The Progressivists | Jo Lorenz | Substack

While democracy and media spiral into performative propaganda, The Progressivists isn’t here to make fascism Insta-pretty. Subscribe for full access and join a community that’s done with performative progress. We’re here to dismantle the bullshit, not redecorate it.

Recent posts

THE DEATH OF COVID.GOV: A FIVE-ALARM FIRE NOBODY'S TALKING ABOUT

A critical look at how COVID.gov's erasure signals a dangerous shift in public health policy — and what we can do about it.

Apr 21 •

8/10 NO BOUNCY CASTLE: HOW AMERICAN PROTEST CULTURE FAILS US ALL

As authoritarianism advances, our comfortable protests ring hollow — but recognizing this weakness is the first step toward building real…

Apr 9 •

OUR RESISTANCE CANNOT JUST BE CONTENT CREATION

While we film fascism from our windows, real people are being detained. Your viral thread isn't the revolution we were promised.

Mar 29 •

AND THE OSCAR GOES TO: PERFORMATIVE OUTRAGE! *CLIMATE CLAPS AWKWARDLY IN AUDIENCE*

In a world designed to keep us drowning in outrage, the most radical form of resistance is to focus on what we can control. And I hate to tell you, but…

Mar 22 •

THEY DEPORTED A CHILD WITH BRAIN CANCER - AND FUCK LITERALLY ANYONE WHO TRIES TO *RATIONALIZE* THIS

While America lectures the world on human rights, a ten-year-old citizen fighting cancer was ripped from her doctors and dumped in Mexico.

Mar 15 •

Mutual Aid

COMMUNITY IS A VERB

The left keeps replicating the systems we claim to fight. But something's shifting. Here's how we build movements that include everyone — even the…

Jun 11 •

AND THE OSCAR GOES TO: PERFORMATIVE OUTRAGE! *CLIMATE CLAPS AWKWARDLY IN AUDIENCE*

In a world designed to keep us drowning in outrage, the most radical form of resistance is to focus on what we can control. And I hate to tell you, but…

Mar 22 •

THE QUIET PART JUST GOT LOUDER: GOOGLE'S FASCIST CALENDAR CLEANUP

When a tech giant can't figure out how to remember Black History Month (but can rename the Gulf of Mexico), it's time for a history lesson in corporate…

Feb 11 •

SORRY, YOUR BOOTSTRAPS WON'T SAVE YOU: A GUIDE TO MUTUAL AID IN THE AGE OF BULLSHIT

The system isn't failing us - it's fucking us over exactly as planned. But we're building something better, and we need your help to grow it.

Jan 31 •

Imperial Debris

BRB: GONE ADULTING

I owe you an explanation for my absence this month, a heads up that I'll be gone a pinch longer, and some thoughts on this work we're doing . . .

May 22 •

THE DEATH OF COVID.GOV: A FIVE-ALARM FIRE NOBODY'S TALKING ABOUT

A critical look at how COVID.gov's erasure signals a dangerous shift in public health policy — and what we can do about it.

Apr 21 •

8/10 NO BOUNCY CASTLE: HOW AMERICAN PROTEST CULTURE FAILS US ALL

As authoritarianism advances, our comfortable protests ring hollow — but recognizing this weakness is the first step toward building real…

Apr 9 •

OUR RESISTANCE CANNOT JUST BE CONTENT CREATION

While we film fascism from our windows, real people are being detained. Your viral thread isn't the revolution we were promised.

Mar 29 •

Capitalism

THE ACTUAL INVASION IS IN THE BOARDROOM

$88 billion to terrorize human beings. $0 to tax billionaires. Deportation and dehumanization will NEVER fix what capitalism broke.

Jun 12 •

FASCISM? SURE. BUT DON'T WORRY GUYS, OUR POLITICAL HEROES HAVE HOLLYWOOD AGENTS, SO . . .

