advice – Indivisible Network

Slacktivism’s Not Enough

Indy–advice–April 12, 2020April 12, 2020

I transcribed this from an episode of Lovett or Leave It some time ago. I forget exactly which episode, but it was in the Before Times, and I never got around to posting it. It was also long before Bernie Sanders dropped out of the presidential primary race, and the deeply despondent response of some Bernie supporters to a Biden candidacy brought it to mind again: When someone says to you, “Oh, I think Trump is gonna win,” say to them, “What did you do this week to prevent that from happening?” That’s all. “Oh, you think Trump’s going to win? You must think that’s a real emergency then. Wow, you’re that pessimistic? Did you donate to anybody? Did you continue reading

Brittany Packnett Cunningham: Keep Pushing

Indy–advice–March 12, 2020

The following is a copy of the excellent thoughts that Brittany Packnett Cunningham posted on Twitter on March 10, the evening of the Tuesday after Super Tuesday, when Joe Biden had another big night over Bernie Sanders. Regardless of which nominee you back in this one race, these are tough but wise words. I fear that the popularization of protest has folks confused about it. Disciplined direct action has a target, strategy, and demands. When you don’t get what you want, you keep pushing. If you don’t get the nominee you want, you push the one you get to progressive policies. The idea that you just quit when you don’t get the first win is not only selfish, it is, continue reading

Enjoy Your Holidays

Indy–advice–December 22, 2019December 22, 2019

I appreciated this advice and pep-talk from Jon Lovett of the Lovett or Leave It podcast (you can listen to the clip transcribed below here): The time for complaining is over, it’s here, 2020 is upon us. And I just want everybody who can to take a break this holiday. Turn off your phone if you can, tune out as much as possible, sleep late, download a meditation app, sign up for the subscription then never use it again. Do some yoga, ’cause when we wake up on January 2nd, we need to look at that calendar and find a weekend, two weekends, ten weekends, plan a trip to the closest swing state near you. Tweeting is no longer enough. continue reading

POSSE: Put Social Media Where it Belongs (Second)

Indy–advice, Facebook–August 27, 2019

There are plenty of problems and things to worry about with Facebook, Twitter, and any other social media sites you may use. Data privacy, addictive behaviors, concentration of power, the list goes on and on. On the other hand, it’s hard to resist the popular sites where all the users are. For organizers and activists like us in the Indivisible movement, it’s even more important to be where all the users are. But accepting the necessity of posting to social media doesn’t mean you have to depend completely on those services. One approach, which has been around for years but is still relevant today, is called “POSSE”, defined by its proponents like this: POSSE is an abbreviation for Publish (on continue reading

Why not Wix?

Indy–advice–July 23, 2019July 23, 2019

I hear occasionally from groups that are considering, or have already tried, using the heavily-advertised website hosting service “Wix”. It’s a tool, and if it works for you and your budget has the $150/yr (for the minimum plan), then it may be fine. I believe it’s important to have an independent website presence, apart from just a Facebook page or Twitter account, so in my book a Wix website is better than nothing. However. That is an expense, and not just this year, but for every year that anyone wants to keep that site going. And here’s where a big downside of their service becomes clear: you can’t take your site with you when you go. It’s called vendor lock-in, continue reading