Get into Good Trouble Right from Your Couch
Across the United States, people from every background are rising up against the cruelty, corruption, and chaos of the Trump regime. You’ve seen the marches. You’ve heard the chants. You’ve felt the urge to join in, but going to a protest just isn’t possible for you. Maybe you’re immunocompromised. Or you’re caregiving. Perhaps you’re enduring a chronic illness or disability. You may be concerned about losing your job or your security clearance. Anxiety about a loved one’s immigration status or being out in big crowds could be keeping you at home. Whatever the reason, your inability to carry a sign at an event doesn’t make you any less valuable to the cause.
Resistance doesn’t just happen in the streets. It starts behind screens and on virtual meeting calls. Resistance groups need more than marchers - they need organizers, communicators, funders, tech support, researchers, writers, artists, social media amplifiers, administrators, quartermasters, emotional support systems, and so much more.
Whether you're looking for ways to contribute anonymously, participate while managing your health, protect your job, or make change with kids by your side, there is a place for you. Make no mistake, these roles are vital to the operations of any resistance movement. Here’s how you can show up safely, powerfully, and meaningfully without taking to the streets.
1. Use Your Voice—Anonymously If Needed
“Courage calls to courage everywhere.” - Millicent Garrett Fawcett, Suffragette
You don’t need a megaphone to make noise. Even if you can’t show your face or reveal your name, your voice still matters. In fact, finding folks who can help spread information, amplify activists, raise awareness about actions, and challenge disinformation is vital for our success. These suggestions are just a few of the ways you can use your voice to help.
Elevate Activist Content: Follow local and national organizers on social media and amplify their posts. Use alternative accounts or pseudonyms if privacy is a concern.
Share Educational Resources: Use encrypted messaging platforms (like Signal or Telegram) to share protest safety guides, know-your-rights cards, and links to trustworthy fundraisers.
Write Letters or Op-Eds: Share your thoughts anonymously in letters to the editor, Substack articles, or Medium posts. You can use a virtual private network (VPN) and a burner email to protect your identity.
Be an information watchdog: Call out lies and misinformation in social media, news, and videos
Contact elected officials: Call your Congressional delegation, or your governor, and tell them that a constituent would like them to vote “no” on a bill, or fund an initiative, or stand up for your rights. Don’t worry that your voice doesn’t matter. Every single call, email or letter that a congressperson gets is logged and reviewed.
Promote: Boost your group’s events, activities, and actions on social media, including in local community or special interest groups.
Phone/Email/Text Banking: Many people are needed to fill this vital role, but it is very hard to filll.
2. Leverage Your Skills & Connections
“Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.” - Dolores Huerta, Labor Leader & Activist.
Every movement needs the people who make the movement move. Whether you’re a graphic designer, coder, writer, or something else entirely, your professional skills are powerful tools for resistance. You don’t need to reinvent yourself to contribute—just use what you already do best to support the cause. Here are a few ways your talents can directly strengthen the movement from behind the scenes.
Artists & Designers: Create protest signs, educational infographics, event flyers, edit videos, and design banners
Coders & IT Pros: Help create protest maps, event landing pages, and websites. Help your friends get set up for secure communications.
Writers, Editors & Content Creators: Generate timely social media posts, write content for blogs, whip up press releases, make a TikTok, create guides, manage content strategy, or build outreach emails.
Trainers & Consultants: Share your professional expertise and your learned experience to help your group make smart decisions. If you feel comfortable, run online training for things like media relations, vegetable gardening, de-escalation, or cybersecurity.
Fundraisers & Donation Managers: Raising money is vital for every group. But non-monetary donations like medical supplies or free audio equipment are just as valuable.
Researchers: There is an endless need to research bills, legislation, policy positions, events, organizations, efforts, resources…the list is endless.
Networking Experts: Build a bridge between your organization and groups that you have a unique ability to connect to, like food pantries or religious councils.
3. Find, save, and circulate important information
“The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.” Gloria Steinem, Journalist & Feminist Activist
In any resistance movement, having reliable, accurate, and timely intelligence is power. You don’t need a huge platform to make an impact; you just need a sharp eye for news and trends, patience, and a commitment to the truth. Whether you’re fact-checking, providing updates on a bill or notifying rapid responders about immigration raids, your behind-the-scenes intel work is vital to keeping the movement focused, credible, and effective. Here’s how to be the signal in all the noise.
Fact Checking: Ensure that your group is using accurate, vetted sources of information for statistics, legislation, government activities, executive orders, judgments, and more.
Legislative Research: Keep track of legislation, policy changes, rulemaking, and executive orders. Share updates or calls to action with your fellow activists.
Spread the Word: Use internal communications tools to ensure that everyone in the organization is getting trustworthy data to use and share.
