Disclaimer: This post mentions several books listed on the Captured Phantoms Bookshop.org shop. If you purchase any books from the shop, I’ll earn a small commission from the sale at no additional cost to you. All commissions go toward the Captured Phantoms “Pay It Forward” Scholarship Fund, which helps reduce or completely cover the cost of coaching, consultation, critique, and editorial services for BIPOC, LGBTQ+, marginalized, and underrepresented storytellers of speculative and commercial fiction.
To learn more about the scholarship fund and how you can contribute to it, please visit here.
Today is December 7, which means that you and I officially have 25 days before the year 2025 begins, bringing with it overt and covert systemic oppression from the highest levels of the United States government.
Yet now, just as before, is not the time to despair, panic, and/or disengage completely.
Rather, it is a time to resist.
What follows on this Substack post is a non-exhaustive list of 25 ways for you and I to resist fascism and other forms of systemic oppression. Keep it handy. Share it with your friends. Make your own modifications. Take what works and what doesn’t.
Because it’s going to be a bumpy ride regardless.
Also, fair warning. I’m going to be talking about some serious things, so do what you need to do to take care of yourself if what you read (or hear for those listening) is particularly upsetting for you.
1. Determine why you may or may not have resisted before.
Resistance starts within ourselves. It starts when we ask ourselves why we haven’t done more or as much as we could have in the past. With grace and compassion, we ask ourselves if we haven’t been as active or engaged in what’s going on around us because we have been afraid of the consequences of speaking out. We ask ourselves if we truly have the capacity to fight in the ways we wish to fight so that we don’t burn ourselves out.
2. Question your internalized oppressive beliefs.
We are not off the hook nor have we ever been. Deep down, we have likely internalized programming and messaging that informs our day-to-day behavior and intentionally or unintentionally maintains various forms of systemic oppression. Correct yourself when you get someone’s pronouns wrong or if you say something ableist, for example. Understand how your privilege or lack thereof lets you operate in your community. And when someone calls you out on it, thank them, and do better. Stop feigning ignorance about what color and class of piece you are on the chess board, and start learning the rules of the game.
3. Check in with yourself.
Once you get clear on the particulars about why you may or may not have resisted before, ask yourself this: Are you ready to resist? Like, for real, though?
Because resistance is not a joke. It’s not wearing a pink hat in a show of performative wokeness. It’s not a blue friendship bracelet to signal that you’re safe. It’s not an empty promise to be an ally when in truth, you’ll do nothing to protect those most vulnerable.
Resistance is active, ongoing, persistent, and fierce. It involves a ton of energy, education, re-education, and sacrifice. It is work, and if you’re not prepared to engage in this sort of work, that’s completely fine. You can keep doing what you’re doing, maintain the status quo as best you can, because you’re a human with free will, and I respect that. As a Secular Buddhist in particular, I know that everyone is on their own journey to enlightenment and don’t necessarily want to give directives.
But if you’re committed to resistance, check in with yourself now and later. Don’t take your initial fire and enthusiasm for granted, and don’t dismiss any initial hesitance you feel. Really sit with your feelings before you dive in because this is not a one-foot-in, one-foot-out kind of thing.
Not when entire livelihoods are at stake.
4. Live on your own terms.
That being said, in times of great political turmoil, it is easy to give away our power to other people and institutions. Likely, in the wake of 2025, businesses, churches, cults, organizations, and even well-meaning members of your family and local communities will try to sweep you in and tell you how to feel, think, and act. Yet now, more than ever, you must feel, think, and act for yourself—independently and with the surety of your spiritual, ideological, or other sort of core inside you. Rather than be swayed by another, exert your free will in a society that seeks to brainwash you at every turn.
5. Limit or quit your consumption of mass media.
In other words, don’t watch or listen to major news networks. I’m serious. All they want is your attention, which is what pays their bills and keeps their lights on, and they have incredibly seductive ways of doing it such as sanewashing.
What’s sanewashing, you ask? Number six will tell you.
6. Learn how to spot sanewashing in mass media.
For The New Republic, Parker Molloy eloquently describes how CNN, The New York Times, and other media outlets engage in sanewashing the words, actions, and beliefs of a convicted felon, Birther, and president-elect. In short, sanewashing is what allows white supremacist, sexist, racist, fascist, ableist, and so much more systemically oppressive rhetoric to be seen as palatable by the general public. As a result, it legitimizes illegitimacy and brings misinformation further into what’s acceptable into public discourse and collective consciousness.
