Emerald

Practical Non-Violent Tactical Resistance Against the Rise of Fascism

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I've been watching this YouTube channel here and there called Parkrose Permaculture, which gives practical advice about how to push back on authoritarianism.

It's a refreshing change from most progressive channels, as it actually focuses on the question of "What can we practically do?"

So, I wanted to share a video from her channel here...

 


Are you struggling with self-sabotage and CONSTANTLY standing in the way of your own success? 

If so, and if you're looking for an experienced coach to help you discover and resolve the root of the issue, you can click this link to schedule a free discovery call with me to see if my program is a good fit for you.

 

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10 minutes ago, Emerald said:

I've been watching this YouTube channel here and there called Parkrose Permaculture, which gives practical advice about how to push back on authoritarianism.

It's a refreshing change from most progressive channels, as it actually focuses on the question of "What can we practically do?"

So, I wanted to share a video from her channel here...

 

 "White Supremacist, Patriarchal Culture"... really?

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1 hour ago, Scholar said:

 "White Supremacist, Patriarchal Culture"... really?

Isn't that pretty obvious?


Are you struggling with self-sabotage and CONSTANTLY standing in the way of your own success? 

If so, and if you're looking for an experienced coach to help you discover and resolve the root of the issue, you can click this link to schedule a free discovery call with me to see if my program is a good fit for you.

 

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8 minutes ago, Emerald said:

Isn't that pretty obvious?

If you distort the meanings of those words sufficiently, it might be.

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I've also appreciated Parkrose Permaculture for her grounded, knowledgeable takes on how to build an effective pro-democracy movement. I've found her content to be a much needed reprieve from both 'we're cooked' doomerism and 'business as usual' elections-will-save-us perspectives.
 

 

You might also enjoy Knitting Cult Lady who Angela (ie Parkrose Permaculture) mentions on her channel, who's a US Army vet with expertise in cult dynamics.

 

Edited by DocWatts

I have a Substack, where I write about epistemology, metarationality, and the Meaning Crisis. 

Check it out at : https://7provtruths.substack.com/

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2 hours ago, Scholar said:

If you distort the meanings of those words sufficiently, it might be.

We can have that argument from 2016 on another thread, if you'd like.

But the hour is later than you think. And this video is about non-violent practical tactics for resisting against the authoritarianism of the current administration.

It's not a place for endless semantic arguments about things that should be obvious in the year 2025.


Are you struggling with self-sabotage and CONSTANTLY standing in the way of your own success? 

If so, and if you're looking for an experienced coach to help you discover and resolve the root of the issue, you can click this link to schedule a free discovery call with me to see if my program is a good fit for you.

 

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This Saturday, nationwide and WORLD WIDE protests!!!!

 

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Edited by Elliott

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@DocWatts I have stumbled across Knitting Cult Lady's channel a couple times. But I'll have to give her a closer watch.

But I really appreciate Parkrose Permaculture's focus on raising morale and giving actionable steps for pushing back.

I deliberately tuned out from politics about a year ago because I felt that most lefty creators were doing one of four things...

  • Just sharing the new through a Lefty lens
  • Doomerism
  • Leftist in-fighting where one pundit has a beef with another pundit
  • Empty philosophical ponderings

But each of these things don't mobilize people to do anything productive to push back on rising authoritarianism. 

So, I just took the perspective of tune out 99%... but keep my ear to the ground so that I can protect my family if the shit hits the fan.

Her channel is just really refreshing that it's like "Don't give up hope. Do these action steps."


Are you struggling with self-sabotage and CONSTANTLY standing in the way of your own success? 

If so, and if you're looking for an experienced coach to help you discover and resolve the root of the issue, you can click this link to schedule a free discovery call with me to see if my program is a good fit for you.

 

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@Elliott I'm planning on attending this Saturday.


Are you struggling with self-sabotage and CONSTANTLY standing in the way of your own success? 

If so, and if you're looking for an experienced coach to help you discover and resolve the root of the issue, you can click this link to schedule a free discovery call with me to see if my program is a good fit for you.

 

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2 minutes ago, Emerald said:

@DocWatts I have stumbled across Knitting Cult Lady's channel a couple times. But I'll have to give her a closer watch.

But I really appreciate Parkrose Permaculture's focus on raising morale and giving actionable steps for pushing back.

I deliberately tuned out from politics about a year ago because I felt that most lefty creators were doing one of four things...

