1/6
A PRIMER: Bringing activism to state and local politics. (7/2/22)
★ IT CAN HAPPEN HERE: Fascism has not taken control. We still have a two-party system. But scholar Anthony DiMaggio raises alarms: “This extremism has been building for decades with rightwing media pundits’ embrace of increasingly conspiratorial, authoritarian, racist and xenophobic messages.” (6/7/22)
FROM GOON TO GOVERNOR? What is Pennsylvania elects a 1/6 insurrectionist who has promised to control the outcome of the next presidential election? “As governor, I get to appoint the secretary of state.” (5/21/22)
SAINT DONALD: How the abusive, philandering playboy became untouchable in the eyes of the Christian Right. (5/5/22)
JANUARY 6 WAS PRACTICE: “We face a serious risk that American democracy as we know it will come to an end in 2024, but urgent action is not happening.” (Jan/Feb 2022)
★ THE NEXT COUP: Conservative judge warns that the next coup attempt will be more coordinated, from top to bottom. Actually, it’s under way now. (4/27/22) Also: Tactics of mind control.
GET YOUR POPCORN: Democrats plan to make an issue of the GOP’s recent resolution equating the January 6 insurrection with “legitimate” protest and discourse. (2/9/22)
THE COUP CONTINUES: As the January 6 commission interviews hundreds of participants in the insurrection, signs of a followup coup are abundant. (12/15/21)
American democracy
THE BIRCHER LEGACY: Tracking the history of right-wing authoritarianism. (7/13/22)
MICHAEL LUTTIG TALKS: The longterm judge warns against an existential threat to democracy.
O AMERICA: A grim assessment of America’s failing democracy from our neighbors to the north. (12/30/21)
BEYOND HOPE? Is the American system beyond reform? (1/20/22)
IS AMERICAN TOTALITARIAN? Yes, say a growing number of conservatives. (5/23/22)
Assembly threats
★ GASSING: The 100 cities where police gassed protesters. (6/18/20)
THE TRUMP BIBLE-WAVING PHOTO OPP: The ACLU and DOJ reach an agreement on policy changes to prevent a future such abuse. (4/13/22)
Authoritarian armies
TRUMP KNOWS IT: So should you. The anti-vax activists are taking over the GOP … and leaving the MAGA king behind. (1/26/22)
UNDERCOVER AGAINST ACTIVISM: Beware the moles who seek to undermine activism from within. (1/18/22)
EXTREMISM AND VIOLENCE, NORMALIZED: Participants in the 1/6 violence were not limited to fringe crazies. They represented the new mainstream of Republican politics, which arose in California in the 1990s. (1/4/22)
LIABILITY: Who is responsible when protesters are targeted by extremists? Only the extremists–or the entity that makes their deeds possible? (1/8/22)
Authoritarian ideology and motivation
IS THE POPULIST WAVE RECEDING? A new study suggests so. One reason, says one author, is COVID. “A sense of shared purpose may have reduced the political polarization we’ve seen over the last decade.” (1/17/22)
FASCIST INSPIRATION: The trappings of Nazis and other fascists fire the imagination of the extreme right in the U.S. and beyond. (2/1/22)
IMPOTENCE AND INSURRECTION: Supporters of authoritarianism–from jihadists to Trumpers–show “underlying social and emotional difficulties,” Harvard’s Jessica Stern said after years of interviews. That suggests a two-track strategy: enforcing laws and norms plus rescuing victims of cult-like movements. (1/4/22)
Blacklisting and Intimidation
A RETURN TO BLACKLISTING? Are public universities facing pressure to get rid of lefty activist types? (2/22/22)
