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What Can We Do?
A friend recently recommended What Can We Do? A Hierarchy of 20 Things to Resist Fascism (Part 1 of 3). The author comes from a very left-wing perspective, but what he says applies to everyone who is pro-democracy. And he writes for an audience that is already convinced that we are headed for autocracy--even if you don't agree with that part, there are still be some good ideas for you. It's like what if I go to extra efforts to take care of myself, and then it turns out we have a real election in 4 years after all? Win-win! You just have to be ready to deal with his anxiety and even anger before reading and be ready to translate what he's saying into language that makes sense to you.
The best thing is that besides having a *lot* of ideas, he has them organized in a hierarchy, starting from the most important and safest and then working up to the toughest, most dangerous ideas. This hierarchy isn't exactly in the order I would choose and it gets a little less organized at the top, but it's still fantastic.
I like the end points. First: take care of yourself, just like on an airplane. (Except on an airplane, the [non-high-jacking] pilot isn't actually trying to kill anyone.) And last: civil disobedience, which he calls passive resistance. He emphasizes that it's not yet time for "direct action," no matter how tempting. That would just give them another excuse to escalate. And I will add that it's never time for violence (except in self-defense). One thing I've seen way too many times in my reading about other countries is that the new regimes that come into power on a tide of violence tend to end up just as bad or worse than the one they overthrew. Sometimes the enemy of your enemy is not your friend, but another enemy trying to use you for their own ends.
Here are some more ideas that spoke to me (organized by which section he discusses them in).
1. Survive. Prepare and Plan.
'At what point will you leave? What is the trigger? Is it the first demonstration where the National Guard opens fire on U.S. citizens? Is it the quiet acceptance of Republicans trafficking U.S. citizens into El Salvadorian concentration camps? Is it when every blogger and activist writer starts getting arrested? Is it when trans people have to wear identifying markings? Is it when political dissidents go missing by the dozens? When will you pack up the car and drive?
'Where will you go? Canada? Mexico? What city exactly? Have a "go bag" ready. Get your paperwork in order. Do not let your car get below a half a tank of gas.'
Yeah, my current "not yet" answer might really not been good enough. I don't want to leave. I'm not one of the main targets and can pass for not being a target. But I've been reading that part of the fascist playbook is to demonize some set of people and then expand that demonization to all those who support those people or protest the demonization.
2. Thrive
If you're a target, 'every act of pleasure and joy is a subversive slap in their face.' Even if you're not, 'it's difficult to emphasize enough just how much the cruelty and malice and horrors can GET to you. It's a struggle just to keep from sinking into The Swamps of Sadness.' And that makes everything else harder, too.
6. Document the truth
He thinks that even just keeping a private off-line journal of what's going on is a form of resistance.
"There’s going to be a lot of fascist attempts to rewrite the story. Not just the overarching narrative—sometimes the very facts themselves. ... So keeping a record can help you stay grounded. It can remind you that you’re NOT crazy when you feel like the goalposts are shifting. It can help you remember exactly what you felt, when you go back to see what happened on a day. It may remind you that a month ago, you found today’s everyday behavior absolutely unconscionable, and how far normalization has brought us all. It may even possibly be of use to historians."
My new horror journal fits into this.
7. Give support/Deny support
'If you are surviving, thriving with radical self-care, know what's going on, think about it and document what is true, but are not quite ready to step into the light of direct attention, you can support those who are doing what you want and deny support to those who aren't.'
You can both help out people who are in the trenches the same ways you might help a new parent or a mourner or someone dealing with cancer (casseroles, help with chores, etc.). You can vote with your dollars - 'The nice thing about economic activism is that they're so focused on their profit margins, they’ll feel the pinch almost immediately, even from small changes.
'Also, maybe you just take the time to find a board gaming group that doesn't "hear everyone out." Or find a church service that isn’t shaming queer people for being fed up with MAGA.' (Obviously I do want to hear everyone out; he means accepting the opposite of reality as one of the "both sides" that people should hear.)
