The problem is what can be done? The usual arrangement of letter writing or donating and voting is just more of the same cycle.
I'm not by any means in favor of what's going on, but some steam has to be let out of the system. And the real problem is trust in our institutions. What can be done about that?
I have my causes to which I devote great time and personal effort, but if I stopped my life for every minor disaster I would spend my life shaking my fist at my computer.
I quite like my life and I don’t intend to spend it getting rage baited by never-ending news cycles.
Give me an action to take, not an emotion to feel.
What this means to you personally and other tech workers is that many of the well-paying tech jobs will be going elsewhere.
Like, it can ALWAYS be worse.
That's not what is currently happening. It's not a minor disaster. It's something we'll take generations to recover from, if ever.
We can't do much, individually. Find people in your community working on stuff you care about and get out there and pitch in. Get involved. Make sure your local school district isn't banning books or being cruel to trans kids. Make sure you have good city councilors.
A friend of mine made this in the area where I live: https://deschutesgrassroots.com/
That is incredibly charitable. Kudos, I guess, but not at all in line with what I’ve seen.
It's an issue of tradeoffs, and the tradeoffs were never clearly articulated even to me the most staunch supporter of foreign aid. We've just accepted it and all such programs because we can see, because we trust, that the analysis was done and is valid.
Government does not currently have that level of trust with half the country, and worse has active distrust.
We the liberal elite grew up with institutions making these kinds of decisions and we trust it to a certain extent.
There's a trust gap. Even the staunchest republican I know will gladly volunteer to help their local community for the most part. That's their priority.
It's hard to understand your adversary when you have so much contempt for them.
Then you can’t win an information war, when it’s free speech, and counter speech is too complicated.
On the other hand - you sure as hell can convert the blitz into trench warfare, and gum up the war machine.
Instead the whole country funds programs that half of them don't trust, regardless of who is in charge.