CASSANDRA’S LOT: Bandy Lee, a renowned scholar who has sounded the alarm about authoritarianism and “shared psychosis,” has been fired for denouncing Trump apologist Alan Dershowitz. Stilling independent voices is the ultimate repression against activism, so beware. (12/30/21)
IGNORANCE TODAY, IGNORANCE TOMORROW, IGNORANCE FOREVER: The danger of banning the teaching of history in schools. (2/3/22)
END OF THE END: When Francis Fukuyama declared “the end of history” as the Soviet empire crumbled, he lost the undercurrents of decay underneath the victorious West. Oops. (1/9/22)
Convoy
THE KITCHEN SINK PROTESTS: Participants in the trucker convoy say they’re mad as hell about vaccine mandates and masks and freedom. But it’s really an all-around grievance festival. (3/19/22)
Culture wars
WEDGE TIME: A Heritage reports suggests amping up the culture wars to make the case for school choice. (2/9/22)
Culture and symbolism
DECODING THE HATE SYMBOLS OF JANUARY 6: The use of historical imagery during the attempted coup offers a shoutout to white supremacists and a way to screen out the others. (1/12/21)
Cyberwars
ELVES AGAINST AUTHORITARIANISM: To fight Putin’s global campaign of disinformation, a movement of anonymous cyber warriors has mobilized across Europe. Does this group—independent but respectful of law—offer a model for fake news in America? (1/28/22)
Democratic action
WHICH FIGHT? Veteran activist George Lakey explores whether social movements should focus on the existential threat of Trumpism or supporting ongoing battles on civil rights, immigration, women’s rights, labor, etc. (1/8/22)
DEFEATING AUTHORITARIANISM: To win requires, first, mass mobilization: embracing tensions across sectors and civic organizations. Divided democratic forces don’t have a chance. (1/27/22) It also requires a narrative that brings people together and motivates them to act.(1/28/22)
BEATING THE NRA: How do activists defeat the gun lobby? Organize, organize, organize. Inspired by the 1980s group Mothers Against Drunk Driving, a women-led movement now has more followers than the NRA. (2/22)
THE CHALLENGE TO ACTIVISTS: The Trumpers failed in their coup attempt of a year ago. But they are trying again, aided and abetted by GOP officials across the country. Who’s going to save the U.S. The Democrats? The courts? The media? Actually, Coup 2.0 requires total mobilization by democratic activists. (1/1/22)
Eco-Fascism
★ ECO-FASCISM AND AUTHORITARIANISM: The mass murder in Buffalo was not just racist. “Eco Fascism is the strategic use of environmental arguments to advance a far right, political objective. This concept was prevalent in certain Nazi circles, this linkage between this kind of idealized racial and national purity and purity of nature.” (5/20/22)
Electoral threats and subversion
IT COULD HAPPEN HERE: Experts warn about violence and chaos in the 2024 presidential election. What is the role of activists and other small-d democrats? (1/13/22) Also see this.
Free speech threats
THIS IS WHAT AUTHORITARIANISM LOOKS LIKE: An activist gets life in jail for speaking out at a protest. (5/2/22)
TIME FOR ANOTHER FREE SPEECH MOVEMENT: Chinese students at American college campuses have been intimidated and harassed by other students and by agents of the People’s Republic of China. (12/20/21)
Global issues
★ PLAYFUL INDIGNATION: Beneath the trucker convoy and other right-wing rallying, there’s an undercurrent of play.
Grifting
MOVEMENT OR GRIFT? When is activism not activism, but and ongoing vehicle for picking pockets? (1/12/22) Related: Millions sympathize with 1/6 insurrectionists.
