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What is to be done
Jan. 29th, 2017 12:13 pmWell, that was something.
Despite my awesome powers of prognostication, I did not expect Cheeto Benito's Alt Reich to act as quickly or decisively as they did. My entire experience with authoritarian far-right governments in North America has been that of a slow-burn, frog-in-boiling-water type situation where most of the bad shit goes down in ways far too complex for the average citizen to understand. But this is different. This is a week, and we're all in such turmoil that it is impossible to keep track of all of the horrible shit happening at once.
This is by design, of course. You are meant to be confused and overwhelmed. The point is chaos and disruption. Much of Trump's moves won't stick, can't stick, but the intention is to screw fast and hard, to leave any opposition or resistance bewildered and under-resourced.
One of the reasons why I no longer identify as an anarchist (though I still have many anarchist sympathies) is that I actually believe that a big, lumbering bureaucracy is a healthy thing. It stops, for example, one psychopathic manchild elected by a deluded fraction of the populace from acting on every single chubby he gets when he's sitting on his gold toilet. I may not be that familiar with the US political system, but there are supposed to be checks and balances to prevent this kind of thing. Trump has decided to cut through all that, and because the US government is not typically accustomed to a sole petty tyrant doing whatever the fuck he wants, it is not in a position to respond immediately. And this is what cause the massive clusterfucks at the airports.
This is the age of immediate gratification, and the US now has a Führer who acts only based on immediate gratification. The system may respond, but it's a few hours behind, and those few hours can mean a lot if the bad guy's only plan is to smash and destroy as much as possible, as quickly as possible.
There are a number of avenues for resistance, as many are currently circulating. To be honest, I'm mainly concerned with the ones I can help with as a Canadian. I'm super-pissed, by the way, in the way you can only be when you have a full, normal life going on and you need to halt it because every action that is not directed towards removing Trump from office seems like a wasted action*. In the next few months and years, I may be a stop along an underground railroad, but it can't just be action on an individual or even small group basis.
So here are a few things:
Trump is a Nazi, and anyone who supports him is a Nazi. This is how you need to view things from now on. No compromise, no quarter, no platform. Do not allow representatives of the American state to enter your country. Cut ties with your Trump-supporting relatives. Picture them all in Stormtrooper helmets or SS badges if it makes it easier. They have voluntarily given up their right to be considered humans.
Any company that supports Trumpism is the enemy—more so than regular capitalists. Delete the Uber app. You shouldn't have it in the first place—I never have, because I look at them and I see the last chance for a peaceful social democracy in which workers are able to earn a living wage yanked from under us. Punching Nazis in the face is good, but punching them in the wallet is just as effective.
Donate to the ACLU. They are the first line of defence, as we saw this weekend. I just donated and you should too.
Write, call, email, tweet your MP or whatever elected representative you have. Any government that does business or maintains ties with the US is practicing appeasement, and ought to be treated with the respect due to Neville Chamberlain or Vichy France. We should all be withdrawing our ambassadors, shuttering our embassies, and threatening to cut business ties. I don't even care if the latter is realistic right now—these are not realistic times.
Trudeau's tweets are not enough. It is public grandstanding, not actual policy. The quota was capped at 1000 and is now closed again.
Fight fascism wherever you are, in any way you can, be it with your words or fists or finances. The discourse is changing. Nick Kouvalis, officially the Worst Person In Canadian Politics**, gets away with calling people "cucks" on Twitter now. Fight them. Fight them all. We are at war.
* Incidentally, though, in the future, can we please allow the entire world to vote for US presidents, not just Americans? If your actions are going to affect everyone, we ought to get a say.
** Campaign manager for Rob Ford and now Kellie Leich.
Despite my awesome powers of prognostication, I did not expect Cheeto Benito's Alt Reich to act as quickly or decisively as they did. My entire experience with authoritarian far-right governments in North America has been that of a slow-burn, frog-in-boiling-water type situation where most of the bad shit goes down in ways far too complex for the average citizen to understand. But this is different. This is a week, and we're all in such turmoil that it is impossible to keep track of all of the horrible shit happening at once.
This is by design, of course. You are meant to be confused and overwhelmed. The point is chaos and disruption. Much of Trump's moves won't stick, can't stick, but the intention is to screw fast and hard, to leave any opposition or resistance bewildered and under-resourced.
One of the reasons why I no longer identify as an anarchist (though I still have many anarchist sympathies) is that I actually believe that a big, lumbering bureaucracy is a healthy thing. It stops, for example, one psychopathic manchild elected by a deluded fraction of the populace from acting on every single chubby he gets when he's sitting on his gold toilet. I may not be that familiar with the US political system, but there are supposed to be checks and balances to prevent this kind of thing. Trump has decided to cut through all that, and because the US government is not typically accustomed to a sole petty tyrant doing whatever the fuck he wants, it is not in a position to respond immediately. And this is what cause the massive clusterfucks at the airports.
This is the age of immediate gratification, and the US now has a Führer who acts only based on immediate gratification. The system may respond, but it's a few hours behind, and those few hours can mean a lot if the bad guy's only plan is to smash and destroy as much as possible, as quickly as possible.
There are a number of avenues for resistance, as many are currently circulating. To be honest, I'm mainly concerned with the ones I can help with as a Canadian. I'm super-pissed, by the way, in the way you can only be when you have a full, normal life going on and you need to halt it because every action that is not directed towards removing Trump from office seems like a wasted action*. In the next few months and years, I may be a stop along an underground railroad, but it can't just be action on an individual or even small group basis.
So here are a few things:
Trump is a Nazi, and anyone who supports him is a Nazi. This is how you need to view things from now on. No compromise, no quarter, no platform. Do not allow representatives of the American state to enter your country. Cut ties with your Trump-supporting relatives. Picture them all in Stormtrooper helmets or SS badges if it makes it easier. They have voluntarily given up their right to be considered humans.
Any company that supports Trumpism is the enemy—more so than regular capitalists. Delete the Uber app. You shouldn't have it in the first place—I never have, because I look at them and I see the last chance for a peaceful social democracy in which workers are able to earn a living wage yanked from under us. Punching Nazis in the face is good, but punching them in the wallet is just as effective.
Donate to the ACLU. They are the first line of defence, as we saw this weekend. I just donated and you should too.
Write, call, email, tweet your MP or whatever elected representative you have. Any government that does business or maintains ties with the US is practicing appeasement, and ought to be treated with the respect due to Neville Chamberlain or Vichy France. We should all be withdrawing our ambassadors, shuttering our embassies, and threatening to cut business ties. I don't even care if the latter is realistic right now—these are not realistic times.
Trudeau's tweets are not enough. It is public grandstanding, not actual policy. The quota was capped at 1000 and is now closed again.
Fight fascism wherever you are, in any way you can, be it with your words or fists or finances. The discourse is changing. Nick Kouvalis, officially the Worst Person In Canadian Politics**, gets away with calling people "cucks" on Twitter now. Fight them. Fight them all. We are at war.
* Incidentally, though, in the future, can we please allow the entire world to vote for US presidents, not just Americans? If your actions are going to affect everyone, we ought to get a say.
** Campaign manager for Rob Ford and now Kellie Leich.
