Make Your Damn Bed

Latest Episodes:

21: overcoming disempowerment Jun 07, 2025

Show notes

"Rather than feeling depressed and powerless, activists now need to recognize the power and success of themselves and their movement." - Bill Moyer

Today we're going through steps 5 - 6 of Bill Moyer's 1987 Movement Action Plan (A Framework for Effective Social Movements).

Normal Times - "Business as usual" - Politically quiet times that the public is unaware (or feels defeated in face) of the violations of the general public's rights/values/interests.
Prove the failure of Institutions - A prolonged period of increasing stress on the system. The intensity of public feeling, opinion, and upset required for social movements can happen only when the public realizes that the governmental policies violate widely held beliefs + values.
Ripening Conditions - The calm before the storm. Nobody feels like anything is happening.
The Take Off - Seemingly overnight, a social problem becomes something EVERYONE is talking about, based on a trigger event AND a non-violent action campaign, that can be repeated on a local level throughout the country.
Identity Crisis of Powerless: (The movement is meant to move on to stage 6, but many activists move into this stage, instead.) Many activists lose sight of the long game + quit.
Majority Popular Support: Long game of garnering the public's support for your cause. It feels like nothing is happening, but depends on grassroots engagement to challenge the status quo.
Success: when the long process of building opposition reaches a new plateau + the new social consensus turns the tide of power against the powerholders, an endgame process leads to the movement's success. This process can take three forms: dramatic showdown, quiet showdown, or attrition.
Continuing the Struggle: Celebrate success, Follow up (local, national, etc.), Work on other demands, New social consciousness issues, Beyond reform to social change. Alternative systems not just opposing the ones that exist.

There is no end. There is only the continuing struggle, acted out in cycles of social movements. The process of winning one set of demands creates new levels of citizen consciousness and empowerment, and generates new movements on new demands and issues.

THE SOURCE: Bill Moyer's (MAP): https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/moyermap.html

Donate:www.pcrf.net

GET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

TUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM FOR COOL CONTENT: www.instagram.com/mydbpodcast

OR BE A REAL GEM + TUNE IN ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/MYDBpodcast

OR WATCH ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/juliemerica

The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Read Julie's Medium Blog.

Support JULIE (and the show!)

Support + get some bonus stuff over on PATREON.

Get an occasional personal email from me: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

Tune in on INSTAGRAM ANDYOUTUBE or TIKTOK

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

20: remember, you're not powerless. Jun 06, 2025

Show notes

Today we're going through steps 4 - 5 of Bill Moyer's 1987 Movement Action Plan (A Framework for Effective Social Movements).

In stage 5, large swaths of activists quit because they feel powerless, despair, and generally like they've failed.

Normal Times - "Business as usual" - Politically quiet times that the public is unaware (or feels defeated in face) of the violations of the general public's rights/values/interests. Power-holders lie about their intentions and the most of the public buys into the status quo.
Prove the failure of Institutions - A prolonged period of building up the stress on the system. The intensity of public feeling, opinion, and upset required for social movements to occur can happen only when the public realizes that the governmental policies violate widely held beliefs and values.
Ripening Conditions - The calm before the storm. Nobody feels like anything is happening.
The Take Off - Seemingly overnight, a social problem becomes something EVERYONE is talking about, based on a trigger event AND a non-violent action campaign, that can be repeated on a local level throughout the country.
Identity Crisis of Powerless: (The movement is meant to move on to stage 8, but many activists move into this stage, instead.)
Majority Popular Support
Success
Continuing the Struggle

THE SOURCE: Bill Moyer's (MAP): https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/moyermap.html

DONATE:www.pcrf.net

GET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

TUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM FOR COOL CONTENT: www.instagram.com/mydbpodcast

OR BE A REAL GEM + TUNE IN ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/MYDBpodcast

OR WATCH ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/juliemerica

Read Julie's Medium Blog.

Support JULIE (and the show!)

Support + get some bonus stuff over on PATREON.

Get an occasional personal email from me: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

Tune in on INSTAGRAM ANDYOUTUBE or TIKTOK

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

19: the identity crisis of powerlessness Jun 05, 2025

Show notes

"The crisis of identity + powerless is a personal crisis for activists. After the experience of a movement in take-off stage, their view of the world and themselves is transformed. They come to realize that the problem is more serious than they had thought, the governmental institutions, powerbrokers, and democratic processes which they thought would help solve social problems were actually part of the problem, and that the problem can only be resolved if they are part of the solution. Rather than feeling depressed and powerless, activists now need to recognize the power and success of themselves and their movement." - Bill Moyer

Today we're going through steps 3-4 of Bill Moyer's 1987 Movement Action Plan (A Framework for Effective Social Movements).

