Praxis can be...kind of boring

A double entendre: reflections on both a year of running praxis dot now and political action more broadly.

It’s been an interesting year to start a political newsletter and its satellite accounts across social media, to say the least. At the time of this piece’s publication, I will have published my first piece to this newsletter exactly one year ago to the date. As I’m sure you’re also well aware, it also happens to mark one year from Trump’s inauguration (what very well could be the onset of the very protracted collapse of American global primacy). Masked jackboot thugs roam America’s streets and are kidnapping immigrants en masse. The number of people in ICE detention has surged to over 70,000, three times the number in German concentration camps around 1939 prior to World War II. In her throes, manned by this kakistocratic and reckless Trump regime, the U.S. is beginning to flail about the globe, her sights set on long-sought yet unattainable treasures in Venezuela, Greenland, Cuba, Iran… what little semblance of the illusion of international law which existed before is being torn to shreds, and with it, what remains of America’s reputation with her allies. After decades of impatient festering and scheming, the people at the helm now have granted America carte blanch license to pursue imperialist projects unabated with very little pretense. Billionaires, many of whom have had a direct hand in hastening this chaos (whether wittingly or not), are beginning to stage their exits, preparing bunkers in remote locations across the globe, pilfering from those of us in the bottom tranches of the economic totem in increasingly brazen and humiliating fashion on their way out.

But once again, I am getting away from the point. All of that fodder, while crucial and relevant to the moment, can be found in multitudes across the Internet. There is no shortage of liberal and leftist commentators willing to air their grievances with Trump or even American imperialism writ large. When I started this newsletter, I had set out to do more than just whine and opine on (inter)national politics. Praxis, the concept from which this newsletter derives its namesake, generally just means practice or action (more astute and learned socialists may infer a deeper, more specific subtext, which is also entirely relevant). I wanted to document my experiences engaging in local political action, participating in mutual aid programs, helping to build more cooperative modes of living, and doing what I can to help build the world I’d wish to see: one in which the sanctity of human dignity is fully and equally honored, where representation and suffrage extended to the realm of production, and where centuries of industrialization and technological advancement would be wielded to end gratuitous human suffering rather than exacerbate it, as is oft-accepted for the sake of retaining arbitrary hierarchies and feeding the unceasing economic motives driving society forward. I wanted to get away from bloviating and arguing and debating about horse race politics, armchair quarterbacking, electoral analysis… While these arenas can be valuable targets in pursuit of the larger project, they also have proven to also be vacuums which suck the energy out of more concrete political action.

And yet, despite recognizing this, I got caught up in the Trump hysteria. I wasted hours upon hours corresponding and arguing in comment sections on social media and on places like Threads (so much time wasted on intellectually bankrupt debates, like: were the Nazis left wing? (the answer is no)). And much of what I wrote and posted about wound up being largely or entirely concerned with national politics, much to my own chagrin. I gravitated in this direction in part because, as it turns out: writing about real world political action is kind of hard, perhaps most significantly because real world political action is often kind of boring. Donating time and money, getting involved in local political organizing, finding new ways to live and embody one’s values, even standing at a protest (as feckless as that often feels); all are part of the slow, methodical work of building awareness, consciousness, and imagination toward a project much bigger than one’s self. My role in that struggle has been and remains infinitesimally small.

And so, as I am just an ant getting his feet wet after so many years of mostly being a spectator, writing about these experiences in a way that doesn’t feel contrived and boring has proven tough. Though I am not exactly hard to find, I’d also not want to dox myself or others I correspond with. And to be quite frank, much of it has not exactly been what I envisioned. The major progressive and socialist organizations spend most of their energy funneling people toward police-ordained marches. Seminars and town halls often include hamfisted political messaging delivered by very young and inexperienced speakers. City council meetings have more often been grounds for venting grievances than any sort of constructive venue for political action.

But perhaps worst of all is that it has proven very difficult to find meaningful ways to get involved with any particular cause at all. Most local organizing groups simply pump content out into the ether of ambiguated social media feeds. Their organizing is thus subject to the whims and fancies of a black box algorithm, generally manned by arbiters not particularly sympathetic to the aims and aspirations of these groups. The infrastructure as it currently exists is not really conducive to the outcomes these groups are seeking, and that’s a shame. Perhaps there is some untapped potential in seeking to rectify this specific problem. Such imprecision of purpose and message, as well as the acquiescence of control to ideological adversaries, is no way to build anything substantive over the long term.

Obviously, writing this newsletter has not all been for naught. The newsletter’s social media pages have ballooned in popularity. Clips of lesser-known politicians, intellectuals, and activists I admire have often exploded, amassing hundreds of thousands or even millions of views. Major political figures and organizations have engaged with my posts. I have built the nascent bones of what could be a formidable platform. But that platform has not generally converted engagement from one medium into the other (you may have noticed that I have hardly over 100 subscribers here while amassing 30,000 organic followers on Instagram). In the year 2026, the written word unfortunately holds little power in attracting new audiences. I may have to produce videos which overlap with and distill the content and aims of this newsletter to gain any traction with my own thoughts and analysis.

Moreover, the consistency and cadence of the newsletter has been all over the place. I work a separate full time job that is often highly demanding, both in terms of hours and from the standpoint of intellectual bandwidth. Building this newsletter and its associated social media pages has entirely been a labor of love; I have not earned one solitary dollar (nor did I ever expect to). But expending fleeting leisure hours in the evenings towards this newsletter, in addition to the increased political action I had committed to, has been strenuous and draining at times. Bringing on more like-minded creatives is something I have seriously considered, but considering that I have not managed to monetize this project at all, supporting such creatives would have to come entirely at my own personal financial expense unless I can find a way to change that fact.

Ultimately, my aim this year is to recalibrate: focus on what has worked, nix what hasn’t, and perhaps find new ways to connect more directly with my newfound audience on social media. I want to find ways to bring more focus back to the practical application of politics in day-to-day life, bumps, warts, and all. That doesn’t necessarily have to simply entail writing. But writing is still important to me. A quote that is (mis?)attributed to Lenin goes something like: “There are decades where nothing happens. And there are weeks where decades happen.” Praxis (the concept) ultimately entails the long and protracted process of building institutions, power, and consciousness in those intervening decades where nothing happens, such that when that fateful “week” arrives, something positive and liberatory exists to fill the resulting void. Like actual praxis, writing this newsletter can often feel dull and inconsequential, but it is ultimately one piece of a pie greater than the sum of its parts. And hopefully, together, we can make both the newsletter and its eponym a little less boring and more accessible.