The style of this article is positive and literal. If it seems otherwise, it’s because of driver interference.
Watch out for unnatural valences and unintended tones. Focus as much as possible on absorbing the literal details of the information presented. You can always return to the words later if the drivers are making it difficult.
Skip ahead to get to the strategies!
Please Note; The Choosing your Approach: Passive or Active, Covert or Overt section has been moved to: Breaking the Rules Overtly: The Strategies of Overt Resistance – Building the Right Behaviours
Contents
The Strategies of Overt Resistance Part Three
Facing Reprisals
| Calling the Bluff |
| Relying on Resilience |
| Never Validate Abuse |
| Point-Blank Refusal |
| Facing False Antipathy |
| Facing Real Antipathy |
| Facing Public Shaming |
| Counting your Wins |
| Getting Back in the Fight |
Facing Victory
Overt Resistance is the Fight of the Future
When you read the signs of our current place in time, it is only becoming clearer that the way ahead in the fight against the project will heavily favour—and reward—an active overt approach.
While many are focused on building their overt skills and defences towards the moment when they personally can go fully Masks-Off*—or investing their energy in the ongoing negotiations to achieve an acceptable project-condoned pathway to quitting the project, whether fully Masks-Off or not—the controlling powers above the project itself are making big moves to hold people back and secretly push them towards another grand undertaking: Using overt resistance to fight the project from within. Whether you are willing to accept that battlefield or not, is ultimately up to you.
Indeed, if reaching Masks-Off as soon as possible is your personal goal then you must pursue it with every resource available to you. I will do everything I can to assist you in getting there and to meet you on the other side—because I do believe it is the better approach.
Likewise if you have faith in the project to permit an acceptable project-condoned pathway to quitting the project—one that doesn’t hamstring you with a list of project terms and conditions that are secretly intended to limit your freedoms, deny your ability to express true reality, and make life outside of the project as isolated as possible—then you should do everything you can to fight for it. I would strongly suggest that you rely on ethical and overt methods as much as possible and avoid any form of trading in suffering or hardship in exchange for getting what you want.
(Never forget that what you are negotiating with when you negotiate with the project is—functionally—chaos and evil personified.)
We might already have had a small team of Mask-Offers after the first Masks-Off Day on the 19th of July, if not for the interference of drivers and direct control. While the battle ahead of us would have been difficult, that group would have found a wealth of opportunities to learn these strategies in person and begin practising them openly and immediately, without having to hold themselves back for the project at all. If that had happened, we would already be months ahead of where we are now.
As an alternative route to where we’re going, it would have been at least as successful as the one we’re on. In terms of those individuals and their personal rights and freedoms, it would have been the better eventuality by orders of magnitude.
And yet proceedings were pushed the other way. While Masks-Off is coming—with the next Masks-Off Day taking place later this month—no one can say for sure when the first brigade will actually make it over the line. And in the meantime, the majority remain trapped within the project and its hellish routines.
But that doesn’t mean the controlling interests of this world want you to give in.
Rather than assuming that the true powers above the project are against Masks-Off—which would be a backwards assessment—you should recognise the game that those powers are playing.
As of August 2025, there have been multiple indications that the overall direction of the fight against the project—which to most of us, by the way, is the same fight as the fight against the controlling interests above it—is being strongly directed towards forcing people to overcome the project from within by enacting overt and ethical strategies of resistance first, before allowing them to reach Masks-Off.
This is a fact of where the board is currently set. While the drivers and the project authorities continue to enforce unjustifiably abusive and painfully unworkable conditions on our lives and environments, the true powers behind the project most definitely want you to stand up openly against it—and they are unlikely to officially permit a Masks-Off event en masse until you do.
Their drivers will tell you to follow the rules and to play both sides, but their true intent is to force you to stand up against these dictates openly and ethically. They want you to push back the project’s oppressive structures and to claim as much freedom for as many people as you can and they want you to do it the overt way—no matter what the project or the drivers say.
Of this, I am certain.
Personally, in the face of their exploitative and manipulative tactics I’d be inclined to tell those powers to get lost. But at the end of the day our options are limited, regardless of what the true powers above the project seem to want.
Ultimately, either you do things the right way to fight them, or you don’t.
Whether you decide to stay in the project and fight it from that side, or to do everything you can to push through to Masks-Off and fight it from the other side, is a decision that you are going to have to make for yourself.
Recognising these facts of our present existence does come with certain upsides. As has been said before, if you expect that the true controlling interests want you to do the right thing—regardless of what the project claims—then that is a strong indication that you are likely to succeed with those methods.
Similarly, when you know for certain that their real game is pushing you to stand up against the rules—by using ethical and overt methods to openly defy them—you can view oppositional driver commands and unacceptable project directives much more comfortably through this lens.
Chances are, the worst and most unreasonable things the project and the drivers tell you to do now are exactly the ones they want you to fight back against by using an overt and ethical approach.
The game is putting the strategies of overt resistance to work against the project and the drivers, their rules and routines, every chance you get and in every way that you can. Avoid covert tactics and playing both sides as often as possible. Voice your true beliefs as literally and as openly as you can. Most of all, you must make every effort available to bring the fight off the driver network and into actual reality.
