Resisting Authoritarianism: An Unpopular Opinion

Radical moderation in all things... really.

Photo by Tim Gouw on Unsplash

President Trump’s decision to activate the California National Guard over the objections of the Governor of California and the additional escalation of sending in Marines from Camp Pendleton are only the latest in the authoritarianism 101 playbook.

As a number of people on Facebook and elsewhere have pointed out, Los Angeles is not the city in the U.S. with the largest population of undocumented immigrants - those cities are actually in red states. The decision to target LA in particular and California more broadly is deeply and dangerously strategic: Trump knew that public and heavy-handed immigration raids would spark protests that he could then intentionally inflame.

It worked.

The escalation of protests justified - on social media at least - and the weaponization of our military against American citizens intensified. Despite all evidence that the protests were largely peaceful, localized, and well under control by local authorities.

Many of us are now convinced that we need to start taking tangible steps to resist Trump’s autocratic actions and defend liberal democracy.

There’s a lot of research on how to do this, including a number of “dos” that are largely uncontroversial and that I support:

1. Organize and attend public, nonviolent protests (there’s an incredible movement of protests spreading nation-wide. This is a beautiful thing). Participate. Be open. Be proud.

2. Support targeted minorities with legal and other supports if you can.

3. Support independent journalists and particularly local news: spread truth and vigorously resist misinformation (including that spread by those you agree with).

4. Contact your legislators: visit their offices, and demand the de-escalation of force against American citizens and peaceful residents and the end to politicized attacks against universities, the media, the judiciary, and law firms.

A Controversial “Don’t”

Most educated Americans, particularly those concerned about Trump’s recent actions, are familiar with and supportive of everything on this list.

Now for the more controversial part.

To this list of laudable “dos”, I’ll add a “don’t.”

I admit that this one is hard. This “don’t” feels morally wrong in the moment, but in it lies perhaps the most important piece of anti-authoritarian advice I can conjure in this frightening era:

Don’t politicize neutral spaces.

In practice this means: don’t ask your priest to make a stand against Trump in the pulpit. Don’t encourage your local coffee shop to put up “never Trump” fliers. Don’t ask your university or community college or neighborhood watch group to make a statement against authoritarianism or the Trump administration. Don’t berate your neighbor with the Trump 2024 sign about how he could have voted for a malignant narcissist. Don’t ask your gardening club members what they think about the news out of LA and don’t ask your book club (unless it’s that kind of book club) to read a book about how terrible Trump is. Don’t require that your Uncle Ralph denounce Trump in order to come over for dinner.

All these things might feel good in the moment. They might even feel like moral imperatives: Take a stand! Call out injustice! Make people take a side! My advice might even seem to some people like moral cowardice.

The counter-narrative to my advice is rife on social media: people demanding to know which side of history people are on, demanding to know whether you’re with the fascists or against them. All sorts of memes work hard to reduce our complex and deeply four dimensional social and political landscape to a single binary: are you with us or against us?

In this fraught and deeply dangerous moment, resisting authoritarianism in all facets of our lives feels like the right thing to do. My liberal and progressive friends want to scream their fears from the rooftops. And the fears many of us - liberal, progressive, libertarian, classical liberal, principled conservative - share about the fate of liberal institutions in this moment are serious and real.

But making people take a side is, ironically, exactly what authoritarians want us to do.

Don’t Make People Take a Side

I get it, it’s an unpopular opinion. And I understand why people might interpret this as weakness - a kind of pusillanimous tone policing - instead of strength.

But being clear and realistic about the dangers of this moment means we also need to be deeply thoughtful and strategic about what this administration wants and how we can avoid giving it to them.

And one thing we know they want is a weakened and fractured civil society.

Authoritarians thrive when civil society crumbles because civil society is the most potent weapon against authoritarianism itself.

Civil society is the glue that holds people together outside of politics. It creates the space for resistance, the relationships that protect us when we’re most vulnerable, and the connections across differences that people like Trump fear the most.

