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[1] [citation needed]
a newsletter by Molly White
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[24]Newsletter
Wind the clock
A message to those asking “what do I do now?”
[25] Molly White
[26]Molly White
Nov 8, 2024 — 9 min read
Wind the clock
audio-thumbnail
Wind the clock
0:00
/962.011429
[29][0 ]1×[33][100 ]
Listen to a voiceover of this post, [34]subscribe to the feed in your podcast
app, or [35]download the recording for later.
I had allowed myself to hope that American voters would choose the better of
the presidential options available to us, and I was wrong. I am disappointed. I
am sad. I am afraid.
But, you see, I was disappointed, sad, and afraid before the election, too. In
and outside of the United States, across the political spectrum, governments
are and have been failing their people. And it is the people who have been
fighting not just to protect themselves, their communities, and the things they
love, but also fighting for people they’ve never met, in places they’ve never
been, living lives they’ve never lived, facing horrors they’ve never faced.
No matter how the United States election went, the fights were going to
continue. A Harris victory would not solve our problems, domestically or
worldwide. Nor would it change the fact that a sizable portion of people in
this country are buying what Trump and his allies are selling. The only open
questions were who the specific adversaries in the White House would be, who
among the fighters would keep fighting, and who would join the fight.
The first question has been answered. Now the questions are: if you have been
fighting already, are you going to continue to fight? If you haven’t been, are
you going to begin?
Three arrows: a black arrow pointing right, a blue arrow pointing up and
slightly to the left, and a red arrow pointing more to the leftOnward.
Maybe you’re sick of people telling you to fight. After all of that organizing,
marching, and get-out-the-voting, Trump won the election anyway, so what’s even
the point?
A lot of people feel like they’ve just finished running a marathon only to
cross what they thought was the finish line and discover a whole other marathon
stretched out in front of them. Oh and guess what, this one’s all uphill. How
do you even summon the energy to start running in that scenario?
Maybe you don’t. If you are able, maybe you sit on the sidelines for a while
and rest. Grieve. Be angry. Restore some energy for what lies ahead. Take some
time to shore up your defenses, figure out a plan, and keep going. Be grateful
it is an option to you, because not everyone has the luxury.
Or maybe instead of running, you just trudge along for a bit, slowly placing
one foot in front of the other. Take just the little steps necessary to keep
moving forward.
Maybe you change how you fight. A lot of people right now are reckoning with
failures of their political party, or of the whole political apparatus. But
electoral politics — especially only at the national level — are far from the
only battleground. The fights we are fighting do not neatly begin and end with
election cycles. Donating to your preferred presidential candidate and knocking
on doors are all well and good, but maybe it’s time to try something new. Even
the smallest acts can be a part of your fight: standing up for your values when
faced with something that goes against them, offering a couch to your kid’s
trans friend who is struggling at home, offering a meal to the unhoused person
you see outside your building every day, stepping in with mutual aid to help
the people who have been fighting like hell and can’t otherwise afford to take
those breaks we all need to rest and recharge.
What you don’t do is give up. The outcome of this election has exposed to many
the realities we didn’t want to see, of just how many people around us openly
embrace hatred and bigotry and authoritarianism. Standing up to that can be
scary and even dangerous, but it is also right. Beliefs are the things you
stand for even when it’s scary, even when it’s hard, even when there might be
consequences. And the less danger you, personally, face for standing up for
what you believe, the more obligated you are to do it. To my fellow cisgender
white women, this means you. To the cis white men, doubly so.
Many in this country have been hard at work trying to shift the [36]Overton
window, to normalize the unthinkable and to make the sensible seem extreme. You
do not have to shift with it. You do not have to accept arguments to moderation
when the “moderate” stance is unreasonable.
You do not have to sit down and shut up as things around us get more and more
extreme, as threats to peoples’ rights and lives get even more dire, even as
others around you insist everything’s fine and you’re just being dramatic.
People will tell me to stop getting political in this newsletter,^[37]a to get
back to writing about cryptocurrency and technology like they signed up for, to
stop catastrophizing, to “let it go” and accept the “will of the people”. I
will not. You needn’t either.
Many of us have looked back on historic events where people have bravely stood
up against powerful adversaries and wondered, “what would I have done?” Now is
your chance to find out. It did not just start with this election; it has been
that time for a long time. If you’re just realizing it now, get your ass in
gear. Make yourself proud.
Now what?