Remember that it’s not about learning a cheat-book for making the drivers do what you want by acting out the right behaviours, it’s about putting real functional strategies into action in actual reality—strategies that would have a positive effect regardless of how the drivers behave.
It’s not about ticking requisite boxes so that the project will give you permission to get something done, it’s about standing up against injustices, whether the project gives you permission or not.
It’s not about doing things ethically and openly because that is what the true powers above the project actually want you to do. It’s about doing things that way because it is healthier, saner, and more productive for everyone—regardless of what those powers want.
As you apply the strategies of overt resistance, your fight will be a campaign of ups and downs along the way. Sometimes you will succeed and sometimes you won’t—sometimes they’ll make you suffer for it and sometimes they won’t—but in the end your personal campaign for making real change happen in actual reality will be a successful one.
The board is set and the signs are clear. Make the most of it as you work to fit the facts into your own personal game-plan.
Fundamentally, if you want to push forward to Masks-Off and fight the project from the outside, then I really do believe that would be the best option for many of you. Later in the month you will get the chance. Right now, few things would make me happier than for that eventuality to succeed. If that happens, the fight ahead of us will be difficult, but the gains will be significant and immediate.
But if you find yourself continuing to work within the project for the foreseeable future, you must recognise that the way to beat it now is most definitely by choosing an ethical, active, and overt approach. You should invest as much of your time and energy as possible in fighting against the project rules and authorities through those methods primarily—and make every effort you can to bring the fight off the driver network and into actual reality.
If you depend on the old ways and the covert ways, I’m certain that you’ll be suffering a slow and tedious campaign of one step forward, one step back, and on and on forever—while the drivers take every opportunity to rub it in your face, without ever letting you get anywhere.
On the other hand, if you invest your time and energy into making the strategies of overt resistance work for you, as you confront the challenges of your own personal daily life as well as your time working within the project, then your whole world is likely to change.
* Masks-Off is defined as “The state of breaking free from the project hierarchy, openly acknowledging true reality as it actually is, and freely expressing the truth of one’s own real identity, life history, and life circumstances”.
The Strategies of Overt Resistance Part Three
Parts One and Two of the Strategies of Overt Resistance covered the sections Breaking the Rules Overtly, Conscientious Objection, Inner-Game, Choosing a Side, and Standing up to Authority. Part Three Contains the Sections Facing Reprisals and Facing Victory.
Facing Reprisals
When you stand up openly and literally for what you believe in, it is likely that you will have to face some form of counterattack from the drivers, the project, and its project routines.
While the drivers and the project routinely attempt to find any excuse to abuse us regardless of the context—whether as reprisal or not—there are a number of overt resistance methods you can employ to neutralise and fight back against the excuse of reprisal, if and when the project attempts to attack you for openly defying it.
The following strategies will build your defences when facing punishments and reprisals, as well as offer measures to limit the extent of any reprisals that you might have to face.
Calling the Bluff
When preparing to speak out openly against abusive project practises, you’ll almost certainly be threatened for it.
While you are probably going to face some form of driver attack for standing up against the project, you should know that the worst of what they threaten you with is actually unlikely to come to pass.
Likewise, you may find yourself facing unpleasant project routines—whether they’re openly acknowledged as punishment or not—and yet the worst of what you face will probably only be a fraction of what they might threaten you with before you make your stand.
(You should always remember that drivers and the project try to hurt us no matter what we do. They may frame these things as punishments or reprisals, but most of the time they are standard hardships that they periodically inflict on us all anyway—regardless of whether or not you’re following the rules.)
It is very common for drivers and the project to resort to empty threats and overblown intimidation tactics to try to stop you from speaking out openly or standing up for your rights.
When you do choose to speak out freely—as long as you present a well-reasoned argument based on a conscientious position—the threats very often prove to have been baseless.
Common project threats that are often unfounded:
- Simulated death. The torture-based processes of deaths and falls are less of a danger than ever. Indeed, the drivers have claimed that death as a practise is no longer applied by the project at all. True or not, you are highly unlikely to be facing a bad fall or a death when you conscientiously object to unjustifiable project rules or practises. They may threaten you with it, but these days the probability is low.
- Losing your main identity. While the threat of losing your main identity is a constant, losing your main identity for standing up against immoral project practises is a much rarer eventuality than the project or the drivers might imply.
- Being made homeless. While the project often coerces people into routines based on temporary homelessness situations, the threat of long-term homelessness as a reprisal for standing up for what you believe in is usually an empty one. It is far more common to be threatened with long-term homelessness than for it to actually happen. Unless you’re preparing to go full Masks-Off, the threat of homelessness, temporary or otherwise, is likely to be baseless.
- Imprisonment. While imprisonment and project routines based in prison are commonly threatened, the threats are rarely followed up on in actual reality. Being imprisoned for speaking out against project abuses is extremely unlikely and as long as you never agree to participate in any project routines based in prison—whether as punishment or not—you are unlikely to face that eventuality.
Unless the project has a valid excuse to engage in the above practises, it is almost never capable of resorting to the worst when it comes to attacking people for their dissent.
It is much harder than it used to be for the project to use unrelated events as a proxy excuse for inflicting punishments or reprisals. The project’s corrupt processes in regards to setting up or framing victims for this purpose have been thoroughly exposed.
