Make Your Damn Bed

"Hope isn’t a mood. It’s a decision.

And if you’re struggling to find it—borrow mine.

I’ve lived through a coup. I’ve lived under martial law.

And I’m telling you right now: This moment isn’t over.

We’re still writing the ending."

- Confetti Tactics

THE SOURCES:

The Thread: https://www.threads.com/@confettitactics/post/DKs5QjQIQn9

Protest advice: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/hong-kong-protest-latest-bruce-lee-riot-police-water-a9045311.html

SUPPORT Julie (and the show!): https://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed

DONATE to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund: www.pcrf.net

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.

"I am not giving up. I'm hopeful because I believe in

civil society, I believe in our power, and I believe in our idealism. I don't

know what is going to happen, because we make the future in the present, but in

the present I see solidarity, commitment, principle, and courage." - Rebecca Solnit

THE SOURCES:

Rebecca Solnit's Blog: https://www.meditationsinanemergency.com/the-heart-of-the-matter/

The Newsletter by Ruth Ben Ghiat: Lucid

SUPPORT Julie (and the show!): https://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed

DONATE to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund: www.pcrf.net

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.

The stage before the success stage is all about shifting public sentiment, and we do that by working on our communication. Optics are crucial.

One tactic is to reclaim the American flag and wave them at the front of the ICE protests. That way, when the National Guard shoots into a crowd of Americans waving American flags, it will look so horrific that NOBODY could support it and may actually start to shift the media narrative, too.

Bill Moyer's (MAP): https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/moyermap.html

The reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/behindthebastards/comments/1l85hyi/bring_american_flags_to_protests/

DONATE:www.pcrf.net

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.

Success often doesn't feel like success because of the backlash paradox: Authoritarians escalate violence when they lose control, not when they’re strong. We're slowly shifting the overton window and creating mass support for the movement of the people. We're closer to success than we'd think.

THE SOURCE: Bill Moyer's (MAP): https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/moyermap.html

AND "Doing Democracy In the 21st Century

AND The Moyer Model

AND https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/6/9/freedom-flotillas-a-history-of-attempts-to-break-israels-siege-of-gaza

DONATE:www.pcrf.net

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.

There is no end. There is only the continuing struggle, acted out in cycles of social movements. The process of winning one set of demands creates new levels of citizen consciousness and empowerment, and generates new movements on new demands and issues.

Today we're going through the conclusion of Bill Moyer's 1987 Movement Action Plan (A Framework for Effective Social Movements).

1. Normal Times - "Business as usual" - Politically quiet times that the public is unaware (or feels defeated in face) of the violations of the general public's rights/values/interests.
2. Prove the failure of Institutions - A prolonged period of increasing stress on the system.
3. Ripening Conditions - The calm before the storm. Nobody feels like anything is happening.
4. The Take Off - Seemingly overnight, a social problem becomes something EVEaRYONE is talking about, based on a trigger event AND a non-violent action campaign, that can be repeated on a local level throughout the country.
5. Identity Crisis of Powerless: (The movement is meant to move on to stage 6, but many activists move into this stage, instead.) Many activists lose sight of the long game + quit.
6. Majority Popular Support: Long game of garnering the public's support for your cause. It feels like nothing is happening, but depends on grassroots engagement to challenge the status quo.
7. Success: when the long process of building opposition reaches a new plateau + the new social consensus turns the tide of power against the powerholders, an endgame process leads to the movement's success. This process can take three forms: dramatic showdown, quiet showdown, or attrition.
8. Continuing the Struggle: Celebrate success, Follow up (local, national, etc.), Work on other demands, New social consciousness issues, Beyond reform to social change. Alternative systems not just opposing the ones that exist.

THE SOURCE: Bill Moyer's (MAP): https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/moyermap.html

AND "Doing Democracy In the 21st Century

AND The Moyer Model

DONATE:www.pcrf.net

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.

The movement needs to recognize successes achieved, follow up on the demands won, raise larger issues, focus on other demands which are in various stages, and propose larger alternatives and a new paradigm.

