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US Election -- Memo to the Movement



Dear Avaazers,

I wanted to write from the heart about what just happened in the US, and what's happening around the world.

The shock is justified -- the most powerful nation in the world will be led by a breathtakingly ignorant, bigoted, violent, pathologically lying, sexually predatory, vengeful, authoritarian, corrupt reality TV star. Those aren't insults, they're facts.

How is democracy coming to this? How do we deal with it? I want to offer 5 points:

1) Acceptance -- we can't wisely change anything about the world or ourselves if we don't first accept it. So take a deep breath, and let's face it. President Trump. And 'Trumpism', or ethno-nationalism, striving for power in many of our countries.

2) Holistic Evaluation -- I can't find a better name for this concept, but our brains have a deep negativity bias. We are easily overwhelmed by fearful focus on the negative, and we make awful judgments when we are. The desperation fueled by this irrational negativity is how demagogues rise. We can't let it happen to us. So looking at the situation holistically, here's some reassuring points:
3) Focused Alarm -- now that acceptance and holistic evaluation ensure we're not freaking out unproductively, let's focus our concern where it most needs to be:
4) It's the Media, Stupid -- Despite ALL evidence to the contrary, the American public overwhelmingly saw Hillary Clinton as MORE dishonest and corrupt than Donald Trump. This, by itself, is the reason why Trump is president. And it's the media's fault. US network news devoted more time to coverage of Clinton's totally BS email scandal than TO ALL POLICY ISSUES COMBINED. On the one side, we have ruthlessly sophisticated partisan propaganda media, vast quantities of totally fake 'news' going insanely viral, huge armies of fake social media avatars and hired trolls that cocoon people in social media reality-free bubbles. And on the other side we have an 'impartial' media that chases fake scandals and ratings and suggests false equivalence between the sides in the name of appearing balanced. This dynamic was in play with Brexit as well. We desperately need a smarter media. Very few organisations campaign on this, and Avaaz needs to.

5) This is a HUGE opportunity, let's rise to it -- change doesn't happen in a steady, linear way. We human beings learn best from crisis and calamity. Our brightest lights emerge from our deepest darknesses. World War II gave us human rights and the United Nations. And the darknesses of Trumpism could help us build the most inspiring movement for human unity and progress the world has EVER seen, to not only beat back the Trumps in each of our countries, but to do so with a new, people-centred, high-integrity, inspiring politics that brings massive change towards the world we dream of. Let's get to work on it :)

With hope, and apologies for the long memo,
Ricken