Tony Chiado

I recently spoke with my dad about the events in Minneapolis and he expressed concern about the protestors interrupting a church service to protest an ICE Pastor. Certain the fascists would latch onto this as a moral opportunity, he lamented the Left for not being smarter in dangerous times. While he is right that the fascists will use this, I strongly disagree with him that this was a mistake.

Nemik’s Manifesto from Andor calls out. “Even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward… try.” One thing you see in Andor is that people frequently do clumsy things in opposition of the Imperial machine. Some of those actions advance the Imperial machine. In doing so, they also advance the Rebellion.

The peculiar paradox that we need to wrap our heads around, together, in fighting fascism is that we need to rile up the fascist program if we want to collapse it. We must be shaken into action. Over and over and over again until each one of us are enlisted in the cause. The sum of understanding fascism is this. If we let the fascists turn this moment in Minneapolis into the dull hum of constant machinery, that will be a horrifying outcome.

Protesting an ICE Pastor in a church is, truly, a risk. We are past the point where we can continue to be risk-averse. We must take risks. Bold, calculated ones. Risks that press the fascists into overreactions, which in turn shake more people from the indifference and into action. There is great danger in this. There is great danger in every possibility now. Peaceful paths are well behind us. Violence surrounds us. In opposition, we must accelerate the fascist program so that its horrors cannot be ignored as white noise in the background of daily life. This is the only way to grow a resistance large enough to topple the fascist regime. If we don’t, its full program will bring unimaginable horrors to everything we love.