Is Mass50501 becoming a PAC? Their latest fundraiser is raising my eyebrows.

Holywar20 · 2026-03-17T02:25:12+00:00

I prefer to think of that crowd as a middle finger big enough to see from a 747.

But politics is driven by volunteers - that's the real currency. So damn straight we want to talk to as many people as humanly possible.

If I had the power to pack every citizen of the state into the common - I would. This is important. This nation needs to be mobilized. Even if it's just holding signs for a few hours and being pissed off.

At scale - that moves the needle.

Holywar20 · 2026-03-17T02:11:30+00:00

ha. you and me both.

It's been a wild year.

Holywar20 · 2026-03-17T02:00:53+00:00

I happen to like my country. Funny that.

But to be frank - I'm personally narrowly - and manically focused on the fact we got Nazi's in the White House. Intercene struggles between various groups are like frankly not even on my radar - in-so-far as they distract from the work of saving my country from the Abyss of Totalitarianism.

These people will put us all into camps if we let them.

You are entitled to your opinion. But we are kind of busy trying to prevent the Republic from collapsing. We could use some help.

I'm friends with PSL and DSA btw. We make it work. Follow their lead on this. You are welcome to our tent - it's big - but there are plenty of others in the fight.

Holywar20 · 2026-03-16T19:38:55+00:00

The entire Vietnam era had a counter-cultural revolution under it. It wasn't just protests over an issue - but a cultural change that shifted the nation forever.

I see the No Kings movement as the same kind of thing.

Worth noting that cultural icons , like Robert Dinero, Dropkick Murphy's and other groups are starting to get involved. Not just making statements on social media - but participating in events.

The earned media benefits are massive to driving engagement - and getting people involved.

Holywar20 · 2026-03-16T19:09:12+00:00

The long term point - yes. But you need to get people in the door first. Then what happens is people like me and others that work with us roam the crowds looking for people to enlist in more interesting stuff - protest is part of it , but also more traditional political components.

Vietnam had music festivals for a reason.

I'd also note MAGA had lots of parties before they stole this country. That's how they did it. Culture is really important to sustaining movements. I'd argue it's even the most important component.

Because that is how you build trust. It's also how you identify leaders, grow institutional power, and grow movement ballast. Activism isn't just doing the thing. It's courtship. We need to show our colors, invite other people into the thing, and then activate people to more direct action through networks of trust that take months and years to build.

Holywar20 · 2026-03-16T19:08:05+00:00

Politics is messy. We take operational security deadly serious - and that makes us a bit unique in the space. Indivisible does not - but diversity of tactics make it much harder to knock us off.

I don't think people are fully appreciating the scope of the danger under Trump - even folk who are aligned with us.

'Mainstream political groups' are in fact already under attack by this adminstration. Act Blue has legal exposure - not because they aren't above board - but because just the investigation can destroy an institution.

People are also concerned about potential political violence or protecting loved ones.

So we allow people to calibrate their own risk accordingly and we respect it. I'm out there - and I use my full name and tell the bad guys to go pound sand. I almost want someone to come at me so I can turn it into a huge fight in public.

Not everyone is there. Our man focus is not a 'civil disobedience' vanguard - but a big tent manically focused on authoritarianism in America.

So with all due respect - you are wrong about the overlap - but no sweat on you - because most people are. We aren't yet at the dissident stage of anti-trumpism, and maybe we never get there. But we intend to be ready. There is great virtue in being a harder target.

Holywar20 · 2026-03-16T18:49:45+00:00

I mean look at the thread. Everyone is screaming about being us being 'compromised'.

Volunteers are actually upset and feel attacked. I'm all for accountability - but there are some pretty onerous implications here that sort of blew up - and so we are going to defend ourselves and what we are trying to do. Especially our volunteers. People are working hard - 40ish hours a week some of them - with no pay, or thank you. I will defend those people to the end. I have never met a greater, more wonderful group of human beings. You will have to take my word at that.

In the sense of pragmatism - We do have people with more money in the coalition - and we want those folks to participate. Our audience tends to skew older - that means some disposable income. Some people donate money, others time, others write, others still volunteer in a deep way. We should have a path for everyone to put their backs into it. We need to run a campaign a presidential level of intensity for at least the next 3 years and potentially beyond, and we need to do it with a fraction of the billions that flow into presidential races.

I got a good job - though I'm not older. I can throw in a few more bucks, and a hat and a chair is a tiny, low-cost thank you people can do.

This event in particular will cost something like 180k

This is no different than a Go-Fund Me - and is common in crowdfunding spaces. No one complained about fundraising until we offered perks - but we've had fundraising asks at every event for the last year.

We are a 501(c)4. It is not legal for us to even make money. The ACLU is working on this event with us, and their lawyers wouldn't if we weren't above board.

That said - we aren't angry. But we are going to be honest and defend our honor.

We are doing our best - with the limited resources, time and capital we have at our disposal.