I think this is where I am in the pyramid right now, figuring out more ways to do this. 'Megacorporations aren’t always easy to work around, and doing so is almost always some form of privilege. So just do the best you can.'
9. Support Democrat politicians
If you're a conservative, you will definitely have to reframe some of this author's arguments who finds most Democrats to be too centrist.
Or not. 'It's vote blue, and then hold them accountable. It's "This might not make things better, but there is a surefire way that they'll get worse…"
'...There is nothing the left [or anyone pro-democracy] wants that isn’t a hundred times harder to achieve when authoritarian forces have us scrambling.
'...Fascism exists in the U.S.—even under Democrats. (Even though Democrats don’t like to think about that very much.) But it is SO much easier to fight. It is so much more violent and developed and articulated under Republicans.'
10. Do not obey in advance
This is a fairly new idea to me, though I've heard it before. 'Most power is yielded to authoritarian regimes freely. Of course, some people agree with what’s going on. But even among those who don't, there isn't really any appreciable foot dragging. People consider what the authoritarian government wants and then do it without even being asked. They think if they're super extra sugar-on-top cooperative, the eye of persecution will never fall on them—even though there was LITERALLY no time in history when that was ever true. And if the authoritarian can move six steps without even having to ask, then they’re that much less tapped out when it's time to take steps seven, eight, and nine.
'They are watching us closely to see what they can easily get away with, and what will cost them political capital and a hard fight. At least, make them pass a law before you obey. Or expend resources to force your contrition. Or demand it. Something.
'At some point, they will ask. Then they will tell you that you should. Then they will get in your face. Then there will be threats. Then they will come after you. Whether any of this is legal when they do it is highly questionable. It’s up to you how long you hold out, but do NOT comply in advance.'
He actually doesn't go into specifics on this one.
11. What CAN you do?
'Remember in The Three Amigos (which… is one of those eighties movies that hasn’t aged super well, but it’s better than One of the Guys) when the Amigos ask what the people of Santa Poco are good at, and someone says, “We can sew!”
'So Martin Short is like, “Sew like the wind!” And then the bad guys come and think the Three Amigos are fucking everywhere because the townspeople are all wearing Three Amigos costumes that they sewed.'
That reminds me of the session I went to on the StrengthsFinder, where instead of emphasizing improving your weaknesses, they emphasized finding more ways to use your strengths. My favorite example was the person bad at math but with good people skills, learning to watch for the hints their math instructor was giving on what was most important and focusing study time on those things.
'This movement needs everything. It’s going to need artists. It's going to need idealists. It's going to need ambassadors. It's going to need politicians. It's definitely going to need lawyers. It's going to need keyboard warriors. I have some old comrades who opened a free clinic in the inner city. I have a friend who knits Afghans. You might think that's sort of boring, phone-it-in activism. But he has, over time, been responsible for giving upwards of a thousand cold people a blanket. I promise you that’s a positive impact.
'Some folks will be better at opening their wallets and supporting the cause financially. (And boy, do we need financial support.) Some will be better at organizing. Some will be so good at doing their "five calls" that they can do other people’s five calls—maybe even fifty or a hundred calls a day. [See 5 Calls.] Some will be better at creating TikTok videos. Figure out what your skill sets are, and then make a plan for how you can use that to support. Lean into what you're good at.'
12. Choose an institution or ideal to defend
I have heard many times that we can't respond to everything, and that this makes us want to give up, but that instead we should just focus on one or two things. But he makes it sound like this isn't as useless as it feels. 'Pull one thread and help to unravel the whole thing.
'...So pick an institution—maybe a media outlet, a particular law, a court, or even an ideal like voting rights—and defend it. Use a search engine to find out about its struggles, and show up. Give time, energy, maybe money if you have it. Make five calls to your representatives, and keep the pressure on to protect this institution.'
15. Educate
I feel like most of my friends and readers are already educated.
'The job of an educator in activism is to combat false narratives, check bunk facts, frame arguments, point out choices in language. ... Most people have a motive to pretend to be reasonable, and then reject ideas that cause cognitive dissonance.' Some can't be reached. Some 'will need your gentle patience. Many folks just woke up. They need some time to become James Connolly. Teach them the truth of what is going on. Teach them their rights. Teach them how to build a response team. Teach them how to give mutual aid. Teach them how to do phone trees. Teach them how to build parallel infrastructure. Teach them how to resist.'
