Wind the clock

Wind the clock

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I had allowed myself to hope that American voters would choose the better of the presidential options available to us, and I was wrong. I am disappointed. I am sad. I am afraid.

But, you see, I was disappointed, sad, and afraid before the election, too. In and outside of the United States, across the political spectrum, governments are and have been failing their people. And it is the people who have been fighting not just to protect themselves, their communities, and the things they love, but also fighting for people they’ve never met, in places they’ve never been, living lives they’ve never lived, facing horrors they’ve never faced.

No matter how the United States election went, the fights were going to continue. A Harris victory would not solve our problems, domestically or worldwide. Nor would it change the fact that a sizable portion of people in this country are buying what Trump and his allies are selling. The only open questions were who the specific adversaries in the White House would be, who among the fighters would keep fighting, and who would join the fight.

The first question has been answered. Now the questions are: if you have been fighting already, are you going to continue to fight? If you haven’t been, are you going to begin?

Maybe you’re sick of people telling you to fight. After all of that organizing, marching, and get-out-the-voting, Trump won the election anyway, so what’s even the point?

A lot of people feel like they’ve just finished running a marathon only to cross what they thought was the finish line and discover a whole other marathon stretched out in front of them. Oh and guess what, this one’s all uphill. How do you even summon the energy to start running in that scenario?

Maybe you don’t. If you are able, maybe you sit on the sidelines for a while and rest. Grieve. Be angry. Restore some energy for what lies ahead. Take some time to shore up your defenses, figure out a plan, and keep going. Be grateful it is an option to you, because not everyone has the luxury.

Or maybe instead of running, you just trudge along for a bit, slowly placing one foot in front of the other. Take just the little steps necessary to keep moving forward.

Maybe you change how you fight. A lot of people right now are reckoning with failures of their political party, or of the whole political apparatus. But electoral politics — especially only at the national level — are far from the only battleground. The fights we are fighting do not neatly begin and end with election cycles. Donating to your preferred presidential candidate and knocking on doors are all well and good, but maybe it’s time to try something new. Even the smallest acts can be a part of your fight: standing up for your values when faced with something that goes against them, offering a couch to your kid’s trans friend who is struggling at home, offering a meal to the unhoused person you see outside your building every day, stepping in with mutual aid to help the people who have been fighting like hell and can’t otherwise afford to take those breaks we all need to rest and recharge.

What you don’t do is give up. The outcome of this election has exposed to many the realities we didn’t want to see, of just how many people around us openly embrace hatred and bigotry and authoritarianism. Standing up to that can be scary and even dangerous, but it is also right. Beliefs are the things you stand for even when it’s scary, even when it’s hard, even when there might be consequences. And the less danger you, personally, face for standing up for what you believe, the more obligated you are to do it. To my fellow cisgender white women, this means you. To the cis white men, doubly so.

Many in this country have been hard at work trying to shift the Overton window, to normalize the unthinkable and to make the sensible seem extreme. You do not have to shift with it. You do not have to accept arguments to moderation when the “moderate” stance is unreasonable.

You do not have to sit down and shut up as things around us get more and more extreme, as threats to peoples’ rights and lives get even more dire, even as others around you insist everything’s fine and you’re just being dramatic. People will tell me to stop getting political in this newsletter,^a to get back to writing about cryptocurrency and technology like they signed up for, to stop catastrophizing, to “let it go” and accept the “will of the people”. I will not. You needn’t either.

Many of us have looked back on historic events where people have bravely stood up against powerful adversaries and wondered, “what would I have done?” Now is your chance to find out. It did not just start with this election; it has been that time for a long time. If you’re just realizing it now, get your ass in gear. Make yourself proud.

Now what?

First things first, protect yourself. Even if you think the threat of authoritarianism is overblown, take steps to defend against it. If you’re a journalist, maybe read this section twice.

• Find your communities. Most people have many communities: the friend group you hang out with in real life, your family, your neighbors, your internet friends, your coworkers, your church or synagogue or mosque or other religious community. Strengthen these communities. If you don’t feel like you have much in the way of community, begin forming them: join new social groups, and try to meet likeminded people near you. Introduce yourself to your neighbors.
• Join (or start) a union. There’s strength in numbers, and especially if your industry may fall under threat, you’ll want to unionize now and not wait for that threat to materialize.
• Consider taking proactive steps to obtain healthcare that could become challenging to obtain in the future, if you are able. For example, if you need to replace or are considering getting an IUD, now might be the time.
• Use end-to-end-encrypted messaging apps for your communications. I use Signal heavily, but there are other options. Please know that not all apps that advertise E2EE enable it by default or offer it for group chats (looking at you Telegram), so double check that.
• Consider choosing a VPN to help protect your privacy online, and learn about the pros and cons of using them. Learn when, why, and how to use Tor. The EFF has good guides depending on your operating system.
• Consider reducing your reliance on centralized social networks controlled by billionaires, and instead establishing a web presence you control. Evaluate the risks when choosing hosting providers, make backups, and make it as easy as possible to switch hosts should the need arise.
• Consider no longer using apps that collect and store sensitive data, such as period tracker or fertility apps. Be cautious about location tracking and other tech-enabled surveillance.
• Find and support trusted sources of news and information. If you rely heavily on mainstream news outlets owned by billionaires who were first in line to congratulate Trump on his victory, consider diversifying your media diet. ProPublica, 404 Media, and Flaming Hydra are a couple of great publications, or the Institute for Nonprofit News has a great directory of many more. Subscribe to and/or financially support independent solo writers like Parker Molloy (The Present Age), Erin Reed, Marisa Kabas (The Handbasket), and Seamus Hughes (Court Watch). Pay for a subscription to your local newspaper. Maybe also subscribe to a non-US paper while you’re at it. Consider supplementing your social feeds with an RSS-powered blogroll.

