How best to contribute to anti-facist efforts as an engineer? | Hacker News Reader

How best to contribute to anti-facist efforts as an engineer?

22 pointsckbishop14 comments

Good morning.

As an American burdened by an over-abundance of empathy, I find myself engulfed in a myriad of anxieties that I am having trouble dealing with. I have a layman's understanding of world history, and I can't stop thinking about one of the later scenes from Schindler's List, wherein the German citizens downwind of a concentration camp were forced to help clean-up rubble because they had committed the crime of indifference and inaction while adjacent to horrific crimes against humanity.

I feel a strong urge to turn my head for my own sanity, which of course is one of the desired outcomes of this 'flood the zone' strategy that these New Nazis have deployed. I will not turn my head.

The problem is that I have things to lose and I'm in a class that will mostly be unaffected by most of their actions, other than inflation and instability, so I'm kind of just constantly checking the news and hoping that those with more to lose actually do something to stop this madness. I have a feeling that many of us, as engineers or otherwise, are in the same boat.

So my question is, what can I do to be civilly disobedient and inflict harm on this insane movement without imperiling myself, or those that I love? I personally don't know where my line is for imperiling myself, or those that I love and I would rather not find out.

Is anyone else struggling with this?

There are differing opinions on this and there have been academic studies on what levers can an unpopular government keep themselves in power. From everything I have ever read and listened to, the most effective way for the average citizen to check government abuse is to engage in the mainstream media.

There is a reason why the US Constitution first amendment sought to protect the "free press". Support the free press, buy a subscription. Several subscriptions. Write letters to the editor. Share articles with your family and friends.

Yeah, I have already done some of this. I hadn't read Wired in years, but rewarded them with a subscription as soon as they revealed the identity of Elon's minions.

The first thing you need to realize is that Hacker News is a pro-fascist stronghold and that it is at best unwise and at worst unsafe (and either way unproductive) to talk seriously about such things here.

You can find a lot of resources on Mastodon and Reddit, but be aware that every form of media is being astroturfed and propagandized (including HN.) Look for opportunities for activism within your own community, and network with people on the ground.

And accept that resistance may have consequences. You don't need to be a hero. Even something as simple as giving money to mutual aid groups is enough. Raise awareness on social media. Refuse to comply where you can afford to. Anything is better than nothing.

Calling yourself an anti-fascist is either (a) resigning to those people always driving the bus (why not call your movement after what you want as opposed to what you don't want?) or (b) thinking life is like V for Vendetta or Pink Floyd's The Wall. 20 years of people who could have been behind a movement for positive social change crying wolf is one reason why we are in this mess.

What a broad brush to use about the antiwar movement, antisemitism, anti-narcotic and anti-drug campaigns, anti-suffragism, anti-statism, antismoking, antisalooners, Anti-Catholicism, antitrust laws, and of course antidisestablishmentarianism.

As well as many conservatives like Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle, and 'liberals' like FDR so-called because of an explicit rejection of socialism, not to mention the Republican who ran against him in 1940

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendell_Willkie

who pivoted from opposing the New Deal to being the US's diplomatic vanguard for WWII.

Yeah man, let me make my progressive social movement while under the rule of people who are happy to use violence and other nefarious means to suppress any sort of positive change that threatens their power. If only people had made movements against the Iraq war and bank bailouts in 08, things would be so much different now.

Same as its ever been.

Back in the 1960s you had Jewish people who learned something in general from how their own people were oppressed and went down to the US South and gave their lives for the civil rights movement.

The author doesn't want to face any consequences for his activism but this essay makes it clear you have to take your lumps

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Disobedience_(Thoreau)

A woman who rides horses at our barn used to run the soup kitchen in Ithaca but she got arrested and spent time in federal prison because she crashed the gate at a facility where they store nuclear weapons.

There's a big difference between that and the people who share hateful memes on social and think they are 'activists'.

First, all communications will be grokked by fgov AI, think Google Play Store false positive bans, but for people instead of apps. So stop grokkable communications.

Don't support fgov economy, produce yourself and your communities, use paramoney and barter. E-coins aren't paramoney, they are being extracted with fines.

Keep a low profile.

