neoliberalbrainrot

[neoliberalbrainrot]

From sociologist Jennifer Walter on Threads:

As a sociologist, I need to tell you: Your overwhelm is the goal

🧵 1/ The flood of 200+ executive orders in Trump's first days exemplifies Naomi Klein's "shock doctrine" - using chaos and crisis to push through radical changes while people are too disoriented to effectively resist. This isn't just politics as usual - it's a strategic exploitation of cognitive limits.

2/ Media theorist McLuhan predicted this: When humans face information overload, they become passive and disengaged. The rapid-fire executive orders create a cognitive bottleneck, making it nearly impossible for citizens and media to thoroughly analyze any single policy.

3/ Agenda-setting theory explains the strategy: When multiple major policies compete for attention simultaneously, it fragments public discourse. Traditional media can't keep up with the pace, leading to superficial coverage.

The result? Weakened democratic oversight and reduced public engagement.

What now?

1/ Set boundaries: Pick 2-3 key issues you deeply care about and focus your attention there. You can't track everything - that's by design. Impact comes from sustained focus, not scattered awareness.

2/ Use aggregators & experts: Find trusted analysts who do the heavy lifting of synthesis. Look for those explaining patterns, not just events.

3/ Remember: Feeling overwhelmed is the point. When you recognize this, you regain some power. Take breaks. Process. This is a marathon.

4/ Practice going slow: Wait 48hrs before reacting to new policies. The urgent clouds the important. Initial reporting often misses context

5/ Build community: Share the cognitive load. Different people track different issues. Network intelligence beats individual overload. Remember: They want you scattered. Your focus is resistance.

[neoliberalbrainrot]

Links to Resources

Just a place to collect links I think others would find useful. I will keep this updated if I find more useful stuff.

Background Reading

DARK GOTHIC MAGA: How Tech Billionaires Plan to Destroy America - video essay; what it says in the title

Venture Capital Extremism - description of the ideology Elon Musk subscribes to

Federal Employees

CFPB Union NTEU 335 - resources for feds from a union that has been very active

Federal News Network

Spoon-Fed - mutual aid resources for federal employees

Senate Democrats Whistleblower Tip Line - please use Tor browser to submit anything to this

They Work For Us - NTEU’s repository of real stories from feds

Tim Kaine - collecting stories of VA feds and links to resources for feds

We The Builders - new website for federal employees to share stories about their work and recent experiences

Legal/Court Info

Crises Notes - blog detailing DOGE actions at Treasury

Democracy Docket Court Cases - court cases related to elections and voting rights

Lawsuits Related to Trump Admin Actions - regularly updated resource

Litigation Tracker - public resource that tracks legal challenges to Trump’s actions

Tracking Project 2025 - blog which tracks implementation of Project 2025 policies

National Organizing

5 Calls

50501/Build the Resistance

Generalstrikeus.com

Indivisible

Refuse Fascism

Tesla Takedown

Organizing Resources

CCC Data Dashboard - publicly available data on political protest event attendance

/r/DataHoarder - forum including discussions regarding how to save government data

Disroot - private, decentralized web tools including email, voice chat, search, and more

Indivisible: A Practical Guide to Democracy on the Brink - background info, strategies, and tips for organizing right now

On Tyranny - book which offers detailed advice on fighting fascism

Resources on resistance to autocracy and fascism

Rogan’s List - daily summaries of action items to take with quick links and instructions

Simple Sabotage Field Manual - 1940s booklet which describes how to sabotage fascist regimes

Some Actions That Are Not Protesting or Voting

Survive the Tyrant! - guide for surviving an oppressive regime written as if it were a role playing game

What’s Happening & How You Can Take Action - video by AOC from Feb 4

What you can do - list of action items from Robert Reich

Personal Safety

Consumer Reports’ Digital Security & Privacy Resources

Some Moves to Protect Yourself during the Dismantling of the CFPB

/r/StudentLoans - forum including discussion of legislation related to student loans

[neoliberalbrainrot]

Actions you can start taking right now that will effect meaningful change

Paralyzed by the barrage of new and horrible things every day? It can be hard to think of what to focus on. These are things that you can start doing today that will immediately start helping the cause. Pick a couple and focus on doing them well. This is going to be a long, hard slog, so it’s more important to save your energy for meaningful actions rather than keeping up with the torrent of information.

I will add items to this list if I think of more. Feel free to suggest things as well.

Find and commit to attending protests

Protesting is mixed in its efficacy, but I think it’s important now when morale is at a low. I know lots of people have felt cheered up by seeing the sheer number of people who have showed up to various actions. It boosts the confidence of not only everyday people, but also politicians and other people with more influence. Politicians, federal government employees, activists, and other people who are on the “front lines” gain more courage to speak up when they know the public is backing up their message.

A thousand likes on an Instagram post can be ignored, but a thousand people showing up in person sends a strong message. When you see an incredible crowd, think of how each person had to decide to show up. Being a drop in the ocean feels insignificant, but being part of the ocean itself is empowering.

There are many ways to find protests. Here is one source. Your local organizing groups will also be a good resource.