As yet another Democrat politician joins the post-White House celebrity pipeline, here's your timely reminder of who actually creates change (hint: it's…

Feb 24 •

THE QUIET PART JUST GOT LOUDER: GOOGLE'S FASCIST CALENDAR CLEANUP

When a tech giant can't figure out how to remember Black History Month (but can rename the Gulf of Mexico), it's time for a history lesson in corporate…

Feb 11 •

THEY GET $7.3 BILLION, WE GET DEATH PENALTIES

These crooks stole $7.3B from dying humans, faced zero charges. Welcome to the peasant's guide to U.S. healthcare: Where price-gouging is legal but…

Jan 17 •

Serving coffee and democratic decay daily

Racism

THEY DEPORTED A CHILD WITH BRAIN CANCER - AND FUCK LITERALLY ANYONE WHO TRIES TO *RATIONALIZE* THIS

While America lectures the world on human rights, a ten-year-old citizen fighting cancer was ripped from her doctors and dumped in Mexico.

Mar 15 •

YOU CAN JAIL A REVOLUTIONARY, BUT YOU CAN'T JAIL THE REVOLUTION

The tools have changed but the tactics remain the same: discredit, disrupt, destroy. How America's war on dissent went from covert to proudly displayed…

Mar 12 •

FIRST THEY CAME FOR THE GREEN CARDS

Constitutional rights exist until they don't. Just ask Mahmoud Khalil, whose legal residency apparently means nothing once the government decides his…

Mar 11 •

STOP SAYING THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT (WHEN WE'RE FEEDING THEM TO FASCISM)

When an 11-year-old dies by suicide after classmates threaten to call ICE on her family, it's time to admit we're not just failing our kids — we're…

Feb 22 •

Colonialism

STOP PLAYING WOKE DRESS UP: THE POLITICAL COSTUME PARTY IS OVER

The American left's silence on Palestine, Sudan, and the Congo under Democratic rule exposes the truth: You can't claim collectivism while serving…

Feb 6 •

THE GENOCIDE WE COULD HAVE STOPPED

Our establishment called a ceasefire unrealistic, spent 15 months enabling genocide, and now two old white men are fighting over who gets credit for…

Jan 16 •

'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE GENOCIDE

As the West celebrates the holidays in excess, Palestinians beg for basic survival. Two parallel universes — fairy lights and famine — separated by a…

Dec 12, 2024 •

#NEVERAGAIN: TERMS & CONDITIONS APPLY

How imperialism and selective anti-racism became the perfect cover for looking away while Palestinians are slaughtered.

Dec 6, 2024 •

The Fuckery Report

THE FUCKERY REPORT: WHEN DADDY'S MONEY MEETS DEMOCRACY (Feb 15)

Your weekend autopsy of how two failed businessmen are "cleaning out" everything from Gaza to govt agencies, while waaaay too many of us are too busy…

Feb 15 •

THE FUCKERY REPORT: WE WATCHED A TRAGIC PLANE CRASH, THEY DELETED OUR SURVIVAL MANUALS (Feb 2)

Your (now monthly) autopsy of how empire erases public health data while communities quietly build networks those fuckers can't delete.

Feb 2 •

THE FUCKERY REPORT: WHILE WE WERE RAGE-TWEETING (Jan 25)

Your weekend autopsy of how fascism's favorite weapon isn't violence — it's keeping us distracted with manufactured outrage while democracy dies in…

Jan 25 •

THE FUCKERY REPORT: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK - BILLIONAIRES' EDITION (Jan 18)

Billionaires panic as TikTok pulls back the curtain, healthcare execs steal from dying patients, and politicians play dumb AF on genocide. The empire's…

Jan 18 •

Climate

AND THE OSCAR GOES TO: PERFORMATIVE OUTRAGE! *CLIMATE CLAPS AWKWARDLY IN AUDIENCE*

In a world designed to keep us drowning in outrage, the most radical form of resistance is to focus on what we can control. And I hate to tell you, but…

Mar 22 •

AMERICAN EMPIRE VS PLANET EARTH

Climate denial reveals the most dangerous form of American narcissism: The delusion that reality will bend to accommodate our convenience.

Mar 12 •

THE FLAMES WON'T SPARE ANY ZIP CODE

As Pacific Palisades tragically evacuates, we're learning the hard way that climate disaster spares no one (and sadly many communities have known this…

Jan 9 •

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