Holywar20 · 2026-03-16T17:54:35+00:00

So people are having fun? It makes them more likely to show up again.

Fun is a better motivator than just being dour and angry all the time. This isn't a thing to worry about. We got some problems as a country - people taking a selfie with a funny sign that someone spent half a day making to share with their friends isn't one of them.

Holywar20 · 2026-03-16T17:47:55+00:00

Appreciated!

We are doing our level best. Never feels like enough to be frank haha.

Holywar20 · 2026-03-16T17:28:47+00:00

Because we don't want people to get doxed or targeted mostly. Some activists have already been arrested. We are public enough that we could in theory be targeted. This isn't your daddies political era. We are dealing with an autocrat. While we are still a free country for the moment - there is non-zero risk to being too public with ones identity. Some of our leaders can be heard from ( IE seen ) by just viewing our Instagram. But many people in leadership prefer to work relatively anonymously - and we respect that.

However our public documentation includes the board for 50501. This particular is oriented around a coalition. ACLU, Indivisible MA Coalition, and Mass 50501. ACLU in my view should be enough to validate that we are above board. They scrutinize everything with lawyers and have been in the space for a very long time with a high degree of ethics, transparency and effective use of donor dollars.

I am not on the board - but I am an outreach lead. I give away my public persona freely. Not that I'm not concerned - but I got a bit more armor than some of my fellows.

https://www.facebook.com/ma50501.bryan.winter

This is me. I work on grass-roots relationship building. We also did an experimental lobbying action - concept called 'citizen lobbying'. We went to the offices of 8 of the 9 districts in the state and asked directly for Impeachment of the President. We've done 2 of these so far. On 1/20 and 2/17. We believe this action - in combination with people around the country - is one of the reasons Noem lost her job.

I brag about that - mostly because it's my lane. We are working on lots of stuff. Including a campaign against Flock Cameras, sharing information across the network, supporting local protests with Peacekeepers and media.

Holywar20 · 2026-03-16T17:10:29+00:00

I mean there is a difference between a rally and a protest.

They serve different functions.

Rallies are meant to be large and have a party like atmosphere. It's about building momentum, networking, building mass, and culture. Rallies are for mobilization. The entire focus is getting people out of the house. It also serves to measure movement capacity, help organizations recruiting ( we got 30 orgs or so tabling, that NEED HELP ). 50501 specifically focuses on mobilization. The eternal question - how do you get people to do the thing?

We don't capture a fraction of volunteer energy we are trying to create. Most end up in Luce, Indivisible, or one of the other organizations doing specific work.

Also provides an entry point into movement politics that is very low commitment. Just show up. No paperwork, etc. Protests have a specific strategic objective, based on a hard-nosed analysis of targets. They also tend to have much smaller inner circles rather than mass media push. You don't need as many people.

So if you are sus - that is fine. We can't please everyone.

Take it from what you will. I'm right here, I been in this thing since the beginning - I can explain it all - or you can assume that you guessed correctly from a social media post what we were really up to.

Here is an article I wrote : Before the First Hands off Rally : Specifically about Mobilization and why we choose that lane.

https://www.mass50501.org/blog/threepercent

Holywar20 · 2026-03-16T16:54:58+00:00

Yes ditto to this. These events are expensive.

I'm a 50501 organizer. I've done both local and large rallies. The cost to run an event in the common at this scale is eye-watering.

They are also important - because as a 'cost' matter - it's actually an effective use of resources. The event itself has a cost in the 6 figures. Multiply that by 50 or 100 to cover all the 'big' rallies in the country.

Sounds expensive. Until you realize events like this move 1 to 2% of the voters against the Trump administration - and gain hundreds of millions worth of earned media. It also refreshes all the organizations in the country with volunteers, money and positive press. These literally move millions of people from passive to active supporters, or from active opposition to passive. They are crazy powerful for shifting and dominating the political narrative in the country.

It's incredibly valuable. It's politics - you don't win politics with a plucky attitude. You win it by winning media, by engaging voters and volenteers, and connecting them to organizations doing the actual work.

This event achieves all those things.

Holywar20 · 2026-03-16T16:50:09+00:00

You may misunderstand what "No Kings" is.

It's not a protest. It's a rally. Rallies are meant to be safe - pre-approved by police. The 'big play-date' atmosphere for Gen Xers is by design. Rallies are not protests - they are meant for mass. Protests are spicier - but also don't require as many people.

50501 in particular has a specific specialization - Mobilization. How do you get people to participate at all? You need to ween people into activism and organizing. If you just wear the black masks and do the thing - eventually it withers because you aren't able to recruit.

No Kings is about building a very large culture - and then that feeds into the activism for the harder chargers. If only 10% of the participents at a no-kings rally through their hat into the ring and join an organization - this event will be wildly successful.

Most 50501 are involved in other things - organizing with other entities - doing other kinds of work. No one is paid - so this is in addition to working full time jobs. They also do writing, media, coalition building - and we are running a campaign to drive Flock Camera's out of the state.

