Showing up counts

Andrea Pitzer, author of a serious popular book on the history of concentration camps, surveys the literature on authoritarian governments and movements and comes up with a deceptively simple prescription for those of us who aren't agreeable to American fascism. 

... If support for authoritarian rule can be influenced by something as simple as knowing that others support authoritarian rule, then it’s incumbent upon all of us who can to publicly reject strongmen and their tactics. This study shows that in communities with a free flow of information (as should be the case), the malleability of public opinion will remain a real risk. And this kind of peer influence on people supporting strongmen—when they realize others do—means that norms can shift radically for the worse in a short period, just as we’ve seen in the U.S. in recent decades.

This runs deeper than Trumpism. And one way that each of us can push back is to let our peers know, though word and deed, that these abuses of power are against our values, and that the authoritarian response is a shameful one based in fear and weakness.

There are a million ways you can take on that challenge, publicly embracing freedom and openness to everyone in the community—through art, through writing, through community cleanup, through calls for accountability, through social get-togethers. The main thing is to do something to stake your claim and turn those who support authoritarian rule into the definite minority where you live and around the world. 

My emphasis. We have neighbors and friends. They see what we care about and what we do. A pebble tossed in a lake or stream changes the movement of the water, even if imperceptibly at first. Keep tossing; there is no humane alternative.