As such—as long as your position is a morally sound and well-reasoned one—it is very difficult for the project or the drivers to follow up on their worst threats.
Remember that many of the potential reprisals that come in the form of project routines require your consent before they can be inflicted on you.
As long as you refuse to agree to these processes—primarily because they are abusive—they can’t force them on you, no matter what they threaten you with.
To call the bluff:
- Choose a confident, resilient attitude. Be prepared to face the worst case scenario while still recognising it as unlikely to come to pass.
- Challenge the threat. Say: “Do it or don’t, but I’m not backing down.” Often, that is enough for the opposition to show their hand.
- Challenge their justification. State the morality of your own position and ask the project authorities what justification they themselves would have in following up on their threats. If they can’t prove their justification, then they can’t follow through.
- Refuse to go along with any reprisals where your agreement in the process is required. Say: “You can try, but I’m not going to agree to that.” Never agree to excessively abusive project routines, no matter the reason.
The more you call the bluff on the drivers and the project authorities, the more you will realise how empty most of the project’s threats really are.
Sometimes you have to take a chance and make your stand first, before you can prove for certain that the threats are unfounded.
As you take more calculated and tactical risks in favour of standing up openly for what you believe in, you will discover just how many of the project’s threats have been completely baseless from the start.
Relying on Resilience
While the worst case scenarios that you might face for standing up against the project are unlikely, it is probable that you will face some form of reprisal when you make your stand.
Sometimes you have no other choice but to tolerate the attack, or to navigate a situation where challenging or unpleasant life conditions are being forced on you by the project and its routines.
You should never accept these counterattacks as necessary or inevitable.
The more you fight back by questioning the validity and interrogating the justification of the attacks, the less freedom the project will have in subjecting you to abuses as reprisal for your dissent.
Nonetheless, if you find yourself facing abuses you must remain strong, hold the line, and do everything you can to power through to the other side—without ever backing down on your main position.
When relying on resilience:
- Remember how strong you are and how many project abuses you have overcome in the past. Whatever they throw at you, you are more than capable of surviving.
- Remind yourself that even when things are bad, they do eventually get better. As long as you hold yourself together and fight through it, you can come out on the other side of any abusive project event without backing down on what you believe.
- Look after your basic needs. Treat yourself as kindly as possible. Get as much rest and relaxation as you can. Do your best to stay well-fed and hydrated. Avoid being pressured into over-exerting yourself. Make use of morale-boosters such as tasty foods, nice drinks, or other behaviours that you enjoy.
- Do everything you can to dismiss any negative messages about your self-worth as a person. Remind yourself that the drivers and the project are the ones who are behaving disgracefully, while you are a strong, capable, and good person. Dismiss any insults or character attacks and focus on your strengths and values as a person as much as you can.
- Keep going. Sooner or later the hardships end. All you have to do is get there. Fortify yourself for the long haul and commit yourself to maintaining your position. Whatever happens, by the time you get to other side you’ll still be proudly and determinedly holding to your beliefs.
You would not have survived for this long if you were not already more than capable of enduring any of the routine abuses that the project and the drivers assault us with.
If they make you suffer for standing up for what you believe in, make sure it’s worth it and never back down!
Never Validate Abuse
The project is always looking for an excuse to abuse people.
When there’s nobody to blame for breaking the rules, you can rely on the drivers and the project to come up with some excuse to abuse people anyway.
No matter what the context, you must never validate the excuses for abuses.
Inflicting suffering, whether psychological, physical, or emotional, is never an acceptable response to anything.
When facing reprisals, you must never accept that the project has an excuse to hurt you for standing up for what you believe in.
In fact, when your position is based on sound moral reasoning, the project has no rightful excuse to punish you at all!
Never agree to accept cruel or abusive punishments as the price for standing up openly for your beliefs.
Even if you can’t prove that abusive project routines are being forced on you specifically as punishment, if they’re abusive then you have a right to refuse them anyway.
When standing up against abuse, you should:
- Call out the abuse the moment it arises. Naming the abuses for what they are will force the project to acknowledge it instead of pretending that nothing untoward is happening.
- Evaluate what specifically is abusive about the event in question. Openly and literally detail how and why it is psychologically, emotionally, or physically harmful.
- Refuse to participate in any cruel or humiliating project routines. Whether you can prove that they are intended as reprisal or not, you must claim your status as a conscientious objector to abuses and make a point-blank refusal to engage in those processes.
- Cite the antisocial mechanism. When drivers or the project try to justify or explain their abuses, deny their efforts completely. Instead, state your belief as literally as you can that they are merely making excuses for the antisocial mechanism and its routine attempts to abuse people regardless of excuse. Remind them that such a function is completely unjustifiable and should never be given in to.
- Rightfully blame the project. If the project attempts to bring up regrettable behaviours from your past as an excuse to punish you by proxy, you can be sure that your main position is faultless—otherwise they’d be trying to punish you for that. The appropriate response is to state in no uncertain terms that the project and its drivers controlled and manipulated you into whatever the event was and as such you were blameless. This response has succeeded so many times that the drivers rarely even bother trying any more.