  • Just sharing the new through a Lefty lens
  • Doomerism
  • Leftist in-fighting where one pundit has a beef with another pundit
  • Empty philosophical ponderings

But each of these things don't mobilize people to do anything productive to push back on rising authoritarianism. 

So, I just took the perspective of tune out 99%... but keep my ear to the ground so that I can protect my family if the shit hits the fan.

Her channel is just really refreshing that it's like "Don't give up hope. Do these action steps."

%1000 agree with this.


I have a Substack, where I write about epistemology, metarationality, and the Meaning Crisis. 

Check it out at : https://7provtruths.substack.com/

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3 minutes ago, Emerald said:

@Elliott I'm planning on attending this Saturday.

We have them every week in my city, but it's going to be huge here, like 20 neighborhood/town protests in the morning, then everyone at the state capitol building afterward. We've been on national news for lining our long kind of main road through the city, like 5 miles. Red state.

Edited by Elliott

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1 minute ago, Elliott said:

We have them every week in my city, but it's going to be huge here, like 20 neighborhood/town protests in the morning, then everyone at the state capitol building afterward. We've been on national news for lining our long kind of main road through the city, like 5 miles. Red state.

That's amazing!


Are you struggling with self-sabotage and CONSTANTLY standing in the way of your own success? 

If so, and if you're looking for an experienced coach to help you discover and resolve the root of the issue, you can click this link to schedule a free discovery call with me to see if my program is a good fit for you.

 

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7 minutes ago, Emerald said:

That's amazing!

It is, fun too, good times, all kinds of cool creative stuff and great people.

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52 minutes ago, Emerald said:

We can have that argument from 2016 on another thread, if you'd like.

But the hour is later than you think. And this video is about non-violent practical tactics for resisting against the authoritarianism of the current administration.

It's not a place for endless semantic arguments about things that should be obvious in the year 2025.

These sorts of terms kill practical politics, and should have been abandoned in 2016 when it was obvious that they just alienated a majority of individiuals.

 

Either way, what exactly are the tactics we should employ to resist the Trump administration?

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1 hour ago, Scholar said:

Either way, what exactly are the tactics we should employ to resist the Trump administration?

Check out Parkrose Permaculture. Her channel is excellent for practical tactics.


Are you struggling with self-sabotage and CONSTANTLY standing in the way of your own success? 

If so, and if you're looking for an experienced coach to help you discover and resolve the root of the issue, you can click this link to schedule a free discovery call with me to see if my program is a good fit for you.

 

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I think the problem will take care of itself when authoritarianism will go out of hand and there will be an automatic push back. This happens with almost every movement that runs into it's own excesses.


Within every woman there is a wild and natural creature, a powerful force, filled with good instincts, passionate creativity, and ageless knowing ~ Clarrisa Pinkola Estes.

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3 hours ago, Deziree said:

I think the problem will take care of itself when authoritarianism will go out of hand and there will be an automatic push back. This happens with almost every movement that runs into it's own excesses.

We're starting to see seeing this already, in the frankly embarrassing ways that Trump and his enablers are trying (and failing) to discredit and intimidate the No Kings protests - from calling ordinary Americans terrorists to smearing No Kings as a 'hate America rally' to shooting missiles over freeways in California.


I have a Substack, where I write about epistemology, metarationality, and the Meaning Crisis. 

Check it out at : https://7provtruths.substack.com/

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1, Passive resistance changes nothing. It got the country where it is. Active resistance will.
Random acts of violence in the spur of the moment will do nothing.

2, You can choose what method of active resistance it is, that's the only choice. Violence leads to more violence, that is true. Whatever is picked tends to build on itself.

3, When she strays into fantasy, she needs to give it a rest. I'd like to know who on the actual left has enough power to 'despair' a chipmunk, let alone a country. It's certainly not Bill three doors down from her, who sometimes watches the TV and most of the time can't be bothered.

4, Critically, she offers no practical solutions, just guidelines. So nothing is really gained here but a generalised message.
But its appreciated she is asking for ideas from her viewers, that's a good start.

Edited by BlueOak

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So I put Chat GPT to the task, rather than leave it on my fatalist side.
My prompt reminded chat GPT that it was best aligned with the corporatist side, not strict fascist dictatorial control.

I asked for a framing and action plan, I can do none of this for you living in the UK, but its more useful than my post above:
 

I. Foundational Principles

Before tactics, effective resistance requires clarity of purpose, structure, and discipline:

Non-violent does not mean passive.
Active resistance uses disruption, organization, and mass refusal of cooperation — the classic framework of civil resistance used successfully against authoritarian regimes (e.g., Serbia 2000, Chile 1988, Poland 1980s).

