Ask Lemmy

What can you do as an individual? not much. A community? Now we're talking.

Find people to fight fascism with.

1. Don't do fascism yourself. (This is harder than you think.)
2. If it is within your power, prevent others from doing fascism.
3. Help others that have had fascism done to them.
4. 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.

A few options:

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

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 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.

Burning things down is "semi violent" but effective cost imposition on oligarchy. It may very well result in highly violent response though.

just don't vote. Its not my method but I heard from a lot of folks who feel that can fight fascism. you mileage may very.

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.

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.

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?

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.

4. 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.

Fifth column resistance, Sabatoge, and things you cant say on the intetnet.

Experts in the field may be more knowledgeable, but there seem to be multiple attack vectors to me:

• Fight and advocate to reduce social injustice; people who feel powerless or left out vote right [even against their own interest]
• Support quality education that critically explores fascism and history, that improves media literacy, and logical fallacies etc
• Support social programs that help people in the scene get out
• Support social programs that prevent people from drifting into that scene
• Be a voice in criticism and watchdogging media, orgs, and [public] people

Get organized with a socialist, revolutionary, anti-war, and/or anti-fascist organization near you that is visibly putting in the work and regularly mobilizing. Recruit more people to your cause and form coalitions with organizations that align with your values. I can personally endorse the PSL but certainly do the research for yourself to find a group that speaks to you personally & whose work you find to be the most fulfilling.

Ridicule them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs4P1kKK-5k

The only peaceful method i can think of would be for enough people to collectively get together and agree to completely stop buying stuff, other than food and absolute necessities. No luxuries, none. But you'd need enough people and to do it long enough to completely destroy the economy. It would be very boring for a long time.

Not gonna happen.

More realistically, we need more Luigis.

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.

You have to be willing to Luigi these people. We need a thousand more Luigi.

Any other answer is wrong.

I want to do some more radical stuff without getting arrested. What should i do? I live in sweden and the right has been creeping up here as well(not as bad as the us but still a shit situation). I already did the first steps like trying to wake up friends to the reality(family already "woke" so thats nice, less work) of the situation.