Activism For The Lazy
What I read: How to be an activist at home by Greenpeace International. Published April 18, 2020.
I am writing this as we in the United States are hopefully experiencing the tail end of a horrific pandemic as vaccinations roll out at a remarkable pace, but I am fully aware we are not out of the woods yet. Much of the rest of the world is still dealing with a terrible COVID-19 landscape.
So, when I finished reading the Greenpeace article, it sparked reflections back on the past year of trying to engage in activism from the confines of my home in which I have been safely sequestered for the past year. Apart from me taking one calculated risk during the pandemic to march with Black Lives Matter protesters in one of their largest local protests, all my activism has been done at home, most of it in front of my laptop or phone.
My history throughout my adult life has included various forms of activism, behind the scenes, in the streets, or inside legislative offices. Activism for LGBTQ rights. Activism for better HIV care and prevention solutions. Activism for better public health services, especially for gay men, one of the communities of which I am part. Activism regarding sexual freedom for consenting adults. Activism for community betterment. Activism for political candidates for my city, state, and national representatives. Climate change. Women’s rights. Racial equity. The list of causes and people I support is long and varied.
Activism is part of my DNA. It is part of who I am. Being confined to my home for months during the pandemic has required me to adapt to being a different kind of activist. I jokingly tell my friends I have been a lazy activist because what activism I have undertaken has been almost entirely at home.
Using the word lazy here is a bit of a misnomer. What I am referencing is not truly lazy in the definitional sense of the word. Lazy implies being disinclined to any exertion or activity whatsoever. To be an activist, you must act. You must do the work, no matter where that work is undertaken. Lazy in this case just means that you can do it from home per your schedule.
With that said, I feel I need to be clear. These at-home approaches to activism do not replace in-person, boots on the ground activism. Sometimes we need to march and protest. Sometimes we need to make appointments with our governing representatives and plead our case. When a government’s neglect of its people reaches a certain level of heinousness, we might need to rise up in a mass of protesting millions. Please do not assume the lazy activism approaches I mention here are a replacement for other kinds of activism. However, they can still be quite effective.
Of course, there are people for whom direct engagement or in-person protest is anxiety inducing. Not everyone is cut out to hit the streets or march into a Senator’s office demanding change. For those people lazy activism is a way to work for a cause in alignment with their comfort level. It takes all kinds of people to make the world go ‘round, including in the activist realm.
Not everyone has the time, skill set, or physical ability to engage in some of the more physically vigorous forms of activism. Perhaps you are a person with a disability, older, or otherwise homebound. Perhaps you are a busy at-home parent with a few kids to oversee, not leaving you much time to leave the house. Perhaps you live in a remote, sparsely populated area without many activist organizations or groups with which you can align. Can you still be an activist? Absolutely!
Everyone has something to contribute. If you can talk on the phone, you can be an activist. If you can write a letter, you can be an activist. If you have computer or other technical skills, you can be an activist. Just about everyone, unless they have terribly difficult challenges, has the ability to engage in some form of activism from the comfort of their home. There is so much you can do that can affect our laws, elected officials, the collective social conscience, and policies without placing yourself physically anywhere but comfortably on your couch.
My ulterior motive for writing this post is to instill the notion that activism can manifest a multitude of ways and does not always need to require heavy time commitments or face-to-face meetings and gatherings. By giving people activism alternatives I hope to make everyone realize they can be an effective activist, and many of the lazy activist approaches are great for those who show up in person too. Whatever shifts the narrative overall for a cause is helpful.
Please note that what I am discussing here is not slacktivism. What I am referencing are tangible approaches to activism, not do-nothing passive actions. There is a big difference.
The Greenpeace article lists a few ways an at-home activist can do the work: dinner table conversations, building bridges and sharing information, staying informed on the issues, participating in online forums, and leveraging social media. Although these are all great ideas, let me offer a few other things to perhaps spark your own activist energies.
Rather than give you a long list of resources and links randomly scraped from around the web, let me describe a few of the things I did during the 2020 election cycle that helped me feel empowered while at home. And yes, my approach to the 2020 election was partisan and left-leaning, for which I make no apologies. If your politics are otherwise, the lazy activist stuff still applies, but I do hope you use the strategies to make your community and the country better, not worse.
Vote Forward is a nonprofit organization with a mission to empower grassroots volunteers to encourage their fellow citizens in underrepresented communities to vote. During the 2020 election the main mechanism they used was to have their volunteers write nonpartisan letters to voters encouraging them to vote. Names and addresses were given to volunteers from a strategically culled database. I wrote hundreds of these letters and with each letter I felt like I impacted the November 2020 voter turnout in positive ways.
Another similar project is Postcards to Voters. Volunteers write friendly, handwritten reminders on postcards to targeted voters giving Democrats a winning edge in close, key races across the country. I did not write such postcards, but many friends did and reported the same uplifting feeling I get from writing Vote Forward letters.
You might wonder if these letters and postcards are truly effective. The organizations have run tests and proven that their efforts do indeed get more voters to the polls. You can sit at your dining room table and write these letters or postcards and know that you are doing important work. It is quite satisfying.
Vote.org uses technology to simplify political engagement, increase voter turnout, and strengthen American democracy. It is entirely nonpartisan and focuses on getting people registered to vote and voting in elections. While I socialized and especially promoted this website heavily during the 2020 election cycle, anyone can do this throughout the year.
Considering the voter suppression efforts underway in many states, it is best to have people check that their voter registrations are active well ahead of an election. If someone is not registered, it is always best to encourage them to do so right away. Give friends and family members the website to visit later. Encourage voter registration all the time, not just before an important election. Voting is the most important civic right we have as Americans and we must encourage its use in every election.
Indivisible began as a small group of former Congressional staffers writing a step-by-step guide for individuals, groups, and organizations looking to get Congress to listen to a small, vocal, dedicated group of constituents. It has grown into a nationwide movement. Brought together by the guide used to resist the former administration’s agenda, Indivisible is now a movement of thousands of group leaders and more than a million members taking regular, iterative, and increasingly complex actions to resist the Republican agenda, elect local champions, and fight for progressive policies.
Periodically Indivisible sends out action-oriented emails to its members detailing specific, tangible steps you can take to influence an election or policy. It might entail making phone calls, showing up to a local meeting, or attending an online training to improve your activism skills. It is a great organization and I recommend you sign up for their email list. I acted on many of their suggestions and you get a great feeling washing over you as you do something you know will improve life in this country.
Finally, I have the privilege of being able to donate a bit of money here and there to candidates, campaigns, and projects. I probably over-extended financially in 2020, but the situation felt so dire that I was happy to do so. One of the organizations I have chosen to back with my dollars is RepresentUS.
RepresentUS brings together conservatives, progressives, and everyone in between to pass powerful state and local laws that fix our broken elections and stop political bribery. They believe their strategy will be effective to dismantle the root causes of inequities in our democracy, and end political corruption, extremism, and gridlock. I think they have thus far presented the best strategy for fixing our terribly broken government. Check out their Unbreaking America: Solving the Corruption Crisis video to get a sense of their work and approach. Perhaps you will give them money as I have or get involved as one of their volunteers.
If any of this is appealing to you, great. You can search online for a bevy of ways you can participate as an activist to influence outcomes to better your community, your country, and the world. And while doing this, consider at least entertaining the possibility that when it comes times for you to march in the streets or meet with your representative in their office, you might do it.
Activism is not for just the left or right ends of the political spectrum. Whether it is of the lazy or marching shoes on the ground type, activism is for everyone. Civic engagement is something each of us should aspire to maintain as patriotic and caring citizens.
Vote.