Today we're going through step 7 (success) of Bill Moyer's 1987 Movement Action Plan (A Framework for Effective Social Movements).

1. Normal Times - "Business as usual" - Politically quiet times that the public is unaware (or feels defeated in face) of the violations of the general public's rights/values/interests.
2. Prove the failure of Institutions - A prolonged period of increasing stress on the system. The intensity of public feeling, opinion, and upset required for social movements can happen only when the public realizes that the governmental policies violate widely held beliefs + values. 
3. Ripening Conditions - The calm before the storm. Nobody feels like anything is happening.
4. The Take Off - Seemingly overnight, a social problem becomes something EVERYONE is talking about, based on a trigger event AND a non-violent action campaign, that can be repeated on a local level throughout the country.
5. Identity Crisis of Powerless: (The movement is meant to move on to stage 6, but many activists move into this stage, instead.) Many activists lose sight of the long game + quit.
6. Majority Popular Support: Long game of garnering the public's support for your cause. It feels like nothing is happening, but depends on grassroots engagement to challenge the status quo.
7. Success: when the long process of building opposition reaches a new plateau + the new social consensus turns the tide of power against the powerholders, an endgame process leads to the movement's success. This process can take three forms: dramatic showdown, quiet showdown, or attrition.
8. Continuing the Struggle: Celebrate success, Follow up (local, national, etc.), Work on other demands, New social consciousness issues, Beyond reform to social change. Alternative systems not just opposing the ones that exist.

There is no end. There is only the continuing struggle, acted out in cycles of social movements. The process of winning one set of demands creates new levels of citizen consciousness and empowerment, and generates new movements on new demands and issues.

THE SOURCE: Bill Moyer's (MAP): https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/moyermap.html

DONATE:www.pcrf.net

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.

Today we're going through steps 6 - 7 of Bill Moyer's 1987 Movement Action Plan (A Framework for Effective Social Movements).

1. Normal Times - "Business as usual" - Politically quiet times that the public is unaware (or feels defeated in face) of the violations of the general public's rights/values/interests.
2. Prove the failure of Institutions - A prolonged period of increasing stress on the system. The intensity of public feeling, opinion, and upset required for social movements can happen only when the public realizes that the governmental policies violate widely held beliefs + values. 
3. Ripening Conditions - The calm before the storm. Nobody feels like anything is happening.
4. The Take Off - Seemingly overnight, a social problem becomes something EVERYONE is talking about, based on a trigger event AND a non-violent action campaign, that can be repeated on a local level throughout the country.
5. Identity Crisis of Powerless: (The movement is meant to move on to stage 6, but many activists move into this stage, instead.) Many activists lose sight of the long game + quit.
6. Majority Popular Support: Long game of garnering the public's support for your cause. It feels like nothing is happening, but depends on grassroots engagement to challenge the status quo.
7. Success: when the long process of building opposition reaches a new plateau + the new social consensus turns the tide of power against the powerholders, an endgame process leads to the movement's success. This process can take three forms: dramatic showdown, quiet showdown, or attrition.
8. Continuing the Struggle: Celebrate success, Follow up (local, national, etc.), Work on other demands, New social consciousness issues, Beyond reform to social change. Alternative systems not just opposing the ones that exist.

There is no end. There is only the continuing struggle, acted out in cycles of social movements. The process of winning one set of demands creates new levels of citizen consciousness and empowerment, and generates new movements on new demands and issues.

THE SOURCE: Bill Moyer's (MAP): https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/moyermap.html

DONATE:www.pcrf.net

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.

"Rather than feeling depressed and powerless, activists now need to recognize the power and success of themselves and their movement." - Bill Moyer

Today we're going through steps 5 - 6 of Bill Moyer's 1987 Movement Action Plan (A Framework for Effective Social Movements).

