I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently. I’m sure a lot of you have. For my part, I’ve been finally writing down my political experience, what I saw, etc…in a way that I think might be able to move some people on the right. But I also agree with this post. People always talk/write, etc…and rarely actually take action.
So, with that in mind, can we talk about what that looks like? Very specifically?
I suppose I’m hoping we can go a step beyond “go protest,” having unanimously agreed that we should all be out en masse to make it clear we’re pissed about…well…kinda everything.
But this is a fairly radical bunch. So, what do you all know about this? What concrete advice/tips/plans/ideas can we dumbass individual Americans learn from historic examples, political movements, etc…? Indeed, one of those questions might be: is this even the place to talk about this? If not, where? Does that already exist somewhere in the aether out there? Communications is always an interesting to me (I’ve wondered whether something like LoRa could be useful to setup in my area).
If I want to start a group locally, are there things I should think about? Practical tips beyond “talk to everyone you know?” Books to read? Etc…? Even if you get a group, it’s easy for it to mean nothing. How do you make it not mean nothing?
Number 1 priority: secure communications. Always assume that every single letter you send that isn’t end to end encrypted WILL be read by your adversary.
USA already reached “TIA”(total informational awareness) around 2013, cfr. Snowden leaks.
One can only assume that they have since gained the ability to decypher and map all communications sent over the clearnet bar none. Disregard this advice at your own peril.
For a small group that isn’t planning to break laws, this can be a pain in the butt. If the group is organizing a public protest or boycott, this is a barrier to entry for other participants.
An alternative is open communications: as a group, agree not to break any laws, agree not to joke about breaking laws, and then use whatever works for everybody.
If you are planning to break laws, give’r.
This is exactly the kind of thing I’m talking about. To generalize: you can post an event on Facebook/X. You can post it on Lemmy. You can post it on Signal and be totally invite-only.
Sort of different “levels,” each with pros/cons, the most “secure” level being the most-difficult to grow.
For a large organization, maybe. For small scale organizing where the group is obeying laws, it probably isn’t worth the effort. Adding technical hurdles for little or no benefit weakens the group.
Perhaps it’s a both/and. You advertise broadly AND then also create a secure platform, if needed. Probably the same thing you’re saying, actually.