Here’s a virtual toast to your flourishing in 2025. But more so than any other year, our wishes should not just be from person to person, but rather wishes for societies – and the society of societies, global humanity. I haven’t felt so gloomy about politics, broadly defined, in a very long time. A genocide is happening while all of us can see it, and mainstream politics and society tries every trick possible to rationalize and justify what is happening. Our politicians are failing to get us off the path to the deadly collapse of Earth’s ecosystems. The rise of autocracy and fascist policies has now reached such levels that we may start to wonder why so many in the generations of our parents and grandparents risked, and often sacrificed, their lives to free us from fascism – only to give us the freedom to vote the authoritarians and the fascists back into power.
(I deleted all the swear words I included when I wrote the first draft of this post. But I confess, these days I swear a lot when I think and write about politics).
So what to do? There are at least three options: Fight, flee, or freeze. The last one would amount to just let it happen, and hope for the best – that technologies will save us, that democracies are resilient, that we are exaggerating the dangers. Well, I am not sure… is this position supported by the facts? I doubt it, and the risks of being too optimistic or naïve are too large, in my view.
The second, flee, would be to acknowledge the dangers but stop being politically engaged, or not take up the opportunity to become politically engaged, because one doesn’t want to be involved – too risky, too burdensome, too much of a hassle. One can flee into the the world of shopping-malls and consumerism, or the world of yoga and meditation retreats, or just go off-grid and live a simple life in Walden. Or become obsessed with money and one’s own social status. Fleeing certainly has its attractive features – to avoid having to be stressed and risk activists’ exhaustion, and just simply to have an easier life. But except if one does not care that something similar to Apartheid or genocides could reoccur, or that Russian-type “democracy” might spread over the world, it is a position whereby one freerides on the efforts of others to engage in the resistance to evil.
The conclusion must therefore be that we should collectively redouble our efforts in fighting and resisting evil, but in a way that we also take proper care of ourselves. Hence, we must make our resistance more effective, so that it does not deplete our energies before we’ve reached our goals: strengthen democracies, avoid collapse of key planetary ecosystems, stop genocides and wars, and assure at least some minimal levels of social justice. It also certainly implies that as many people as possible should join the resistance, since this is not work that can be done by small numbers. I do not know of magical tricks on how to get us this kind of effective resistance, but perhaps these things help: talking about our resistance-activities with others, and inviting them to join; spreading lots of love and laughter among our comrades in the resistance; acknowledging and thanking those who are leading and contributing to the resistance; being aware that the strength of our strategies in resistance is key and hence that we need to learn about strategic resistance and upgrading our strategic skills (rather than just assuming that good intentions are enough); and engaging in proper self-care – doing exercise, going outdoors (nature!), meeting people just for fun, sharing meals, and doing whatever we need to nurture ourselves and others – whether that is going to a weekly yoga or salsa class, or to a house of prayer. What else to add?
{ 29 comments }
Doug 01.01.25 at 8:59 pm
Isn’t the first step developing a sufficiently robust analysis of how the fascism re-arose, in preparation for dismantling it?
hix 01.01.25 at 9:48 pm
Here is a great analysis (not really):
Russell Arben Fox 01.01.25 at 10:17 pm
go off-grid and live a simple life in Walden
Don’t be too quick to write off that strategy. Throughout history communalist retreats, from Koinonia Farm on, have played an essential role in enabling resistance to endure, regroup, and sometimes even succeed.
engels 01.01.25 at 11:07 pm
One can flee into the the world of shopping-malls
If there are any left.
John Q 01.02.25 at 3:34 am
A lot of resistance takes the form of denying the fascists the respect they crave. In particular, keeping pushing on #MeToo and similar efforts to remind them that political power can’t preserve or resurrect the patriarchal society they dream of. Similarly with explicit anti-racism.
As I said in my last post, this will only make the core group of angry white men even worse, but it will help to peel away those who still imagine that we are in a traditional electoral democracy, where it makes sense to vote for someone who promises to lower the price of eggs.
Bob 01.02.25 at 8:26 am
I’ve been reading Mark Fisher’s Capitalist Realism and this remark at the end struck me as something to think about:
What busywork can we collectively start refusing in order to put that efforts towards activism?
