The Need For Those That Have The Gift Of Culture
This is a continuing article in my Ways to Contribute article series: A series on ways for the average dissident to get involved in the movement.
In the modern dissident sphere, we always focus so much on practical things like philosophy, logic, and finances.
But frankly, culture is often far more important in actually achieving genuine change. The people and groups that pull cultural sway matter far more than the men of words that simply hypothesize and spend all day talking. (This is equally a self-critique—It is coming from someone that clearly does more of the latter).
But I realize the importance of culture. I also realize how much we suck at it.
We need more cultural builders. Fewer talking heads and podcast hosts.
So, if this is a calling of yours, I highly encourage you to take it. We’re in desperate need for guys like this.
This is more of a “medium-risk” strategy. I wouldn’t call it high, but it’s definitely not low. Doxxing is an ever-present risk. So keep that in mind regarding your risk tolerance.
Now, what would a cultural builder do? Take any of the following and run with it:
1. Create Art
- Create music, poetry, or visual art.
- Create street art, graffiti, murals.
- Create artistic videos—beauty videos that show the beauty of our movement people, or things like political cartoons that satirize the state.
2. Produce Propaganda Materials
- Things like posters/flyers for the real world.
- Or create things like social media images, memes, or other similar materials for the digital world.
- This includes things like slogans, taglines, and battle-cries, such as that one black guy did with “Let’s Go Brandon” debacle by making a song-slogan with the news report.
3. Write and Distribute Literature
- Create Telegram material, website material, pamphlets, books, etc.
- One thing I think we all could use is a “Dissident News Email Newsletter”. I’d love to do it but don’t have the time. Stuff like that would be great to loop in dissidents and share cultural material within it.
4. Document and Archive
- Similar to the archivist strategy, but with more of a strategy on sharing it for cultural purposes. I’m talking photo/video history of true American Dissident activity, recording oral history, and such.
5. Memorialize Martyrs and Heroes
- Honestly, we really could use a timeline of American dissident action. A history of our own history.
- Likewise, we have very few memory resources that memorialize our guys. Some of the Jan 6 stuff has been making strides in that direction (such as Look Ahead America’s work), but we’re weak here. Leftists are still worshipping George Floyd, and yet we forget our activists who just got sentenced to jail a week ago.
- Memorializing key dates and events could be included here.
6. Promote Cultural Symbols
- Develop unique symbols that people like. I’m talking flags, icons, symbols, merch, mascots, etc. People love this stuff, and it is great at unifying. The America Firsters are solid at this, but most of the rest of the dissident movement sucks at it.
7. Develop Cultural Programs
- Websites, podcasts, and other stuff dedicated toward cultural aspects instead of political ones. We have enough political ones. We need education on similar movements and cultures of those movements.
8. Edification Topics
- Create inspirational content that encourages resilience. Sometimes just nice quotes or fun memes can lighten up a person’s entire day, invigorating them to continue on with their own dissident work.
- My favorite edification is through memes, so that’s always an option.
9. Maintain Cultural Traditions
- Stuff like folklore, traditions, folk songs, and old rites. Start practicing them and encourage others to do so. Share them with others and make it a positive thing that people want to come to.
10. Develop Digital Cultural Spaces
- Forums, communities, and other topics fit under this umbrella. Two examples are communities.win and GiveSendGo. They both did a great job at making an alternative cultural space for culture to thrive. Similar approaches could be considered here.
This is a strategy that will be very important if we are to ever be successful. We can’t win politically without first winning the culture. This strategy is one of the very few that can push us toward that first objective.
The guys on the ground putting in the work here make more of a difference than 90% of our other guys. Memes and culture go further than you can ever imagine. Most normies don’t wake up from a 3000-word essay discourse on political machinations, but they do get broken by small memes and funny songs/slogans. Never lose sight of this, even if the work seems challenging or unfruitful.
If you like this work, choose this strategy. We have a need for you.
Get out there and get it done.
Read Next: The Difficulty In Keeping Dissidents Engaged
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