To Revolt: Commandeer Meta

Using the masters' tools to destroy the masters' house.

So, you’re going to topple Capitalism, or end the current regime immediately using the masters’ tools, huh?

Tell me, why would they let you do that?

Y’all insist on creating podcasts and talking head bits in an attempt to compete with the right wing players. Not for money nor prestige! Not you! You will be the promised messenger that sways the opinions of the millions who have been loyally listening to those blowhards for years. You will be the one to get in front of them, Neo.

Your startup without advertisers, and no poor people in some Asian nation paid to promote you – your stuff above all other leftist revolutionary content will be placed high atop search results, listed on suggested videos and all that wonderful digital fanfare. Your content will not run into any issues with algorithms and surveillance. You are a special unique snowflake and all these other people speaking similar ideas as you are each incompetent morons who do not know how the platforms work. Right?

I am not saying people should not follow their passion or otherwise stop generating this important content. The press, when people have access to it, is essential! I’m saying “they” will never let you become popular enough on their platforms to topple their platforms. Why would they do that?

The government would never let you amass a fighting force massive enough to topple the government. Why would they do that?

Apps reporting the criminal activities of ICE are removed, but YES – your ideas to coordinate resistance activities will be allowed to stay in the marketplace/app stores. They will allow you to do that because you are different.

We’re talking about a regime led by capitalists who know you better than you know you. Better than your life partner knows you. These villains trade one and other vast sums to access your information from voting rolls, medical visits, to driving patterns, and facial recognition on home security cameras. They will definitely let you use these tools to coordinate revolutionary responses to unmarked, masked government sanctioned kidnappers.

Why would they let you do that?

Sure, there are a few secretive digital channels where a few savvy folks might scheme. That isn’t the massive mainstream motivation to act some people are clamoring for.

The catch with all of this struggle to coordinate and share information is that “we” must do it where “they” are not. It will not be accomplished with their tools, unless somebody finds a way to commandeer Meta and Google.

There must be a personal analog element and a heaping scoop of patience. For example, they are not immediately building up a competent ICE force. They have to wade through right-wing slop. They spend millions on advertisements that piss you off. What do they get? The 450-pound gravy seals, meth-heads and criminals. It is taking months and hefty bribes to get people physically participating with ICE.

But you think your digital thing is going to happen “immediately” and result in tangible actions from other people? People who are going to risk their notions of freedom, comfort and credit scores? Why would they do that?

What tool of oppression do you have in mind to replace the current tools of oppression? Oh! You’re an anarchist? Well, good luck with that! “We” cannot engage in reasonable conversations online with each other, let alone explain to the masses what it is, what it looks like and how it is not worse than THIS. Why would people risk their notions of freedom, comfort, and credit scores for online arguments?

The only message anyone gets is “I’m ANGRY!” Angry people dressed as dinosaurs doing yoga in the fog of pepper spray, as though these are not acts of chemical warfare. Yes, hanging out doing your hobbies in public is going to prevent them from kidnapping people and pepper spraying you because “rawr” says the inflatable character? Why should they stop what they are doing?

US inhabitants will not stop spending money with their masters. Paying their oppressors. This is something that does not require leaving home. It requires doing LESS, and “we” cannot even get a decent portion of the population on board with that. But yeah, you’re really mad about how much shit costs. Go buy something to self-care your way into feeling better about wage slavery and war crimes.

At some point, Americans MIGHT become angry enough to not shop. To not pay interest-laden debts. I don’t see it.

As I see it – probably incorrectly. The internet will be by shortly to count for me all the ways I am wrong. The only meaningful organizing for resistance revolutionary activities will occur in person. Coordinated via USPS in cursive, whispered in dark corners and sometimes announced on posters in the town square.

The Gen Z revolutions in other nations all have one thing in common. They are leaving their homes to act.

We will find and know one another at open mics, book clubs, and community gardens. We band together over a band raging against the machine. People in person do not engage with each other as the hostile internet has you believing! We are still each of us human having human experiences out there.

Be brave. Sit in council. Participate in your local government – chances are, you cannot go occupy DC. You can go to your town meetings to interject another idea for your local decision-makers to consider with your allotted time to speak.

You say you suddenly experience a sense of urgency and a need to take action about things NOW. These exact things have been happening for years. Decades. Including ICE deportations and bombing “terrorists.” They have been building and manifesting multi-billion dollar funded behemoths. You can take your time and begin building your localized resistance community now. Begin.

There are somewhat secretive organizations who have been insisting upon their personal liberties for decades. If you hear of one, show up and learn something. Dear internet user, you do not factually know everything. It sucks having to be the messenger like that. These movements possess literally multiple generations of experience combatting the oppressive US government. You demonstrably cannot learn that online, nor share it via Zoom.

Leave your home! Meet real life breathing people. Participate in your community however you can where you are. Volunteer! It is a challenge where I am to find secular opportunities and so I must create them – not immediately. Nothing is immediate.

I must create the methods and means to connect without the master’s tools. I know that much. That’s just about all I do know in this mess.