Make Your Damn Bed

The ideal of democracy is that it can contain ALL of our diversity and differences and channel into safe, institutionally protected representation without the use of threat and violence. Democracy depends on societal trust, free + fair elections, widespread participation, free + fair media, due process, etc. Democracy can be undermined by people using threat/violence so we must make the cost of political violence too high to enact. We must take offensive and defensive strategies when addressing political violence. Tomorrow, I'll share some of those historically effective strategies.

RESOURCES:

The Free HOPE-PV Guide to ending Political Violence: https://www.endpoliticalviolence.org/guide

What can I do? Choose Democracy Resource: https://choosedemocracy.us/what-can-i-do/

Daniel Hunter's Analysis on Staying Grounded: https://wagingnonviolence.org/2024/11/10-things-to-do-if-trump-wins/?utm_source=Climate+Advocacy+Lab+Members&utm_campaign=8cf646d623-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_01_22_04_22&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-8cf646d623-547145900

Democracy is a verb: Interview series: https://wagingnonviolence.org/2024/07/democracy-is-a-verb/#interviews

Wisdom from the Fight for Democracy in Serbia. https://wagingnonviolence.org/2024/05/overcoming-despair-apathy-win-democracy-otpor-serbia-ivan-marovic/

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The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

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Thinking of power as an upside-down triangle is a great way to remember where power lies. Everyday individuals hold the structures of power up with their daily labor within the system. This is why mass noncooperation movements are so successful in toppling powerful dictatorships. We have to take back our power by demanding the system work for US, rather than us for it. Handling fear isn't about suppression, it's about redirection. Fear can paralyze you into submission, or fuel your demands for justice.

RESOURCES:

What can I do? Choose Democracy Resource: https://choosedemocracy.us/what-can-i-do/

Daniel Hunter's Analysis on Staying Grounded: https://wagingnonviolence.org/2024/11/10-things-to-do-if-trump-wins/?utm_source=Climate+Advocacy+Lab+Members&utm_campaign=8cf646d623-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_01_22_04_22&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-8cf646d623-547145900

Democracy is a verb: Interview series: https://wagingnonviolence.org/2024/07/democracy-is-a-verb/#interviews

Wisdom from the Fight for Democracy in Serbia. https://wagingnonviolence.org/2024/05/overcoming-despair-apathy-win-democracy-otpor-serbia-ivan-marovic/

Donate to Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund::www.pcrf.net

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The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Read Julie's Medium Blog.

Support JULIE (and the show!)

Support + get some bonus stuff over on PATREON.

Get an occasional personal email from me: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

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Things are chaotic (by design) so after we start to rebuild internal trust + social trust, we can start to address our own needs, and eventually our community's. Develop boundaries, coping skills, resilience strategies. Grieve, learn to accept reality + then address what is within your control. From there, you can pick a lane.

When we try to do too much, we get overwhelmed and don't accomplish half the stuff we could accomplish if we had just picked ONE thing to work on at a time.

HOW TO RESIST THE COUP?

1. Build Internal Trust
2. Build Social Trust
3. Grieve, Accept, Build Resilience
4. Identify your locus of control
5. Pick a lane:

a. Protect People

b. Defend Civic Institutions

c. Disrupt + Disobey

d. Build Alternatives

The sources:

What can I do to resist the coup? https://choosedemocracy.us/what-can-i-do/

Grounding yourself in a chaotic time: https://wagingnonviolence.org/2024/11/10-things-to-do-if-trump-wins/?utm_source=Climate+Advocacy+Lab+Members&utm_campaign=8cf646d623-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_01_22_04_22&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-8cf646d623-547145900

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE BOOK: https://www.ericachenoweth.com/research/wcrw

COMMUNITY PRACTICE: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sdKeqajKC5X7tyhowqRTYgMRHelIwo9T5cTzCT0i1b8/edit?tab=t.0

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GET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

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OR WATCH ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/juliemerica 

The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Read Julie's Medium Blog.

Support JULIE (and the show!)

Support + get some bonus stuff over on PATREON.

Get an occasional personal email from me: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

Tune in on INSTAGRAM AND YOUTUBE or TIKTOK

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Things are chaotic (by design) so after we start to rebuild internal trust + social trust, we can start to address our own needs, and eventually our community's. Develop boundaries, coping skills, resilience strategies. Grieve, learn to accept reality + then address what is within your control. From there, you can pick a lane.

