Let’s be less nice while we fight against fascism

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Last week, I wrote about how those of us on the side of equity and justice need to be nicer to one another. Everyone has been on edge, and it’s easy to lash out at the people closest to us, which keeps us from working together effectively.

This week, I want to talk about our need to be significantly more aggressive and assertive. A few days ago, I read a story about a girl at a religious school who was constantly harassed by this boy, who found it amusing to lift her skirt among other asshole things. She and her father tried diplomatic solutions, including organizing a meeting with the principal. Nothing worked; the principal had a “boys will be boys” attitude along with the religious belief in prayer and forgiveness.

So the father taught the girl how to fight, said if the boy ever harassed her again, she could do whatever it took to send the message, and he promised he would have her back. The next time that asshole boy lifted her skirt, she jumped on him and gave him a beating he never forgot. He cried and was so scared of her, he never bothered her or other girls again.

It was such a nice story, I’m getting teary-eyed just thinking about it.

We’ve reached a point now as a society where we’ve tried everything—asking nicely, “meeting in the middle,” seeing “both sides,” giving the benefit of the doubt, etc.—with the bullies of the world. It has not worked. If anything, they see it as a sign of weakness, which encourages them to be even more awful. It’s now time to fight back and give bullies and fascists the proverbial beatings they deserve.  

Here's an example of what that looks like. This June, Republicans in Texas decided to do some gerrymandering to give themselves more Republican representatives. Democratic lawmakers fled the state to avoid the vote, with several arrested. In response, California’s governor Gavin Newsom threated to do his own redistricting to allow Democrats in California to have more representatives in Congress, to balance out Texas’s gerrymandering. California’s Proposition 50, brilliantly called the Election Rigging Response Act, is on the ballot for this November, and I hope it passes.

Newsom, who is not my favorite politician due to his horrible stance on homelessness and a host of other issues, has also been openly mocking Trump on social media, imitating his crass and infantile communications style, including rebranding MAGA as “Make America Gavin Again.” When asked by a sycophant of the Orange One why he also doesn’t copy Trump’s policies, Newsom’s team responded with four words: “Because they are trash.”

I hope more politicians take up similar strategies, because regular diplomacy does not work, because you can’t be diplomatic with people who have lost their moral compass and who are determined to win by lying, cheating, manipulating, prosecuting political opponents, and refusing to concede power when they’ve been voted out. The denial of this reality by Democrats over the past several decades has helped usher in this period of fascism. I remember when Republicans prevented Obama from nominating Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court…and Democrats just kind of let it happen without raising much of a fuss at all.

But this is not a political blog. This is a blog about nonprofit and philanthropy, with pictures of baby animals and occasional references to Kenny Loggins. However, we too have been in denial about how politics has affected our work. Right now, we’re being targeted by the bully that is the US federal government, and asking nicely and being on the defensive is not going to cut it anymore. We’re way past strongly worded letters. Funders and nonprofit leaders need to start learning how to fight and start punching back. This looks like:

Acknowledging whom we’re fighting against. I was at a retreat with some brilliant movement leaders and donors. Everyone was asked to write a fairy tale that illustrates what we’re dealing with. People named “wealth disparity” and “injustice” and “inequity” or other abstract concepts as the villain. But these things are caused and accelerated by the right-wing movement, a movement that has fully embraced fascism, fueled by white moderates. That’s what we’re working against. Every single issue of injustice we’re working to address can be significantly resolved by curbing the power of this movement.

Getting political. I don’t know how long many of us has screamed about the need for our sector to be engaged politically. As I’ve said before, we cannot keep trying to put out the fires and treat burns while continuing to refuse to stop those who keep setting the fires. Every funder needs to fund political work, including 501c4 organizations and movements that are working to get progressive candidates elected at every level of government. Fund things like anti-gerrymandering efforts such as California’s Prop 50.

Engaging in legal offense. The fascists have been suing everyone about everything, including independent media, and in the process have suppressed free speech. Sometimes, we must fight fire with fire. I hope Tylenol sues the hell out of this authoritarian regime. I hope families of everyone detained by ICE sue the administration. We need to do the same. Foundations and nonprofits need to file lawsuit after lawsuit, targeting bullies and fascists, such as when the families of Sandy Hook sued. Funders must put more money into it. Even if we don’t win every lawsuit, the fact that we’re fighting back will send a strong message.

Exposing bullies and those who fund them: Corporations, foundations, and donors continue funding right-wing work, including some awful stuff like anti-trans legislation, voting suppression, gerrymandering, etc. Progressive funders and nonprofits need to research where all that money is going and publicly call out those who are bankrolling fascism. Create a “Wall of Shame” naming every company, foundation, and donor that supports hate and authoritarianism. We have organizations doing this type of work, like UnKoch My Campus; fund them!

Coordinating narrative work: Fascists are winning the narrative game because they are shameless in their lies, spouting them repeatedly on all channels until people believe them. We don’t even need to make up lies. We just need to amplify the truth harder. Progressive messages should be everywhere: social media, billboards, radio, newspapers. And use different types of messaging, including shaming and mocking fascists. Let’s stop worrying about sounding “partisan” and start worrying about stopping fascism.

Practicing economic resistance: As we can see with Jimmy Kimmel, boycotts work. Nonprofits and funders need to ramp up our support of unions, join strikes, and refuse to do business with people and entities that are fascist-aligned. We should also name them explicitly and encourage others to shame and drop them. All of us as individuals, to the best extent possible considering the systems we exist in, should engage as well.

Civil disruptions: We need to protest every single space fascists occupy: Their office, every public appearance, when they go out to restaurants, movie theaters, everywhere. They don't deserve peace while they kill, torture, and disappear people. And again, funders need to fund these disruptive tactics.

There are other things we can do. Please add them in the comment section. The point is, we’ve tried being nice and cordial and courteous and diplomatic. If anything, our white moderate tendency to gravitate toward civility has strengthened and enabled fascists. We’ve been like the principal of that school, ignoring the problems and hoping that prayers and forgiveness would somehow make the bully have a change of heart. It hasn’t worked. Time to for more assertive tactics. As Kenny Loggins would say, "This is It" we're in the "Danger Zone!" due to fascism. But unlike his song "Don't Fight It," we really do need to fight it.

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