Ingrid Robeyns 01.02.25 at 10:12 am
Just read this piece by George Lakoff and Gil Duran which only focusses on US-autocracy, but is excellent advice and can also be applied to the other evils, I think.
https://www.theframelab.org/how-to-thrive-in-2025-framelabs-new-years-resolutions-2/
Phil 01.02.25 at 10:27 am
What else to add? Perhaps this is just me, but before we go forward in “love and laughter” (which does sound like an excellent idea), I’d be particularly happy to see some acknowledgment that divisions within the resistance have been weaponised, and in some cases engineered, by people opposed to the resistance; that opposition to the resistance has sometimes come wrapped in the flags of liberal principle; and that the impact of some forces which could have made serious contributions to the resistance has been fragmented and dissipated by elite-endorsed attacks purporting to come from the liberal centre or even from the Left. Put it another way, I’d love to think that we were all friends – and if we’re going to ‘fight’ effectively, we’ll need to be all friends – but we haven’t exactly been all friends up to now, have we?
nastywoman 01.02.25 at 2:18 pm
‘What else to add?’
Winning that game of
WOR(L)D DOMINATION
against Elons ‘sink’!
RobinM 01.02.25 at 6:13 pm
“go off grid”–didn’t Karl Marx go to a library?
Jonathan 01.03.25 at 12:16 pm
@Phil, thank you for saying so.
As for me, I’m old and tired of fighting for people who don’t care about me. I have all the demographic privileges except money, so one side hates me but wouldn’t harm me much while the other side flatters me so they can harm me. I will just try to avoid the very worst for myself and the people I love. But if the pain arrives, at least I know we will have earned and deserved it.
mw 01.03.25 at 1:00 pm
The populists have won because they’ve convinced majorities of voters that they’re the best option. I see no good reason yet to believe that they cannot be gotten out of office the same way they came in–by simply voting them out. In the US, at least, there has been no ‘enabling legislation’ nor is there anything like that in the works. I don’t yet see any reason to think that the standard approach of taking back a majority in at least one house at the mid-terms (a very probable occurrence) to create divided government is not as feasible as it has always been. Democrats have tried the approach of claiming Trump is the new Hitler and that a Reichstag fire is coming any day now, and this approach is clearly no longer effective (if it ever was). There’s no need to either give up or ‘go to the mattresses’. Scrutinize Trump and Republicans actions, criticize robustly, and convince fellow citizens to see things your way. And given that national margins in US elections are always but a few percentage points, there’s never all that much convincing to do. In fact, merely living with the results of a couple of years of Republican governing itself may be enough to convince voters to make a change without Democrats having to do much of anything but wait for Republicans to fall on their faces and make themselves sufficiently unpopular.
John Q @5 “A lot of resistance takes the form of denying the fascists the respect they crave.”
It seems like that approach has been played out. The old ‘objective, non-partisan’ stance of universities and news organizations has been MIA for long enough now that Republicans have learned to function without it. These institutions have lost all respect for them and they for those institutions. They’re happy to see both major news organizations and universities in decline and financial trouble (seeing them accurately as political opponents). And they rejoice that the presidential endorsement of the NY Times does not move the needle, but that Joe Rogan’s endorsement does matter. We’ve seen that the left selectively endowing respect on certain Republicans (the Dick and Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney, etc) didn’t have the desired effect, while Trump embracing certain ex-Democrats (RFK Jr, Tulsi Gabbard) seemed more productive for him. Why was that?
Anyway, I doubt that the left really need any prompting to continue to treat Trump and his allies with the utmost contempt, but is that really going to matter?
JimV 01.03.25 at 3:23 pm
I g0t up early to vote every year since 1972, I donated money (a record amount this last year), and I told the people I know what I thought about Nixon and Reagan and Bush and Trump and Musk. Yes, I could have done a lot more, in theory, but I think I lack the Goodness Quotient. At times, I have worried that since the average IQ is just 100 (by definition, I know, but it seems low to me) the human race is just not smart enough for democracy. But I have known a few, very good people in that range. Goodness that just shines through them. So now I think our average Goodness Quotient is the more important problem.
