Strategy #2: How to Hang On and Help

Welp it’s been the start to the Trump administration that many people feared it would be: an extreme flurry of action designed to overwhelm observers, test the boundaries of legality, demonstrate power by bullying and punishing certain groups of people, and messing up things that were working decently, all in order to re-shape the US government to even better serve the richest people. 

I’ll spare you any handwringing or shock. It’s time to figure out your plan to hang on and help where you can. Here’s the categories to consider that are detailed below:

  • Managing financial turbulence
  • Getting stuff when prices are high
  • Surveillance and harm
  • Counter narrative for the new world

Because there’s financial turbulence ahead from the downstream impact of tariffs, service cuts, anticipated tax reductions, and non US-gov’t related realities like AI job disruption and climate change:

  • Now is a good time to diversify your income or skill sets/ways to make money. As a job-avoidant creative and late 20-something during the Great Recession I’ve had more than one job since I was 18 + while stability in America shouldn’t be like this, it is. Rich people have jobs AND owned assets like investments, royalties on IP, and leases: What can you make and sell (and how might it leverage AI)? What can you do alone and what can you do with others?
  • Now is also a good time to diversify where your money is. Start with a month or two of your life costs – and maybe money for emergencies or upcoming known spending – in high-interest savings account… if you don’t have this, then the next parts aren’t super applicable. But if you do have money in retirement stock investments, consider making sure they’re appropriately diversified [eg not ALL in the same tech-heavy portfolio fundings] across sector, market cap, and globally. Btw it’s probably unwise to pull money from retirement investments due to both the penalties/taxes and the longer-term gain opportunities over the coming decades. If you have more savings beyond retirement and cash for upcoming needs, consider further diversification [nerd alert this was a succinct explainer], into bonds, real estate, crypto, gold, businesses, and art. When they say all investing involves risk, this still applies in these categories. The idea here is to mitigate risk across your pot of money: if stocks dip, other assets may not. 

Because tariffs are likely to increase prices, it’s a great time to thrift, share, swap, re-use what you have and get better at shopping cheap. 

  • Likelihood that someone you’re connected to has a thing you’re considering buying? Decently high. Can you swap your consumer dopamine hit from clicking “buy” to scoring re-used from a person? Bonus: make a friend, deepen a connection, be responsible for less packaging and plastic.
  • I saw someone suggest a no-new-stuff purchase year, which seems ambitious but might be exactly what this time calls for. What’s the minimum you can buy? Can you challenge yourself to use up what you have?
  • Alternately, I think if you do need a new thing, literally NOW is the moment to buy it, before the impact of tariffs hits pricing in the market. You can always return it if you realize it’s unnecessary. 
  • Poor and working class people have ALWAYS managed making difficult choices about what to buy and what to wait on. It sucks, but learning how to cut costs and say no sucks, it’s not a skill everyone has, and it’s a very valuable skill. 
  • Buy-one-get-one or something on sale? Stock up – for later, or for sharing.

Because there’s people being impacted, surveilled, and taking action today, it’s time to up your digital security game

… and it’s also time to tune up and turn up your donations and mutual aid game. Who’s taking action where YOU are to help, and how can you help them?

  • I recently started donating to the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition who are leading defense against the already-started ICE raids in the Denver metro, to Trans Continental Pipeline, a group that helps Trans and other LGBTQ+ people from red states move to CO due to our strong LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights laws, and to the Colorado Doula Project who helps people access abortions.
  • I’m also doing other in person stuff and 1:1 stuff. I’ll leave that there — the point is: what can you do where you are. Pick 1-2 areas to focus on and go. I wish I had more bandwidth to support reproductive rights for example but for now donating is what I can do, there — and that’s ok!!

Because there’s a completely unhinged narrative coming out of the Conservative Party, it’s time to create loud counter narrative.

  • I was at an election tech debrief last weekend and one of the themes was “people aren’t interested in facts and they’re not getting their information from news sources” – it’s time to DIY some news and share some alternative perspectives. For example, the people currently in charge seem to be embarrassed of their religion’s savior’s perspectives and are coming up with all kinds of unhinged “it’s ok to be hateful” rhetoric. Let’s not let them.
  • TikTok – let’s tok about it — if Trump is saving it, it’s because it’s serving him to do so. Think about adding content to places you can communicate which don’t create more chaos for people who are already marginalized and overwhelmed. For what it’s worth, YouTube is the second biggest search engine, where people essentially video google their questions… imho adding leftist chaos counter narrative onto truthsocial is probably the counter-cointelplro we need right now. But work wherever you feel you can do something. 
  • Check your facts! Part of the pain people are feeling is “what’s actually happening?” And sadly there’s a lot of unverified info flying around. No, Animal Farm is not banned in the US. No, the executive branch cannot tell congress how to spend money [though they are trying] – you can google “is X allowed” and get some info on what legal defense is being hefted together.
  • Online is not the whole world: Poster/zine campaigns, town hall meetings, community newspapers …there are lots of places where better stories can be told.

Finally – this is an intense time with lots of feelings. Give yourself and others some grace for imperfection. We’re all going to need it.