Alright, slightly sub-tweety thread partly because I don't want to pile on the person in question, but seriously, we're taking self-care and activism tips from ex-CIA analysts now?
I'm gonna pick up on two things they said in particular. Their first tip is to "take action", and as examples of that they name "volunteer for a food pantry, canvass for a political candidate, donate to an NGO, visit a sick friend".
What lovely, respectable ways to work within and prop up the system those are. Your government is making people so poor they can't feed themselves? Why challenge the government when you can feed the poor yourself, allowing the government to throw more money at the rich?
This is what "taking action" looks like when you're not at the sharp end yourself. When it's not your community being torn apart, your kids caged or murdered by the state, your body declared "fit for work".
This kind of action may make you feel better, and may even help a handful of people - but it will not address the structural issues that have got us here and that are literally killing people right now.
You know what I want you to do if you're in the fortunate position of wanting to do something but not being at the sharp end of the current clusterfuck? Educate yourself. Take your lead from those who *are* at the sharp end. Ask them what would help, and do *that*.
The second thing I want to pick up on is tip 3: "research before panicking" because "[i]f it has happened before, it can be hugely comforting to know how it was resolved and/or what might happen next."
Being well-informed and knowing your history in the current political climate is indeed invaluable. I would not, however, call it comforting.
I know what happened last time fascism was allowed into power in a handful of European countries. I also know how it was "resolved" and at what cost.
Right now, we have actual fascist governments in the United States, and in a couple of small European countries. I'm not even going to try and label whatever's going on in Russia, and I'm pretty sure I'm missing stuff from around the global south.
We also have several large European countries with proto-fascist tendencies standing on the sidelines, taking notes and seeing what the others can get away with.
By all means, if you're not familiar with the history of fascism, how it rises to power, and what it does when it gets there, do your research. But don't tell me you find it comforting.
