They Want You to Stay Quiet When Staff and Values Get Purged. Don’t.
Staying grounded doesn’t mean staying placid. This move helps you clarify what’s worth standing up for. (Stay Human Weekly #8)
Ten million people stood up last weekend. Across 2,000 cities, the No Kings protests brought millions into the streets on the same day Trump staged a feeble military parade for his birthday. That kind of protest turnout doesn’t just happen. It results from people deciding to be bold after their institutions betray the values they once claimed to hold.
I just heard that my former employer laid off another round of staff — including the Chief Diversity Officer. Not surprising. They’d already erased the words equity and justice from their mission months ago, quietly rewritten policies, and purged employees who dared speak up. That was before Trump even took office. Now it's escalating everywhere.
We’re seeing the same pattern escalate across sectors. A colleague of mine had their NIH-funded research approved — a study on racial disparities in access to health care. But before NIH will release the money, the researcher has to revise the entire proposal. They’re not allowed to use the words race, racism, transgender, disparity, or any of nearly one hundred terms on a banned list. They’re being asked to study and remedy injustice without naming it.
This is the moment we’re in: one where truth is unwelcome and values are punished. And in moments like these, grounding doesn’t mean going quiet — it means cultivating clarity and deciding what level of boldness is feasible for you.
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The Grounding Move: Say the Bold Thing Without Apology
When silence starts to feel like complicity, take time to write the thing you’re no longer willing to keep inside. Name what you’ve seen, what you believe, or what crossed a line. You don’t have to escalate it or share it. Just getting the truth down in your own words is a move toward moral clarity.
After that, the next decision is yours: keep it private, share it with someone you trust, raise it with someone in power, or bring it into the open. Reflect carefully as you decide how bold you can be given the constraints and risks you face at this moment. Recognize that boldness is a continuum and you get to right-size what works for you. And your answer to how bold to go can change over time.
Why This Matters
Authoritarian pressure isn’t just political — it’s relational, emotional, and institutional. It silences through fear and confusion. It counts on you second-guessing what’s safe to say, and hoping someone else will speak first. But clarity is not noise. And speaking from your values — even if only to yourself at first — is one of the most strategic moves you can make.
Say the bold thing. Say it clearly. Then decide, on your own terms, what comes next.
In solidarity,
Paul
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Strategies for Staying Human in the Face of Authoritarianism
If you’re looking for practices, tools, and deeper reading to help you stay grounded under pressure, this growing list is for you. It includes some of my previous posts and a section for other resources. These are starting points for staying human in hard times.
Tools
Explore my growing library of tools designed to help you stay grounded, focused, and resilient. Some are free. Others are available for a small cost — and every purchase helps sustain this work.
My Posts
When Trump Attacks Your Work: 75 Grounding Moves to Stay Effective and Human. You can't serve from empty. But stepping away isn't an option. Strategic positioning for public servants trying to do good work under siege.
What Have You Been Carrying? A Self-Assessment for Navigating Authoritarian Harm. Your overwhelm isn't personal failure — it's a natural response to engineered chaos. This assessment helps you get unstuck and start strategizing.
Resisting Authoritarianism for Introverts: An FAQ for Staying Human in Loud Times. A lot of resistance advice sounds like it's meant for someone louder. But what if your strength lives in quiet — and that's exactly what this moment needs?
The Harms Are Cumulative. Your Overwhelm Is the Goal. Let’s Get Unstuck
Trump and Musk weaponize chaos to exhaust our capacity for resistance. Recognizing the patterns of harm gives us the framework to protect our humanity and reclaim our strategic power. [Overview of the Authoritarian Harm Complex]
Stay Human: 80 Tiny Moves for Everyday Resistance in the Authoritarian Harm Complex. What if staying human is one of the most powerful and most unappreciated forms of resistance? Shaping tomorrow and defeating tyranny takes more than big protest events and macro strategies.
Stay Sane: 80 Tiny Moves to Resist Digital Despair and News Overwhelm in the Trump Era. Tiny moves live in the terrain between hypervigilance and retreat. They keep us agile and motivated.
Staying Human Now #1: Start Where You Are. Authoritarian harm is real. So is your capacity to respond. These three tiny moves help you pace yourself with purpose.
Staying Human Now #2: Define Your Waypoints. Confusion is the tactic. Navigation is the countermeasure. This tiny move helps you plan your own path.
Staying Human Now #3: The Connection You Forgot You Needed. Authoritarian chaos thrives on disconnection. This tiny move helps you rebuild the ties that keep you human.
What It Means to Stay Human in the Trump Era. Staying Human Now #4 - Trump’s actions are engineered to grind us down. Staying human is a key resistance strategy.
From Authoritarian Harm to Clarity of Purpose. Looking Beyond Resistance: What if Our Collective Pain is Pointing to the Better Future Worth Fighting For?
Befriend Yourself: A Strategy for Staying Whole While They Dismantle Everything That Matters. Trump and Musk want to disappear you into a cell of despair. Kindness to yourself is how you stay human—and begin your escape.
When They Gut Your Mission: Start Here…. You’re still standing. That means you get to choose where to go next.
Blogs I recommend and have subscriptions to
Invisible Threads. Veteran journalist Kate Woodsome is pioneering coverage at the intersection of democracy and mental health.
The American Pamphleteer. “Because freedom won’t fight for itself—but together, we sure as hell can. Subscribe for bold, unfiltered takes on resisting fascism, building real community, and living with guts in chaotic times.“
How To Resist. Great blog about sustainable ways to remain engaged in activism and mutual aid.
Chop Wood, Carry Water. This blog is full of daily advice to take action and stay motivated.
Your Time Starts NOW. If you like my content then you’ll love these posts by Lori Corbet Mann.
Other Resources
ACT for Moral Distress, online course by Dr. Jaimie Lusk. “Navigate moral distress with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, a powerful evidence-based treatment that allows us to hold our pain while taking valued actions.”
In Tumultuous Times, Think Like a Hostage. “Guidance given to hostages can foster psychological flexibility in tough times.” Very clever article by Dr. Jaimie Lusk.
Please drop additional suggestions for resources in Comments
My Consulting Services
Need a new strategic plan that protects your mission and your funding during hard times? I help public service professionals and progressive organizations cultivate agility and resilience to navigate moral injury, authoritarian drift, and institutional harm without losing their purpose or humanity. Service include:
Strategic plan revisions to meet the moment.
Fundraising and communications.
Developing resilient data systems to track unmet needs and the downstream harms resulting from authoritarian aggression.
Let’s talk. Direct message me to start the conversation. Or request a consultation using my website’s contact form: Progressive Strategy Now website
***From Progressive Strategy Now, a publication of Paul T Shattuck LLC. The views expressed here reflect my personal analysis as a researcher and consultant, and do not represent the positions of any employer, clients, or affiliated organizations.
Thank you, Paul. May we also have examples of those who aren't at the level of those noted. An example: here in LA, there are a number of YMCAs that are collecting necessary daily care items for those families affected by ICE. Mutual aid actions may be what some can do.