Resources

🔎 Understanding Inequality & Power

• Wealth Disparity Visualization – Concentration of wealth in America has accumulated to dangerous levels at the top

• Howard Zinn – A People’s History of the United States (book and TV series) – The history they didn’t teach us in school

• Jane Elliott’s Racism Experiment – The Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes social experiment on prejudice

📖 Dystopian Warnings That Feel Too Real

• George Orwell — 1984 (book and movie) – Surveillance, authoritarianism, and controlling truth. Sanity is not statistical

• The Handmaid’s Tale (book and TV series) – Religious fascism and stripping away rights

• Years and Years (TV mini-series)— Six-part series follows the lives of the Lyons family, who witness increasingly tumultuous global affairs and the rise to power of a demagogue

• Black Mirror: The Waldo Moment [s05e03]: A failed comedian who voices a popular, crass cartoon bear named Waldo finds himself mixing in politics when TV executives want Waldo to run for office

📺 TV & Film That Illustrate What’s Happening

• Star Trek episodes:

• DS9: Past Tense [s03e11–12] – The criminalization of poverty

• Voyager: Critical Care [s07e05] – Healthcare as a privilege instead of a right

• American History X – White nationalism and radicalization

• We’re Here – Queer visibility and the fight for acceptance in small-town America

🎥 Documentaries & Videos That Show What’s Happening Now

• Dark Enlightenment: How Tech Billionaires Plan to Destroy America — A focused discussion on Project 2025 and its endgame for the American democratic republic (spoiler: they want to dismantle it)

• Vigilantes Inc. (documentary) – Jim Crow 2.0: How voter suppression tactics subverted democracy in the 2024 election and the will of the people

• Paragraph 175 – Nazi Germany’s persecution of LGBTQ people

• Stopping the Steal — An inside account of Trump's challenge to the results of the 2020 presidential election as told by former White House staff and appointees

🎶 Music & Culture That Encourage Reflection

• Imagine (John Lennon) – A vision of a world beyond division

• Black Parade (My Chemical Romance) — Uplift the downtrodden, don't punch down

• Crazy (Gnarls Barkley) — Knowing too much makes one feel insane

• Anthony Bourdain’s Shows (Parts Unknown, No Reservations) – Travel, culture, and empathy through food

• Treaty of Tripoli – The U.S. was never a Christian nation

⚠️ Recognizing Fascism & Authoritarianism

• 14 Points of Fascism – A breakdown of how authoritarianism rises

• Former MAGA Testimonies – Seek out former cultists who've left the movement and share their experiences

📝 How To Use This List

• Start where you feel comfortable. If you’re more visual, begin with TV shows or films. If you prefer history, read Zinn or Orwell.

• Be open. This isn’t about “gotchas” or blame — it’s about understanding how we got here.

• Take your time. No one changes overnight, but we all have a responsibility to learn and do better.