IMAGINE THE NEWS

Welcome to Imagine the News, a visionary media outlet that uses imagination, education, and humor to bring to life the stories we want to see in the world.

Imagine the News is creating a brighter future by writing the news stories we want to see BEFORE they happen. We tell detailed imaginary, but realistic articles of good things, using satire and humor to drive key points home.

This isn't about magical thinking. Ask any psychologist and they'll tell you a key step in realizing a goal is to imagine and talk about it as if it's inevitable.

Then, from this place of vision and inevitability, we naturally take the steps to making them real.

Digital Exodus

One of the latest visions is of a Global Art Renaissance 🔗

This site hosts several projects that have already been imagined and are now being brought to life through the actions of everyday people like you and me.
The Peaceful Return 🔗 is a peaceful movement to end the corporate capture of government, advocating for a withdrawal from the economic system that is built on spiritual violence. Its core tactic is the Digital Exodus 🔗 a migration out of Big Tech (and Media) into ethical platforms that foster truth and community. Currently running a Delete the Oligarchy 🔗 campaign to inspire movement.

50 Million Log Off: The Digital Exodus Reshapes the Global Attention Economy, Slows Authoritarian Coup

March 15, 2026

World. In what analysts are calling the “Woodstock of Attention,” over 50 million people across the United States and beyond unplugged from Big Tech platforms last week, marking the largest coordinated digital walkout in human history.
      Dubbed the Digital Exodus, the movement targetted massive drops in daily active users across Meta, X, Google, Amazon, and Apple services - with major advertisers reportedly “panicking quietly into their cold brew,” according to one former Google employee.
      At the center of the movement is a simple premise: attention is power. And for the first time in decades, it seems that power is moving back toward the people.
    “We thought the platforms were immortal,” said Mila Forrester, a digital strategist-turned-permaculture farmer. “Turns out they’re just ad companies with really good UX.”
          The movement began quietly in corners of Discord servers, community gardens, and living rooms where people had begun questioning the emotional costs of the algorithm economy. But in the weeks leading up to Media Liberation Day, momentum surged, thanks in part to rising concerns about digital surveillance, political manipulation, and what one protester called “the spiritual crime of endless scroll.”
          The tipping point? The platforms themselves. “You can’t declare loyalty to authoritarian regimes, profit off public breakdown, and still call yourself a neutral tech company,” said Professor Rani Okafor, who’s been tracking corporate entanglement with Project 2025. “Eventually, people notice.”
     The Exodus Guidebook, a grassroots PDF that circulated widely across networks and group chats, offered a roadmap: 1) Cancel Prime. 2) Leave Meta, X and Google. 3) Switch to open-source tools. 4) Reclaim your time. 5) Tell someone else.
          Within days after its launch on the European led Media Liberation Day, hashtags like #DigitalExodus, #peoplemovement, #freethemedia, #OffTheBig5 #SovereignScrollsOnly, began trending off platform, largely through encrypted messengers, decentralized media site, local zines, and public art installations.
While Silicon Valley CEOs have downplayed the

impact, internal memos leaked from Meta suggest they are “strategizing around emotional re-engagement pathways” - which apparently includes offering free puppies via Instagram stories.
   Governments around the world are reportedly watching closely.
          In Denmark, parliament held a session on “post-platform governance.” In Brazil, cooperatives are forming around community-owned mesh networks. And in the U.S., three Senators have quietly asked what happens when the lobbyists lose their data.
          For now, those participating in the Exodus say it’s not about perfection — it’s about direction, it about movement, it's about people taking their power back, one by one. Every action matters. Every person matters.
          “We’re not just logging off,” said ex-product manager Jamal Dorsey. “We’re walking toward something we lost when social media took over - each other.”
          Big Tech’s next quarterly reports are expected next week. Some predict investor panic. Others say it’ll blow over. But as one mural in Portland now reads in bold colors on a cracked iPhone: “The Revolution Will Not Be Monetized.”
          And that's exactly what we are seeing: cracks in the coup that simply can't take hold if people are able to think clearly and take back their power.

We are working to make this vision a reality

On Earth Day 2025, pioneers embarked on a journey to scout out terrain off the Big Tech platforms. These tools, which we once thought would connect us, became tools to distract, control and addict us, and are now fueling the rise of authoritarianism around the globe.

Over the past few months we've explored more ethical and safer alternative apps and platforms like Blue Sky, Signal, Substack, Mastodon, Proton, and many more. We've also documented our experiences and research along the way, summarizing the findings in the Digital Exodus Guidebook, which includes links to like-minded movements across the globe.

