Ok, I get it: Everyone hates AI

After last month’s newsletter, I heard from a reader who asked why I hadn’t written about the drawbacks of AI. 

Fair question, since there’s a long list of drawbacks spanning everything from environmental destruction to flagrant copyright violations to brainrot. In my response, I said that if you work in Silicon Valley, you have to use AI. Not only is it a prerequisite for working here, but it’s also being built into every software product that the rest of the world uses and quite soon, no one will have any choice about whether to use it or not. And unless I have a solution, I’m not in the business of making people feel shame about things they have little control over. 

But the conversation got me thinking about solutions, and of course there is one. Political action, of course!

Before you groan and turn away, thinking that political action looks like the pathetic folding of Democratic politicians in D.C. or the need to submit yourself and your family to the frightening humiliations of running for office in a violent and unstable country, know that political action doesn’t mean any of those things and in fact will probably be more successful if it looks nothing like that right now. Tesla Takedown may be 2025’s most successful anti-fascist political action so far, in terms of goals achieved (the collapse of Tesla’s stock price, the end of Elon Musk’s political career) through chosen methodology (simple, weekly non-violent action). And the movement is – quite purposely – faceless, non-partisan, and unconcerned about asking for anyone’s approval, permission, or vote. 

I’m not an expert, but I’ve been learning quite a bit about political action lately, through my work with my neighborhood pro-housing group, D9 Neighbors for Housing. More on what I’ve been doing below in my four key insights for normie political action.

#1. Just pick something and start

For me, this was the hardest one. It was hard for me to focus when there is so much suffering and so much to be done. But the fastest route to burnout is trying to do everything, so I made the hard decision at the very beginning based on asking myself these questions: What can you commit to for the long haul? What is one issue that you both a) care deeply about b) can quickly and easily see a way to get started on and c) is, ideally, a force multiplier?

To me, housing was a force multiplier because the lack of it creates so many additional problems. I knew of a hyperlocal group that was taking positive action. Selfishly, I also wanted to see results in my own neighborhood. I knew that would be good motivation for me to stick with it. 

For Valerie Costa, it was Elon Musk’s illegal power grab. For you, it may be demanding that AI work for humans instead of the other way around. It may be freeing Palestine 🍉 or demanding gun control or ending cop cities or….you get the picture, plug in to what others are already doing, and trust that other people are stepping up on the other issues you care about. “It’s all connected” is a cliche for good reason.

#2. Figure out what you bring best to the group and focus on doing that.

Once you’ve found a group, the same principle of #1, finding focus, still applies. If you’re really good at operations, the group probably needs help with operations, so do that. If you’re really good at strategy, do that. If you’re really good at making kids laugh, set up a kids’ station at meetings…you get the picture. Support people who bring other strengths to the action and learn everything you can from them, but know that the skills you already bring will be good enough to advance your cause. 

#3. Be persistent. 

It’s shocking how much persistence matters in terms of advancing your cause, especially in an age of limited attention spans. 

As an example, earlier this year our group launched a campaign to bring my neighborhood into a city-wide rezoning plan. This neighborhood used to be working-class, then it was downzoned TWICE and now it’s hopelessly expensive. Rezoning so that we can build more multi-family housing is kinda table stakes, but you’d be shocked at how unwilling people can be to cope with even the slightest changes, and how resistant they are to connect the dots on making life just a little easier for regular people. When we started the campaign we literally got laughed at by NIMBYs during public comment sessions.

But we kept showing up, talking to people, doing the unsexy stuff. We sat through hours of public comment that will make you question your belief in human possibility, had endless meetings with really difficult people, etc. Eventually we started seeing some of the sexy stuff happen – like the press coverage. And then last week we had a meeting with the mayor’s office. We still have a long fight ahead of us, but no one is laughing at us anymore. 

4. Embrace the inner work political activity can force on you.

Working in groups on hard important activities requires lots of personal skills that have, frankly, fallen out of fashion: diplomacy, patience, and the willingness to handle discomfort and inconvenience. The tradeoff is that you get to build community, which has also fallen by the wayside.

I’m not sure what to make of the fact that there’s not a lot of recognition that in order to have X you need to be Y, but I can tell you that having to work on diplomacy, patience and handling discomfort and inconvenience is making me a better person and I’m all for it. 

See you next month!

Caille