How do I fight?

For anyone feeling like you don’t know what to do, I urge you to think hard about what matters most to you, and look for ways to fight for those things — particularly if you have specific skills that you can put to use. Are you a good writer? Tech savvy? A compelling leader? Good at coming up with new ideas? Find things that play to your strengths. And most importantly, find people who are members of communities under threat and/or experienced organizers doing this work already, and ask them what they need. Help the people around you. Be there for the people you love.

What matters to me may not be the most important thing to you, and it’s easiest to keep fighting when you’re fighting for something you care deeply about. With that said, here are just a few of the things I care about that might serve as a launching point:

Press freedom and access to information

Trump and his allies have issued multitudes of threats against journalists, and anti-media sentiment is reaching a fever pitch across the political spectrum. The United States has already sunk to #55 on the Reporters Without Borders’ press freedom tracker — the lowest it has ever been — and will likely only fall further once Trump takes office.

• Fight back against Trump’s attempts to weaponize the FCC and other government agencies against news organizations, such as by revoking TV stations’ broadcast licenses or accusing publishers of “treason” for factual reporting
• Urge your Senators to back the PRESS Act to protect journalists from surveillance and provide journalist-source confidentiality
• Push for a federal anti-SLAPP law to replace piecemeal and easily dodged state-level protections for journalists from the kinds of frivolous but financially ruinous defamation lawsuits popular among people like Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
• Support groups working on journalist legal defense initiatives, like the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and others. If you’re a lawyer, consider offering pro bono legal representation.
• For the tech savvy: help journalists, writers, and archivists protect themselves and their work. Those who are looking to go independent are often looking for advice or tech help. Consider contributing to open source projects like the Internet Archive.
• Support and fight for your local libraries. Get a library card and use it. Volunteer.
• Push back at the local level against efforts to ban books in schools, or to remove important topics from school curricula.
• Support data activist groups like DDoSecrets.
• Support and contribute to open knowledge projects like Wikipedia and those stewarded by the Free Law Project (CourtListener and RECAP among them).

Migrant rights

Trump has threatened mass deportations “on day one”, along with an order to end birthright citizenship. Advisers have boasted of “turbocharging” Trump’s denaturalization projects from his previous administration, which sought to strip Americans of their citizenship.

• Tech workers: refuse to develop software for corporations building surveillance tech for ICE and similar groups.
• Find and support your local immigration advocacy group, especially if you have legal or organizing experience, or if you are multilingual.
• Support groups like Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD), including through donations or volunteer work.

Reproductive rights

Trump’s promise to “leave abortion up to the states” rather than enact a federal ban still poses a grave threat to reproductive rights, if it is even to be believed. Project 2025 outlines plans to restrict access to mifepristone, enforce the Comstock Act to block medical supplies, equipment, or abortion drugs from being sent by mail, and even limit access to contraceptives.

• Find and support your local abortion funds. They often are in most desperate need of help, compared to national and well-known organizations like Planned Parenthood.
• Volunteer with your local reproductive rights advocacy group by helping to organize or becoming a clinic escort.
• Consider obtaining emergency contraceptives or abortion pills to have on hand for yourself or others. Plan B and mifepristone have shelf lives of 4 and 5 years, respectively.

Trans rights

The Trump campaign doubled down on attacks on trans people, even incorporating it into their advertising. Trump has, among other things, vowed to limit access to gender-affirming care and even defund schools that recognize transgender students.

• Find, support, and volunteer with your local LGBTQ organization.
• Contribute to those fundraising for their gender-affirming care, including those who are now urgently trying to accelerate their healthcare plans, who are trying to renew and update their identification, or who are trying to move states. Help out individuals you know, or look for local mutual aid funds.
• Become involved at a local level to push back against efforts to block or remove gender-affirming policies from schools, or ban books about queer and trans life (among other topics)
• Fiercely support trans people and educate those around you — including Democrats now tempted to blame Harris’s loss on “the trans issue”.

Finally: remember to take care of yourselves. There is a long road ahead, but we’re in this together.

As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time. I shall get up Sunday morning and wind the clock, as a contribution to order and steadfastness.

Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say, the weather is a great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society — things can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed, sometimes rather suddenly. It is quite obvious that the human race has made a queer mess of life on this planet. But as a people we probably harbor seeds of goodness that have lain for a long time waiting to sprout when the conditions are right. Man’s curiosity, his relentlessness, his inventiveness, his ingenuity have led him into deep trouble. We can only hope that these same traits will enable him to claw his way out.

Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.E.B. White (1973)