There is social media rife with misguided theories. There is social media deliberately infused with misinformation, sometimes by foreign influencers. There are also a slew of right-wing media outlets twisting reality. And then, there’s Artificial Intelligence (AI). It’s getting more difficult to decipher what is fact and what is fiction. It’s all a part of a penetrating, multifaceted disinformation campaign to keep us divided and demobilized.

The campaign is part of a broader attempt to isolate the righteous struggles against U.S. racial capitalism and to fracture our organic unity around a common enemy. The diversity of our society is being criminalized, and the various sectors are being pitted against one another. Between DOGE, the president’s Big Ugly Bill and the many other twisted policies of trump and his MAGA minions, working families will be negatively impacted. While we are struggling to survive on a daily basis, the oligarchy will be consolidating power.

What’s been cut? Medicaid, food stamps, student loans, child tax credit, veteran benefits, education, funding for medical and scientific research. What has increased in costs? Homes, cars, utility bills, gas, prescriptions, health insurance, home insurance, food, rent. Tariff wars and warmongering raise our collective anxiety. The way in which the lil dictator in the White House operates — cussin’ people out publicly, tweeting about war negotiations, denigrating world leaders, etc. — is jeopardizing the country’s national security and the global economy. On top of all this, the lawlessness of trump and the expanding police state are painting an ominous picture for the future of our democracy.

It seems that every day, something negative is spewing from the White House swamp. The thing that should keep us encouraged and proactive is that the damage being done is by a small, elite crew of greedy fools. It is more of us than them who are not like us. But first, we must acknowledge the source of our common suffering as well as our common yearning for the life of prosperity and security. We have to dismantle the false narratives about our exaggerated differences and end the criminalization of the most marginalized in our society.

The enemies of democracy fully understand that in order for them to dominate, they must shred the Constitution and all that it protects. They must first succeed at convincing us to let them have unchallenged and unchecked power. And that the “other” was not only an illegit, undeserving citizen but was threatening the benefits of your own citizenship. This is what a successful divide-and-conquer campaign looks like.

Here we are — the targets of the trump regime and waking up to our stolen power. We are the multiracial working class — diverse in our ethnic background, sexual orientation, religious affiliations. We see the attempts to make our pluralism ugly and our purpose worthless. We must come together and take back our beauty and our unified purpose. Today.

We are in dangerous times and our people need more guidance and motivation to get organized, not less. This is not the first regime in history to consolidate state power, to silence the media, to dismantle internal checks on abuse of power, to legitimize the criminalization of sectors of society, to expand the police state and target dissidents. Let us recognize the period we are in, learn from the lessons of the not-so-distant past, and prepare our communities for the battles ahead.

One important lesson to highlight is that a passive or an unorganized response to authoritarianism doesn’t end well for a democracy and its people.