Toolkit for Navigating Capitalism & Other Fuckery
Just a few pics from an earlier era: (1) mass public squat at the Battle for Seattle (c. 1999), (2) outside Senator John McCain’s Tucson office on the day of the New Hampshire Primary when I was inside and “locked down” to another activist (c. 2000), (3) snapped at a Free Tibet event the day I left Purdue and made a short detour while en route to the Minnehaha Free State (c. 1999), and (4) the Wenatchee, WA train yard, where we left the bucket of our 48 train car post-Battle of Seattle and hitchhiked the remainder of the distance back to Minneapolis (c. 1999).
— In this Article —
Download the PDF Version
This is a blog post version of my free download: Toolkit For Navigating Capitalism & Other Fuckery. If you would rather access the pdf version, click here.
Overview
This is a simple toolkit of actions (‘tools’) you can take to help you navigate capitalism and other systems of oppression without sacrificing your integrity or values. Please accept that this is a deeply imperfect, incomplete list of actions based on my own experiences. Also note that it assumes you find capitalism, racism, bigotry, and other forms of oppression to be morally reprehensible and out of integrity with who you truly are, and that you yearn to do what you can to create a just world where these dark forces are absent.Some tools focus on supporting your inner world, some focus on how you participate in the world around you, and some may even seem a bit radical if you’ve never forayed into direct action or have spent your adult life climbing corporate ladders. Keep in mind that all that follow are simply my suggestions. To borrow from one of my favorite 12-Step slogans: take what you like and leave the rest.An important note: as a “spiritual white woman” who’s currently exploring where I’m unintentionally propping up white supremacy, I recognize that this toolkit falls short. Someday (before long, I hope) I intend to revise. I am currently sitting with what such a revision might entail. But until then, I ask you to please forgive any glaring omissions.
TRUST YOUR INNER GUIDE.
I encourage you to borrow one of the foundational practices I rely on to help clients discern whether an action or idea is in integrity for them: as you sit with an item on this list, check in with your body. What are you noticing and how might you interpret it? Maybe you'll feel strong physical sensations, e.g. tightness in your chest, or maybe you'll sense something more subtle, e.g. a sense of freedom that is palpable but hard to define in physical terms.Please trust whatever it is that you’re noticing, even if it doesn’t make logical sense to you. If something feels ‘right’, expansive, and calm/quiet/peaceful (even it induces nervousness flutters), take note. But if something feels ‘off’ (even if it makes rational sense), constrictive, or urgent/dopamine-inducing/loud (even if those things feel compelling), also take note. My experience has been that my inner voice remains calm and grounded when something is aligned; when I’m feeling ‘high’ or urgently compelled to act, it’s usually indicative that it’s not my inner guide talking.
EXPLORE THE ORIGINS BEHIND ANY RESISTANCE.
Note that some items on this list may induce a bit of eyerolling. After all, you may be here because you want to kick capitalism, patriarchy, and other oppressive fuckery to the curb, and some of these ideas may seem self-centered or irrelevant. Alternatively, you may find that some of these ideas are completely impractical or even misaligned for your given set of circumstances. Either way, I get it. AND yet, when any eye roles arise, I invite you to get curious about your reaction.Look, we aren’t going to change systems, sentiments, and paradigms if our demonstrated alternatives are joyless, straight edge, and dogmatic.Nor are we going to change systems of oppression if we focus exclusively on improving our inner capacity to handle this fuckery while — for example — continuing to give billionaires our money and attention while failing to strengthen our interdependency with others.One of the most powerful AND delightful ways to give systems of oppression the bird is to create joy, fulfillment, and freedom…outside of and despite them. This toolkit includes some ideas on how you might do just that.
A NECESSARY DISCLAIMER ABOUT ACCESS.
Some of the tools in this toolkit involve shifting how and where you spend your money or how you show up in spaces. For many readers, these shifts may be inconvenient but accessible, should you choose to prioritize them. But for others, these shifts may simply be out of reach, where no amount of shifting of priorities can make up for a lack of income, access, and/or privilege.Please remember that these tools are non-dogmatic suggestions. Do what you can, do what’s in integrity for you, and do what’s accessible — without shame or guilt or fear of judgment.Your integrity is paramount, and your job is to honor it.Now, let’s dive in!
Tools for Resistance
COMPOST CAPITALISM. Megan Leatherman sometimes offers a book study and group container called Composting Capitalism that I highly recommend: https://awildnewwork.com/composting-capitalism.