That’s why the Trump administration is targeting journalists, universities, libraries, law firms and the judiciary by labeling them “enemies” and “woke DEI grifters.” By politicizing institutions of civil society he can command support for dismantling them altogether.

That’s why Trump himself uses the us vs. them binary constantly: patriots vs. scum, Americans vs. criminals, MAGA voters vs. the enemy within.

He knows that civil society crumbles most easily when every space in our nation has been split into ideological camps, into in-groups and out-groups, into enemies and allies, into heroes and traitors.

He knows that civil society fractures when we require that everyone smash their complex and four dimensional lives into a single political binary based on party affiliation.

And he knows that it falls apart completely when we force people - in all facets of their complex and 4D lives - to take a side in 1D.

He wants to separate Americans into a simplistic binary that demands that we take a side, because he knows we’re weaker that way.

Authoritarianism in Action

We have lots of examples of how this works from authoritarian regimes across the world.

The early Soviets destroyed the family by paying family members to inform on one another, breaking the most foundational bond of civil society. The Chinese regime politicized religion first by working to eliminate it - killing priests and nuns - and when total elimination failed, they moved to controlling what little religion remained. Authoritarian regimes generally work to control businesses and corporations, the press, universities, libraries, and education. Authoritarians turn public parks into networks of spies. They demand ideological loyalty for civil service jobs or government contracts. They target peaceful assemblies and undermine non-profits.

They intentionally break down the non-political bonds that tie people together, setting the stage for total or near-total control.

The erosion of these institutions of civil society is made possible by a single first step: convincing citizens that other citizens are enemies.

The most important thing we can do to resist authoritarianism it not allow this to happen.

These neutral spaces in civil society - our book clubs and neighborhood associations and libraries and public parks - are exactly what authoritarians want to destroy.

And they do it by encouraging us to alienate ourselves from other people - often willingly and voluntarily.

Binary Thinking and Authoritarian Control

Forcing people to take sides does a couple things.

First, it encourages us to fear each other. It does this by activating one of our most powerful instincts as humans: our tendency to create and defend in-groups. By activating this instinct, it becomes easier to separate people both physically and socially. Now that you’ve cleared out your social networks based on an ideological litmus test you’re only attending the anti-MAGA book club and you’ve switched to the anti-MAGA church. Phew!

That initial sorting and corresponding isolation forms the basis for the next and more dangerous stage: sustained dehumanization. By creating social and physical distance, it becomes even harder to overcome our fears by sharing other common goals. It’s harder to see each other as complex people with complex reasons for voting the way we did or thinking about immigration or abortion in complex ways.

That dehumanization, combined with physical and social distance, makes it even harder to create a full picture of the human harms of authoritarian policies. It makes it harder for us to counter misinformation and disinformation. It also makes it harder for our natural human affection to cross ideological lines.

Your MAGA uncle Ralph might, under normal circumstances, be concerned about your well being if you are arrested during a protest. He might even bail you out of jail. But he won’t do that if you’ve cut him off. He can’t do that if he doesn’t even know you’re in jail in the first place. And if you’ve both allowed ideology to create such physical and social distance that you no longer understand each other, he can’t make the connection between the niece or nephew he loves and the abuses of power you’re protesting in the first place.

The Republican lawyer at church might want to support a hard-working undocumented family he’s known for years, but he can’t do that if he’s been sorted into a pro-Trump church and they attend an anti-Trump church. And he definitely can’t do that if he never met that family in the first place.

Even more important, most people who voted for Trump (or Harris or any other politician) didn’t vote for him because they’re aligned on every issue. Trump’s insistence on 1D MAGA loyalty doesn’t reflect the reality of the majority of his voters. If we can avoid turning these voters into 1D caricatures the way Trump wants to, we can find common ground on other issues, but only if we’re still interacting with each other in the first place.

