When I was a teen and young adult I learned that sex would kill me. I learned that the entire planet was hostage to two old white men, one of whom was going senile. I learned that many people were fools who believed in ritual satanic cults, Rev. Moon, Scientology, and wilding.

Later I learned that my country did not care if I got AIDS and died. I learned that the political party in charge thought my womb was the only important thing about me. I learned that oil was more important than the lives of brown people.

What I did not learn until later was how to respond. How to resist. How to react. My friends and I had each other, but we did not know what to DO.

Now we have social media.

Now the youth tell each other, "this, this is what we do."

Buy umbrellas. Buy bike helmets. Buy goggles. I learned these from Twitter.

How to make a shield. How to rig a leaf blower for a 12-hour carry. How to put together a field medic kit. YouTube.

Where to go. When to meet. How to find each other. This is on Signal, on Snapchat.

These messages aren't for me. I am middle aged and chronically ill and literally cannot stand in the street for a protest.

But folks can find each other now. Y'all can find each other.

I do not envy the youth much in this moment, but past-me envies that.

Now we know the government hoped we would die. But we know there are more of us.

Now we know an entire political party thinks 170,000 deaths is perfectly fine. But we know there are more of us.

Now we know the police really honestly would rather shoot because they have no consequences. But there are more of us and we have found each other.

Now we know corporations prefer to poison us. But there are more of us and we have found each other.

"Any flag that's worth a shit was woven from fire in the first place."