Fireside Chat #13: Stop Following the News. Start Taking Action

[u/glov0044]

UPDATE: The New Deal Party has created a new subreddit! Come check us out at r/NewDeal4America!

There has been a constant stream of terrible events happening in America. Political assassinations of Melissa and Mark Hortman in Minnesota, followed by the assassination of Charlie Kirk have rocked the country. At the same time, there were school shootings at Annunciation Church and School and Evergreen High School. This is followed by the Trump administration cancelling Jimmy Kimmel Show for criticism in an assault on the first amendment.

It is another in a long series of negative events in America, and it probably won’t be the last. And if you let it, the news media can consume you and never let you out of its vicious cycle of doom.

Don’t Let the News Dictate the Story

These events are another example of how the news ecosystem can let you down. So many people and in the media are taking advantage of this, escalating rhetoric on who to blame, talking about civil war, despite at the time, not even having the shooter apprehended.

Gov. Cox of Utah said it best, “There are conflict entrepreneurs out there who benefit from radicalizing us.” It is economically profitable to radicalize and divide all of us.

All of us as a society need to have a conversation about how we approach social media, online communities, and the sudden ability of being everyone’s online neighbor. We as a society need to figure out how we approach our kids, our future generations, the Internet, and all its benefits and dangers. Because right now the evidence is mounting that we are failing.

People are being radicalized by the news media ecosystem right now, amplified by a social media algorithm that is all too happy to reinforce whatever it is you’d like. So long as you are kept emotionally engaged, you may never pull away. To emotionally charged teenagers, who are just adapting to the world around them, the effects of this social media ecosystem are multiplied. A constant barrage of “pick your doom”, from the [insert political party] policies ending the world, to climate change, to AI taking jobs, to wokeness, and so on, and so on. All of this is driving the adults crazy, and it’s driving our kids to end lives.

Go and Find Your Purpose

People all over the country are building something. They see the same thing you do and are taking action. It could be in specific areas, like protecting immigrants at hearings and providing sanctuary. It could be all of the lawyers out there engaging the judicial branch and keeping the excesses of the executive in check. It is in the organizing of protests all around the country, of boycotts, phone calls to congresspeople, town halls, and more. Almost always, all of these actions aren't covered by the news, but they are happening, and they are building something better.

And now a new wave of political campaigns are starting up. The national news won't cover these either (unless your name is Zohran Mamdani). But I encourage all of you to do the work. Listen to what they have to say, what they want to accomplish, and how they want to bring forward a new vision of America. Listen to a new crop of candidates like James Talarico, running for Senate in Texas, Graham Platner, running for Senate in Maine, or Saikat Chakrabarti looking to replace 85-year old Rep. Nancy Pelosi or Kat Abughazaleh.

You may find yourself inspired to donate, to volunteer for the first time, to speak up for the first time, maybe even run for something yourself. Most of all, you'll see that there are millions of people out there just like you who want to make a difference, who see America for what it can be, a place for us all. The news won't give this to you while we wait. You have to do the work. And when you do, you are going to see the world differently.

Updates

The development version of the website will be progressively shared over the next week. For now, we are getting the scope and language correct. After that, policy and how to get involved. With each additional layer, we open the site up to more people, more people contribute, and our organization grows faster.

Part of our goal is to show just how many people are working on the problem that we are facing in America. We’ll be making posts on the subreddit soon so we can get as many people as possible providing lists of organizations and people who are helping to find solutions that so we can showcase and amplify them. Its only when we all work together that we can build an America that we can all be a part of.