Honestly?

If you aren't thinking about strategies and tactics that aren't safe to talk about openly on social media, you either aren't taking the threat seriously enough (bad), or have made a conscientious decision not to fight (not GOOD, but at least honest with yourself).

EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN NORTH AMERICA right now - unless you're maybe way up in Northern Canada or way down in Southern Mexico - needs to make a really, genuine honest choice with themselves about what they are and aren't willing and able to do if they have to in order to…

…fight back against fascism and tyranny. And then, if the answer is yes, take a long, shitty, horrible few days to accept that yes, this is almost DEFINITELY what they will ACTUALLY have to do, not just daydream about it. And then begin preparing. If the answer is no…

…and there's LOTS of reasonable reasons why it might be - "I'm disabled", "I have to put my children first", "I'm almost certainly already being monitored", "it'll take everything I have just to survive as a trans / Black / Muslim / etc person", for example - then… well…

…you should take the shitty few days to come to terms with THAT, start reappraising your priorities in light of that decision, and start learning all you can about passive resistance, like means of gumming up the system that can be carried out while you're being used by it.

But you should also think about things you MIGHT be able to do to help that, although super risky, don't require being a soldier or whatever? Like consider people who sheltered Jewish refugees, runaway slaves, or Mexican migrants despite the personal risk, you know? And again…

…PREPARE. Prepare for that to be your role.

And… start internalizing the fact that REAL fascism will not let you fucking talk about it as fascism and plot against it OUT IN THE FUCKING OPEN. You will NOT be able to ask "what can I do to help???" on twitter and then act all…

…huffy and despairing when no one answers. ANYONE WHO KNOWS ENOUGH TO ANSWER AND TAKES THE SITUATION SERIOUSLY ENOUGH TO KNOW IS NOT **ABLE** TO SAY THAT SHIT. A genuinely fascist system will eventually stop letting people even casually CALL it fascist, for fuck's sake!!!

There's no hand-holding anymore. That window of action lasted for… well… maybe the first six months of 2017??? But it's gone. You need to either know how to figure shit out on your own, or how to contact people securely, or… well… how to STFU and not compromise others.

If you can't manage any of those three things, then just bow out. You're not built for this shit. Hell, I'M not even built for this shit. I'm too exposed, too vulnerable, too shitty at lying, too physically frail, and too much of a coward. All I can do is point you in the…

…direction of a big creepy shadowy cave full of really scary and really fucking LETHAL monsters - who might not just kill YOU but also your loved ones- and then tell you, in ALL HONESTY, when so few others will do so: "sorry, everyone, but the only way out is through there".

Oh, and one last thing?

Emotionally prepare yourself for the possibility of friends turning snitch on you. Or worse.

Think deep and hard about who you trust. Who you REALLY trust. The list of people for whom the trust is implicit, rather than based on leverage, should be…

…SHORT AS FUCK.

And if you've been largely privileged for most, or all, of your life– or the marginalized identity you belong to has only ever experienced gains over your life, never majour losses or backlashes - maybe emotionally prepare yourself for LOSING, and the fact…

…that in real life, the future does not just INHERENTLY lean towards progress and human rights and things getting better simply by virtue of being the future. Nor, in real life, do good guys tend to triumph over evil.

There's a REASON almost all the most powerful people in…

…the world today, and throughout all of human history, really, have been huge jackasses.

That reason is because jackassery WORKS when it comes to acquiring power, shaping societies, and getting to write the history books.

The only "karma" or "fairness" or "reward" in NOT being a jackass is simply whatever happiness and comfort from… well… not being a jackass. The only reward for fighting for a just cause? Well, you sure as fuck can't trust that "history will judge you better"! FFS. The reward…

…simply that… your cause was just. That's it. You were on the side of the angels, and that HAS to be good enough, because it's the only thing that being on the side of the angels ever guarantees.

And if you do this shit right, you'll have had a lot of dearly loved people…

…and the occasional wonderful memory to look back on… but… even THAT'S not guaranteed. Especially since sometimes doing the right thing requires being hated.

So just… you know… reconcile yourself that victory isn't guaranteed, and there's no reward for any of it, even if…

…you DO manage to win. The praise will all get soaked up by the officers, generals, and martyrs-who-happened-to-be-noticed-doing-so and such.

I guess this thread is just a long-winded way of saying:

This is really going down and you need to figure your shit out about it. :(

Lying to yourself with Dumbledore'sArmy hashtags and shit isn't enough anymore.

You need to internalize it as REAL. Actually fucking real.

Good luck everyone, no matter what choices you end up making. Just let them be honest ones!