FA+
Shop
How Doing Nothing Can Fight Fascism
9 months ago
We are contemplating a strategy of resistance, of fighting back, of how anyone, *ANYONE*, can push back against this fascist American regime. And I think we've hit upon it.
**Do Nothing**.
How does it work?
Do nothing that supports anyone in power. Be the least productive cog in capitalism. Work as little as possible. Spend as little as possible; cut off any services you truly don't need (and pirate anything you can). Be one more body in the way; do not move aside, do not comply with orders, don't answer questions.
Don't step aside for those that ask you to. Don't understand the assignment or commands. Don't obey the instructions. Oh, for sure, SAY you will when saying yes will get them to stop paying attention to you, but don't actually do the thing they want you to do. Tell fascists you want to help, you just never learned how, could they please explain it, please explain it again, I don't understand, you're just so much better at fascism than me.
Others may want to burn things down. But you can be brave enough to ignore things to death. MAGA feeds on reaction, so just, don't. Fascists require compliance, so just, don't. If you need a script then just choose what character you're going to be to this chaotic system; and an uninformed, incompetent dolt has proven to be an incredibly effective character at ruining the thoughtfully laid plans of evil.
Sure, there is always something you CAN do, and those of us that can step up and take action, will. But ANYONE can do nothing in ways that stop the trolley from ever getting started. The trolly rails aren't maintained. There's no electricty to power the trolly. Nobody made any rope to tie victims down; and you certainly don't know how to tie a knot, please mr. fascist could you show me how?
USEFUL READING:
The Simple Sabotage Field Manual (1944) https://www.gutenberg.org/files/261.....-h/26184-h.htm
**Do Nothing**.
How does it work?
Do nothing that supports anyone in power. Be the least productive cog in capitalism. Work as little as possible. Spend as little as possible; cut off any services you truly don't need (and pirate anything you can). Be one more body in the way; do not move aside, do not comply with orders, don't answer questions.
Don't step aside for those that ask you to. Don't understand the assignment or commands. Don't obey the instructions. Oh, for sure, SAY you will when saying yes will get them to stop paying attention to you, but don't actually do the thing they want you to do. Tell fascists you want to help, you just never learned how, could they please explain it, please explain it again, I don't understand, you're just so much better at fascism than me.
Others may want to burn things down. But you can be brave enough to ignore things to death. MAGA feeds on reaction, so just, don't. Fascists require compliance, so just, don't. If you need a script then just choose what character you're going to be to this chaotic system; and an uninformed, incompetent dolt has proven to be an incredibly effective character at ruining the thoughtfully laid plans of evil.
Sure, there is always something you CAN do, and those of us that can step up and take action, will. But ANYONE can do nothing in ways that stop the trolley from ever getting started. The trolly rails aren't maintained. There's no electricty to power the trolly. Nobody made any rope to tie victims down; and you certainly don't know how to tie a knot, please mr. fascist could you show me how?
USEFUL READING:
The Simple Sabotage Field Manual (1944) https://www.gutenberg.org/files/261.....-h/26184-h.htm
Maybe...I hope..
But I do this a lot anyway. So I'm used to doing this.
Good post to help for others though.
We do not need ONLY good people right now. Good people who can do something, can and must and should and many of us will. But we must recognize that there are far, far, far more people who are being constantly shouted at to 'do something' for every issue big and small, and end up doing nothing at all.
So this is taking a different approach. Don't worry about doing good or others doing good. That's a different conversation. This is about how anyone, literally anyone good or bad or exhausted or elsewise, can make a choice to be a do-nothing incompetent dolt that grinds the gears of the capitalistic death machine to a fucking halt.
I can definitely say that it's effective even just in the people I've seen do it accidentally in the corporate world. Environments like that encourage it.
Another way to think about doing nothing is that, unlike a child, we're not alone. There's literally billions of us. The fascists and their capitalism engine are not our parents, and depend on each person making things miserable for themselves in order to inflict more misery on others. By adopting a 'do-nothing' philosophy, the misery stops at you. It doesn't get past you because you're not feeding energy into the misery pipeline. You're not even reporting that the pipe is rusty and has a leak.
The fundamental issue that this strategy addresses, is that we do not need to quibble or even engage with the idea of what is the best thing to do to achieve the most good or stop the most evil. That's an entirely different topic and the standards for that don't apply here. This is about what anyone, ANYONE, ANYONE can do. Doing nothing in the most unconstructive way.