Ok you don’t want the way answer vote sonit doesn’t happen. The second way guns.
Organize people in groups small to big.
Your start an underground resistance movement, get branded a terrorist, and end up in Guantanamo Bay. It’s called FREEDOM.
Compulsory voting.
If you don’t vote, you don’t get to take deductions on your federal taxes and you don’t get any owed tax refund. When you do vote, you also get an extra 3% discount on federal tax owed until your AGI is over $190k.
I don’t hate this idea.
Guitars
Be more precise with your language and you have the answer. Fight is too vague. Punch a nazi in the face.
I’m buying some stickers to put on every tesla I see.
Ok, so serious answer for our friends who don’t live in places without an active culture of protest:
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Vote. No, really. If people actually fucking voted, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
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Give money to advocacy organizations
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Give your time and money to mutual aid organizations
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Read the news (not just on lemmy either)
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CALL your congresspeople. Emails and letters are better than nothing, but do not have the same impact.
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Try to get your friends to do #1-5
I live in a country where voting is compulsory and yet we got Donald trump lite elected. Voting can be part of the solution but it can never be the only thing.
Just playing devils advocate here. If we are talking about real fascism then usually the vote is rigged by that point. Usually by the point where you already have facism take over voting is already too late.
Vote. No, really. If people actually fucking voted, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
Trump won with the popular vote.
A key element to defeat things like fascism, which build themselves on the popularity of fear, is that voting can’t be free-for-all. Voting should require, or be weighed with, some sort of licensing, testing of sane mind, awareness and understanding of at least current events, review of known association with dangerous anti-society parties, etc.
More people didn’t vote than they did for either candidate. Apathy won.
Means testing voting? What could possibly go wrong?! You do see how horrifically abusable that is, right?
There has not been an US presidential election where the president got more votes than the number of non-voters. If apathy won then it had won every single time.
Yes. And look where it’s gotten us. Oligarchic control
That’s hardly the reason. If you had a multi-party system the voted would be even more spread out between the candidates which makes it even less likely for a candidate to get more votes than the non-voting population. However a multi-party system would significantly lessen the possibility of getting oligarchic control because you wouldn’t have to choose between 2 shitty options, you’d have to have multiple shitty choices for the shittiest one to win.
How’s giving money going to help when it would take a million of me to counter a single billionaire?
We don’t need to match a billionaire. We just need to finance lawyers and advocates to work on our behalf.
As bad as things are now, think about how much quicker things would devolve without organizations like planned parenthood, the EFF, and the ACLU.
- Vote. No, really. If people actually fucking voted, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
You would think that, but the reality is probably that out if everyone who didn’t vote you would get an even spread so they really don’t make that big of a difference. Take other countries where voting is compulsory like Brazil and Argentina and they also elected extreme right clowns.
out if everyone who didn’t vote you would get an even spread
I don’t think that’s necessarily true. I suspect that the median non-voter is less wealthy than that of the voters.
Take other countries where voting is compulsory
We have compulsory voting in Australia. Presently we have a progressive (left of centre) government. It’s possible or likely that we will elect a right of centre government this year, but not extreme right clowns.
Millei is necessary for Argentina. Would be a bad president in America but that country desperately needed austerity
What the hell? We are at upwards 40% poverty rate wdym austerity
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Not mine, but from a post: First, you’re never going to win a head-on battle with an adversary that’s got you outgunned. That’s not the point of the Resistance. The point is to create friction, make it hard for your adversary to operate, to increase transaction costs.
Second, resistance doesn’t have to be a dramatic act. It can be a small act, like losing a sheet of paper, taking your time processing something, not serving someone in a restaurant. Small acts taken by thousands have big effects.
Third, use your privilege and access if you’ve got it. He and his buddies stole weapons from the Nazis by driving up with a truck to the weapons depot, speaking German, acting like it was a routine pick up, and driving away.
Fourth, part of the third point really, sometimes the best way to do things is right out in the open. Because no one will believe something like what you’re doing would be happening so blatantly. All good Social Engineers know this.
Five, bide your time. But be ready for opportunity when it strikes. Again, your action need not be dramatic. Just a little sand in the gears helps.