READ CALIBAN AND THE WITCH BY SYLVIA FEDERICI. This deeply disturbing book dives into how women had to be violently oppressed for capitalism to take root. And let me tell you — it truly shook me to my core. If you take Megan Leatherman’s Composting Capitalism program, this is the book you’ll (presumably) be reading. Understanding capitalism’s origins and how they intertwine with patriarchy and other systems of oppression is helpful when considering how to respond to it.
LOCATE A DIRECT ACTION HUB. See if your community has a direct action hub or bulletin board. This might be a website, nonprofit organization, mutual aid group, leftist bookshop, local coffee shop, etc. If you are in Chicago, check out https://chicagoactivismhub.org/.
ATTEND A PROTEST. Your local direct action hub, Indy Media outlet, or community Facebook group are just a few resources for locating them.
SUPPORT OTHERS WHO ATTEND PROTESTS. For example, my friend Nadia baked quiche for her friends who went to a protest. Activists need to eat, and not everyone can be on the front lines.
JOIN A MUTUAL AID GROUP. Find out what mutual aid groups and networks are active in your area, e.g. Food Not Bombs, then connect with one that speaks to you.
START A MUTUAL AID GROUP. Can’t find a mutual aid group that speaks to you? Start one!
SUPPORT INDEPENDENT MEDIA. Financially support high-quality media outlets that aren’t owned by billionaires and don’t cave to government pressure. Grist.org is one of my faves for investigative climate reporting.
READ EMERGENT STRATEGYBY ADRIENNE MAREE BROWN. Just do it.
DELETE YOUR CHATGPT ACCOUT. Sam Altman and ChatGPT are in bed with the Pentagon, and your subscription is, effectively, bankrolling authoritarianism in the US. Here’s an opinion post along this vein in The Guardian.
(LEGALLY) PAY LESS IN TAXES. I am typing this as I read about the US/Israel’s bombing of an Iranian girls’ elementary school (165 children dead so far), and I’m fucking mad as hell. My tax dollars are paying for this horror…and if you’re a US taxpayer, yours are, too. If you are a W-2 employee, you can’t avoid tax withholding, but if you have a side hustle and happen to expense everything you legally can in running said side hustle, your tax liability could drastically decrease…especially if your young business has more expenses than income. And if you’re feeling especially bold, check out this article about deliberately (and illegally) not paying taxes as a form of protest.
QUIET QUIT. Do only what you are being paid to do — no need to announce it. And please don’t feel guilty about this; it is completely unnatural to ‘work’ 40+ hours a week the way capitalism expects us to.
SET BOUNDARIES AT WORK. I don’t check my email outside of my normal work hours (currently 9:30-5 M-F). Note that I have set this boundary at pretty much every job I have ever had — even at a super toxic workplace where executive leadership seemed to expect otherwise, and even when I was working in the Governor’s budget office during a legislative session…and all without consequence. I’m not sure how I always got away with it, but I’d surmise that it’s because leadership respects people who are bold enough to create and uphold their boundaries. Also, so often we create our own culture of ‘needing to be on 24/7’ when it’s not actually mandated by the workplace.
Tools For Consumption
UNSUBSCRIBE. Unsubscribe from some or all of the entities found here: resistandunsubscribe.com/.
BUY LOCAL. Give your money to local brick-and-mortar business and keep it out of the hands of billionaires who are pandering to Trump, destroying our planet, and exploiting workers.
SHOP AT THE SOURCE. If you need to order something online, use Amazon as a search engine, then make your non-local purchases at the source. Train yourself to expect to pay for shipping and have longer delivery times.
BUY PRODUCTS MADE BY B-CORPS. All else equal, I’d rather support a B-Corp than a large company. To learn more about them, click here. Products that meet the required criteria are marked with a B.
BUY PRODUCTS FROM COMPANIES THAT GIVE BACK. 1% For The Planet comes to mind. To learn more about this nonprofit, click here.
BUY BOOKS AT BOOKSHOP.ORG INSTEAD OF AMAZON. You can choose a local bookseller to receive the bulk of your purchase’s profits, which is really, really cool. My favorite local bookseller is Women & Children First, in case you want to support this incredible intersectional feminist bookstore in Chicago!
PAY WITH CASH. Credit card companies keep ~3% of your transactions with a shop. This is also the case with debit cards, unless you use your PIN at checkout. That’s 3% that could be reinvested in your community instead of padding AmEx’s bottom line.
Tools for Social Media
LISTEN TO THE OFF THE GRID PODCAST. While this is technically a podcast for small business owners who want to leave social media without losing their clients, it also has a lot of good stuff for non-business owners. Plus, Amelia Hruby’s very values-driven and really walks her talk.
