Paper Spoons are bulletins to spread awareness of our urgent constitutional crisis because the media is hiding it.
The richest 1% is taking control of our government and country. They are enriching themselves at our expense. The majority has no idea this is happening.
Please help spread the news. Print a sign and put it up somewhere people will see it. If even 100 people hang up one sign, this will go far in spreading the word.
Algorithms can’t bury an army of taped up paper.
click picture to download a pdf version
We think this is a great way to raise awareness in our own real neighborhoods, but by sharing it in your digital neighborhood you can help it hop around everywhere else. So please, share this!
Have suggestions or feedback? Post them on Bluesky with hashtag #paperspoons!
If you, like me, have tried talking to your friends, family, and neighbors about recent events, you likely had a similar experience of bewilderment when you realized they had little or no idea of what is going on.
One of the greatest issues the 99% is facing is the general lack of knowledge.
The information highway is broken: The internet algorithms are controlled by billionaires, the traditional media is manipulated by billionaires and afraid of lawsuits, and the American population is (understandably) overwhelmed by having to question the truth of everything they read or see.
For those of us still tuned in: We need to communicate in a way that reaches the people in the middle- the well-meaning friends, family, neighbors—who have tuned out the news or anything they classify under the broad umbrella of “politics.” Or the people who voted for 47 without completely understanding what they were really voting for. We need to communicate to the people who don’t have the time or resources to understand the complex intertwining of the world’s policies.
Now is not the time for judgments and “I told you so’s”; instead we need to take action. And part of that is addressing the issue: we have not done a good job of communicating. We have not met these people where they are. We have not invited them to join us, so it’s no longer “us” vs “them.”
We need messages that are short, simple, and framed around personal impact. The average person will not care that D*GE has taken over the Treasury because they don’t know what it means. But they WILL care when their Medicaid ends. The average person cares about eggs.
And, those messages need to be unavoidable. Where I live, in Asheville, in post-Helene disaster, our community’s information highway was obliterated: we had no cell service or power. So, our entire city resorted to using posters, taped up signs, and verbal passing of updates. Not only was information rapidly spread this way, it was community-building. It sent a message that we were all on the same team, and all looking out for each other.
Before any meaningful change can happen, the people need to understand what’s really happening and why it matters and feel like they have the support of the community. Together, we—the 99% of us— can do this.
— Love, the 99% 🥄
There are many changes to focus on right now, but we’ve chosen to drill down to what we believe is at the heart of the issue: tax breaks for the rich and big corp (making the rich even richer), corporate monopolies that have been allowed to run amok (meaning there is no chance for anyone new), and political representatives and government agencies who have financial ties, service dependencies, or both to these corporations.
So many of the headlines—the clown and pony show 47 is putting on—encourage us to look at each other instead of up. But in actuality, many of us want the same thing. We want the corruption out of our representatives, so that they can represent us, not their pockets. We want monopolies to be constrained so that the American Dream can be realized. So that working hard gets us somewhere.
This year, a tax break for the richest 1% is set to expire. If it expires, the federal government will get 4 trillion dollars over the next ten years from taxing the billionaires. In order to pay for this tax break, the richest are trying to cut the “waste” in what they spend on us and on our country’s allies.
To look at an even more distal cause, though, we could question why there are even any individuals that are so wealthy to begin with. Our government has—through internal corruption and greed—become increasingly tolerant of, and DEPENDENT on, private monopolies. Ultimately, what is needed is a new movement that is anti-corporate influence, and a renewed vigor in anti-trust.