Have you been laid off? Me too.

What if instead of just finding another job we all team up and build something together? At least we could act as accountability partners and help each other through this phase in our careers.

It doesn't have to be too formal, we could just take turns talking about our next steps and checking in on progress.

If you're interested join the #Matrix server https://matrix.to/#/#fedihire-funemployment-club:matrix.org

Invite your friends!

#fedihire

"Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness... it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

"To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. (1/4)

AP spent a day outside a LA detention center: "On a recent day, dozens of people arrived with medication, clothing and hope of seeing their loved one, if only briefly. After hours of waiting, many were turned away with no news, not even confirmation that their relative was inside. Some relayed reports of horrific conditions inside, including inmates who are so thirsty that they have been drinking from the toilets."

https://apnews.com/article/ice-immigration-raids-detainee-families-los-angeles-651d8bba4752553a67eb53db084677b2

#immigrant #immigration #detention #citizenship #ICE

I designed a Bi-Pan Unity Flag for these trying times.

#queer #lgbtq #bisexual #pansexual #frogandtoad

Okay, I've mentioned this a few times, but let's talk about The Orange Alternative. It's Poland in the 80's and an art history student noticed that when someone would paint an anti-authoritarian message, it would very quickly get painted over by the government. He decided to paint a dwarf with an orange hat any time he'd see the white paint that covered these messages. Soon other people were doing the same. They embraced this kind of absurdism, what the government was doing was ridiculous, so they leaned into it. The paintings of dwarves soon became organized street parties. They would all wear orange pointy hats and walk through the streets with banners, chanting Dwarf Dwarf Dwarf! They would pool what little extra funds they had together and buy things that people needed like toliet paper and tampons, and would have street fairs with food and dancing, and hand them out. At Christmas, they would dress as Santas, and do the same. The police were flummoxed by what to do, if they arrested people for wearing hats and giving out tampons, they looked foolish and would be embarrassed, not sure what to do with these surreal forms of protest.

There is so much more to this, definitely read up on it, but it was an effective form of protest, creating community, spreading joy and absurdism, because authoritarian governments are absurd. Protests are going to look like a lot of different things, and this is just one of them.

In Russia, they have created Little Picketers, tiny rough clay figures holding banners, that they press into people's hands to remind them, that they aren't alone.

So, don't believe the propaganda, you aren't alone in caring, you aren't alone in wanting a different world, put on your goofiest hat, and let people know they aren't alone either.