When we try to do too much, we get overwhelmed and don't accomplish half the stuff we could accomplish if we had just picked ONE thing to work on at a time.

HOW TO RESIST THE COUP?

1. Build Internal Trust
2. Build Social Trust
3. Grieve, Accept, Build Resilience
4. Identify your locus of control
5. Pick a lane

The sources:

What can I do to resist the coup? https://choosedemocracy.us/what-can-i-do/

Grounding yourself in a chaotic time: https://wagingnonviolence.org/2024/11/10-things-to-do-if-trump-wins/?utm_source=Climate+Advocacy+Lab+Members&utm_campaign=8cf646d623-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_01_22_04_22&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-8cf646d623-547145900

Donate to Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund::www.pcrf.net

Donate to Mutual Aid Funds: https://www.folxhealth.com/library/mutual-aid-funds

GET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

TUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM FOR COOL CONTENT: www.instagram.com/mydbpodcast

OR BE A REAL GEM + TUNE IN ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/MYDBpodcast

OR WATCH ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/juliemerica 

The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Read Julie's Medium Blog.

Support JULIE (and the show!)

Support + get some bonus stuff over on PATREON.

Get an occasional personal email from me: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

Tune in on INSTAGRAM AND YOUTUBE or TIKTOK

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed.

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Over the next few days we're gonna do a deep dive on the various ways, we as individuals, can actually resist this coup. Remember, it's easier to resist tyranny today, than it will be in a month. Today, we're starting with the internal work of learning to trust ourselves (and each other) with intention. Our distrust is manufactured, it's time to push back against that belief.

We've got more in common than we're led to believe.

"Authoritarian power is derived from fear of repression, isolation from each other and exhaustion at the utter chaos. We’re already feeling it. Thus, for us to be of any use in a [chaotic] world, we have to pay grave attention to our inner states, so we don’t perpetuate the autocrat’s goals of fear, isolation, exhaustion or constant disorientation." - Daniel Hunter

The sources:

What can I do to resist the coup? https://choosedemocracy.us/what-can-i-do/

Grounding yourself in a chaotic time: https://wagingnonviolence.org/2024/11/10-things-to-do-if-trump-wins/?utm_source=Climate+Advocacy+Lab+Members&utm_campaign=8cf646d623-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_01_22_04_22&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-8cf646d623-547145900

Donate to Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund::www.pcrf.net

Donate to Mutual Aid Funds: https://www.folxhealth.com/library/mutual-aid-funds

GET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

TUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM FOR COOL CONTENT: www.instagram.com/mydbpodcast

OR BE A REAL GEM + TUNE IN ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/MYDBpodcast

OR WATCH ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/juliemerica 

The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Read Julie's Medium Blog.

Support JULIE (and the show!)

Support + get some bonus stuff over on PATREON.

Get an occasional personal email from me: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

Tune in on INSTAGRAM AND YOUTUBE or TIKTOK

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Over the next few days we're gonna do a deep dive on the various ways, we as individuals, can actually resist this coup. Remember, it's easier to resist tyranny today, than it will be in a month. Today, we're starting with the internal work of learning to trust ourselves (and each other) with intention. Our distrust is manufactured, it's time to push back against that belief.

We've got more in common than we're led to believe.

"Authoritarian power is derived from fear of repression, isolation from each other and exhaustion at the utter chaos. We’re already feeling it. Thus, for us to be of any use in a [chaotic] world, we have to pay grave attention to our inner states, so we don’t perpetuate the autocrat’s goals of fear, isolation, exhaustion or constant disorientation." - Daniel Hunter

The sources:

What can I do to resist the coup? https://choosedemocracy.us/what-can-i-do/

Grounding yourself in a chaotic time: https://wagingnonviolence.org/2024/11/10-things-to-do-if-trump-wins/?utm_source=Climate+Advocacy+Lab+Members&utm_campaign=8cf646d623-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_01_22_04_22&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-8cf646d623-547145900

Donate to Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund::www.pcrf.net

Donate to Mutual Aid Funds: https://www.folxhealth.com/library/mutual-aid-funds

GET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

TUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM FOR COOL CONTENT: www.instagram.com/mydbpodcast

OR BE A REAL GEM + TUNE IN ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/MYDBpodcast

OR WATCH ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/juliemerica 

The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Those with “promotion-focused” mindset (i.e., those who tend to focus on achieving their goals and aspirations) are more resistant to conspiracy theories than those with a “prevention-focused” mindset (i.e., those who focus on protecting what they already have)" - Harvard Business Review: https://hbr.org/2020/07/how-to-inoculate-your-team-against-conspiracy-theories