Six, and this is a no-brainer, operate in cells to limit damage to the resistance should they take you out. Limit the circulation of info to your cell, avoid writing things down and…
Seven, be very careful with whom you trust. Snitches and compromised individuals are everywhere. My dad was arrested because of a snitch. His friends weren’t so lucky, the Gestapo machine gunned the cabin they were in without bothering to try and arrest them.
Eight, use the skills you have to contribute. Dad was an electrical engineer. When the Nazis imposed the death penalty for owning a radio (the British sent coded messages to the Resistance after BBC shows) he said he became the most popular guy in town.
I’m not sure how applicable this is to the current situation.
It is very much applicable.
Second, resistance doesn’t have to be a dramatic act. It can be a small act, like losing a sheet of paper, taking your time processing something, not serving someone in a restaurant. Small acts taken by thousands have big effects.
Fourth, part of the third point really, sometimes the best way to do things is right out in the open. Because no one will believe something like what you’re doing would be happening so blatantly. All good Social Engineers know this.
Five, bide your time. But be ready for opportunity when it strikes. Again, your action need not be dramatic. Just a little sand in the gears helps.
Every government needs to work. It depends on its loyalists to give it financial and organizational support in exchange for economic benefits.
So anything that interferes with the “normal” order of things is an act of resistance. Also don’t get fooled into the idea, that you will resist once things reach a certain threshold. By then you will feel what needs to be done to be way to big for your own abilities, since you never trained and tried to do anything.
Start with something easy like putting up political stickers around your town. That sounds easy in concept, but you already will train yourself to be brazen, but also on alert if someone politically opposed to you might want to challenge you verbally or attack you physically. You life close to an amazon warehouse? Why not skip a green phase, when the delivery trucks are lined up behind you?
Speaking of Amazon, we see with the Resistance for Palestine, that Boycotts work. Making a point of not buying products from companies that support the Israeli regime can be expanded to also making a point of not buying into the Trump government.
So… the copy pasta isn’t applicable and your best practical advice is putting up stickers?
The answer to OPs question is to build strong, inclusive, local communities with friends and neighbours, as well as charities and existing community groups.
Also, prep. Figure out what you’d need at home to avoid leaving for a week. Assemble a bug out pack. Improve basic skills for independence like sewing, preserving, first aid.
The stuff you copied seems to have neglected to mention these practical, actionable tasks.
I said “start with”. Which also is consistent with point 2, that it does not have to be the grand act of plotting a political execution, robbing the army of their weapons and other activities requiring strong dedication and risk taking.
Also do you expect people on an internet forum to recommend you specific actions that could be considered illegal, for which they could also get in trouble?
You think Nazi Germany imposed the death penalty on owning a radio from day one? It’s a slow process, and it must be disrupted as early as possible.
What can you do as an individual? not much. A community? Now we’re talking.
Find people to fight fascism with.
And do what?
Rally, apply pressure to local politics, interfere with the workings of the government and their loyalists…
Putting up political stickers, Grafitti, sharing leaflets and more action forms to drive up costs of operations for the Trump system.
For more specific actions you could take inspiration from Palaction, who take action against Britains complicity in the Gaza genocide. https://www.palestineaction.org/
Strong, inclusive communities are the antithesis of fascism. If everyone had a sense of belonging and camaraderie with their community it would be a much less fertile population for fascist ideas to spread.
It might involve the second amendment.
Nooo you can’t use violence
Self defense also counts as violence?
Just having a network of care, looking out for each other and replacing functions a fascist state doesn’t offer any more (think childcare/healthcare/food for those in need) can be a huge act of resistance. Organizing political protests as long as it’s still possible (even if it’s illegal). Strike, sabotage, physical violence … Eventually you will have the choice of imprisonment/death, assimilation or exile to me the last act of resistance will be never to choose assimilation. Continuing to live in exile can be as much of a martyrdom as dying for the cause.
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The things being said here are a good start, but you cant do anything without other people. And if you and your community dont like the reccomended actions here? Make up your own plan with them! We cant just wait until we have the perfect plan to stop fascism and fix alll the world’s issues. We need to start working together now.
Fight facism together! Duh!
Came across this a couple days ago. Haven’t read it yet, but might have some useful stuff.
We’re getting our game plan for how to oppose the rise of a fascist oligarchy… On a site hosted by Harvard? Can’t review as access is gated by an interaction. But this has to be, at best, PMC propaganda. They are spontaneously selling the poison to the right while they try to get us to take the antidote.
