14 things you can do to enable a better future
This blogpost contains a basic list of ideas what we can do to protect liberal democracies and our personal freedoms, and enable a better future to live in - based on my latest personal thoughts and feelings. These ideas came to my mind while consciously reflecting about the current socio-political developments that put a lot of hard-won freedoms at risk (mostly in North America and Europe based on my news-feed).
It is a list of always helpful actions that are good to work on - with or without a risk of right-wing extremism and autocracy, climate change and other existential threats. If these risks would be low, the actions are less effective, or in other words: they are probably very important and can be very effective in many countries right now.
Shortly summarized, I currently believe that we need a lot of good education, individual and group-orientede “awareness / enlightenment work”, and build up better media to compete with the raise of fake-news, propaganda and other ways that distort reality.
Contents:
Rationale and motivation
The 14 ideas what we all can do
Sign petitions that help protect liberal democracy and our personal freedoms
Boycott products that support right-wing extremism, discrimination and autocracy
Join peaceful demonstrations for democracy, human rights, etc.
Lead eye-opening 1:1 conversations with persons trapped in fake-news and other reality-distortions
Create and frequently share a positive and uniting vision of a better future
Teach liberal-democratic values & human rights in primary school
Request and work for a democratic regulation of the internet and strict punishment for threats
Build a communication organization that researches, summarizes and shares very actionable tips
Feedback & discussion
I’ve been worrying quite often lately that we could both lose the freedom in the majority of the population that I felt when watching the sun rise above the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, and the actual chance to experience such beautiful nature moments due to the consequence of losing grip of the escalating natural crises on our planet.
The rationale and motivation for this blogpost
People are losing an accurate view of the reality due to fake-news, propaganda, impossible & dangerous election programs, hate and incitement against opposite opinions. Meanwhile, the normal media fall for click baiting due to their decreasing usage or are abused to spread fake-news, which further diminishes trust in them.
Here are three examples of misperceptions of the reality due to political believes, media influence and propaganda:
Consumer sentiments in the USA show that republicans believe the economy is suddenly better when a republican president is in power and suddenly much worse when a democratic president takes over. The same misperceptions are valid for democrats. [Reuters]
Most people believe that crimes have been increasing over the years despite a significant decrease. This is especially assumed for the national level, although people did not see an increase in their area [Pew Research Center; Deutscher Präventionstag; ifo]. It seems like the media coverage could have created this fear that leads to the assumption of higher crime rates. This tendency is especially strong in people who consider themselves on the right side of the political spectrum.
People believe that the economy and inflation are generally much worse than it actually is. In Germany, this discrepancy is the largest within people who voted for the AfD [Zeit; tagesschau]. My hypothesis is that AfD voters probably feel so emotionally fed up with the current situation due to the propaganda they’re regularly consuming on social media, etc.
An overview in German with many more examples and more detailed descriptions is here. This article also explains the risks due to the general weakening of public service media and a shift to the right in social media and media corporates. Please note that conspiracy theories and propaganda can make people believe things that are further away from the reality and much more dangerous than the basic examples above.
Personally, I believe that human nature is two-fold. We can either become more aggressive and work against each other until no one is doing good; or we cooperate constructively and empathically with the necessary farsightedness and solution-oriented root-cause mitigation to actually enable a livable planet in the future. We’re at a critical moment in history and need to steer planet Earth and all its inhabitants in the right direction.
As such misperceptions increase and the media become less strong or even influenced by certain parties, democracy risks around the world keep increasing as we can see in the following examples:
The USA turning into an authoritarian country as described by Jason Stanley (Yale professor and author of “How Fascism Works” & “Erasing History”) who is fleeing to Canada. [Mirror; Vanity Fair]
In Germany, the right-wing extremist party AfD reaching the same level of voters support in a poll as the leading conservative party CDU. [euronews]
Turkish police arresting Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu who is a popular opposition leader and the biggest threat to Recep Tayyip Erdogan before the upcoming national elections in Turkey. [Time]
Hungary planning to leave the international criminal court (ICC) while Viktor Orban is welcoming Isarel’s Benjamin Netanyahu whom the ICC has arrest warrants for. [CNN]
If we want to avoid a further shift towards right-wing extremism and fascism, we should act now and quickly while we still have a good chance and the majority of the population outside of fake-news and conspiracy theory maelstroms.
