This is a roundup of articles with guidelines for supporting democracy and resisting encroaching tyranny. Posters are advised to bring references or review references. Commenting on posts without clicking through to the reference (or summary of the reference if we’re discussing a book) is frowned upon.
For those posting references, please link to a book review or summary if your reference is book length. Links to You Tube videos over 70 seconds are also frowned upon.
I have a total of 6 references: I’ll summarize 3 of them in succeeding posts. Here is the list:
Yale historian Timothy Snyder specializing in the history of Central and Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and the Holocaust penned On Tyranny, Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century in 2016. Here is the original article, later expanded to book length. There’s even a graphic novel.
Gifted NYT column by Pulitzer Prize winner Nicholas Kristof, My Manifesto for Despairing Democrats, penned Nov 6th, the day after the 2024 election.
Indivisible: “A Practical Guide for Resisting Trump’s Agenda”. Their 2016 edition was written by Washington DC staffers and well informed by the sorts of approaches that work and don’t work. This edition is scheduled for release next Wednesday, Nov 13, 2024. I predict and hope that it will be the most helpful reference in this list. https://indivisible.org/
How Democracies Die, an acclaimed, “2018 comparative politics book by Harvard University political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt about democratic backsliding and how elected leaders can gradually subvert the democratic process to increase their power.”
Take care of yourself, exercise, enjoy your hobbies, yes everything sucks but try to avoid falling into depression, as Jauretche said “Nos quieren tristes porque los pueblos deprimidos no vencen. Nada grande se puede hacer con tristeza” (They want us sad because depressed peoples cannot triumph, nothing great can be done with sadness).
Reinforce your ties with other people, do not isolate yourself, strengthen your ties to (like-minded) family and friends.
Act politically in any way you can, I’ve found that the best cure to election-related depression is to march, protest, strike, specially in great numbers, it helps you see that you are not alone, that there is still hope and not everybody is on board the road to fascism.
Remember that nothing lasts forever, nothing good, but nothing bad either, Aurë entuluva, day shall come again (that’s not Spanish, it’s elvish :))
I’ll list the points: click the link for the article.
Do not obey in advance.
Defend an institution.
Recall professional ethics.
When listening to politicians, distinguish certain words. Look out for the expansive use of “terrorism” and “extremism.” Be alive to the fatal notions of “exception” and “emergency.” Be angry about the treacherous use of patriotic vocabulary.
Be calm when the unthinkable arrives. When the terrorist attack comes, remember that all authoritarians at all times either await or plan such events in order to consolidate power.
Be kind to our language. Avoid pronouncing the phrases everyone else does.
Stand out. Someone has to. It is easy, in words and deeds, to follow along.
Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom.
Investigate. Figure things out for yourself. Spend more time with long articles. Subsidize investigative journalism by subscribing to print media. Realize that some of what is on your screen is there to harm you.
Practice corporeal politics. Power wants your body softening in your chair and your emotions dissipating on the screen. Get outside. Put your body in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar people. Make new friends and march with them.
Make eye contact and small talk. This is not just polite. It is a way to stay in touch with your surroundings, break down unnecessary social barriers, and come to understand whom you should and should not trust.
Take responsibility for the face of the world. Notice the swastikas and the other signs of hate. Do not look away and do not get used to them.
Hinder the one-party state.
Give regularly to good causes, if you can.
Establish a private life. Nastier rulers will use what they know about you to push you around. Scrub your computer of malware.
Learn from others in other countries. Keep up your friendships abroad, or make new friends abroad.
Watch out for the paramilitaries. When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching around with torches and pictures of a Leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-Leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the game is over.
Be reflective if you must be armed.
Be as courageous as you can. If none of us is prepared to die for freedom, then all of us will die in unfreedom.
Be a patriot. The incoming president is not. Set a good example of what America means for the generations to come. They will need it.
Gifted NYT column by Pulitzer Prize winner Nicholas Kristof, My Manifesto for Despairing Democrats, penned Nov 6th, the day after the 2024 election.
Here is his list:
I accept Donald Trump’s victory. …We lost. We were outvoted. In a democracy, the majority rules, and that was not us…
I will be a watchdog, not a lap dog.
I will back organizations fighting to uphold human values.
I will subscribe to a news organization.
I will try to understand why so many Americans disagree with me.
I will keep my cool.
I will care for my mental health.
I will be alert to gender nastiness.
I will help Ukrainians.
I will back humanitarians around the world.
I will push for blue places to govern themselves better.
I will temper my strong views with humility.
I will share Thanksgiving with relatives, even if I think they’re nuts.
I will start planning for recovery. It’s time to start working for the 2026 congressional elections…
Instead of despairing, I will find purpose. For four decades, I’ve reported on pro-democracy activists struggling against dictatorships. I saw them massacred in 1989 at Tiananmen Square in China, and I’ve had too many friends tortured and imprisoned in other countries, but I also saw democracy come to Eastern Europe, South Korea and South Africa. What I’ve learned from people like Archbishop Desmond Tutu is that despair — even a quite reasonable despair — is self-fulfilling, while democratic activists with a sense of purpose can sometimes, unpredictably and imperfectly, make unexpected progress. To avoid being crushed over the next four years, that sense of purpose must be our North Star guiding us forward.
Over at Waging Nonviolence (a website I only heard of 2 days ago) activist Daniel Hunter pens, “10 ways to be prepared and grounded now that Trump has won”. Frankly, I’m dubious about the perspective of a professional activist. The article is a little too touchy feely and self absorbed for my taste. But tastes vary and it’s been a rough week. Here is his list:
Trust yourself
Find others who you trust
Grieve
Release that which you cannot change
Find your path
Do not obey in advance, do not self-censor.
[MfM: Those aren’t the same and diplomacy is a third category.]
Reorient your political map
Get real about power
Handle fear, make violence rebound
Envision a positive future.
Not my cup of tea. But hey, it’s ok to feel things. I endorse the sentiments expressed by Banksy:
