I don’t know what to do. It’s getting increasingly difficult to push through the noise and focus on anything that feels worthwhile in the fight against the Trump administration’s relentless attacks. Each day is a new nightmare; each nightmare requires a battle plan. It feels hopeless. I have a feeling I'm not alone. by Megan Seling I don’t know what to do. Maybe you don’t either. It’s getting increasingly difficult to push through the noise and focus on anything that feels worthwhile in the fight against the Trump administration’s relentless attacks. Each day is a new nightmare; each nightmare requires a battle plan. It feels hopeless. Even when I manage to pull myself together—or, at least, feel like I have—a rush of panic makes me come undone. Am I helping in the right way? What is the right way? Will this make any difference at all? We have to do something. People are literally dying. But we can’t afford to fuck this up! And so I sit. I stare. I cross-stitch a little bit, but doomscroll and watch shitty TV more, and I continue thinking about what to do instead of doing anything at all. I have a feeling that I’m not alone. It feels worse this week, today, while being inundated with messages about a general strike, a nationwide shutdown, a day for no work, no school no shopping. Because it’s adding to the confusion, not directing it. The only directive—largely from scattered social media posts—is “ICE out,” “no work, no school, no shopping” in solidarity with Minnesota as they continue to protest the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti. Sounds easy enough, but without a unified goal, the questions that result in inaction swirl back up. Am I helping in the right way? What is the right way? Will this make any difference at all? For the past 72 hours, my social media feeds, text threads, and Slack conversations boil down to one question: What are we doing? We’re all that gif of John Travolta in Pulp Fiction where he’s looking around and wondering what the fuck is going on. My skepticism is, in part, because we can’t trust activism that appears to start and mostly spread on social media. Remember #BlackoutTuesday in 2020, after Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd? The call to action evolved into people posting black squares on their Instagram and Facebook accounts. Something like 28 million people participated, which was more than 8 percent of the American population at the time. But without demands, and without sustained action, it’s just a flash in the pan that we all use as a punchline And we shouldn’t trust faceless calls to action that encourage participants to hand over personal information, no questions asked. Even more so now that our administration basically brags about how it uses surveillance tech to monitor people’s social media activity and cross-reference it with personal information to target whoever it is they feel needs to be eradicated today. Successful general strikes have union backing. They have demands. They have a reputable organization behind them that can build on its momentum.  Small versions of that have bubbled up: Members of UAW Local 4121—which includes about 4,000 student employees at the UW—will gather at the University of Washington at noon. (Pretti, an ICU nurse, was a member of the AFGE Local 3669 union.) Seattle’s Troublemakers and MLK Labor Union are organizing a rally at the Downtown Target to “send a message to the company that they must stop enabling ICE’s terror campaign.” Target, which is headquartered in Minneapolis, has been quiet ever since Greg Bovino and other US Border Patrol agents arrested two Target employees at work in a Richfield, MN store earlier this month. (Target also rolled back its DEI programs in 2025, resulting in a boycott that appears to have impacted sales, for what it’s worth.) Efforts have bled over into Saturday, too. Seattle educators are organizing an Ice Out of Seattle rally at Seattle Central Community College at East Pike and Broadway at 1 pm, which has been endorsed by the Washington Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, among others. Both events are being backed by 50501. Last year, after the nationwide protests in April, Kendall Turner published the Stranger article, “How Does a Protest Make Change?” She wrote, “almost no protest movement that has mobilized 3.5 percent of a population has failed to achieve its goals.” She added that “research suggests successful protests share four characteristics: worthiness, unity, numbers, and commitment.” Actions can’t have any of those characteristics if the conversation around it is ultimately coming down to people asking, “So what do we do?” And it doesn’t help that what appears to be the main website behind the movement is giving psyop. But it’s also giving us an opportunity. It’s giving people permission to take time, in a moment when most days are full of nothing but internally screaming someone! has to do something! until they fall asleep. And that’s the first step. Today’s “general strike” might be infuriatingly directionless. But it’s 2026. And today, the fight can be what you make it. So make today about doing something.  Dozens of restaurants across the city are remaining open and donating a portion (or all!) of their proceeds to Minneapolis businesses and immigration organizations. Go get a donut, go eat a taco, drink some really good coffee. Read up on what the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network, La Resistencia, and National Day Laborer Organizing Network are doing—they work every day to track and free people detained by ICE here in the Pacific Northwest. (In fact, NDLON is hosting a virtual workshop on Friday at 5 pm for people interested in their Adopt a Day Labor Corner program.) Cancel Spotify. Cancel Amazon Prime. Support an indie art shop and make a really funny sign or batch of stickers and stick them all over town. Make a plan to go to one of the union-supported events on Saturday, too. The rain is supposed to clear by the afternoon. Whether you’re working or not, going to school or not, participating in the economy or not, today can be a day that you think about how you want to participate in this downfall of democracy. Because it’s not a matter of whether or not you participate, it’s a matter of how. You’re in it, babe. It’s happening. Your actions—and inactions—are on record. Today, do the thing you’ve been too debilitated by overthinking to do. Just don’t do nothing. ...read more read less