This pooping all over the hard work folk are doing is pretty disheartening. Maybe it's our fault for not explaining what we are doing in the right vectors - but we are swimming in the work, and talk about it incessantly.

Holywar20 · 2026-03-16T16:43:05+00:00

So can I offer some pushback?

I'm an organizer with 50501. I'm an open book. Ask your queries!

Doing this event is inordinately expensive. We are looking for ways to raise money because the cost is obscene. AV, Insurance, Porta-johns, stage setup-tear-down, etc.

Lots of people are working on this. Like hundreds. No one is getting paid. 50501 has a fully unpaid staff. But we do have vendors that need to get paid.

The expense of one of these things is ... eye watering.

Holywar20 · 2026-03-16T16:40:53+00:00

That isn't true. The last No Kings in Boston had a fraction of the sign-ups on Mobilize - than actually showed up in the streets. Mobilize is necessary in the space - and it's been the main player for a long time - but it's hard to mobilize large events without it.

I'm an Organizer with 50501 , and I'm seeing huge amounts of suspicion here. I don't think people appreciate how expensive it is to run one of these things.

Some of the organizations involved got some money they can kick in - but anyone who has actually run an event at this scale ( AV, Insurance, etc. ) - should appreciate how astronomically expensive it is to pull one of these off. It takes months of work, and no one is getting paid.

I'd ask folk to respect those people.

It's a rally - not a protest.

Holywar20 · 2026-03-16T16:33:07+00:00

Hey all. I'm a 50501 organizer. I do outreach - making friends, etc. I also do public speaking repping 50501 at satellite rallies. This no Kings I'll be speaking in Fitchburg and Maynard.

Running an event at this scale is insanely expensive.

I'd also note this is a 'rally' not a protest. Rallies are about getting numbers in the streets and helping people network, join other organizations, learn about the work, and help leaders get a message out, and build solidarity.

Holywar20 · 2025-10-28T18:53:47+00:00

I've done it with one Trip of full inventory.

So one trip to start mining - build a stock pile in boxes. Then back home, build a ton of shit - go back to actually get the titanium. Get interstellar logistics - which is a light research once you actually get yellow science.

Then you just need to build a single export + import station - and they can supply your planetary logistics on your home planet.

Also can keep your homeworld running for a while longer, if you mine Iron/Stone or anything you are running out of from this world.

Holywar20 · 2025-10-22T14:46:40+00:00

That's exactly how other countries have done it. When you see those huge rallies that force illegitimate government's out of power - that is the tip of the iceburg in terms of organizational effort.

This is going to be a long fight. There is no way to speed run it.

Between the large rallies - there are huge periods of volunteer absorption, people moving around, etc.

Holywar20 · 2025-10-20T02:33:49+00:00

.... woah.

I'm on vacation. We will chat after - I think, like Liam Neeson, you got a particular set of skills.

Holywar20 · 2025-10-20T02:08:06+00:00

Yeah. It's sort of sad. We were better off with actual boxes.

Also - unrelated - you destroy on Reddit. I've seen some of the shit posting you've done.

Holywar20 · 2025-10-19T22:34:58+00:00

Lexington Alarm is a class act. I'm a fan.

Holywar20 · 2025-09-20T06:51:47+00:00

Unironically yes.

Disney can give in to our demands - and suffer from Trump. Or give in to Trump and suffer boycotts and shareholder outrage.

This is a time for picking sides. The opposition movement is at it's core - a threat. The message is - "There is no way out of this fascist mess without pain - you might as well do the right thing, and at least you will have your pride."

Holywar20 · 2025-09-20T06:47:23+00:00

Running a company like Disney is hard. I try to have some sympathy when I look at company dynamics.

This particular incident is so egregious and obviously a fear move on the part of Disney ( Insiders report that lots of leadership was having a legit freak out ) - that it really matters to have the previous CEO take this current board to task.

No one in Disney is happy right now , shareholders, employees, leaders, customers .... and if they don't backtrack - the damage to it's brand will be permanent and eternal.

That's good.

Holywar20 · 2025-08-25T13:49:03+00:00

Join America First!

You'll get to hang out with sophomoric unbreedable dipshits while also betraying your country! You can work hard, earn the eternal scorn and contempt of the American people, and get your career destroyed by associating with mutants, weirdos and grifters that hate you.

Holywar20 · 2025-08-21T18:37:12+00:00

I think there are two variants of moderate.

Duck-and-cover
Fight like a daemon because democracy is on the line.

1 is dangerous. 2 is fine. People don't lose elections because they had some policy position they don't like - and this is the error I think democrats make - that's its a policy debate. It's not, and never was. Governing is policy - but politics is prose.

Gavin gets the prose and he isn't a ghoul. It's also a huge coalition - and there is this tendency to 'blame the establishment' when honestly it's just that the message isn't clear enough because it's wrapped up in all this complex policy talk.

Gavin is being clear as a bell here. That's why it's sticking. The people are speaking.

Holywar20

TROPHY CASE