Bracing for 2024: How to stay sane during this year's election season with Mandy Slutsker
Mar 26, 2024
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Guest Mandy Slutsker, federal advocate, discusses advocacy strategies for 2024 election season. Topics include gun violence solutions, navigating political divisiveness, human rights challenges, and emotional intelligence in political engagement.
Engage in local elections to shape policies affecting communities.
Practice self-care while staying informed to prevent emotional overwhelm.
Challenge all-or-nothing thinking to promote constructive dialogues.
Deep dives
Importance of Local Elections
Participating in local elections, including researching candidates, attending community meetings, and engaging in voting processes, can have a significant impact on shaping policies and decisions that directly affect communities. Understanding the voting process and being informed about local issues enables individuals to contribute to the electoral process effectively.
Balancing Informed Advocacy and Self-Care
While staying informed about political and social issues is crucial, it is equally important to practice self-care to maintain mental and emotional well-being. Finding a balance between being well-informed and avoiding oversaturation of information can help individuals engage in advocacy efforts effectively without being overwhelmed by negative emotions.
Avoiding All-or-Nothing Thinking
Challenging all-or-nothing thinking by reframing perspectives on political divides can enhance communication and understanding. Encouraging open-mindedness and acknowledging differing viewpoints can foster constructive dialogues and promote collaborative efforts towards positive change.
Diversifying Perspectives and Engaging with Diverse Communities
Actively seeking diverse perspectives by engaging with individuals from different backgrounds, cultures, and experiences can broaden understanding and empathy. Creating opportunities to interact with a wide range of people can enhance awareness of social issues and promote inclusivity and unity within communities.
Importance of Avoiding Echo Chambers in Politics
Being trapped in echo chambers where individuals are surrounded only by like-minded people can be detrimental to democracy and personal growth. Echo chambers, observed both in social media and personal circles, can hinder individuals from challenging their thoughts and beliefs, limiting their exposure to diverse perspectives. As highlighted in the podcast, avoiding echo chambers is crucial for fostering critical thinking and understanding differing viewpoints, especially in the context of polarizing political environments.
Encouraging Active Participation in Politics Despite Disagreements
Advocating for active civic engagement, the podcast stresses the importance of using one's voice and vote in politics, even when faced with challenging choices or disagreements with available candidates. Emphasizing the impact of individual actions on the political landscape, the discussion underscores the value of participation beyond just presidential elections, extending to local and state levels. By encouraging involvement and awareness of policies, the podcast advocates for informed and responsible civic participation to effect positive change.
In this episode, YBT welcomes special Guest Mandy Slutsker host of “Is this real life” podcast to discuss how to effectively use our voices and advocate for ourselves/others. Mandy discusses her day job of federal advocacy in Washington D.C.; advocating for children’s healthy globally with the federal government. Mandy discusses her advocacy efforts and shares her input on how to advocate at federal, state AND local levels.
Specifically, Mandy and YBT provide perspective from their respective fields, on how to manage the upcoming 2024 election cycle in healthier, more productive ways. While Mandy and YBT have personal views, this episode focuses on how to compromise, come together and advocate for marginalized groups and communities. Trigger Warning:
Mandy and YBT tackle the topic of gun violence, outlining ways to engage in affecting change. YBT shares information from “The Center for Gun Violence Solutions at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health” which addresses gun violence as a public health emergency and utilizes objective, non-partisan research to develop solutions which inform, fuel and propel advocacy to measurably lower gun violence. YBT shares statistics about MH in regards to gun violence with the goal of decreasing stigma and providing accurate, updated information on the topic.
One last note, this episode is meant to be informative, helpful and non-divisive. Hope you all enjoy!