"a detailed plan to shut you up, and shut you out"

October 14, 2024 7:09 AM

"Hi. We’re a group of comic book writers & artists who are furious about Project 2025, The Heritage Foundation’s plan to consolidate power under authoritarian rule. So we made a bunch of comics to explain their agenda and move you to vote against it." stopproject2025comic.org (quote from Bluesky) 15 comics up now on Internet freedom, taxation, the environment, anti-trans legislation, and other issues; more coming soon. License: CC BY-ND. Transcripts included. Contributors include Matt Fraction, Greg Pak, and Greg Rucka.
posted by brainwane (16 comments total)

While speaking on Steve Bannon’s podcast, The War Room, Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts recently stated, “We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless—if the left allows it to be.” 
posted by torokunai at 7:40 AM on October 14, 2024 [5 favorites]

These are excellent - well researched, clear and beautifully drawn. Impressive list of comics professionals among the contributors too.
posted by Paul Slade at 7:56 AM on October 14, 2024 [8 favorites]

Good stuff. Share with friends !
posted by caviar2d2 at 8:50 AM on October 14, 2024

Thank you for sharing this, brainwane.
I'm trying to get academics to think about Project 2025, and this might help.
posted by doctornemo at 4:42 PM on October 14, 2024 [3 favorites]

I particularly like the extreme weather comic.
posted by the primroses were over at 5:41 PM on October 14, 2024 [3 favorites]

Very ballsy -- and readable!

They don't seem to be soliciting donations anywhere...or did I just overlook it?
posted by wenestvedt at 6:03 PM on October 14, 2024

I love this and will share this with the gang. I'm also impressed with the transcripts for those who aren't able to see the comics. I need to look at how I use accessibility in my own work.
posted by jabo at 6:07 PM on October 14, 2024 [2 favorites]

I've made it through about three so far, and they've all been excellent. Selfishly, I'd love to see who did which one (there are authors and artists in the list of contributors I make it a point to seek out), but the note about some creators choosing to remain anonymous kind of makes it clear that not everyone feels safe enough to put their name on these things, which is kind of the point, as well as a deeply unpleasant reminder of how bad things are.

I'm willing to bet I've figured out which one was written and illustrated by the team I was most interested in seeing, but, yeah, one of them doesn't appear on the credit list, and it's not for me to name them.
posted by Ghidorah at 8:28 PM on October 14, 2024 [3 favorites]

I read (of course) the anti-trans one first, and it's absolutely right. I could mention (again) I'm trans, and they'd declare that illegal and I'd be arrested and imprisoned. (And I have absolutely no illusions that they wouldn't use the "regular" prisons; they'd take their cues from Joe Arpaio.

But the rest of them are horrible, too, and I keep wondering if there's anywhere that I could be safe in, ever, the way these people are leaning. And not just me, everyone who is not a straight white cisgender omnivorous evangelical Christian. (because they would need someone to go after, and why not vegans and vegetarians?)
posted by mephron at 8:35 AM on October 15, 2024 [3 favorites]

Hi, I’m one of the comics people who worked on this. Just wanted to confirm for the person who asked that no, we’re not taking donations. Every bit of this has been volunteer labor- research, writing, art, editorial, and technical. We just wanted to help get the word out about what’s in the Project 2025 manual, and what the country is in for if those plans are implemented.
posted by Steve Lieber at 12:49 PM on October 15, 2024 [20 favorites]

More comics are up, on voting and on Christian nationalism.
posted by brainwane at 1:14 PM on October 21, 2024 [1 favorite]

I'm getting a 403 "access denied" message when I try to open the voting rights one, though all the others I've tried are fine. Could this be because I'm looking in from the UK?
posted by Paul Slade at 11:57 PM on October 23, 2024

I can read the voting matters comic, but I don't see a voting rights comic listed.
posted by Pronoiac at 7:49 AM on October 24, 2024 [1 favorite]

Paul Slade, could you try again? I believe they have fiddled with some stuff and it should work now.... If not, maybe MeMail me and we can troubleshoot? Thanks!
posted by brainwane at 7:52 PM on October 24, 2024

"The site experienced what looked like a DDOS attack and had to adjust some content delivery settings to reduce the chance of another attack, and in doing so caused a new issue with the images. We’d be grateful if you could try the site again and let us know if the images are loading correctly now." says one of the people behind the site. You can MeMail me to let them know.
posted by brainwane at 8:05 PM on October 24, 2024

Pronoiac: Sorry, Voting Matters is what I meant.

Brainwane: The two new comics work fine for me now.
posted by Paul Slade at 11:27 PM on October 24, 2024