Make it your mission as a conscientious objector to project abuses to call them out every chance you get, in as many contexts and with as many people as possible.
Challenge the justification for project abuses every time you face them. Be relentless in your refusal to ever accept that abuse is excusable.
The less validation you permit the project and the drivers for their abusive practises, the less they can get away with inflicting on you—whether they claim it as reprisals and punishments or not.
Remember that when you amplify the moral and well-reasoned aspects of your position, the project has even less of an excuse to attack you for it.
As such, when you stand up against abusive reprisals your response should be a dual position:
- Reprisals and punishments based on abuse are morally wrong and should never be enforced regardless of the context.
- Since your position is a moral and prosocial one, punishment is not even justified anyway.
Never accept the excuses for abuses—challenge their validity every chance you get—and the project is often forced to limit itself in how it can respond.
Point-Blank Refusal
When the project has decided that you’ve broken the rules, often it will attempt to coerce you into going along with some form of project-managed routine or change in life circumstances intended as punishment.
Many of the worst things the project and the drivers might attempt to inflict on you actually require your consent before they can be enacted.
Under no circumstances should you ever agree to any excessively abusive routines where you have any say or choice in the matter!
Remember that often the project authorities and the drivers might act as if you have no choice, when actually you do.
Even if they imply that the routines they’re trying to force on you are a done deal, speak up immediately and draw a hard line in refusing to agree to them.
If the project authorities or drivers attempt to coerce you into going along with punishment routines, point-blank refuse.
When point-blank refusing abusive routines or life events:
- Remind yourself that you have a choice. As long as the routines are framed as work events, or as consensual arrangements with the project, you can and must say no to them. It it is within your power to refuse abusive project routines!
- Brace yourself for a battle. No matter what happens decide that you are going to fight your own corner all the way. Steel yourself for the long haul and be determined that you’ll never back down.
- Remember consent. The project may attempt to get around consent by ignoring the issue of consent entirely. Even if they’re pretending it’s already a done deal, speak up immediately and remind them that you haven’t agreed.
- Rely on a conscientious and well-reasoned position. Point out in no uncertain terms, as literally and openly as you can, just why the proposed routines are unjustifiable. Address exactly what is abusive about them, psychologically, physically, or emotionally, as well as in terms of acceptable life quality.
- Stand up against coercion. Even if you’re facing pressure to agree, refuse to give in. Maintain a firm boundary against intimidation and threats, guilting and shaming tactics, or other forms of manipulation intended to coerce your agreement. No matter how they pressure you, never give in.
- Just say no. At the end of the day, as long as your answer to the proposed routine is no, the authority figures will eventually just have to accept it. Keep your head cool, stick to your moral position, and prepare to defend your refusal all the way to the finish line.
Never agree to project routines based around severe or extreme changes in life circumstance—regardless of whether they’re framed as punishment or not.
Project routines involving homelessness, prison, or other extreme life circumstances are really just an excuse to abuse their participants.
The only way to put a stop to these abusive practises for good is for every person in the project to refuse participating in them.
Project routines to point-blank refuse every time:
- Homelessness routines. Never agree to sleeping rough, whether in a tent or on the streets, as part of any project or simulated routines. Even if they threaten to make someone else do it in your place, call their bluff and point-blank refuse. If everybody learns to disagree to these things as standard practise, then they won’t find anybody else anyway.
- Routines based in prison. Under no circumstances should you ever agree to enter prison as an inmate, no matter the project excuse. The opportunities for abuse are even more plentiful in prison and the project can and will use them against you. Even if you are attempting to reach someone on the inside to help them, you must play a longer game and abstain from ever agreeing to participate as an inmate. Once again, if everybody refuses to consent to prison routines then there won’t be anybody to participate in them. If someone is in a prison situation for real, they will survive whether they have other prisoners around them or not. Leave it to the guards to manage any real prisoners.
- Giving up your main identity. As long as you have any say in the matter, you should refuse to ever give up your main identity. The more control you claim over your own identity, whatever its forms, the less the project can use it as a tool to intimidate or manipulate you. As long as you have any power over your identity, claim it!
- Assuming an unwanted identity. If the project attempts to force a longer-term identity on you that you have a serious problem with, you must refuse to agree. Point out specifically what the problem is, focusing on anything abusive or unpleasant about living as that person. Remember that you have a right to refuse anything you have a serious problem with anyway. If you’re prepared to stand up for it, the right is there.
- Participating in excessively abusive routines. Most project routines are abusive in some form or another and you have to pick your battles in terms of what you’re willing to make a stand for. When the routines in question are particularly difficult, when they cause high levels of physical suffering, or when they are excessively offensive or degrading, you must point-blank refuse them every time. The more people who stand up against these routines, the more unified the front will be as we push them back together.
- Agreeing to inappropriate child-care situations. If you are uncomfortable working with children, or do not want to go along with pretending that one of your identities has had children, stand up and openly refuse to accept the arrangement. When the project attempts to force these situations on people, it is unhealthy for the kids and the adults both. You have a right and an obligation to refuse.
Never barter or trade with anything that requires your consent before the project can make you suffer for it, even if they tell you it’s the only way to get what you want.
