What you should do to support US democracy and stay sane

The USA have an impact on people globally. What many people living there don’t realize is that globally news outlets cover them to some extent when the news are relevant or big enough. Often news outlets outside the US actually feel more reliable and better researched on domestic US topics than those from within the US!

Language also plays a role. About 1,350 Million people globally speak English and only 340 Million live in the US. That’s roughly 4 non-“Americans” speaking English for every “American.” About 1 Billion people globally understand the domestic US news and social media content, many of whom are active participants in discussions, share and boost social media posts, and generally inflate the numbers, and with it the apparent importance, of English-language content. As opposed to countries whose language is spoken by fewer people, the US therefore has no choice but to “air their dirty laundry publicly.”

Sometimes the US feels like a reality TV show to me, and in the past decade, it has felt more and more like a bad one. I wouldn’t watch if I had a choice, unfortunately, it’s not a bad show, but a country very publicly descending into what looks like a fascist oligarchy. If the US were not important, I’d be saddened by this, but otherwise unaffected. After all, who am I but an unimportant observer without any power to make a difference?

Unfortunately, the US are important and what happens “over there” impacts us all. Also unfortunate is that it is up to the 340 Million people there to stop what’s happening. It’s unfortunate because it looks like they’re failing to stop the attack on their democracy. Maybe it’s too late already, maybe it was too late when President Trump got elected for the first time in 2016. In any case, it means we, those living outside the US, have to draw conclusions from the current situation and adapt.

We can and should help our US neighbours fighting for their democracy by boycotting goods and services from red states, Tesla, and the US in general. This puts pressure on the enablers of Trump, and Trump himself. Additionally, we, the 1 Billion English speakers that are not “American”, should focus our time on two things.

One: We should spend less time participating in US social media and more time engaging with content from our own countries. Remember, for every US citizen there are four English speakers who do not live in the US! This is as much about protecting our sanity, as it is about reducing the engagement numbers for US content. Lower numbers mean the social media algorithms, and the media, have a lower threshold before they pick something up and promote it. This gives activists and democrats a chance to surface topics on social media that would otherwise go unnoticed.

President Trump gets his agenda done by “flooding the zone” to create as much noise as possible. This allows him and his enablers to “hide” the awful stuff in plain sight. It’s the classic “look over there!”, and it’s working because we all look over there. Trump is rage-baiting us, and we need to stop letting him!

Two: When we do engage in US social media, we should “pierce the bubble”. This means we should engage with those posts popular with Trump supporters, but never with likes, reposts, or quote posts—never spread those posts! We should limit ourselves to replies that respectfully and forcefully educate, which sometimes means we need to post a question, not a statement.

The people who support, or supported, President Trump, or their republican governor, are often disadvantaged people who feel left behind, and who feel like nobody cares about their town or even state. They’re not stupid, hateful bigots to be owned, they’re humans. Humans who often have to live under third-world conditions due to poverty and lack of access to education. Many of them are genuinely good people, hurting.

On social media, avoid trying to convince emotionally hurt people with facts. The lies on social media are meant to provoke emotions to manipulate. Often blatant lies are exposed fairly quickly, however, in the meantime the lie has caused thousands of people to feel confirmed in their beliefs. Instead of explaining the truth, call out the manipulation.

In conclusion, I will make an active effort to spend less money on US goods and services and donate less of my time to US social media. And when I can’t resist, I will limit myself to calling out the emotional manipulation that most lies aim to be, instead of “owning” the victims of right-wing manipulative lies.