Do not allow yourself to get trapped in an endless loop, where lawless goons act with impunity, then engage in a petty, selective wielding of law/policy to punish the very people in civil society holding the line for democracy.

It is time to recognize that, when law is being weaponized and our neighbors are being stolen, it is time to move outside and around those systems to engage in strategic civil disobedience. This podcast includes a veritable laundry list of things people can do to safeguard their democracy, their neighbors, and their civil liberties— without waiting for institutional permission to do so.

People who want to act with impunity will tell you that only people with institutional power have the agency to shape the future. That’s a damn lie. Everyday people have an immense amount of power and agency to hold people to account.

I need you to shift from saying “accountability is coming” and recognize that WE are the accountability that is coming.

democracy is verb! — by flightlessblrbs

It is past time to revisit the Declaration of Independence, and to remind ourselves that this document is not trapped in amber but is a living document, reminding us that we don’t have to take this s**t:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among People , deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

This document right here reminds us that we have a right to throw off despotism and create a government that works for all of us— not just the Epstein class, their white Christian nationalist goon squad, and a shameful stream of businesses and institutions that have abandoned both their integrity and discernment.

The leadership we’re looking for comes from regular people like you and me.

Don’t Despair: Organize!

There are so many more of us than there are of them. When we turn our collective efforts from symbolic mass protests into coordinated, interconnected local power structures, there’s nothing that can stop us.

We win this by creating a whole-of-society resistance that is hyper-local, organized and grounded in meeting community needs, protecting neighbors from harm, reclaiming our dignity, and securing our collective liberation.

Here’s a loose map of how to move alongside your neighbors with purpose.

Read the linked blog [below] about developing parallel systems of support. Watch the embedded video that explains the process in more detail. Most importantly, take these ideas into your community and make them better. It is time for 41,704 bespoke communities of resistance.

Alice Walker reminds us that “the most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” This podcast is meant to remind you of your power and point you in the direction to use it.

It’s up to us to hold the line. Get off the sidelines. Get off your screens. Get into your communities and move in a purposeful formation.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit muppetgender.substack.com