First things first, protect yourself. Even if you think the threat of
authoritarianism is overblown, take steps to defend against it. If you’re a
journalist, maybe read this section twice.
• Find your communities. Most people have many communities: the friend group
you hang out with in real life, your family, your neighbors, your internet
friends, your coworkers, your church or synagogue or mosque or other
religious community. Strengthen these communities. If you don’t feel like
you have much in the way of community, begin forming them: join new social
groups, and try to meet likeminded people near you. Introduce yourself to
your neighbors.
• Join (or start) a union. There’s strength in numbers, and especially if
your industry may fall under threat, you’ll want to unionize now and not
wait for that threat to materialize.
• Consider taking proactive steps to obtain healthcare that could become
challenging to obtain in the future, if you are able. For example, if you
need to replace or are considering getting an IUD, now might be the time.
• Use end-to-end-encrypted messaging apps for your communications. I use [38]
Signal heavily, but there are other options. Please know that not all apps
that advertise E2EE enable it by default or offer it for group chats
(looking at you Telegram), so double check that.
• Consider [39]choosing a VPN to help protect your privacy online, and learn
about the pros and cons of using them. Learn when, why, and how to use Tor.
The EFF has [40]good guides depending on your operating system.
• Consider reducing your reliance on centralized social networks controlled
by billionaires, and instead [41]establishing a web presence you control.
Evaluate the risks when choosing hosting providers, make backups, and make
it as easy as possible to switch hosts should the need arise.
• Consider no longer using apps that collect and store sensitive data, such
as period tracker or fertility apps. Be cautious about location tracking
and other tech-enabled surveillance.
• Find and support trusted sources of news and information. If you rely
heavily on mainstream news outlets owned by billionaires who were first in
line to congratulate Trump on his victory, consider diversifying your media
diet. [42]ProPublica, [43]404 Media, and [44]Flaming Hydra are a couple of
great publications, or the Institute for Nonprofit News has a [45]great
directory of many more. Subscribe to and/or financially support independent
solo writers like [46]Parker Molloy (The Present Age), [47]Erin Reed, [48]
Marisa Kabas (The Handbasket), and [49]Seamus Hughes (Court Watch). Pay for
a subscription to your local newspaper. Maybe also subscribe to a non-US
paper while you’re at it. Consider supplementing your social feeds with an
RSS-powered [50]blogroll.
How do I fight?
For anyone feeling like you don’t know what to do, I urge you to think hard
about what matters most to you, and look for ways to fight for those things
— particularly if you have specific skills that you can put to use. Are you a
good writer? Tech savvy? A compelling leader? Good at coming up with new ideas?
Find things that play to your strengths. And most importantly, find people who
are members of communities under threat and/or experienced organizers doing
this work already, and ask them what they need. Help the people around you. Be
there for the people you love.
What matters to me may not be the most important thing to you, and it’s easiest
to keep fighting when you’re fighting for something you care deeply about. With
that said, here are just a few of the things I care about that might serve as a
launching point:
Press freedom and access to information
Trump and his allies have issued multitudes of threats against journalists, and
anti-media sentiment is reaching a fever pitch across the political spectrum.
The United States has already sunk to [51]#55 on the Reporters Without Borders’
press freedom tracker — the lowest it has ever been — and will likely only fall
further once Trump takes office.
• Fight back against Trump’s attempts to weaponize the FCC and other
government agencies against news organizations, such as by [52]revoking TV
stations’ broadcast licenses or accusing publishers of [53]“treason” for
factual reporting
• Urge your Senators to back the [54]PRESS Act to protect journalists from
surveillance and provide journalist-source confidentiality
• Push for a federal [55]anti-SLAPP law to replace piecemeal and easily
dodged state-level protections for journalists from the kinds of frivolous
but financially ruinous defamation lawsuits popular among people like
Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
• Support groups working on journalist legal defense initiatives, like the
[56]Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and [57]others. If you’re
a lawyer, consider offering pro bono legal representation.
• For the tech savvy: help journalists, writers, and archivists protect
themselves and their work. Those who are looking to go independent are
often looking for advice or tech help. Consider contributing to open source
projects like the [58]Internet Archive.
• Support and fight for your local libraries. Get a library card and use it.
Volunteer.
• Push back at the local level against efforts to ban books in schools, or to
remove important topics from school curricula.
• Support data activist groups like [59]DDoSecrets.
• Support and contribute to open knowledge projects like [60]Wikipedia and
those stewarded by the [61]Free Law Project ([62]CourtListener and [63]
RECAP among them).
