Today many Americans find themselves face-to-face with the sort of fascist authoritarianism that they once believed could never exist in the United States.

Others recognize that the US has always been an authoritarian force toward segments of the population—but that the fascist project is now expanding to subjugate all of us in the working class. It’s frightening….

But as the moment evolves, so must we. Because it’s the fascist’s dream for us to operate from a place of fear....

And it’s the fascist’s worst nightmare to know that we everyday people are capable of standing up against them.

Fascism requires the fear of a subjugated population in order to survive. If enough people are courageous enough to resist it, the fascist movement falls apart.

And despite what fascists would have you believe, there are a thousand ways we can demonstrate that courageous resistance. It can look different from person to person—because we all have unique skills, privileges, and risk tolerance. But we all have a role to play.

To resist a fascist movement that relies upon our isolation… courage looks like helping other people, not only ourselves.

To resist a fascist movement that relies upon our apathy… courage looks like rejecting nihilism and getting involved.

To resist a fascist movement that relies upon our submission… courage looks like speaking up against racial and economic injustice—and not just when it feels comfortable to do so.

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Neither fascism nor its defeat is inevitable. And our courage today can truly mean a much better world ten years from now. Anything can happen, but we have to fight for the world we want to live in.

Fascists want you to believe that they’ve already won… but they’re lying. Authoritarianism will always inspire resistance—and we have the unique historical privilege of helping to defeat the fascist assholes who are making life suck.

This moment and the years ahead are critical in the timeline of our lives. Our actions now will have an outsized impact on the world’s future social and political trajectory.

Yes, the rise of domestic fascism is scary—but it also presents an incredible opportunity… to defeat the monsters and monstrous policy upholding systemic inequity… to model resistance for future generations… and to turn the cultural and political tide for the next century. This is a marathon, not a sprint.

We owe it to our ancestors to embrace the discomfort of accepting our place in history....

We owe it to our communities to be honest about whether we’re doing enough to resist fascism....

And we owe it to future generations to summon the courage necessary to help shape the world we wish we lived in… so that they can have that opportunity, and continue to build upon it.

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I’m starting this new tradition every January of documenting why I’m writing in the new year. Right now this little blog has almost no subscribers… and if the US continues on its current fascist trajectory, the ideas that I write about could pose great personal risk in the coming years. So why do it?

This year I’m writing because I understand better than ever that each of us has a role to play in resisting that rising fascism. And for some reason I have the sense that my role involves advocacy through writing (ironic since I’m not a very good writer—perhaps I’ll get better through this work).

I’m also not a particularly wise or intelligent person when it comes to matters of social justice or liberal democracy or history… so I don’t have the expertise needed to speak on these topics “correctly.” What I do have is good intention and the ability to learn, and share what I learn.

This little blog sits at the intersection of my personal learning journey and my desire to help spread egalitarian ideas. That seems like a sweet spot—a chance to bring others along for the ride. Perhaps in my pursuit of knowledge I can help others grow the same way I’ve been helped.

If you’re paying attention and thinking critically about what’s happening in the United States, you likely have the sense that we’re on a pretty dark trajectory.

Top presidential advisors are overtly employing white supremacist tactics. Some have even openly touted their desire to achieve domestic genocide against Latinos (albeit using meme language to partially obfuscate their evil). A feckless corporate Democratic Party fails to demonstrate any real opposition (so a new generation of progressives must fight the uphill battle of replacing them).

Meanwhile, leaders in both parties (and all Republicans) have co-signed the fascist project of funding ICE, which increasingly serves as the president’s own militarized domestic terror force. And the United States continues to uphold apartheid and genocide in Palestine even as the Imperial Boomerang swings back to us here in the US. Things are not looking great.

We’re on a path carved by late stage capitalism, fueled by the greed of the billionaire class, destined to implode, and likely to destroy countless lives before it finally falls apart. But this growing fascism will fall apart—whether through its own inherent contradictions or as a result of everyday Americans rising up and defeating it.

Because like the capitalist fervor that upholds it, fascism is ultimately destined to fail. It seems our place in history is such that our life’s work should be to fight fascism at every turn until it does—to look out for our neighbors, to minimize harm, and to proactively pursue justice and equality in clear defiance of the ruling minority. More than at any other time in our lives, it’s not about Left vs. Right… it’s about Up vs. Down (the ultra wealthy vs. everyone else).

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I have tremendous hope and confidence that there is light at the end of this tunnel that looks like genuine democracy in the US and a more equitable human experience for eight billion people around the world—even if I don’t have a ton of confidence that I’ll see it in my lifetime.

I’m writing in 2026 because of that broad hope, and because tomorrow isn’t written—we have to work to make things better, but we can make them better. And we should do so using whatever methods make sense… sometimes that looks like a silly little blog.

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