Bring a friend or two. The buddy system can help you stay safe, but it also boosts attendance.

If you’re driving to a protest, see if you can fill up your car with other attendees who need a ride.

Peaceful protests can turn “violent” due to provocation from law enforcement. Be sure to go over best practices for safety during actions and ensure that your buddies are safe too.

Attend politicians’ town hall meetings

In recent days I have seen this be incredibly effective in getting politicians to realize they cannot continue their cushy jobs the way they have been. Republican politicians are starting to realize they’re in hot water, and Democratic politicians are realizing they need to be more aggressive in wielding their power, so regardless of who your politician is, it’s worth going. It’s as simple as checking your politicians’ social media, websites, etc. to find out when they’re having meetings where the public can comment. Don’t forget city councilmembers and other public officials who might meet with the public as well.

If you don’t know what to say, that’s fine. You can just cheer or boo as appropriate. Having more people on our side in the room is always a good thing.

If you are bolder and have a couple of other bold friends, see if you can use bird-dogging techniques to get politicians on the record if they’re weaseling out of answering questions.

Is your public official staying out of the public eye? You may be able to schedule an appointment with your Congressperson or organize a demonstration at their office.

Share video of these events on social media. Seeing MAGA politicians getting shouted down is good for morale.

Distribute info about protests and other actions

People are in their own social media bubbles and might not be aware of opportunities to protest, or they might have disconnected from political news. Many people, even those who are against Trump, are not yet aware that a resistance is underway. If you find out about opportunities to take action, share in your networks to ensure the info reaches more people.

Be realistic about your online reach. If you don’t already have engaged followers/friends, social media posting might not be the best use of your time.

You can post information in neighborhood groups or reach out to newsletters you’ve joined even if you don’t personally have an online following.

Don’t forget old school flyers! Many people don’t spend as much time online, or can’t, so they may need to be reached offline. Flyers don’t just have to be posted; you could also leave them on the windshields of parked cars or at peoples’ houses like takeout restaurants do (be aware that you may need a permit to do this in some places).

Distribute digestible information

There is a lot going on and even those of us who are checking multiple times a day are not able to keep up with everything. You can be someone who distills the most important facts and makes sure they get to the right people. Your audience might be people who are apathetic or doomers, people who don’t understand how this affects them, people who work with a specific population (ex: immigrants), etc. If you know people like this in your life, see if you can bring them relevant information that will encourage them to act, or help them focus on news that actually will affect them if they’re otherwise busy.

Keep it simple. Sometimes it’s not necessary to explain the background of an issue unless the person is interested. The goal is to give people whatever information they need to act.

For apathetic people, focus on how this will affect them. Elderly people should be worried about their SSA checks or veterans’ benefits getting cut, etc.

Avoid wasting time on preaching to the choir. The most important thing right now is to get as much of the American public onboard as possible, so focus on people who are not already interested in taking action.

Talk to non-voters and Trump voters

While we all carry a great deal of animosity towards non-voters and Trump voters, the reality is that many of those people have been consuming an unimaginable amount of propaganda and have been manipulated not only by cable news, but also by social media algorithms which have been engineered specifically to change their thinking.

If you don’t feel like you can do this, don’t force yourself. If you’re the kind of person who would get irritated easily in a conversation with a Trump voter, or who shies away from conflict in general, then your energy is better spent elsewhere. It’s important that we use our abilities and energy as efficiently as possible over the coming months and years.

Don’t waste your time on people who are committed to arguing with you. We need as many people as possible to start resisting so use your time and energy wisely and use your sense of judgment to determine if someone is worth talking to or not.

Remember that some Trump voters are essentially in the same mental situation as cult members. You cannot debate them out of this position or use logic or even shame to snap them out of it. What is needed instead is cult deprogramming techniques.

A lot of people don’t have a solid understanding of political ideology, so they might call themselves conservative but actually be more left-leaning than they think. Keep an open mind towards people who don’t have well-defined politics.

Help other activists with chores/accessibility

If you can’t attend a protest, but you can walk a dog or babysit, you may be able to free someone else up to attend a protest instead. Try to identify people in your life who would be willing to attend a protest if there was some task you could do for them. You may also be able to find people who need help in your local activist or neighborhood group. Alternately, see if protesters or other activists you’re with need help accessing protests—could someone attend a protest more easily if they had a ride or got their bus fare covered?

Hang a sign off a highway overpass

You can use all kinds of materials to make a sign to hang off of a highway overpass, though a basic sign can be made with a bedsheet and spray paint. This action gets the attention of pretty much everyone who is driving that way because it’s an unusual thing to see in an otherwise monotonous drive.

Keep an eye on the weather; if it rains, then your sign is not going to be seen as well so it would be best to wait instead of expending your energy otherwise.

Think about timing and location to maximize how many people see your sign; hanging one during rush hour, or when you know people will be going to/from a big event, could be very effective.

Be aware that the legality of this action is debatable depending on where you are.