nastywoman 01.03.25 at 4:20 pm
‘So what to do? There are at least three options: Fight, flee, or freeze’
OR –
PLAY THE GAME –
as we (a lot of multinational and/or multiracial surfers) did after ‘trump’ was erected the FIRST time – as we had completely underestimated our fellow Americans and even some of us had voted for the Clown just ‘for the Lulz’ – BUT that just wasn’t funny anymore when he showed up the second time and so we played all of the trumpplayers (mainly on Twitter as even ‘trump’ himself had understood that without Twitter he wouldn’t have made it) – and VOILA! – he lost – BUT then Elon took over and we told the US Dems over and over again – that if they weren’t able to turn the over 78 percent of trumpdomination on X around the Golfer would win – and so it happened – and as Elon started to play Brazil – the UK – Argentina – Italy and even Germany too – and especially Germany – with all this admiration for the rebirth of NSDAP Politics and the horrific HATE for everybody and everysink not national -(or ‘WHITE’) is now also ‘at play’ Musk MUST be stopped -(and if it is – absurdly – by Indian Indians) and so we – together with some Indian (and even other Expats) will play Elon – with a lot of LOVE and JOY on X until WE dominate X and thusly dominate THE WORLD.
Capisce?!
Aardvark Cheeselog 01.03.25 at 6:50 pm
Russell Arben Fox @3:
Fixed that for you
Add mine to the chorus of voices hoping that the Left and Liberals/Progressives can put aside backbiting and infighting and bickering and arguing about who killed who.
With respect to Bob @6’s cite of Fisher, that approach really needs solidarity among the work-witholders if it’s not going to just be grounds for disciplinary action by management.
engels 01.03.25 at 7:09 pm
Whatever its good or bad consequences (and I guess it’s still too early to be certain of those) it’s really hard to see #metoo as having had much to do with anti-fascism (in part because it seemed to contain a sort of Schmittian attack on liberal due process as applied to sex crimes, at least when alleged against rich, white, popular American women, in favour of majoritarian decree). It certainly didn’t stop Trump returning.
Bob 01.04.25 at 9:29 am
@15 Aardvark: true. But that goes for strikes as well. The solidarity building (at least in the Netherlands against cuts to education and research) has been in the traditional mold of gaging willingness to strike and protest. It’s been strange to suddenly find myself on the same field as the university leadership that was/is very much our opposition in the fight for a more just and democratic (less autocratic and repressive) university. Which is why Fisher’s remark made me think about different (more effective?) forms of collective resistance we could be organizing for.
nastywoman 01.04.25 at 10:22 am
and two ‘sinks’
in 2015 Communication Students in Konstanz Germany wrote a script about collective suicide of Americans blowing themselves up with tons of fireworks in their Monster Trucks and just a few days ago a US soldier who was on home leave from his post in Germany did just that in front of the Hotel of his FÜHRER ‘trump’.
And in 2020 the same Communication Students followed an (American) Indian artist who traveled together with ‘Queen Anne’ (a 17th-century cabinet) through America in order to have her erected US President. And the Queen thankfully got beaten by Biden – as she made people understand that if a 17th century piece of furniture could beat ‘trump’ they better vote for somebody who can beat a 17th century piece of furniture.
AND if that isn’t absurd enough – just ‘sink’ Elon – during ‘Narrensaison’ (Carnival) telling the German chancellor that he is: ‘Ein Narr’ – and conspiring together with the German AfD to have them taking over Germany and have some Blond who lives in Switzerland with a Brown immigrant take over Europe. (in a Tesla Truck?)
wacko 01.04.25 at 11:58 am
“…the chorus of voices hoping that the Left and Liberals/Progressives can put aside backbiting and infighting and bickering…”
From afar, admittedly, this sounds to me like another losing strategy (‘new politics of joy’, really?). First demarcate, and only then unite, said Lenin. Or you will be defined and judged by the most obnoxious, the craziest among you.
mw 01.04.25 at 12:21 pm
nastywoman @14 “Musk MUST be stopped -(and if it is – absurdly – by Indian Indians) and so we – together with some Indian (and even other Expats) will play Elon”
At this point, the Indian Americans are on the same side against the ‘farther right’ (and also against Bernie Sanders, hmm) when it comes to the support of H1B visas, for example:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/musk-vivek-ramaswamy-h1b-visa-maga-immigration-what-to-know/
But that aside, the left bailing out of Twitter/X does seem a strategic mistake. There’s no reason (is there?) that the left can’t hold its own and debate successfully in a ‘no holds barred’ environment. The strategy of the left using its control of government and the ‘commanding heights’ in media, education, and tech to try to suppress and ghettoize conservative speech seems to have failed — at least in US particularly where obviously control of government is gone, where the commanding heights of education and especially media are tottering a bit, and where conservatives appear poised to go after big tech by continuing the anti-trust initiatives that Democrats have started (JD Vance coming out and saying that Lina Khan was one Biden official he though was doing a good job should give us pause, at least, if not shudders). If big tech avoids an FTC crackdown under Trump, it’s likely to be by getting as depoliticized as possible as fast as possible.