OTHER SOURCES:

Scientific American article: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-can-you-fight-conspiracy-theories/ 

The research: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167218775070

Information overload resource: https://www.lifehack.org/922480/information-overload

The Mayo Clinic on Cognitive overload: https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/cognitive-overload 

Donate to Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund::www.pcrf.net

Donate to Mutual Aid Funds: https://www.folxhealth.com/library/mutual-aid-funds

GET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

TUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM FOR COOL CONTENT: www.instagram.com/mydbpodcast

OR BE A REAL GEM + TUNE IN ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/MYDBpodcast

OR WATCH ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/juliemerica 

The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Read Julie's Medium Blog.

Support JULIE (and the show!)

Support + get some bonus stuff over on PATREON.

Get an occasional personal email from me: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

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Resisting subversion means we need to stop playing defense with our consumption habits and start playing offense. Get aggressive with deciding who and what you offer your attention.

Identify content as Adversarial or Productive:

Adversarial leaves you feeling defeated, or angry, or upset, or hateful, or more disconnected, or trying to sell you something. Attempting to elicit a negative emotional response. 

Productive has an action item or leaves you with a sense of hope + direction + purpose + support for your tool belt. If it’s selling you something, they aren’t using predatory tactics. Useful, valuable, informative, accurate, and makes you feel more connected with humanity &/or community.

RESOURCE: https://www.theframelab.org/putin-failed-to-conquer-navalny-or/

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The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Read Julie's Medium Blog.

Support JULIE (and the show!)

Support + get some bonus stuff over on PATREON.

Get an occasional personal email from me: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

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Most of {demoralization} is done by Americans to Americans, due to a lack of moral standards. Exposure to true information doesn't matter anymore. One who is demoralized is unable to assess true information. The facts tell nothing. Even if I shower him with information, with authentic proof, even if I take him by force... and show him a concentration camp, he will refuse to believe it - until the military boot crushes his balls, then he will understand - but not before that.

The next stage is destabilization... economy, foreign relations, and defense systems. The next stage is crisis. And after crisis, with a violent change of power, structure, + economy, you have the so-called period of normalization. It may last indefinitely. 

This is what will happen in the United States if you allow all these schmucks to bring the country to crisis, to promise people all kinds of goodies and the paradise on Earth, to destabilize your economy, to eliminate the principle of free market competition, and to put a Big Brother government in Washington, D.C., with benevolent dictators... who will promise lots of things. Never mind whether the promises unfulfillable or not... He will create false illusions that the situation is under control. The situation is not under control. The United States is in the state of war.

Whether I scare some people are not, I don’t give a hoot. If you are not scared by now, nothing can scare you. But you don’t have to be paranoid about it. You have to force your government to stop."

THE SOURCES: Watch the interview: https://bigthink.com/the-present/yuri-bezmenov/

Read about Bezmenov: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Bezmenov

Research source: https://www.historians.org/sixteen-months/the-causes-of-our-national-demoralization/

Research source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/russian-misinformation-seeks-to-confound-not-convince/

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The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Read Julie's Medium Blog.

Support JULIE (and the show!)

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"This is the greatest paradox in the history of mankind when the capitalist world supports and actively nourishes its own destructor." - Yuri Bezmenov

THE SOURCES:

Watch the interview: https://bigthink.com/the-present/yuri-bezmenov/

Read about Bezmenov: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Bezmenov

Research source: https://www.historians.org/sixteen-months/the-causes-of-our-national-demoralization/

Research source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/russian-misinformation-seeks-to-confound-not-convince/

Research source: https://www.beyondintractability.org/newsletter-245

The Yuri Bezmenov interview transcript: https://math-physics-problems.fandom.com/wiki/Ideological_Subversion_Interview#A_Transcription_of_the_1984_Interview_Between_G._Edward_Griffin_and_Yuri_Bezmenov

Donate to Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund::www.pcrf.net

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GET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

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OR BE A REAL GEM + TUNE IN ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/MYDBpodcast

OR WATCH ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/juliemerica 

The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Read Julie's Medium Blog.

Support JULIE (and the show!)

Support + get some bonus stuff over on PATREON.

Get an occasional personal email from me: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

Tune in on INSTAGRAM AND YOUTUBE or TIKTOK

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.