You Are Not Crazy: Money, Power, and Staying Human in Authoritarian Times

Some days it feels like the whole world is on fire and everyone in charge is insisting it is just a warm glow and you should smile more. If you have been wondering whether you are overreacting to the news, the policies, the creeping cruelty, this episode is here to remind you that you are not crazy.

In this episode of Disrupt Your Money, Meg talks about what it means to live, work and make money in a time when authoritarian vibes are not just history book material. She dives into how economic fear is used to keep people quiet, and why so many of us feel exhausted, gaslit and tempted to shut it all out just to function.

You will learn how to name what is happening without drowning in it, how to set emotional and financial boundaries that protect your nervous system, and how to use your money as one small tool for staying human.

⏱️ In This Episode:

00:00 You Are Not Crazy

00:44 What Authoritarian Times Feel Like

02:01 How Money And Power Interlock

03:18 Economic Fear As A Control Tactic

06:09 Protecting Your Nervous System From The News Cycle

07:36 Money Boundaries In Unstable Times

09:03 Building Community And Mutual Aid

12:18 Small Money Moves As Acts Of Refusal

14:07 Finding Your Role In The Bigger Fight

16:02 Holding Joy And Grief At The Same Time

18:11 One Next Step To Stay Human And Resourced

🔗 Mentioned in This Episode:

👉 Local mutual aid networks and community care groups
👉 Community legal and advocacy organizations in your area
👉 Call Your Representatives – weekly scripts to contact your lawmakers → https://callyourrepresentatives.substack.com/

👉 Equitable Money Project resources for values based money planning

💬 Connect with Us:

🌐 Website → https://equitablemoneyproject.com
📸 Instagram → https://instagram.com/equitablemoneyproject
🎧 Podcast → https://equitablemoneyproject.com/podcast

🚀 Your Next Step:

 Ready to make your money match your values and stay human in the middle of all this. Download our free Wealth is Resistance Action Kit → https://equitablemoneyproject.com/kit