Legitimacy and broad coalitions are essential.
No authoritarian project can be stopped by one ideological faction alone. Sustainable resistance builds cross-class, cross-partisan alliances focused on defending democratic norms rather than a specific party platform.

Local autonomy, networked coordination.
Centralized movements are easy to infiltrate or crush. Distributed, self-organizing local networks — connected through secure channels and shared objectives — are much more resilient.

II. Strategies for Active Non-Violent Resistance

1. Local Organizing and Parallel Institutions

  • Build community defense networks for legal aid, rapid response, and safety monitoring during protests or ICE/police actions.
  • Develop mutual aid systems (food, transport, communication) that reduce dependency on hostile state or corporate systems.
  • Encourage local civic associations, faith groups, and labor organizations to take explicit pro-democracy stands.
  • Support local journalism and information networks that counter propaganda and document abuses.

2. Economic Resistance

  • Target corporate collaborators with sustained boycotts, shareholder campaigns, and worker walkouts.
  • Divest and redirect: move money from institutions funding authoritarian politics (banks, PACs, extractive industries) toward cooperatives, local credit unions, and ethical funds.
  • Promote labor solidarity: unions and worker alliances historically undermine fascist consolidation by making mass production and logistics unreliable for regimes.

3. Digital and Information Defense

  • Train communities in digital security (encrypted messaging, VPNs, password hygiene, metadata control).
  • Counter disinformation through distributed fact-checking, not argument — reframe, correct, and circulate verified data in accessible forms.
  • Use open-source intelligence (OSINT) to document repression and archive evidence safely.

4. Legal and Bureaucratic Resistance

  • Support public-interest lawyers who defend protesters and whistleblowers.
  • Engage in administrative non-cooperation: government workers and contractors can slow or quietly refuse to implement unjust directives.
  • Use FOIA requests, audits, and watchdog reports to expose corruption and illegality.

5. Electoral and Institutional Defense

  • Organize at the state and local level — school boards, city councils, county clerks — where authoritarian capture often begins.
  • Mobilize election protection networks to monitor intimidation, misinformation, and irregularities.
  • Focus on voter registration, turnout, and down-ballot races, not just presidential contests.

6. Cultural and Symbolic Resistance

  • Art, music, and humor play strategic roles in undermining authoritarian myths and morale.
  • Create counter-narratives that emphasize dignity, community, and shared humanity over fear and resentment.
  • Encourage cultural institutions (universities, churches, museums, sports associations) to take public stances in defense of democratic norms.

7. Mass Mobilization

  • Protests must be persistent, decentralized, and creatively disruptive — not one-off spectacles.
  • Combine large demonstrations with strategic non-cooperation: strikes, blockades, boycotts, and walkouts timed around critical political events.
  • Maintain discipline and de-escalation training to deny authorities pretexts for violent crackdowns.

III. Strategic Objectives (Medium-Term)

  1. Erode the regime’s pillars of support:
    undermine elite backers, loyalist media ecosystems, and passive public consent.
  2. Strengthen civil society:
    expand networks of mutual aid, solidarity economies, and independent local governance.
  3. Maintain moral legitimacy and visibility:
    frame resistance as defense of rule of law, human rights, and pluralism — not partisan vengeance.
  4. Prepare for institutional recovery:
    document abuses, preserve archives, and cultivate legal frameworks for transitional justice when conditions permit restoration of democracy.

IV. Lessons from History

  • Hungary (1956–1989) and Chile (Pinochet era) show that sustained civic resistance, even under repression, preserves moral and social infrastructure for post-authoritarian reconstruction.
  • The American civil rights movement combined non-violence with strategic confrontation — boycotts, legal action, voter registration — not passivity.
  • The fall of Milošević (Serbia, 2000) demonstrated the effectiveness of youth-led, decentralized organizing with clear communication and humor as political weapons.
  • Would you like me to develop this into a step-by-step action framework — for example, outlining what an “active resistance network” could look like at local, regional, and national levels in the U.S. context?

---------

The Objective Analyst said:

Great — here’s a concrete, step-by-step blueprint for building an active, disciplined, non-violent resistance network in the U.S. context. It’s structured so a single neighborhood group can start tomorrow and then plug into city/state/national coordination as it grows.

