On Fear

And a little bit of courage too.

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Two articles that caught my eye this week. The first is an advice column for Vox. A reader asks “How do I resist Trump without ruining my life?” The reader is a first-generation American whose parents immigrated from an authoritarian state and is well aware of the ways the Trump Administration and its allies might retaliate.

Second is a piece in the New York Times, outlining how Trump’s critics are self-censoring to protect themselves. A flavor:

People on both sides of the aisle who would normally be part of the public dialogue about the big issues of the day say they are intimidated by the prospect of online attacks from Mr. Trump and Elon Musk, concerned about harm to their companies and frightened for the safety of their families. Politicians fear banishment by a party remade in Mr. Trump’s image and the prospect of primary opponents financed by Mr. Musk, the president’s all-powerful partner and the world’s richest man.

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One prominent first-term critic of Mr. Trump said in a recent interview that not only would he not comment on the record, he did not want to be mentioned in this article at all. Every time his name appears in public, he said, the threats against him from the far right increase.

I get angry over the lack of courage some people with authority are showing right now. But I also understand it intimately. Because I’ve been on the receiving end of targeted harassment campaigns, and because I’ve seen firsthand how becoming a target upends people’s lives and derails organizations. I know the risks of speaking out and the beats of an attack. Crucially, I also understand the aftermath, what happens after most of the trolls have moved on. And the target is left to pick up the pieces and cope with what happened to them.

We’re also traumatized. Collectively and individually. By a pandemic that isolated us and tore apart the social fabric of society more than we want to admit. By an insurrection at our Capitol and how those responsible now hold power again, even the most violent among them now pardoned. By how many of our friends are neighbors either ignored the threat and stayed home or wanted more MAGA and voted for Trump again.

There are two ways of coping with this. You can forge ahead anyway, doing your best to mitigate the risk to yourself, family, and colleagues along the way. Or you can shut down and be silent. Keep a low profile and hope that the MAGA mob doesn’t come for you.

The problem with the latter choice is that eventually the MAGA mob will ultimately come for all of us. Silence and complicity won’t protect you. It's not a matter of if, but when. I believe people know this intellectually, but fear is a powerful motivator. The more you let fear take you over, the less rational your thinking becomes. Making sound decisions is hard when fear is in the driver’s seat, especially when you’re worried not just for yourself but your loved ones.

The Vox column smartly invokes historic anecdotes and stories in its answer but here’s the key point of their response:

Right now, for most of us, the risk is actually relatively minimal. Act now and you might lose your job, or maybe even get your organization defunded, resulting in more lost jobs. That’s not nothing. But unless you are an undocumented immigrant or otherwise especially vulnerable under Trump administration policies, you are, right now, not likely to be deported, imprisoned, or physically harmed the way resisters have been in more authoritarian states.

And if you don’t act now, America could well become a more authoritarian state. If that happens, people in the future really might not be able to resist without facing extreme consequences. That’s an argument for resisting now, while you can do it at relatively low risk.

It is not, however, an argument for acting nobly but recklessly. It’s an argument for acting strategically.

I agree wholeheartedly with acting strategically. Succumbing to fear doesn’t serve us in this moment, nor does running into the fire without equipment or a hose. The better we understand the risks of speaking out, the better we can prepare for them. One of the tenets of my newsletter is that the more you know about the MAGA movement, the less scary it becomes. In part because having a basic understanding of how these folks operate helps us mitigate the damage they can cause.

The cost of opposing Trump has never been higher, but that cost will only rise as time goes on. As Elon Musk and his goons steal from us, as Robert Kennedy Jr. and his conspiracies make America sicker, as Trump’s regime erodes our rights and freedoms day by day. We’re all called to be braver and bolder than ever before. Especially those of us with privileges that currently offer some protection.