Let's Talk About Resisting Tyranny
And, of course, the Overton Window. Go ahead, take a shot
Small acts of resistance are just as important as big movements that catch national attention.
Small acts are easier for everyone to take part in, they don’t necessarily require grand sacrifices and don’t usually cut in to the time you have to spend on securing basic needs for your own survival.
Take Canada’s boycott of American goods and tourism, for example. Our boycott has substantially impacted the U.S. economy in many states, to the point where several state governors have visited our country to essentially beg us to come back.
We said a polite ‘fuck off’ and sent them packing. Several industries and many small businesses in the U.S. are collapsing due to the lack of Canadian dollars rolling in, and we aren’t giving an inch.
Choosing not to travel to the U.S. or simply not purchasing American goods whenever possible has had a profound impact. That’s not a huge ask, it’s a small choice and a tiny act when you consider everything going on.
But when millions of people take part, it’s forceful. It makes waves. It makes headlines.
Grand acts of resistance are the ones that people think of. They think of mass protests and hunger strikes like what’s happening at Delaney Hall. They think of the Maidan Protests in 2013 in Ukraine.
They think of the Selma to Montgomery marches.
All of that is critical, absolutely. Revolution comes when people are fed up enough to fight for it. But the groundwork is laid by the millions of everyday folks who step up and say ‘no’ in whatever way they can.
Encrypting your data so the tech oligarchs have a harder time capturing it. Cancelling subscriptions to the services and media they own. Building community networks for mutual aid, like we’ve discussed before. Finding ways to spread the word and encourage others to take part.
One big act might be helpful, but it can also take you out of the fight. It can get you hurt and arrested, even killed in the case of Alex Pretti — and he’s rightly regarded as a hero, but he is no longer fighting.
The big acts need to happen, even when violence is the consequence, but so do the small ones. Sustainable resistance takes place over years, it builds and swells and becomes part of your every day choices. Everyone can do it, and everyone should.
There are a lot more of us everyday folks than there are of the guys in charge. They only keep their power because we passively let them.
But we don’t have to do that.
"The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." — Frederick Douglass
Your patience for tyranny can end. They want you tired and apathetic and desperate so you don’t bother trying to fight back. They want you stressing about where your next meal comes from so you don’t stop to think about the banquets they’re hosting in their ivory towers.
That fatigue will go away if they no longer have their boot on your neck.
Just something to think about.
Solidarity wins.