Boost morale and fight astroturfing

It is well documented that social media is used to manipulate how people think. One of example of this is astroturfed comments that discourage people from acting by posting doomer sentiments. Many people are not aware that this is a thing that happens. You can help by downvoting doomer comments and/or posting a brief response that explains that many comments on social media are not even actually made by real people. This is especially important in organizing spaces. It’s important to be realistic about potential consequences, so this isn’t a prescription to be toxically positive, but be especially suspicious of comments that say stuff like “there’s no point” or “it’s all over now.”

Sharing anything that boosts morale is also helpful considering the mental onslaught we are all facing. Actionable information, humor, and videos of successful protests and other actions can help us feel motivated to keep fighting.

Study opsec and distribute information about it

If you are involved in more direct actions of dubious legality, OR if you’re attending a protest that may draw more police scrutiny, it’s important to keep yourself safe. Unfortunately, despite someone’s best efforts to be peaceful and even follow the law, police may still cause physical harm to them, so if you are planning something illegal, it is even more critical to use good operational security (opsec) practices before you even start planning. Distribute information about opsec practices where they are most needed, especially if people around you are less knowledgeable.

There’s too much to get into in this guide, and I’m not an expert, but Privacy Tools is a good place to start. For those planning actions, your first stop will be private communication tools, including messaging and email.

Learn about and promote mesh network usage in your community

In 2019, protesters in Hong Kong effectively used mesh networking to communicate even when cell phone communications were shut down. Mesh networking uses Bluetooth or existing wireless networks to connect devices only to each other, so they can communicate with each other on their own local network. The more people who have the app, the stronger and more widespread the network is.

Mesh networking hasn’t been common in protests in the US as far as I know, but it could very well be needed, so now is a great time to be the person in your community who knows how it works and can help everyone get connected. I am not a tech expert myself, so you will have to do some research on what apps exist and how to secure them. Briar may be one promising starting point.

[neoliberalbrainrot]

Planet's Fucked: What Can You Do To Help? (Long Post)

Since nobody is talking about the existential threat to the climate and the environment a second Trump term/Republican government control will cause, which to me supersedes literally every other issue, I wanted to just say my two cents, and some things you can do to help. I am a conservation biologist, whose field was hit substantially by the first Trump presidency. I study wild bees, birds, and plants.

In case anyone forgot what he did last time, he gagged scientists' ability to talk about climate change, he tried zeroing budgets for agencies like the NOAA, he attempted to gut protections in the Endangered Species Act (mainly by redefining 'take' in a way that would allow corporations to destroy habitat of imperiled species with no ramifications), he tried to do the same for the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (the law that offers official protection for native non-game birds), he sought to expand oil and coal extraction from federal protected lands, he shrunk the size of multiple national preserves, HE PULLED US OUT OF THE PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT, and more.

We are at a crucial tipping point in being able to slow the pace of climate change, where we decide what emissions scenario we will operate at, with existential consequences for both the environment and people. We are also in the middle of the Sixth Mass Extinction, with the rate of species extinctions far surpassing background rates due completely to human actions. What we do now will determine the fate of the environment for hundreds or thousands of years - from our ability to grow key food crops (goodbye corn belt! I hated you anyway but), to the pressure on coastal communities that will face the brunt of sea level rise and intensifying extreme weather events, to desertification, ocean acidification, wildfires, melting permafrost (yay, outbreaks of deadly frozen viruses!), and a breaking down of ecosystems and ecosystem services due to continued habitat loss and species declines, especially insect declines. The fact that the environment is clearly a low priority issue despite the very real existential threat to so many people, is beyond my ability to understand. I do partly blame the public education system for offering no mandatory environmental science curriculum or any at all in most places. What it means is that it will take the support of everyone who does care to make any amount of difference in this steeply uphill battle.

There are not enough environmental scientists to solve these issues, not if public support is not on our side and the majority of the general public is either uninformed or actively hostile towards climate science (or any conservation science).

So what can you, my fellow Americans, do to help mitigate and minimize the inevitable damage that lay ahead?

I'm not going to tell you to recycle more or take shorter showers. I'll be honest, that stuff is a drop in the bucket. What does matter on the individual level is restoring and protecting habitat, reducing threats to at-risk species, reducing pesticide use, improving agricultural practices, and pushing for policy changes. Restoring CONNECTIVITY to our landscape - corridors of contiguous habitat - will make all the difference for wildlife to be able to survive a changing climate and continued human population expansion.

**Caveat that I work in the northeast with pollinators and birds so I cannot provide specific organizations for some topics, including climate change focused NGOs. Scientists on tumblr who specialize in other fields, please add your own recommended resources. **

We need two things: FUNDING and MANPOWER.

You may surprised to find that an insane amount of conservation work is carried out by volunteers. We don't ever have the funds to pay most of the people who want to help. If you really really care, consider going into a conservation-related field as a career. It's rewarding, passionate work.

At the national level, please support:

The Nature Conservancy

Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation

Cornell Lab of Ornithology (including eBird)

National Audubon Society

Federal Duck Stamps (you don't need to be a hunter to buy one!)

