Liberation Infrastructure
for Working People
COMPASS helps people understand complex systems, build coalitions around shared understanding, and grow the power of generative culture.
Why "Bastille Keys"?
On July 14, 1789, the people of Paris stormed the Bastille—a fortress symbolizing royal authority and arbitrary imprisonment. The keys were sent to George Washington, where they hang in Mount Vernon today.
The Bastille wasn't just a prison. It was a symbol of power that operates without accountability.
Today's fortress isn't made of stone—it's made of complexity, captured language, and manufactured confusion. We build keys to unlock it.
The Framework
The fundamental axis isn't left vs right. It's generative vs extractive. COMPASS takes a side.
Generative Examples
- Worker cooperatives
- Public libraries
- Mutual aid networks
- Open source communities
Extractive Examples
- Private equity strip-mining
- Payday lenders
- Healthcare denial systems
- Monopolies
Three Purposes
Each purpose builds on the last. Skip a step and nothing works.
Sense-Making
Help people understand complex systems
→ ClarityCoalition Building
Bring people together around shared understanding
→ SolidarityPower Building
Grow generative culture, shrink extractive culture
→ Liberation"Clarity without solidarity is just documentation. Solidarity without clarity is just vibes. We need both to build power."
Four Capabilities
How COMPASS achieves its purposes.
Analysis
Map systems, expose contradictions, trace causality
- Stated vs Revealed
- Follow the Money
- Causal Chains
- Evidence Tiering
Defense
Protect the epistemic commons from pollution
- Track manipulation
- Preserve corrections
- Document patterns
- Guard knowledge
Intelligence
Understand how extractive culture operates
- DIMCL mechanisms
- Narrative tracking
- Funding networks
- Rhetorical patterns
Growth
Bring people into generative culture
- Support creators
- Build counter-frames
- Create on-ramps
- More of us