Based on the above points and what I personally have seen during the last months, I believe that we mostly need education in order to not lose people to fake-news, populism and ultimately fascism and totalitarianism with all its potential damages. I wrote about some of the risks we are facing here.
Therefore, I wrote down 14 aspects that many of us can work on in some way. I’m starting with the action that can be executed most easily, leading to the ones that require the most resources, cooperation and persuasion of larger organizations or entrepreneurship of building new, better organisations.
There are so many false and misleading mirrorings of the actual reality in the world that it becomes more difficult for anyone to understand what’s actually happening in reality. Fake news and propaganda are spread very quickly on social media where algorithms pull people into “maelstroms” that easily capture them. It is a dangerous development that we should mitigate and prevent as much as possible - and quickly. Image by drmakete lab on Unsplash.
The 14 ideas what we all can do
The following ideas are meant to be applicable universally around the world and I hope that they are very helpful wherever autocratic governments haven’t reduced freedom of speech and opinion yet. I have formatted some actionable advice within each idea in bold. The named organizations for engagement or inspiration have a focus on my home country Germany, because I could identify them more easily:
1. Sign petitions that help to protect liberal democracy and our personal freedoms
Some organizations to check out:
- Large petition platform in Germany: https://weact.campact.de/
- If you know any more, please let me know. Then I can check them out and add them here.
2. Boycott products that support right-wing extremism, discrimination and autocracy
Billionaires and countries are only so powerful because we give them money with our day-to-day purchasing decisions. If we stop buying the products that via their owners finance or in other ways support right-weing extremism, autocracy, climate-change and other large risks, we reduce their power and make it easier to mitigate these risks. Here are some products & companies that can be boycotted to weaken right-wing extremism and autocracy:
- X, Tesla, SpaceX, xAI, The Boring Company, Neuralink (Elon Musk)
- Oil & Gas (especially from Russia & USA)
- Palantir, Clarium Capital, Valar Ventures, Mithril Capital, Founders Fund (Peter Thiel)
- Meta: Facebook, instagram, What’s App, Meta Quest (Mark Zuckerberg)
- Amazon (Jeff Bezos)
- Coachella [culturacolectiva]
- Müllermilch, Landliebe, Weihenstephan [zdf]
- …
Some organizations to check out:
- If you know organizations that share a good overview, please let me know. Then I can check them out and add them here.
3. Join peaceful demonstrations for democracy, human rights, etc.
Some organizations to check out:
- List of demonstrations for democracy in Germany: https://www.demokrateam.org/aktionen/
- If you know any more, please let me know.
4. Publicly share important data, facts and explanations that are easily understandable and as little political as possible to support journalism and truthful, non-baiting media
It can start with basic information that is shared individually and goes up to online and offline educational campaigns (ads, targeted social media ads, flyers etc.) with unpolitical data and facts to inform people.
Some information is shared already by others and can simply be reposted. The effort to identify the areas of critical fake-news and build easily understandable communication about it could be even more effective when it is in addition to what is done already.
Some organizations to check out:
- German explanation campaign example to learn from: https://www.volksverpetzer.de/project/stell-dir-vor/
Additional idea: A charity that creates online and OOH campaigns that specifically targets the most affected and fairly easily convincible geographical areas, personas, organizations, etc. with individually tailored “enlightenment advertisements”.
