EzioJensenTheThird

Shitposter, drinks Irn-bru

Will we have laughter and happiness in the future? Always


adorablesergal
@adorablesergal

quick edit: there's some good stuff in the comments below, be sure to read

Don't be one of those terminally online shitheels who wails about America being "done for", or tells lies about Western Leftists never organizing. This shit starts in your home. It starts with your neighbours.

Give them a heads up on what's going on, and that all our lives and liberties are at risk. Find the best ways to get the seriousness of this across, and if you don't know them that well, it's time for a barbecue or something, idk, the best way to anyone's heart is through their stomach. Find a way to break the ice if they're not flying Trump flags.


First off, if you're of the attitude that you feel it's all past the point of no return and any kind of legitimate engagement is useless: eat shit and die.

Second, only a very narrow segment of any populace thinks your guillotine memes are based.

Your reps at a national level

Drop in your address here to see who is representing you. Call if you can. Be polite, to the point, but demand it all: you support impeachment hearings for SCOTUS, a constitutional amendment to block presidential immunity, an expansion of SCOTUS seats. Make it clear you don't want this to be the last election anyone in the U.S. ever votes in. Leave a message if you must. Ideally keep it under a minute of talk time.

Your reps at a state level

For this one, you're kinda on your own. I don't think there's any unified registry of state reps. For sure they're listed on your state gov's web site somewhere.

This one's a bit more complex. I don't want to be too dour but if you're in a state that has already locked in the GOP as the de-facto single party, I dunno how much writing in is going to help. You can still engage, and maybe you have been, but expect that more off-the-books direct action is your future.

If you're in a pivot state, "purple" state, or whatever you guys call it these days, it very much does matter. Call in. Write in. Demand that your guys be aggressive in defending democracy, most specifically by protecting the vote. Fascism wears a trenchcoat of validity by suppressing votes and calling itself the fair-and-square winner.

If you're in a "blue" state, it still matters. Find out what sanctuary measures are on your ballot. Press your congresspeople to create more robust sanctuary measures for a broader variety of reasons. Sanctuary states are going to be critical if worst comes to worst.

If you don't know what to say

Track down your local party headquarters. Every major city should have one in every state. Drop by or call in and ask for advice on how best to word your messages to your representatives.

Doing More Than Just Voting

I will necessarily be light on details here, but just know that if you're white and you live in a relatively okay neighbourhood, chances are high you will see zero issues at the polls. Lines may be a bit long, but that's about it.

That is likely to not be the case in poorer neighbourhoods, or areas that are minority-dominant. This is it; the fash are making their move. Expect that chuds will be out in force around those areas to intimidate voters, and for voting machines to mysteriously break down or be woefully understaffed. I'll leave it up to the human spirit of ingenuity on how your crew chooses to address this.

Don't replicate effort

At least do a little bit of sleuthing around local orgs that are involved across all spectrums of direct action. Yes, this means you may have to interact with liberals. Suck it up and deal with it.

Shut the fuck up

Learn opsec. If anything you're doing is even loosely not on the level, shut the fuck up. There's already plenty written out there on data sanitization for protests. Expect to do that, and more. Shut the fuck up. Please, for the love of Silves, shut the fuck up, and best of luck to you.

Learn to heal

I've already posted before on how it's a great entry into activism getting trained on first aid. Get a kit. Take a class. Watch some YouTube vids if you can't afford the class; however you do it, learn how to treat the most likely injuries you will see at protests, namely blunt trauma (especially head trauma) and broken bones, chemical and fire burns, and bullet wounds if necessary.

Freedom Seed Dispensers

If you are willing and able, get a gun. Understand that it is a last resort and as a leftist, no one will be on your side if you choose to use it. Your best hope is that it will be a temporary deterrent. Pray that you will never use it in actual combat. Expect that a straight-up firefight in the streets will result in your death. Don't start shit you and others can't finish. Always try to retreat first. And for the love of Silves, don't brag about and display your arsenal online or get cute little AR vinyl stickers for your car.

Be aware that there are bad people out there who are legally barred from owning a gun for one reason or another, and that sometimes those people will break the law and use 3D printers to complete the construction of lowers to add to uppers that are relatively cheap to acquire and require no background check. It's scary, I know!

What you're likely to see

Say the worst comes to pass, and Project 2025 kicks into gear. This is really fucking important, because I need people to understand that there is a popular perception of what legal fascism is that doesn't quite align with reality, at least not at the start.

People expect tanks rolling down streets and boots kicking doors in one by one in every neighbourhood. That'll probably happen in areas where protests happen, but at the start of it all:

  • you're still getting up to go to work
  • traffic is still going to suck
  • you'll still have bills to pay

Really, what you'll see is going to be found in a recounting of what has already happened. The book They Thought They Were Free, by Milton Mayer interviews several Germans post-war on what things looked like on the ground in Germany during the ramp-up to World War 2. Go read it.

