With a little help from my friends
Your neighbors and your internet friends are assembling
Your neighbors are mobilizing. Some of it is happening in plain sight, on subreddits and in local Facebook groups, where people are offering help, expressing a need for it, or asking how to get involved. Conversations are shifting from public forums to Signal chats and third-space meetups like coffee shops and libraries. Mutual aid is coming together, and hyperlocal actions are being planned. Much of it is built on preexisting networks.
This week, I put out a call for stories about non-political spaces suddenly becoming hubs for organizing. In Seattle, I saw an explosion of activity across local online spaces, and I was curious whether it was happening in other cities and parts of the country. The responses I received confirmed my suspicion. There’s an explosion of activity out there, all across the country.
Here are some of the examples folks shared:
A group chat of strangers formed to support a mutual friend after surgery evolving into a mutual aid hub to support vulnerable neighbors and share information.
Book clubs and knitting groups meeting to make ICE whistle kits for mass distribution.
PTAs and parent groups working to identify vulnerable families and help with school transportation, grocery runs, and other forms of support.
Parents coming together to offer similar support to workers at their children’s daycares.
A local gaming group of men changing its long-held no-politics stance to encourage conversations about organizing, sending support to Minneapolis, and acts of resistance from the gaming community as a whole.
Mothers donating breastmilk and groceries to families where a parent has been kidnapped by ICE.
Hosting a weekly gathering where anyone can drop by for soup, ICE whistles, and call scripts.
Congregations and faith communities planning both mutual aid and direct actions to protest ICE.
Neighborhood online groups hosting daily anti-ICE mega threads where folks can post support, offers of help, and information about protests and direct actions.
It’s not just about physical proximity. Both Reddit and Instagram have exploded with anti-ICE content from creators and in communities that normally aren’t political or go out of their way to avoid politics. As journalist Charlie Warzel put it on Bluesky, “When the driving range guys are talking about masked agents of the state you’ve probably made a strategic error if you’re the state.” Several people told me about how their favorite content creators or fandom communities shifted focus overnight.
That’s just what’s on the surface, and what folks felt comfortable sharing publicly. But it goes deeper, and I can promise you that no matter where you are, folks are coming together to protect vulnerable members of their communities and prepare for an uncertain future. They’re looking to Minneapolis, Chicago, DC, and LA, adopting best practices and quickly scaling what works. Because we all know what’s happening in Minnesota will eventually come for us too.
My biggest concern about opposing the Trump Regime has always been that we didn’t have the size and scale we needed to mount a sustained civil resistance. And that folks were looking too much to the elites rather than organizing themselves. But after the last couple of weeks, I’m feeling more confident in our ability to grow. It starts with reaching out to our neighbors, organizing in small groups, and sharing what we’ve learned to build a strong foundation.
Mounting a civil resistance is messy work. It requires a new way of thinking and being, even for those of us who are veterans in the fight. We’re all learning in real time, as we go. We’ll make mistakes while also stumbling onto things that work really well. We’ll form strange alliances that we once never thought possible, and hopefully make deep connections with our neighbors and Internet friends who share our weird interests along the way. We’ll lose a lot of battles, but we’ll win some too.
The Trump Regime wants us to be isolated. To fear our own communities and to believe that we’re alone in our own spheres. MAGA puts a lot of effort into fueling misinformation and conspiracy theories designed to tear us apart from one another. But you’re not alone, and I can promise you that no matter where you are or what you’re into, there are others like you looking to lend a hand to those in need and/or join the fight. It might take you a minute to find them, but the spaces you already frequent online and off are a good place to start.
Solidarity is the way forward.
ICYMI
“The People of Minnesota Are Stronger Than the Federal Government That Seeks to Break Us” (Balls and Strikes) If you read one thing this week, let it be this firsthand account from St. Paul City Councilwoman Molly Coleman in Minnesota about what it’s like to live under an occupied city and what we as Americans must do to stop it.
The State Attorneys General Are as Mad as You Are (The Verge) Sarah Jeong reports on a fascinating town hall with state Attorneys General held in Portland. They seem as frustrated with the status quo as the rest of us.
What if we just stopped paying taxes? (Public Notice) Part of a growing conversation of an issue I’m interested in, but not being a lawyer, I have no idea how feasible something like this would be. Thankfully, Lisa Needham is on it with an explainer.
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Coda
Got questions or feedback? Leave a comment, reply directly to this email, or hit me up on Bluesky. I love hearing from readers. I read everything you send and respond to most messages.
Thanks as always for being in the fight. We’ll talk again next Sunday.
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Thank you. Each time I say the people can stop this by working together I get mocked in one way ot another. So, my thanks for showing that people are doing just that right now. It may start with small groups but, when it gets too heavy people already in groups will join up because this bullying, by a government that should be the protector, cannot be allowed to continue.
Excellent information, and inspires hope, thanks!