at us is also causing another problem: informational disalignment.
Back in the day, me and my colleagues here in the UK (I work in comms for labour unions) would all read the Guardian and watch BBC News. We’d also keep up with a lot of the same key content as each other on ITV and Sky and in the other main national newspapers.
Now, with fragmentation and proliferation, we all have much less overlap with what we’re watching and reading. That makes our understanding of the world less convergent than it had been in years gone by. And I think this has made it harder to understand each other, and to have common understanding of what we need to do and why in our comms work.
I haven’t really seen this explored as a problem. But in the last couple of years, it’s been dawning on me that this emerging problem is making my professional relationships and doing my job harder.
Target is so out of touch. Just read in Business Insider that they think their slump is due no workers on the floor and not enough celebrity designer collabs which couldn't hurt but absolutely nothing about their abandonment of DEI!!! Target has been problematic for decades. I was passed over in the 80's for an internship because I wasn't conservative enough. Ch. 11 proceedings can't be soon enough for these racist sexist classist pigs.
I like that Indivisible understands that traditional "thank and spank" actions aimed at Congress won't work since the GOP congress has abdicated their check and balance to being all in with Trump... And calling Dems and being mad at them won't do a thing since they have no power to stop anything.
That being said, there really hasn't been a sustained and effective movement since the Civil rights movement won the voting rights act. Vietnam? Not really as the war never ended until 1975, 7 years after Nixon said he would bring peace with honor.
I disagree. The Nuclear Freeze movement had a strong run for several years and definitely shifted Reagan's stance on nukes in Europe. ACT-UP changed government policy on AIDS. The marriage equality movement won broad acceptance, even up to the Supreme Court (and if this Court undoes that change, a lot of hell will break loose).
All very specific issues with a few very loud leaders. Nothing like "get rid of the Potus". Nuclear weapons? Still have them and we are spending trillions now to get more and more (see nyt stories that no one is reading). The training you write about had 20k (goal was 1m).🤔
This is a wonderful summary of our predicament, Micah...very similar to what happened to many of us during Trump 1.0 in terms of the cycle of outrage, increasing activity, exhaustion, scraping along, building momentum again, that we experienced in 2017-2020. But maybe magnified 10x. I have heard variations many times, of what that person said in frustration at the dinner. "Just tell me what to do - I don't want to think about it too much." Absolutely understand that feeling - but let's not let that lead to makework responses to our problems. Our problems are bigger this time - our responses have to be bigger.
Interesting! I was on the first One Million Rising zoom call and on a national DSA call, and thought they were, roughly speaking, sort of at different ends of the spectrum. But thanks to your update on the third One Million Rising call I realize they’re closer than I thought, as one of the most compelling parts of the DSA call was a report from a tiny chapter in Northern California that drove Avela out of town!
I think that the amount of information coming at us is also causing another problem: informational disalignment.
Back in the day, me and my colleagues here in the UK (I work in comms for labour unions) would all read the Guardian and watch BBC News. We’d also keep up with a lot of the same key content as each other on ITV and Sky and in the other main national newspapers.
Now, with fragmentation and proliferation, we all have much less overlap with what we’re watching and reading. That makes our understanding of the world less convergent than it had been in years gone by. And I think this has made it harder to understand each other, and to have common understanding of what we need to do and why in our comms work.
I haven’t really seen this explored as a problem. But in the last couple of years, it’s been dawning on me that this emerging problem is making my professional relationships and doing my job harder.
Yes, I totally agree (and wish I had made this point!).
Thank you, beautifully written piece.
Thank you for this powerful information to help us organize to fight back. Carol Heasley
BTW, the title of Astra's book is actually Democracy May Not Exist, but We'll Miss It When It's Gone.
Why do you like my comment?
To acknowledge yours!
Duh! I see the same pattern of ZOOM callers organized like you describe, only to get together and talk about me. Especially my enemies!
Target is so out of touch. Just read in Business Insider that they think their slump is due no workers on the floor and not enough celebrity designer collabs which couldn't hurt but absolutely nothing about their abandonment of DEI!!! Target has been problematic for decades. I was passed over in the 80's for an internship because I wasn't conservative enough. Ch. 11 proceedings can't be soon enough for these racist sexist classist pigs.
Did I hallucinate reading your defense of Israel's murderous destruction of Gaza as
not qualifying as a genocide? I went back to reread and it isn't there. I know I'm getting
old, but.........
https://theconnector.substack.com/p/the-israelpalestine-vibe-shift
I like that Indivisible understands that traditional "thank and spank" actions aimed at Congress won't work since the GOP congress has abdicated their check and balance to being all in with Trump... And calling Dems and being mad at them won't do a thing since they have no power to stop anything.
That being said, there really hasn't been a sustained and effective movement since the Civil rights movement won the voting rights act. Vietnam? Not really as the war never ended until 1975, 7 years after Nixon said he would bring peace with honor.
I disagree. The Nuclear Freeze movement had a strong run for several years and definitely shifted Reagan's stance on nukes in Europe. ACT-UP changed government policy on AIDS. The marriage equality movement won broad acceptance, even up to the Supreme Court (and if this Court undoes that change, a lot of hell will break loose).
All very specific issues with a few very loud leaders. Nothing like "get rid of the Potus". Nuclear weapons? Still have them and we are spending trillions now to get more and more (see nyt stories that no one is reading). The training you write about had 20k (goal was 1m).🤔