Here are some ideas of topics that are too little presented in media and that too few people are aware of despite their large negative impacts and potential consequences:
- Climate change effects as measured by scientists and especially when noticed in real life
- The widening gap between the rich and poor, because billionaires keep getting richer and more powerful to keep their wealth
- The significant rise of right-wing-extremistic violence
- The start of fascism in the USA and the threats in Europe
- Femicides, sexist assualts and rapes
- Oppression and discrimination of minorities
- Negative effects of the regressive politics of right-wing and conservative political parties, especially in the mid- and long-term
5. Lead eye-opening 1:1 conversations with persons trapped in a sucking maelstrom of fake-news, conspiracy theories and other reality distortions incl. impossible and dangerous political programs.
It is very difficult but in my opinion also very important and should be worth the consistent effort that is required over a long time. In order to have a better chance of working, it needs to be done in such an “empathic” way and with guiding questions that these persons become open to the real facts again. They need to reflect about their current information sources, relative positioning to the issues and the activities they’re already / not yet taking to improve their situation, and ultimately come back to the real world. It’s necessary to keep going until you have completely pulled them out (in some cases persons could be completely lost, though).
Once you have pulled a person out of the sucking maelstrom of fake-news and conspiracy theories, they will most likely be very grateful that you helped them come back into the real world and that you never gave them up.
Leading such conversations is best supported by an organization that helps to make a start and stay motivated. A voluntary network would be great to help lead conversations within one’s own social circles, to inform them and work proatively against fake news.
Here are some organizations and tips to check out, which I researched to make this blogpost more actionable. Most actions and organizations are also new to me, but it’s the right time to start doing something for our future:
- To volunteer for democracy in Germany: https://www.tadelverpflichtet.de/mitmachen
(Please let me know if you know more organizations)
German conversation tips:
For victims of conspiracy theories:
- https://www.br.de/nachrichten/wissen/wie-rede-ich-mit-menschen-die-an-verschwoerungstheorien-glauben,SgMiGql ;
- Public advice center: https://beratungskompass-verschwoerungsdenken.de/ ;
- Consultation for affected friends & family: https://videre-sh.de/unterstuetzung-fuer-angehoerige-und-umfeld/ ;
For enlightening conversations with AfD voters in general:
- https://www.campact.de/rechtsextremismus/argumente-gegen-die-afd/gespraechstipps/ ;
- https://www.kleinerfuenf.de/ / https://radikalehoeflichkeit.de/ (by “Tadel Verpflichtet e.V.)
- for door-talks (especially before elections): https://linktr.ee/haustuergespraeche ;
- Here is an old document from 01.25 with many more helpful tips and arguments on how to argue with people who might vote for the AfD.
Facts and explanations against right-wing myths:
- https://www.volksverpetzer.de/project/10fakten/
Additional idea: A data bank which conspiracy theories and fake news are prevailing where would be nice to have. Then it would be possible to target geographical areas, personas etc. If the platform is then also used to exchange best practices, this could really accelerate the “enlightenment”.
6. Create and frequently share a positive vision of a better future (maybe even utopian)
I feel like a lot of what is happening in the world around me is about protecting the status quo and finding a common ground in being against certain threats, but very little about enabling a better future. Therefore, I believe that we could need a positive vision of the future that most people agree on. We could use this vision to create a joint mission that motivates many people to work actively on enabling this future.
This vision should best contain various universally good aspects so that it can unite many people, e.g. by describing the country or even better the whole world that most people want to live in. Both environmental, social, economical and individual aspects could be part of this vision - the more, the better.
Once such a vision has been created it should be shared frequently by many people and organizations across all types of communication channels.
Some organizations to check out:
- If you know any, please let me know. Then I can check them out and add them here.
7. Teach critical thinking in general
Volunteering at school and universities to give a mixed learning and fun event that teaches critical thinking - with a social game to make it more exciting and popular in order to have sufficient voluntary participants.
Some organizations to check out:
- If you know any, please let me know. Then I can check them out and add them here.
8. Teach liberal-democratic values & human rights in primary school (~ in grade 3/4)
I believe that this early-on education of values had the largest effect. Teachers and educationists probably know best when is the best age of children to already understand and memorize these topics, while still being open-minded and little influenced by fake-news and extremism.
