Standing Out Without Standing Alone

This is Using Technology To Oppose Tyranny: Part 8 – Stand Out

If you missed the earlier posts, you can find them here:

• Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4,Part 5,Part 6

“Someone has to. It is easy to follow along. It can feel strange to do or say something different. But without that unease, there is no freedom. Remember Rosa Parks. The moment you set an example, the spell of the status quo is broken, and others will follow”
—Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny

A notification pops up on your phone app: another school board meeting where books are being banned. Another local election where voting machines are being questioned without evidence. Another city council session where public comment periods are being eliminated.

You feel that familiar knot in your stomach. Someone should say something. But then you remember the pile-on that happened to the last person who spoke up. You close the app.

This is exactly what Timothy Snyder warned about in Chapter 8 of On Tyranny: the dangerous comfort of blending in while democracy slowly dissolves around us. But there’s a big problem with his advice to “stand out”—it assumes we’re all potential Rosa Parks, ready to risk everything for a righteous cause.

Most of us aren’t. And that’s not going to change.

But it doesn’t need to.

What we need isn’t more individual heroism. We need systems that make courage contagious—technology that helps ordinary people take small, visible stands that add up to something powerful.

The Courage Gap

Before we talk solutions, let’s be honest about the problem. Standing out isn’t just scary—it’s getting scarier.

In 1950s Montgomery, Rosa Parks knew she might face arrest. Today, speaking up might get you fired, harassed online, or worse. The stakes feel impossibly high for individual action, especially when you can’t see who else might join you.

This is what psychologists call pluralistic ignorance—we all assume we’re alone in our concerns because everyone else appears to be going along with things. The result? A spiral of silence where good people stay quiet, making the problem worse.

But here’s what authoritarians don’t want you to know: most people aren’t actually okay with what’s happening. Polling consistently shows that Americans across party lines support basic democratic norms. The problem isn’t consensus—it’s visibility. We can’t see each other’s resistance, so we assume it doesn’t exist.

Technology can fix this. Not with grand gestures or viral campaigns, but with tools that make everyday dissent visible, safe, and shareable.

Small Stands, Big Impact

The most effective resistance often starts small. Here are three ways technology can help you stand out without standing alone:

1. Make Your Values Visible (Literally)

Sometimes the most powerful statement is the simplest one. During the 2020 election, millions of Americans put “Count Every Vote” signs in their yards—a small act that showed neighbors they weren’t alone in supporting fair elections.

Digital tools can amplify this kind of visible dissent:

• Lawn Sign Mapping: Apps like VotingWorks or DIY platforms let you coordinate yard sign campaigns for local issues. When election deniers run for school board, a neighborhood full of “Democracy Defender” signs sends a message.

• Window Cling Campaigns: Create downloadable PDFs of pro-democracy symbols people can print and display. The suffragettes used purple, white, and gold. What colors represent defending democracy today?

• Profile Badge Coordination: When everyone changes their social media avatar to the same pro-democracy symbol on the same day, it breaks the illusion that no one cares.

The key is coordinated visibility. One person with a “Defend Democracy” sign looks like an outlier. A whole street of them looks like a movement.

2. Crowd-Source Civic Accountability

Local authoritarians rely on operating in darkness. Technology can drag their actions into the light:

• Meeting Monitors: Apps that let citizens live-tweet city council meetings, school board sessions, and other local government events. When officials limit public comment or ignore citizen concerns, the whole community can see it happen in real-time.

• Vote Tracking: Platforms like Ballotpedia show how local officials vote, but we need more granular tools. Did your city council member vote to restrict protest permits? Did your school board member support book bans? Make it easy for citizens to track and share this information.

• Issue Mapping: Tools that let community members report instances of voter suppression, election interference, or other anti-democratic behavior in their area. Not for vigilante justice, but for creating a public record that’s harder to ignore.

3. Turn Individual Courage into Collective Action

The scariest part of standing out is feeling like you’re the only one. Technology can solve this:

• Speaking Queue Apps: Before contentious public meetings, allow citizens to sign up to speak on the same topic. Knowing that ten other people plan to address book banning makes it easier to be number eleven.

• Solidarity Pledges: Platforms where people can commit to small acts of resistance if enough others join them. “I’ll attend the school board meeting if 20 others will too.” “I’ll put up a yard sign if my neighbors will too.”

• Micro-Donation Swarms: When someone faces retaliation for speaking out—job loss, harassment campaigns—technology can mobilize rapid financial support. GoFundMe works, but we need platforms specifically designed for protecting civic courage.

The Network Effect of Courage

Here’s what authoritarians understand that we sometimes forget: courage is contagious, but so is cowardice.

Every time someone stays silent in the face of injustice, it makes the next person more likely to stay silent too. But the reverse is also true. Every visible act of resistance—no matter how small—makes it easier for the next person to act.

Technology’s superpower isn’t just connecting us to information. It’s connecting us to each other. When we can see other people taking stands, we remember we’re not alone. When we can coordinate our actions, small acts become powerful movements.

Start Where You Are

You don’t have to build the next Twitter or organize a march on Washington. You can start by making your own resistance more visible:

• Add a pro-democracy badge to your email signature
• Share local election information on neighborhood apps like Nextdoor
• Attend one city council meeting and ask one question
• Put one yard sign in your front yard

The goal isn’t to be a hero. It’s to be visible enough for others to find you.

Because standing out doesn’t mean standing alone. It means being the first penguin—the one who jumps into the water so others can see it’s safe to follow.

In a democracy, that’s not just courage. It’s citizenship.

What small stand could you take this week? What tools would make it easier? The future of democracy might depend on finding out.