Why they won't win

I'm not ignorant to the suffering that has existed, continues to exist, and will come to pass if Project 2025 or something like it is enacted. I want to give Americans hope that in all probability, even if they give it a go, the fascists will not win:

  • America is fucking huge and mostly empty. Getting from one coast to the other is not a day trip by car. The logistics of any kind of civil unrest are a lot more complicated, and a national response to protests will not be a cakewalk
  • America is already heavily divided, politically. We're seeing the beginning stages of balkanization in the "United" States.
  • Along those same lines, the "state's rights" thing cuts both ways; Blue states are already becoming legal sanctuaries for things like abortion and trans care
  • The bulk of America's GDP power is not in "red" states.
  • Not every gun owner is a right-winger
  • Not everyone in the military is a right-winger, and there were indications that generals were not going to toe the line for Trump on January 6th. I don't feel that position has changed significantly; I'm sure some of them might pop off, but I would genuinely be surprised if all of them fell in line.
  • The people in power in "red" states are really bad at government and they only remain in power because they've seized almost total control of the electoral machinery under a veneer of legitimacy that people still really want to believe in. That won't bode well for them once they try to throw down for real.
  • Unless they really want to go full secession and civil war, any kind of significant military action from red states to "help" blue states will be mired in red tape (ha-ha). There's talk of "invading" blue states to pull out immigrants and whatever, but I'm betting the bulk of that will be from vigilantes and militias who won't be operating under any kind of official capacity no matter what a president says, and if you're a gun owner, you are in your legal right to wax these fools if they flag you with their weapons, and this might be the only instance where your local blue government won't hang you out to dry, because they hate vigilante shit.

There's more I want to say to give you all hope, but I can't, because Reasons. Just know I have hope that you all will somehow pull through. I know not everyone will make it. People aren't even making it today. I'm angry and terrified sharing a border with a country where this shit is going down, but I'm still hopeful that maybe, just maybe, this can be a turning point in history for the better.

Quick Addendum: don't count out religious orgs as allies. Not every Christian denomination are christofascists and a lot of 'em are probably horrified at what is going on, and there might be schisms in unexpected places (Mormons are Having A Time Of It right now, for example). Also, there's more than just Christians in America.

If you aren't sure where to start with local organizing, start with one of your local churches. Ask around. They might know someone if they aren't involved themselves.


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in reply to @adorablesergal's post:

Feel like there needs to be a supplemental guide if you live in a Deep Red area, talking to both my national and local reps might get me put on a list if things get off the rails super bad. Pretty sure Steve "David Duke without the baggage" Scalise's office ain't gonna take me seriously, and I have literally been called a Satanist/pedophile by my local rep cause I told him I support our local librarians.

Quick Addendum: don't count out religious orgs as allies. Not every Christian denomination are christofascists and a lot of 'em are probably horrified at what is going on, and there might be schisms in unexpected places (Mormons are Having A Time Of It right now, for example). Also, there's more than just Christians in America.

Certain Churches support LGBT+ explicitly. My Great Aunt has been an Out Lesbian since the 70s and is a Pastor at a Lutheran Church. Look at what churches/synods allow things like women pastors or if they support allyship, its probably a good litmus test for these.

As am addendum to this, if you're going to buy a firearm make sure you practice using it. There's a lot of gun owners who buy a firearm because they are worried about unrest who will be unable to use it when their life is on the line because they never drilled basic operation into their muscle memory.

And if you're going to buy a gun, buy whatever is closest to an AR-15 you can legally own unless you're planning on concealed carry. Handguns are much harder to shoot and less effective at stopping threats.

And by the way, when you "reach out," please think like an eighty-year-old Senator who grew up in a massive bureaucracy. That is:

Do not call or e-mail, unless it's part of a last-minute, day-before-the-bill push. Contact your representatives on paper and/or in-person. Your e-mail and calls will either "get lost" or get processed into statistics on a daily report. Paper needs to get processed and filed. And your representatives have offices near you and in the capital, so send to both, noting that you have done so. They can't ignore paper, and they can't ignore bodies in their office, if only because their security tells them that both are vectors for dangers.

Your template is "As a constituent and [list of things that you do in your community], I have concerns about some current issues in your field." You can donate a tiny amount to their campaigns, too, so that you can call yourself a donor, too, because they'll check that list corruption for a good cause is forgivable. When something that you do (examples: Small business owner, student, parent, etc.) relates directly to an issue that you want to write about, repeat that it affects you or that you have expertise. Don't threaten or rant. Don't propose solutions unless you have experience, because they'll discount your opinion for not knowing their constraints.

And do this regularly, not just when you're in a panic. Your job is to build a relationship where they either consider asking your opinion or groan when thinking about the letters they'll get from you if they make the wrong choice.

This is how the right makes it look like anybody cares about their issues. This (and huge donations) is how corporations make everything about business profits. Learn from them. Work the system instead of imagining that everybody's office works like you would organize it.