It could work well when teachers and external volunteers cooperate on achieving this despite the critical deficit of teachers - all structured and enabled by an NGO.
Some organizations to check out:
- If you know any, please let me know. Then I can check them out and add them here.
9. Offer explanatory multicultural events in kindergarten so children learn immediately that all nationalities and cultures are friendly, exciting and should be respected
I believe that cooperation, respect, empathy, friendship, fun etc. are such universal and unconscious traits that they can be taught as early as children are able to learn the values for living together and start to understand societies and other interpersonal concepts.
These events could be mostly organized by volunteers with the required minimum of educational training and background checks. A basic educational course could give the required training to enable more motivated volunteers.
Some organizations to check out:
- For working with older kids and for inspiration, check out the German “Respekt Coaches”: https://www.bmfsfj.de/bmfsfj/themen/kinder-und-jugend/integration-und-chancen-fuer-junge-menschen/respekt-coaches-anti-mobbing-profis / https://www.lass-uns-reden.de/
Additional idea: An NGO that enables an efficient work for volunteers by structuring the knowledge and making it easy to arrange events in kindergarten based on their availability. This NGO should also do the background checks and educational trainings for new volunteers.
10. Teach a mandatory “Independent thinking“ class to learn about data interpretation & fact-checking, biases & heuristics, causality & correlation in secondary school
This class should also teach how to recognize connections between actions and the beneficiaries of these actions / communications to identify hidden strategies of persons or organizations that usually try to increase or maintain their power. I believe that it fits well in the last mandatory year of school (~ 9th / 10th grade).
External experts could volunteer as teachers for these classes and in the best case could be reimbursed for their efforts. At least their expenses should be compensated.
Some organizations to check out:
- If you know any, please let me know. Then I can check them out and add them here.
Additional idea: An NGO to structure the execution as for the other educational courses in school & kindergarten. Donations to this NGO are thus used for the organization and compensation as the courses should best be taught for the whole year by the same teacher. To make it sufficient, it could be a fulltime teacher job that requires educational training (didactics) and of course a sufficient background check.
11. Support fair, fact-checked and democratic “social media“
I assume that it will be very difficult to enable fact-checks and fake news reporting on social media platforms that are owned by billionaires or have been built in an authoritarian country.
Once we find suitable alternatives to the currently most popular platforms, we should go there and use these in the masses in order to take the power from X, TikTok and Meta.
I don’t know if any of these is “good enough” yet, but here are some ideas for ”new” social media platforms to check out, which aim to be more independent and community-run:
- BlueSky
- Mastodon
- MeWe
- Monnet
If you know any organizations actively working on democratic solutions in the current state of the world, please let me know. Then I can check them out and add them here.
Additional idea: Build a new, democratic, independent and fair No. 1 social media platform for the next generation(s) that by its basic use scheme already becomes much more popular, making the shift a natural one. In the best case it cooperates with democratic media and entertainment companies in order to support each other with their own strengths.
12. Request and support truthful and well-balanced media to do their job as the fourth democratic estate appropriately.
We need strong, unpolitical, well trusted and well-balanced media to complement the executive, legislative and judicative powers of democratic states. They need to inform the people quickly and correctly. Only then the power of the people in a democratic state can take the necessary actions to resist antidemocratic movements by politicians.
However, it looks like the biggest media platforms are both not reporting with a primary focus on spreading the truth and a well-balanced enough anymore, but falling for clickbaiting and inviting extremists to share their opinions with larger audiences. Moreover, they’re generally losing trust across the whole width of the population.
Inviting extremists to talk shows to share fake news is not a “balanced media representation”. It legitimates fake news and extremists, destructive or simply dangerous opinions when they are put on the same level as scientific facts (#falsebalance / bothsidesism).
