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FAFO won't get us out of this mess. Action will. If you need a suggestion, try No Buy Friday. [1]

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Date: 2025-03-31

I am not a fan of FAFO stories. (F*** Around and Find Out). FAFO is frequently presented in an inherently passive manner. The general outline is portray a Trump voter voted for Trump for X reason. Point out when Trump does the opposite of X reason. And some stories will finish with pointing out the Trump voter being angry with Trump after he does the opposite of why they voted for him. The underlying goal of such stories is frequently two-fold. There is a little kick of Schadenfreude for the reader hearing the Trump voters are getting punished TOO. And there is the often unstated assumption that said Trump voters will learn from their experience and “do something”. Perhaps they won’t vote for Trump next time. And they won’t vote for him why? Because they learned? Did they? Like all those Trump voters who got screwed by Trump the first time around who ended up voting for him again?

If you want your Schadenfreude kick and this does it for you, go right ahead. It doesn’t do it for me, but I’m not going to stand in your way. But if you think FAFO is going to save us all on its own, then we have a problem. FAFO might feel good because it gives us hope for change. But without related follow up action it is a passive hope and you might as well be wishing for Santa Claus to bail us out.

The standard FAFO story has the underlying premise of the underpants gnomes meme:

Phase 1, Trump voter experiences pain from a Trump policy.

Phase 2, ?

Phase 3, Democracy returns to the US

The joke of the underpants gnomes is that what originally sounds like a good idea doesn’t actually have value unless we can connect the initial Phase with all the steps and actions required to get to profit. And without a reasonable set of steps and actions mapped out, the whole concept is really just a big wish.

Democracy will not return to the United States without a whole lot of action on our part. We got close to putting Trump in jail and he won’t forget that. He learned he can ignore the law and so long as he doesn’t give up power, he will never give that power up again. And every person who commits a crime in furtherance of Trump has great incentive to commit even more crimes to prevent Democracy and Rule of Law from ever returning to this country. MAGA has crossed the Rubicon. They will cheat and commit crimes to keep their power going. They showed that in 2021 and in everything they do and say.

That doesn’t mean we need to give up on Democracy or the democratic process remaining to us. But it does mean we need to be ready when the cheating happens. The threat to us is not in a fair voting process. We can win a fair voting process. The problem comes when either the voting process is corrupted and/or Trump ignores the results. What to do in the event of a corrupted voting process or Trump ignoring the results is long, complicated, and too much for this particular article. But my point here is that it will require action. It will require going to the streets. It will required lawsuits. It will require many more things, all of them action and none of them counting on former Trump supporters to see the light and magically free us.

And my point here is that we need action. Which action? I’m sadly as in-the-dark as everyone else on what the best path forward is. But what I do know is that sitting and hoping is not the best path forward. As things become clearer we can hopefully all coalesce on the best path forward. But until that path is clear we need to act with the best information we do have.

So act. You don’t need to create anything new or have an original idea. There are plenty of people suggesting things. Go rage on a Tesla if that does it for you. Go to protests. Prepare to go to Washington DC to protest. Become active in your local Democratic Party. Do whatever works for you. But do it.

If you are looking for a low bar to cross before taking on something you deem risky, join the No Buy Friday movement. You don’t even need to buy less goods on average, simply don’t buy it on Friday. You can still go out on a Friday night, just try to do it with a locally owned business and pay in cash. Personally, I’ve been participating in No Buy Friday and it just requires thinking ahead a few days before. Be sure to shop on Thursday and top up on gas. If you just have to buy something, go ahead. No biggie. Just minimize the times you do so. The reduction is the point.

The cool thing about just starting to do No Buy Friday is that you will start to run into related ways to take action. Some people will go on to boycott particular stores (I’ve reduced my Target purchases by 95%). Some people will discover minimalist living and reduce consumption in general. And some will stay with No Buy Friday and some will go on to something else entirely. If you entirely hate No Buy Friday do something else and have at it.

But the point is to begin to take action. Don’t be a passive receiver of what is coming down the pike. Make the changes in lifestyle that takes power away from oligarchs. You don’t have to torch a Tesla showroom to screw over Elon.

Many of you are acting already. Please share what works for you in the comments. But act. Don’t wait for FAFO to solve the problem for you because it will never happen without the people rising up. Collectively we have far more power than the oligarchs which is why they work to convince you to do nothing. Beware of folks who poo-poo an idea without good reason and without encouraging to some other action. We will figure this out together. And we will do so by trying lots of things. Some will work, some won’t. As we figure out what is working then we can try to coalesce around those things. Until then, don’t try to sell me on FAFO without providing phase 2 and some concrete action. And definitely don’t crap on other people’s actions you haven’t even tried.

Do the actions that speak to you to resist and use the best of your judgment in working towards a better world for everyone.

Join me on Bluesky! peterolandt.bsky.social

If you want me to write more you can support me by buying me a coffee.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/31/2313662/-FAFO-won-t-get-us-out-of-this-mess-Action-will-If-you-need-a-suggestion-try-No-Buy-Friday?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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