I just stumbled upon a whole group of people that may feel the same as you:

https://www.reddit.com/r/50501/

It seems the fascist parties are mostly propelled by anti-immigration sentiment [1]. If you want to take the wind out of their sails, the best way would be by creating a liberal, progressive party, that however wants to decrease immigration [2]. This shouldn't take much work, as the left's position is already anti-immigration and anti-demographic-change when it comes to some other countries/territories, such as Kashmir [3].

[1] Though they don't always listen to their voters on that - e.g. after Brexit, the Tories greatly increased immigration to Britain.

[2] Such as used to be the position of Bernie Sanders: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/16/years-ber...

[3] Kashmir’s new status could bring demographic change, drawing comparisons to the West Bank - https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/08/08/kashmirs-new...

Your [2] doesn't seem to understand how the Sander's opposition to guest workers, eg, H1B, which is a non-immigrant visa, isn't that of "decrease immigration" but an objection specifically to guest workers:

> Sanders defended his vote by suggesting that the guest worker provisions in the bill were “akin to slavery,” a notable shift from how Sanders talked about immigrant labor before his presidential bids.

The "before his presidential bids" quote from 2007 says the same:

> “If poverty is increasing and if wages are going down, I don’t know why we need millions of people to be coming into this country as guest workers who will work for lower wages than American workers and drive wages down even lower than they are right now,”

In both cases he singles out "guest workers" as the issue, and not the broad category of "immigrants."

This includes guest workers who work under an H1B visa which, quoting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-1B_visa:

> has been criticized for potentially subsidizing businesses, creating conditions likened to modern indentured servitude, institutionalizing discrimination against older workers, and suppressing wages within the technology sector. Economists and academics remain divided on the program's overall effect, including its effects on innovation, U.S. workers, and the broader economy

As for your policy advice, do bear in mind that the last three Democratic presidents have been anti-immigration.

Clinton's Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 was part of his "triangulation" to attract anti-immigrant sentiment and take the wind out of the sails of Republicans.

Obama was nicknamed the "Deporter in Chief", and Biden was little different, while keeping most of Trump's changes, and even recently boasting about his deportation counts compared to Trump (II).

In other words, the Democratic Party has already implemented your suggestion, only to find that it didn't cause enough people to switch parties, while causing them to lose support due to the apathy and resignation by those who think the current laws are far too cruel and inhumane.

The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 in [3] could also be described as the right's willingness to suppress minority rights and autonomy.

Nor is there need to point to India: the left tends to support Native American tribal sovereignty, rather than the older expansionist practices of taking over Native land in the name of explicit demographic change.

No, Sanders was quite openly against open borders and for reducing immigration in general, not just H1B:

Sanders, however, has long criticized open borders. In 2015, he referred to them as a "right wing proposal" pushed forward by the wealthy Koch brothers. "You're doing away with the concept of a nation state, and I don't think there's any country in the world which believes in that," he said in an interview with Ezra Klein of Vox. - https://www.newsweek.com/bernie-sanders-open-borders-poverty...

As for Democratic (or Republican, for that matter, including Trump's 1st term) presidents being anti-immigration - that was entirely smoke and mirrors. Statistics show mass legal immigration continued (then massively accelerated under Biden): https://www.visualcapitalist.com/charted-u-s-net-immigration...

Please define "open borders", and tell me which politicians support that. Certainly neither Democrats nor Republican consider it part of their party's goals:

"Trump has inaccurately accused opponents from both parties, but especially Democrats, of supporting open borders, claiming they would allow "criminals" and "terrorists" to enter the U.S. undeterred. Democratic leaders have pushed back, pointing out that they support secure borders, and as Sanders said, wanted comprehensive immigration reform." - https://www.newsweek.com/bernie-sanders-open-borders-poverty...

While we know that the Republican donors Charles and David Koch support open borders, as the Newsweek article quotes: "I would let everybody in who comes here to contribute, and no one who wants to come here to do harm".

Open borders are what we have between the states. Open borders are like between England and Scotland.

Very few places - Svalbard being the only one I know of - have open borders where anyone can enter the country, without visa or other permit, and even become citizens that way.

I don't think any major political party has that sort of open border as a goal, left or right.

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