Life Style
- avoid car ownership: walk, use your bike
- avoid debt, the lure of credit cards
- consume little
- work in coalition; live & work non-hierarchically
- establish community roots, a sense of place
- develop skills (computer, layout, media, writing, copy-editing, public speaking, languages….)
- reduce distraction, resist addiction
- seek “right livelihood”; avoid co-optation; be sand in the gears, not a cog in the machine
- reduce complicity, vested interests
- avoid banks: use credit unions
- reduce/resist federal taxes
- eat mindfully: favor local food & produce, avoid franchise & fast food
- bite less, chew more: avoid burn-out, pace yourself
- mate mindfully
- have – or not have – children mindfully
Consciousness
- cultivate nonviolence
- treat all – especially adversaries – with respect
- make truth-telling reflexive
- overcome your “-isms”: race/class/gender/tribe/nation…
- transcend US exceptionalism
- become media savvy; get beyond the mainstream media bubble
- read widely
- learn a strategic language (Spanish, Arabic, Pashtun…)
- study the human condition: interact with and seek to understand the “other”
- think globally, protect the planet, preserve sentient life, preserve wilderness
- go beyond the affluent, industrial, capitalist bubble
- travel with progressive delegations to “hot spots” (WfP, F.O.R., CPT, SOA Watch, Global Exchange…)
- connect the dots: resist compartmentalization, calculate consequences
- think critically: ask why, ask cui bono? “follow the money,” question authority
- take useful risks, make useful sacrifices
- embrace arrest: consider doing “prison witness”
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
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