“I stay out of politics,” he said, “it’s boring and I don’t like it.”

Title quote sound familiar?

It probably does.

I’ve heard it a lot, myself, particularly when trying to get people to work to prevent us from arriving where we are today, socially and politically. It’s been a white person thing, mostly but not exclusively. White men more than white women in my experience, and by a fair amount – but both.

It’s one of the reasons people wouldn’t give up Chick-Fil-A chicken sandwiches to stop sending money to anti-LGBTQ hate groups, it’s one of the reasons why people wouldn’t give up Twitter to stop sending money to a South African-born nazi.

Being queer, and detected as such for longer than I can even remember, “staying out of politics” isn’t an option I’ve ever had. My life, like the lives of many others (BIPOC in particular, obviously), is something they consider inherently political, and something to be removed if possible.

But it’s an option a lot of people think they have, and historically have indulged in. And they need to be told that it isn’t an option they’ll have anymore under authoritarian rule. We all need to be doing that, and with anyone we know who might still think that way.

The fact that I don’t hear it much anymore is kind of a bad sign. The fewer people who can get away with that, the less healthy a society is, I think. But I’m sure there are still holdouts.

I’m also sure there are more than a few people who are thinking, “if this does happen, I’ll be fine, it’ll blow over eventually, and at least I won’t have to think about politics anymore.” You know, people who are pretty sure they’ll be safe as long as they lie low and don’t make waves. They think like that.

They might be able to lie low, but they’re super-wrong about the “I won’t have to think about politics” part. They couldn’t possibly be more wrong, and this is probably a good time to fill them in.

Because what actually happens isn’t “I can lie low and not just think about politics.” It’s in fact the opposite. What actually happens is “literally everything becomes about politics, in every way and at every level, all the time. There is literally no escape from it.”

See, in an authoritarian takeover, most people just go along. Like it or not, and wow I do not, once that kind of government is in place, the combination of pre-surrender, self-censorship, and desire to follow power and the herd swings most people who can switch modes into those modes.

And part of the nature – the very explicit nature – of such regimes is societal hierarchy. Who steps on whom, and who gets stepped on. There is a societal hierarchy, it’s rigid and cruel, and you ain’t on top of it.

Ever.

But you have to be in it somewhere, like it or not, because everyone does, and that means scrambling as hard as you can all the time to maintain your relative position within it, as other people try to crawl over you to reach a higher level themselves, or even just hold their own place.

It’s a contest of compliance, and conformity. Everyone’s spare energy goes into it, and most people don’t have the energy for much else. It’s stifling, omnipresent, everywhere, and in everything.

But that really only describes those trying to climb up.

Some people – and it’s often the same people – see opportunities to gain height in the pyramid by dragging other people further down.

You know some of them. You may not want to admit it, but you absolutely do.

Most of the people you know in such an authoritarian system aren’t going to try to drag you down…

…but some will. And you won’t necessarily know which. But they will do so, if you give them the opportunity, if you say or do something just a little bit…

…off.

Denunciations aren’t just for Soviets, comrade, though they were very, very good at them, and architected society around it. They even built their apartment blocks with open ventilation across the rooms, making it easier for neighbours to listen in, to overhear, to report on anything they might find suspect.

You do want to help your local police, don’t you, patriot? Protect your family and your country from… oh, I don’t know…

Surely you wouldn’t help your neighbour shield an illegal, would you? You wouldn’t want to support terrorism, right?

Or a faggot or a tranny? What are they doing with children?

Or that nine-year-old slut that got knocked up because she couldn’t keep her legs shut – she wouldn’t be about to kill her unborn baby, would she?

Surely you wouldn’t want to aid and abet a murder, now, would you, patriot?

If you’re white and if you’re male and if you’re properly Christian, it probably wouldn’t be like the old Soviet or Nazi systems. Well, it might be, if someone accused you of helping someone undocumented or someone trans (at first) or queer in any way (later) or helping someone get birth control or… well, you know.

But if you’re white and male and the right kind of Christian, then in general, it probably wouldn’t be.

Maybe you’d just miss a promotion. Maybe your employment contract wouldn’t be renewed. Maybe you’d just be let go – “cutbacks,” you know – before seeing your old job advertised as open again.

Maybe you’d just find yourself without any friends, which in and of itself is not a good look in such a society.

Maybe you’d have a real hard time finding a good job again. Better take whatever you can get – homelessness is, after all, a crime.

Maybe you’d even find yourself having a lot of unlucky accidents, by which I mean assaults upon your person. Maybe a few stays in hospital. There’s very little that little fascists like more than a good-old-fashioned six- or seven-on-one beatdown on a defenceless target.

Ask me how I know.

Retaliation against neighbours who helped the state became a bit of a problem in post-Soviet Eastern Europe, did you know that? There was a lot of intervention to try to keep it to a dull rumble, but it was… we will call it an issue.

Still, one has to keep one’s position in the hierarchy. Nothing to be done for it, it’s just how authoritarian societies roll, as in roll right over you. The hierarchy that every authoritarian state is finally, eventually about – every single one of them, if not at first, in very short order – must be preserved.

Society must be protected. Surely you know that. You’ll do your part as a good citizen, won’t you?

People will keep track of such things. People will keep track of such things very, very carefully.

So if you know anyone who might think that living in a Trumpist day-one dictatorship means they won’t have to think about politics anymore, let them know how wrong they are.

Don’t forget to wear your Trump-brand Solidarity Ear Bandage today, patriot. It's the anniversary. Wouldn’t want anyone to think you were on the wrong side, would you?

There you go.

Good man.

Because in real life, it means they’ll never get to forget about politics ever again.

108 days remain.

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

On “toolkit” articles and why I write them

I think I need to start labelling some of my articles/long posts more explicitly.

Today’s article on what to tell people who say they ‘stay out of politics’ is an example of what I think of as a toolkit post:

• This post contains a tool, in the form of information and an argument.
• Here’s how to use it.
• Keep it in your toolbox, for when you need to talk to people who are like this. It is a good tool to use to solve them and/or their problem.
• Now go use it on people for whom it might work.

Other political posts type include analysis, commentary, action items, news, informational (including historical), or even just venting. Often, they’re of more than one type at the same time; today’s post is also a bit of an action item, to be acted upon at times of opportunity. This is in contrast to true “action item” posts , which are generally one-time actions, to be done right away or on a specific date and/or time.

But today’s post, which has more general and repeated use, is part of the toolkit.

I write a lot of toolkit articles; today’s main post was just one example. But honestly, I’m not sure people realise what they are.

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.