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:36

A quick PSA before I dive into this episode. You may have noticed that I used the word crazy in the title, and I'll use it throughout our chat today. I know there's been conversation about using the word crazy, especially around how it can be harmful or stigmatizing for people with mental health disabilities. And I want to be clear, I take that seriously. I also want you to know that I live with anxiety and depression. This is not abstract for me. And I'm not saying that to claim a free pass to say whatever I want, but simply to share with you that this is something that I deal with every single day and it's a conversation that I'm a part of. I chose this word intentionally because it's the word so many of you are already using privately. This is the word that I see in our communities that I'm seeing online on social media. It's showing up when we're being gaslit into doubting our own realities. So when I say you are not crazy, what I mean is your fear is not a personal defect. Your reaction is not a diagnosis and it's a reasonable response to an unreasonable moment. If this word doesn't land for you, I trust you to translate it into whatever language feels most supportive in your body. All right, friends, I want to start today by saying something very clearly. You are not crazy. If you feel like the ground keeps shifting under your feet, if you are exhausted in a way that sleep will not fix, and if your anxiety about everything going on in the world right now feels louder than ever, well, that all makes sense. Because we are living through a moment where fear is not accidental. It's being produced on purpose. Well, hey there, friends, and welcome back to another episode of Disrupt Your Money. This is our final episode of season three. And whew, what a world to end this episode in. As I'm recording this, we are watching the expansion of state violence. We are seeing ICE tear families apart and kidnap and murder community members on the streets of Minneapolis and Maine and so many other places around the country. We're watching journalists get arrested for doing their jobs. And we're watching rights erode while we're told to just stay calm, stay neutral, oh, just keep going on with life like everything is fine. But your nervous system knows better. And so if you've been struggling to focus, to plan, to feel motivated, or to stay on top of things, I want you to hear this. This is not a mindset problem. This is not a discipline problem. This is probably not even a perimenopause problem for those of us going through it, even though I'm sure that's not helping. This is what it feels like to be human in a time of rising authoritarianism and fascism. One of the most insidious parts of moments like this is how quickly we're made to doubt ourselves. We are told that we're overreacting. We're told that it's not that bad. We're told that they asked for it or it's their fault. They shouldn't have been there. They shouldn't have had a weapon. They shouldn't have said that. They shouldn't have done that. And here's the thing: we are a money show. We talk about money here. So I want to acknowledge the fact that with everything going on in the world right now, it's very likely that you're also dealing with economic stress. It may be because you've actually lost your job. It may be because you're afraid to leave the house for fear of the government capturing you. And so you can't go to work. It could be because you're having to spend more money to travel to get access to healthcare you need or to keep your family safe, or simply to buy all of the freaking cardboard and the planet for all of the protests that you're going to. Economic stress and political repression are deeply connected. And they know that because they know that when people are scared and overwhelmed, they're going to be financially precarious. They're going to be easier to control. They know that when we don't feel stable, it's going to be harder for us to organize together and rise up. This is not by coincidence. This is by design. So if you are feeling like everything is a dumpster fire right now, and you're seeing that across all areas of your life, I just want you to know that that is incredibly very human. And in times like this, everything feels heavier right now. Everything feels more charged, more emotional, more urgent. And money is one of those things because money is power and power is being contested. So in these times, these authoritarian times, I want you to remember that you have an incredible toolbox with which to fight. And that's where money lives. Money is one of your tools. And so this is where I want to say something that might actually sound counterintuitive, but tending to your money right now is not a distraction from justice. Being concerned about how to continue to make money does not make you a lesser human. It doesn't mean that you don't care. If you had to sit out of the economic boycotts that have been happening, that doesn't make you a bad person if you couldn't participate because you literally couldn't afford to. This isn't selfish. It's not selling out and it's not choosing comfort over community. For many of us, tending to our money is one of the ways that we actually stay grounded enough to keep showing up. Every day when I wake up in my business and I think, I wish I could just go fight authoritarianism. I wish I could just go protest, go organize, go activate right now. Instead of showing up and doing my work, I remind myself that it is the business that I work in, that I've created, that generates one of the tools, money, that I need to do that important work, to help me be ready for the long game that we're in. And so knowing your numbers and paying attention to your money doesn't mean that you're ignoring what's happening in the world. It means that you're reducing the amount of fear that your brain has to carry alone and you're prepping your toolbox for the long fight ahead. Because uncertainty does feed anxiety. And when we don't have a lot to work with, the resistance is not going to last as long and it's not going to be as strong. And here's the part that often gets left out of money conversations, especially in times like these, which is that you were never meant to survive anything like this alone. So much of financial advice on the mainstream is built on this myth of rugged individualism, like, oh, just save harder, just hustle harder, just pull yourself up by your bootstraps. If you just optimize your budget or your mindset or your productivity, then you'll be fine. But I hate to break this to you. No spreadsheet can outplan state violence. There is not a single billionaire whose value can replace community. And no amount of personal resilience can substitute for collective care. That doesn't mean that personal stability doesn't matter. It just means that it's not the end goal. It's part of a larger ecosystem. And this is why I feel so passionately about collective care and mutual aid. And it's why I'm so inspired to see how powerful these tools have been in places like Minneapolis. Collective care and mutual aid are not extra. They are not optional and they are not charity. They are economic strategies. They are powerful tools in our resistance toolkit. They are how marginalized communities have always survived systems that were not built to protect us. Now, when I'm talking about mutual aid, if you're not familiar with this term, I'm talking about sharing resources so that no one is carrying everything alone. It's something as simple as people getting groceries for immigrants so they don't have to leave their homes out of fear that ICE will grab them. This also could look like financial mutual aid, helping each other with rent or food or childcare or legal fees or medical costs. And this could look like circulating money in ways that strengthen people, not the institutions that harm them. So instead of giving lots of money to big companies, finding ways to support the small local businesses that are doing important work, keeping our communities alive. But here is the important and probably obvious part: mutual aid requires resourcing. You cannot pour from an empty account, whether it's financial or emotional, which is why tending to your money is not separate from collective care because it's one of the ways that will allow you to participate in mutual aid sustainably. This isn't just about giving once. This is about being able to power the system long term on an ongoing basis. Now, look, money at its best is not about hoarding or status. It's about capacity, it's about having choice. It's about granting yourself time, and it's about giving yourself protection. Having money is about being able to help without burning yourself out. It's about being able to say no when something compromises your safety, being able to go to another state or another country or another property. It's about being able to rest without everything falling apart. And for so many of us, I know that that feels like a pipe dream, but it's particularly in these moments that we remember how important that goal is. And in moments like this, money can also be about keeping each other alive. And again, we're seeing this on the ground in Minnesota. We are seeing neighbors get groceries. We are seeing community members watch children. We are seeing people take time off of work to go stand at schools and restaurants and houses and public community centers to blow their whistles when there is ice presence detected. We are seeing them put themselves, not just their bodies, but their financial stability on the line to protect our communities. And for many of those people, it probably is a really big sacrifice. But for a lot of them, they're also probably able to do that because they have recognized that money is a tool and that care of their money is an important part of the resistance. Now, I want to perhaps release you from something today. When it comes to everything that we're fighting right now, when it comes to keeping your financial house stable in an authoritarian time, you do not have to do everything. You do not have to be constantly informed or constantly outraged or constantly productive or constantly generous. You are allowed to pace yourself. You are allowed to protect your energy. And you are allowed to say, I'm only going to focus on smaller stabilizing actions because that's the most I can do right now. Every single time something horrible happens, my first instinct is to go give money to an organization. And that's not a bad instinct. We need that. But there are times, sometimes, not all the time, but there are times when I have to remind myself, I can't actually afford that today. I can do something else, but money is not the tool that I can use today to fight that. And that's okay. We need to be able to acknowledge that. Sometimes, frankly, the most radical thing that you can do, the most important tool in your toolbox, is actually just to stay human in a world that is trying to harden you. And sometimes this doesn't look like outward action, showing up at a protest, donating money to an organization, putting your physical body on the line. Sometimes it's as simple as checking your bank balance, setting a little aside for retirement, putting together a budget that allows you to find some funds for the activism and outreach work that you want to do. Sometimes it looks like taking a nap because you will be more effective at this work if you're rested. And sometimes, like in my example, it means saying, I actually can't do that right now, and recognizing that that choice will allow you to be so much more powerful tomorrow. These things are not failures, they are survival skills. So as we close out this season, I want to leave you with this. You are not crazy. Your fear makes sense, your exhaustion is completely understandable. And I feel all of these things too. And you do not have to navigate this moment alone. We stay grounded by staying human. We stay human by resting when we can. And we remember that money is one of the tools in our toolkit. And if we want it to last and we want it to have an impact, we can keep each other alive through collective care, mutual aid, and connection. Not by being perfect, not by doing it all, but by staying resourced enough together to keep going. Take care of yourself, my friends. Take care of each other, keep disrupting your money, and I'll see you next season.