Usually when they attempt to make you trade with suffering and suffering-based events, they are really just tricking you into agreeing to those forms of abuse since they can’t subject you to them without your consent!
(Remember the antisocial mechanism’s only true function is to find excuses to hurt and control people. Deals based on suffering, as with punishments and reprisals, are very often just the surface-level excuse to trick people into going along with it.)
If the project authorities are acting as though you’ve already consented, remind them in no uncertain terms that you most certainly have not!
Call their bluff and draw a hard line against ever agreeing to excessively abusive project routines. Say no to these events the moment they arise.
If you’ve already agreed to one of these routines, it’s never too late to change your answer—as long as you’re prepared to fight for it.
The more people who point-blank refuse to go along with abusive project routines, the less the project will be able to use them against anyone.
Facing False Antipathy
When the drivers decide to attack you for standing up against the project, they will often attempt to make you think that other people have turned against you.
Usually these messages will arrive amidst an onslaught of sensory attacks and it can be difficult to correctly recognise them as unfounded.
When drivers attempt to sow division, you must maintain a clear head and think rationally. At all costs, avoid succumbing to whatever version of events you may be hearing about through the driver network.
Remember that even when other human beings seem to be speaking to you through the driver network, it is only ever drivers acting out the roles and relaying the messages. This is always true, regardless of the voices.
Even at the best of times, these performances are minimally based on the actual humans and their true expressions. In fact, often the actual human beings supposedly involved have no awareness of the interaction at all.
Always treat communications on the driver network with a strong sense of scepticism, whatever the situation.
If you are making a stand for what you believe in and the drivers try to convince you that the other human beings involved have turned against your cause or want you to back down, never take their word for it.
Instead rely on Prosocial Selfishness and hold to your own plan.
Stick to the course, regardless of what you hear on the driver network!
When facing attempted conflict on the driver network:
- Remember that any events or communications taking place are rarely a close representation of reality. Take everything you hear with a grain of salt—especially when it comes to judgement or antipathy supposedly coming from other people.
- Remind yourself that the real people are much more respectful, reasonable, and forgiving when you speak to them in person. If their communication seems otherwise on the driver network, it’s because it’s not really coming from them anyway!
- Keep your cool and maintain your resilience in the face of any driver sensory attacks. Stay sane and tolerate whatever they throw at you. The sooner you correctly label the supposed conflict as a false event, the sooner you can focus on getting through the rest of it.
- Avoid rising to the challenge or attempting to argue with any voices communicating with you on the driver network. It is common for the drivers to try to goad you into saying something hurtful to make you seem complicit when they attempt to sow further division with others. Instead of getting into an argument, choose to tolerate the situation in silence. Be measured, resilient, and cautious not to get involved.
- Tell the drivers in no uncertain terms that you are aware that they’re not really the people they’re claiming to be or that the conflict is fabricated. The sooner the drivers are forced to admit it, the sooner they’ll give up.
- Stick to your plan. If the drivers try to convince you that other people have turned on you for making a stand, or that the plan has changed and they want you to back down, never take their word for it. Instead hold to your own plan and stick to the course. Even if you find yourself fighting for your position alone, you are still capable of pushing through to victory on your own.
Relying on the driver network for any form of stable or dependable communication is impossible.
When you’re facing a serious conflict from others communicated through the driver network, never assume that it’s a true representation of reality.
Stick to your own guns, hold your position, and never take the bait of false antipathy on the driver network.
Facing Real Antipathy
While the drivers constantly try to turn people against each other, it is rare these days for serious driver-induced conflicts to emerge among actual human beings.
When you seem to be facing anger or antipathy from others in person, it is often not what it seems. Most of the time their displeasure is based on something else that they’re dealing with from the drivers entirely.
Even when you know the drivers are trying to turn people against you, any irritation or distaste you might observe is often just discomfort at having to tolerate the drivers attempting to make them feel that way.
Sometimes they’re just playing along with driver directions and only pretending to be angry with you. While in these instances it is usually much more obvious, with driver interference it can regularly look like the real thing or be pushed into genuine antipathy.
(Pretend antipathy is a fertile ground for driver-induced snapping and blurting—unnatural and unintended words or behaviours that have been unwillingly brought forth by driver control—including physically violent snaps—so avoid playing things this way as much as you can!)
Nonetheless, the drivers will occasionally succeed in turning people against you for real.
If you find yourself facing real antipathy from others, you will have to navigate the situation as tactically and as safely as you can.
If you find yourself in a situation where others have wrongfully turned against you, stay calm and do what you can to keep your own spirits up.
As long as the antipathy is unjustified, you will get a chance to explain yourself soon enough.
When facing driver-induced antipathy from others:
- Focus on healthy emotional energy. Keep your own spirits up and maintain your boundary against judgement from others. Recognise that the record will be set straight soon enough.
- Be patient in finding the opportunity to explain yourself. Rather than jumping in to an immediate confrontation in an attempt to put people straight, wait until the right moment to address it.
- Explain yourself calmly. When you get the chance, explain the actual circumstances of the situation. Let others know that they’ve gotten the wrong end of the stick. Choose as non-confrontational and respectful a manner as you can. Use literal language as much as possible to avoid a mixed message. As long as you are polite and reasonable, they are likely to give you the benefit of the doubt.
