On fighting evil before it’s cool.
By Sarah Roark
Hollering into the void with more than occasional smartassity.
December 4, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Reprinted from Medium.
A few (or few hundred) words of holiday encouragement to my beloved friends and allies in Refuse Fascism and Refuse Fascism Bay Area. Including the ones I disagree with. (Especially the ones I disagree with. :-) )
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
—Unattributed (possibly a Gandhi or a Nicholas Klein paraphrase)
We’re still waiting on that last part. But eventually people are going to figure out that we really don’t give a fuck whether five of us show up or ten thousand do; whether we outnumber, or are outnumbered by, the white supremacists and theocrats and fascists; whether people praise or vilify us; whether they spread truth or lies about us; whether they merely sit back and applaud for now, or stand up and join in whatever way they can.
I mean, we do give a fuck—we need to win. For everyone’s sake, winning is not optional. But what I am saying is none of these obstacles are ever going to stop us. The forces of darkness are never going to get the silence and fear they want. They just don’t know that yet.
Because don’t doubt it: what we are doing is right. It is needful. It is the response that is actually proportionate to the threat this corrupt and hateful regime poses to all humanity. And—sadly—shockingly— no one else is doing this kind of Candlelight-Revolution protest series. Yet. (YET.)
Because truth is still truth and love is still love, and they still need the living witness of people of goodwill, or else they wither.
And look. The day it finally sinks in that we’re not doing this for party, nor faction, nor philosophy, nor money, nor attention—but because win or lose, we literally see no other choice? Is the day we win. Till then, we have to endure, and we will endure.
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