Over the last week a lot has happened. A plane collided with a Blackhawk helicopter over DC and trump blamed DEI for it after his administration fired hundreds of air traffic controllers and Trump’s Secretary of Transportation, former reality TV star Sean Duffy, floundered to explain how such a thing happened.
Trump’s pick for HHS, RFK, Jr., had his confirmation hearing and it went as well as you’d expect for a conspiracy-theory pushing antivaxxer. And in related health news, cases of Tuberculosis have sprung up in Illinois, along with more outbreaks of Bird Flu in humans.
And if that weren’t scary enough, Elon Musk and his oligarch friends gained access to the information of millions of Americans and took control of billions of dollars from the Treasury, all while democratic leadership did nothing.
Well, I shouldn’t say, “nothing.” Chuck Schumer and Jammie Raskin have given a few milquetoast pressers and posted strongly worded posts on social media. Shoutout to AOC, Jasmine Crockett, and the former social media manager for Wendy’s who have been giving masterclasses in messaging and taking the fight to MAGA.
The truth is we can’t depend on the DNC or democratic leadership to save us. They eat from the same trough as the republicans and have no incentive to fight back as their seats are safe thanks to gerrymandering, no term limits, and our defacto two-party system. Neither can we wait for some mythical Superman to swoop in and fix everything.
Right now, people are angry at our leadership for allowing this farce to continue, but the fact is we allowed this to happen by tuning out politics, by not holding our politicians’ feet to fire on things like term limits and enacting laws against using information gained from their positions to engage in what would be insider trading if a civilian did what they did.
We are at fault for allowing oligarchs to buy up the legacy media and for allowing history to repeat itself re: tech bros and social media. We are at fault for standing by, waiting for someone to do something, to lead us when we can act ourselves.
You don’t need permission from anyone to start a neighborhood food pantry or mutual aid group. You can build information networks and start local newspapers or zines to spread news to others without the propaganda of the legacy media. You can also get with friends and family to help with groceries and other costs by having a weekly potluck or pooling your money to pay for gasoline and bills.
If you have a skill or talent, share it with others and have them share theirs. And if you don’t have any skills, learn one. Libraries and Google are still free, and they can be great places to rally your community around a specific goal like learning to knit or crochet and making blankets to drive down heating costs.
You don’t need anyone to pick you. Step up and stop being a bystander. Because Superman ain’t coming, so save yourself.
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