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Carolyn from IL's avatar

Hi all. I went to a Tesla Takedown yesterday -- my first one. There were about 200 people in attendance. About 8 in 10 of the cars that drove by honked their horns in support of our message.

The protest was at the Tesla dealership in Northbrook, IL -- one of the predominantly white, upscale suburbs north of Chicago (collectively known as the "North Shore"). Northbrook leans Democratic. Some of the nearby suburbs lean Republican.

The young man who organized the event was passing out photocopied flyers that included the story of how this particular Tesla Takedown got organized. I'm sharing his story below, so that you can see how important one person's actions can be. Here is an excerpt from the flyer:

"Who I am and how the Northbrook protests began: I'm a person just like you. I've read books and watched or scrolled the news and heard podcasts all about how bad the state of the world is right now. Like you, I got tired of sitting around at home. I wanted to do something besides worry all the time that even the work I was doing at my day job wasn't making enough of a change. So, I thought I'd check out the Tesla Takedown protests I was hearing about toward the end of February."

"On the official site, I didn't see anything happening in Northbrook. There were reports from the Gold Coast (near north side of Chicago) that events had happened there, but it was a little far for me and I figured there might be some energy building in the northern suburbs. I texted a few friends about it and said it might be worth seeing what's happening at the Northbrook Tesla location around noon on Saturday the 8th. Only one friend was able to make it and it was just the two of us there that day. One car slowed down to take a video of us and two people stopped to grab flyers from us, one driving a Tesla. He told us, 'I hate this f---ing thing,' which was surprising and encouraging! I figured it would be a good idea to keep the momentum going by creating an event through the proper channels."

"If you're reading this 'zine, it's because I pressed it into your hand at the Global Day of Action on March 29, 2025. (Or someone who was there gave it to you, which is great!) Needless to say, the turnout of at least 10 protesters on the 15th and 22nd demonstrates that there IS an appetite for this kind of action, even on the North Shore. It is inspiring how we have fed off of each others' energy."

As I stated above, there were about 200 people in attendance yesterday. In just four weeks, this protest grew from 2 protesters to 10 to 200! Take inspiration!

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ArcticStones's avatar

A POTENT REMINDER! John Lithgow reads "20 Lessons on Tyranny from the 20th Century". This is the core of Timothy Snyder’s message – a timely reminder of the precarious times in which we live. And which Simon reminds us in every single update of Hopium!

https://snyder.substack.com/p/twenty-lessons-read-by-john-lithgow

To phrase it another way: "If you ever wondered what you would have done in Germany in 1933, you’re doing it now. Or not."

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