First step: Stop being a prat

Before we have any hope of changing the world, we have to change our stance toward it. And the first step – the most important one – is painfully simple: Stop being a prat.

That means:

• Stop pretending you don’t understand the stakes.
• Stop making perfect the enemy of good.
• Stop whining about how broken things are while refusing to touch the tools that exist.
• Stop treating radical, working alternatives like they’re someone else’s hobby project.
• Stop waiting for someone else to do it.

You don’t need a degree in political science or coding, or anything to see what’s happening, from floods and fascists to boat evictions and mass precarity. You don’t need permission from a foundation or a blue tick to take part, you don’t need a five-year strategy. Simple, you just need to stop being a prat, and start doing, so, what does “not being a prat” look like?

• Instead of doomscrolling, publish one thing that matters using #OMN tools or paths.
• Instead of performative politics, help document what’s actually happening around you in a #4opens way.
• Instead of building personal brands, build open #Fediverse infrastructure that your community can use.
• Instead of hiding behind cynicism, show up and collaborate – messily, imperfectly is fine, just try not to be a prat.

Why it matters, because the #nastyfew people seizing power right now, from JD Vance to the canal eviction bureaucrats, aren’t being prats. They’re serious about building institutions to shape futures. The tragedy is that our side, the ones with the heart, the vision, the history, are too often busy being clever, passive, cool, and precious, kinda like prats….

The first revolutionary act in the 2020s isn’t heroic, it’s just showing up, not being a prat, and doing the obvious things, together. This is simple, most importantly #KISS please don’t be a prat about this, thanks.

The #mainstreaming is talking about the #deathcult – So why are you still waiting?