RECONSIDER YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH SOCIAL MEDIA. Amelia Hruby — host of Off the Grid ^ — recently published the book Your Attention Is Sacred, Except on Social Media. Um, yes please!
ADD FRICTION. For example, get a Brick (or free app alternatives) for your iPhone if Apple’s native screen time controls aren’t cutting it. Or, go into your accessibility settings and disable the color filters so that everything’s in black and white. Figure out what your triggers are and find creative ways to address them that don’t leave you feeling deprived.
CONSIDER GETTING A DUMB PHONE. After quitting social media, I found that I was still checking my phone constantly. So, I switched to a Mukita Kompakt e-ink dumb phone. Though I’ve switched back to my iPhone 13, my stint with the Kompakt resulted in a changed relationship with my phone. My phone is in black and white and is basically a navigational tool, music player, and finance tracker.
Tools for Expression
TAKE AN ART CLASS. I just took a beginner’s wheel throwing pottery class, and it was so awesome to make my own mugs, bowls, and plates! Or if you’d rather paint, learn to play the ukulele, or cook, there are classes for those things, too. The idea is to tap into things that invoke your creativity and bring you joy. Because we need to experience more joy during these extraordinarily challenging times.
START A BLOG. Blogs never went out of style…and now they’re (allegedly) seeing a resurgence. There are platforms where you can set up a blog for free (though if you don’t have to pay for it, ask yourself how that platform is making money and whether it feels aligned). I hear that Ghost is a solid platform to use…and less troublesome and controversial than Substack.
START A PODCAST. Same comment ^ about platforms. Listen to this podcast episode by Amelia Hruby that dives into this very issue (and others that you’ll likely find interesting): https://offthegrid.fun/shownotes/privacy-focused-tech-stack.
Tools for Sustenance
BAKE BREAD. Sourdough may be all the rage these days, but don’t discount yeasted breads, which require a lesser time commitment — noting that either option will taste loads better than anything mass-produced and will help reduce your reliance on shitty industries that use shitty ingredients to increase their profits. Lack of access to affordable bread has sparked revolutions; baking (and sharing) bread sparks solidarity.
GROW FOOD. Start small. For example, sprouting is super easy to do if you dig sprouts. Or get a book about gardening in tight spaces/urban settings. Or buy a strawberry starter plant at your grocery store in late spring, then plant some of the seeds from one of its strawberries to grow more strawberry plants. It’s a rewarding start towards reducing your reliance on Big Ag and supply chains!
SHOP AT FARMERS MARKETS. Be willing to pay a premium if need be to support your farmer’s livelihood.
CHANGE YOUR MINDSET WHEN IT COMES TO SPENDING MONEY ON QUALITY FOOD. Big Ag massively exploits migrant labor, harms the environment (including our oceans), and benefits from subsidies and supply chains that smaller farmers can’t often access, all of which means that small farmers can rarely compete on price. So, change your mindset — expect to pay more, if you are in a position to do so — and train yourself to feel good about supporting the livelihood of small farmers.
SHOP AT FOOD CO-OPS. Chicago is pretty bereft of food co-ops, but there are a few, and I go out of my way to support them when I can.
SUPPORT A CSA. Support local farms and receive a share of their crops in return. Even large cities like Chicago have urban CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture)!
SHOP AT SMALL GROCERS. You may not be able to buy all your food from them, but by buying what you can from them instead of the behemoths, you’re putting more money back into your community.
SHOP AT GROCERS THAT EMPLOYEES SEEM TO ENJOY WORKING AT. You may not have access to a food co-op or year-round farmers market or CSA. But, you still need to eat. I know how much none of us wants to support Bezos, but if the employees at your local Whole Foods seem to truly enjoy working there (and many at my local WF actually do seem to love their jobs), that says something about local management. Instead of focusing on how your money is going to Bezos, consider that a store’s greatest cost is its labor and find peace that your dollars are allowing those employees to pay their bills. [This is one of those areas where I’ve see-sawed between opposing stances, and I reserve the right to reverse course.]
BUY SMALL BRANDS. If you shop at Whole Foods, you’ve probably noticed how over the years, they’ve replaced a LOT of smaller brands with their own (cheaper) 365 label. When I shop there, I nearly always buy a small brand when I have the option to do so. Yes, these small brands cost more — sometimes painfully more — but I don’t want Whole Foods putting them out of business! Don’t shop at Whole Foods? Awesome! But apply this same logic to other store brands.