These first four work to acquire and restore critical habitat, change environmental policy, and educate the public. There is almost certainly a Nature Conservancy-owned property within driving distance of you. Xerces plays a very large role in pollinator conservation, including sustainable agriculture, native bee monitoring programs, and the Bee City/Bee Campus USA programs. The Lab of O is one of the world's leaders in bird research and conservation. Audubon focuses on bird conservation. You can get annual memberships to these organizations and receive cool swag and/or a subscription to their publications which are well worth it. You can also volunteer your time; we need thousands of volunteers to do everything from conducting wildlife surveys, invasive species removal, providing outreach programming, managing habitat/clearing trails, planting trees, you name it. Federal Duck Stamps are the major revenue for wetland conservation; hunters need to buy them to hunt waterfowl but anyone can get them to collect!

THERE ARE DEFINITELY MORE, but these are a start.

Additionally, any federal or local organizations that seek to provide support and relief to those affected by hurricanes, sea level rise, any form of coastal climate change...

At the regional level:

These are a list of topics that affect major regions of the United States. Since I do not work in most of these areas I don't feel confident recommending specific organizations, but please seek resources relating to these as they are likely major conservation issues near you.

PRAIRIE CONSERVATION & PRAIRIE POTHOLE WETLANDS

DRYING OF THE COLORADO RIVER (good overview video linked)

PROTECTION OF ESTUARIES AND SALTMARSH, ESPECIALLY IN THE DELAWARE BAY AND LONG ISLAND (and mangroves further south, everglades etc; this includes restoring LIVING SHORELINES instead of concrete storm walls; also check out the likely-soon extinction of saltmarsh sparrows)

UNDAMMING MAJOR RIVERS (not just the Colorado; restoring salmon runs, restoring historic floodplains)

NATIVE POLLINATOR DECLINES (NOT honeybees. for fuck's sake. honeybees are non-native domesticated animals. don't you DARE get honeybee hives to 'save the bees')

WILDLIFE ALONG THE SOUTHERN BORDER (support the Mission Butterfly Center!)

INVASIVE PLANT AND ANIMAL SPECIES (this is everywhere but the specifics will differ regionally, dear lord please help Hawaii)

LOSS OF WETLANDS NATIONWIDE (some states have lost over 90% of their wetlands, I'm looking at you California, Ohio, Illinois)

INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE, esp in the CORN BELT and CALIFORNIA - this is an issue much bigger than each of us, but we can work incrementally to promote sustainable practices and create habitat in farmland-dominated areas. Support small, local farms, especially those that use soil regenerative practices, no-till agriculture, no pesticides/Integrated Pest Management/no neonicotinoids/at least non-persistent pesticides. We need more farmers enrolling in NRCS programs to put farmland in temporary or permanent wetland easements, or to rent the land for a 30-year solar farm cycle. We've lost over 99% of our prairies to corn and soybeans. Let's not make it 100%.

INDIGENOUS LAND-BACK EFFORTS/INDIGENOUS LAND MANAGEMENT/TEK (adding this because there have been increasing efforts not just for reparations but to also allow indigenous communities to steward and manage lands either fully independently or alongside western science, and it would have great benefits for both people and the land; I know others on here could speak much more on this. Please platform indigenous voices)

HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOMS (get your neighbors to stop dumping fertilizers on their lawn next to lakes, reduce agricultural runoff)

OCEAN PLASTIC (it's not straws, it's mostly commercial fishing line/trawling equipment and microplastics)

A lot of these are interconnected. And of course not a complete list.

At the state and local level:

You probably have the most power to make change at the local level!

Support or volunteer at your local nature centers, local/state land conservancy non-profits (find out who owns&manages the preserves you like to hike at!), state fish & game dept/non-game program, local Audubon chapters (they do a LOT). Participate in a Christmas Bird Count!

Join local garden clubs, which install and maintain town plantings - encourage them to use NATIVE plants. Join a community garden!

Get your college campus or city/town certified in the Bee Campus USA/Bee City USA programs from the Xerces Society

Check out your state's official plant nursery, forest society, natural heritage program, anything that you could become a member of, get plants from, or volunteer at.

Volunteer to be part of your town's conservation commission, which makes decisions about land management and funding

Attend classes or volunteer with your land grant university's cooperative extension (including master gardener programs)

Literally any volunteer effort aimed at improving the local environment, whether that's picking up litter, pulling invasive plants, installing a local garden, planting trees in a city park, ANYTHING. make a positive change in your own sphere. learn the local issues affecting your nearby ecosystems. I guarantee some lake or river nearby is polluted

MAKE HABITAT IN YOUR COMMUNITY. Biggest thing you can do. Use plants native to your area in your yard or garden. Ditch your lawn. Don't use pesticides (including mosquito spraying, tick spraying, Roundup, etc). Don't use fertilizers that will run off into drinking water. Leave the leaves in your yard. Get your school/college to plant native gardens. Plant native trees (most trees planted in yards are not native). Remove invasive plants in your yard.

