Dear world, we are fighting back

It's giving lowkey revolution vibes

Happy Equinox, Loves.

If you haven’t been following social media, the world thinks we Americans suck! Shocker, I know.

America looks “like half ignorant fascists, the other half passive cowards,” wrote one person on Threads. France has tits-out baddies painted in swastikas, shooting off smoke bombs while marching in the streets, and we are resisting like good little Mormon sisterwives.

This newsletter aims to bust that myth, and also clarify why American hyper-capitalism has forced a lowkey revolution that may or may not read across the border.

If that’s your jam, read on, patriots! Otherwise, I’ll see you at the rally today, where I’ll be giving a speech like this:

So this is what it’s like to live through a coup

Have you ever undergone muscle testing? It’s when they ask you questions and observe how your muscles respond. Because often, the body knows things the mind does not.

I can tell you that my bones dissolve when I read:

• that if the U.S. keeps at this rate, it will lose its standing as a democracy by 2026

• that the U.S. has been placed on a global human rights watchlist

• the executive branch refusing to comply with a court order, possibly teeing up for a constitutional crisis

• about protestors being disappeared

• how Canadians hate us (do you know how hard it is to make Canadians hate anything?!)

• the administration is trying to erase all personhood of my Trans friends

• their “aggressive plan to dismantle the holy grail of climate regulation”

• the elimination of the Department of Education yesterday, along with all my special education protections for my child

If you've ever wondered what you would do if a revolution came to your doorstep, you’re doing it right now.

Yes, and…

If your country starts with the letter A and ends with the letter A, but is actually five words when you break it all down, you're still going to work because capitalism has you in its clutches.

You need healthcare; you need to eat (those tariffs won’t pay for themselves!); you have no safety net. You must pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, which means you are trapped in your job because you need health coverage, perhaps because the system has made you unwell.

As my daughter likes to say, “It’s an endless loop!”

Again, the ouroboros

"Americans are slaves," my Bay Islander friends told me in 1998.

One of the definitions of slave offered by Merriam-Webster is “someone or something that is completely subservient to a dominating person or influence.” One could say that the dominating influence is our socioeconomic system.

A culture of cruelty

Going back to the muscle testing analogy, I have to wonder who are the people whose muscles become stronger with this cartoonish level of evil — other than billionaires salivating off the prospect of profiting off government privatization? Who are the people who feel emboldened when they hear about undocumented immigrants being deposed without due process to El Salvador’s concentration camp? Or who treat their wives more kindly when they hear about Trans people being denied life-saving healthcare?

Maybe admitting that I don't understand it betrays my privilege of having grown up with kindness and love. Call me a bleeding heart, but watching hurt people hurt people hurts my heart.

I saw something on socials that said, “American has ‘I peaked in high school’ energy,” and, yep, accurate.

What the rest of the world thinks

The world looks at the U.S. and says we need to fight back harder. They say things like, “Don’t worry, soon you won’t have any nature at all,” as if we wanted this or brought it upon ourselves. As if we’re not fighting back. As if it didn’t affect us, too.

To which I reply, “Why kick someone when they’re down? It’s traumatizing and scary enough without having to rub salt in the wound.” We know what’s at stake.

What we are NOT doing. By Andrea Watts, taken in the early aughts when all we had to worry about was our eating disorder.

Many folks elsewhere don’t grasp how being able to publicly resist is a privilege. Americans have far fewer days off than Europeans and minimal social safety nets. If we lose our jobs, we’re screwed.

Many people I know who are organizing and resisting can’t show their faces or use their real names because they fear losing their jobs.

“It’s must easier to protest when: you have universal healthcare not tied to your employment, accessible and affordable childcare, robust unemployment benefits, and, frankly, stronger human rights protections. Americans risk so much more when we demonstrate.” —@Amberforiowa on Threads

The nuclear family model within the capitalist ecosystem requires we continue working. Our jobs are tied to our healthcare, unlike in other democratic-socialist countries, and we have to pay out-of-pocket for higher education. Fresh produce is expensive, even more so with tariffs.

And let’s not forget that while the majority of E.U. was refining work/life balance benefits, our taxes were going to build a ridiculously massive military. 🙁

Some folks outside of the country are suggesting we take up arms. They don’t realize that most of the gun owners in ‘Merica are the far right and MAGA.

When I told my Alaskan husband that some were calling for violent resistance, he thought it was hilarious. “Democrats fighting back?” he laughed. Some dudes he knows own enough guns to pay for their kid’s entire college education, and guess what? THEY’RE ALL HARD-RIGHT CONSERVATIVES.

Yes, this culture sucks, which is why I write this newsletter. We’re trying to change it. And clearly, much of it is changing for the worse.

But there are also many of us waking up to the harms of capitalism-patriarchy, and we are actively working to change that, too.

Now, we are fighting back politically. On Monday, I connected with several folks representing various resistance groups. We are meeting and plotting. This week alone, we’ve planned two rallies, one march, a town hall, an Empty Chair community conversation, and, my favorite, heckling Senator Sullivan on his way to vote in the Capitol building (because he keeps refusing to show up at his own town halls).

It may not always make the news, but we are fighting back. Today, I’m delivering a speech on the steps of the Capitol in support of education, outlining the protections my daughter and many others will lose as a result of the dissolution of the Department of Education.

The resistance is being shared on social media, especially Threads. Connect with me there.

Thank you for reading, and thank you for standing up for democracy!

~Summer

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