Migrant rights
Trump has threatened mass deportations “on day one”, along with an order to end
birthright citizenship. Advisers have boasted of “turbocharging” Trump’s
denaturalization projects from his previous administration, which sought to
strip Americans of their citizenship.
• Tech workers: refuse to develop software for corporations building
surveillance tech for ICE and similar groups.
• Find and support your local immigration advocacy group, especially if you
have legal or organizing experience, or if you are multilingual.
• Support groups like [64]Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD),
including through donations or volunteer work.
Reproductive rights
Trump’s promise to “leave abortion up to the states” rather than enact a
federal ban still poses a grave threat to reproductive rights, if it is even to
be believed. [65]Project 2025 outlines plans to restrict access to
mifepristone, enforce the Comstock Act to block medical supplies, equipment, or
abortion drugs from being sent by mail, and even limit access to
contraceptives.
• [66]Find and support your local abortion funds. They often are in most
desperate need of help, compared to national and well-known organizations
like Planned Parenthood.
• Volunteer with your local reproductive rights advocacy group by helping to
organize or becoming a [67]clinic escort.
• Consider obtaining emergency contraceptives or [68]abortion pills to have
on hand for yourself or others. Plan B and mifepristone have shelf lives of
4 and 5 years, respectively.
Trans rights
The Trump campaign doubled down on attacks on trans people, even incorporating
it into their advertising. Trump has, among other things, vowed to limit access
to gender-affirming care and even defund schools that recognize transgender
students.
• Find, support, and volunteer with your local LGBTQ organization.
• Contribute to those fundraising for their gender-affirming care, including
those who are now urgently trying to accelerate their healthcare plans, who
are trying to renew and update their identification, or who are trying to
move states. Help out individuals you know, or look for [69]local mutual
aid funds.
• Become involved at a local level to push back against efforts to block or
remove gender-affirming policies from schools, or ban books about queer and
trans life (among other topics)
• Fiercely support trans people and educate those around you — including
Democrats now tempted to blame Harris’s loss on “the trans issue”.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Finally: remember to take care of yourselves. There is a long road ahead, but
we’re in this together.
As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate
woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the
thing that is left to us, in a bad time. I shall get up Sunday morning and
wind the clock, as a contribution to order and steadfastness.
Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say, the weather is a
great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society — things can
look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed, sometimes
rather suddenly. It is quite obvious that the human race has made a queer
mess of life on this planet. But as a people we probably harbor seeds of
goodness that have lain for a long time waiting to sprout when the
conditions are right. Man’s curiosity, his relentlessness, his
inventiveness, his ingenuity have led him into deep trouble. We can only
hope that these same traits will enable him to claw his way out.
Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow
is another day.E.B. White (1973)
Footnotes
1. It is still a mystery to people how people read this newsletter and think
it is anything but political. Crypto is political. Technology is political.
Journalism is political. [70]↩
Social share image is "[71]Repairing the clock inside the clock tower at the
Old Post Office in Washington, D.C. ", a photograph by [72]Carol M. Highsmith.
Loved this post? Consider [73]signing up for a pay-what-you-want subscription
or [74]leaving a tip to support Molly White's work, which is entirely funded by
readers like you. You can also check out what’s new in the [75]store!
Read more
[76] Video: The Cryptocurrency Industry's Unprecedented Election Spending
Video: The Cryptocurrency Industry's Unprecedented Election Spending
Let's talk about where the money came from, where it went, the cryptocurrency
industry's political goals, and what’s next.
Nov 22, 2024
[77] A “Department of Government Efficiency” image featuring Donald Trump, Elon
Musk, and the dogecoin mascot
Issue 70 – The Cryptocurrency States of America
Crypto’s efforts to buy the 2024 elections paid off, and we’re in for a bumpy
ride.
Nov 15, 2024
[78] An illustration of a man with the Coinbase logo for a head, holding an
eager tiger looking to attack a woman with a shield
Issue 69 – Nice
Coinbase threatens me that continuing to report on their activities would be
“.... unwise”. Also, election spending hits a fever pitch, with several new
crypto PACs coming out of the woodwork.
Nov 2, 2024
[79] A grid of photos titled “Our team”. All of them are Molly, wearing various
outfits, sunglasses, and hats.
I am my own legal department: the promise and peril of “just go independent”
Independent publishing is one important facet of the media ecosystem, and while
I love it, I know it is not the path for everyone.