1) Build the local nucleus (first 2 weeks)

1.1 Convene a core team (8–15 people).

  • Roles (one person may hold two early on):
  • Coordinator (keeps meetings/task board on track)
  • Safety/De-escalation lead (training, marshals, liaison with medics)
  • Legal lead (links to NLG/ACLU hotline; collects incident reports) American Civil Liberties Union+1
  • Comms lead (press, social media, message discipline)
  • Digital security lead (tools/training, incident hygiene) Surveillance Self-Defense+1
  • Logistics lead (printing, transport, supplies)
  • OSINT/documentation lead (evidence capture, secure archiving)
  • Finance lead (donations, transparency)

1.2 Adopt a clear mission & code of conduct.
One page: (a) non-violent discipline, (b) zero tolerance for hate/harassment, (c) safety first, (d) respect for local law while reserving civil-disobedience options with informed consent.

1.3 Set your comms stack.

  • Public broadcast (email list, Instagram, SMS bank).
  • Coordination (Signal groups by function; rotate moderators; enable disappearing messages).
  • Archiving & docs (Nextcloud/Google Drive w/ restricted access; encrypted backups for sensitive material). EFF’s protest security modules are a good baseline. Surveillance Self-Defense+1

1.4 Map your community.

  • Allies: unions, faith groups, immigrant orgs, student groups, vets, small-business associations.
  • Pillars of support you aim to shift (media owners, large employers, law enforcement leadership, local officials). Use the “pillars” method from CANVAS. ICNC+1

2) Train for discipline (weeks 2–4)

2.1 Non-violent action training.

  • Teach strategy, roles, de-escalation, legal rights, and scenario drills.
  • Draw from proven civil-resistance playbooks (Gene Sharp’s methods; CANVAS Core Curriculum). ICNC+1

2.2 Know-your-rights & protest planning.

Review where/when you can assemble; how to interact with police; what to do if arrested; create a rapid-response tree. ACLU materials are the standard reference. American Civil Liberties Union+1

2.3 Digital security basics for everyone.

Phone hardening, full-disk encryption, app hygiene, travel mode, media metadata scrubbing. Use EFF’s step-by-step modules. Surveillance Self-Defense

3) Launch a 90-day action plan (repeatable sprint)

Month 1: Visibility + Capacity

  • Weekly micro-actions: banner drops, teach-ins, voter clinics, courthouse/council speaks, union-hall visits (pick from Sharp’s “protest & persuasion” list). ICNC
  • Media footprint: op-eds, letters to editor, amplify local stories of overreach/rights violations.
  • Volunteer ramp: two “Onboarding Nights” with role sign-ups and shift calendars.
  • Mutual aid hub: childcare swap for canvassers, ride-shares to protests, legal-aid intake.

Month 2: Non-cooperation + Pressure

  • Targeted boycotts/divestment of institutions funding authoritarian policies; publish clear demands and exit criteria.
  • Workplace power: coordinate with unions/worker groups for issue-based sick-outs or slowdown days (lawful where applicable).
  • Institutional engagement: flood hearings with testimony; file FOIA/records requests; track follow-ups publicly. American Civil Liberties Union

Month 3: Mass participation + Escalation (still non-violent)

  • Citywide day(s) of action synchronized across neighborhoods (churches, campuses, small biz).
  • Election protection build-out: poll-worker recruitment, voter-ID assistance, early-vote transportation, and nonpartisan monitoring.
  • If civil disobedience is chosen: narrow, high-legitimacy targets (e.g., sit-ins at officials’ offices), trained arrestables only, legal observers on site, and a bail/legal defense pipeline pre-funded.

4) Operating procedures (keep it boring to keep it safe)

4.1 Decision-making.

  • Tactical decisions by those executing them; strategic decisions by a steering circle with clear quorum.
  • Use short written briefs: objective → audience/pillar → tactic → risks → logistics → success metrics.

4.2 Message discipline.

  • Two or three clear demands per campaign.
  • Spokespeople trained; avoid speculative claims.
  • Rapid rebuttal: short factual corrections, then redirect to demands. Research shows non-violent movements with unity/clarity perform better and retain legitimacy. ericachenoweth.com+1

4.3 Safety & de-escalation.

  • Marshals assigned per protest segment; buddy system; medics identified; exit routes planned.
  • Never engage provocateurs; document and report.

