Voting is the bare minimum. The populace has grown complacent, disengaged, & polarized by neglecting to organize, recruit, educate, civically & politically engage each other in open, democratic discourse & community. Enough participation to keep democracy relevant & engaged to the people’s interests is needed.

The way we engage with information & opinions of the community isn’t helping. Instead of dividing the community through censorship & exclusion, a free, democratic society needs to openly resolve contentions by legitimately discrediting problematic causes & misinformation and by promoting better causes & information. The social media trend of deplatforming each other with moderation rules maintaining “brand safety” exacerbates divisions & denies society the necessary exercise of airing & openly contending with ugly ideas or seeing the sometimes violent, unvarnished truth (eg, incidents of deadly violence).