hix 01.04.25 at 4:28 pm
I cannot really laugh about the Musk angle at all. Got an on many level horrible subject at the moment – strategic management. Which is to say one discusses horrible case studies and in the end one agrees that the best strategic approach is that your company cooperates with Tesla…. And it is not like the students share Musk’s politics or anything like that.
They just do not care if they even noticed it and go for the surficially plausible business bullshitting solution. Reminds me a bit of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiOUojVd6xQ
(minute 5 -last Week Tonight about McKinsey)
Nothing more fun than being forced to make a PowerPoint about how the best possible strategy for company x or y is to bow to King Trump and cooperate with Tesla.
M Caswell 01.04.25 at 4:57 pm
‘Joining the opposition’ might have a more effective draw, in the long run, than ‘joining the resistance.’
nastywoman 01.04.25 at 6:34 pm
@’But that aside, the left bailing out of Twitter/X does seem a strategic mistake’.
As long as Twitter/X currently seems to be the utmost successful international propaganda game in order to win any type of politics – WE to own this ‘tool’ and preferable also it’s owner – as do you guys remember for how long there was this speculation who really runs the World – from ‘the Jews’ to ‘the Illuminati’s – some ‘Communists or Socialists’ – ‘the Bilderberg’s or/and Soros to some ‘Bot Farm in St.Pete Russia’ to the ‘Deep State’ with the help of ‘Taylor Swift’ and all the other ‘Entertainment Cloony’s of Hollyweird’ – and NONE of it was true as it actually was one – JUST ONE pretty blond girl on a Swiss Alm who had tweeted to a friend that he needed to tweet Elon that he needed to buy the game which once had a complete Loser elected as US President.
And now it’s so easy to have ‘Führers’ in any country to ones liking – erected and even to incite riots in the UK -(or Brazil) and/or dating Giorgia and talking to Vlad – and only Olaf is holding out and doesn’t want to talk to Elon (yet) about what type of politics or policies HAVE to be played.
AND SO IT’S ESSENTIAL TO RUN THE DUDE – WHO RUNS ALL OF THIS!
(and that’s so easy too – as just every one of US has to register her or himself with as many
accounts on Twitter/X as possible and with millions and millions of tweets turn that incredible effective propaganda tool into OUR machine!)
Jacob 01.04.25 at 8:58 pm
I think this framing – using “fighting” as a metaphor for democratic politics, and implying (although, to be fair, not explicitly stating) that how successful you are is a function of how hard you fight, is misleading, and likely to lead to actively counterproductive and harmful actions.
If you think along those terms, you’re likely to conclude that the thing you should refuse to compromise, and adopt maximalist positions on all issues. This is extremely poor strategy, and will result in more right-wing electoral victories.
Instead of “we must fight hard”, I think the response should be “we must do what will work, even if that is distasteful” – compromise, enlarge your tent, make common cause with people you despise, and support centrist standard-bearers who you don’t like and who don’t like you rather than ones you actually admire. Try to win the centre, and acknowledge that in the US that “Centrist” means Olympia Snowe or Joe Manchin, not Kamala Harris.
Talk as much as possible about the issues where left-wing positions are popular (e.g. abortion, healthcare, some aspects of economics). Pick a few issues where left-wing positions are unpopular that you consider it to be most worth spending political capital on, and encourage people to compromise on the rest even if you think that means embracing evil; back politicians who seem out Sister Souljah moments even if you agree with the Sister Souljah of the analogy. Whenever you see someone arguing that left-wing parties can win by moving away from the centre rather than towards it, challenge them.
Better yet, read, and absorb the lessons of, the likes of Matthew Yglesias and David Shor, who express all this far better than I do.
Politics should not be expressive, it should be consequentialist, and “fighting” is not a good way of thinking about how to achieve the best consequences.