SHOP THE BULK BINS. Food co-ops, Whole Foods, and even massive box store-style discount grocers like WinCo offer them for things like oats, rice, pasta, granola, dried fruit, nuts…even gummy bears! You’re also helping the environment by reducing food packaging waste (and even more so if you bring your own containers).
BORROW INSTEAD OF BUY. My block created its own WhatsApp group a year or two ago when organizing our first block party. And that has led people to borrow things from each other. It’s so awesome (aside from it being on a Meta app)! Also, if you’re on Facebook, check out your local Buy Nothing or other neighborhood groups.
Tools for Community
START A TALKING CIRCLE. Gather people in your community together in circle. There are sooooo many directions you can go with this! To learn how I gather women in circle, read this blog post…and then maybe read this post. And while you’re at it, maybe download the circling guide located here.
START A CRAFTING CIRCLE. Knitting/crocheting circles, embroidery circles, quilt-making circles…
START A BOOK CLUB. Choose books that provoke discussion on creating change. For example, Robin Kimmerer’s The Serviceberry.
SHARE YOUR SURPLUS. You know that bread you baked? Or the surplus of zucchini in your garden? Share it with your neighbor — even if you don’t know them well.
Tools for Privacy
BREAKUP WITH GOOGLE. Proton Mail/Drive + Apple Pages/Numbers/Calendar + Brave (browser) are what I’m now using instead of Gmail/Google Calendar/Google Drive/Google Docs/Google Search/Chrome. Yes, it’s a pain in the ass to switch. Yes, it sucks paying for something that I can get for free. And yet, to know that I’m not being tracked and that Google’s not reading my emails more than makes up for it!
UPGRADE YOUR BROWSER. At a minimum, switch to a privacy-focused browser like Brave. It’s super easy to migrate your Chrome bookmarks over, plus it’s built on the same bones as Chrome, AND it doesn’t track you like Chrome does. If you want to go a step further, try out the Orion browser with Kagi for a search engine. This is a premium service that starts at $5/month and that completely removes ads and AI summaries from search results.
USE A VPN. Proton wraps its VPN (Virtual Private Network) into some of its paid plans, but if you aren’t already using Proton, there are plenty of alternatives. Using a VPN maximizes your privacy by ‘scrambling’ your IP address and — at least theoretically — makes it untraceable.
REJECT GENERATIVE AI. Between the horrendous environmental impacts of AI data centers — in terms of water resources, land use, and impact on communities with fewer resources to oppose them — and how generative AI has ‘enshitified’ the internet, harmed artists and writers, trained on our data (yikes!), and compromised our ability to think, it’s worth rethinking our dependency on it. Deleting ChatGPT apps and other GPT apps (like Claude) and switching to Kagi for a browser make it a helluva lot easier to reject generative AI. Also, in case you’re curious, maybe check out my own AI Policy.
TURN OFF AI IN NOTION. Email team@makenotion.com and ask them to remove AI from your account. They were very responsive when I did this.
SWITCH TO ANYTYPE. Love Notion but have concerns about privacy and the risk of AI possibly being trained on your data? Check out Anytype at https://anytype.io. I learned about it from Amelia Hruby’s podcast (linked above), and its similarity to Notion is uncanny.
SIGN UP WITH DELETEME.COM. I love this service (though it is a bit costly), which basically works hard to get you removed from all those unsavory platforms that sell your data to dark forces. In these days of doxxing and calls for inciting violence towards people for their political views or perceived shortcomings, it’s really comforting to know that you are unlikely to show up in a people finder search.
Tools for (LIFE) Navigation
CHECK IN WITH YOUR INNER GPS. Though mentioned in the intro, it’s worth repeating here. Check in with your inner GPS to see if something — an item in this list, possible action, etc. — is in integrity with who you are and with your particular anti-oppression stance. Then honor the guidance you receive.
PLAY WITH METAPHOR. When a client is struggling with something and doesn’t know what to do, I’ll often explore it with them using metaphor. Here’s a brief overview: If your struggle was a noun, what would it be? Note the first thing that comes to mind, no matter how weird it seems. Then note everything you can about it, using plenty of adjectives and adverbs, and ask it questions like “Do you have a message for me?” The clarity that can arise from using this simple tool is pretty mind-boggling!
PUT DISTANCE BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR THOUGHTS. Instead of letting disempowering thoughts and beliefs divert you from taking action, recognize that they are just thoughts. I don’t know why this works so damn well, but some of my clients have reported remarkable shifts by simply telling themselves: “I’m having the thought that ___,” and then “I’m recognizing that I’m having the thought that ___.” There are so many ways you can create distance between you and your thoughts — many of which involve humor!
