For now, staying safe and sane in this neo-facist environment.
… Trump is anything but a regular politician and this has been anything but a regular election. Trump will be only the fourth candidate in history and the second in more than a century to win the presidency after losing the popular vote. He is also probably the first candidate in history to win the presidency despite having been shown repeatedly by the national media to be a chronic liar, sexual predator, serial tax-avoider, and race-baiter who has attracted the likes of the Ku Klux Klan. Most important, Trump is the first candidate in memory who ran not for president but for autocrat—and won.
I have lived in autocracies most of my life, and have spent much of my career writing about Vladimir Putin’s Russia. I have learned a few rules for surviving in an autocracy and salvaging your sanity and self-respect. It might be worth considering them now:
Rule #1: Believe the autocrat.
Read the whole thing. It’s important.
Think about your digital security. This will be the kind of Administration that goes after those who oppose it. (They already have an enemies list.)
• How to Trump-Proof Your Electronic Communications. “If Donald’s going to be in charge of the surveillance apparatus, we should all take precautions.”
• Surveillance Self-Defense: Tips, Tools and How-tos for Safer Online Communications, from the EFF.
It is important for those of us with privilege to realize racial and religious minorities, LGBTQ people, native people, anyone who looks or acts or speaks differently than your basic white person is going to be in additional danger now. Prepare to stand together and keep everyone safe.
• Speak Up: Responding to Everyday Bigotry, from the Southern Poverty Law Center. They’ve been responding to bigotry for a very long time.
ETA: Important to also remember that Clinton won the popular vote, by a lot. We were defeated by the anti-democratic means of the electoral college, which we should work to bypass as swiftly as we can. The important point: most voters did not vote for Trump. Most of our fellow citizens are not deplorable.
• Citizen solutions: things you can do now to prepare for the worst under Trump . “Trump’s campaign was light on policy details, so activists have already organized everything from classes to safe houses to prepare for what may happen.”
More as it comes.
