We’ve already outlined a number of ways to fight back. Sometimes, there are obvious and not-so-obvious ways to fight the power. We hope this summary is helpful to you.
Strikes, Quiet Quitting, Boycotting & Simple Sabotage
Corporations and companies are behind everything. Tug the curtain aside and the CEOs are the ones who pull the strings. Everything they do is in their own self-interest, which means paying off senators, representatives, and cabinet members to make the same choices. How do you fight that?
By depriving them of the labor they rely on so they have to do it themselves. Let them get their own garbage to the dump, unclog their own toilets, fix their own broken-down vehicles and computers and more. It’s past time for a general strike.
If you feel you can’t do that because you’ll lose your job, then that’s part of the problem. It’s part of a system that has been designed to oppress and exploit the working class, and take away their power. However, you have more power than you know.
Strikes don’t have to be like protests, with people in the streets carrying signs. Maybe you go to work and you do… your okayest. The bare minimum. Clock in at 8:30, clock out at 5:00. And that’s it.
There are also consumer and behavioral / social strikes. For example, not buying from certain corporations such as Target, Amazon, and Hobby Lobby (and if you’ve been buying from Hobby Lobby at all, then you either don’t know why you shouldn’t or don’t care… and if it’s the latter, why are you reading this?).
There is also boycotting certain socially-acceptable or expected behaviors, such as women opting out of doing anything that is centered around the happiness of men or feeding into traditional stereotypes. Or perhaps you are taking tradition and turning it on its head with craftivism and making seditious little things (sabotage socks and using your pretty privilege to poison the well, anyone?).
Or, you still show up for work but, knowing you work for a huge corporation or a MAGA / Trumper, do your best to undermine them. Especially if the corporation directly serves MAGAs, Trumpers, or the government.
Active Protest
Protest, as we see it, tends to involve marching in the streets with signs. And that is, in fact, an effective way to let world leaders know that things are not well here. Go out there and make sure people know you’re mad as hell about the oppressive direction your country is going.
What if you don’t feel safe doing that in your state or community? What if you don’t feel safe putting up signs that proclaim your views? There are plenty of quiet ways to protest, as well, from the anti-work, anti-consumerist and anti-social ideas given above, to other intentional acts.
Protest can also mean overwhelming contact forms and servers meant for reporting on “illegals” or DEI activity (the “End DEI” portal fell thanks to this kind of protest!), or anything else the Trump administration wants you to rat folks out about. Obviously, this should only be done from a safe location and/or device, preferably either using a good VPN or while sitting in front of a house that displays or previously displayed Trump signs and flags.
It can also mean donating money, food, time, and/or energy to an organization supporting immigrants, LGBTQIA people, or reproductive rights. The more we empower these organizations, the more good they can do.
Stop the Media
Of course you can take the time and expend the energy to have conversations with the MAGAs, as some people try to do. But keep in mind that anyone who supported – and still supports – this movement have intentionally cut themselves off from facts and anything that is good for them, from caring and compassion and joy. The media they consume encourages this self-sabotaging behavior. It always has, it always will. Why?
Once again, because of money. Alt-right commentators make money off of people listening to and believing them. There is nothing more than that behind the kind of “news” these people consume. The people who vote against their own interests are a product, a commodity. They are being played and, while that might be deserving of sympathy, most are not responsive to it. If they can’t be cut off from that media, then they have to be cut off from everyone else – from the labor (be it physical, mental or emotional) they enjoy from those around them.
If you can, pull the plug from someone in your family or household who consumes this media. Take a capacitor out of their radio. Hide the cord that connects their computer. Disconnect the TV from wifi. Their smart devices are the things dumbing them down.
Make these people touch grass.
Once Fox Entertainment, Breitbart, and Newsmax stops reaching their eyes and ears, their heads might clear.
Don’t Tolerate Intolerance
These, of course, are the same people who claim to just disagree with you. Who like to cry and play the victim, claiming civil discourse can’t exist with progressives and leftists.
As Robert Jones Jr. said, “We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.”
So when the MAGAs who thought on January 6 that it was okay to attack police officers and build a gallows to hang Mike Pence now attempt to gaslight you into believing you’re the one who is the source of the violence and hatred they have built their beliefs on, take a deep breath and walk away.
We cannot tolerate intolerance. Therefore, we cannot tolerate them, nor do we have to.
Remember, another act of resistance is to mutual aid – giving it to protestors, striking workers, immigrants, LGBTQIA people, women in need of a buddy when they go to an abortion clinic. And withholding that from the hateful and undeserving is another act of resistance.
If you really have to engage, keep it simple. Tell them you’re sorry they’re so scared of the big, bad world and then move along.
There are other people out there who have the capacity for love who will welcome you and who will deserve you.