I've been up writing since 4:45 a.m. on unresolved trauma as a linchpin to systemic abuses of power under Trump.
The work of @shailiJainMd has made led me to consider in depth how unresolved trauma creates personal and group vulnerability to exploitation and manipulation online.
The work of @shailiJainMd has made led me to consider in depth how unresolved trauma creates personal and group vulnerability to exploitation and manipulation online.
I have a lot to say about this, but for now:
It is more imperative now than ever that we work to heal our trauma, both cultural & personal, as a defense to fascism in the modern age.
Trauma rewires our brains. It makes us hypervigilant, terrified, prone to rage & disconnection.
It is more imperative now than ever that we work to heal our trauma, both cultural & personal, as a defense to fascism in the modern age.
Trauma rewires our brains. It makes us hypervigilant, terrified, prone to rage & disconnection.
Unresolved trauma makes us vulnerable to disinformation and destructive emotional responses.
Mass cultural trauma resulting from white supremacist patriarchy, as well as personal trauma, when not reconciled and healed, become vulnerabilities to be played upon to separate us.
Mass cultural trauma resulting from white supremacist patriarchy, as well as personal trauma, when not reconciled and healed, become vulnerabilities to be played upon to separate us.
Our stability and our capacity to organize and hold off what's coming at us in the election depends upon gathering up our trauma and our vulnerabilities and not allowing them to be played upon to collective detriment.
Bringing to consciousness how your own emotional responses relate to unresolved trauma undermines the ability of those responses to be manipulated, let alone to be manipulated in favor of a particular candidate or set of beliefs.
This is a very big conversation, too big for a Twitter thread, but truly it feels to me like one of our greatest defenses to disinformation and trollbot manipulation is the understanding of how we are triggered based on our personal and cultural histories, and healing ourselves.
Dr. Jain's book is a game-changer on how trauma lives in our brains and bodies, and the science of how it embeds and how we can heal it.
It's made an amazing difference for me already, and I highly recommend it.
amazon.com/Unspeakable-Mi…
It's made an amazing difference for me already, and I highly recommend it.
amazon.com/Unspeakable-Mi…
We all need to carve out space right now to heal, grow in self-awareness, and build defenses to destructive emotional response.
We all need to develop back-checks to the immediate triggers to which we are being conditioned, as a frontline defense for what's coming next.
We all need to develop back-checks to the immediate triggers to which we are being conditioned, as a frontline defense for what's coming next.
Most importantly, we need to develop lives and strategies *offline* that keep us grounded and stable as this administration tries to pull us all into Trump's reelection.
Our own internal work relates directly to the work we can do in the world to save it.
Let's do it together.
Our own internal work relates directly to the work we can do in the world to save it.
Let's do it together.
