On social media, organization, protest and persistence

Photo: John Barrett

This is a post I put up on Facebook recently. I've made some adjustments for this platform.

Admittedly, I've not been on Facebook, except to drop off notices of new blog posts. 

I’m mostly on Bluesky (@reactionshots.bsky.social), where there’s a tremendous amount of information-sharing and organizing. I’ve written about a number of events and demonstrations and there is a fair amount of mobilization going on in Houston and Harris County. It’s heartening to hear horns honking in support of preserving Social Security and in support of fighting the Regime’s draconian measures to silence those who disagree. 

I would like to see more people step up and get involved and I’m sure everyone is doing something in their own way. Even doing small things with a community is worthwhile. If I post about this or that demonstration, it’s less about me than it is about pointing out that there’s plenty to do. 

Protest works. Don’t let anyone tell you that it’s merely performative. Letter-writing works; lobbying your representatives works. Even those you disagree with and who may be supporters of the Regime still take note of the volume of responses to their legislation.

As Kevin Sites put is recently, “we are the Nazis.” No, he wasn’t talking about you or anyone who resists the Occupier in the White House and his sycophants or the horde of Red Hats who are keen on keeping their blinders on, in the false belief that what the Regime is doing is going to pay off for them. But it is true that the rest of the world, our former allies, especially, are now keeping their distance. 

When you start disappearing people off the street without due process, when you violate the Constitution and ignore the law, you are no longer a legitimate “leader”, you are simply a tyrant, and in the case of the current Occupier, a tin-pot dictator, at that. 

We have had, and I’m hedging here, about forty years to prepare to meet this moment. It began earlier, with the Power Memo, that sketched out an outline to be expanded on over the decades and we’ve seen the slow and then fast, expansion of the powers of the Executive Branch under both Republican and Democratic Presidents.

Many of us had a sense this day would come when Reagan and his acolytes declared and supported the idea that “government is the problem” and that a government should be run like a business. Both of these are slogans a corporatists-fascist would love. 

Government-as-a-problem? How so? Conservatives were often fond of touting how great the U.S. was and emphasized American Exceptionalism ad nauseam. Any argument to the contrary was seen as pinko-liberal-commiespeak. So the retort would be, either American is the Greatest Show Country, on Earth, or it is not. Pick one. 

Of course, looking for reason or logic from reactionaries is always a zero sum game. They don’t care what you think; anything that goes counter to their world view is immediately suspect and requires repression and prosecution. This has always been the case.

In the Post-WWII era, the U.S. saw unequalled economic and societal growth; by the end fo the 1960s, the more unsavory aspects of American society appeared to have been brought forward to be dealt with. Unfortunately, war-mongering proved more exciting for the voters who made Nixon a shoo-in and with the 70s weakening economy, blamed on a Democrat President, Reagan seized the moment and hammered away, however falsely, at Carter’s weaknesses, including devaluing the immense amount of effort he’d spent on working with the Canadian government to free the hostages in Iran. 

In most circumstances, markets don’t depend on Presidents directly; their economic policies usually have some effect, under normal conditions. But we do not live in normal times. We are very far from those.

We have a cabal in power who are directly interfering with market stability and disrupting tax and price structures that are going to raise prices and pretty much destroy the very markets they say they are in favor of supporting. This is nonsense; this ia a power/money grab.

The wholesale eradication of government services is already taking a toll on the most vulnerable and any MAGA supporter who claims this is only temporary or to be expected so that once past this point, the country will enter a Golden Age, is, of course, an idiot.

But let’s not lie; America’s racist past was prologue to the present. Our welcoming of immigrants has reverted to the xenophobia and isolation of the pre-WWI years and the interwar period, as well. What happened then? The world was plunged into a Depression that led to the rise of fascism in Italy, the Nazis in Germany, and Stalinism in the Soviet Union. The U.S. was able to turn this around with Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s expansion of social services, and building out the middle class. 

Of course, let’s not kid ourselves. After the war, business interests wanted to see a return to pre-FDR days. However, Americans liked prosperity, but we’ve seen the erosion of regulations on business that have rigged prices, and inflated prices. The cost of living is only going to get higher and anyone who still feels like the Occupier’s tariffs are a good idea is a fool. 

At the end of the day, what we are faced with is the demise of the Republic. We had a republic, Ben Franklin, we tried to keep it, but it’s going quickly. 

Do I think that showing up at town halls and on street corners is going to change anything? Not by myself, no. Not by a long shot. But many of the people I do stand with are taking time out from lunch breaks, if not taking the day off, to make their voices heard. 

You can, too. And the sooner the better. I make it a point to add actions people can take regarding whatever issue is under discussion. I try to point to organizations to get in touch with and yes, this is repetitive, but get to know your representatives, even the ones you disagree with; right now, I’m meeting people who have decided to run for office. If the federal government is waging war against us, then we need to take back our local and state governments. 

Will change happen massively overnight? Will the wrongly imprisoned in El Salvador be miraculously freed? No. The answer is no, of course not. But if we don’t aggressively sow and nurture the seeds to grow back our democracy, we are very likely going to find ourselves at distinct disadvantages. I have no illusions that my being able to continue writing may only be provisional. That at some point, Meta may summarily shut me down or Google, since I use their Blogger platform. 

But I’m going to keep posting wherever I can and meet people wherever they are and do whatever tiny thing I can to oppose this Regime that is nothing more, nothing less, than authoritarian paint-by-numbers.