Tools for Support
WAYFINDING COACHING. This is a plug for the work I do with feminists and anti-capitalists who are done sacrificing themselves to the unholy gods of capitalism, patriarchy, and systemic fuckery and who are wanting to move into deeper alignment with their values. deeperintegrity.earth/wayfinding.
WAYFINDING CIRCLES. Join a talking circle! I offer them (mostly) in-person in Chicago. Go to deeperintegrity.earth/circles-events to check out my latest circles, trainings, etc. Another great resource is the circling directory at thewildwomanproject.com.
ANTI-CAPITALIST BUSINESS COACHING. I have taken Bear Hebert’s very accessibly priced masterclass on alternative pricing models and got a lot out of it. I’ve also heard other solopreneurs speak highly of their anti-capitalist business coaching: bearcoaches.com/.
READ LIBERATE YOUR BUSINESS. This is the book that I wish had been available when I first started my coaching business. I have Post-Its sticking out of, like, every other page (with copious notes), and it’s led to several light-bulb moments. I crossed paths with Becky Mollenkamp’s work in Amelia Hruby’s online communities (have I mentioned Amelia enough?!), and I’m so grateful that I did. I hope you check her work out!
‘LIVING’ OUTSIDE THE REALMS OF BOTH CAPITALISM & ANTI-CAPITALISM. I just discovered Kening Zhu’s workvery recently, and I’m in love with it. I don’t even know how to describe it, but I encourage you to poke around her site.
And that is all for now, my friend! If you have any great resources that you’d like me to know about, please send them to kristi@deeperintegrity.earth. Thanks!
About My Background
In full transparency, I was once deeply entrenched in direct action. My ‘forest name’ was Justice, and I attended all of the mass protests in the US between 1999 and 2001, often with a walkie talkie in hand. I got arrested for ‘locking down’ in Senator John McCain’s Tucson office on the day of the New Hampshire primary…before crashing his victory party at the Phoenix Hilton a short while later. I’ve participated in a mass public squat, sat in trees slated for logging, and once herded sheep for a Diné elder on the Navajo-Hopi Partitioned Land. I’ve experienced police brutality first-hand on multiple occasions, and the trauma from these experiences is etched on my bones.
I’ve been invited into sacred sweat lodges, smoked sacred peace pipes, and smudged in sacred ceremonies. I’ve pitched my tent next to a tipi at a land occupation, worked as a short-term editor for the EarthFirst! Journal, and volunteered with a nonprofit mobile organic food shelf. I spoke with Leonard Peltier on the phone during a meeting with founders of AIM (American Indian Movement), and I joined his ex-wife on a five-day spiritual fast during a (failed) clemency bid when Clinton left the White House. By 9/11, I’d just ended my job as a salt — a union spy — and was doing other ‘odd jobs’ for the union before heading to Washington to attend the AFL-CIO’s Organizing Institute.
In 2002, I left that life. All of it. So, while my activism is 27 years old, I haven’t been engaged in direct action for most of those 27 years. Instead, I’ve raised an amazing daughter, went to graduate school, and became a Wayfinder Master Coach. I’ve navigated a few incredibly dark nights of the soul, ‘found’ my purpose, and spent the last few decades doing my best (most of the time) to ‘be the change.’
AND I have also had some serious lapses in judgment — like when I embraced the CIA’s attempt to recruit me under the delusion that I could somehow change that fucked up institution from the inside (c. 2010) or when I stayed at a job that required me to compromise my integrity (c. 2014) — and I learned a lot about myself as a result. I now make sure that my integrity, values, and ideals guide my decisions and how I show up in the world. This matters deeply to me.
Up until this recent Trump fuckery, I’ve been content in ‘being the change’ and simply living in integrity with who I am. But as I watch the ICE travesties unfold and my country swap all semblance of democracy for outright tyranny and war mongering, it has become clear to me that ‘being the change’ involves outward participation in creating the world I want to live in; that buying organic food, supporting local businesses, and working for a nonprofit is good and important, but that it falls a little flat (in and of itself) when my neighbors are being kidnapped and disappeared by the US Government.
And so, this toolkit is as much for me as it is for you.
That is all.
Hi! I’m Kristi.
I help women & genderqueer folk liberate themselves from capitalism’s self-blaming hamster wheel of “mindset work”, bootstrapping, and “never enoughness” while navigating life’s day-to-day and existential challenges. This work is, ultimately, about helping humans move into deeper integrity with who they truly are so that they can flourish and contribute meaningfully to our collective liberation. Click here to learn more.
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