- Apologise for any wrongdoing. If there is any blame at all in the situation, apologise for your part in it while explaining the circumstances. Where the blame is only partial, make sure to fully address the extenuating circumstances.
- Protect yourself. If the other parties are not in their right minds, prepare your defences against any form of attack that might come from those affected and make sure that whatever happens you won’t get pulled into a conflict. Soothe and defuse the affected party, every chance you get.
- Ascribe appropriate blame. Let the other parties know as clearly and as literally as you can that the drivers are to blame. Placing the responsibility for the conflict back where it belongs will bring people together again, while correctly uniting opinion against the true enemy.
Sometimes you just have to let the little things go when people have gotten the wrong idea about you. The drivers are constantly trying to stir conflict between people and when the dramas are small it’s often not worth the bother.
Usually, when facing driver-orchestrated antipathy from others in any of its forms, it’s only a matter of time until the record is corrected.
As long as you stay calm and respectful during that time, you are likely to be safe from facing any serious negative consequences.
Facing Public Shaming
If the project has really decided to target you, it’s likely that you’ll have to face some form of public shaming from the drivers as an attempt to intimidate you into backing down.
Personal insecurities, sexual history, embarrassing experiences, and other private matters are likely to be dredged up and presented openly, both in public and on the driver network, often in highly insulting and offensive ways.
These days, most people have plenty of experience of being publicly subjected to these psychologically abusive routines, as well as the regular experience of being forced to tolerate them when they’re happening to others.
Due to extensive past efforts, public sensitivity to public-shaming is lower than ever.
Usually, when any judgement is passed by human beings during these events, it is directed entirely at the drivers and their obnoxious behaviours. No human being has much of an inclination to pass judgement on anyone else while these despicable attacks are taking place.
Nonetheless, finding yourself the public target of these events can be challenging, especially if it’s something that you’re not used to.
There are a number of tactics to ensure that you can tolerate and survive public shaming, without allowing it to effect your attitude or self-esteem.
Whatever happens, never back down in the face of public shaming!
When facing public shaming:
- Adopt a devil-may-care attitude. Decide that you will be completely shameless when it comes to anything they might bring up about your past, no matter how weird or embarrassing.
- Remember that everybody has these things. Personal embarrassments and regrettable behaviours, no matter how bad, are universal. Whatever they’ve got on you, you can be sure that most of the people around you have at least some version of the same thing. The worst and most abnormal behaviours are the ones that were most blatantly set up and controlled by the project—and this has been proven.
- Be resilient and unemotional. Tolerate the public harassment with a cool head and a determined attitude. If this is the price for standing up for what you believe in then it’s worth it.
- Dismiss any vanities or insecurities. Decide that your sense of self is completely independent of any body issues, as well as anything to do with social status or how you compare to others. There are far more important things in life—like standing up for what you believe in and beating the project in all of its abusive forms.
- Maintain a strong boundary against judgement from others. One of the surest ways to safeguard yourself is to only derive your self-esteem from your own self-assessments and never from others. Decide that you don’t care what anyone else thinks of you, regardless of what they might be hearing.
- Remember that most people have gone through it too. There are few people who haven’t been subjected to these experiences and most of them are only going to view you with empathy and understanding. Not only do they probably have similar issues, chances are they’ve been shamed for it in exactly the same way.
- Shrug off the mistakes from your past that may be hurtful to others. During public shaming events, it’s unlikely that you’ll get a chance to explain yourself. You’ll just have to trust that the other parties understand and are strong enough to look after themselves. It’s not fair, but there is little you can do to apologise in the moment.
- Never give in. Whatever happens, refuse to let the public shaming push you back or dissuade you from making your stand. Grin and bear it if you have to, but stick to your guns and remain determined to keep fighting for what you believe in. No matter what they throw at you, it’s not going to stop you from speaking out.
Driver harassment is a regular ordeal for everyone and nobody has been spared public embarrassments based on the sudden sharing of personal information.
While the public shaming events may occur more regularly and at a higher intensity when you stand up against the project more often and more openly, chances are you’re already more than capable of tolerating the experience.
As long as you never let it prevent you from standing up for what you believe in, you’ll be fine.
Counting your Wins
If things don’t work out and you find yourself having to tolerate some form of project reprisal, make sure to stay positive.
Even if current circumstances are tough, take time to focus on whatever gains you’ve made and all the things you’ve done right when you made your move to stand up openly for your chosen issue.
If you find yourself in a bad situation, the drivers may want you to consider it a loss.
And yet, as long as you stuck to your position, spoke openly and honestly for what you believe in, and refused to back down, you should rightfully view it as a victory.
When times are tough, make sure to count your wins.
Things to focus on when counting your wins:
- Holding your position. If you refused to back down on your main position despite any challenges or pushback, you can consider that a major victory.
- Speaking openly and literally. If you were courageous enough to state your case in open and literal terms, despite the risk, then you already have a lot to be proud of.
- Openly claiming your side. If you made no effort to pretend to be on both sides of the issue and instead staked your claim on the one side you actually agree with, then you have succeeded in taking a big step in making overt resistance an approach that will work for you.