Normal Times - "Business as usual" - Politically quiet times that the public is unaware (or feels defeated in face) of the violations of the general public's rights/values/interests. Power-holders lie about their intentions and the most of the public buys into the status quo.
Prove the failure of Institutions - A prolonged period of building up the stress on the system. The intensity of public feeling, opinion, and upset required for social movements to occur can happen only when the public realizes that the governmental policies violate widely held beliefs and values.
Ripening Conditions - The calm before the storm. Nobody feels like anything is happening.
The Take Off - Seemingly overnight, a social problem becomes something EVERYONE is talking about, based on a trigger event AND a non-violent action campaign, that can be repeated on a local level throughout the country.
Identity Crisis of Powerless: (The movement is meant to move on to stage 8, but many activists move into this stage, instead.)
Majority Popular Support
Success
Continuing the Struggle

THE SOURCE: Bill Moyer's (MAP): https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/moyermap.html

DONATE:www.pcrf.net

GET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

TUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM FOR COOL CONTENT: www.instagram.com/mydbpodcast

OR BE A REAL GEM + TUNE IN ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/MYDBpodcast

OR WATCH ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/juliemerica

Read Julie's Medium Blog.

Support JULIE (and the show!)

Support + get some bonus stuff over on PATREON.

Get an occasional personal email from me: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

Tune in on INSTAGRAM ANDYOUTUBE or TIKTOK

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

18: when a movement takes off Jun 04, 2025

Show notes

Today we're going through steps 3-4 of Bill Moyer's 1987 Movement Action Plan (A Framework for Effective Social Movements).

Normal Times - "Business as usual" - Politically quiet times that people are unaware or feel defeated in face of the violations of the general public's rights. Power-holders lie about their intentions and the most of the public buys into the status quo.
Prove the failure of Institutions - Build up stress on the system - The intensity of public feeling, opinion, and upset required for social movements to occur can happen only when the public realizes that the governmental policies violate widely held beliefs and values.
Ripening Conditions - The calm before the storm. Nobody feels like anything is happening.
The Take Off - Seemingly overnight, a social problem becomes something EVERYONE is talking about, based on a trigger event AND a non-violent action campaign, that can be repeated on a local level throughout the country.

THE SOURCE: Bill Moyer's (MAP): https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/moyermap.html

DONATE:www.pcrf.net

GET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

TUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM FOR COOL CONTENT: www.instagram.com/mydbpodcast

OR BE A REAL GEM + TUNE IN ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/MYDBpodcast

OR WATCH ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/juliemerica

Read Julie's Medium Blog.

Support JULIE (and the show!)

Support + get some bonus stuff over on PATREON.

Get an occasional personal email from me: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

Tune in on INSTAGRAM ANDYOUTUBE or TIKTOK

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

17: admit things aren't normal Jun 03, 2025

Show notes

Today we're going through steps 1 - 3 of Bill Moyer's 1987 Movement Action Plan (A Framework for Effective Social Movements).

Normal Times - "Business as usual" - Politically quiet times that people are unaware or feel defeated in face of the violations of the general public's rights. Power-holders lie about their intentions and the most of the public buys into the status quo.
Prove the failure of Institutions - Build up stress on the system - The intensity of public feeling, opinion, and upset required for social movements to occur can happen only when the public realizes that the governmental policies violate widely held beliefs and values.

THE SOURCE:

Bill Moyer's (MAP): https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/moyermap.html

DONATE:www.pcrf.net

GET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

TUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM FOR COOL CONTENT: www.instagram.com/mydbpodcast

OR BE A REAL GEM + TUNE IN ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/MYDBpodcast

OR WATCH ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/juliemerica

Read Julie's Medium Blog.

Support JULIE (and the show!)

Support + get some bonus stuff over on PATREON.

Get an occasional personal email from me: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

Tune in on INSTAGRAM ANDYOUTUBE or TIKTOK

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

16: WIN PUBLIC SENTIMENT Jun 02, 2025

Show notes

We are in a war for the hearts, minds, and support of the general public. The power holders are violating our values, so we have to raise consciousness around these violations.

