Over the past couple of weeks, the whole, “How are you?” question has felt ridiculous because things in the United States are really bad. I’ve talked with some people who feel utterly defeated and are wallowing in the pits of despair. I’ve talked to others who are doing their best not to know about, think about, or talk about what’s happening as a form of self-preservation. I’ve made it my personal mission to be as upbeat and optimistic as I possibly can, because people who advise us on how to fight authoritarianism say that that’s what I should do. Again, I can’t recommend Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny enough, but if you’re not up for his whole book (which is short and easy), here’s an overview:
I’m taking seriously that whole Joy Is Resistance thing. But also, I don’t wanna be this lady. . . .
I shamelessly took a screenshot of this mock-article; go over and read the whole thing if you’d like.
I know that people say things like, hey, if you ever thought that you’d be one of those people who would help smuggle food up to Anne Frank while she was hiding in the attic, then you have to be doing something. And the truth is, I agree with that, but it’s also not super-helpful because it makes people feel bad. And I get that things are scary and overwhelming, but those bastards want you to feel scared and overwhelmed, and they want you to give in, and so you can’t.
I’ve been playing a little game with myself, and I encourage you to play it, too, not just because we all should be resisting, but because it will make you feel better. I swear that this has been helping to keep me sane and relatively upbeat during These Troubled Times. I’m not saying that any of this is actually going to save our country, but even as we cross rubicon after rubicon, we’re still going to want to resist this regime.
The game is: commit to at least one act of resistance every day. It can be a bunch of different things, and, like with any gamified challenge, some days you’ll do better than other days. For example, when I’m on a meditation streak that I don’t want to end, sometimes I’ll notice that I missed the day, so I’ll do a wimpy 2-minute meditation at bedtime which is, let’s face it, kind of a cop-out. But it’s still something, and it keeps my streak going. Again, I am not saying that doing this is going to preserve a healthy democracy or anything, but I’m doing this as much for myself as I’m doing it out of patriotism. It is helping me get through the days. Maybe it will help you. And if a bunch of us do it, maybe it will help our country. So here are some ideas for daily actions. I’m going to do a quick list, in case you’re impatient, but then because I’m an over-explainer, I will follow this with more information and tips on each item to get you started. And just for fun, I’m going to lay down some “rules” for what I think counts as a good day’s work, if you want to join me and play the game.
The list:
- Calls to Politicians
- Postcards to Voters
- Replace Products
- Provide Feedback to Businesses
- Communicate With Your School District
- Work on Self-Sufficiency & Self-Defense
- Rethink Information Sources
- Display Where You Stand
- Support Good Causes & Civic Institutions
- Encourage Others
- Take Actions to Protect Your Mental Health
- Sign Petitions
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Calls to Politicians
Oh, my gosh, I hate calling people. I so, truly, do. But everyone says that it’s the most effective way to get in contact. And that Republicans call way more than Democrats. And that often staffers will report to their boss what the top 3 issues were that they received calls about. So, ugh, I do it. If you’re as near-phobic about it as I am, you can call when you think you’ll get voicemail. Staffers are almost always polite. All of my reps are on my side, so it feels a little useless. I envy those of you who are actually constituents of Republicans, because you’re not preaching to the choir.
Here are two methods that I find extremely helpful. First, I like to add the people I’m most likely to call as contacts in my phone to make it easier for the future. A good starter bunch is your two senators, your congress person, and your governor. For me, I like to start the contact name with “Pol.” for politician, and then anytime I call any politician with feedback, I add them as a contact. Here’s a sampling of mine:
I’m also a new fan of the 5 Calls app. This is especially helpful if you fret about things like, “I don’t know if I know the topic well enough,” or “I don’t know whom to call,” or “I don’t know what to say.” You put the app on your phone and put in your zip code so that the app will help you connect to the relevant people. Here’s what it looks like:
When you first open the app, it shows you a list of top issues that you might want to make calls about. You can choose which topic interests you, click on it, and it will go into more detail. After the summary of what’s happening, it lists the relevant contact(s) for that specific issue.
Once you click on the name of the contact, it gives you a phone number to call along with a script of what to say. When you click on the number, it connects the call. You can also click “call a local office” and those contact numbers will appear. Schumer’s office is, like, the worst to make calls to, in my opinion — busy signals and no voicemails. But you get the idea. Another cool thing about 5 Calls is that you can set up reminder notifications so that it reminds you to make calls when it’s best for your schedule.
For purposes of the game, I’d say that getting yourself set up, like adding contacts or downloading and setting up the app, counts as a good day’s work, but after that, I like to do 3 or 4 calls to count as one day’s task. Partly just because I have to push forward with the momentum. Also, best practices is to only call about your top one or two issues — don’t do a whole laundry list in one call (although heaven knows there are a million things to comment about).