Also, needs to be downloaded. Feel like pressing that “download PDF” button just immediately places you on some “domestic threats” list for sale.
Settle down mate.
As far as that web server is concerned displaying that abstract in your browser is the same as downloading a pdf. Your browser just downloaded that web page.
Regardless, while posh universities might produce right leaning graduates, the academics that staff them are predominantly left leaning.
Here’s the main points from the executive summary anyway…
Build and maintain a large-scale, multiracial, cross-class, pro-democracy united front that continues to push for structural/institutional reforms and contest for power, even after authoritarianism has appeared to consolidate. The coalition should use ongoing local, county, state, and national elections as flashpoints by which to build a resilient and expansive pro-democracy movement, document election malfeasance, and promote anti- authoritarian platforms, reforms, and talking points for campaigns to take up at all levels of government.
Protect, hold, and build local and community power through alternative institutions to address urgent communal problems, protect minority rights and lives, reinforce an oppositional pro-democratic culture, develop leadership, and build capacity for collective mobilization when needed.
Build pressure to induce defections among those loyal to the autocrat or authoritarian alliance, including through widespread economic noncooperation and labor action.
Prevent, deter, and strengthen resilience to increased threats of state or paramilitary violence through strategic planning and organized and disciplined actions, including building a capacity to anticipate, induce, and exploit defections; broaden inclusive participation
Emphasis is from the original document
If that was the case, you’d already be on the list for opening the page.
Use Tor if you want to be safer
A few options:
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Get out. If you’re one of the people fascists want dead, then surviving is in and of itself an act of resistance. Leave their domain. Go somewhere else. And live – Just live. Build a life they can’t touch.
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Organise and survive under their noses. It will not be easy, even if fascism has a short shelf life… It still does a lot of damage while it is active, and you and yours could end up as their target. Still, your best chance of surviving is by grouping up. Meet your neighbours, meet your local activists, get to know them, and start helping each other.
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Violence. But. It’s not enough to just go spree killer. The violent response demands organisation. You could join an armed resistance group. Or, if you leave the country, if it comes to war, you could enlist to fight against your old nation. Lots of people did both in the forties.
- Sabotage - purposefully obstruct these lunatics any way you can. Delay their food orders. Slash their tires. etc. Delete emails. Empty gas tanks. If they’re constantly fixing shit there’s less time for them to create problems
I feel like IT people have a lot of efficacy on this one.
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- Don’t do fascism yourself. (This is harder than you think.)
- If it is within your power, prevent others from doing fascism.
- Help others that have had fascism done to them.
- Grow your power, in order to do #2 more often.
Avoid creating or growing an organization that has a strong hierarchical structure, as they are easier for fascists to convert/infiltrate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agzNANfNlTs Democratic structure can be better, but beware giving any power to the intolerant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance#Paradox_of_freedom_and_paradox_of_democracy
If you are comfortable, #4 might involve physical, martial, melee, firearm, etc. training. It is not unlikely that the current fascists in power use violence to grow/retain power, and that might require violence as part of the fight. That said, I feel there’s plenty of non-violent ways to fight fascism, for now.
I have three pieces of advice:
First: The best, most practical and actionable advice I can think of is to start organizing your neighborhood. You don’t even have to openly be organizing resistance to do it, just get to know your neighbors, get your neighbors to know each other, get to know what’s going on in each other’s lives and offer help where and how you can. Bring over some snacks on the basis of being neighborly and just ask how they’re doing some time. Forming these social bonds are really, really important, and it’s the basis of building resilience in your community. We used to have stuff like this built in, but it’s been slowly eroded over lifetimes, largely but not exclusively by exclusionary zoning and car-centric infrastructure.
Look, if you’re just the person a couple doors down they don’t really know, people might go “oh, huh” when the brown shirts come. If you’re Dolores down the street who brings them brownies every month, there’s a much better chance that your neighbors knock back when the brown shirts come knocking. And if it’s not just one neighbor, but three or four of them that come out to beat some Nazi ass? Pretty good chance those fucks will get the message loud and clear.
I can feel some of you out there already replying “but my neighbors voted for the Nazis”. Yeah, they did. I’ve also worked with enough Republican voters to know that when they think of the evil other, they don’t possibly imagine that that could include their friends, family, and co-workers. That is, your neighbors, in all likelihood, don’t want the bad thing to happen to you. The point is this: community bonds can and will outweigh other considerations if you build them.
