The definition of evil is: “profoundly immoral and wicked.” Evil feeds on uncertainty and chaos. An excited shiver goes down evils’ spine when it knows the people and environment around it are unable to differentiate facts and fiction. Donald J. Trump has brought nothing but immorality and wickedness to the 47th presidency of the United States.
So how do you face evil? What are the answers? First things first, you must move forward. Kamala Harris lost. You can’t become victorious by dwelling on what could’ve been done. Great strides can be made by learning from mistakes, but picking through every piece of her campaign isn’t going to present the answer. There is one vital thing you must take from her campaign though: hope.
Hope is the one thing that will make or break the foundation of unrest in the face of an administration attempting to dismantle democracy.
Nothing will work if there is no hope. Right now, uncertainty is sown from every piece of news coming out of the White House. It is no accident it looks disorganized; they want American citizens distracted. They want citizens to be so overwhelmed with information they give up trying to understand what’s going on.
Pay attention but don’t let it consume you. This is the time to start planning moves and countermoves. The Trump administration is going to do absurd and confusing things every single day, so what’s the point in dissecting each one? Now is also the time to build up a good foundation of media literacy. Exaggerated and fake news is found on both sides of the aisle. Understand that a lot of media platforms are trying to sway you one way or another.
Use that as an incentive to find reliable and unbiased sources. While it can be difficult to find truly unbiased news sources, there are some out there. Use bias charts to find news sources considered trustworthy and honest.
This will aid in not getting sucked into doom-scrolling. The news will still be there in a couple of hours; focus on sending letters to your congressmen or getting involved in protests.
Talk about what he is doing to people in your community. Show them the things he posts, and try to get through to people who aren’t as politically engaged as you might be. There is a difference between ignorance and willful ignorance. A lot of people truly don’t pay attention to what is happening and are single-issue voters. Those are the people who have the capacity to learn and grow.
On the other hand, you must know when to walk away from some discussions. When you run across someone who knows the negative effects of what Trump is doing and willfully ignores the implications, that is when you must withdraw yourself from the conversation.
Doing physical things to further progress will help much more than adding your take in an Instagram comment section or posting TikToks about how scared you are about the state of America. President Trump, Elon Musk and JD Vance won’t see those posts.
But you must remember these are fragile boys. To quote New York Times columnist, Tom Friedman, “Trump is a small man in a big time.” Humiliation hits him harder than any fact or statistic ever will. He doesn’t like when he’s called weak, and he sure doesn’t like being told what he’s doing is unconstitutional.
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/114187128423651010
Women did not get the right to vote by taking the high road. Slavery was abolished only after a civil war. Sometimes, these things can get messy. Sometimes, it’s the only way to turn the tide. With modern technology, there are more ways to show there is opposition. Freedom of speech is a powerful thing. While I don’t necessarily condone hacking into federal building networks and playing a video of President Trump kissing Elon Musk’s feet, there is potency in what the message symbolized.
Using what is available will be a powerful tool. There are ways in which word can be spread quicker than ever. Protests can be organized in less than a day and petitions can be made with just a few clicks. Using the freedoms written for us in the Constitution is the most surefire way to reverse what has already been put into action.
Words are powerful, but actions hold the most importance. You can talk for years about how messed up what’s happening to our country is, but without acting, it amounts to nothing. If you’re angry don’t scream from the rooftops, scream from within a crowd of equally angry protesters.
If you’re scared, don’t be scared behind the screen of a phone, be scared with the thousands of other people sending letters to their representatives demanding for them to act as if they are spokesperson for their constituents.
As isolating as it might seem, and as crazy as you might feel like you are getting, there are so many people who feel just as alone and insane as you do.
Now I bet you didn’t have an eye-opening revelation while reading this, but I think that’s the point. You already know how to overthrow a government that has stopped serving you. You can open any history book and get step-by-step instructions. What you need is to be reminded that revolutions don’t happen overnight.
Being on the right side of history is exhausting, frustrating and demanding as hell. Sometimes you need to be gently pushed back into it. Losing sight of what the goal is can be easy, especially at times like this. You must take breaks, but get back up. The world won’t stop spinning and neither should you.