My hot take: NO MORE HOT TAKES

As a parent I like to teach my kid the difference between “inside thoughts” and “outside thoughts” — whats worth sharing that adds to the generative goodness of all things, and what just never needs to be uttered in the public square. In regards to this election, many of us online DO NOT understand the difference.

Many of us may need to just “catch a bubble.”

No more blame games or sputtering analysis about who, what, when, why all these bad things are happening. It’s time to build a strategy, join a org, learn from the wins happening at the state level - like in NC - and relish in the fact that on November 5th Nintendo announced its SWITCH 2 would be backwards compatible.

If you’re still feeling out of of the loop on what happened with this election, we got you. My dear colleague at Kairos detailed how Big Tech and Elon Musk - the dystopian billionaire who just became the top Diablo 4 player in the world - decimated our democracy in this election cycle.

Read the latest “ReOrganized” Newsletter - “Trump was re-elected with Big Tech’s help”

We have work to do 🥲 

There is no shortage of fantastic resources from individuals and groups who have been organizing for political transformation long before Trumpism entered the arena. And from my corner of the movement landscape, the message for those of us who are despairing around another 4(+) years of Trump seems to be resoundingly clear: we need our movements to be compelling to working people who have been historical divested from — not just other progressives and activists.

No better time than now to stop being precious with our political identities and start getting real curious about how we move people.

What is PitaBreadFace up to?

Did you know I’m on twitch kind of all the time? You should follow me. Sometimes I’m just on forums and sending DMs on Discord and Reddit - sometimes I’m chatting up the Fortnite lobby. It’s all organizing, actually.  

Experiment #6: Creating Purpose in the NC Public School Culture War

I’ve spent the past few weeks in the build up to election day testing out a fun new idea:

Can I (PitaBreadFace) turn the absolutely toxic online discourse circulating around key statewide races in North Carolina into an organizing opportunity — recruiting rural people in NC into a powerful campaign dedicated to protecting public schools from far-right attacks?

Here are the assumptions behind it all:

Individual online users are playing a key role in determining the outcome of the key elections in NC due to scandals circulating around self-proclaimed “Black Nazi,” Mark Robinson (running for Governor), and Q’Anon conspiracy theorist mom, Michelle Morrow (running for State Superintendent of Public Education).

These online users are drama-seekers (like myself), trolls from all isles, progressive influencers on TikTok, concerned redditers, conservative parents, and home-school families.

There is a way to insert myself into the discourse as a NC voter and parent and move concerned voters and individuals across the isle into taking low and high level actions to support candidates who have plans to better NC.

Listen y’all — I put in 35 hours: commenting, engaging, agitating, cross platform posting, and direct messaging calls to action to acquire vote pledges and to deep canvass online users in NC. My posts reached over 120,000 people and I initiated over 300 conversations.

Some fascinating things happened — plenty of misadventures like this reddit post that absolutely tanked my karma and plenty of wins like getting rural TikTok creators to repost my asks.

I’ll be reporting back with my results in a week. In the meantime, find my highlights on twitch to witness the excitement firsthand.

What I’ve been enjoying online:

Have you met “chill guy?”

If you haven’t met this “lowkey chill guy,” where have you been? I love this dude. He’s cozy / seasonal and versatile in the best way. The days are shorter, the darkness sets in at 5pm, we’re all holding fears about what this next year will bring and he’s just so so chill.

Created by a kid named Philip Banks in October of 2023 — this “lowkey chill guy” seems to be finding an audience with literally every corner of the internet. In my personal algorithm I get a lot of Muslim chill guy content. And without fail, because I am a man, I have been witness to our dear “chill guy” becoming weaponized in a familiar way akin to “pepe the frog” from several years prior.

The narrative war for who and what this “lowkey chill guy” represents is on. Who will win — will he become a new icon of the toxic manosphere or a meaningful representation of tenderness and stability in an increasingly hostile world?

I don’t know but here’s my rebuttal to the toxic memes.

Take this SURVEY before you go!

This survey

See you next week with another update on my reddit work in NC.