Well, okay, I don't even know how to do all that stuff.
17. Protect the vulnerable
He gives a lot of examples, from some that seem less scary, like speaking up for people, to some that seem very scary, like blocking an attacker or preparing an Anne-Frank-style hidie hole.
18. Resist
I started hating this word when Obama was president and a majority of Republicans decided their job was to resist rather than to create counter-proposals and negotiate. They just blocked everything that came from Democrats, even things that you would normally expect them to like.
And that's what he means here. But this part isn't aimed at legislators. In this section he talks about doing everything you can to slow them down. 'At this point, you are causing trouble for trouble's sake. Yes, you've got everything lower on the pyramid going on, but you're also just getting in the way. Waste fascists' time with lengthy, wandering, pointless explanations. Be hostile (without getting yourself into trouble for being violent). Talk at length. Bring up irrelevant issues. Go on tangents. Spend several minutes looking for your ID (even though you have it with you).
'Keep yourself safe from injury, repercussions, and always make sure you have plausible deniability, but start to be absolutely EGREGIOUS every time you deal with a fascist—be it a law enforcement officer, a soldier, or just a die-hard MAGA. Make vague patriotic statements so they feel embarrassed to cut you off. ("I know someone doing their best to uphold this great country we both love, like you and I do, understands the need for tightly laced shoes—so I'm just going to do that right now, shaky fingers be damned. This won't take TOO long, my loyal friend. I hope you're not in a hurry. What am I saying, of course you are—you have so many important things to do since you are such an important person—a cog in the greatest machine in the world, am I right? Now… what was the question? Oh right, right, right…my ID. My ID. Let’s see. It's here somewhere…") Misunderstand everything and try to clarify endlessly. Ask for instructions to be repeated. Quibble over wording. Reopen previous discussions.
'Act stupid.'
Post of the Day
Speaking of acting stupid, I found Jay Kuo's Clueless, Chaotic and Contemptuous: A crash course in how the Trump administration avoids answers and accountability to be interesting and horrifying. 'The ability to recognize these tricks provides critical context for the listener to not succumb to the gaslighting.'
The best thing is that besides having a *lot* of ideas, he has them organized in a hierarchy, starting from the most important and safest and then working up to the toughest, most dangerous ideas. This hierarchy isn't exactly in the order I would choose and it gets a little less organized at the top, but it's still fantastic.
I like the end points. First: take care of yourself, just like on an airplane. (Except on an airplane, the [non-high-jacking] pilot isn't actually trying to kill anyone.) And last: civil disobedience, which he calls passive resistance. He emphasizes that it's not yet time for "direct action," no matter how tempting. That would just give them another excuse to escalate. And I will add that it's never time for violence (except in self-defense). One thing I've seen way too many times in my reading about other countries is that the new regimes that come into power on a tide of violence tend to end up just as bad or worse than the one they overthrew. Sometimes the enemy of your enemy is not your friend, but another enemy trying to use you for their own ends.
Here are some more ideas that spoke to me (organized by which section he discusses them in).
1. Survive. Prepare and Plan.
'At what point will you leave? What is the trigger? Is it the first demonstration where the National Guard opens fire on U.S. citizens? Is it the quiet acceptance of Republicans trafficking U.S. citizens into El Salvadorian concentration camps? Is it when every blogger and activist writer starts getting arrested? Is it when trans people have to wear identifying markings? Is it when political dissidents go missing by the dozens? When will you pack up the car and drive?
'Where will you go? Canada? Mexico? What city exactly? Have a "go bag" ready. Get your paperwork in order. Do not let your car get below a half a tank of gas.'
Yeah, my current "not yet" answer might really not been good enough. I don't want to leave. I'm not one of the main targets and can pass for not being a target. But I've been reading that part of the fascist playbook is to demonize some set of people and then expand that demonization to all those who support those people or protest the demonization.
