2020: take it all back from the trolls

Note: this email isn’t a campaign, but 90% of Avaazers polled voted to send it… Dear lovely Avaazers, For over a decade, Avaaz has fought and won battles to change laws, policies and politics. We've won huge victories. But it hasn't been enough. Because the truth is, there's something more powerful than laws and policies. Us. The culture, values and beliefs of people. And while we were trying to change policies, anger and fear and Facebook and the Kremlin have been changing people, changing us. A great struggle for the soul of humanity is being waged - between hope and despair, trust and distrust, truth and falsehood, fear and love, tribalism and unity, wisdom and what would seem like wisdom. And it's going on in each of us and all of us. The shock troops on one side of this struggle are well known: the trolls. Whether it's the result of the wounds of shame and hardship they experience, or simple cash payment, they are spreading social poison at an industrial scale. But it’s not us vs them. Because who is on the other side? All of us. And that's where Avaaz comes in. Trolls and the trolliness in all of us have taken so much from us - our social networks, much of our media and politics, even many personal and family relationships. It’s heartbreaking. But let's make the 2020s the decade we took it all back. And let's begin where we must - with ourselves - with a set of principles that we might commit to follow, online and offline, to manage our own inner trolls and show the world a different way forward: (these have also been polled and strongly supported by Avaaz members) 1. Untrigger "Triggers" quickly move us to anger and fear - they steal our best and offer our worst. We all trigger all the time, but if we own our triggers as our own: "that's my insecurity about x" then we can stop blaming others, stop being trolly, and start acting from love and wisdom. 2. Listen for wisdom When we're not triggered, we can listen deeply to the perspectives of others, as well as to ourselves - to the emotions of our heart, the reason of our heads, and the intuition of our gut - and we can listen for that quiet voice within that harmonizes all of these things, and suggests wisdom to us. 3. Be kind AND strong Kindness without strength can be cowardice. And strength without kindness can be brutal. We need both love and strength, 'Yin' and 'Yang', to successfully protect the things we hold precious and in common. 4. Stop the Gossip, seek the truth Fake news, half-truths, smears, and disinformation motivated by emotion and agenda bring out the worst in all of us. People are fundamentally decent, but we are quick to embrace simple demonizations that justify the worst we do to each other. Let's strive to see the human not the villain, and understand the often complex truth. If these principles speak to you, [click here to sign on to them with one click, and share reflections with others who feel the same.]( Let’s support and inspire each other to get better at them. Sometimes just a small number of people behaving a certain way can help catalyze a much broader shift. Avaaz might be such a catalyst. Imagine a world where most of us agreed to follow principles like these, and succeeded much of the time. We might still disagree on many things, but the character of that disagreement might be different. Less petty and vicious and tragic, more meaningful, perhaps respectful. Humanity would still be beautifully diverse, and sometimes clashing. But we'd be more noble at the same time. Maybe, more of what we're meant to be. And maybe that's the gift of the trolls among us and within us, and even the ones that lead us. We can look at them and say - that's just not who we are, who we want to be. And then listen for that quiet voice within, to usher us onward to who we are meant to be, for ourselves, and all of us. With hope and love, Ricken and the whole Avaaz team Avaaz is a 55-million-person global campaign network that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people shape global decision-making. ("Avaaz" means "voice" or "song" in many languages.) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world; our team is spread across 18 countries on 6 continents and operates in 17 languages. Learn about some of Avaaz's biggest campaigns [here]( or follow us on [Facebook](, [Twitter](, or [Instagram](. You became a member of the Avaaz movement and started receiving these emails when you signed "Join Avaaz!" on 2016-03-01 using the email address {EMAIL}. To ensure that Avaaz messages reach your inbox, please add avaaz@avaaz.org to your address book. To change your email address, language settings, or other personal information, [contact us]( or simply [go here to unsubscribe](. To contact Avaaz, please do not reply to this email. Instead, write to us at or call us at +1-888-922-8229 (US).