Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

1. NAME IT

U.S. Fascism is not sneaking up on us, it is here, manifest in Trump’s authoritarian decrees; mass deportations, firings, and government and military purges; appointment of incompetent loyalists; attacks on free speech; limits on reproductive freedom; subordination of science to religious dogma and crackpot conspiracy theory; and federal invasions of U.S. cities—’justified’ by an onslaught of lies (viz., propaganda), favoring ‘real Americans’ (his supporters) over his perceived enemies (everyone else, especially the undocumented, trans people, ‘the left,’ and late night talk show hosts).

2. RESIST—STRATEGICALLY AND EFFECTIVELY

Resist every assault on your and others’ liberties, in some manner and to some extent. But do so in ways that do not harm you or your communities, or bind you up in legal chains, sapping the resources of your supporters. Be mindful of surveillance, but don’t snitch jacket your comrades. Don’t unnecessarily paint yourself as a target, or take Trump’s bait. His invasions of U.S. cities are not designed to quell danger but to foment it, in order to manufacture violent flashpoints as pretexts to enact steps in his fascist playbook, toward the declaration of martial law and suspension of elections.

3. UNITE ACROSS IDEOLOGICAL DIVIDES

Make common cause with people you disagree with, emphasizing mutual goals. Now is not the time for sectarianism and purity tests. Build community and bridges of understanding. Yield on issues that are not pertinent to the current struggle, and live to argue the finer points another day. Model tolerance and patience, and give other people the opportunity to evolve toward the principles you hold dear, as you did.

4. INTERRUPT HATE

Terrorizing vulnerable and marginalized people is among the lowest forms of humanity. Today’s xenophobes, transphobes, and homophobes are last season’s racists and antisemites (interchangeably, ad infinitum). Their bigotry may seem fashionable to them now, but history will send them scurrying for the shadows, like Nazi SS officers after WWII. Help them tell on themselves by whispering their names to their descendants. Promise them the long memory of the internet. Live out loud and proud, and normalize diversity and tolerance not supremacy and bigotry.

5. DON’T BE THE ADMINISTRATION’S MOUTHPIECE

In every struggle against authoritarianism, there are those who rebroadcast the oppressor’s condemnations of their fellow resisters, in a futile effort at appeasement. This achieves nothing but to shorten the fascist’s climb to domination. The ‘liberal’ media’s fawning eulogies to Charlie Kirk garnered no sympathy from Trump; they just helped him launch his wholesale attack on ‘the left’ from an elevated position.

6. SPEND PRIVILEGE; EXTEND COMPASSION

Consider ways of spending privilege (wealth, white skin, cis maleness, citizenship) on behalf of those who have less of it, such as by speaking up on their behalf in the workplace. Go out of your way to extend meaningful support and compassion to Trump and Co.’s targets, including especially undocumented immigrants and trans folk.

7. EXERCISE STRENGTH IN NUMBERS

It is more effective for a multitude to resist a little than for a few to resist a lot. If one person steps out of line, they get clobbered. If a few people step out of line, they get arrested. If hundreds or thousands of people step out of line, they move the line.

8. BOYCOTT AND STRIKE

These are time-tested, effective ways to exercise strength in numbers. You may ask, won’t those who prefer dictatorship boycott and strike back? Let them try. There are more of us who prefer democracy. Don’t excuse corporations like Disney who claim to have to make ‘hard’ choices about which customers to appease. There is no hard choice between fascism and freedom that won’t get more limited by making the wrong one.

9. VOTE

There is privilege in pretending voting doesn’t matter, or that the choice is only between Coke and Pepsi. For vulnerable populations in Trump’s crosshairs at home and abroad, his rule is a matter of death, deportation, government sponsored bigotry, Handmaid’s Tale-style patriarchy, sickness without science-based treatment, and even more massive bombing, displacement, and starvation.

A lack of informed ballot exercise got us into this fascist mess and it might get us out—if we get another national election. Curse the system, curse Democrats, curse older generations, but put checks in the not-fascist boxes—or spend the rest of your life trying to claw back the right to do so.

Though elections are not the end, they are a crucial beginning of civic engagement—especially now that we are on the cusp of losing them.

10. BE PATIENT, WITH YOURSELF AND OTHERS

People are hurting, scared, and confused. The fascists have blueprints (like Project 2025), while resisters have no obvious manual for stopping them—though Filipino Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa’s book How to Stand Up to a Dictator is instructive. We are learning how to navigate this daunting new reality as we go, and we will make mistakes along the way. Adapt and persevere!

11. BONUS: DON’T FORGET TO DANCE

Make merriment, make art, and have more fun than the frowny fascists! In the (not exact) words of Emma Goldman, dancing draws the revolutionary crowd!

This first appeared on Ben Rosenfeld’s Substack page.

The post Ten Exercises You Can Do to Resist Fascism appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

From CounterPunch.org via this RSS feed