2. Thrive
If you're a target, 'every act of pleasure and joy is a subversive slap in their face.' Even if you're not, 'it's difficult to emphasize enough just how much the cruelty and malice and horrors can GET to you. It's a struggle just to keep from sinking into The Swamps of Sadness.' And that makes everything else harder, too.
6. Document the truth
He thinks that even just keeping a private off-line journal of what's going on is a form of resistance.
"There’s going to be a lot of fascist attempts to rewrite the story. Not just the overarching narrative—sometimes the very facts themselves. ... So keeping a record can help you stay grounded. It can remind you that you’re NOT crazy when you feel like the goalposts are shifting. It can help you remember exactly what you felt, when you go back to see what happened on a day. It may remind you that a month ago, you found today’s everyday behavior absolutely unconscionable, and how far normalization has brought us all. It may even possibly be of use to historians."
My new horror journal fits into this.
7. Give support/Deny support
'If you are surviving, thriving with radical self-care, know what's going on, think about it and document what is true, but are not quite ready to step into the light of direct attention, you can support those who are doing what you want and deny support to those who aren't.'
You can both help out people who are in the trenches the same ways you might help a new parent or a mourner or someone dealing with cancer (casseroles, help with chores, etc.). You can vote with your dollars - 'The nice thing about economic activism is that they're so focused on their profit margins, they’ll feel the pinch almost immediately, even from small changes.
'Also, maybe you just take the time to find a board gaming group that doesn't "hear everyone out." Or find a church service that isn’t shaming queer people for being fed up with MAGA.' (Obviously I do want to hear everyone out; he means accepting the opposite of reality as one of the "both sides" that people should hear.)
I think this is where I am in the pyramid right now, figuring out more ways to do this. 'Megacorporations aren’t always easy to work around, and doing so is almost always some form of privilege. So just do the best you can.'
9. Support Democrat politicians
If you're a conservative, you will definitely have to reframe some of this author's arguments who finds most Democrats to be too centrist.
Or not. 'It's vote blue, and then hold them accountable. It's "This might not make things better, but there is a surefire way that they'll get worse…"
'...There is nothing the left [or anyone pro-democracy] wants that isn’t a hundred times harder to achieve when authoritarian forces have us scrambling.
'...Fascism exists in the U.S.—even under Democrats. (Even though Democrats don’t like to think about that very much.) But it is SO much easier to fight. It is so much more violent and developed and articulated under Republicans.'
10. Do not obey in advance
This is a fairly new idea to me, though I've heard it before. 'Most power is yielded to authoritarian regimes freely. Of course, some people agree with what’s going on. But even among those who don't, there isn't really any appreciable foot dragging. People consider what the authoritarian government wants and then do it without even being asked. They think if they're super extra sugar-on-top cooperative, the eye of persecution will never fall on them—even though there was LITERALLY no time in history when that was ever true. And if the authoritarian can move six steps without even having to ask, then they’re that much less tapped out when it's time to take steps seven, eight, and nine.
'They are watching us closely to see what they can easily get away with, and what will cost them political capital and a hard fight. At least, make them pass a law before you obey. Or expend resources to force your contrition. Or demand it. Something.
'At some point, they will ask. Then they will tell you that you should. Then they will get in your face. Then there will be threats. Then they will come after you. Whether any of this is legal when they do it is highly questionable. It’s up to you how long you hold out, but do NOT comply in advance.'
He actually doesn't go into specifics on this one.
11. What CAN you do?
'Remember in The Three Amigos (which… is one of those eighties movies that hasn’t aged super well, but it’s better than One of the Guys) when the Amigos ask what the people of Santa Poco are good at, and someone says, “We can sew!”
'So Martin Short is like, “Sew like the wind!” And then the bad guys come and think the Three Amigos are fucking everywhere because the townspeople are all wearing Three Amigos costumes that they sewed.'
That reminds me of the session I went to on the StrengthsFinder, where instead of emphasizing improving your weaknesses, they emphasized finding more ways to use your strengths. My favorite example was the person bad at math but with good people skills, learning to watch for the hints their math instructor was giving on what was most important and focusing study time on those things.