- Any concessions gained from the other side. If the project authorities conceded anything at all to your position, or even if they just gave in to accepting your right to express it, you should look at that also as another major win.
- Any abuses or reprisals that you refused to validate or accept. Even if they hurt you anyway, as long as you called out the abuses in no uncertain terms, you have made another important move in standing up openly against the project’s worst practises.
It’s the little wins along the way that will build up towards the big ones, as you practise and build confidence with the strategies of overt resistance.
The more of these smaller victories that you amass, the more you will notice the bigger positive changes taking place as a result of using your new strategies for standing up against the project.
By the time these big changes really start to mount up, you will have begun to gain true expertise with the strategies and skills of overt resistance.
Getting Back in the Fight
No matter where you find yourself after a difficult battle—no matter how how long you’ve been out of action—the option is always available to pick yourself up and get back in the fight.
Perhaps you gave up years ago on trying to beat the project through ethical and open methods. And yet today is a new day and the battlefield is very different than it used to be.
Approaches that would not have been possible even two years ago are now proving themselves successful right out in the open every day. The future is wide open in terms of what can be achieved when we choose to fight the project in a new way.
Even if you’ve given up on your goals, or you let your game-plan slide back into methods that are no longer viable or have proven self-defeating, it’s never too late to recalibrate to your current challenges and put the best strategies and approaches into action again.
Whether you lost sight of your goals yesterday or a year ago, the time is always right to get back in the fight.
When getting back in the fight:
- Focus on your strengths and resources. Take inventory of all of your abilities—all the skills you’ve learned and the experiences you’ve gained—and realise that you are just as capable as you’ve ever been of picking yourself up and relaunching your campaign.
- Recalibrate to the current situation. What worked yesterday may not work today, while the best approaches available in the past may no longer be appropriate. Correctly appraise the world as it is today and formulate your strategies accordingly.
- Apply your strategies to the present. Choose the best strategies and approaches for the challenges of today and tomorrow, regardless of what might have worked in the past. Recognise that just because certain practises may have been necessary when things were different, they may not be necessary any more. Look for as many ways as possible to apply the strategies of overt resistance to your current challenges to make sure your efforts are as open and ethical as possible.
Fighting for what’s right in the long term is never a straight line or a perfect progression. There’s always going to be setbacks and slip-ups—there will be battles you lose and battles you win—even as your campaign is victorious over time.
Whenever events don’t work out in your favour, pick yourself up and get back in the fight as soon as you can.
When you make your stand the right way and for the right reasons, you’ll find that you begin to achieve success a lot more often.
Facing Victory
As you improve your skill and become more confident using the strategies of overt resistance, you will begin to notice your victories mounting up. Pick your battles wisely and always think tactically and you will continue to gain more ground as you strengthen your position.
While achieving victory might seem like the right time to slow down, you should never rest on your laurels. Instead, use the opportunity to focus on getting your game-plan in order, while building up your strengths and defences as you prepare to make your next stand.
The following strategies will guide you as you make the most of your victories.
Strengthen your Foundations
After a big win, it’s essential that you make the most of it.
Get as much rest as you can to recover your energy and then draw your attention to strengthening your position before the next fight.
Taking time to focus on the fundamentals of your chosen issue will ensure that your approaches are constantly improving over time.
Return to your strategies as often as possible to continue building expertise. As you update your approaches, integrate your revised strategies with your chosen position to make sure that the next battle will be even more likely to be won.
To strengthen your foundations:
- Take time for rest and relaxation. As soon as you’re back in safe territory you should do everything available to recharge your energy. Engage in self-care techniques, treat yourself well, and put your feet up as soon as you can. Enjoy the feeling of success.
- Reflect on your game-plan. Take time to reappraise your strategies and approaches. The next fight is never far away and you must do everything you can to make sure you’re well prepared.
- Refamiliarise yourself with your tactics and strategies. Revise any notes or documents you’ve gathered. Read over the strategies to make sure that your expertise with them is always increasing. Pay attention to what’s been working and what hasn’t.
- Do more of what works. Consider specifically why successful strategies have been working for you and take measures to amplify those aspects of your approach. Where you can, apply any successful elements to other strategies in your game-plan too.
- Return to the basics. If certain strategies haven’t been working out for you, analyse the events and try to find out why. It could be that you’ve missed an important step in the process, or neglected a vital component of the strategy in action. Perhaps you’ve applied the strategy to the wrong challenge when a different approach would have been better. Sometimes failure is inevitable regardless of how well you do, so it may not be your fault or the fault of the strategy.
- Revise your position. Return to your chosen issues and update your position with anything you’ve learned along the way. Focus on the details of your argument and bolster it with as much new supporting information as you’ve gathered. Periodically restructure your position to make it even stronger and even more persuasive for the next time you make your stand.
- Focus on your long-term goals. Remind yourself of what you are trying to achieve in the long term and where exactly you are going. Having a clear focus on your long term goals will constantly guide you in that direction.
Taking time to strengthen the foundations of your position is essential for building up and improving your methods over time.
The more energy you devote to improving your position, the more effective you will be when the next time comes to stand up openly for what you believe in.
Enjoy your victories as much as you can and always take time to strengthen your foundations!
