January 29, 2026

Our Staff is Off on Friday January 30th

The Boredwalk HQ is closed today, in support of the general strike. Here is what we are doing and an explanation of some things we cannot do.

What we are doing today:

1. Our office is closed and we are giving our employees a paid day off. The money for that comes out of my pocket as the owner and I am happy to do it, but please know this is something I personally am paying for because this is something I care about. Please understand, though, that this does mean it may take us an extra day or two to process and ship your order. We appreciate your patience and understanding in this regard.

2. We have provided a list below of things we encourage you and our team to do to protest the regime.

3. We are donating net proceeds from any sales received today to mutual aid funds. Again, this is something I personally am paying for because it's something I care about. 

What we cannot do and why:

We cannot disable our website and ad accounts for the day. We are an online-only business, and disabling our website or ad accounts would have significant detrimental impact to our small business far beyond just one day. The systems we depend on to pay our bills and pay our employees — which, yes, do include problematic entities like Google (which includes YouTube), Meta (i.e., Facebook, Instagram, and Threads), and TikTok are not set up for one day pauses. The algorithms those companies use to serve paid ads and organic content learn and adjust performance in real time, so disabling any of it for a day does not mean we can turn it on the next day and have it work like it did the day before we shut it off. It resets all of the systems and it could take weeks or even months for those systems to start functioning the way they did before we shut them off. 

No one at our company is rich and none of us can afford an extended period of drastically reduced revenue, which is what would happen if we turned off these systems and paused our ads or put our online store in "vacation mode." Boredwalk is not a side hustle hobby for just myself; it is the thing that pays all of my family's bills and the livelihood of eight full-time employees and several contractors. An ad we set up at the start of the month with $100/day in spend took weeks to gradually get up to $500/day in spend. If we turn it off now and turn it back on Saturday it will not go back to spending $500/day. It might not even spend $100.

I understand there will be people who are still not satisfied with this explanation of what we can and cannot do, and while we are sorry you are still unsatisfied, we are doing our best to walk the tightrope of protecting our teams' paychecks and fighting for our democracy. If you're judging us I have to wonder if you've ever been responsible for a dozen families' ability to pay rent and put food on the table. Would you give up weeks of income and risk not being able to pay your team or your own rent and grocery bills?

We respect everything everyone is doing on any scale to fight this fascist regime. If you have to choose between striking and paying rent and you are choosing to pay your rent, I understand that decision and you will get zero judgment from us here at Boredwalk. Maybe you can spare $5 for a mutual aid fund. Maybe you can call your lawmakers. Maybe you can watch the YouTube channel of an indie journalist because those views help fund their work. 

I believe that those of us who are on the side of decency, justice, and empathy must get away from attacking people who are after the same goals as us and keep our anger focused where it belongs. This means your outrage should be directed at the regime and their collaborators, corporations bowing to the regime, and billionaires who are not using their immense privilege to fight for what's right.

If you are spending the day ridiculing people who had to work today, or small businesses who can't afford to do everything you want today, you're focused on the wrong thing and not only is your anger not being directed at the real problem, you're making people who agree with you less motivated to fight alongside you. People doing their best and being told it's still not enough isn't going to make them want to do more, it's going to make them want to retreat.

You may think our decision to do this (and talk about it publicly) is performative. It isn't. We're doing this precisely to ensure that our actions align with our rhetoric. 

I and other members of the Boredwalk team have been engaging in anti-regime activism for a decade at this point; protesting, supporting candidates, volunteering, donating to worthy organizations and mutual aid causes, calling & emailing our elected representatives, and more.

Sometimes we speak about these activities publicly, but most of the time we don't because it's not worth the hassle and annoyance of dealing with do-nothing keyboard warriors accusing us of being performative or profiting off of divisiveness or political outrage or whatever other baseless complaint it is that releases dopamine in their social media-addled brains when they leave smug and uninformed comments online.

Spend your day doing the things you think you should be doing, don't spend it policing someone else's activism. If you need ideas on ways you can protest the regime we've shared 7 ideas below.

