How To Stay Engaged When Everything Feels Helpless
They Want You Overwhelmed.
The first month of this administration has been anything but gradual, setting the tone for a chaotic and uncertain road ahead. The Trump administration came in swinging—yet again pulling us out of the Paris Climate Agreement, rolling back environmental protections, scrubbing climate data from government websites, and making it clear that science, truth, and public health are nowhere on their list of priorities. If it feels like too much to process all at once–that’s because it’s designed to be.
This isn’t just about bad policy, it’s about overwhelming you into submission. It’s exactly what Naomi Klein warned about in The Shock Doctrine—a tactic where those in power create (or take advantage of) chaos to push through extreme policies that benefit corporations and the wealthy, while the public is too disoriented and overwhelmed to fight back. Among the biggest enablers of this administration’s chaos is Elon Musk, who has used his wealth, media power, and influence to spread disinformation and amplify far-right voices.
That’s what we’re seeing now. A particularly concerning move has been removing climate change information from government websites. Federal agencies have been directed to scrub climate data, leading researchers to scramble to archive this critical info before it's lost. Musk’s social media platform, X (popularly known as Twitter), has directly contributed to this erasure by boosting climate denial and censoring climate scientists while reinstating extremists who peddle misinformation. They want you to feel like nothing you do matters. We know what’s coming—more deregulation, gutting of climate funding, and a flood of disinformation designed to make people doubt their own eyes. We’ve stopped them before and we have to do it again.
Get Involved in Your Community.
In 2017, when Trump first pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement, climate activists, local leaders, and businesses responded with the We Are Still In movement. Cities, states, and companies committed to cutting emissions on their own, completely ignoring the federal government.¹ We have to do the same again—but on an even bigger scale.
Your town, your state, your community is still yours! You have power where you live, and local organizing has proven time and time again to be one of the most effective ways to push back against federal corruption. Get involved in local climate coalitions. Show up to town meetings to be better informed about what’s going on in your town. Demand climate action at the state level. Work with labor unions, racial justice groups, and housing advocates—because all of these fights are connected. The more we build strong, in-person communities, the harder it will be for them to divide us!
Resist the Attack.
During his first term, Trump reversed numerous environmental protections, with nearly 100 rules and protections being rolled back.⁴ The Trump administration has a history of erasing data, silencing scientists, and defunding research—and this time, the threat is even greater. We must protect and share reliable information before it disappears. We will try to regularly monitor the resources we share to ensure they are still active and up-to-date.
Musk, meanwhile, has turned X into a disinformation machine. With his vast wealth and control over X, Tesla, and SpaceX, he has positioned himself as a kingmaker for the far right, using his platforms to promote authoritarianism, suppress progressive voices and content moderation, allowing climate denial and far-right extremism to flourish unchecked. He has fired entire teams responsible for combating misinformation and has algorithmically suppressed independent journalism.³ His power over public discourse makes it even more critical to build grassroots networks that cannot be silenced!
Protecting and disseminating accurate information is also crucial. Supporting independent journalists that you can trust to challenge the mainstream media is another crucial step to combatting misinformation. Share accurate information widely, but be cautious—there will be more propaganda, AI-generated misinformation, and deliberate attempts to confuse and distract than ever before. Learn how to fact-check, validate sources, and teach others around you! Here are some trusted left-leaning sources to follow:
YouTube & Podcasts:
Brian Tyler Cohen
The Bulwark
Thom Hartmann
MeidasTouch Network
Pod Save America
Substack:
Judd Legum
Heather Cox Richardson
Ken Klippenstein
Aaron Rupar
Qasim Rashid, Esq.
Robert Reich
BlueSky:
Bernie Sanders
Jojo from Jerz
Elizabeth Warren
AOC
Molly Jong-Fast
PoliticsGirl
This administration wants you to feel exhausted and hopeless—but that’s exactly why we can’t afford to disengage. We know their tactics, and we know that local action, community organizing, and protecting information are some of the strongest tools we have. Keep showing up, keep speaking out, and don’t let them decide the future for you.
