Liberation Infrastructure
for Working People
COMPASS helps people understand complex systems, build coalitions around shared understanding, and grow the power of generative culture. It provides the tools, evidence, and frameworks to see clearly in a world designed to obscure.
Why "Bastille Keys"?
On July 14, 1789, the people of Paris stormed the Bastille—a fortress that symbolized royal authority and the arbitrary imprisonment of those who challenged power. The keys to the Bastille were taken and eventually sent to George Washington, where they hang in Mount Vernon to this day.
The Bastille wasn't just a prison. It was a symbol of opacity—of power that operates without accountability.
We build keys. Tools that unlock the structures of power so working people can see how decisions are made, who benefits, and who pays the cost. The fortress today isn't made of stone—it's made of complexity, captured language, and manufactured confusion.
COMPASS is a key.
The Framework: Generative vs Extractive
The fundamental axis isn't left vs right. It's generative vs extractive. COMPASS takes a side: we are infrastructure for generative culture.
Generative Culture
| Creates value | Extracts value |
| Distributes benefits | Concentrates benefits |
| Builds capacity | Depletes capacity |
| Invests in people | Exploits people |
| "We rise together" | "I got mine" |
Examples
| Worker cooperatives | Private equity strip-mining |
| Public libraries | Payday lenders |
| Mutual aid networks | Healthcare denial systems |
| Open source communities | Monopolies |
The Three Purposes
Sense-Making
Help people understand complex systems
Coalition Building
Bring people together around shared understanding
Power Building
Grow generative culture, shrink extractive culture
Clarity without solidarity is just documentation. Solidarity without clarity is just vibes. We need both to build power.
The Four Capabilities
Analysis
Map systems, expose contradictions, trace causality
- Stated vs Revealed
- Follow the Money
- Causal Chains
- Evidence Tiering
Defense
Protect the epistemic commons
- Track manipulation
- Preserve corrections
- Document patterns
- Protect knowledge
Intelligence
Understand adversarial cognition
- DIMCL mechanisms
- Narrative tracking
- Funding networks
- Rhetorical patterns
Growth
Bring people into generative culture
- Support creators
- Counter-frames
- On-ramps
- More of us