Here are 7 things regular people can do that are helpful:

1. Speak out
Make it clear where you stand, because courage is contagious.
I am Spartacus GIF
We're all Spartacus now.
This regime wants to scare people into silence and compliance. They want to seem more popular than they are. Continuing to use our voices to say "NO!" doesn't just send them a message, it sends your fellow citizens the message that they can say "no," too, and that they are part of a large resistance. Solidarity matters. Our collective contempt for the regime also helps demoralize them, so we are going to remind them we hate them every day. 

2. Get in the street
If you can get to any protests, it's helpful. It is a visible signifier to neighbors and the regime that we won't acquiesce. One of the headlines I saw recently is that the creeps working for DHS are upset by the constant public ridicule. Good! But we can always ridicule them more. If they don't like it, they should find another job. They should be unable to escape our mockery and contempt. 
3. Contact your reps
I know this can feel futile, but it costs nothing but a few minutes of time (here's some guidance if you need it). These people are not immune to public pressure. We saw the corporations in Minnesota get nervous after the regime murdered yet another U.S. citizen over the weekend. The murder didn't scare them; the public anger scared them. They started pleading for calm. We saw the regime pull Bovino from Minnesota. We saw the regime walk back some of their statements. We saw some of the GOP starting to object. 
 
They aren't doing this because they've suddenly become better people, they are doing this because they're scared of the public outrage. We can't take our feet off their necks for a second. We need to keep them scared, and scare them more. Calling lawmakers and letting them know you are watching and angry is a GREAT way to pressure them to start imposing limits on the regime. Remember: we hired these people, and they answer to us. Even if you didn't vote for the person who currently represents you in Congress, guess what? They were hired to work for ALL their constituents, not just the ones that voted for them.

4. Punish the private sector
You can do this with boycotts and by contacting these companies to tell them you will be boycotting them for collaborating with the regime. This might require some inconvenience or at times more expense, but anything you can do to hurt collaborators economically is helpful.

I just had to order new light bulbs for some of our studio lighting at work. It would have cost me half as much to order them from Home Depot. I paid double to order them from a smaller company because f%$k Home Depot. I will spend my Saturday going to Ace and Kohl's and a local gardening center, when in the past I could have gotten all my items at Target, because f&$k Target. 

Punishing the private sector can also involve strikes, so keep an ear to the ground for organized strikes in your community. The private sector needs to experience consequences for their role in all this, whether that was emboldening the regime by rolling back DEI programs, housing their violent thugs in their hotels, or funding The Idiot's campaign last year via sales of the ugliest truck to ever roll off an assembly line. Maybe you can't boycott every wrongdoer at all times, but any boycotting is better than none.
5. Throw sand in the government's gears
There are some things you can do to inconvenience the government. Some Americans are participating in a tax strike. Amanda Nelson of AmandasMildTakes has info on how to annoy ICE with FOIA requests. If DHS employees are in your town you can refuse them service if you are a local business. There are things we can all do to make life more difficult for the regime.
6. Donate funds
If you can afford to support organizations like Immigrant Defense Fund, ACLU, or throw a few dollars towards a mutual aid fund, that support adds up. I know I am not rich and can't afford to donate millions of dollars to anything, but I can afford $10-20 a few times each week for different charities and funds that need support. Even if you can only spare $5/month, it counts!
7. Support independent journalism
Mainstream media is owned by the oligarchs and their journalists seem pretty muzzled. This is why it's important to support media outlets that are not beholden to billionaires. I really admire the work being done by Aaron Parnas and the people at The Bulwark, but there are a lot of really good independent media outlets rising up and speaking truth to power. Simply watching their YouTube channels or joining their SubStacks helps them do the important work that they are doing.
 
Bonus suggestion: take care of yourself! I find it hard to relax and I find it hard to sleep through the night during even the best of times, but this is especially the case right now. Maybe you feel this way, too. It takes conscious effort to give ourselves time away from screens and prioritize spending quality time with people who bring us joy. We have to do things that fill our cups so we can withstand all the hard stuff. You cannot rage 24/7; get a fancy treat at a local bakery, take a walk outside, cuddle a pet. Make time for fighting and make time for rest. 
 
Give yourself a pat on the back if you do any of the things I listed above. Even better if you can inspire someone you know to do it too! Collective action matters!

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