Don’t overthink: just click something!
“Default” task
We’ve been at this for more than a year now. Energy waxes and wains, and sometimes life gets busy for all the normal reasons. It’s easy to skip the resistance for a day that turns into a week or a month. Push back : pick a default task to do on a regular schedule when…
Real Love
On Valentines day, or any day dedicated to recognizing our love for each other, find a way to step outside commercialism into care. What causes are important to the person you’re celebrating? Center those values! Have dinner at an ethnic restaurant from a place they’ve always wanted to travel, or make a nice dinner at…
Splurge!
Splurge on a small treat for yourself. Resistance is exhausting and fascism is a grind. Buy tiny trinkets, wrap them in pretty paper, and open one after you engage in resistance!
Defend Wildness
Alt National Parks has been leading the resistance for years, and now they want your help. The ask: call REI, Patagonia and other businesses that rely on wild spaces to demand they speak up against the Trump administration’s land grab. Visit their facebook account, or click through for links to help you get through the…
Starve Amazon
If you haven’t dumped your Amazon account entirely, there’s still a way to push back: turn off tracking! It’s a win-win for you: targeted ads are designed to appeal to your impulses, not your needs (and they’re targeted so badly!), and they fuel Amazon’s marketing empire. Click through for EFF’s guide.
Protest Playlist
Are you puttering around the house, doing laundry and getting ready for another busy week? Put on a protest playlist to fire up your motivation and help you keep resistance on the chore list. Click through for starter lists on various platforms, or curate your own mix-tape of songs that fire you up.
Half-Ass It
If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing poorly! Go to the protest without a sign – you still count. Call your Senator and rant at the machine. Donate $5 when you can. Replace some of your Amazon purchases with local stores. If reading a history book is overwhelming, listen to inspiring fiction. Embrace the power…
FCC: People Belong!
The FCC wants to slap warning labels on people. This is pure fascism, and the comment period ends May 22nd! Visit GLAAD for information and a link to comment: https://glaad.org/fcc
Learn Something
Learning new skills builds mental flexibility and resiliance. Make a list of things you always wanted to learn. If it involves stretching your mind, it counts: Read a challenging book or learn a sport or new language. They want us to cower in fear. Scream bad Mandarin at them instead!
Public Comment: Trans rights
The regime proposes to redefine transgender health care as “sex-rejecting procedures” and make hospitals choose between Medicaid and services to trans youth.
Click through for links and info.
Watch CECOT
Last December CBS pulled a 60-minutes segment on CECOT the foreign prison we “deported” immigrants to. A bootleg copy that streamed in Canada went around, and eventually CBS aired the segment (opposite an NFL division playoff game…) with new content from the Trump administration. It’s important we witness what is being done in our names,…
Hilton Points
Don’t leave credit sitting at businesses we’re boycotting. It’s like an interest-free loan. Put your Hilton points to work: convert them to flights, donate them to charities, convert them to cash, or use them to book and re-book rooms in places ICE is active. Don’t let them sit on your earned value!
Patent Defense
“The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has proposed new rules that would severely restrict the public’s ability to challenge improperly granted patents. If adopted, they will give patent trolls exactly what they’ve wanted for years: a way to keep bad patents alive and out of reach.” – EFF.org
Submit comments by December 2nd, opposing this…
SAVE voting
The SAVE act is stalled in the Senate, but it isn’t dead yet. A LOT of disinformation about it exists. Many people think they’ll be able to register and vote with just a driver license, but that’s not true. Meanwhile a new executive order seeks to limit mail-in voting. This is the steal you’re worried…
Netflix, no!
Netflix Board member Susan Rice said things Trump didn’t like. So he’s demanding they fire him. Netflix wants to merge with Warner Bros. Discovery, and they need DOJ approval. Call them at 866.952.456 and tell them you’ll cancel if they do.
Have some fun!
Buy tickets for yourself (and a friend?) and attend a local entertainment event, especially if it’s a benefit for a cause you value! Joy is resistance, and artists lead the path to change.
Choose venues and artists who live in your region, and spend what you can to bolster the local resistance community.
Use Signal
Signal is as simple to use as SMS or FB Messenger, but provides end-to-end encryption and a platform designed for security. We don’t recommend planning your next war on it, but it offers enhanced privacy compared to other easy-to-use options, and the more of us who use it the less notice using it will draw….
Gift the News
It’s graduation season! Gift new grads a year’s subscription to a local newspaper, national magazine, foreign paper, or the PBS station! Learning doesn’t have to stop when the classes do!
Take a Class
Take a class to build resilience (cooking, sewing) or meet people (art, sports) to build community, defeat burnout, and keep the local economy going. Start at your library or community college and look for something interesting! Many classes are sliding scale and taught by local people.
Thank you cards
Do you send physical thank you cards? Whenever you’re writing one, send a spare to a politician or activist who has done things you’re grateful for this year. Use up leftover holiday cards or pick up clearance Valentines Day cards. Everyone loves some appreciation!
