Next Friday, February 28th, the last day in the month of February is “Buy Nothing Day”. It’s a silent protest of a new “silent majority,” the increasing portion of the electorate outraged (and, yes, frightened and dismayed) by the actions of the Trump/Musk/Vance administration. This is your chance to make a statement without fear of retribution.
The goal is to make a blip in economic activity across the United States that serves as a signal of discontent, a discontent that reaches beyond the millions of us who have been flooding the phone lines and emails of our mostly supine Representatives and Senators.
The way this works is pretty simple: In the 24 hour period between midnight Thursday, February 27th, and midnight Friday, February 28th, cease all economic activity that you possibly can. Don’t buy or shop for anything in person or online. Don’t buy that latte you often treat yourself to, don’t go out to lunch, don’t go out to dinner. By all means plan ahead. Buy the gas you need the day before or the day after, lay in provisions ahead of time and invite friends over rather than “going out”. (If you absolutely must purchase something do it in cash and buy locally. Part of the hope is make the economic blip evident among the credit card companies.)
Will it send the desired message? We can only find out if we try. The way to try is to spread this message far and wide—talk it up with everyone you meet between now and next Friday—and we’ll see what happens. No one has to stick their neck out, no one is harmed, there is no chance for agitators to instill violence and backlash, and the protest is accessible even to people who are just now beginning to doubt the actions and motives of this administration. It’s a message, if sent by enough of us, that signals discontent, “Hey, time to pump the brakes on this. I don’t like what’s happening to my country.” It’s a vote of “no confidence.”
Here’s the pertinent part of the flyer pulled from Facebook (copied this way for readability—see whole flyer below):
This passive protest has its origins in the same movement that promoted the Presidents’ Day (aka “Residents’ Day”) protest of last Monday, protests that grew organically and made national news. Personally, I don’t care “who started it” (to quote a favorite schoolyard question)—I like the idea as a way of expressing my profound discontent.
Pass this along to as many contacts as you can.
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry
The whole flyer is posted below. Each action is built on the momentum from the previous one. Note that after the success of the Presidents’ Day protests the three following actions are NOT marches—nothing that requires taking to the streets:
