Connect. On television or finding community online, or among friends, look for like-minded people and/or groups to work with, contribute to, and obtain news from. Again, it is crucial to feel connected, rather than isolated. This is tyranny’s playbook: isolate individuals, turn allies against each other, divide communities through fear, and threaten opposition into silence. 

Keep taking action. Even on hard days. Create a supportive network and an action calendar where you track commitments like times and locations of activities. Give yourself grace if you miss something. Donations of time or money, however big or small, can leave you feeling like a person with a purpose.

The alternative is that crushing helplessness, and a sense of powerlessness. This reaction is understandable. Tyranny functions exactly this way—a monster devouring confidence, safety, and well-being. Its methods are cruelty itself—a toxic brew of sadism, violence, and terror.

And many of us have been there before, on a smaller scale. Maybe a workplace where the tyrannical process is part of the wallpaper.