Institutional corruption
‘BEST FRIENDS’: A call for Supreme Court Justice Thomas to recuse himself in any case involving his wife’s cause. (4/1/22)
THE ACTIVIST IN ROBES … and his helpmeet. How Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas worked to undermine a century of American jurisprudence and his wife helped to organize right-wing activism. (2/22/22)
Intimidation and trolling
GUNS AND AMMO: Forget the Second Amendment. The right’s fascination with guns is all about intimidation. (1/13/22)
THE COST OF PROTEST: The disabled activist Dustin Brandon recalls the threats and attacks since being trolled by a right-wing provocateur. (1/5/22)
Media and propaganda
THE HATE MACHINE IS BUSY: The talk of “grooming” children is an old and ugly trope of homophobes. Remember Anita Bryant? (11/12/22)
TOXIC BREW: White supremacy + social media = stochastic terrorism … or worse. (2/25/22)
FACEBOOK-DRIVEN FASCISM? Is the social media giant responsible for massacres in Ethiopia? (2/20/22)
HOW PROPAGANDA WORKS: An analysis of the lie-mongering and incitement of Tucker Carlson by Jennifer Mercieca, a leading expert on propaganda. (6/23/21)
Religion
THE ALLIANCE: What happens when religious absolutism meets racial absolutism? The long arc of Christian racism in America. (2/24/22)
FUNDY BACKLASH: Are American getting fed up with fundamentalist extremists? Is a backlash taking place? (1/25/22)
CHRISTIAN NATIONALISTS AND THE SEIGE: At the center of the January 6 coup attempt were armies of Christian nationalists. A report on the once-fringe movement. (1/6/22)
TUTU’S WARNING: As America faces threats to its democracy, Desmond Tutu’s death offers a warning: “People will use their religion to justify virtually anything.” (1/11/22)
CAN EVANGELISM BE SAVED? Reformers trying to save the Christian movement from within. (2/4/22)
Societal strife
LEGAL EAGLES FIGHT STOCHASTIC TERRORISM: The testimony before the J6C, featuring Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman, offers insight into the lawyers who fight violence and disinformation. (6/22/22) Also: Andy Kroll’s book about this movement.
THE SECOND CIVIL WAR: Is a civil war is coming? Note bene: It would not look like the first, with pitched battles on hills. It would look more like the Troubles: terror attacks, tribalism in everyday life, protection rackets, good people fleeing, both-sidesism, and helplessness. (1/30/22)
Secession
PAY CLOSE ATTENTION: The movement to carve out a militant right-wing new state from Iowa and Oregon won’t succeed. But it’s a canary in the coal mine. (5/29/22)
Violence and threats
BLAMING THE VICTIMS: When a right-wing gunman opened fire on women helping to direct traffic at a protest, the authorities played the tired old “both sides” game. (2/23/22)
THE CONVOY GOES TO WASHINGTON: They vow to follow the law and stay nonviolent. Unless… (2/23/22)
White Nationalism/Civil Rights Backlash
BECAUSE, OF COURSE … White supremacists protest Juneteenth celebrations in Tennessee. (6/19/22)
★ ORIGINAL SIN: Anger over racial integration—more than concern for the “life of the unborn”—motivated early evangelical action on “moral” causes. (5/5/22) Also: Southern evangelicals supported the right to choice until right-wing activists found that it worked as a wedge issue in the 1978 Iowa Senate race.
Et cetera
STATE OF EMERGENCY: Mayor declares anti-vax demonstration “the most serious emergency our city has ever faced.” Police call it an “insurrection.” Meanwhile, experts worry about millions of dollars in dark money for the protests. (2/6/22)
IT COULD HAPPEN HERE: Authorities get ready for an Ottawa-style truck convoy in the U.S. (2/22/22) Also: The convoy as a budding movement. And: Losses all around
AN INSIDE LOOK: How supporters of COVID public health measures are planning a counter-protest against the anti-vax truckers in Canada. (2/2/22)
FACING THE MUSIC: Antifa members face charges for attacks on pro-Trump forces in San Diego.(12/9/21)
DON’T LOOK UP: The horror/comedy for our times … besides Succession, we ‘spose. (11/30/21)
DIVESTMENT RISING: Not since the anti-apartheid struggle has divestment been used more effectively as an activist tool. So far, endowments, portfolios and pension funds have divested $40 trillion from coal, gas, and oil stocks. (10/26/21)