MISfortunes
Rebel Well: A Starter Survival Guide To A Trumped America
Rebel Well: A Starter Survival Guide To A Trumped America
Under a Trump administration many Americans, especially the most vulnerable, are going to hurt and struggle. Many of us need to protect ourselves; all of us need to help protect and care for each other. Here's an extensive guide to help you do both.
So, here is the awful truth: Our rights, our safety and our civil liberties are currently and broadly at risk to a degree they’ve never been in my lifetime, even though some of them, especially for some of us, have already been tenuous or partial at best. Before the election, the Trump campaign intentionally stoked and escalated racism, sexism, xenophobia, ableism and a host of other ills; further normalized and enabled discrimination, abuse, assault and other violence as part of its strategy to win. That strategy, tragically, worked.
Even though the United States is technically a democracy, what Donald Trump and Mike Pence have promised and already begun doing to set up their administration looks, and will likely function, more like an autocracy or plutocracy. Donald Trump has no political experience, and a well-documented record of engaging in abuse, including sexual abuse, fraud, harassment and intimidation throughout his life. His life history seems solely defined by a quest for power and personal gain on the backs of others. There have been, in years past, as there are right now, endless instances where he has threatened or lashed out at anyone he feels is in the way of what he wants for himself. He keeps showing us we can expect all that to continue; his actions and words so far suggest he intends to abuse the power of the presidency the same ways he’s abused power before he was elected. Mike Pence’s record as a politician when it comes to the rights and safeties of many people is abysmal, particularly when it comes to women, sexual health and LGBQT people: we have every reason to believe it will remain so. The Republican Party has yet to give any indication it will refuse or resist the dangerous policies or harmful social attitudes Trump and his campaign have promised, suggested or enabled.
This is, unfortunately, not a drill. This is real, big bad. Under a Trump administration many of us are going to hurt, get hurt or struggle, or find our existing struggles are made even more difficult. Many of us will need to protect ourselves; many others will need what help, protection and solidarity we can offer them.
Our aim with this guide is to provide information to help you protect yourself and others, and to cope with the bad stuff as best anyone can, so that you feel less scared in facing it and, hopefully, come out of it okay. But the fact that anyone needs this is all by itself really scary, and reading it may make you feel scared.



