Don’t overthink: just click something!
Stop the Bleed
One of the most useful first-aid skills to learn, according to every medical professional we talked to, is how to stop bleeding. Stop the Bleed exists to teach you how to save a live. You can take an in-person or online class to learn basic skills that are useful in a crisis.
Care
At more than a year into fascism, it’s easy to get burned out and feels safer to stop caring. If you’re low on energy go back to basics: what did you work on “before all this?” Being engaged and caring about something is fighting fascism. They want us demoralized and exhausted. Push back by caring…
Keep Calm
Staying informed but calm is a trick these days. To avoid disconnecting or shutting down with overwhelm, curate your news sources regularly. Do you have reliable, steady voices that use rational, calm language? Raise the volume on those, while minimizing ones that leave you feeling so panicked you can’t act.
NorCal Resist
NorCal Resist has some of the most comprehensive mutual aid plans we’ve seen. From legal help to clinics to fix taillights (a common excuse for pullovers) they’ve set the standard for resistance as community. If you aren’t sure where to help, help NorCal.
Minnesota
Today Minnesota strikes. You can support them by donating to one of the many mutual aid organizations. Or place an order online with a business that’s closed today, to help them make up the lost revenue.
Cookies!
Nobody deserves a cookie for just doing the right thing…wait…what are we saying! Of course you deserve cookies! Buy your girl scout cookies from transgender or unhoused scouts for extra brownie points.
Invest in Resilience
Splurge on a convenience that will free up time or energy for resistance work. If you get a cooking convenience, could you share meals with a neighbor? If you get the car cleaned, would you carpool or offer rides? Would an out of work neighbor want to help you out with some (paid!) overdue chores?
Snack stop
Do you run a mutual-aid or community-building space? Set up a snack stop. It can be as simple as a bowl of sealed snacks for anyone who missed lunch. Normalize using it. Make it a “take one, leave one” for afternoon pick-me-ups.
Find a Protest
No Kings III is March 28th. With more than 3000 events nationwide (and more around the world) it’s likely you have more than one option for attendance. Will you go to the huge one at a nearby capital, or drop by a smaller local event? With staggered times, you might be able to hit more…
Keep Calm
If you spent yesterday worried about something you couldn’t control, and today you’re too tired to take action on the things you can, the chaos worked. You burned energy that could have been spent on action. Emotional regulation keeps us functional, so practice some skills today to help you get through chaotic times.
Weekend Warrior
Life gets busy. Dump the guilt and make this a weekend of resistance! Engage in one action each day: an act of political resistance (call Congress), community support (try the library), and visibility (wear a protest pin). Click through for ideas and inspiration.
Break ennui
Normalization numbs us. it tells us nothing requires urgency, and we’d be a chump to keep acting like things are on fire. Panic burns us out with the same result: we stop taking action. Click through for ways to re-calibrate, then break ennui by taking action.
Calendar Year
The end of the Gregorian year is in a few days and many fiscal calendars also roll over. You have just a few business days to make any financial moves you intended for 2025. Tax codes have a number of year-based requirements, but there are other things to consider, from estate planning to vacation time.
PBS Passport
You know who didn’t cancel Kimmel, or pull coverage of regime abuses? PBS, despite the funding cuts. PBS is more independent than ever, now that the regime has cut off funding, so if you need something calming in the evenings, might we recommend All Creatures Great and Small, included with the Masterpiece subscription ($5/mo or…
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…
Refuse AI notes
Many medical offices are integrating AI-mediated note taking. In a different world where LLMs prioritized accuracy and practices weren’t squeezed for every dime of profit, this wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. That’s not our world. In this world over-worked medical staff don’t have the time to review notes based on pattern-matching and hallucination. Say…
Thrift Better
Goodwill is convenient, but commercial, and religious charities may discriminate in distribution efforts. What to do? Most areas have at least a few thrift stores designed to benefit a specific target cause: DV victims or immigrants or animals. Some stores accept specific goods like home building or pet supplies that others won’t take. Research local…
Minority Business
It’s Jewish American Heritage month AND Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage month (because minorities have to share…) so get a nice deli sandwich, visit a museum, or go gift-shopping for graduation at minority-owned businesses. Don’t forget to leave a review!
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…
Buy Banned Books
From 1984 to Beloved, books get banned for helping you understand power or empathize with the oppressed. Buy or borrow a banned book today, and build your anti-fascism-fighting mental acuity! Think of it as weight-training for the mind. Or browse used bookstores for copies of your favorites and sprinkle them around little free libraries!
