Ask Lemmy

Experts in the field may be more knowledgeable, but there seem to be multiple attack vectors to me:

• Fight and advocate to reduce social injustice; people who feel powerless or left out vote right [even against their own interest]
• Support quality education that critically explores fascism and history, that improves media literacy, and logical fallacies etc
• Support social programs that help people in the scene get out
• Support social programs that prevent people from drifting into that scene
• Be a voice in criticism and watchdogging media, orgs, and [public] people

Get organized with a socialist, revolutionary, anti-war, and/or anti-fascist organization near you that is visibly putting in the work and regularly mobilizing. Recruit more people to your cause and form coalitions with organizations that align with your values. I can personally endorse the PSL but certainly do the research for yourself to find a group that speaks to you personally & whose work you find to be the most fulfilling.

Nice try, FBI.

Find out what fascism would look like at the individual level, and then make yourself immune to that behavior yourself, ensuring that you yourself are not fertile ground for it to grow in.

That’s the emphasis of the course Maps of Meaning. One of the stated intentions of the course is (paraphrased) “To make my students realize that they are capable of being an Auschwitz camp guard, which is not a fun thing to realize, and then to build the kind of life and character that would prevent them from taking part”.

So really, based on my own understanding of how fascism arose in Germany, the best thing is to be totally dedicated to telling the truth. Have values to go higher than your own safety and comfort, and be dedicated enough so that when the opportunity comes to stay comfortable by supporting the fascists, you have the backbone to oppose them.

Fifth column resistance, Sabatoge, and things you cant say on the intetnet.

Check this book with 20 relatively specific actions written by a historian https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Tyranny

Also here are the rules briefly summarized. https://scholars.org/contribution/twenty-lessons-fighting-tyranny-twentieth

I think this one rings particularly strong today.

4. Take responsibility for the face of the world. The symbols of today enable the reality of tomorrow. Notice the swastikas and other signs of hate. Do not look away, and do not get used to them. Remove them yourself and set an example for others to do so.

The only peaceful method i can think of would be for enough people to collectively get together and agree to completely stop buying stuff, other than food and absolute necessities. No luxuries, none. But you'd need enough people and to do it long enough to completely destroy the economy. It would be very boring for a long time.

Not gonna happen.

More realistically, we need more Luigis.

I think the solution is attack the systems themselves and when that isn't sufficient there are only a few people at the top with power.

I am leaving or unsubscribing from as many monopoly powers as possible: Google, Amazon, meta, Twitter, Netflix, etc etc. Be vocal about it, take friends and family with you if you can. I'm choosing open source when possible over more polished closed source, like jellyfin and Linux (transitioning this weekend 🤞), and donate. These actions take a small fraction of their income from them and if enough people do it I believe it will cause them issues.

I'm trying to not just leave these things but build communities for when we leave. For me this looks like trying to get a blog off the ground for friends and family, developing friend circles that have these discussions frequently, and then contributing/volunteering within my direct neighborhood or community (working on this one as I'm new in Germany and that comes with it's own time taxes).

Also, if you can afford to, buy local. Buy from someone you know. Buy from people with good supply lines. Be vocal about how this is critical and necessary. The more money that goes to our neighbors instead of the 1% somewhere else in the world, the better. That's all the shift of power, and it starts with not shopping at whole foods or Walmart and buying bespoke or sometimes worse products for sometimes more money so that those good people can work on their process and products.

But these are small steps, and personally I don't have any idea of the connective tissues between a person or group of people and the political systems most of us exist in. I guess in the past political parties were more grassroots driven, like get in a room with your neighbors and develop policies and debate. I've never lived in that reality. Getting back to that is probably incredibly important. I guess new age political parties and old school unions are the best path forward there.

But the inevitable path, if all else fails, is violence. That is the reality. That becomes a lot less personally risky the larger a community you have before starting it, but as we've seen one Super Mario brother is sufficient to make changes.

Tactical nukes.

Stay armed.

You have to be willing to Luigi these people. We need a thousand more Luigi.

Any other answer is wrong.

I won't say just vote, but you should do that, too, at every level!

Depending on how much time and money you have:

• Join a union (and give time and money to organising the union)
• Join an antifascist political party (and give time and money to organising the party)
• Lobby your representatives to demand they oppose fascism
• Join protests against fascism
• Join civil society groups that are antifascist (either directly or because they're pro human rights or anti-racist, or what-have-you) (and give time and money etc.)
• Boycott businesses that are owned by or enable fascists
• Join co-operatives (and give time and money etc.)
• Join community groups (these don't even have to be political)
• Support local, independent media and good freelance journalists
• Spread the word about all of the above

I've ordered these roughly by how effective I think they're likely to be (this is of course just one guy's opinion); you should pick the one(s) that are most attractive to you and best fit your current situation.

Fair warning, none of the above will instantly fix the problem and I grant that some of them probably seem pretty weak sauce in the face of fascism, but the more people do them, the weaker the fascists will get.