D.L. Mayfield: Here’s my pep talk after studying authoritarianism:
1).They never truly expect a long-term resistance movement b/c they think people are a collection of trauma triggers who are easily controlled thru terror.
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If they can’t terrorize you 24/7 in your mind, they have already lost the war.
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The single best way you can resist fascism is to not let them terrorize you constantly. Protect your mental health to ensure you are not constantly in a terrorized state.
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Keep connecting to who you are at your core. Your values, preferences, ethics, and beliefs. Build up capacity to resist.
5). Remember they are like abusive parents: they only see us extensions of them. They have no clue how powerful joy and community and self-expression can be. We can use this to our advantage — we can be the strong-willed child they never saw coming.
Spending time connecting to your true self is not selfish in these times — it’s intricately connected to a resistance movement that is tied to honoring our bodies, our communities, and to the land. We have to build capacity to resist by being exactly who we are!