On this last point, HERE ARE EASY ONLINE RESOURCES TO FIND NATIVE PLANTS and LEARN ABOUT NATIVE GARDENING:

Xerces Society Pollinator Conservation Resource Center

Pollinator Pathway

Audubon Native Plant Finder

Homegrown National Park (and Doug Tallamy's other books)

National Wildlife Federation Native Plant Finder (clunky but somewhat helpful)

Heather Holm (for prairie/midwest/northeast)

MonarchGard w/ Benjamin Vogt (for prairie/midwest)

Native Plant Trust (northeast & mid-atlantic)

Grow Native Massachusetts (northeast)

Habitat Gardening in Central New York (northeast)

There are many more - I'm not familiar with resources for western states. Print books are your biggest friend. Happy to provide a list of those.

Lastly, you can help scientists monitor species using citizen science. Contribute to iNaturalist, eBird, Bumblebee Watch, or any number of more geographically or taxonomically targeted programs (for instance, our state has a butterfly census carried out by citizen volunteers).

In short? Get curious, get educated, get involved. Notice your local nature, find out how it's threatened, and find out who's working to protect it that you can help with. The health of the planet, including our resilience to climate change, is determined by small local efforts to maintain and restore habitat. That is how we survive this. When government funding won't come, when we're beat back at every turn trying to get policy changed, it comes down to each individual person creating a safe refuge for nature.

Thanks for reading this far. Please feel free to add your own credible resources and organizations.

[neoliberalbrainrot]

SOCIAL MEDIA "ACTIVISM" IS KEEPING YOU FROM ACTUAL ACTIVISM - HERE'S THE TRUTH

You think you're staying "informed" by doomscrolling through your social feeds 24/7? That's exactly what they want. It's literally designed to keep you angry, scrolling, and - most importantly - doing absolutely fucking nothing.

HERE'S WHAT NO ONE TELLS YOU:

It's OKAY to edit your feeds so you don't see that shit when you're just trying to exist

You do NOT have to consume the world's suffering every second of every day to be a "good activist" - and by the way? You're not even getting "informed" by scrolling. You need to actually look up real articles OFF of social media to understand what's happening

Hitting like and share isn't activism. Sorry. It just isn't.

You wanna actually do something?

Learn your neighbors' names. ACTUALLY TALK TO THEM about what's happening

Join your school board and ask them face-to-face why they're against queer education

Stand up to your racist uncle instead of "keeping the peace" (peace for WHO exactly?)

Find out what abortion rights groups are ALREADY DOING in your area instead of reinventing the wheel

Join an actually inclusive church (you know, like Jesus would've wanted) and see what they're ALREADY DOING to make the world better

And for fuck's sake, stop saying "oh I don't talk about politics" - YOUR SILENCE IS POLITICAL

NEWSFLASH: You don't have to start the fucking underground railroad by yourself. That shit ALREADY EXISTS - you just never had to use it before. Lucky you. So volunteer if you're a safe person, at whatever level works for you:

Send money

Show up in person

Pack supplies

Make pamphlets

Whatever you can do

Not everything's gonna get you in the history books and you know what? IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER.

And here's something else that matters: Going to trauma therapy - REAL trauma therapy with a therapist informed in decolonization practices - is a RADICAL ACT. If you have the means to do it, DO IT. Healing yourself is part of the work too.

AND LISTEN UP BECAUSE THIS IS IMPORTANT: IT'S OKAY THAT IT TOOK YOU THIS LONG IT'S OKAY THAT YOU'RE STARTING SMALL IT'S OKAY THAT YOU DON'T KNOW EVERYTHING

NO ONE EVER PUNISHED THEMSELVES INTO SUCCESS.

You grew up with some racist/sexist views? Yeah, most of us did. You can't get stuck there. There's too much at stake. It's time to deconstruct. It's time to do the work.

But scrolling and sharing posts while feeling guilty? That's not the work. That's what they want you to think the work is.

Get off your phone. Talk to your neighbors. Show up at meetings. Stand up to family. THAT'S the work.

[neoliberalbrainrot]

Not everything has to be a debate online.

I don't know quite how and when this cultural shift happened, but I've noticed that when I reply to random people on the internet, half the time the other person thinks I'm trying to start a debate. For a long time I fell into this trap as well, and was constantly frustrated by internet interactions but unable to figure out why.

It became crystal clear to me when I tried to correct someone online about something I experienced, and they started debating with me. (if you must know, it was about whether there was human trafficking on Silk Road, the dark web market, and since I had been on Silk Road multiple times and never seen such a thing—it really was just drugs and PDF guides on how to make fake IDs—I said so).

I was startled because to me, casual Internet exchanges are usually like cocktail party conversation—when I talk to someone at a social gathering, I don't expect them to become antagonistic towards me, especially if I'm sharing an anecdote about my experience. I usually let a lot of things slide in casual conversation; in real life, you really have to pick your battles or things can get awkward fast. Sometimes that's a good thing, like when you're standing up to your bigoted family member, but a lot of the time it's unnecessary. If I were at a cocktail party, I would gain nothing from trying to prove that Silk Road did not have human trafficking on it, especially to someone who was for some reason convinced that it did.