1. Normal Times - "Business as usual" - Politically quiet times that the public is unaware (or feels defeated in face) of the violations of the general public's rights/values/interests.
2. Prove the failure of Institutions - A prolonged period of increasing stress on the system. The intensity of public feeling, opinion, and upset required for social movements can happen only when the public realizes that the governmental policies violate widely held beliefs + values. 
3. Ripening Conditions - The calm before the storm. Nobody feels like anything is happening.
4. The Take Off - Seemingly overnight, a social problem becomes something EVERYONE is talking about, based on a trigger event AND a non-violent action campaign, that can be repeated on a local level throughout the country.
5. Identity Crisis of Powerless: (The movement is meant to move on to stage 6, but many activists move into this stage, instead.) Many activists lose sight of the long game + quit.
6. Majority Popular Support: Long game of garnering the public's support for your cause. It feels like nothing is happening, but depends on grassroots engagement to challenge the status quo.
7. Success: when the long process of building opposition reaches a new plateau + the new social consensus turns the tide of power against the powerholders, an endgame process leads to the movement's success. This process can take three forms: dramatic showdown, quiet showdown, or attrition.
8. Continuing the Struggle: Celebrate success, Follow up (local, national, etc.), Work on other demands, New social consciousness issues, Beyond reform to social change. Alternative systems not just opposing the ones that exist.

There is no end. There is only the continuing struggle, acted out in cycles of social movements. The process of winning one set of demands creates new levels of citizen consciousness and empowerment, and generates new movements on new demands and issues.

THE SOURCE: Bill Moyer's (MAP): https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/moyermap.html

Donate:www.pcrf.net

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.

Today we're going through steps 4 - 5 of Bill Moyer's 1987 Movement Action Plan (A Framework for Effective Social Movements).

In stage 5, large swaths of activists quit because they feel powerless, despair, and generally like they've failed.

1. Normal Times - "Business as usual" - Politically quiet times that the public is unaware (or feels defeated in face) of the violations of the general public's rights/values/interests. Power-holders lie about their intentions and the most of the public buys into the status quo.
2. Prove the failure of Institutions - A prolonged period of building up the stress on the system. The intensity of public feeling, opinion, and upset required for social movements to occur can happen only when the public realizes that the governmental policies violate widely held beliefs and values. 
3. Ripening Conditions - The calm before the storm. Nobody feels like anything is happening.
4. The Take Off - Seemingly overnight, a social problem becomes something EVERYONE is talking about, based on a trigger event AND a non-violent action campaign, that can be repeated on a local level throughout the country.
5. Identity Crisis of Powerless: (The movement is meant to move on to stage 8, but many activists move into this stage, instead.)
6. Majority Popular Support
7. Success
8. Continuing the Struggle

THE SOURCE: Bill Moyer's (MAP): https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/moyermap.html

DONATE:www.pcrf.net

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.

"The crisis of identity + powerless is a personal crisis for activists. After the experience of a movement in take-off stage, their view of the world and themselves is transformed. They come to realize that the problem is more serious than they had thought, the governmental institutions, powerbrokers, and democratic processes which they thought would help solve social problems were actually part of the problem, and that the problem can only be resolved if they are part of the solution. Rather than feeling depressed and powerless, activists now need to recognize the power and success of themselves and their movement." - Bill Moyer

Today we're going through steps 3-4 of Bill Moyer's 1987 Movement Action Plan (A Framework for Effective Social Movements).

1. Normal Times - "Business as usual" - Politically quiet times that the public is unaware (or feels defeated in face) of the violations of the general public's rights/values/interests. Power-holders lie about their intentions and the most of the public buys into the status quo.
2. Prove the failure of Institutions - A prolonged period of building up the stress on the system. The intensity of public feeling, opinion, and upset required for social movements to occur can happen only when the public realizes that the governmental policies violate widely held beliefs and values. 
3. Ripening Conditions - The calm before the storm. Nobody feels like anything is happening.
4. The Take Off - Seemingly overnight, a social problem becomes something EVERYONE is talking about, based on a trigger event AND a non-violent action campaign, that can be repeated on a local level throughout the country.
5. Identity Crisis of Powerless: (The movement is meant to move on to stage 8, but many activists move into this stage, instead.)
6. Majority Popular Support
7. Success
8. Continuing the Struggle

THE SOURCE: Bill Moyer's (MAP): https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/moyermap.html

DONATE:www.pcrf.net

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.