Second: Go to local government meetings as much as possible, bitch at them about your favorite pet issue, listen and watch other people who show up there. It’s an easy way to speed run making connections in your local activist community, and you might even end up actually influencing some local policies. I go to them, it’s free and easy, and the cops can’t stop you from yelling at the city council about the price of housing. The real value, though, has been getting invited to other local activist groups that I never realized existed because I met other members of those groups there.
Third: Prepare. If shit hits the fan, you need to be able to take care of yourself, help might not be coming. I think probably the best strategy is the same as for mass shooters: run, hide, fight.
Run- ditch your smartphone and other spyware devices. Tell nobody about your plans, especially not over any kind of electronic medium. Just go. Have a bug out bag ready to go. When you’re making your bag, remember that you’re going to have to carry it a long, long way. Try to be practical. Probably the most important items you can have are your ID, cash, more cash than you think in a few different places, a change of clothes (especially underwear and socks), a good multi-tool or fixed-blade knife (no need to go crazy, just get a decent full-tang no-frills knife from a flea market or something), hygiene products (moist towelettes and baby wipes are great), water, and snacks (try to focus on really energy dense stuff like peanut butter). Small tarps and mylar/wool blankets probably are good ideas too. Water should also be its own container, ideally a large canteen, or a backpack if you can swing it. I’d also recommend a handful of dice or playing cards to keep you sane.
Have a plan with anyone who’s going with you on where to meet up and how long to wait and don’t tell another soul about it. If they miss the deadline, just go ahead and follow the rest of the plan.
Also, part of this is upskilling. Learn how to repair tears in your clothing, how to talk to people, how to do first aid, stuff like that. You’ve got to be ready to rely on yourself to get yourself out of a jam. At the point of running, this is the worst scenario, and you need to treat it as such.
Hide- DITCH YOUR FUCKING ELECTRONICS. Never go on social media ever again ever, don’t log into Google, don’t check your email, don’t log into Lemmy, just quit this shit altogether. The NSA already has a full database of basically anything you’ve ever communicated over a phone or the internet, and law enforcement absolutely will use it via parallel construction. Don’t use debit cards or credit cards, pay in cash. You wouldn’t believe the shit they collect on you all the time. You can worry about contacting people once you’re safe.
Fight- There is still a second amendment. If it’s a choice between dying in a firefight with some fascists or going to the boxcars, I think that choice seems obvious. Speaking as a gun owner: If you get a gun, you MUST practice with it at least a few times. Get familiar with it and understand how to handle it, you really don’t want the first time you’ve ever shot your gun to be when you’re trying to fight the Nazis. Personally, I’d recommend a pump action 12 gauge shotgun; it’s practical for many, many use cases, the ammo is easy to come by and very common, it’s dead easy to service and maintain, and aiming at close quarters is as simple as point and click.
Physical maps. Radios.
Physical maps are fine, but take some practice to actually use well. I wouldn’t pack transmission radios like walkies- most that are affordable are unencrypted, and the encrypted ones are in all likelihood already broken by the alphabet gang. Plus, they need batteries and they’re just not that useful in practice, imo. An AM/FM receiver, though, I could get behind that.
Check this book with 20 relatively specific actions written by a historian https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Tyranny
Also here are the rules briefly summarized. https://scholars.org/contribution/twenty-lessons-fighting-tyranny-twentieth
I think this one rings particularly strong today.
- Take responsibility for the face of the world. The symbols of today enable the reality of tomorrow. Notice the swastikas and other signs of hate. Do not look away, and do not get used to them. Remove them yourself and set an example for others to do so.
In his Substack newsletter, Snyder encourages people to start organizing now (2024) in order to win both local and national elections.[15] He notes that On Tyranny was written in a defensive mode and that if its lessons are learned and implemented now things could get much better in 2025 for those who want to maintain democracy and the rule of law in the United States.[15] Snyder has noted that while Trump did not succeed in overturning the 2020 election, it was practice for a successful coup and his supporters will be better prepared for 2024.[16] He also notes that in 2020 important individuals and institutions were aware Trump might not want to peacefully transfer power if he lost the elections and that they prepared to make sure lawful transfer did occur.[16]
