Ask Lemmy

I found this book to be very compelling and topical: https://www.ericachenoweth.com/research/civil-resistance-what-everyone-needs-to-know

Civil resistance is a method of conflict through which unarmed civilians use a variety of coordinated methods (strikes, protests, demonstrations, boycotts, and many other tactics) to prosecute a conflict without directly harming or threatening to harm an opponent. Sometimes called nonviolent resistance, unarmed struggle, or nonviolent action, this form of political action is now a mainstay across the globe. It was a central form of resistance in postwar anti-colonial movements, the 1989 revolutions, and the Arab Awakenings, and people are practicing civil resistance at higher rates than ever before around the world, including in the United States. If we want to understand the manifold protest movements emerging around the globe, we need a thorough understanding of civil resistance and its many dynamics and manifestations.

I didn't say this in my other comment, but it's important enough to be its own:

If you think you're going to be targeted, use the buddy system. Don't go anywhere alone, for any reason, ever. One person is an easy target, two and especially three people are a lot harder to deal with.

https://neighborhoodanarchists.org/find-a-local-group/

Find charities, news outlets, podcasts, rights groups or other entities that match your message and support them.

Donate money, time, and whatever else you can to help.

I think everyone understands that being loud might draw the wrong attention, so do what you can to support the ones that you want as much as you are able.

Ok but I just want to clarify before we valiantly and romantically take the fight to fascists...

... Did you muster the courage to vote for Harris, return2ozma?

Find out what fascism would look like at the individual level, and then make yourself immune to that behavior yourself, ensuring that you yourself are not fertile ground for it to grow in.

That’s the emphasis of the course Maps of Meaning. One of the stated intentions of the course is (paraphrased) “To make my students realize that they are capable of being an Auschwitz camp guard, which is not a fun thing to realize, and then to build the kind of life and character that would prevent them from taking part”.

So really, based on my own understanding of how fascism arose in Germany, the best thing is to be totally dedicated to telling the truth. Have values to go higher than your own safety and comfort, and be dedicated enough so that when the opportunity comes to stay comfortable by supporting the fascists, you have the backbone to oppose them.

One way I've been trying personally is just gathering as much information as possible and remembering it. I've always been super bad at history and biology because of my resistance to memorization, but I'm slowly keeping up while trying not the get burnt out.

Of course, after I have enough info, that'll inform me of what the next move is, I hope, because if I do anymore now I'll just crumble

I think the solution is attack the systems themselves and when that isn't sufficient there are only a few people at the top with power.

I am leaving or unsubscribing from as many monopoly powers as possible: Google, Amazon, meta, Twitter, Netflix, etc etc. Be vocal about it, take friends and family with you if you can. I'm choosing open source when possible over more polished closed source, like jellyfin and Linux (transitioning this weekend 🤞), and donate. These actions take a small fraction of their income from them and if enough people do it I believe it will cause them issues.

I'm trying to not just leave these things but build communities for when we leave. For me this looks like trying to get a blog off the ground for friends and family, developing friend circles that have these discussions frequently, and then contributing/volunteering within my direct neighborhood or community (working on this one as I'm new in Germany and that comes with it's own time taxes).

Also, if you can afford to, buy local. Buy from someone you know. Buy from people with good supply lines. Be vocal about how this is critical and necessary. The more money that goes to our neighbors instead of the 1% somewhere else in the world, the better. That's all the shift of power, and it starts with not shopping at whole foods or Walmart and buying bespoke or sometimes worse products for sometimes more money so that those good people can work on their process and products.

But these are small steps, and personally I don't have any idea of the connective tissues between a person or group of people and the political systems most of us exist in. I guess in the past political parties were more grassroots driven, like get in a room with your neighbors and develop policies and debate. I've never lived in that reality. Getting back to that is probably incredibly important. I guess new age political parties and old school unions are the best path forward there.

But the inevitable path, if all else fails, is violence. That is the reality. That becomes a lot less personally risky the larger a community you have before starting it, but as we've seen one Super Mario brother is sufficient to make changes.

The ear guy tried.

By making every single step they try to take excruciatingly painful by any means necessary.

Nice try, FBI.

You're going to find a lot of support when the police can't help themselves but be openly brutal, the way the occupying Germans did in Paris France, during the rise and fall of Vichy. The early Résistance started small, tearing down propaganda, slashing tires, cutting phone lines, as they got organized into a formidable fighting force.

It's not popular to advocate for violence, and some revolutions can happen without violence when they're properly organized. Martin Luther King Jr. would sucker the police into attacking non-violent protests (which they were keen to do) to appeal to the sympathy of the public and to challenge them in court. BLM is using the same means, with more emphasis on using those ubiquitous phone cameras everyone has to record it as it goes down, for the internet to view in horror.

But the Mahsa Amini protests in Iran reminded me of the adage Violence is unthinkable until the hour it is inevitable. After the death of Amini by the morality police for a minor hijab violation, Iranians protested by forgoing hijab and tipping the headcovers of VIPs (imans and government officials.) They responded with brutal reprisals from police and loyalists, which is when the protesters started flinging Molotov Cocktails at government buildings. Hangings of protestors resulted in live fire combat in the streets which resulted in Islamist loyalists poison-gas bombing girls' schools, which is a bad look worldwide.

But don't worry, when we see what law enforcement intends to do in the states, especially the anti-immigration and round up teams, the call to arms will be crystal clear.