📢USA I: Is a Monster

Times are tough.
Institutions are under attack.
Our communities are under attack.
You and your loved ones are under attack.
The administration wants you to feel fear.
It wants you to feel helpless.
To feel hopeless.
To submit.

Don't.

How you can fight back

When the government is against you, it is hard to see a path to meaningful resistance. The attorneys general are doing their thing, and that's important. Many institutions are caving to perceived pressure, and that's disgusting.

Then there is little old you.

We're here to offer you some ways to make a difference outside of contacting your representative, collective action, etc. (all essential!)

Supporting organizations and reading news sites can help you figure out what resistance looks like to you. Our list isn't all-encompassing, but it probably has some folks you're less familiar with that are doing a lot of important work behind the scenes. It's also part I of the suite (more on this below).

Why these organizations?

We want to use our platform to elevate the organizations that inform dissent. The groups below highlight the corruption and illegal actions emanating from this administration in different ways. Think of them as the step before collective action.

These organizations do work behind the scenes, work that has led to meaningful change. Sometimes it is a lawsuit. Sometimes it is developing resources to help protesters stay safe. Sometimes it is a breaking news story that stiffens the spine of our elected officials. They do work across marginalized communities and elevate diverse voices. They need your support to make sure this keeps happening.

Legal Aid

It may seem quaint to lean on the legal system when the administration is acting extrajudicially and threatening to ignore legal action when it occurs (citing the apocryphal Andrew Jackson line: "John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it").

Justice is slow; the harms are fast. Until we stop being a nation of laws, we encourage supporting legal orgs.

Whistleblower Aid

Whistleblower Aid is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that is dedicated to supporting and protecting whistleblowers—in the interest of the public. They work to ensure a robust, resilient, and thriving democracy.

The Opioid Policy Institute works with WBA on our legal disclosures and lobbying resulting from our digital health research. We can attest to their professionalism and effectiveness. But don't just take our word for it or their list of clients:

Whistleblower Aid is a pioneering non-profit legal organization that helps public and private sector workers report and expose wrongdoing — safely, lawfully, and responsibly. We have represented some of the most significant whistleblowers of our time, including Frances Haugen of Facebook and the whistleblower whose revelations led to the first impeachment of Donald Trump, creating monumental and lasting changes to our democracy and beyond.

Electronic Frontier Foundation

EFF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that has a long history of fighting Big Tech surveillance capitalism and their monopolistic tendencies. They are true champions of free expression, something increasingly under attack under the guise of "free speech." The Opioid Policy Institute has worked with EFF on our digital health research. We can attest to their deep knowledge of issues related to privacy. This extends to how to stay safe when protesting.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading nonprofit organization defending civil liberties in the digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF champions user privacy, free expression, and innovation through impact litigation, policy analysis, grassroots activism, and technology development. EFF's mission is to ensure that technology supports freedom, justice, and innovation for all people of the world.

Journalism

Attacks on the media are a longstanding feature of the administration. The reason is simple: the media has power. Only by discrediting them can the administration diminish their ability to move us to action and push for accountability/transparency.

We know that much of what the new administration is trying to do to the government is classic Big Tech bullshit. That means the people who know it best (and can see through the bluster) are tech journalists. They also have a long history of actually covering the 1st amendment and are acutely aware of the risks of actual government censorship.

Some outlets that are getting all the scoops and covering the topic in a clear-eyed manner are:

404 Media

Many important stories are coming out of this small team of reporters.

404 Media is a journalist-founded digital media company exploring the ways technology is shaping—and is shaped by—our world. We're focused on investigative reports, longform features, blogs, and scoops about topics including hacking, cybersecurity, cybercrime, sex, artificial intelligence, consumer rights, surveillance, privacy, and the democratization of the internet.

Wired

Especially their politics reporting. This is a "newer" area of focus as the power circles in Silicon Valley grow closer to DC. They bring a lot of insight and have already broken major stories that are leading to congressional pushback.

TechDirt

For coverage of what free speech actually looks like and how it impacts the internet, consider following Techdirt.

Started in 1997 by Floor64 founder Mike Masnick and then growing into a group blogging effort, the Techdirt blog relies on a proven economic framework to analyze and offer insight into news stories about changes in government policy, technology, and legal issues that affect companies’ ability to innovate and grow. As the impact of technological innovation on society, civil liberties, and consumer rights has grown, Techdirt’s coverage has expanded to include these critical topics.

We know there are many more orgs out there doing important work. These are ones that you might be less familiar with and could benefit from new supporters.

We will match a total of $500 in donations to these orgs if done by February 15th.
Email me a receipt, and we'll get it done.

A note about the post title

Dan Deacon is an American composer and electronic musician based in Baltimore, Maryland. Their suite, America I-IV, is a raucous journey across the heartland, blending live and electronic music. We are using it for inspiration behind four posts about ways to fight rising authoritarianism, technofascism, et al.

"I wanted the title America to have meaning, but I wanted it to mean a million different things to a million different people.

And America is that way. For some people, it doesn't matter at all; for others, it embodies something they dislike about the world. When a lot of Americans think about American culture, they sort of don't consider themselves American. There's a disassociation with the word. America is defined often by the military, by the government, by the corporations. To me, it's important to be a positive voice in it and be like, 'No, America is also this.'" - Dan Deacon (emphasis added)

Enjoy