Sometimes Facebook’s memory retrieval service isn’t appallingly awful, such as this week’s reminder that I’d posted about the documentary Navalny exactly two years ago. That note was definitely worth a re-share considering the dissident’s tragic (and unsurprising) death in a Russian gulag earlier this year. I bawled when I heard the news. A friend – an extremely educated and kickass lawyer – wisely said, “Is this the moment when we realise we will need to fight for democracy?”

Incidentally I’ve been meaning to post something about this documentary for a couple of months, as it’s still online and it’s a *must watch*.

This is non-negotiable: everybody needs to watch this to be reminded of what integrity looks like in politics.

America is about to have a convicted felon as President – possibly behind bars. In the UK the best opposition we have to the Tories is Keir Starmer (REALLY!? way to put the accountant in charge of the revolution). And over in Europe self-professed fascists are gaining power – as a proud wop, I’m ashamed of Italy for Meloni’s triumph.

Meanwhile the wealth inequality gap continues to widen – which will just feed the appetite for the far right – and late stage capitalism combined with climate change tipping points already crossed spells nothing positive for the future.

Things are not good. If you can’t see that this is the 1930s all over again, you’re not paying attention.

Navalny – a constant champion for democracy and human rights in totalitarian Russia, always knowing it would probably lead to his early death in a gulag – was a shining light in a very dark time. Absolutely he wasn’t perfect, absolutely he had some unsavoury supporters in Russia (though I’d say, he had to take what he could get). Yes, I do think it was dumb to go back to Russia knowing what his fate would be (especially if he had kids), he probably could have done more good alive in exile than dead in Siberia.

But he had a point about his duty to go home to stand up for the truth.

Watch the court proceedings from his trial. If the sight of him making a little heart shape to his wife in the condensation on the glass cage of his prisoner’s dock doesn’t make you shed one tear… you either have no heart, or you’ve been numbed by the crushing weight of contemporary politics (though to be fair, it’s hard to feel anything but defeated these days).

In response to that though, Navalny would say this:

“Listen, I’ve got something very obvious to tell you. You’re not allowed to give up. If they decide to kill me, it means that we are incredibly strong. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good people to do nothing.” Screen shots from the doc below – I was going to go back and take them from the iPlayer without using these crude pics from my phone taken while bawling, but these original shots are more genuine.

“You’re not allowed to give up. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good people to do nothing.”

Poetry. And you’d think that you don’t need to stress such an obvious truth to people… but you do. Far too many people are content to do nothing… and to know nothing.

This might seem like stating the fucking obvious, but you can’t act if you aren’t informed.

Case in point: just *after* Navalny’s death in February I was walking home and saw a young dude struggling to carry a mattress down the road to the tip. So of course I offered to help.

“You sure!?”

“I was a baseball pitcher kid, it’s fine. I wasn’t raised to be a prissy princess like posh girls in this country.”

He laughed. We hauled the mattress down the road, he offered to buy me beer to say thank you. I’d never say no. Asked what his background was – parents were from Serbia and Russia.

“Oh WOW, then the death of Navalny must have hit you hard huh?!”

“… who?”

The 26 year old (probably an aspiring influencer, sigh) said the same braindead spineless uninspired awful thing I hear so many people under 35 say:

“Oh no, I don’t read newspapers. It’s not good for my mental health! I just focus on what I can do every day and I don’t worry about global politics.”

I thanked him for the beer, said he should reassess that idea, and went home with even less hope for humanity (not that I had much to start with).

You don’t read the news about Trump or Putin or Gaza because you think your individual act of not buying crap from Amazon or whatever will make a difference.

You pay attention to the news so you can stay informed – which is pretty much your obligation if you get to live in a democracy. And don’t give me any Russell Brand style bullshit about not bothering to vote – he should be imprisoned for spreading that idea (even WITHOUT the rape charges). Women threw themselves under horses to get the fucking vote – the least you can do is turn up and tick a box. Plus spend at least an hour a day paying attention to what’s going on in the world.

Because if you don’t pay attention, you can’t make informed decisions.

And if you don’t make informed decisions, we wind up with things like orange clowns who paid $130,000 for a shit blowjob getting to be RE-ELECTED as president while behind bars. Or the richest people on the planet paying the most pathetic amount of tax. Or techbros who make stupid apps we don’t need (that don’t even work anyways) making ten times the income of a heart surgeon.

There’s a lot everyone needs to do to rectify the insanity of the state of the world… Everyone can start with just one thing:

Watch this film.