Resist ✊🏻✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿

They want us scared and divided. Let's show up united, clear-eyed—and unsurprised

We’ve got to stop being surprised. Surprise, shock, and dismay cost us precious energy and brain power, and we need those for more pressing matters.
After all, none of this is a surprise. Trump, Musk, and the rest of those abysmal men have shown us who they are long before this last election. As Maya Angelou has said: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”

What they’re doing right now is spreading as much chaos, fear, and mistrust as they can. They want us to trust no-one, to waste precious energy on outrage and despair, and to sink into a numb, paralyzing state of defeated obedience.

Let’s not give it to them.

Erin Spahr, a psychotherapist, writes:

Hyper-Individualism has failed us. We weren’t meant to do life alone. But many of us—especially those with the most privilege—have been sold the lie that individual success is the highest goal.

And it’s killing us.

Hyper-individualism isn’t just a mindset—it’s a tool of oppression.

• Capitalism benefits when we believe success=doing it all—and doing it alone.

• White supremacy thrives when solidarity is replaced with competition and exploitation.

• Patriarchy survives when we’re convinced self-sacrificing motherhood is natural.

Hyper-individualism has left us:

• Lonelier than ever

• Financially and emotionally drained

• Overwhelmed and disconnected

• Struggling to show up for our communities

• Vulnerable to fascism

Hyper-individualism conditions us to see our struggles as personal failures.
We’re constantly told to focus on self-care—not because it truly meets our needs—but because it demands nothing from society.
It keeps us from confronting the discomfort of relying on others, which can stir up feelings of failure, helplessness, or insecurity.
It also allows us to avoid the inconvenience of others—so we can stay hyperproductive and numb out on consumerism.

Interdependence isn’t weakness—it’s how humans have always survived. We were never meant to do this alone. Our way out of fascism requires us to work together.

So, what can we do?

1. First: We eat. None of that “skinny is back” bullshit. We can’t resist on an empty stomach—and they know that. Do you think it’s a coincidence that super-skinny is back during this crucial time of a hostile takeover? It’s not. Hungry, weak, and nauseated people can’t fight. Ozempic is expensive and might cause as-of-yet-unknown long-term harm, dieting is miserable, and being small enough to be picked up and carried away is making it way too easy for them. Don’t be such an easy target. Take up space. Be substantial. Be strong. Be inconvenient.

2. We rest. We can’t be fully awake without rest. It’s one of capitalism’s favourite lies that resting=weakness. What do we do if we’re exhausted and over-tired? We numb. We consume. We want to check out. We bicker with each other. We are cranky and dissatisfied. They know that. So, once again, let’s not make it easy for them. Get enough rest. Your mind will be sharper, your eyes clearer, your body stronger.

3. Read. Knowledge is power. What’s happening right now has happened before. History can teach, educate, and warn us.

   Don’t know where to start? Look at their list of banned books, and start there. They’re banned for a reason—the oppressors are scared of them.
   Here are just a few examples: Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl, George Orwell’s 1984, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.

4. Create. Do things that fill up your soul and spirit. Seek joy and pleasure. Spread light and hope. Replace consuming with creating. It is more fufilling in the long term, and it’s an act of defiance. Beauty is more important than ever in dark times. Paint, garden, bake, cook, sing, write, knit, crochet, craft, learn an instrument, do pottery. Your joy is an act of rebellion, too.

5. Invest in community. Shop at independent businesses. Support local charities, fundraisers, and movements. Give to your local food bank. Buy a meal for someone who needs it. Gather in your community: participate in community activities, workshops, exercise classes, meetings. Start a book club. Help each other. We are not meant to do this alone.

6. Don’t blame systemic failures on individuals. Does the drug addicted native man “choose” addiction, or has he been severely abused and traumatized by institutional racism?
   Is the overweight single mother “doing it to herself”, or can’t she invest time and money in fresh, healthy meals because she works two minimum-wage jobs and lives in an area with no access to healthier options?
   Is the immigrant to blame that you can’t afford a house, or is it the greed of billionaires like Jeff Bezos, whose workers are struggling to make ends meet?

   Your gay neighbour isn’t the enemy. The dark-skinned nurses caring for your parents in the care home and your children at the hospital aren’t taking jobs away from you. Your friend’s transgender sister isn’t threatening your livelihood.
   The true enemy is people like Elon Musk, who’s taking away food and medicine from starving children, cutting funding for cancer research, and taking away money from health insurance for low-income Americans and their children, only to get richer every day.

7. Heal. Unlearn the toxic messages we all grew up with. Other women aren’t competition, asking for help isn’t weakness, being exhausted isn’t a badge of honour. Leaning on each other isn’t admitting failure—that’s what thriving looks like. Also, never forget: conforming to beauty standards is meant to keep us distracted and small. Defy them by proudly being who you are—there’s no need to change everything about ourselves. Let’s use that brain power and energy to fight fascism instead.

I want to end this with a thread I found this week on Gina Luker's Instagram that is giving me hope:

Found here

I recommend reading it here, but the short version is this: Gina says that the increased attack on women’s bodies and marginalized voices is a sign that the patriarchy is dying—and it knows it. It’s a last-ditch, desperate effort of a dying system to cling to power. She writes: “Historically, oppressive systems crumble under their own weight. More people are waking up, speaking out, and refusing to comply.”
And: “This isn’t the end. This is the breaking point before real change.”

The world we are building is going to be glorious.