The movement's strategy needs to accomplish the following:

Publicly show that the social conditions and powerholder policies violate values, traditions, and self-interests of the general public. This includes publicly revealing the difference between official and operative policies and doctrines.
Keep the issue and moral violations in the public spotlight and on society' agenda of hotly contested issues.
Keep the issue and powerholders' policies on society's political agenda, such as having aid to the contras voted on in Congress rather than carried out secretly by the CIA.
Counter the powerholders' social myths, justifications, anddenials that the problem exists.
Counter the powerholders' demonology. For example, the thousands of American "citizen diplomats" who visit Russia counter the Reagan demonology that the Soviets are monsters and an "evil empire" by revealing that the Russians are people like us.
Involve increasingly larger portions of the public in programs that challenge the powerholders' policies and promote alternative visions and programs.
Don't compromise too much too soon.
After a large majority of public opinion is won, have an "endgame" strategy that mobilizes the populace and institutions to create change, despite the determined opposition of the central powerholders.
Finally the movement's organizations and leadership, especially at the national and regional levels, should serve, nurture, and empower the grassroots activists and promote participatory democracy within the movement.

THE SOURCE:

Bill Moyer's (MAP): https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/moyermap.html

DONATE:www.pcrf.net

Get Involved:Operation Olive Branch: Spreadsheets + Links

GET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

TUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM FOR COOL CONTENT: www.instagram.com/mydbpodcast

OR BE A REAL GEM + TUNE IN ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/MYDBpodcast

OR WATCH ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/juliemerica

Read Julie's Medium Blog.

Support JULIE (and the show!)

Support + get some bonus stuff over on PATREON.

Get an occasional personal email from me: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

Tune in on INSTAGRAM ANDYOUTUBE or TIKTOK

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

15 : SHIFT POWER (hearts, mind, and public support) Jun 01, 2025

Show notes

The process of achieving social change through social movements is the struggle between the movement and powerholders of the hearts, minds, and support (or acquiescence) of the general public. The powerholders advocate policies that are to the advantage of society's elites, but often to the disadvantage of the majority population and in violation of its strongly held values. Before movements begin, however, the populace is usually unaware of the problem and the violation of their values, but they would be very upset and easily spurred to action if they knew. - Bill Moyer

THE SOURCES:

Bill Moyer's (MAP): https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/moyermap.html

DONATE:www.pcrf.net

Get Involved:Operation Olive Branch: Spreadsheets + Links

GET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

TUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM FOR COOL CONTENT: www.instagram.com/mydbpodcast

OR BE A REAL GEM + TUNE IN ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/MYDBpodcast

OR WATCH ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/juliemerica

Read Julie's Medium Blog.

Support JULIE (and the show!)

Support + get some bonus stuff over on PATREON.

Get an occasional personal email from me: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

Tune in on INSTAGRAM ANDYOUTUBE or TIKTOK

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

14: UNDERSTAND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS May 31, 2025

Show notes

"There needs to be a revival of democracy through "people power".The increasingly centralized power of the state and other social institutions, combined with the new use of the mass media to carry out the political process, has all but eliminated effective citizen participation in the decision-making process. Centralized power-holders now make decisions in the interests of a small minority, while simultaneously undermining the common good and aggravating critical social problems." - Bill Moyer

THE SOURCES:

Bill Moyer's (MAP): https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/moyermap.html

Nuclear Power Info: https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-profiles/others/nuclear-power-in-taiwan

DONATE:www.pcrf.net

Get Involved:Operation Olive Branch: Spreadsheets + Links

GET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

TUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM FOR COOL CONTENT: www.instagram.com/mydbpodcast

OR BE A REAL GEM + TUNE IN ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/MYDBpodcast

OR WATCH ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/juliemerica

Read Julie's Medium Blog.

Support JULIE (and the show!)

Support + get some bonus stuff over on PATREON.

Get an occasional personal email from me: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

Tune in on INSTAGRAM ANDYOUTUBE or TIKTOK

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

what can we do? || 13 : BUILD BETTER OPTIONS May 30, 2025

Show notes

"Authoritarianism thrives when people are isolated and dependent — when food, energy, housing and safety are controlled by a handful of elites. But when communities feed each other, house each other, teach each other and protect each other — they are less dependent on dominant systems, which allows them to mount a more effective resistance. Such communities, then, don’t just survive. They become ungovernable by any unjust governing body, regardless of who is in power.

Not every system can be fixed. But every broken system is an opportunity to build something better. Because once you build it yourself — you never have to ask permission again." - Barbara Peterson

The Sources:

Barbara Peterson's Article: https://wagingnonviolence.org/2025/05/building-alternatives-key-counter-authoritarianism/

See if local actions are happening near you: https://www.mobilize.us/

Indivisible is doing some cool work + has great action items: https://indivisible.org/coup

https://indivisible.org/resources

We should be calling our representatives (+ reminding them they work for us): https://5calls.org/

GET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

TUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM FOR COOL CONTENT: www.instagram.com/mydbpodcast

OR BE A REAL GEM + TUNE IN ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/MYDBpodcast

OR WATCH ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/juliemerica

Read Julie's Medium Blog.

Support JULIE (and the show!)