After I had this little revelation, I started to notice the tendency everywhere. So many bad feelings are manifested when conversations turn into debates, and for no good reason! How would things be different if we approached other people with curiosity, resisting the urge to "prove" our point? These bad feelings drain energy and promote misanthropy, which reduces our ability to act.

This is my invitation to you to consider how you interact with people on the internet. Are there instances where you can de-escalate instead of getting drawn into debate? I've started explicitly saying I don't want to debate (and if it's in the context of politics, telling the person that we're on the same side and we're all tired/angry/etc.) which helps sometimes. Social media wants us to escalate, because emotions running high drive engagement, but we can choose to behave differently. As cheesy as it sounds, I really do think small acts of... not kindness exactly, but prosocial behavior, when performed hundredfold, can make a difference.

[neoliberalbrainrot]

About This Blog

Hello there! Under the cut you’ll find info about my goals for this blog and myself, how I run this blog, and a list of my writing.

My goals for this blog:

Organize and synthesize resources and information for easier use by other activists who are fighting fascism

Promote the emotional well-being and resilience of those who are fighting fascism, including civil service workers and others outside of left activism

Identify trends among “the left” which I think are a manifestation of neoliberal logics, and suggest how to resist these tendencies and refocus on real left values

Raise awareness of neoliberalism as an ideology that intentionally aims to change the way people think about themselves and the world, pushing them towards right wing values

About me:

I have been on/off involved in left activism, including on Tumblr, for well over a decade. One of the most pressing problems I have observed, which I don’t think gets enough attention, is not just the tendency of concepts borne from real left values to become recuperated into liberal capitalism, but the tendency of ostensible leftists to continue pushing those diluted concepts in often damaging ways. This is a place for me to gather and share my thoughts on this topic. Because of my own experiences and the high stakes involved in left activism, I firmly believe that neoliberal ways of seeing the world, the self, and other people must be identified and eradicated. I aim to use my strengths to contribute to the ongoing fight against fascism.

My approach:

I always ask myself how a problem would be solved or a difficult interaction navigated in my ideal utopia. I aim to keep myself grounded in my values and make decisions from a place of being in line with my values. When I am not able to make decisions from such a place, I will step away from a discussion.

I always ask myself who my rhetoric and actions serve. I aim to build solidarity. This is because “divide and conquer” has always been an effective tactic against the left and we must resist that. I believe we can recognize our differences and set boundaries with people who don’t share our values without actively fomenting negative feelings.

I will resist all tendencies to police other people’s behavior or make them prove their morals. I don’t think a community in which people feel morally surveilled and afraid to commit infractions for fear of social punishment is a healthy one. I aim to eradicate traces of Puritanical morality in my thinking. I will not self monitor and alter what I say based on how it will be received.

I will conserve my time and energy by rejecting the obligation to respond to everyone who engages with my writing. I will not engage with bad faith commenters and encourage readers to resist the trap of turning discussions into debate.

Tags:

You can keep up with the most important posts by going through these tags. This list will be updated as needed.

my writing - original short or long form writing which expands on various ideas or discusses specific topics

housekeeping - personal and blog updates

I am also active on Substack.

[neoliberalbrainrot]

I'm back...

I started this blog with a goal of promoting nuanced discussion about what I call "neoliberal brainrot" among left activists, and how we can become stronger by identifying and removing this tendency in ourselves and the people we work with. However, that was back in October 2024, and a lot has changed since then...

I have a lot of complex thoughts about what has been happening recently and have found myself in agreement with people I would not have gotten along with previously. When it comes down to fighting the fash, turns out there's a lot of people who are, you know, okay with capitalism but not literal Nazis, and will fight like hell just like you against those Nazis.

This doesn't mean that capitalism, etc. should not be critiqued. It's important to continue critiquing existing structures and forming new models of how society could work, because when there is destruction, there is also an opportunity for creation, and the left needs to be poised to take advantage of that opportunity.

It does mean that the scope of this blog has changed a little. I've been thinking hard about what my role in this fight is. These are some things I will be working on in the coming months:

Keeping up positive energy among people who want to fight. There is a lot of doom and gloom out there and half of it is not from real people, but bots and other forms of propaganda. I think I'm pretty good at helping people find hope and keeping focus even when new and scary things keep happening. Even when it seems like we're losing (which we're not), it is important to still fight. Does anyone of us, truly, deep down, want to roll over and die? I think it's time to plumb the depths of the human spirit and support each other.

Collecting and disseminating information from reliable sources. One of my personal strengths has always been research and synthesizing that research. I aim to collect links and other resources so that people who want to make arguments elsewhere or organize in specific ways can easily access quality information. We need to maintain critical thinking more than ever, now that we know social media is compromised.

Supporting people who are directly affected. I grew up in the DC area. I have loved ones who are feds and despite being a leftist who normally rails against the DoD or whatever, I do feel like these are my people (I was very very briefly a fed myself). A lot of my current energy comes from reading /r/fednews and other forums where civil service workers are sharing their honest thoughts and experiences. The left needs to stand up for these people. Our socialist utopia will never come to fruition without bureaucrats who do the thankless job of, for example, collecting, processing, and distributing tax revenue. These people are on the front lines and need our support.