4.4 Legal & data hygiene.

  • Protest hotline on every flyer; arrestee info collection; incident database (time, place, officers, witnesses, video).
  • Secure storage and access control for sensitive files. Surveillance Self-Defense

5) Tactics menu (pick, adapt, rotate)

  • Organize actions across the three classic categories — protest/persuasion, non-cooperation, intervention — to avoid predictability. See Sharp’s 198 methods and the Global Nonviolent Action Database for examples. ICNC+1
  • Protest & persuasion: town-hall pack-ins, whistle-stop teach-ins, faith-led vigils, billboard trucks, targeted leafleting.
  • Non-cooperation: advertiser boycotts, donor strikes, student walkouts, professional association resolutions, institutional refusals (lawful).
  • Non-violent intervention: sanctuary provisioning, eviction block support (legal where allowed), human chains protecting voters, parallel civic services (e.g., “community observers” at government buildings).

6) Measuring impact (every 2 weeks)

  • Inputs: volunteers active, trainings held, funds raised, coalition partners onboarded.
  • Outputs: event attendance, media hits, FOIA filings, officials engaged, businesses pledging neutrality.
  • Outcomes: policy pauses/reversals, budget line-items altered, resignations, public opinion shifts, election administration protections adopted.
  • Track participation growth; research suggests that large, diverse, non-violent participation correlates with higher success — the often-cited “3.5%” rule is a motivational heuristic, not a guarantee. The Guardian+1

7) Scaling up (regional → national)

  • Federate local groups via lightweight coordination hubs (shared calendar, messaging standards, legal resource pool).
  • Synchronize national days of action keyed to legislative/voting milestones.
  • Specialize: some chapters focus on labor, others on legal support, others on OSINT, then trade resources across the network.
  • Protect the brand: common code of conduct and visual identity; remove platforms from actors advocating violence or bigotry.

8) Red-team the risks (every month)

  • Legal exposure: review planned tactics with counsel; understand time/place/manner limits and civil-disobedience consequences. American Civil Liberties Union+1
  • Infiltration & provocation: verify volunteers for sensitive roles; never improvise escalatory tactics on the street; cameras on.
  • Digital threats: phishing drills; device search plans; compartmentalize access. Surveillance Self-Defense
  • Public support: poll your own base; drop tactics that alienate swing constituencies; keep demands concrete and winnable.

9) What to start this week (checklist)

  • Hold a 60-minute kickoff with role assignments and adopt a one-page code of conduct.
  • Stand up your comms stack and security basics (Signal groups, phone hardening). Surveillance Self-Defense
  • Schedule two trainings (rights + non-violent action). American Civil Liberties Union
  • Pick one 30-day campaign with a specific target and measurable demands.
  • Announce weekly micro-actions and a 30-day review date.

Why this approach?

It follows the empirical literature: non-violent, broad-based, well-organized campaigns outperform violent ones, tend to produce more durable democratic outcomes, and are harder to repress effectively. ICNC+2ericachenoweth.com+2

If you want, I can turn this into a printable playbook (one-pager for recruitment, training agenda, action brief template, legal/medical pocket card).

_-

Edited by BlueOak

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4 hours ago, BlueOak said:

1, Passive resistance changes nothing. It got the country where it is. Active resistance will.
Random acts of violence in the spur of the moment will do nothing.

2, You can choose what method of active resistance it is, that's the only choice. Violence leads to more violence, that is true. Whatever is picked tends to build on itself.

3, When she strays into fantasy, she needs to give it a rest. I'd like to know who on the actual left has enough power to 'despair' a chipmunk, let alone a country. It's certainly not Bill three doors down from her, who sometimes watches the TV and most of the time can't be bothered.

4, Critically, she offers no practical solutions, just guidelines. So nothing is really gained here but a generalised message.
But its appreciated she is asking for ideas from her viewers, that's a good start.

What got the country where it today is anticipatory obedience - institutions and individuals obeying in advance out of cowardice and political expediency.

Or to quote Timothy Snyder: "Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do."

I suspect that folks pooh-poohing what's likely to be the largest single day of protest in American history have spent very little time researching how authoritarian governments are actually toppled. 

Speaking from my experience as an actual activist - one who's involvement in the pro-democracy movement is far more extensive than attending a single protest - I can say with confidence that we don't need everyone to be doing everything, we just need a majority of people doing something. 

Civil resistance movements succeed when they're able to separate an authoritarian regime from its pillars of political, economic, military, and cultural support. In practice, this is achieved by building a demographically and ideologically diverse pro-democracy coalition while simultaneously fracturing the autocrats coalition.

Demonstration like No Kings are important because they draw people into more active forms of resistance, push back against the atmosphere of fear and inevitability that the autocrat is trying to instill in the public, and make it abundantly clear that the regime is weak and unpopular.


I have a Substack, where I write about epistemology, metarationality, and the Meaning Crisis. 

Check it out at : https://7provtruths.substack.com/

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