Put another way, we know for a fact thanks to NASA that the moon’s crust is made of “oxygen, silicon, magnesium, iron, calcium, and aluminum, with small amounts of titanium, uranium, thorium, potassium, and hydrogen”. But if major news outlets keep bringing on pundits who then keep insisting that the moon is made of cheese even when we know that it’s factually wrong, the so-called Overton Window shifts, and outright lies are given the same weight and credibility as the truth when they shouldn’t be.
So, yeah. Don’t watch the news. Gather primary sources. Critically engage with what you see and consume. That is one of the main ways I’ll be resisting.
7. Make peace with Death.
There’s a certain white supremacist belief that we need to talk about, and it mainly concerns death. For that, I’ll take a page from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and their website when they talk about this:
The phrase “Diversity = White Genocide” is a white supremacist slogan coined by disciples of Bob Whitaker, a former Republican congressional aide and Reagan administration appointee who later embraced white supremacy and began writing for neo-Nazi publications. Whitaker emphasized the tactic of adopting simple slogans and endlessly repeating them; his followers took him at his word, making up several slogans and promoting them constantly.
The first such slogan was “Anti-racist is a code for anti-white,” but the similar phrase “Diversity is a code word for white genocide” soon followed. Eventually some shortened the phrase to “Diversity = White Genocide,” while others created variants, such as “Diversity means chasing down the last white person.” Tree of Life synagogue shooter Robert Bowers, among others, have used the phrase; Bowers included it in one of his posts to the social media platform Gab.
As the phrase “white genocide” itself has become more popular among white supremacists in recent years, “Diversity = White Genocide” and its variants have also become more common.
To be clear, the ADL is doing it right. They’re presenting the facts and the context surrounding it with a very deft hand, and they’re not sanewashing. Also, the ADL is not what I want to talk about.
I want to talk about what white supremacists believe about diversity because for me, it doesn’t show that they fear diversity. No. What they really fear is the loss of their power and supposed immortality. They fear Death in all its forms and would rather keep killing everyone else that doesn’t agree with them so that their rage and hate can stay alive.
Don’t believe me? Ask George Floyd. Ask Sandra Bland. Ask Trayvon Martin. Ask my ancestors. Take your pick.
Because on a fundamental level, you must make peace with Death in order to resist white supremacy. You must see death as a natural part of life. You must make peace with change and be willing to re-educate yourself when you get something wrong. You must make peace with evolving, adapting, and growing. You must die and be reborn as the phoenix so that you can burn away the opposition.
8. Play like you’re five again.
The world is getting serious, but that doesn’t mean you always have to be. One of the most revolutionary acts a person can do is engage in play because it allows you for however briefly to reclaim your freedom and joy. As a human being, you’re a naturally creative individual. Let your mind wander. Wear new hats. Step into shoes you never thought of stepping into before, and explore the world with your one wild and precious life, as Mary Oliver writes about in her poem, “The Summer Day”.
9. Rest.
Tricia Hersey, founder of the Nap Ministry, wrote a trailblazing book titled Rest is Resistance, and I think the title alone says it best. Due to white supremacy and capitalism’s chokehold upon our society, we are all being encouraged to sleep a little less on the hope that if we work a little more, we might make a bit more money and make our lives a bit more comfortable. Yet such systems are in place to squeeze every last ounce out of you and leave you dry till your dying day. Resist through rest. Leave work at work rather than taking it home. Take your paid or unpaid vacation time, and don’t be ashamed about it. You’ll be doing yourself and the world a favor.
10. Volunteer, and/or explore.
Now is not yet the time to hunker down and isolate yourself. Now is the time to volunteer for organizations you’ve been eyeing and/or explore new things you haven’t tried before. Rather than limit your worldview, which is what white supremacy and fascism wants, broaden it. Fill your mind’s cup with wonder and awe as you become the world’s steward and protector. Fight on behalf of your family, your community, your state, your country, and your world if and when you can.
11. Visit, support, and/or create safe spaces.
If this year’s presidential election has shown us anything, it’s that we know on a geographical level where we’re safe and where we’re not. In between volunteering and/or exploring the world, cultivate safe spaces for yourself and your communities so that you might rest, recharge, and reinvigorate others. These spaces can be mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical. However they take shape, let them. You’re going to need them in these trying times.
12. Engage in trauma-informed/healing-centered practices.
The ways in which you grieve, heal, and move forward from now through 2025 should be trauma-informed and healing-centered. The next few seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years will test you like never before. It might already be happening to you, so dig deep where it counts, and be ready.
13. Prepare yourself for uncomfortable conversations.
Let go of the idea that you have to stay in contact with friends or family members despite differing political beliefs. Better yet, let go of the idea of agreeing to disagree when it comes to politics because this is not about politics anymore. This is about human rights, discrimination, racism, sexism, genocide, and the right to exist. Of course, if you do engage with them or insist upon going no contact, be prepared to feel physically, mentally, and spiritually uncomfortable before and after coming out on the other side.