This is where I'm at right now. Things are changing very rapidly but now I know I need to keep writing. The internet does not need more opinions. But through discussions with various folks on and offline, that research and pep talks could be useful. That's what I'm going to do as long as it seems like it's useful.

I will also be maintaining a Substack, if anyone is interested.

[neoliberalbrainrot]

So for all of you who think nothing matters:

We have a local, I guess I'll call it an events complex. It's where concerts and the fair go. It's owned by the city.

When Trump started the whole ICE thing, our commissioner sent a letter to the local representatives, telling them they could use it as a detention center for illegal immigrants. Our event center. Where the 4H kids show their fuckin' lambs.

"The fuck you will" was the resounding reply.

So, when I talk about coalition-building, and working with people you do not agree with or maybe even like, this is what I'm talking about. There was an immediate and vocal show of disapproval, from all sides. We all contacted people we knew would dislike this, REGARDLESS OF HOW THEY FELT ABOUT ANYTHING ELSE. The meeting was packed with people yelling at the commissioners. Of all political stripes. Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Prairie Populist, Independent.

Some were, of course, the tumblr-style arguments about inherent humanity, but--I think more compellingly if you're actually trying to put the pressure on--there were questions of, 'How are we gonna get paid?" "Are you aware of how, as the only event center for more than two hours, much fuckin money this brings into the community? ANd that immigrants of all types make up less than 2% of the population of the entire state?(my argument), "Do we trust the government to pay us?", "Isn't there a fuckin' empty prison in [town about an hour from here]? Are you just being a kiss-ass?' (offered up by a man I know to be very conservative indeed. BUT HE DID NOT WANT OUR SPACE USED FOR THIS) and, an argument that was so good I was infuriated I didn't come up with it, "DO you think the bank is gonna want to be known as the sponsor of "National bank Detention Center?" (Which caught on and the bank had to offer up a letter saying how they hoped the commissioners would use the event center as intended.)

They folded. A letter came out a few days ago from the manager of the event center, saying it was decided that the events center would rescind the offer, as "more acceptable alternatives could be found." They blinked.

That's the thing. All that happened is that a bunch of people got mad an went to ONE TWO HOUR MEETING. It changed everything.

SHOW. UP.

[neoliberalbrainrot]

If you are purity testing someone before giving them access to food, housing, etc. then you're not a leftist. This is not a "no true Scotsman" thing. The fundamental core of leftism is guaranteeing universal human rights through the maintenance of a strong public good. Keyword: universal.

Literally every single human being, even the most vile person you can think of, has these rights because they are a human. That is the beginning and end of it. If you start putting up restrictions, and give someone the power to decide who gets the right or not, then it is no longer a universal human right.

i have understood so many things about online leftist culture by the fact that when i said "your local community has people you will morally and politically disagree with but you cannot lock them out of accessing any tangible service you’re organising" one of the tags responding said "this isn’t about proshippers in here you’re not welcome" like. folks. focus with me. some of us are homeless here.

[neoliberalbrainrot]

I have observed this many times myself and it's a huge problem.

it rly is weird how theres this culture in progressive spaces where like you can be as mean, as CRUEL even, as you want as long as youre not being explicitly bigoted towards any marginalized group of people and still be seen as a really good person with good morals who nobody is allowed to have beef with bc theyve never done anything racist or homophobic

[neoliberalbrainrot]

"...I don't think any kind of useful, lasting, resilient queer community building can happen if you really view manhood as evil."

Nailed it. I don't buy in to puritan notions such as characteristics you were born with making you inherently "evil"...

one thing that often eludes the queer people who bend over backward to include trans guys to "women and femme" spaces (while demonizing cis men as undesirable and evil) is that some of us actually do derive great meaning from being a man, find it to be quite healing and special, and see other men (both cis and trans!) as our brethren. Some of us actually do love being men, love other men, and love being around them. I don't expect non-men to feel the way that I do and they don't have to cater me (I'm arguing for quite the opposite), but I don't think any kind of useful, lasting, resilient queer community building can happen if you really view manhood as evil. You're kinda excluding a lot of oppressed people when you do that.

[neoliberalbrainrot]

And this is why I've been recently coming to the conclusion that you TRULY cannot judge a book by its cover. There is no longer a true mainstream to be counter to like there was in past decades, and every display of counterculture that can be recuperated has been recuperated. Your politics and values cannot be constructed via things you purchase.

[neoliberalbrainrot]

Completely agree. Building solidarity between people who are suffering from the same issues is the most important thing.

Another issue with the separatist idea of "everyone who shares our identity will always understand your experience and struggles, and everyone outside of it will never ever understand" -

You can only enforce that first part by pretending there is an universal set of experiences everyone who shares your identity goes through, and punishing any talk that deviates from it. You make those struggles the defining factor of the identity.

Anyone who doesn't share your identity but says "I experience this too" is seen as an attack on your group instead of a potential ally. They're the enemy, trying to appropriate your struggles and erase you.

Anyone who does share your identity but says "This is not representing my experience" is pushed out of the in-group and basically considered to be aligning themselves with the enemy.