Specialize: Pick a lane that appeals to you and stay informed about it. Provide helpful resources, videos, and references, and serve as a subject matter expert.
4. Be a logistical hero
“Tactics win battles, but logistics wins wars.” - General John J. Pershing, U.S. Army
Behind every successful action or event is a team handling the logistics that make it possible. From securing permits to managing donations, logistics plays a vital part in building momentum and ensuring your group’s efforts are safe, legal, and impactful. Below are just a few key support roles to consider and how each contributes to the overall mission.
Local point-of-contact: Help the group secure permits and permissions from local officials and agencies
Quartermaster: Keep track of essentials like megaphones, water, and medical supplies. Arrange for them to be replenished through donation or purchase.
Accounting: Handle incoming and outgoing invoices, monetary donations, or payments
Scheduling: Manage an events calendar
Communications: Contact and communicate with politicians, vendors, allied organizations, and other interest groups
Human Resources: Vet and onboard new volunteers.
5. Keep a Watchful Eye
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”
— Sun Tzu, General & Author of The Art of War
In today’s fast-moving digital and political landscape, your group needs more than good intentions - it needs intelligence. That means understanding potential threats, tracking how your organization is perceived, and anticipating changes in the broader environment. Whether it’s monitoring online chatter, researching new technologies for secure communication, or preparing emergency plans, proactive awareness can help keep your group safe, effective, and one step ahead.
Watch Your Back: Keep an eye out for security threats to your organization from any source and alert people to possible trouble.
Discover New Tech: Explore technologies that can help facilitate safe communication and storage of information, then bring the information to your group.
Infiltrate: Follow social media pages or news sources for opposition groups and report back with important information about counterprotests or other actions.
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6. Keep the home fires burning
“If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution.”- Emma Goldman, Revolutionary & Publisher
Activism is powerful, but it can also be exhausting. To sustain the movement, we need to take care of each other emotionally as well as strategically. Creating space for joy, rest, and connection helps prevent burnout and builds a stronger, more united community. Whether it’s sharing an uplifting playlist, offering a listening ear, or reminding others to take a break, these small acts of care can have a big impact on your group’s resilience and spirit.
Listen: Offer to listen to your friends decompress
Inform: Share mental health and relaxation resources in activist circles.
Remind: Invite your fellow resisters to rest and recharge
Encourage: Share news, memes, and videos that can inspire
Uplift: Make playlists that your colleagues can use at events or just to cheer up
Amuse: All work and no play makes the world a little bleaker. Share funny videos, pet pics, and memes.
Facilitate: Spark conversations that help your fellow activists grow, learn, and bond.
Resistance with Kids? Absolutely.
“We need to teach our children not just to read and write, but to question, to challenge, to stand up.” - Malala Yousafzai, Education Activist & Nobel Laureate
Activism isn’t just for adults - it’s an opportunity to teach kids about values like justice, empathy, and community. By involving children in age-appropriate ways, you’re not only modeling civic engagement but also planting the seeds of lifelong awareness and compassion. Whether they’re coloring protest signs, reading books about fairness, or helping with a bake sale, kids can be powerful participants in the movement. After all, care is a form of courage, and it’s never too early to start learning that.
Make It a Family Activity: There are a myriad of ways that kids can participate in the movement. For example, little kids can color protest signs, and bigger kids can help pack up donations for a food pantry
Teach Through Story: Read books about justice, fairness, and activism. Talk about what's happening in age-appropriate ways.
Support Protesters as a Family: Write thank-you notes or make signs of encouragement to hang in your windows.
You Belong, Exactly As You Are
"Nobody's free until everybody's free." - Fannie Lou Hamer, Civil Rights Leader & Voting Activist
It’s also important to acknowledge that some people, especially those living with significant disabilities, may not be in a position to contribute actively to the movement right now—and that’s okay. You are not forgotten. You are not a burden. You are part of this community simply by existing in resistance to a system that so often overlooks or devalues disabled lives. The movement for justice and liberation includes you, honors you, and is not whole without you. No one gets left behind.
The Movement Includes Everyone
“Our children may learn about the heroes of the past. Our task is to make ourselves the architects of the future.” - Jomo Kenyatta, Anti-Colonial Activist & Politician
The fight for justice needs all of us. Every email sent, every dollar raised, every story shared makes us stronger. Supporting others behind the scenes is the foundation that keeps this movement on its feet and moving forward to keep fighting against fascism and tyranny.
Whatever your capacity, whatever your limitations, there is space for you in this work. The resistance thrives not just because of those on the front lines, but because of the many hands, hearts, and minds holding it up.
Your voice matters. Your contribution counts. Your presence is powerful. The movement needs you. Let’s get to work together.
“Democracy is not a spectator sport.” - Marian Wright Edelman, Children’s Rights Activist
In Resistance,
Free State Coalition
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