David in Tokyo 01.05.25 at 5:54 am
“There’s no reason (is there?) that the left can’t hold its own and debate successfully in a ‘no holds barred’ environment. ”
Well, there is a reason: if you say something Elon doesn’t like, you get downgraded or banned.
There’s also the problem that mud-wresting a pig just makes the pig happy.
I hear that there is good news: the trolls remaining on X are getting tired of not having anyone to troll anymore, and when they try it on Bluesky, they get blocked.
There’s also the problem that while the truth has a stong leftwards bias, it’s also boring,
nastywoman 01.05.25 at 6:33 am
From the NYT:
Britain is one of several European countries where Mr. Musk is trying to replicate the influence he wielded on behalf of President-elect Donald J. Trump in the American election last fall. In addition to Germany, where his advocacy of a far-right party with neo-Nazi ties, Alternative for Germany, has roiled that country’s politics before elections next month, Mr. Musk has nurtured close ties to Italy’s right-wing prime minister, Giorgia Meloni.
In Britain, Mr. Musk’s antagonism toward the Labour government is rooted in part in its aggressive response to hate speech online. Officials said false and inflammatory posts helped incite anti-immigrant riots that followed the killing of three girls in a mass stabbing in the town of Southport last July. They arrested more than 30 people, which prompted Mr. Musk to condemn the government for what he called an attack on the free speech that he extols on his platform, X.
Britain, he said, “is turning into a police state.”
Perhaps most provocatively, Mr. Musk has taken up the cause of Tommy Robinson, a far-right, anti-immigrant agitator whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. He has been in prison since October after being convicted of defying a court order by repeating false claims about a teenage Syrian refugee who had successfully sued him for libel’.
In other words – Elons Game is ‘fight, fight, fight’ – and so we HAVE to fight back!
nastywoman 01.05.25 at 9:25 am
and just a few hours ago about ‘Giorgia’s Game’:
‘Ms. Meloni and Mr. Trump have expressed mutual appreciation in the past, and her trip is one of the first few visits by a foreign leader to the president-elect’s estate in Florida since his election. The meeting reinforces the hopes of Ms. Meloni’s supporters that the conservative Italian prime minister will become Mr. Trump’s go-to ally in Europe.
Much of that role would involve mediating tensions between other European leaders and Mr. Trump, who has threatened to start a trade war with the continent as well as to reduce American backing for some NATO countries and for Ukraine in its war with Russia…
She also has a good relationship with Elon Musk, which her supporters hope will bolster her international standing once Mr. Trump becomes president’.
Ingrid Robeyns 01.05.25 at 1:11 pm
Jacob @ 24 – I am not sure whether you are referring to the OP (hence me) or someone else, but if you refer to the OP, I think you’re criticizing a straw man. Because I completely agree that politics should be consequentialistic, rather than expressive; my point is rather that politics (broadly defined!!) should be taken up by a much larger group of people, and since it’s burdensome (because it comes with an opportunity cost and because it requires effort) should be done in a way that tries to be energizing, rather than energy-soaking.
I use the term ‘resistance’ because ordinary party-politics has in part led to evil, and is insufficiently effective in dealing with the evils that I name (but there may be more) – ecological disasters, genocides and wars, and the spread of authoritarian regimes and fascist policies. I think we need BOTH better opposition party-politics, and stronger social movements who resist those evils.
notGoodenough 01.05.25 at 10:25 pm
A few quick thoughts –
Develop a healthy sense of self-preservation. For example, exercise care in what information you record and how, and keep in mind that – as things turn increasingly authoritarian – you should be very careful in who you trust to have your interests at heart.
See what you can learn from others. Even if you don’t necessarily agree with their aims, study their tactics and approaches (e.g. if you plan to protest, look at people who organise effective protests and avoid getting punished for doing so).
Cultivate a community. Make sure there are people who will have your back, look for you if you go missing, or even just notice if something is untoward. It can take quite a lot of time and effort, but is incredibly valuable.
Clarify your positions. A degree of introspection can be useful in understanding what is and isn’t important to you, which will be helpful when thinking about what you are going to undertake (e.g. short vs long term, small scale organisation vs grand tactics, etc.).
Plan what you can do to effect material changes. While it is tempting to give in to despair, or merely spend time complaining on the internet, what actually matters is what is happening in the real world. Even if the changes you can enact are small, they are better than nothing – and through collective action, we can start to regain some of the power which has been stripped away from us.
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