In the coming days, months, and years we will witness more theft of choice, space, and rights.
This is with regard to our bodies, identities, care, information, technology, what we eat, drink, where we live, what we buy, and how we move in the world.
It wasn’t a real choice for us, when our phones were made, how the minerals were mined, how much people would suffer, how countries would suffer because of it.
It was not a real choice for us, when we sat in our history classes, to not learn about the truth and extent of Indigenous genocide and land theft. I was never asked for my consent to send my tax dollars to fund weapons in a genocide. Did someone ask us, the people, about cop cities? Did someone ask us whether we wanted AI that would consume the energy of a country to do one task that we don’t really need?
Did someone ask you?
We were never asked. We were never given a choice. We never gave our consent. And moving forward, that will only happen more and more.
The choice to make decisions about our bodies. The choice to identify in a way that is expansive. The choice of our data being private. We will not be given the choice to opt out. Choices about clean food, clean water, and how we connect with each other. Less choice about care services, and how we get our information.
But here is a fact, a truth that grounds me every day. I have learned it through history and witnessed it even in my lifetime. During the times of the most repression, resistance movements are able to make the most radical change.
Say no. Push back. We need enough of us to insist that this cannot happen, and that we do not give our consent. When there are enough of us then we have resistance. From there, we have a movement. And from there, anything is possible.
In the coming years, one of our greatest forms of resistance will be to demand a culture of consent. Hold this power close.
I DO NOT CONSENT.
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