Throw a fundraiser
Plan a party with a purpose. Charities do it all the time, and you can too! Plan a dinner with single-serve desserts and have an auction. Plan a bingo night with proceeds to the food bank.
Let people know what the plan is up-front, and enlist a friend to co-host.
Buy Bling
You have your protest sign…but do you have your protest outfit? From t-shirts to pins, wear something that takes the protest from the streets to wherever you go the rest of the day. Visit nearby businesses impacted by the protest and buy something. Tip well. If you have extra stickers or pins, pass them out…
Hope Up
If you’re feeling hope, share that as widely as you can. If you’re feeling despair, treat it like the flu: try not to spread it, treat the symptoms, and work to recover. Neither hope nor despair is an objective fact, but despair saps your energy to bring about change. Treat it, don’t feed it.
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…
Be a Tourist
Go spend time in the place you live! Visit a museum, stroll through an arboretum, or visit local shops with an eye out for graduation gifts. Be a tourist in the place you live and bring new eyes to the experience. Chat with shop owners and get to know your own city in a new…
Cart Jam
Whether you’re skipping all shopping this week, or boycotting Home Depot, Target and Amazon, take it up a notch with a digital cart jam. From the organizers: “When thousands of carts sit full but never convert into purchases, it hits their KPIs, signals that something is wrong and shows that their business practices are…
Share Gift Links
Many subscriptions come with gift links. Terms vary — you might get a set number per month, or per subscription. Research the terms for any newsgroups you subscribe to, then use your gift links to share stories you think are important.
Adopt a corner
ICE hasn’t gone anywhere, but news has moved on. Groups like NDLON need support more than ever. Click through to learn about their Adopt a Corner program, which puts observers in places like Home Depot parking lots and school pick-up lines to calmly observe, document, and support those left behind. Click through for information and…
Save Data
From the Library of Alexandria to the famous Nazi burning of the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, lost knowledge carries a special despair. Since Trump took office the administration has razing knowledge from decades of climate data to NASA’s Goddard library, on the chopping block for its land. The Data Rescue Project exists to save what we…
Patron of Protest
Protests aren’t for everyone. If you can’t attend, subsidize the protest! Sponsor a seat on a community bus, offer to taxi friends, help with sign making, or shop at sympathetic businesses. (Tell them why!) There are lots of ways to support participation, even if you can’t attend the protest Sunday. Click through for more inspiration.
Trans Rights
Use translegislation.com to check for anti-trans measures in your state. Take the time to learn about the measures — look for information from GLAAD or other queer-rights groups so that you understand what the bill really does. Most of these bills rely on fear-mongering and misleading language, because the truth wouldn’t win. Once you have…
“Swear Jar”
Guilt can motivate us, or cripple us. Turn those negative feelings into positive action. Choose something you feel badly about—saying nothing to your dad, or ordering from Prime—and plan a “penance” for each “infraction”. You could call to Congress, or tip the Prime driver in cash. Make the penance fit the crime if you can!
Creative Activism
Take stock of your hobbies and interests. Are you artistic? Help make protest signs. Do you love to sew? Sew a protester’s costume. Are you a talented photographer? Find a free repository and add your own resistance images.
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century
This short book can be read in an hour, but it provides a great deal of historical insight and advice for how to engage in a post-truth (or as Snyder calls it, “pre-fascist”) society.
If you’re not entirely sure what fascism means, or whether we’re already there, start with this quick read.
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….
Feed People
Food insecurity is only going to get worse in America. Between rising grocery prices, crops lost due to climate change and deportation, and new, draconian SNAP requirements, people are going to be hungry. Add in a fertilizer shortage and we face tough times ahead. Start building mutual aid now!
Protest Safety
Every No Kings! people are nervous about violence, or trying to reassure partners. Practice protest safety skills from phone security to de-escalation! Ready makes steady! Click through for information and links to online resources and recorded trainings.
Donate
Donate to the ACLU. They’re the frontline documenting abuses against detainees, and defending the constitution. Without their work, there’s a lot we wouldn’t even know about.
Whimsy
Fascism wants us scared and drawn out, and it gives us plenty of reasons to feel that way. Push back with whimsy : use your arts or crafts skills to put together joyful, humorous or entertaining resistance messages. Pictured: Kim’s adorable resistance gnomes. They make me happy every time I see them. What could you…
Join something
The key to rapid mobilization of any kind is a decentralized mesh of pods that can quickly spread the word and mobilize into a network. The best way to get started is to join a group. Give it a decent try, and if the fit just isn’t there, try again. Alternatively, you can build your…