Oct 26, 2024
Citation Needed features critical coverage of the cryptocurrency industry and
of issues in the broader technology world.
It is independently published by Molly White, and entirely supported by readers
like you.
[80]Subscribe
• [81]Archive
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© 2024 Molly White.
References:
[1] https://www.citationneeded.news/
[4] https://www.citationneeded.news/page/2/
[5] https://www.citationneeded.news/tag/weekly-recaps/
[6] https://www.citationneeded.news/podcast/
[7] https://store.mollywhite.net/
[8] https://www.citationneeded.news/about/
[9] https://www.citationneeded.news/rss/
[10] https://donate.stripe.com/14k8AseTNaqLaZy7ss
[11] https://www.citationneeded.news/privacy/
[13] https://www.citationneeded.news/wind-the-clock/?ref=wheresyoured.at#/portal/signin
[14] https://www.citationneeded.news/signup
[24] https://www.citationneeded.news/tag/newsletter/
[25] https://www.citationneeded.news/author/molly/
[26] https://www.citationneeded.news/author/molly/
[34] https://www.citationneeded.news/podcast/
[35] https://www.citationneeded.news/content/media/2024/11/2024-11-08-Wind-the-clock-1.mp3
[36] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window
[37] https://www.citationneeded.news/wind-the-clock/?ref=wheresyoured.at#footnote-1
[38] https://signal.org/
[39] https://www.wired.com/story/best-vpn/
[40] https://ssd.eff.org/module-categories/tool-guides
[41] https://www.citationneeded.news/posse/
[42] https://www.propublica.org/
[43] https://www.404media.co/
[44] https://flaminghydra.com/
[45] https://findyournews.org/
[46] https://www.readtpa.com/
[47] https://www.erininthemorning.com/
[48] https://www.thehandbasket.co/
[49] https://www.courtwatch.news/
[50] https://www.mollywhite.net/blogroll/
[51] https://rsf.org/en/usa-rsf-urges-both-presidential-campaigns-commit-strengthening-press-freedom
[52] https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/22/media/trump-strip-tv-station-licenses-punish-media/index.html
[53] https://thehill.com/homenews/4222082-trump-blasted-threats-against-comcast-nbc/
[54] https://www.spj.org/news.asp?ref=3026
[55] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_lawsuit_against_public_participation
[56] https://www.rcfp.org/
[57] https://onlineharassmentfieldmanual.pen.org/legal-resources-for-writers-and-journalists/
[58] https://archive.org/about/volunteerpositions.php
[59] https://ddosecrets.com/
[60] https://www.citationneeded.news/become-a-wikipedian-in-30-minutes/
[61] https://free.law/
[62] https://www.courtlistener.com/
[63] https://free.law/recap
[64] https://www.organizedcommunities.org/get-involved
[65] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025
[66] https://abortionfunds.org/find-a-fund/
[67] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinic_escort
[68] https://www.plancpills.org/
[69] https://www.folxhealth.com/library/mutual-aid-funds
[70] https://www.citationneeded.news/wind-the-clock/?ref=wheresyoured.at#footnote-anchor-1
[71] https://www.loc.gov/resource/highsm.17684/?r=0.133,-0.171,0.772,0.655,0
[72] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_M._Highsmith
[73] https://www.citationneeded.news/signup
[74] https://donate.stripe.com/14k8AseTNaqLaZy7ss
[75] https://store.mollywhite.net/
[76] https://www.citationneeded.news/video-the-cryptocurrency-industrys-unprecedented-election-spending/
[77] https://www.citationneeded.news/issue-70/
[78] https://www.citationneeded.news/issue-69/
[79] https://www.citationneeded.news/i-am-my-own-legal-department/
[80] https://www.citationneeded.news/signup
[81] https://www.citationneeded.news/page/2/
[82] https://www.citationneeded.news/tag/weekly-recaps/
[83] https://www.citationneeded.news/podcast/
[84] https://store.mollywhite.net/
[85] https://www.citationneeded.news/about/
[86] https://www.citationneeded.news/rss/
[87] https://donate.stripe.com/14k8AseTNaqLaZy7ss
[88] https://www.citationneeded.news/privacy/
[89] https://twitter.com/molly0xFFF/
[90] https://hachyderm.io/@molly0xfff
[91] https://bsky.app/profile/molly.wiki
[92] https://www.youtube.com/@molly0xfff
[93] https://www.tiktok.com/@molly0xfff
[94] https://www.mollywhite.net/