the playbook.

i live in alabama's second congressional district, a district that was created after the government of my state was told THREE SEPARATE TIMES that the map they created and the reasons why it was created were so racist that even this supreme court was like "whoa, dudes, too much racism." our fever-brained venal evil attorney general, who is the direct legacy of the worst this state has to offer, is trying to get rid of my district YET THE HELL AGAIN, by the way.

ANYWAY. AL-02 did our jobs in 2024, and as a result, we are represented by shomari figures. i am a huge fan of rep. figures, have been since the second he showed up on the scene, and i have been richly rewarded for my trust in him. i have even forgiven him for being the first person i have ever voted for who is younger than me. he's the real deal. he is also the son of two of the most legendary politicians in coastal alabama: michael figures, who bankrupted the klan, and vivian davis figures, who took up the mantle when michael died suddenly in the 90s. they are both titans of alabama history, but for a lot of reasons both internal to alabama and external to the rest of the country, they don't get talked about. they should. but i digress.

rep. figures came to town yesterday to do some fundraising and hold a town hall. and y'all, if you are looking for an antidote to doom? go be in a room with people who are concerned about what's happening. we got there 15 minutes before start time and the room was already at standing capacity. hundreds and hundreds of us were there. just that energy alone was buoying. and then rep. figures started speaking. and HOLY HELL. i felt myself strengthening.

the 60th anniversary of bloody sunday just happened. rep. figures spoke at length about that. he said "we just spent last weekend in selma celebrating what i call 'the playbook.'" and he went on to describe how the civil rights movement developed and fought back against the generations of dehumanization and oppression. "we as a collective need to know our roles, play our roles, and stay unified."

he's right. no matter what the grifter-industrial complex is trying to tell you, this fight is unfortunately not new. this is a poisonous combination of several historical american oppressions tied up in tech money. but the good news is? we have a playbook. we have a blueprint. and it happens in real life, not on the very public and easily monitored internet. [remember COINTELPRO, which was very real? do you know how easy it is to run something like that online? and that's before you even get into the also-very-real disinfo campaigns and griftbot armies.]

fighting back happens in imperfect coalitions from all walks of life. it happens with the black church, with LGBTQ+ folks, with immigrants, with "sleeper cell" normies hiding amongst bigots who don't see us coming. i asked rep. figures at his fundraiser, "what is the best way to materially support you and the greater fight ahead?" and he said, get out into your community into your networks and just tell the truth. we have to get ahead of the noise and the lies and just tell the truth to people in our networks.

and that means coalition. that means talking to people we don't always have a lot in common with, ESPECIALLY if we are basic ass middle aged white folks who don't have as much at risk as others. i'm not talking maga hard cases here, but there are a ton of people out there who think they agree with this stuff because they are simply not realizing what's happening. that's where the action is.

know your role. play your role. stay unified. and for the sake of all that is good and true, don't just stay in your house and scroll the internet. get out there and play defense until we can play offense again.