Join the Our Freedoms ‘24 Group Chat
Oct 23 2024 - Our Freedoms ‘24 staff
Whether you’re a seasoned doomscroller or you’ve decided to tune out election news because it’s stressful and you have no idea who to trust, we’ve got something for you to try. Mainstream sources seem a little sus lately, right? The run of billionaire owners forcing editorial boards to not endorse Harris is a bad sign for the health of our media systems and our democracy. They still report crucial information and you should still read them. We just need balance.
But first, something that isn’t always easy for a lot of us: PLEASE TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF THIS ELECTION SEASON. Whatever your self-care practices are, step ‘em up. Go for a run or a walk. Have dinner with friends. Play with pets and kids. Do hobbies. Watch some good shows or go to the movies. It’s really important, and this is part of fighting creeping authoritarianism too!
So here’s your mission, should you choose to accept it:
If you’re not already on the new, pleasant social network Bluesky, you can easily sign up at that link, or by downloading their very nice app.
Then go to this link: Group Chat for Freedom starter pack and click “Follow All” in the top right hand corner (like in the image on the right). This will load your feed with a bunch of journalists and activists that will help keep you informed about what’s going on.
If you’re already reading the news every morning, great! Either way, make a goal to check Bluesky for a few minutes each day — and whenever the news seems off — at least through the election, the counting of votes, and the inauguration of the next President!
BONUS POINTS: make sure to follow Way to Win’s account so you don’t miss any of our positive, hard hitting and just… different videos, updates, and podcast episodes over the next few weeks. And please share this page with friends and family!
That’s it, you’re done! But here’s why we’re doing this:
We’ve built this list of sources around some of the best journalists covering the STAKES of this election (a lot more important than the odds!) - like Jamelle Bouie, Adam Serwer, Elizabeth Spiers, Margaret Sullivan, Jay Rosen, Greg Sargent, and Chris Hayes - and are adding in a few activists and organizational accounts. Including our own, because we have a TON of strong, persuasive videos coming out.
This is definitely an experiment! It’s going to be a little noisy. It might take some getting used to if you’re new to getting news this way. Some of it will be negative, because there are negative things going on. But we want more people to have a chance to pay attention right now because, as anxiety-provoking as this all is, it’s also GREAT being involved and knowing what’s going on. Being involved in politics should be fun and positive and exciting! (p.s. If you are thinking about getting more involved, and traveling to a swing state or making phone calls - DO IT - we can’t recommend it enough!)
This is a good team to be joining. These are real people who you can trust, and Bluesky is so far mercifully staying pretty free of crypto, AI, bots, and sports betting dreck drenching every other site.
More social media? Really?
If you don’t use social media for news and are skeptical this is a good idea: we know social media has a bad reputation, but we think it’s possible to have a positive experience if you start out right. Short text based posts are great for keeping up on the news, and seeing what the people making the news are thinking! It’s a little bit behind the scenes, which is why we’re calling it the Group Chat for Our Freedoms.
But all of the short text “microblogging” services that offer them have some pretty severe limitations: Twitter was very helpful for this conversation, but it’s been taken over by Elon Musk who has turned into an unreliable sewer of white nationalist and even Nazi information - and we think this is going to get much, much worse with election misinformation. All the Meta platforms (Instagram, Facebook and Threads) heavily throttle political content, no matter how important and what is going on. TikTok is owned (and to some unknown degree, controlled by) the Chinese government, and its algorithm is extremely sus.
All those platforms can be positive in their own way, and you can help make them more positive by sharing positive things on them. We’re giving Bluesky a try here because at the moment, they seem to be the only service not limiting your freedom to amplify.
But aren’t you partisan?
Yeah, we clearly are. But we think this is a moment of true necessity for partisan media. The problem is that Trump and MAGA have gotten SO extreme and dangerous that it has fried the circuits of mainstream/corporate media as it tries to stay balanced in its coverage. (Coincidentally, this kind of “balance” also happens to align nicely with their profit motives and the profit motives of their owners.)
Our goals are pretty simple and clear: we’re garden variety, pro-democracy progressives. We are building a working coalition big and diverse enough to take on the big challenges like strong action on climate change and ending the affordability-inequality crisis. You know exactly where we are coming from.
So come join the conversation! It will be fun. And if you have any questions, hit us up on bluesky and we or someone in the community will try to get you answers.