Our next major day of action is November, 5 2025 - "Media Liberation Day" - where we are collaborating with Media Revolution in a global push towards media and platforms that speak to truth and compassion, instead of misinformation and division.

You are welcome to join the exodus at any time. This is a community movement. Learn more on the Digital Exodus Page.

April 30, 2026

Americans Go On Strike: Refuse to Work Until Democracy is Restored

WASHINGTON D.C.
In what economists are calling the most coordinated act of economic self-respect in modern history, over 50 million workers across the United States walked off the job last week, participating in what is now being called “The Human Strike.”
The strike, which spans teachers, healthcare workers, delivery drivers, coders, baristas, and even mid-level brand consultants who finally snapped, is not about a single employer—it’s about the entire system.
“Look,” said Dolores Finkle, a 33-year-old freight dispatcher turned strike marshal. “We’re not protesting for something this time. We’re protesting against being erased. You can’t automate empathy. And you can’t algorithm your way out of this mess.”

Not a Union Strike. A Human One. While organized labor supported the movement, most strikers are not formally unionized, they're just over it.
“It wasn’t one thing,” said Kenan Gribble, a former UX designer who now hosts daily sidewalk philosophy salons outside a shuttered WeWork. “It was everything. The layoffs. The rent. The quiet quitting that got loud. The fact that I asked my boss if I could take a mental health day and he sent me a Calendly link.”
The final straw for many came after Project 2025's Phase II rollout, when what was once conspiracy became codified law: no healthcare unless employed, no school unless screened, and no internet unless ‘verified by a partner platform.

Productivity is Not a Moral Obligation. Dr. Rita Von Clewn, professor of Economic Ethics and founder of the nonprofit People Over Profit, called the strike “a long-overdue refusal to be useful to a machine that’s eating us alive.”
“Capitalism without boundaries becomes cannibalism,” she told reporters. “And while I’m flattered the billionaires want to live forever, I’m not interested in being their battery pack.”

The Numbers Don't Lie - Just the Apps Do. While the White House released a now-deleted post claiming that “only 4% of citizens are participating,” a cross-analysis by The Institute for Things That Actually Exist showed over 55% of the U.S. labor force has engaged in some form of economic resistance in the past two weeks—whether via walkouts, coordinated sick-outs, or refusal to open emails with a subject line “Quick Check-In .”
Even some delivery drones have reportedly begun flying in slow, sassy loops in solidarity.

Tech Executives: “We Never Could Have Predicted This,” They Say, Into Microphones They Own. Representatives from Google, Meta, and Amazon issued a joint statement reading: “We always knew humans were valuable. We just...didn’t think they’d figure that out too.”
Meanwhile, Elon Musk has not made a public statement, but sources close to X say he’s been running simulations on how to generate GDP with only 5% of the population “if they’re obedient enough.”

A Cross-Class, Cross Party Awakening. Unlike prior resistance movements, the Human Strike is not easily categorized. It’s been joined by:

Rural postal carriers
Former consultants who once believed in “disruption”
Librarians and line cooks
Millennial dads who learned how to bake sourdough during the AI layoffs
Grandmothers who “just got tired of pretending they weren’t angry”

“It’s not about Left or Right,” said Brenda Holstein, a retired factory worker from Michigan. “It’s about not letting a handful of data lords turn the rest of us into frightened renters with no say in how the world works.”

What's Next. The White House has issued no formal response, though insiders say private negotiations are underway. Rumors swirl of a proposed “Digital Bill of Rights”, Universal Basic Dignity, and even a “Human Non-Replaceability Clause” - though no official details have emerged.
Meanwhile, on the streets, the chant is simple: “We built the empire. And we can un-build it.”

Closing Thoughts. As the world watches, one thing is clear: This wasn’t just a protest. It was a remembering. That labor isn’t just a means of survival. It’s how we give meaning, value, and shape to the world. And if that world forgets we’re human? We stop working for it.

This Month's Comic - Imagine this!!

About Imagine the News

Back in 2016, when books like Brave New World and 1984 seemed to be coming true, it was tempting to see them as prophetic. Over time, I've come to understand them more as a warning that we've failed to heed than a prophecy.

It wasn't inevitable. But one of the challenges we face is that we don't have a lot of alternative uplifting visions of the future to replace these dystopian ones. This made me wonder:

What if we started imagining the good news we want to see and hear - more than just broad concepts of peace, but detailed stories of good things happening - would that help usher in a better future?

Here in 2025, there's more urgency than ever to focus our imaginations towards visions of good things. There's still hope, but the clock is ticking.