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Postcards to Voters
I told you that I was doing tons of postcards before the election, but guess what? There are always elections. Most recently, I was doing postcards to voters in Wisconsin, where they will be electing a supreme court judge in March. I wrote 20 postcards, and it would totally be cheating to do one postcard per day, plus PostcardsToVoters.org asks you to send out each batch within 3 days. For the purposes of my game, I think that I counted my last 20-postcard batch as two days, because one day I obtained the list, printed it, and started writing cards, and another day I finished the list and walked it over to the mailbox. If you’ve never done PostcardsToVoters, I think that you could legitimately count getting signed up and situated as one good day’s work before you even start writing. If you want more information before getting started, check out my previous post.
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Replace Products
You’ve heard about voting with your wallet, of course, and boycotting companies when you don’t agree with their choices. Now, I don’t think that saying something like, “I’d love to go to Target today, but they’ve rolled back their diversity initiatives so I’m going to skip it” gets to count as your action of the day. But recently, after hearing that Charmin gave money to Trump and Project 2025 people, I decided that changing my toilet paper brand counted as a good day’s work. I used to be very brand-loyal to Charmin: I’d go out to places and notice that the toilet paper was cheap, and it reinforced my commitment. I thought that this change might hurt, and I spent a good ten minutes researching the various toilet paper brands (yikes: the Koch brothers are behind a lot of them) in the aisle of my supermarket. I came home with a new brand of toilet paper (Nature’s Promise: it’s soft and made of recycled materials), and if you’re looking for a new toilet paper, Hannaford, Nature’s Promise, and Cottonelle are all good options.
You can typically find lists of brands to avoid like this one all over the place, but before I go about actually cutting something out of my life, I usually do a little extra research.
Another fantastic option I learned about from one of my brothers-in-law is the Goods Unite Us app. You can look up brand names to see their political donations.
They give a quick summary, or you can scroll down to find more information.
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Provide Feedback to Businesses, Government Entities, and Individuals
Beyond your purchases, you can express your displeasure with companies in other ways. For example, I had the Allegiant Air app on my phone because they do cheap flights. I don’t have any flights coming up with them, but after seeing them on that “Don’t” list, I deleted their app. Some people are providing one-star reviews to Google apps because they’ve done things like changed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America on Google Maps and they’ve removed Black History Month from Google Calendar. At the moment I’m just way too Google-dependent to cast stones that way, but hey, it’s an option.
Another thing you can do is send an email to companies either letting them know, for example, that you’re no longer shopping there, or letting them know that you are happy to support them and plan to spend more money with them because they’ve done X, Y, and Z.
Examples of emails I’ve sent recently as my once-a-day action are a note to NY AG Letitia James thanking her for instructing NY hospitals to continue to provide gender-affirming care and an email to pr*****@tr******.gov to complain that the Treasury Department is sharing my private information with unelected officials. Both of those were based on prompts that I saw online, and while neither of them were likely as valuable as a well-though-out phone call or visiting the offices in person, they’re not nothing. My advice is that if something crosses your mind or crosses your social media feed and you think, “I agree, I should do that,” just do it immediately. Because it often only takes a few minutes, and then you’ve scored your resistance action step for the day.
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Communicate With Your School District
I’m listing your school district separately because it’s so important and so local and so personal. I recently wrote an email to our local board of education and administrators urging them to publicly affirm their commitment to celebrating, protecting, and respecting all students no matter their gender identities. Going to your local school board meeting counts as your activity for the day so that you can keep tabs on creeping fascist activities like removing books from classrooms. Or you can drop off a plate of brownies with a little “I love public education” note at your local school.
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Work on Self-Sufficiency & Self-Defense
Anti-authoritarian scholars and activists advise everyone living in a hostile political climate to do what they can to build self-sufficiency and community support. This might include stocking up on items that may be difficult or expensive to obtain in the future. For the purposes of my game, when I bought a dose of abortion pills to have on hand for anyone who might need them, that counted as my activism for the day (to read the graphics below more easily, find them here). When I bought a couple of extra bottles of tequila in preparation for tariffs, I didn’t count it as my daily activism. But it made me feel better, anyway.
Starting a vegetable garden, sharing seeds, reaching out to neighbors or hosting a potluck to build community are all items that could be on your action list. In my opinion, these don’t count for the game if they’re something that you would be doing already. But if you’re trying something new, pushing your comfort zone, connecting with new people, or consciously building new activities into your schedule, then that counts.
Self-defense might be literally taking a self-defense class, or it might be downloading the Signal messaging app, changing your settings on Facebook, or taking other steps to protect your data and privacy. I found this article very helpful for tips on locking down personal details and securing federal information like our latest FAFSA and my social security records. You could make it a goal to do one or two of these steps per day, and that totally counts (go, you!).
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Rethink Your Information Sources
Even before the Washington Post went from “Democracy Dies in Darkness” to “Riveting Storytelling for All of America,” I knew that I wasn’t renewing my digital subscription. I started following individuals via Substack instead. It is, honestly, way too much information, and some folks say that we should get off Substack entirely because it also offers a platform to neo-Nazi, white supremacist types, but for now I am sticking with it. Mostly because I’m too exhausted to change, and there are so many good people on there. Also sticking with it in spite of the fact that the name reminds of the Sleestaks from Land of the Lost.
