Overview:
The old tactics and narratives of meeting for book clubs to chat about philosophy, publicly mocking and shunning religious people, and refusing to heal from religious trauma are not reaching the audiences you need the most. We must begin to work across differences with those who share our values.
The case for a secular society has been made by our movement. Now we must organize and build power to realize it.
I came to UnKoch My Campus in need of a job and figured that I could help a rag-tag group of unorganized co-founders build a digital program to “fight undue influence” and bring “transparency to campus.” I am an autodidact, and one of the ways that I have adapted to survive in the face of the unspeakable trauma I’ve survived is to learn about the world around me, study patterns, and locate power.
I fell in love with the work of “UnKoching” soon after I said yes to the digital consultant position. I opened a thousand tabs and got to work learning everything I could about Charles Koch and his vast donor network. Those tabs are still open and haunt my dreams. I created power maps and began to connect his financial and institutional connections to some of the first-person impacts I was experiencing. At first, I suspected some sort of dark cabal, but now I understand that Charles Koch is simply playing by the rules of the system.
That’s why we must change the rules.
As a result of what I found, I changed the narrative UnKoch was telling about the impact of fossil fuel billionaires manipulating higher education for their personal profit. I eventually became the executive director. Under my leadership, we’ve organized five national days of action, led thousands of students and faculty, and our work has been featured in a book on the climate crisis. It is, and was, truly a David and Goliath story.
At first, I suspected some sort of dark cabal, but now I understand that Charles Koch is simply playing by the rules of the system. That is why we must change the rules.
One of the critical things I observed and studied was the core tactics of the political apparatuses that Charles Koch and his comrades built. They are experts at utilizing white Christian nationalists and white people with superiority complexes to meet the aims of their coalition. They are not afraid of the Josh Hawleys of the world, and their spending proves it. They fund manufactured culture wars to keep us from building power and protecting ourselves and others.
Even those you deeply disagree with have something to teach you. Learn from your opposition, and practice enough intellectual humility to innovate.
If the secular movement wants to build a real defense and win power to address the growing direct threat of religious authoritarianism on the local and state level, we must adapt and evolve. The old tactics and narratives of meeting for book clubs to chat about philosophy, publicly mocking and shunning religious people, and refusing to heal from religious trauma are not reaching the audiences you need the most. To realize a true multiracial democracy where humanists, atheists, and religious folks can do the group project of democracy, we must stop trying to make our case of why our ideas are more enlightened, and begin to work across differences with those who share our values.
We must check the massive economic inequality that has been allowed to flourish, eroding the common good and destroying trust in good governance. There is a direct link between far-right “dark money” and the onslaught of unconstitutional bills flooding our communities regarding climate, the self-determination of queer and transgender folks, and free speech.
Worried about access to an essential medical care service known as abortion? Koch has been astroturfing the movement against access to medical care since before 2013. The Koch network is a white Christian Nationalist ATM. They utilize trust-based philanthropy with hundreds of groups undermining democracy, rolling back civil liberties, and proliferating science disinformation. Get curious about what Citizens United did to your strategies to realize a society in which no one religion is placed over another in government. They’ve played the long game because people with massive unchecked capital get to dream while the rest of us work.
Capital accumulation at the cost of people and planet and the “invisible” hand of the Free Market are the new gods. “The concentration of wealth and influence held by corporations in the US is clear evidence of serious structural distortion of our economy and political system.”
I am a descendant of Black freethinkers who survived all kinds of totalitarian conditions inside and outside the borders of this beautiful country. I have evidence that, though we are a young species, we can adapt and change to survive.
I’ve got freedom dreams. I’m ready to organize. Will you join me?