How to keep democracy alive in 2025:

1. Be Brave. Avoid helpless/hopeless talk. Authoritarians want you to feel powerless because it makes their work easier. Courage, faith, and optimism are essential. Fascism feeds on cynicism and pessimism. Starve it. 2. Cultivate empathy. One way authoritarians defeat democracy is by trying to destroy empathy. Their strategies depend on dehumanization and division. One of the best ways to resist is to actively cultivate empathy. Democracy depends on empathy.

Full list
theframelab.org/how-to-thrive-…

🧵Why the Democratic Party is the party of freedom:
The traditional idea of freedom is progressive.
America has been a nation of activists, consistently expanding its most treasured freedoms:
theframelab.org/understanding-… 🇺🇸The expansion of citizen participation and voting rights from white male property owners to non-property owners, to former slaves, to women, to those excluded by prejudice, to younger voters.

12 Traps for Democrats to Avoid🧵

1. The Issue Trap: Don’t get trapped in issue silos. Unite around common values such as Freedom and a government Of, By and For the People.
Full Link at FrameLab: theframelab.org/p/twelve-commu…
2. The Poll Trap📊: Leadership is about leading, not following. Instead of simply echoing polls, Democrats must also guide the polls. Remember: “Republicans don't follow polls, Republicans try to change the polls.”

🧵Freedom of speech is the cornerstone of all freedom. But not all speech is the same. Not all speech qualifies as “free speech.” As the indictments pile up against Trump and his co-conspirators, he has tried a ridiculous defense based on “freedom of speech.” According to his cockamamie theory, free speech means he can say whatever he wants, regardless of the consequences. He falsely equates his leadership of the criminal conspiracy to destroy American democracy with the act of having a mere opinion or belief.

🧵 Elon Musk sees his Twitter takeover as part of "a battle for the future of civilization."

His $44 billion purchase of Twitter had one key goal: to buy as much of your brain space as possible.
Yes, there's a method to his madness. georgelakoff.substack.com/p/twitter-ceo-… The world’s richest man has little interest in “free speech.” What he wants is the power to control what the public hears, and to shape reality by turning the so-called “digital town square” into a privately-owned propaganda machine.

Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter gives him direct access to tens of millions of brains, and he is making a zealous public effort to change and control those brains by flooding them with hate and misinformation.

georgelakoff.substack.com/p/algorithm-wa… He creating an echo chamber that forces everyone to engage the extreme conservative ideas in order to make such ideas seem mainstream. He’s shifting the discourse to favor election deniers, racists and insurrectionists …turning Twitter into a social media version of Fox.

Freedom is the most crucial idea in America.

We all cherish and support freedom, yet the very meaning of the word is disputed.

Freedom means different things to different people, depending on their moral worldview. axios.com/2022/12/12/wes… Over time, our definition of freedom has been expanded to include a greater number of people, and our freedoms have expanded in a progressive direction.

We have seen an expansion of citizen participation and voter rights, opportunity, worker rights and public education.

All thought is carried out by neural circuitry — it does not float in air. Language neurally activates thought. Language can thus change brains, both for the better and the worse. Hate speech changes the brains of those hated for the worse. It creates toxic stress, fear and distrust — all physical, all in one’s neural circuitry active every day.

1/ California is an overwhelmingly Democratic state. Governor Gavin Newsom won the 2018 election with 62% of voter support. As governor, he has carried out the desires of California’s overwhelmingly Democratic majority. This is how democracy is supposed to work. 2/ Naturally, Republicans oppose what Newsom has done as governor and would like to remove him from office. Under California law, the signatures of only 12% of the total number of votes cast in the previous election can trigger a recall election.

When hate is physically in your brain, then you think hate and feel hate, and you are moved to act to carry out what you physically - in your neural system - think and feel. medium.com/@GeorgeLakoff/… Like violence, hate speech can also be a physical imposition on the freedom of others. That is because language has a psychological effect imposed physically — on the neural system, with long-term crippling effects.

Are you putting money into the pockets of a pro-Trump Fox News host? You are if you support Democratic candidates through @Crowdpac. Crowdpac CEO @SteveHiltonx regularly attacks Democrats and progressives during his Fox News appearances. medium.com/@GeorgeLakoff/… #DumpCrowdpac Crowdpac CEO Hilton's specialties:
1. Attacking our immigrant communities and supporting Trump’s bigoted immigration policies.

2. Attacking unions.

3. Parroting NRA talking points on gun violence.

(THREAD) A Trump-connected Russian businessman has filed a baseless lawsuit against me. But in just three days, more than 500 people contributed over $20,000 to my Trump Tower Lawsuit legal defense fund! Please give if you can – any amount helps. gofundme.com/lakoff-freedom… Unfortunately, I’m not alone in being targeted by Russian lawsuits. Major media outlets are also being sued. This week, a Russian businessman filed a lawsuit against the respected @guardian newspaper. courthousenews.com/businessman-su…

THREAD: Like some foreign dictator, the Republican in the White House will attack the free press today. Here are a few action strategies to flip his negative attacks into positive persistence.
1. Show your support for courageous journalists who #ProtectTheTruth 2. BECOME A SUBSCRIBER. Whether it’s your local paper or a national publication, subscribe. Show that you value truthful journalism and will pay for it. Support public radio or independent reader-supported operations like @MotherJones motherjones.com/about/support/

This is about courage. Courage is required when you deal with people who don’t care about other people. Republicans want us to turn our backs on Americans who need health care. #governmentshutdown They want us to turn our backs on young Americans brought here from other countries as children. Republicans want us to turn our backs on people who need education – the very key to opportunity and prosperity. They want us to abandon the very ideals at the core of America.

Trump uses social media as a weapon to control the news cycle. It works like a charm. His tweets are tactical rather than substantive. They mostly fall into one of these four categories. The tweets either get his framing established first, knowing that whoever frames first tends to win. Or when things look bad for him, he diverts attention or attacks the messenger. And when he wants to test public opinion, he puts out an outrageous trial balloon.

This is a battle over how we define freedom and how we govern our nation.
We must:
-Frame the debate around morality and values, not policy
-Emphasize the role of the Public, and the Public Good
-Understand the operative metaphors and use them
-Learn from past victories/defeats

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To quote President Franklin D. Roosevelt: "This is more than a political campaign. This is a call to arms."

Donald Trump and Republicans are trying to restrict American freedom and destroy the Internet as we know it. We can't let that happen.
georgelakoff.com/2017/11/26/pro… #NetNeutrality They want to hand control of a crucial public resource – the Internet – over to corporations. These corporations will then be able to restrict the flow of information, effectively censor voices of dissent, and charge outrageous prices for access to online services.

1. Pharma companies depend on public investments in medical science (@NIH) to develop drugs. Taxpayers pay for those investments. #SB17

https://twitter.com/CourageCampaign/status/867827291048497153

@NIH 2. When Pharma companies market new drugs (thanks to public investment), they often charge outrageously high prices for those drugs.

1/ The big question on Trump's tax returns is: did he commit Treason? Are Russian debts behind his support for America’s major enemy? 2/ Suspicion is growing. The returns contain the evidence. Voters care about Treason.

1. Trump is a super salesman. He is always selling. The product is himself, his authority, and the world he wants to bring into existence. 2. Like any great salesman, he knows how to use your brain to serve HIS purposes, not yours.