We all can make small steps by messaging public media and any media organizations when they spread fake news or give their spreaders too much presence. Anyone can ask them to:
- Give less room to liars and extremists, and point out and clarify fake news immediately
- Report more representatively by showing bigger problems with more risks more often than smaller problems, e.g. climate change more often and less immigration
- Research and publish explanations to controversial topics that are often targeted by fake news more often. As in point 5 this should be done in an as little as possible political way in order not to trigger any stuck believes and defense mechanisms. It is needed as a counterbalance to the growing spread of fake news.
In addition, we can support independent journalism by “consuming” their articles and donating for their work.
Some organizations to check out for independent journalism:
- Reporters without borders (international: https://rsf.org/en ; Germany: https://www.reporter-ohne-grenzen.de/)
- German investigative journalism: https://correctiv.org/
- If you know any more organizations and ways to make the media more well-balanced again, please let me know. Then I can check them out and add them here.
13. Request and work for a democratic regulation of the internet on all websites especially with easy crime detection and strict punishment especially for threats
Personally support the people who dare to share true information, respectful criticism and well-intended ideas by solidarizing with them. Send them nice messages, write supportive comments and criticize the haters and show clearly where the borderline of respectful behavior is crossed.
Threats (also on the internet) are a crime at least under German law and can be prosecuted (anwalt.de). No one should have to be afraid to share their opinion or even just live their life.
You can report and press criminal charges on the following registration offices in Germany:
- https://meldestelle-respect.de/
- https://hessengegenhetze.de/
- https://www.bkms-system.net/bkwebanon/report/channels?id=lkabw&language=ger
- https://bud-bayern.de/vorfall-melden/
Other organizations to check out:
- https://initiative-toleranz-im-netz.de/meldestellen/
14. Build a communication organization that researches, summarizes and shares very actionable tips
For all ideas in this blogpost - and every important action that established organizations do - too few people know about and hear about it in short, actionable advice that motivates them.
It would be amazing if someone would build a “democratic knowledge platform” with the objective to check-out organizations, evaluate ideas for actions and share actionable advice with the potentially engaged society segments as their target groups.
Some organizations to check out:
- If you know any such organizations, please let me know. Then I can check them out and add them here.
To conclude, here is a list of more organizations that work for democracy, against fake-news & conspiracy theories or against right-wing extremism in Germany, and are worth checking out:
Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung: https://www.bpb.de/
Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte: https://freiheitsrechte.org/
Gesellschaft zur wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung von Parawissenschaften: https://www.gwup.org/
I sincerely hope that these ideas activate you to either engage for some of the mentioned organizations or start a new organization working on these challenges. They are just a few of the things that you could do as there are many more possibilities especially when connecting the work for democracy with a professional job or entrepreneurship. Every little bit helps and is a an easier step to get started.
If you start doing something new, have further questions or simply would like to discuss the ideas and overall development, I would be happy to hear from you.
In case you’re looking for hope and motivation, you can check out the tips in the relevant sub-section of my previous blogpost. The same blogpost also contains some more general ideas for actions to protect liberal democracies and our personal freedom.
If we take the necessary actions now, we can still enable the future where every new day can start as beautiful as this sunrise at Playa Cabo San Juan del Guía in Parque Tayrona. Let’s all work together and do something for a better future with free and equal societies on a livable planet.
Feedback & discussion
I would be very happy to hear your feedback on my thoughts and how I try to bring them across. As I wrote above, these ideas just popped up on my mind and I structured them sufficiently to share them. They’re neither exhaustive nor have I evaluated them in terms of tractability and overall effectiveness (tbh I’m still unsure what I should best focus on in my personal situation as so far I’ve been trying a bit of everything).
Either way, they are ideas that almost anyone can work on with partly very little time investment. I believe them to be very helpful in order to enable a society where people live and act based on rational decisions while considering the most correct data available. In these times of huge global challenges, this is what we need most to enable a better future imho. Personally, I’m even feeling that this is required to enable a future generally worth living for me, because it still allows an exciting, free, prosperous, progressive and enjoyable life without the fear and the bad conscience.
What are your thoughts on the current socio-political developments and my ideas? Please comment or message me directly.