Dear Friends:
As it becomes clearer that our President is a Russian asset and Putin is running the United States’ foreign policy without firing a shot, and while Elon Musk sledge hammers our government and Trump eviscerates our security….don’t give up!
Here is another excellent podcast from Andrea Pitzer’s “Next Comes What” about how important and effective resistance by regular people can be: “Jamming the Musk Machine — Effectively Tackling Authoritarianism.” Effective resistance is happening around the country, but it still needs you to work. Read her post – “Sand in the gears” – that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/how-does-actual-resistance-work
The key takeaway from Andrea’s post for me is: a study “found that a tiny proportion of the population being involved [in resistance] essentially becomes a tipping point for a successful outcome—just 3.5 percent. Others have suggested that the tipping point likely varies with the kind of government oppression involved and the historical setting. But even if change required just 3.5 percent, that’s well over 10 million people we should be pondering how to get involved to secure democracy. And it’s a lot easier to gather people into that coalition if it’s a nonviolent one.”
In her podcast, Andrea Pitzer sums up a day for court cases and positive signs there, explains why attacking Musk can be so effective and shares a few of the ways he’s being strategically ridiculed. Even though elected representatives may not show up — people are making their voices heard in ways that will build momentum.
Andrea considers additional powerful examples from Nazi Germany and Hawaiian sugar plantations where those in terrible circumstances managed to throw sand in the gears of authoritarian or exploitative rule. If you’d like to hear the whole podcast, you can listen on Apple Podcasts.
As I mentioned before, the resource fair for Federal workers on Saturday is a great opportunity to show support for our Federal workers and build momentum. I hope you can join me and a lot of others at Wakefield High School, 1325 S. Dinwiddie St., Arlington sometime between 12 noon and 4 pm. Feel free to come and go as you need. And feel free to bring cookies if you’d like.
Finally, after my last post, I heard from a reader that while he liked Peter Gleick’s idea of Democrats creating a shadow government” to push back with clear public statements showing the bad consequences and damage done to our nation every day, he thought the title was problematic. While “shadow government” in the UK is clearly understood as the opposition party, the name in this country probably has bad connotations. See the same points made on Peter Geick’s Mastodon post. I can see my reader’s point and welcome suggestions for what to call it. I still like the idea.
I look forward to seeing folks on Saturday,
Libby
