Going to therapy makes you better at resisting fascism. It is WILD how closely fascist politics map on to the ways that we, as individuals, avoid shame, intimacy, and vulnerability. How much the walls we build around our communities mirror the walls we build around ourselves.

Fascism, capitalism, and masculinity are all deeply concerned with protecting us from insecurity — both of our own desires, and the desires of others. Learning to tolerate fear and vulnerability as an individual makes it harder to be duped by the far right’s promise of security.

I’m constantly humbled by the ways that my own self-defense mechanisms as a gay guy — avoiding vulnerability, brutalizing those who “betray” me, being paranoid and self-loathing — mirror the ways that fascists attract scared people. Fear really is the brain killer.

Which is all to say: admitting that you need people and are afraid of being rejected is an act of resistance against fascism.