Sometimes Fighting Fascism is Boring as Hell

It is Saturday morning and I am driving to the Dells for the Wisconsin Democratic Convention. In the car I am listening to the Friday episode of the Even More News podcast in which they discuss the Battle for Home Depot, as well as the larger struggle of that particular city against ICE, the Nation Guard, and the LAPD. On the same day No Kings rallies are expected to sweep across the state, and the country as well. Later while sitting in one of many caucuses in a stuffy room at the Chula Vista conference center I am struck by a thought. Sometimes fighting fascism is fucking boring.

This is not the extent of the work that us Beagles engaged in at the WISDEMS convention. We made friends! We also made some enemies. Milwaukee Beagle joined some of the coolest activists and adorable elderly this state has to offer to try and whip the dang thing into some sort of apparatus prepared to oppose the incumbent fascist Republican Party. While the centrist “make sure nothing changes” candidate ran away with the position of Chair of the Wisconsin Democratic party, being in those spaces and agitating was the work that was called for in the moment.

A lot of people showed up for the No Kings rally and it sucked the oxygen away from Trump’s stupid celebration of imperial strength. Some reports of the protests seem tame, and perhaps like a parade with 10’s of thousands of your closest antifascist friends. Some of the protesters were arrested, and at least one person was killed in Salt Lake City. Meanwhile in LA the actual Marines were firing chemical weapons and rubber bullets at US citizens. 

The picture that I am trying to paint here is that there is a spectrum of action necessary to oppose fascism. This isn’t exactly an original point, I like to think that everyone has an understanding on the importance of having a diversity of tactics. However there are two things that bear repeating.

To the first is, I am seeing a lot of protest-shaming around what is going on in LA. That is weak shit, and if you find yourself doing that… well you gotta not do that. Contrary to what elected officials tell you, there is no “correct” way to protest. Nonviolence may have worked in India in resistance to the British occupation (it didn’t, btw), but it sure as shit didn’t work in 2018 when Palestinian activists had their knees shot out by the IDF.

Some have suggested that protestors flying flags from Mexico should replace them with American flags. I will grant that there is perhaps some tactical advantage to this, but if that is what you believe is going to work then I would encourage you to gather some of your close friends and make it so, rather than scolding some strangers who are actually doing something. 

This of course leads me to my second point. Yes, sometimes fighting fascism is boring, attending meetings with a room full of stiffs was dull. It did however present opportunities to make it more fun. We really need to get more creative with how it is that we fight fascism, and for a few reasons. Obviously it beats the alternative of doing the same-old thing again and again, but it’s also a good way to make friends. I had a lovely older woman from rural Wisconsin say to me “aren’t you the most adorable little newsboy,” and now I have a friend for life.

Fascists aren’t creative. They don’t have friends and they aren’t cool either. They will say “Let’s Go Brandon” for four years because they don’t know how to let a meme die. They will invent generative AI and pretend to like it because they have never created anything. 

We need a diversity of tactics to meet the moment. There are a ton of great articles (and zines!) that may be able to give you ideas that I don’t feel like detailing here, but go read those. (Actually pretend that this was my point the whole time, but go read websites. Cool people make websites and good writing feels as though it has been sidelined as the internet consolidated into 3 large social media platforms.) AND if you want to write some cool things for this website we are accepting submissions so long as they meet our criteria.