As far as I know, the main content of this post originated on Facebook. I have no idea who created it but would be happy to give credit if someone lets me know who deserves said credit. I’m sharing it here because it’s worth sharing, and also hopefully this format will make it easier for people to pass along. The only changes I’ve made is that I took advantage of WordPress’s ability to format text, something you can’t do in Facebook, and cleaned up the grammar and punctuation a little. And also I took out any reference to “copy and paste, don’t share” because as I said, I’ve purposely made this shareable.

Some pointers going forward:

Don’t use his name.
Remember this is a regime and he’s not acting alone.
Do not argue with those who support him—it doesn’t work.
Focus on his policies, not his orange-ness and small hands.
Keep your message positive; he wants the country to be angry and fearful because this is the soil from which his darkest policies will grow.
No more helpless/hopeless talk.
Support artists and the arts.
Be careful not to spread fake news.
Take care of yourself; and
Resist!

HOW TO RESIST THE FASCISM THAT WE ARE BEGINNING TO EXPERIENCE (and if you don’t think that religious tests for immigrants and citizens are fascist, then you do not know the history of Nazi Germany, Stalinist USSR, Franco’s Spain, and Mussolini’s Italy—as well as fascist Saudi Arabia, etc., etc.) …

These pointers are actually helpful—people have been looking for something; these are a starting point. Some are strategic, like #1 and #2, some are psychological, like #5 and #6. Don’t give in to depression and anxiety. Go to #7 instead.

“Make Resistance Great Again”

1. Avoid using his name

Every time you use his name, you make him stronger. He has developed a cult of personality around himself that thrives on your hatred. He wasn’t kidding when he tweeted, “I would like to extend my best wishes to all, even the haters and losers, on this special date, September 11th.” He really does extend best wishes to you, the hater, because you give him power; you make him seem like something bigger than he really is, and you are the object of hatred that motivates his supporters. You are his Emmanuel Goldstein (1984 reference — read it if you haven’t already).

2. Spread the blame

Don’t allow moderate Republicans to hide behind ambiguity and equivocation. They are supporting a President who is trying to destroy our democracy, and are therefore members of a regime, not an administration. If you focus all of your attacks on their leader, you are only reinforcing his message that “I alone can fix [our problems.]”. In reality, he requires the support of collaborators. Call it what it is: “the regime.”

3. Do not engage the regime’s base

Let’s do a thought experiment. Imagine your favorite song; hear the music inside your head. Now imagine someone telling you that the song sucks, and you should never listen to it ever again. How likely are you to be swayed? The regime is music to the ears of its most ardent supporters, and you will never convince them otherwise. Remember when their leader said, “we’re going to win so much, you’re going to be sick and tired of winning”? That statement was meant to appeal to a base of supporters who feel like they’re losers, people who get a high from being associated with a “tremendously successful” billionaire. Now try to imagine how good they must have felt when he won the election. Every time you get mad at them and argue with them, you remind them of how good it felt to win. You motivate them to work harder toward their leader’s re-election. If you deny them the pleasure of yelling at you, you will make politics less enjoyable for them, and thus more apathetic about the regime. You will never dislike your favorite song, but you might stop listening to it as much as you once did, and this is the best we can hope for with the regime’s base.

4. Focus on policies, not personality

Most polls showed the President’s favorability rating around 38% on the eve of the election, but 47% ended up voting for him anyway. That means 9% of his voters already think he’s an asshole, but, nevertheless, an asshole who’s going to do a better job than his opponents will. These are the people we need to focus on; if we can convince them that his policies suck just as much as his personality sucks, we are likely to flip their votes. So, stop focusing on the guy’s hands. Everyone already knows, and it didn’t work during the first time we tried it. Remember Einstein’s quote about the definition of insanity.

5. Keep it positive

The regime feeds on negativity. The policies they support are born from fear and anger. People filled with love and optimism generally do not support policies that are centered upon walls, torture, and deportation. This is why the leader of the regime didn’t tell a single joke during his convention speech. He wants the country to be angry and fearful because this is the soil from which his darkest policies will grow. Keep it positive, and spread love; it’s poison to the regime.

6. Don’t spread hopelessness

Whenever you say “we’re screwed,” you communicate hopelessness. Saying things like, “I don’t understand how this happened” is the same as saying, “I don’t know what the solution is and you shouldn’t listen to anything I propose because I just don’t understand.” But, you do have hope; otherwise, you wouldn’t have read this far. And, you do have a solution—resistance! It’s okay to be down and to seek out other like-minded people for comfort, but try to stay focused on spreading hope and confidence. We got this, okay?

7. Make resistance cool and fun

As the country becomes more political, and more polarized, Americans will feel increasingly pressured into choosing a side (sociology happens). We want healthy, positive people to choose the resistance because we ultimately don’t want the entire country to end up resembling one of the regime’s rallies. Besides, we ARE cool and fun; just look at all the musicians who boycotted the regime’s inauguration. The fact that the Resistance is responsible for the generation of almost all of our society’s visual and musical culture is one of our strengths; let’s maximize it.

8. Stop spreading fake news

Sorry everybody, but we do it too. Do you remember when Trump went on Oprah and said, “if I ever run for president, I’ll run as a republican because they’re stupid enough to vote for me?” That never happened. And, you know how the regime deleted all the information about LGBT rights from the White House website as soon as it came to power? Actually, the regime deleted almost all information from the White House website, which is a common practice for all incoming presidents—Obama did it too. When we spread fake news, we contribute to the confusion many Americans are feeling right now, thus contributing to the problem. The regime doesn’t need everyone to believe its lies; it only needs 1/3 to believe the lies, and another 1/3 to be so confused that they don’t even know who to trust anymore. Let’s show them that they can trust us—educate yourself on the issues, hold other members of the Resistance accountable, fact check information before you post it, and retract anything you post if it is later proven wrong. Reality still exists, and we are the communicators of that reality.

9. Take care of yourself

The world will not end if you take a break or have fun doing something that’s not explicitly political. But, the world will end if the majority of the Resistance ends up too burned out to fight. Just remember—even when you’re sleeping or recreating, you’re only recharging yourself for more resistance.