Neighbor, this is a spicy pod. Weirdo done brought the hot sauce today. Chalk it up to democracy boot camp.
I need you to be able to see where we’re at, stop pretending, and move beyond merely chopping wood and carrying water. You need to recognize that an extremist group—which our own intelligence agencies identified as the most dangerous terrorist threat posed to our democracy—has now seizes the legislature and the power of the purse. You need to recognize that a cadre of apartheid-loving white venture capitalists not only hacked our election but broke into our nation’s most sensitive computers, gave our nation’s secrets to Russia (and god knows who else), and then gave our personal data to another cadre of apartheid-loving white venture capitalists who then used it to create a police state database— so that when the Christian extremists have dragged the country into brutality and lawlessness, they can swoop in as “the cure” and claim democracy is “too outdated for this new era.”
I am trying to get you to come alive to the fact that while midterms may come, they will not be fair.
I don’t think you realize how bad this is going to get—and I’m kinda pissed about being called an alarmist, because it’s all going to happen because some of y’all have always been the C- student in the group project of our democracy. Y’all are still willing to coast because you’re only “concerned” but still comfortable, still so sure the white Christian nationalists— again, the biggest domestic terrorist threat to our country— won’t come for you.
So you’re what… maybe calling your representatives?
Maybe going to a protest in good weather?
Maybe just scrolling and reposting but absolutely sticking to your routine like it’s some lucky sock and you’re in the playoffs.
Your routine is over. Immediately. You cannot keep coasting. You need to work with your neighbors. This podcast gives you a checklist of things that need doing, immediately, in your neighborhood.
Y’all, I know some people say I’m bossy. But I’m not. I am an unbossed who already outlived twenty years of tyranny, and I refuse to get dragged back into hell. And I’m trying to pull you out of the flames and shove a bucket in your hand, because a lot of us are going to die unless you actually do your part.
Yes, I’m a little judgy. Suffer me that one kindness. Because dammit— I’m a middle-aged weirdo who’s a direct target of this regime, and I have been hauling ass on some very lonely streets because “good people” just wanted to stay polite and comfortable.
It’s time to ask yourself what you stand for. Hint: what you stand for isn’t what you profess on social media— it shows up in what you are willing to risk in the name of solidarity with the world around you.
You need to understand that the world these men seek to create in our ashes will not be avoidable simply by hopping in a plane to Canada, Thailand, or the EU. If we don’t contain this in the US, and if our allies don’t help us from other democracies, it’ll spread. Why? Because fascists, if unchecked, never stop.
And it’s not just Trump. These rich-ass men behind him, partnered with domestic terrorists to take us out so that they can steal what we’ve built and, after they’re done letting Christian extremists torture us, litter our ashes on their private beaches. They think that little of us. Of you. Because trust: all of us plebs are disposable to these guys.
Peter Theil doesn’t think regular people have a right to self-govern. Elon thinks you’re a non-player character (NPC). F*****g prove them wrong.
Get in this f*****g fight. We need you.
I need you.
My literal life depends on you giving a s**t.
Your neighbors’ lives depend on you giving a s**t.
Your kids’ lives depend on you giving a s**t.
Your life is in the balance, too, babe. Pitch in.