14. Care for your elders.
Apart from the elders who you may or may not be keeping in touch with after all this, caring for one’s elders should be a priority. They have lived through wars, natural disasters, and unimaginable tragedies—all passed down through pictures, stories, and other artifacts. In the wake of book bans and other attacks upon free speech, communal memory and collective knowledge will be forced to go underground or face extinction. Do what you can to preserve their deep cultural knowledge.
15. Support the ACLU, mutual aid efforts, and other reputable organizations.
I admit that I’m a little biased when it comes to this one since I’m a member of the ACLU, but this organization has sued the president-elect more than 400 times and has helped bring forth landmark legislation for the United States. Also, I would emphasize supporting mutual aid efforts over charities since charities can be very hierarchical and particular about who it is they want to serve and how. My main point here is that you might not have to reinvent the wheel if there are people already out there that are already fighting the good fight.
16. Make corporations donate to your charitable organization of choice via Charity Miles.
I know I just said to support mutual aid over charities, but hear me out. Charity Miles is a brilliant app that makes corporate sponsors pay about $0.25 for every mile you walk or run to the charity of your choice through the PayPal Giving Fund. So, if you don’t want to donate your personal money to charity because funds are tight while still getting a work out in, Charity Miles provides that solution.
And no. Charity Miles did not sponsor this post. I’m not getting any money from them, and I’m not famous enough for that yet. An enby can dream, though.
17. Start a side-hustle.
Speaking of money, it’s high-time you had a side hustle or a freelance gig. Ask for money rather than wait for it. Demand monetary compensation for your skills, labor, and expertise because white supremacists will be all too happy to exploit the most marginalized for it. Learn what it takes to run your own business so that you will not be entirely at the mercy of capitalism and corporate culture. Learn the rules before your break them or worship them.
18. Become financially literate.
Similarly, I’d recommend becoming financially literate with special consideration for how capitalism and even legislation have institutionalized poverty among certain groups of people. Tiffany Aliche’s Get Good with Money and Rachel Rodgers’ We Should All Be Millionaires are two good books to start your financial and entrepreneurial education with, though they are by no means the only ones.
19. Learn another language.
If the United States is no longer the United States and we have a dictatorship on our hands, it might be a good idea to relocate to another country and seek asylum. For that, it would be handy to know a second language. In my case, I’d consider moving back to Japan and teaching English again, and as we speak, I’m studying kanji with my favorite app, WaniKani. For you, the language you choose might be different, but it should be practical.
20. Learn critical survival skills.
If we have total systemic and societal collapse, learning how to make fires, potable water, sturdy shelters, and adequate clothing to keep warm would be good. Learn to grow food and reconnect with nature even before total systemic collapse just for the sake of becoming more in tune with the earth. Follow the example of Lauren Olamina in Octavia Butler’s novels Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents, and start researching what it would take to live off the grid.
21. Start a book club with a reading list full of radical nonfiction and fiction titles.
Use the Radical Reading 101 list on my Bookshop.org page if you’d like, but above all, please, please, please read. Educate yourself. Combat. Foster community. Put safeguards in place. Combat ignorance. Be engaged.
22. Teach what you know to others.
Share. Be generous. Be vocal about what you see and what you hear. Shout, whisper, and keep the whisper networks going.
23. Protect the arts.
Go see a drag show before you can’t see a drag show anymore.
Go read books before you can’t read books anymore.
Go to that concert before you can’t see a concert anymore.
Protect the arts at all costs because they are what make us human and empathetic.
24. Commit to the preservation, creation, and dissemination of stories.
Protect stories at all costs because they are what allow us to remember where we came from, understand where we are, and chart a course for where we want to go. Despair takes hold of us because we cannot see out of the current moment. Enlightenment happens once we see the entire picture for what it truly is.
And if you happen to be a storyteller yourself, here’s number twenty-five.
25. Join my Quill and Ink Group Coaching Pilot Program for novel writers on January 1, 2025.
No. This entire post was not an ad for my group coaching pilot program.
Storytelling is one of the oldest forms of resistance there is, and I am a storyteller who wants to help other systemically oppressed storytellers not die without telling their stories. I’m also an educator, an artist, a side-hustler, and so many other things which resist fascism. For some, my very existence appears to be a threat to their own, even though I’ve never met them.
And it’s not my job to convince them otherwise. It never has been, and it never will be since it’s a waste of time to argue with them about the beauty of life and death and since I’d much rather tell a story about it instead.
Wouldn’t you?
If so, reserve your spot in my program, and tell your story, too.
Resist because your life depends on it.
Share this post