Cannot stress how fun this is as a small business owner in an industry directly and direly affected by the Trump tariffs, the Trump cuts, and the Trump administration actions to reverse half a century of progress.

<3

Thanks, Heather <3

That looks/sounds amazing

I’m going to start saying this people.

(also, wondering what percentage of these people are teacher of the year at their local elementary school)

Obviously, don’t put yourself in danger! Don’t organize with people who make you unsafe. But if you’re a person like me who is relatively protected by the state (white, cis, homeowner), maybe it’s time to be willing to temper your language and employ patience to bring other folks along? /end rant.

But some things are more strategic than others. I am a person who has changed her mind a lot! I was a young republican. Thank god for the people who took the time to bring me along, to welcome me to spaces, and show me that there are different ways of being in community! 11/

…and then pause. Are you directing your anger at the right people? Are you signaling to people who might change their minds that there’s no place for them in the movement? This moment demands compassion from all of us as a means to solidarity. I mean, you get to say whatever you want. 10/?

And so we can’t— though believe me, I understand the frustration— fall prey to “red states” or “farmers” or “poor white people” are “getting what they deserve language.” Those are, as my friend Pheonix says, inside thoughts! If you have to express that frustration, do it with your friends… 9/?

Someone messaged me to say that her conservative farming family had “liked” my post. To me, that’s amazing. That’s the whole point. There are people who we can organize into resistance of this government. This is maybe the most potent moment in my lifetime to connect with them. 8/?

The administration has tried to overwhelm us with bad as a tactic to make people feel helpless. But if we can tell the critical stories— in plain accessible language— we can frame this moment, the tactic can backfire. Too much bad all at once; we see our own plight in each other. 7/?

It seems like the post really resonated with folks (18K shares and counting 🫣) and what this whole experience taught me is that this moment is charged with energy that is begging to be channeled into mass solidarity. 6/?

And that shame/quietude allows folks to think that it’s only the people over there who are getting “hand outs.” But you know what? We all pay into the safety net with the (god I hope) understanding that things go wrong, people get sick, factories close, floods come. 5/?

…for what they are: boogeymen. We can talk about “government handouts” or we can reframe them for what they are: systems of mutual support. It was wildly uncomfortable to admit I’m on Medicaid, but it’s the shame around receiving some share of the social safety net that keeps people quiet. 4/?

Will we reach everyone? Absolutely not, but we might reach our neighbors. They hear terms like DEI, welfare state, gender ideology, and green new deal Marxist social engineering, and they imagine someone scary, unknowable, threatening. But when we demystify the terms, they can start to see them 3/?

…you’re right! A lot of people exist a media sphere that is dominated by disinformation and fear mongering. When we lend our real faces and real stories to explain the impacts of policy, I believe we can crack that propoganda bubble. 2/?