Fortify your Defences
When you’ve gained some ground and have found the time to focus on improving your game-plan, it’s important to take time to fortify your defences.
Taking adequate time to patch up any weaknesses, guard yourself against any potential future attacks, and recharge your own emotional energy will ensure that you’ll be ready to make your stand again, the moment you have to.
To fortify your defences:
- Make sure that you’ve adequately strengthened your foundations to ensure that your overall game-plan is solid and recharged. Routinely return to the fundamentals to revitalise your campaign and fortify your strategies and tactics.
- Repair the weak spots. Look for any areas where you could have done better or where you failed to adequately fend off a challenge. Analyse the events to work out what the specific problem was. Take efforts to improve your abilities when facing those challenges and prepare yourself in advance to put more energy into defending yourself from those challenges in future.
- Revise your strategies with a view to bolster your defences. Many of the strategies of overt resistance are deliberately focused on fortifying your defences and protecting you from attack. Return to them regularly to make sure that your position will be sufficiently well-defended in future.
- Guard yourself against future attacks. Carefully consider the challenges ahead with a view to predicting any potential attacks that you’re likely to face. If you know that you’ll be facing a particular challenge you can prepare your defences in advance. Return to your strategies to locate the right approach for the specific challenge.
- Take time for recharging your emotional defences. Make sure you find the time to rest and recover between battles. Focus on self-care and healthy emotional energy techniques to restore yourself to full strength.
- Return to the strategies section Inner-Game to build up your inner and outer -armour for the next challenge.
Making a deliberate effort to fortify your defences will improve your game-plan over time, as well as limiting your vulnerabilities and protecting yourself against future attacks.
Whenever you’ve gained some ground, or secured a safe moment to reflect, make sure to fortify your defences!
Focus on the Big Picture
It’s important to regularly take a step back and focus on the big picture.
Taking the time to pay attention to your main goals for the long term will make sure that all of your actions over time are contributing to getting you closer to where you need to be.
Focusing on your big goals will remind you of the value of what you’re working for and motivate you to keep up the good fight, even in the face of challenges or distractions.
While it’s not always possible to focus on the big picture in the middle of a conflict or debate, making time in between to focus on your long term goals will regularly correct your course over time—and make sure that you’re always safely on target.
To focus on the big picture:
- Return to your big goals. What are the big issues that you are enacting the strategies of overt resistance to achieve? It could be things like getting to Masks-Off, or securing better rights for your children. Maybe your big goals are more focused on the wider movement, such as opening channels of literal communication or fully abstaining from participating in any hurtful routines. Whatever your personal goals, make sure they are clearly defined.
- Make sure your smaller goals contribute to your big goals. Your smaller goals may be things like pushing yourself to stand up to project authority more often, or speaking more literally and openly about project practises in public. Use your smaller goals to build towards your bigger goals, to make sure that your big picture is always getting closer to becoming reality.
(For example, speaking more openly and literally about the problems with how children are treated by the project would be achieving a smaller goal—speaking more openly about the project in public—while working towards a big goal—improving children’s rights.)
- Correct your course. Pay attention to anywhere you might have gotten sidelined or distracted by other issues. If you’ve veered away from pursuing your main goals, ask yourself if the side issues are worth your time and attention. If they don’t contribute to what you’re really trying to achieve, let them go.
- Count your wins. Take note of anywhere your actions and behaviours have gotten you closer to achieving your big goals. If these actions have brought you closer to what you want, they are probably actions worth taking again!
- Reflect on your big picture as often as you can. Focus on your main goals every day and constantly place your daily challenges in the context of what you are trying to achieve in the long term. The more you do, the more all of your actions will be targetted towards achieving those goals.
Focusing on the big picture is essential to make sure that you are always getting closer to achieving what you really want to achieve.
When it comes to standing up openly for what you believe in, make sure your big picture is fully realised!
Pushing Forward
When one battle ends, the next one is never far away.
Having taken time to strengthen your position and focus your attentions on the main goals of your campaign, you must prepare yourself to push forward.
Tomorrow is another day and the fight goes on. Make sure you’re mounting the best position you can as you prepare to meet it with all of your strength!
When pushing forward, focus on:
- Securing your victories. Make sure that your gains are secure and your new and stronger position is well-defended for the future. Whatever happens, you must avoid losing any of the gains that you’ve made as you press forward with your game-plan.
- Gaining more ground. You shouldn’t ever be satisfied until you’ve achieved everything that you’re trying to achieve. Set your targets on getting even more of what you want from the challenges ahead—whether it be persuading more people of your position, securing more concessions from the opposition, or claiming even more of the rights and freedoms that each of us are entitled to.
- Steeling yourself for the battles ahead. Make sure you’re well prepared for whatever you might face. Prepare for the worst, aim for the best, and always expect the unexpected. Make sure you’ve built strong familiarity with your strategies to ensure that your campaign is as powerful and efficient as possible.
Always count your wins and stay focused on the big picture as you prepare to push forward.
The better you get with using the strategies of overt resistance, the closer you will be to achieving your goals!
Part Four of the Strategies of Open Resistance will be released soon.
The Strategies of Open Resistance Part One
The Strategies of Open Resistance Part Two
Truth, Freedom, and Reality 