The opposite of complicity

I’ve written before about protest and why it matters, about why it’s useful and what it does. But those comments have usually been scattered throughout random parts of posts focused on other issues.

As a day filled with nationwide protests approaches this Saturday, October 18, it’s worth keeping in mind that huge demonstrations from the summer may build toward key numbers that could meet or surpass the greatest single-day tolls of recorded demonstrations in the United States. They could soon reach a critical mass shown to sometimes be capable of forcing significant change. At this crucial moment, I want to talk about the value of being out and part of a group of humans expressing dissent or non-cooperation with the government’s objectives.

So today, I’ll write about what nonviolent protest has done in the world and in the U.S., what it’s doing right now in the country, and what it has the potential to do. I’ll address the limits and failures of democratic movements a little as well, with a nod to why it’s crucial for you to get involved right now if you can.

The benefits of protest

Our society is descending further into authoritarianism. The gatekeeping institutions responsible for stability in the country—places like universities, news outlets, and government agencies—have all been directly attacked by the Trump administration. These attacks make it more difficult access information and services that let people know what’s going on or how to get help in a crisis. They actively remove much of that assistance itself, and create obstacles to individual and institutional pushback against oppression.

To keep things simple for a moment, I’ll lump several actions together and consider demonstrations, rallies, and protests all one thing, because I want to emphasize a key contribution they’re all making right now. I’ll separate them out briefly later to make another point, but right now I just want to note that all those activities are public resistance to the current administration. They’re an attempt to assert the primacy of the people’s right to control how they’ll be governed.

The Trump administration is hoping to speed-run an authoritarian clampdown that makes dissent invisible or impossible. Public dissent is the last real wall standing in their way. We need to strengthen it.

Trump has claimed “beautiful black women” were begging him to go to Chicago, where residents are currently facing occupation. The federal government is punishing universities for asserting any independence. They’ve long described every kind of protester as a paid agent of George Soros, an antisemitic trope they’re not likely to give up anytime soon.

Spooking the fascists

But ahead of the demonstrations planned for this weekend, they’re scared. They’ve upped the rhetoric, claiming that those involved are Hamas supporters who hate America. They’re portraying any opposition to their policies as unpatriotic and threatening the safety of all Americans.

Showing up is a great way to frighten them more. The use of masked men given the power to drag anyone away is meant to make the current administration seem invincible. Gathering together against police-state tactics shows resolve in the face of that threat and demonstrates that the ruling party doesn’t have full control yet.

With the government shutdown continuing, there’s some confusion about what’s going on and who’s responsible. The public (for now, at least) blames the party in power more than they blame Democrats. But in some cases it’s a close call. When those who oppose Republicans in this moment do so publicly and in great numbers, it helps to create momentum for a more decisive rejection of Trumpism. It helps to build a narrative.

This is a moment to show up and assert that government should not be used to attack Americans. It should not destroy their public health and their emergency systems. It should not put health insurance out of reach for millions who currently have it. It should not kidnap people from the streets. It shouldn’t disappear, assault, or shoot anyone. But that is what they’re doing.

Size matters

One evolution of authoritarian governments in larger and more industrialized countries in the last half-century has been to target minority groups and dissenters surgically, to leave as much of the population as possible able to go about their regular lives—as long as they’re willing to ignore what’s happening elsewhere. Dissent that’s isolated and unreflective of the larger population’s experience is harder to grow into a powerful movement.

A Pew research study from this summer found that nearly one in four people reported fear that they or someone close to them could be detained and deported. That’s a significant percentage of the country, yet it also likely indicates that most people still haven’t been an eyewitness to these assaults. Many people in the U.S., especially those fed only propaganda, may still see anti-Trump actions as limited to some imaginary criminal class deserving any rough treatment they get.

So the size of demonstrations this weekend and going forward matters. While people from threatened communities and people of color have been on the front lines of protests—in some cases long before I was born—it’s critical for others to show up now, too. I say this partly because numbers make an impression. But numbers also make a difference in what siloed or checked-out Americans see in their communities or across different media.

And as minority groups continue to be targeted with violence and deportation, American University researcher Dana Fisher has already noted that No Kings protests are becoming less diverse. Those who can more safely oppose Trumpism need to show up in even greater numbers, because there are many communities that cannot right now, as vulnerable communities continue to bear a disproportionate burden of actual violence.

An antidote for isolation

Crowd size matters for two additional reasons. One is that a White House already shook by the physical resistance it’s facing can be further rattled by even bigger numbers showing up across the country and in the heart of D.C.

The other is that by coming together against Trump, demonstrators can find solidarity with like-minded people. We live in an atomized era, in which people are more and more isolated at home—a tendency the Covid epidemic exacerbated. That kind of isolation is especially dangerous as democracies degenerate under oppressive rule. Forming communities through dissent is a nurturing and sustaining force for individuals and the country alike.

As Julia Angwin and Ami Fields-Meyer wrote in the New Yorker earlier this year, after speaking to people in dissident movements around the world, “Amid prolonged and cascading political crises, establishing a political home for yourself is a necessary ingredient for nurturing non-coöperation. Think of this as the equivalent of participation in a faith community that meets to worship—a regular practice to guard against loneliness and despair, and check in with others going through a similar experience.”

The limits of protest

While I feel that demonstrations of any kind are a powerful tool, it’s important to acknowledge their limits, and what they can’t do. Research has shown that in different times and even different countries news media tends to disparage or downplay protest and protesters’ roles as a political force. While protesters can do certain things (I’ll talk about those later) to subvert that conventional response, we have to realize that media coverage of public dissent will be an uphill battle, maybe forever.

