Against Pessimism

July 17, 2026

We live in a pretty scary part of history right now. Global fascism is on the rise, aided by a digital environment that seems to be purposefully engineered to devour public trust. We're watching civil liberties beginning to be peeled away, and a scare campaign be deployed against our neighbors. All the while, democracies around the world are embracing mass surveillance tools in an attempt to spy on their own citizens in nearly all aspects of our lives.

In this environment, it's easy to spread fear and hopelessness. Pointing out small victories can feel wrong. It can feel like spreading fear and uncertainty is important. As if the most important thing we can be doing is worrying about everything wrong with the world.

I feel this way too sometimes, and I witness the tendency a lot online. But, I'd like to provide an alternative approach to our political era. Rather than focusing on the issues, we ought to spend our energies on solutions. Not just implementing solutions, but also on the solutions that have already been implemented. The victories we've already won. We should look at how those victories happened.

I know that it feels wrong to celebrate a small victory when so much else wrong is going on, but I promise you we won't be able to make it to the end if this is our outlook on life. If everything is terrible and nothing good ever happens or is talked about, then why should we even fight for the next victory? If nothing good ever happens, why should we come together and stand in front of Flock headquarters, demanding better from them? If nothing good ever happens, why should anyone fight for their privacy rights to be respected, from location data, facial recognition surveillance, age verification, or otherwise? If nothing good ever happens, why should anyone show up to the polls to vote in a monumental victory for New York City's first ever Democratic Socialist mayor, against the power of incumbency and established parties?

Clearly, good things happen, but as Hank Green often talks about, good things don't naturally attract attention. Even worse, people often feel the need to spread negativity when something good does happen, because there's always something more that could happen.

The EFF is a non-profit that fights for digital rights around the world; like opposing surveillance and government censorship. Nearly every single time I see one of their blog posts shared around on social media where they celebrated a victory they've made, there's always somebody in the comments complaining about how it didn't go far enough, that we still haven't done enough. And they're right in a sense — we do still need to keep going, keep fighting. This victory alone is only a step along the path! But why do you feel it is important to share that right now? Why must we pollute every victory with some sense of additional fear and worry? Can we not celebrate a victory, understand its impacts, and say "wow, isn't it incredible what we can accomplish when we come together and organize? Let's keep going, use this victory to spur encouragement and belief in the power of collective action!"

If you're in the comments explaining how we still haven't done enough, even after this victory: Yes you are technically correct, but you are doing serious damage to the very thing you want to achieve.

In order to make progress, we need to get organized in collective action, and in order for people to be motivated to do that, they need to feel like victory is possible. When you sit in the comments and shit on everything good that ever happens, explaining how it's not enough, it makes people feel like success isn't possible.

Look, in all honesty, I think the people bringing negativity are trying to do the right thing. They want people to realize how much work still needs to be done. They don't want people to feel comfortable enough to just give up. But it's not working. You are numbing people to the horrors, when what we should really be doing is numbing ourselves to pessimism. We need to wake up and realize that when we work together to get things done, we win.

If we stick it through, if we don't sabotage one another, if we stand in solidarity with each other, we start to win. And each small victory starts to make our movement more and more powerful, until the victories stop being small.

For decades, we've been living in America with a cultural idea that collective organizing isn't important. That all the important issues are somehow going to be solved through individual actions and "voting with your wallet." If we build a culture that encourages ourselves when we achieve things that we fought for — instead of belittling ourselves as not having done enough — we can start to build real momentum behind our movements.