I’m also trying to reduce my Meta presence, which means that I’ve sharply reduced my Facebook time and I’ve ditched Threads for BlueSky, which I like much better, anyway. I find Instagram toughest to quit, but at least I’m not following the ads anymore. For purposes of my game, doing something like avoiding clicking on an Instagram ad doesn’t count as an act of resistance, but setting up a new social media account and trying to make that change is often enough of an effort that it can even count for a couple of days. Change is hard!
Another thing that you can do is spread the news that you’re not seeing on mainstream sources. Many protests are not getting a ton of coverage by the big media sources, so if you see pictures, videos, or articles about activism that you haven’t heard about, share that information with your friends. It might cheer them.
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Display Where You Stand
I actually really love pins. I like to wear them, and I like to keep extra pins to give away, so if someone compliments me on the pin, I can thank them and gift them one, and then we both feel a little better.
Recently I knew I’d be walking through airports with a wide variety of people, so I put on my old rainbow Elizabeth Warren t-shirt to let everyone know where I stand (it says “DREAM BIG, FIGHT HARD, LIVE PROUD”).
Another thing I like to do is to add my pronouns to my email signature. That “why pronouns matter” links here, to explain why it’s worth doing.
For the purposes of my one-a-day game, just wearing/displaying something doesn’t count, but when you buy something new, or if you give away a couple of pins or have a conversation with someone about pronouns, you’ve scored your action for the day.
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Support Good Causes and Civic Institutions
If you have all the money in the world, you could just donate some money to a different excellent resistance cause every single day. I’ll really only do this occasionally, and you can’t donate to absolutely anything for it to count for my game. For example, the last money I gave away was via a GoFundMe to one of J’s classmates’ families, and while it was a good cause, it really doesn’t help with Our Big Fight.
However, there are plenty of other ways to show your support. Anti-authoritarian activists always suggest obtaining a library card if you don’t have one already. You can treat your postal carrier or another federal worker to some cookies–it’s stressful these days. Which segues into…
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Encourage Others
Maybe you’re not a person who feels comfortable going to a protest, but you can honk and wave to protesters (not enough for your daily game) or volunteer to make posters for an upcoming protest (my game rules says this counts as your daily action). If you’re already doing postcards or calls, you can host a gathering so people can do it together. You can create and maintain a Little Free Library of books with protagonists who are people of color, immigrants, or LGBTQ+ people to let folks know that they’re seen. I created a Pure Escapism feed on Bluesky to share something I think is helpful: a completely non-political feed filled with art, nature, and cute animals to help me when the newsy feeds feel too overwhelming. Do I have a grand total of 2 users who have noticed and bothered to like it? Sure! But that’s two random strangers I encouraged. I’ll take the teensy win. And yes, I am counting this blog post as my “Encourage Others” act of the day. Honestly, it’s so long at this point it counts as two days, but I have a bee in my bonnet, so I’m going to push through!
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Take Actions to Protect Your Mental Health
Creating my one-resistance-act-a-day game is one of the ways that I protect my mental health. If you wanted to help me, your first day could basically be a freebie, because you can count deciding to do it as the your first day’s work.
That Pure Escapism feed also helps protect my mental health. Now, looking at cuddly animals by itself does not count as an Act of Resistance, but the process of thinking about what I might need, learning how a feed works in Bluesky, and creating a custom feed absolutely counted as a good day’s work.
I’ve probably shared this one before, but I also have a Feel Good Spotify music playlist to help me avoid anxiety spirals. You are welcome to share it, if it calls out to you.
Or, if you choose to create your own, congratulations! Creating a playlist that will help keep you from freaking out about our constitutional crisis absolutely counts as a worthy action-of-the-day.
Another thing I’ve been doing lately is learning how to watercolor with the help of this Learn to Watercolor book from lovely Instagram artist Lacey Walker. And listen: I don’t get to count every time I paint as an Act of Resistance, but making the decision to try something new, gathering supplies, and taking those first few steps absolutely counts. It’s intimidating! In fact, for Lesson 1, all I was supposed to do was fill in bricks while gradually mixing two different colors together, and if you look at the photo below, I took it because I had barely started and I’d already screwed it up.
See that? I had two puddles of paint, but because I had no concept of water control, I accidentally mixed them together right away and had to start over! I was so demoralized. But now I’ve done about four lessons and it is really fun and a great way to lose track of the daily anxiety.
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And Finally: Sign Petitions
Sure, this is one of the least effective things that you can do, but recently, on a very busy day while traveling, a petition appeared on a social media feed and I was like, “Bam! My streak continues!” Yes, it’s kind of the equivalent of a 2-minute bedtime meditation, but again, it’s not nothing. If you are pressed for time and no petitions simply appear before you, you can go to Change.org and chances are you can find something that you support in the name of resisting political oppression. Not every day is going to be a full-court press day, and that’s okay.
So… anyone have suggestions to add? Remember, y’all: don’t let the bastards get you down.
