No Stupid Questions

71 million in a country of 262 million adults. 27% voted for fascism. 74 million voted for trump in 2020. This wasn't a shift towards fascism, but the opposition party utterly failing to win voters.

The country has never been majority rule. Every modern election has split the country in thirds, about a third votes one way, a third votes the other and a third choses not to vote.

Over 70% of voting aged americans did not vote for trump.

edit: spelling correction.

I understand that wholeheartedly. But I personally refuse to be one of those people that sit back while everything deteriorates. When Hitler was elected a majority did nothing, but many chose resistance. I refuse to be the majority who live as cowards under fascism, so if that means I die resisting then so be it.

That has been happening here (US) for decades. The real problem is the escalation of stupid shit that Republicans do is on an exponential growth trajectory.

It was going to take decades to recover from how badly Trump fucked up the government last time he was in power, and the economy was only just starting to recover. With another term, its unlikely we'll be able to recover within my lifetime, my children will be left worse off than me.

Are you expecting someone to provide you with all the answers?

Organize literally anything; a labor union, tenant union, alternatives to capital, a community garden, etc. Getting involved means doing whatever you have the capacity to do. Sometimes organizing is long and challenging, sometimes it's short and sweet. The thing is, there's different recommendations for different types of organizing. A post like this really can't get any more specific, because organizing is actually that broad of a topic.

Arm yourself to defend yourself and others from random acts of political violence. Use the arms to defend drag time story hour. Use the arms to protect the people you care about. Use the arms to watch cops. Get a gun, learn how to use it, and then only use it in emergency self defense. Having a substantial presence of guns at a protest against capital is already self defense, because cops know they can't push the crowd too much. That's why you shouldn't wait for tanks to be rolling through before you arm yourself.

Mutual aid is part of organizing, and will become incredibly important over the next few years. If you want more insight then I recommend reading Kropotkin's book on the matter.

If you're looking for someone to follow, I recommend following yourself and your ideals. It's very obvious that the point of the post is to take action, not to follow OP.

"Get organized/involved" - What's that mean in more practical terms? Start attending social gatherings put on/hosted by radical leftist organizations? And maybe start ones if they don't exist in your area?

"Start organizing" - Same as that first bullet?

"Get involved in mutual aid" - Yeah, ok. I've read Eisenstein. I know his book Sacred Economics has some tips for how to get involved with existing mutual aid organizations. I definitely need to re-read that bit and read other sources about that. But at least I have an idea where to start with some of that, I guess. I'd still like more specifics on what in particular you mean by this, though.

Get involved with local organizations, preferably radically left (because otherwise your options are more centrist or conservative, which imo is how we ended up here), that will help you set up mutual aid networks for basic resources and protection. Organize your communities so people have a support structure that isn't dependent on our broken and corrupt system so that they feel comfortable protesting and resisting tyranny. Build it up so that within the networks you have access to secure communications, free access to information, basic necessities and resources (i.e. food, water, healthcare, medicine, etc.), and planning for resistance and direct action.

"Get armed" - So, acquire firearms. To use in some particular way? (You mentioned you're not advocating for "acts of violence or an insurrection like January 6th", so not that, apparently.) Or just to have for when "something" happens? If so, what specifically?

"Don't wait until troops are rolling down the street to stage a resistance" - 'K. Not really helpful until I understand more specifically what you're advocating for people to do.

"Get involved with resistance" - So, let's say you're a respected voice in a mutual aid radical anarchist collective with guns and enthusiasm. What do you suggest they do?

"Stand, fight, and maybe even die" - How? Not January 6th, but... how then?

"Don't do nothing"/"Don't lay down and accept our fate" - Not really helpful on its own if we don't know what you're suggesting we do instead of "doing nothing" or "laying down and accepting our fate."

Get armed, trained, and be prepared to fight so that you can protect those mutual aid networks when the fascists come to dismantle them. Be prepared to fight and lay down your life for those in your community who are bigger targets (i.e. women, people of color, queer and gender non-conforming people, immigrants, etc.) just as you would want them to do for you. As much as possible, become a unified force against the tyranny.

I'm not advocating for random acts of violence or Jan 6th like action because yes that would get me banned, but that also will not be an effective form of resistance. Effective resistance will need to be directed, organized, and focused with specific goals. At some point that may look like fighting a revolutionary war or a coup, but the American people need to crawl before they start walking, let alone run. We need to build strong communities, whether virtual or physical, where we can support each other and try to minimize the harm being done.

What is the goal you're trying to achieve? A more democratic government?

That'd be great but I think at this point achieving something other than fascism would be nice.

but are you suggesting the election was rigged or fraudulent?

no.

Because if not you're the one trying to impose an authoritative regime.

also no, I'm advocating for community organizing against a very obviously fascist regime. im advocating for mutual aid and self reliance. y'know, the things people who are typically targeted by fascists need.

So what you're talking about is for a minority to raise arms against the democratically elected government.

again, not what I'm saying.

Even if you were to win the revolution you would need to put a tyrant in power because calling a new election would result in the same outcome.

not necessarily?

That's one of the dangers of democracy, but starting a revolution to remove a democratically elected president in the name of democracy is just as dumb.

nowhere did i say i was fighting in the name of democracy. I do think democracy is generally good, although i do not view the US as a democratic country. but that's not what im advocating for at all in this. I'm advocating for genuine survival under an oppressive regime and solidarity amongst the people against tyranny. if shit gets real bad, do i think it's just to fight against it and resist? absolutely. but as I've said in other comments, the American people aren't close to that yet. we need to organize first.

Yeah, nah.

Don’t tolerate intolerance, same goes with authoritarians, use force to remove them.

Yep, at the end of the day, it is the will of the people. To me it sounds like we just need to divide up the country. The two sides are hopelessly far from compromise, or even tolerance of each other.

Often. I make it a point to engage with viewpoints different than mine because my perspective is paper thin, and only by understanding others can I hope to expand it.

That being said, I am having a tremendously difficult time understanding how we can willingly just invite fascism (I understand how it happened, I just can't understand how people actually let this happen).