[neoliberalbrainrot]

Fuck, I'm not traumatized enough for this

Means-testing is a quintessentially liberal idea. Instead of presenting a program or benefit (eg: student debt relief) as a human right available to everyone, liberal politicians often make sure it’s means-tested, restricting the benefit to only those who fit certain criteria. These criteria are usually numerical, reflecting the neoliberal obsession with quantification and collection of data. This doesn’t help people who fluctuate above and below the threshold, and it hurts people who do qualify when they aren’t able to get through the bureaucracy in order to claim their benefit.

What does this have to do with trauma?

The means-testing of trauma and oppression is sometimes seen as a useful method of determining someone’s moral superiority in leftist spaces which, I think, are corroded by neoliberal brainrot. The thing being gatekept can vary widely; it might be a community of some kind or something more specific like a publishing opportunity. The basic idea is that you must be this oppressed to enter. Someone’s perceived identity is used as a way of determining how much trauma they have purely from demographic information, remarkably similarly to real means-tested programs, and has nothing to do with the person’s actual life experience.

Because means-testing implies a kind of quantification, if only between more or less, a hierarchy of suffering can be constructed and further used as an indicator of moral purity. The most oppressed person in a group might be seen as morally correct more often, as if there is a neat spectrum of moral correctness. In addition, this person, despite being considered morally correct, might not actually benefit from this perception if they are marginalized and face marginalization from the same people putting them on a pedestal.

This is similar to the phenomenon colloquially called the Oppression Olympics, a competition to see who is more oppressed. The pejorative name is used by those who think it is a pointless exercise that detracts from making meaningful change. In the vast majority of cases, it is, and the discussion only serves to boost the ego of the winner of the competition and cement their status within the community.

Sometimes there is even a chasm between the material status of the person who “won” the Oppression Olympics and the person who is, when measured through more objective metrics, actually the most oppressed. This is a potential avenue for elite capture; someone who is able to communicate their experience using the potent buzzwords of the scene or who otherwise has more social capital may be able to capture the clout that comes with being recognized as the most oppressed.

The competitive nature of this exercise plays into neoliberal subjectivity, with its focus on being the best, or in this case, the most oppressed. Oppression is a competition—like the Olympics. This implies there’s something to be gained. And if there’s something to be gained, is there also an incentive to lean into any experiences of oppression you can claim? I’ve observed this behavior in people, but calling them out on it is an extremely risky and usually futile proposition.

There is actually no need to determine who is the most oppressed in the vast majority of situations, so engaging in this debate takes valuable time away from doing literally anything else. It also strongly implies that vulnerability is mandatory, that you must share your experiences of marginalization in order to be seen as moral enough for the cause. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has had icky feelings when presented with an obligation to list off all the identities I can claim, as if they’re synonymous with the problems in my life.

Of course, there are many situations where it is appropriate to means-test access to a resource; for example, if there is a limited about of funding to distribute to people with the greatest need. In writing this post, I’m mainly thinking of social dynamics in activist groups and even in social groups that just happen to be left-leaning. This is trend among modern leftist “culture,” if culture can be defined as behavioral and belief patterns in a group of people.

Whatever the case, I still think it’s important to examine the idea that means-testing and hierarchies of oppression emerge as viable concepts only because neoliberal ideology is the water many Americans swim in. It might just seem natural to place a more oppressed person (whatever this actually means) higher in the hierarchy, but why? Whether or not it’s the right thing to do, why does it seem natural? Is the hierarchy important to understanding the situation, or is it being emphasized because someone stands to gain something from its enforcement? Is it being built only because the people involved are used to thinking that way? Does it create problems where there weren’t any before?

PS: if you find my writing interesting or educational, please reblog! like artists, writers depend on reblogs to make sure new audiences see their work. thanks for reading!

[neoliberalbrainrot]

i think it is extremely important to develop and retain an ability to understand to the greatest extent possible why another person might believe something completely different from you. if you can understand how anyone is capable of joining a cult under the right circumstances, no matter how unlikely it seems now, you should be able to understand why someone believes the opposite of you. the human brain is capable of a staggeringly vast array of perspectives.

exercising this kind of empathy requires more emotional bandwidth and brain power, but i think it is important to not just make space for it but also step away when you recognize you do not have the bandwidth. otherwise it is only too easy to fall into an easy pattern which supplies a jolt of dopamine (eg: the surge of righteous self-satisfaction experienced when being snarky towards someone on the internet who you disagree with); this is neither helpful to the greater goal nor conducive to regaining any bandwidth.

attempting to understand another person is not the same as agreeing with them; instead i see it as a radical acceptance of the fact that they exist and have their own view of reality.

[neoliberalbrainrot]

Capitalism itself—industrial capitalism at least—has had a very brief historical run. During a mere two hundred years, however, it has nonetheless shown a remarkable ability to come up with threats to the very existence of the species: first nuclear destruction, now global climate change.

— David Graeber, "Neoliberalism, or The Bureaucratization of the World" in The Insecure American: How We Got Here and What We Should Do About It (2009)