'This movement needs everything. It’s going to need artists. It's going to need idealists. It's going to need ambassadors. It's going to need politicians. It's definitely going to need lawyers. It's going to need keyboard warriors. I have some old comrades who opened a free clinic in the inner city. I have a friend who knits Afghans. You might think that's sort of boring, phone-it-in activism. But he has, over time, been responsible for giving upwards of a thousand cold people a blanket. I promise you that’s a positive impact.
'Some folks will be better at opening their wallets and supporting the cause financially. (And boy, do we need financial support.) Some will be better at organizing. Some will be so good at doing their "five calls" that they can do other people’s five calls—maybe even fifty or a hundred calls a day. [See 5 Calls.] Some will be better at creating TikTok videos. Figure out what your skill sets are, and then make a plan for how you can use that to support. Lean into what you're good at.'
12. Choose an institution or ideal to defend
I have heard many times that we can't respond to everything, and that this makes us want to give up, but that instead we should just focus on one or two things. But he makes it sound like this isn't as useless as it feels. 'Pull one thread and help to unravel the whole thing.
'...So pick an institution—maybe a media outlet, a particular law, a court, or even an ideal like voting rights—and defend it. Use a search engine to find out about its struggles, and show up. Give time, energy, maybe money if you have it. Make five calls to your representatives, and keep the pressure on to protect this institution.'
15. Educate
I feel like most of my friends and readers are already educated.
'The job of an educator in activism is to combat false narratives, check bunk facts, frame arguments, point out choices in language. ... Most people have a motive to pretend to be reasonable, and then reject ideas that cause cognitive dissonance.' Some can't be reached. Some 'will need your gentle patience. Many folks just woke up. They need some time to become James Connolly. Teach them the truth of what is going on. Teach them their rights. Teach them how to build a response team. Teach them how to give mutual aid. Teach them how to do phone trees. Teach them how to build parallel infrastructure. Teach them how to resist.'
Well, okay, I don't even know how to do all that stuff.
17. Protect the vulnerable
He gives a lot of examples, from some that seem less scary, like speaking up for people, to some that seem very scary, like blocking an attacker or preparing an Anne-Frank-style hidie hole.
18. Resist
I started hating this word when Obama was president and a majority of Republicans decided their job was to resist rather than to create counter-proposals and negotiate. They just blocked everything that came from Democrats, even things that you would normally expect them to like.
And that's what he means here. But this part isn't aimed at legislators. In this section he talks about doing everything you can to slow them down. 'At this point, you are causing trouble for trouble's sake. Yes, you've got everything lower on the pyramid going on, but you're also just getting in the way. Waste fascists' time with lengthy, wandering, pointless explanations. Be hostile (without getting yourself into trouble for being violent). Talk at length. Bring up irrelevant issues. Go on tangents. Spend several minutes looking for your ID (even though you have it with you).
'Keep yourself safe from injury, repercussions, and always make sure you have plausible deniability, but start to be absolutely EGREGIOUS every time you deal with a fascist—be it a law enforcement officer, a soldier, or just a die-hard MAGA. Make vague patriotic statements so they feel embarrassed to cut you off. ("I know someone doing their best to uphold this great country we both love, like you and I do, understands the need for tightly laced shoes—so I'm just going to do that right now, shaky fingers be damned. This won't take TOO long, my loyal friend. I hope you're not in a hurry. What am I saying, of course you are—you have so many important things to do since you are such an important person—a cog in the greatest machine in the world, am I right? Now… what was the question? Oh right, right, right…my ID. My ID. Let’s see. It's here somewhere…") Misunderstand everything and try to clarify endlessly. Ask for instructions to be repeated. Quibble over wording. Reopen previous discussions.
'Act stupid.'
Post of the Day
Speaking of acting stupid, I found Jay Kuo's Clueless, Chaotic and Contemptuous: A crash course in how the Trump administration avoids answers and accountability to be interesting and horrifying. 'The ability to recognize these tricks provides critical context for the listener to not succumb to the gaslighting.'
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