Bad Bunny
The GOP hates that all-American football chose Bad Bunny, a Puerto Rican entertainer, for the halftime show. They called it un-American. Do they really not know Puerto Rico is part of America? The NFL doubled down by adding Green Day as an opening act, so the GOP set up their own half-time show with Kid…
Poverty Tutor
Tens of thousands of families are joining the food-insecure for the first time. If you’ve been poor, you know there are skills, and often shame, involved.
Offer to accompany a friend on their first food-bank visit, help them learn to cook with products they didn’t select, or show them other local resources for struggling families.
Trevor Project
LGBTQ teen suicide rates track with support: just one support person can reduce risk significantly. Amid an escalating war on transgender Americans the Trevor Project’s anti-suicide work is more important than ever. Please consider a donation.
Neighborhood news
Remember when coffee shops and bookstores had bulletin boards? Social media has replaced those pretty much completely—but that puts us at the mercy of corporate algorithms. Rebuild word of mouth with a little neighborhood center hosting curated news. This project takes a bit of time, so get neighbors involved!
Audit your TV
Write down every radio, TV and cable source you get news or programming from. Now look up who owns them. It may be that your diverse news sources are all Sinclair-owned! If you don’t like the answers, or you don’t have much diversity, replace some of your sources.
Eradicate Obstacles
We all have a long list of things we’re going to get to any day now. From calling Congress to having lunch with a friend, most of us are chronically behind on everything, and resistance is no exception. Because resisting is a new habit for many of us, it takes conscious planning to make sure…
Get Fresh Meals
In many areas you can buy home-made meals cooked by local people through networks. It’s a popular side-gig, particularly with immigrants whose daily food is exotic restaurant fare here. From trunk Tamales and private chefs to networks of home cooks, shift your purchases from large take-out chains to good food cooked by neighbors. Or ask…
Small Businesses Resist!
Shop small, local businesses that support progressive causes. If you aren’t sure where to start, Minocqua Brewing is leading an online organization of small businesses fighting back. The Minocqua Marketplace is an online “mall” of small businesses dedicated to resisting the Trump regime. Each business is vetted, and most donate a portion of proceeds to…
Interview with an activist
No matter what we’re doing, we all have times we feel like it isn’t enough. Whether we’re in a slump, or it’s just imposter syndrome, one thing can cut through the ennui : talk to someone whose resistance you admire. Be up front, or invite them out for a hike or coffee and see where…
DNC report
While endlessly relitigating past elections hurts us, it’s also important to engage in genuine, fact-based analysis of losses. The DNC did just that, promising to release the report…then decided not to release it. With conspiracy theories swirling and distrust rampant, transparency is more important than ever.
Email DNC Chair Ken Martin, demanding he release the report.
Fix-it Clinic
Behind all the problems we face is an underlying thread: corporate power. Fixing things instead of replacing them is one way to take back control. Many areas have fix-it events now, where people with skills and tools make themselves available for everything from patching clothes to soldering connections. The Right to Repair movement thinks when…
Call State GOV
If you feel like calling state Senators makes no difference, go local: from ICE operations to checking girls’ panties to play sports, state decisions matter. Very few people pay attention to state-level politics, so you have extra clout if you do. Not sure who they are? Click through for tips to find them.
Insurrection Day
On January 6th 2021, Donald Trump rallied his irregulars to steal an American election. We failed to jail him, then he pardoned 1600 people convicted of serious crimes that day. In 2026 some of them plan to march on DC in celebration, so we counter with an American Guy Fawkes Night. Make sure our grandchildren…
Memorize one Phone Number
Remember how we all learned our home phone number as kids? Today, I couldn’t call my own mother from memory. Choose one person you could call in an emergency and memorize their number. Choose someone who isn’t likely to be with you. The perfect person lives far enough away not to be caught up…
Build reserves
Take stock of the things you use regularly and when you see a sale, buy an extra unit. This avoids a “run on the bank” during a crisis, while building your reserves and resilience over time. Make it a habit: if it’s a good sale, buy two.
Whistle Resistance
Looking for instructions to create and distribute whistle packs in your area? Find everything you need here.
News Zoom
Zoom in or Zoom out on the news. Pick a story you’ve seen on social media and read two news articles that are either extremely local, or international.
Don’t buy JK
J.K. Rowling doesn’t JUST have awful positions, she’s using her profit to fund transphobic legislation. If you buy Harry Potter branded items, you’re complicit. Don’t buy new, and click through for ideas about items you already have.
Lunch Choice
Buy lunch for a friend or coworker who is demographically (age, race, class, etc.) different from you. Ask them how they’re doing, and really listen to what they say.
Don’t dive directly into politics. Just build the relationship naturally, one lunch at a time.
Say Hi
Community is the antidote to authoritarianism: when we know and trust our neighbors, we stand together. If you’ve never waved at your neighbor, wave tomorrow and say Hi next week. Tell the student sitting near you that you like their rainbow flag pin. Invite your coworker to lunch. Trusted connections take time to grow, so…