This letter came to refusefascism.org from a couple of supporters who wanted to share thoughts on social media.
After listening to the Q&A portion of the Bob Avakian talk in which he answers a question about getting the cause of Refuse Fascism into the media, two of us who have been Refuse Fascism supporters for a while decided to look for some opportunities on social media to spread the call and really be advocates for Refuse Fascism. With the understanding that everyone who needs to know about Refuse Fascism doesn’t know about it yet, and the people who do know and haven’t joined up yet need to be engaged with more deeply, we set out on a mission.
A lot of social media is an echo chamber, but even within that, there is some discussion going on about really important issues. The pushback against Kanye West’s support for Trump, and the furor over Michelle Wolf’s brilliant monologue at the White House Correspondents dinner are two recent examples. At the same time, there are certain things not being talked about enough or at all, or are being talked about in very damaging ways that leads of even more American chauvinism. The U.S. threats on North Korea and the upcoming summit is an example of this.
To be clear, this struggle should not and is not going to primarily take place in the virtual world. It is a real world struggle with the future of humanity at stake, and it has to be waged through a sustained non-violent protest movement in the streets. But if social media is a place where people are making their minds up and maybe coming up against ideas that are challenging their comfort zones, we definitely can’t ignore social media. So we want to share a few examples of our social media interactions and give people, especially people who are not near active chapters, ideas for action. One of us is more active on Facebook and one is more active on Twitter.
JUMPING INTO DISCUSSIONS ON FACEBOOK
I’m not primarily on Facebook as an activist, but so many people have become alert to political life as a result of Trump coming to power and are posting political commentary. This is one reason why there is a basis for millions of people, who are not traditional activists or have not seen themselves in that role, to come forward and drive out this regime. I share posts from Refuse Fascism frequently, but this gets mixed results. It’s easy to overlook or ignore (I’m not even sure how many people are seeing these posts) and although I have asked people to post comments, they rarely do. However, I have learned that I can’t make assumptions about who will like or share my Refuse Fascism posts. Shares from RF’s Facebook page that link to articles in mainstream media like the New York Times, especially if they are on topics people are talking about, have done the best.
But some of my friends on Facebook, often people I don’t expect to, have also shared articles and the call from Refuse Fascism. And in private, people have told me that they appreciate my posts and have even made donations to Refuse Fascism. Getting them to the point where they will learn more and also become advocates has been more of a challenge. I have also experimented with various forms of getting the word out. Sometimes I share a post and don’t offer any of my own commentary. Sometimes I share a post and beg people to read it.
Sometimes I just share something that supports the call, like a picture of protests in Armenia with the headline that their president has stepped down. Some of my posts about voting not saving us from this crisis have resulted in some positive debate. In general, sharing things on my wall has been valuable in some ways but is not going far enough.
Recently, I tried another tactic, to link to the Call along with my comments on someone else’s post. If someone is truly asking for people’s thoughts and some principled debate, why not jump in? When someone asks what can be done about Trump, or how much more can we take, I have made it a habit to say, “check this out,” and post the call in a comment. Recently this resulted in someone going to the call on the website and endorsing.
I decided to jump into one discussion about calling Trump by his name and not getting dragged down into name-calling. This was posted by a woman who has fostered an expectation of respectful debate on her page. After following the thread for a while, I saw her comment that she had to accept that Trump was president, even though that horrified her, and she had to accept it as part of our flawed system of democracy. She also pointed out that some of Trump’s policies have been blocked by a system of checks and balances and that was encouraging. Someone else responded, “I can’t accept this,” and then I chimed in with my honest reaction. I said (paraphrasing) But are we willing to sacrifice people being targeted by Trump’s policies? I pointed out that eliminating checks and balances is a large part of what the regime is trying to do. I gave the example of the stolen supreme court seat and packing the courts with fascist judges. I said that in the meantime, immigrants were being rounded up, white supremacists were marching in the streets and defending Trump, and environmental protections were being shredded. I asked if our electoral system should give our leaders the right to destroy the world. Don’t we want our children and grandchildren to have a future? And I posed the question that Avakian poses in his talk, “Is order more important than justice?”
Almost immediately, this woman responded, saying she loved that question. She said the answer is no, but at what point would the American people be ready to make the necessary sacrifices to change the situation? She shared an interesting article from learnliberty.org and then I responded by posting about the protests in South Korea, quickly summarizing the mission of Refuse Fascism, and posting a link to the call. This response also got a few likes.
A few things I’ve learned from this and other interactions:
- Many people are willing and able to change their minds.
- Sometimes, if just one person offers a counterpoint to someone’s assertion, others join in and that provides some openings for discussion.
- In my progressive social media circle, American chauvinism has been the hardest thing to break through on. There is so much confusion right now about this regime’s military actions and what it means to have a fascist regime at the head of the most powerful military in the world.
- I still have to figure out how to turn appreciation for and agreement with the Refuse Fascism Call to Action into deeper engagement and actual action.
SOME ENGAGEMENTS ON TWITTER
On Twitter, I take a few approaches, but here I’d like to talk about a slightly more “confrontational” approach, or engaging in some friendly struggles with people.
When everyone was tweeting about plans to hit the streets if Mueller is fired, I kept asking, “Why don’t we do that now? Why are we willing to wait? Here is something from Refuse Fascism I think you should read. What do you think of it?” In one instance, the responses I got were pretty challenging and full of distortions. Some of the distortions were carried over from a thread that started before November 4th, discouraging people from joining our protests. I worked on refuting the claims, even though it was months later, telling them about my November 4th experience and pointing out that we were successful in carrying out non-violent protests in multiple cities, despite all of the fake news that had been spread about it.
When I saw misinformation, I asked questions like “Why do you say that? Have you ever talked with someone from the group?” and then I would give a reason for not waiting for Mueller to be fired. For example, “Having seen the attacks on immigrants, I think it’s wrong to wait.” At the end of this long thread, I got blocked, but I also got likes and more followers in the course of it. I think it’s okay to take it to the point of getting blocked if you are stating things that need to be said.
Most conversations don’t end negatively. I had another long conversation with someone who was generally supportive and agreed with the call, but he felt Refuse Fascism did not have enough influence, and I said exactly, we’re trying to change that. Someone else said we had to let the Mueller investigation proceed but if he was fired, that would be a catalyst. I said the election of Donald Trump was a catalyst for me, how outraged were you then and how outraged are you now?
I said I would stand with them if Mueller was fired, but I was worried about what would happen in the meantime. Another person said every group was calling for peaceful protests and most were also talking about Occupy or South Korea style marathons. This interested me. I asked who these groups were, because I really wanted to know, but they didn’t have an answer. So when people are making assertions like this, I ask for evidence. I also try to share a variety of pieces, for example the MLK piece, as a way of starting dialogue. I’ve only ever gotten positive responses from sharing that piece, because I think it ties into movements people know about.
Twitter is a place for national and international dialogue and connection. By sharing our analysis and perspectives, we broaden the debate and can challenge the notions of waiting for action or “grabbing them by the polls.” One critique we keep getting is that we don’t have enough influence, and that definitely needs to change so we can get millions into the streets to drive out the regime as soon as possible. Twitter is a place where ideas can spread very quickly, including a lot of wrong ideas, but no one else is trying to harness the sentiment that is out there in the way that we are. No one else is organizing for this. So we have to get our ideas out while also challenging the ideas that are going to end in disaster.