The other thing to recognize is that big events like those planned for October 18 are effectively rallies. They absolutely can help to shape the narrative, rattle Trump and the oligarchs, and build solidarity. But they themselves aren’t likely to change policy or conditions on the ground. At most, they might make government more cautious about its actions and expand support among independents.

It’s the protests at detention facilities and demonstrations in the face of ICE operations that have more effect. And while crisis actions like those can force change, long-term change more often comes from sustained community-building that brings people together to work with their city councils and local advocacy groups to use regulations and laws to shut out ICE. It comes from people banding together to collaborate with targeted communities instead of allowing them to be persecuted.

So big demonstrations this weekend’s aren’t the end point of anything. But they can be the beginning. People who connect there can educate and be educated. They can find out about more concrete actions to take and ways to plug in to long-term efforts they can join. Think of it as the first level of a dungeon, the easy one in a quest game. The demonstration this weekend will give you the lay of the land and ideas about how to move forward.

The dangers of backsliding

I’ve talked before about studies that have shown that it’s possible to undo authoritarian seizures of government. As a journalist, I feel I should also share an even more recent study that suggests that even when opposition movements take control, authoritarian tactics can be hard to leave behind.

Looking at the Gambia and other nations in an October issue of The Journal of Democracy, authors Donghyun Danny Choi and Fiona Shen-Bayh noted that the country’s democratic resilience after decades of brutal authoritarian rule has been attributed to a variety of domestic factors—most notably, the “inward evolution” among voters and civil society leaders that led to bottom-up demands for democratization.

But looking at cases from other nations, in which opposition groups moved into ruling positions only to become more authoritarian themselves, the authors describe how “An opposition victory is at best a prelude to democratic recovery. But it is not a synonym [emphasis mine]. Absent powerful counterweights… new leaders often find themselves constrained by the very political logics that empowered their predecessors, leading to the preservation rather than the reversal of autocratic practices.”

They suggested that those “committed to halting the wave of democratic erosion” should cultivate “sustained domestic vigilance from a citizenry and civil society capable of holding today’s opposition victors accountable tomorrow.”

Exercising the muscle of public dissent can be used to hold any government to account, and build the strength that protects the country from the flaws that helped give rise to authoritarianism in the first place. In my opinion, protests and demonstrations of all kind have a role in that long-term civic engagement we need to cultivate.

Safety in mind

The opposition to Trump is currently an online nation—a nation of doomscrollers. It’s easy to get overwhelmed. Showing up in public can be a cure for those feelings of powerlessness. Still, it’s important to assess your own risk in a given situation and how it plays out at different public actions. You might feel safe going to a No Kings event, but at risk protesting outside an ICE detention facility.

The reality is that law enforcement can turn any gathering violent at almost any point. It’s a brutal administration we’re dealing with. Taking advantage of online trainings and meetups to learn more about mitigating risk and keeping yourself and others safe can help you respond in the moment, and even to build up tolerance and readiness for public action more likely to lead to direct encounters with law enforcement.

That said, October 18 events are likely to be overwhelmingly peaceful ones. And they will give you a chance to see how low-key events unfold, which will help give you perspective on other events going forward. Not only might you learn to build up confidence and tolerance for more focused and goal-oriented actions, you’ll have more tools to respond with if you wind up facing an emergency in your daily life.

The many forms of noncooperation

Though today’s theme is the value of public dissent, I want to make clear that can involve much more than more than attending demonstrations. Those whose disabilities or risk profiles may keep them away from public events can still contribute to efforts around the country. Some people like Megan Piontkowski provide ICE primer zines or different educational materials that you can help make and distribute yourself.

Others are out building small memorials to those taken from their communities, via signs that recall the German Stolperstein project commemorating those abducted by the German state under Nazi rule. People are creating educational, even musical, videos about how to Shut the Fuck up when dealing with the police. People in Portland are collecting racks of inflatable costumes for demonstrators to wear. Others are out pushing policies in their communities to offer greater protection on health care or housing.

The main thing is not to stay silent. The more voices coming together against the president’s agenda and his power grab in any form, the better. This effort will require millions and millions of us in the end.

Joy on the streets

And while we can’t control when government agents might turn violent, I would like to make the argument that goofiness matters. The role of costumes, music, and dance in demonstrations is part of a long lineage of both ridicule and joy as powerful tools against oppression.

Costumes in particular are becoming iconic, because they highlight the gap between the government’s claims that protesters are terrorists and the reality on the ground. Wearing a frog, chicken, or unicorn costume won’t always keep officers from arresting you, and it might actually put you in a more vulnerable position should they decide to so do. But it does make that decision a losing choice for the government. It makes them look ridiculous and authoritarian and highlights the difference between the sides.

There’s been a rightward shift in the press, due largely to growing media ownership by billionaires. Creating viral moments with the kinds of images we’re seeing in Portland and elsewhere—costumes and naked bike rides—is a way around the new gatekeepers who want to portray any threat to their power as terrorism. Ridiculous images will make it onto social media, and perhaps even local news that would otherwise only report events from the point of view of law enforcement. They’re a way to seize public attention and awareness, and is a narrative less susceptible to manipulation.

These kinds of actions are also about joy. And while other actions will be grimmer and higher-risk, there’s room for more than one kind of effort. We can come together and take pleasure in the oddball nature of humanity when it’s not beaten down or coerced into submission.

So go to NoKings.org and see what’s happening this weekend near you. And bring your friends. Instead of people marching in the lockstep, jackbooted style that Trump so longs for in the military parades he admires in other countries, we can turn up in our magnificent variety—to show that the answer isn’t to let anyone constrict our liberties, but instead to celebrate our freedom to resist in countless ways.

The more joy we bring, the more people will want to be part of this movement. The greater the number who show up now, the greater the number who will be ready later to pitch in on increasingly complex and effective actions. The bigger it all gets, the more it will become clear that we can win.

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