Welcome to Dispatch #44! As we're sure many have experienced, being politically aware can be incredibly draining and it's easy to fall into despair when we are bombarded with everything that's wrong with the world. While awareness is critical, it's just as important to not let that awareness turn into cynicism or burnout. We must do everything to keep hope alive within ourselves, because hope is the basis for taking action. This week, let's explore 4 different concepts that we enjoy that help us stay hopeful, the story of a restaurant using food to break through propaganda, a theory about why American political parties often fall short, new resources, and more - let's get into it!
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Easy Actions to Take
Why: Congolese armed forces have failed to protect civilians and have committed serious crimes, including rape and other violations of international law. Armed groups supporting government forces have also abused civilians. But none of them have been held accountable. This can change if millions of people act together. Push Congolese authorities to establish an internationalized justice mechanism that will investigate and prosecute both Congolese and foreign actors suspected of having committed crimes under international law in the DRC. Organized by Amnesty International
Why: Palantir’s mass surveillance technology is being integrated into key healthcare systems across the world, exposing private patient data to a private company actively involved in surveillance and war crimes globally. The UK government must decide by December 2026 whether to keep NHS England’s £330m Federated Data Platform contract with Palantir. Alternatives to Palantir already exist, but what’s missing is the political will to go another direction. Organized by Newscord
Why: Breakthrough News is one of the most visible and consistent leftist news outlets covering politics in the United States and has recently come under attack by the House Ways and Means committee as part of Trump’s crackdown on leftist opposition, falsely claiming that their political views and reporting are part of some foreign plot. This is a blatant attack on the First Amendment and, if not resisted, will set precedent for more attacks in the future. Organized by Breakthrough News
Little (Movement) Wins
How a Restaurant Used Food to Fight Propaganda
Activist History
For most Americans, the first time they come face to face with a country the USA is bombing is through the news. Through our screens, they see the genocide in Palestine, the crippling sanctions on Cuba and Iran, the kidnapping of Presidents in Venezuela - and while that might inform them about what the US is doing, that information does nothing to humanize the people who are directly affected. The news becomes the lens through which everyday people view the world, which only offers a distorted and dehumanized version of reality.
In 2010, two Pittsburgh artists, Jon Rubin and Dawn Weleski, came up with a different entry point: Food. Together they opened Conflict Kitchen, a takeout restaurant that only serves cuisine from countries the United States is in conflict with. The concept may sound simple, but the impacts are not.
Continue reading to learn about Conflict Kitchen and how they used food to build cross-cultural bridges and break through American propaganda.
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Rotating Villain Theory
The Conscious Citizens Dictionary
In American politics, the Rotating Villain Theory was articulated by journalist Glenn Greenwald to describe how a party with enough votes to pass or block legislation can still somehow come up short on key issues, in particular the Democrat Party. Greenwald proposes the Democratic Party, when it has enough votes to pass popular legislation but doesn’t actually want to, will designate scapegoats who will vote against the party line and kill the legislation. This maintains plausible deniability by making it seem like the party actually supported the legislation, but just didn’t quite have enough votes to get it passed. The “rotating villains” are often from safe districts or up for re-election anyway which allows for maximum diffusion of responsibility.
Recent examples of the Rotating Villain Theory in action could be the Iran War Powers resolution which failed by one vote, or the House of Representatives vote on the National Defense Authorization Act that included a provision to merge the Israeli and US militaries which was passed with 5 Democrat votes. Without insight into the inner workings of the DNC, it is difficult to confirm whether there is this level of strategy and backdoor dealing going on, but this is a pattern that does often seem to emerge. This website is tracking “rotating villains” in the US Congress.
4 Concepts to Stay Hopeful in Times of Crisis
Deep Dive
Let’s be honest - humans never evolved to be so plugged into all the problems in the world. Our nervous systems just aren’t built for it, so being politically activated (even if it’s important) can take a huge toll on us. In this digital age, our phones and computers have become a portal into every anxiety inducing event happening around the world. As a result, many people find themselves emotionally exhausted and overwhelmed, and quickly our political awareness turns into cynicism, burnout, and hopelessness.
Hopeless is just how the ruling class wants us. When we lack hope, we lack the will to fight or show up for others. Things become “just the way they are” that can never be changed (which is far from the truth). In order to be in the fight for the long term, having hope is essential. That can sound silly or naive to some, but hope is the seeds for resistance - a survival strategy etched deep into our biology.
Since the earliest humans walked this earth ~300,000 years ago, hope has propelled us to overcome adversity, build new societies, and dream of better futures. It’s not just wishful thinking; it’s an essential mechanism that has kept our species alive for generations. When we feel hopeful, the brain releases chemicals like dopamine that feeds motivation to take action towards finding solutions and persevering through hardships. In this way, hope is a biological push forward, a nudge from evolution itself to keep going. Countless communities that have faced great adversity have kept hope alive, from Africans experiencing the transatlantic slave trade to Native Americans facing genocide to Palestinians resisting occupation. All of these communities have held onto a deep hope and belief that even in the face of insurmountable odds, as long as they kept pushing forward together despite the uncertainty, things would improve.
So how do we find balance and keep hope? That answer is different for everyone. But here at the Conscious Citizens, there are a few concepts that we have found helpful to keep the internal light on when everything else feels dark and wanted to share them in case it’ll help you too.
Continue reading to learn about 4 different concepts that help us stay hopeful even when things look really really bleak.
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“Human beings are limited only by what we allow ourselves to be limited by: our own minds. We are each the masters of our own reality; when we become self-aware of this, absolutely anything in the world is possible.”
–Mike Norton
Resources & Tools
Here are some recent adds to the directory. Please share these links with anyone that might find them helpful:
- 📓 How to Kick Out Flock and Organize to Stop Mass Surveillance | A detailed step-by-step guide written by Aaron Fernando for Shareable to help you get Flock out of your city. Aaron is an organizer with the group FlockOff! Ithaca, which successfuly pressured two municipal governments in Upstate New York to end contracts with Flock Safety. If he can do it, so can you!
- 🧩 AI Resist List | Built by journalists and researchers including author Karen Hao, the AI Resist List documents dozens of grassroots movements around the world – from data poisoning tools for artists to worker coalitions and community-controlled language models – organized around 9 pillars that aim to keep the AI industry’s power in check. Lots of interesting links here!
- 🖥 Harper | A free, open-source, private grammar checker that never trains models using your writing. It's a great private alternative to Grammarly.
➡️ Explore More on our Directory!
If you're new here, don't forget to sign up to get full access to our directory and free newsletters sent to your inbox every other Sunday. Till next time, do your best and take it one day at a time. Care for yourself and the people around you. Believe that the world can be better than it is now. Never give up. And remember, you're not alone. We always have each other.
With Love & Light,
Elisa & Ray
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