The woman you disagree with on immigration might be the one who passionately cares about freedom of the press or housing or something else you also care passionately about. Authoritarians don’t want us to see those connections. The Trump administration doesn’t want us thinking in 4D because thinking in 4D fosters complexity, connection, and ultimately, community.

The balance we’ll have to strike is a delicate one; we have to resist authoritarianism loudly and consistently while protecting civil society at the same time.

That means engaging in careful and nuanced thinking about how to keep the relationships of civil society stable even as we vocalize our disapproval of concrete abuses of power.

This means both not demonizing the 50% of voters who voted for a different candidate while keeping our houses of worship, community centers, playgrounds, nature centers, and libraries above politics.

I know it’s hard and it can feel morally fraught in the moment. But it’s absolutely necessary if we’re going to get through the next three years with our liberal democracy intact.

It’s Not About Sides, It’s About Community

Not politicizing neutral spaces doesn’t mean we can’t talk about abuses of power. In fact, we have a moral obligation to talk about abuses of power. It’s ok to tell people - ideally, your Congresspeople - that you’re worried about a lack of due process or that you’re concerned that targeting political enemies is harmful to the rule of law.

It’s ok and in fact even imperative to talk with the people we know about shared values: our Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and our respect for a principled and disciplined military that remains firmly under civilian control.

And yes, of course, bring your politics to the protest. There are a ton of protests planned for this weekend, so find one in your area!

Resist loudly where it matters: in courts, in legislatures, in the streets.

But resist quietly too, in ways that are harder to notice and harder to quantify—by refusing to sever the ties that make collective life possible. By refusing to collapse people into caricatures. By protecting the spaces that help us remember who we are outside of politics.

In the end, whatever happens in this current administration - whether it descends further into intentional authoritarianism or continues playing with clumsy authoritarian co-splay - we still have to live together afterward.

We’ll be here - together - long after Trump is gone.

The authoritarian playbook relies on isolation. It depends on fear. It demands that we divide every space, every institution, and every relationship into friend or foe, ally or enemy, red or blue, for or against. But what we’re fighting for is more than just the absence of authoritarianism. We’re fighting for something better: a civil society strong enough to withstand pressure, broad enough to hold disagreement, and flexible enough to adapt without breaking.

This is how we win: not by defeating each other, but by refusing to let the political battlefield become our only common map.

We hold the line by holding each other. That’s not weakness. That’s the core of resistance.

What You Can Do

1. Instead of firing off salvos on social media, find a local problem you’d like to work with other people to help solve. Like most communities, we need trails cleared, litter picked up, funds raised for cheerleading teams and brass bands and animal shelters. In my community, we have programs where residents help elderly neighbors get to medical appointments or go grocery shopping. We need houses built, nursing home visits, neighborhood garage sales organized, public parks maintained, and neighborhood watches set up. So many things to do! And so many ways to connect with people across differences in ways that have nothing to do with politics writ large.

2. Find meaningful ways to resist governmental abuses that don’t endanger our fractured neutral spaces: write to or visit your Congresspeople, donate to support local journalism, attend an No Kings UnParade this weekend , write up some stories about people you know who are being affected directly by these policies and share them with your networks.

3. Take a break and unplug entirely. If you are feeling so angry at your fellow citizens that you can’t think of them without wanting to lash out, it’s time to get some space. Go for a walk, play with your kids, put your phone in a drawer and do something - anything - that doesn’t involve reading the news. This isn’t avoidance and it isn’t cowardice. It’s a deeply important act of self-protection that not only protects you but also protects the fragile bonds we’ll need later on.

Your Turn

What do you think? If you disagree, let me know why! If you agree, let me know how you’re thinking about this balance. If I missed ideas for connecting, add those too! I love hearing from readers, so please chime in and drop me a line. And of course, if you like what you read PLEASE subscribe and share widely. Reader shares and Substack recommendations mean to the world to scrappy Substack writers like me. Your support helps me find new readers and engage with new ideas.