Recently, Janus Rose’s You Can’t Post Your Way Out of Fascism crossed my radar on a hundred channels. It’s a smart piece that says smart things. But I ended up mostly disagreeing. I’m not saying you can post your way out of Fascism, but I do think it’s gonna be hard to build the opposition without a lot of posting. The what and especially the where matter. But the “posting is useless” stance is dangerously reductive.
Before I get into my gripes with Ms Rose’s piece, let me highlight the good part: Use your browser’s search-in-page to scroll forward to “defend migrants”. Here begins a really smart and inspirational narrative of things people are doing to deflect and defeat the enemy.
But it ends with the observation that all the useful progressive action “arose from existing networks of neighbors and community organizers”. Here’s where I part ways. Sure, local action is the most accessible and in most cases the only action, but right now Fascism is a global problem and these fighters here need to network with those there, for values of “here” and “there” that are not local.
Which is gonna involve a certain amount of posting: Analyses, critiques, calls to action, date-setting, message-sharpening; it’s just not sensible to rely on networks of neighbors to accomplish this.
What to post about? · Message sharpening feels like the top of the list. Last month I posted In The Minority, making the (obvious I think) point that current progressive messaging isn’t working very well; we keep losing elections! What needs to be changed? I don’t know and I don’t believe anybody who says they do.
It’s not as simple as “be more progressive” or conversely “be more centrist”. I personally think the way to arrive at the right messaging strategies and wording is going to involve a lot of trial balloons and yes, local efforts. Since I unironically think that progressive policies will produce results that a majority of people will like, I also believe that there absolutely must be a way of explaining why and how that will move the needle and lead to victories.
Where to post it? · Short answer: Everywhere, almost.
Granted that TV, whatever that means these days, is useless. Anyone doing mass broadcasting is terrified of controversy and can’t afford to be seen as a progressive nexus.
And Ms Rose is 100% right that Tiktok, Xitter, Facebook, Insta, or really any other centralized profit-driven corporate “social network” products are just not useful for progressives. These are all ad-supported, and (at this historical moment) under heavy pressure from governments controlled by our enemies, and in some cases, themselves owned and operated by Fascists.
That leaves decentralized social media (the Fediverse and (for the moment) Bluesky), Net-native operations like 404/Vice/Axios/Verge (even though most of them are struggling), and mainstream “quality publications”: The Atlantic, the Guardian, and your local progressive press (nearest to me here in Canada, The Tyee).
Don’t forget blogs. They can still move the needle.
And, I guess, as Ms Rose says, highly focused local conversations on Discord, WhatsApp, and Signal. (Are there other tech options for this kind of thing?)
Are you angry? · I am. And here I part paths with Ms Rose, who is vehement that we should see online anger as an anti-pattern. Me, I’m kinda with Joe Strummer, anger can be power. Rose writes “researchers have found that the viral outrage disseminated on social media in response to these ridiculous claims actually reduces the effectiveness of collective action”. I followed that link and found the evidence unconvincing.
Also, if there’s one thing I believe it’s that in the social-media context, being yourself, exposing the person behind the words, is central to getting anywhere. And if the enemy’s actions are filling me with anger, it would be disingenuous and ineffective to edit that out of my public conversation.
Posting is a progressive tool · Not gonna say more about principles or theory, just offer samples.
50501 has done it all with hashtags and micro-posts. Let’s see how it works.
Here’s Semafor arguing that the Democrats’ litigation-centric resistance is working pretty well.
Heidi Li Feldman, in Fear and loathing plus what blue states should be doing now argues on her blog for resistance at the state-government level, disengaging from and pushing back against toxic Musk/Trump projects
Here’s Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo calling for pure oppositionism. and then arguing that Democrats should go to the mattresses on keeping the government open and raising the debt limit.
Here’s the let’s-both-sides-Fascism New York Times absolutely savaging the GOP campaign to keep Mayor Adams in place as a MAGA puppet.
Here’s yours truly posting about who progressives should talk to.
Here’s Mark Cuban on Bluesky saying hardass political podcasts are the only way to reach young men.
Here’s Elizabeth Kolbert in The New Yorker making very specific suggestions as to the tone and content of progressive messaging.
Here’s Cory Doctorow on many channels as usual, on how Canada should push back against the Trump tariffs.
There’s lots more strong stuff out there. Who’s right?
I don’t know. Not convinced anyone does.
Let’s keep posting about it till we get it right.
