THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE IN YOUR INSTA FEED

A follow-up for everyone who read about strategic silence and instead demanded protest marches, infographics, and voting guides.

FUNNY HOW WE’LL CRITICIZE regular folks for not using their tiny platforms to push voting, but we won’t question why former presidents with massive influence choose to remain “presidential” instead of fighting fascism.

Earlier this week I wrote an article about strategic silence. And happily, for most of you it resonated. You got it and completely understood why staying quiet and refusing to enable fascist systems — like ICE — matters more than performative outrage.

Yet, some folks were big mad. Asking me for definitions of fascism, demanding “action items”, and insisting that protest, outrage, and a check-list of anti-fascist hashtags was the absolute fucking answer.

To those people: This follow-up is for you.
And to the rest of you: Come along for the ride! :)

Let’s count the protests of just the last year: Climate marches with millions worldwide. Gaza protests shutting down cities. Anti-gun rallies after each new slaughter of human beings. Indigenous protests against pipelines around the world. Women’s marches for reproductive rights.

And what changed?

Fucking nothing.

Actually, that’s not true.

Things got worse.

While people were busy feeling good about showing up to exercise *our rights*, America was busy methodically dismantling someone else’s rights, quietly passing more restrictions.

They don’t fear the protest signs. They count on them.

I was here at the March to End Fossil Fuels, in NYC September 2023. Along with 75,000 other people I followed the approved route, obtained via the right permits, and stayed behind the barriers. Meanwhile, U.S. oil production hit 13.2 million barrels per day — the highest ever recorded.

You want to know why protesting isn’t the answer right now? Because we have an exceedingly right-wing government, an extremely right-wing Supreme Court, and a SIGNIFICANT portion of voters who embrace right-wing ideologies and candidates. And each day America doubles down on fascist policies while Democrats and folks who rely solely on coloring within the lines, wring their hands, hold up signs, and ask you to vote harder next time.

“But their hands are tied!” folks cry about Biden, Kamala, Obama. Okay, cool. Sure. But hey Chad: Their hands aren’t tied anymore. So what are these establishment politicians doing with their enormous influence and power outside the system now? Putting it on the line for actual progress, or speaking at $500,000 banquets while collecting book deals?

The trap of electoral politics runs deep. Every four years we’re told this is the *MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION EVER*. That we must set aside all other concerns and focus solely on voting. That after we vote, things will change and we can all go back to brunching in peace. Thank God, Cynthia. I mean nothing, but nothing, makes me feel all the democracy feels quite like some Veuve over avocado toast.

And so here we are, with decades of voting in *the most important fucking election, like, ever*, switching between Democrats and Republicans, and I ask you: What’s significantly improved? Every *progressive* victory gets dismantled by the next administration. Every step forward gets dragged three steps back. Every win for humans to be themselves and live freely, gets squashed faster than you can say ‘freedom and justice for all’.

The system you want to protest within? It’s designed to absorb your outrage. To channel it into approved forms of dissent. To make you feel like you’re doing something while nothing fundamentally changes.

Look at how it works: A horrific policy drops. Protests are organized. Permits obtained. Routes approved. Politicians tweet support. Media covers the *peaceful demonstration*. Maybe there’s a celebrity speech. Everyone feels good about showing up. Instagram stories flourish. And then . . . nothing changes. The policy stays. But people feel like they *did something*.

Time for a $9 matcha latte to celebrate our activism!

Meanwhile, real change happens in the shadows. It happens when communities quietly organize food distribution networks without government oversight. When neighbors silently agree to watch each other’s kids so parents can work. When clinic workers forget to ask for documentation. When teachers don’t notice hungry kids taking extra food home.

This isn’t about being passive. It’s about being strategic. While celebrities and celebrity politicians maintain their respectability and influence by playing nicely within the rules, actual communities are building parallel support systems that bypass the establishment entirely.

Remember what worked historically? The Underground Railroad wasn’t a protest march. It was a secret network of people who strategically chose when to speak and when to shut up. The Danish Resistance didn’t win by holding permitted rallies. They won by systematic non-cooperation and strategic silence.

This is why permitted protests serve the system so perfectly. They create the illusion of action while channeling dissent into pre-approved boxes. Think about it: You need permission from the very system you’re protesting against. You have to tell them your route, your time, your numbers. They decide if your protest is *legitimate* under their interpretation of the First Amendment. They control the narrative about whether you were *peaceful* enough.

And at the end of the day, they can simply ignore you — because you played by their rules in their game.

And believe me I know, as I have been there. Attended more protests than you can poke a stick at. Even helped organize a national direct action to ban guns in the summer of 2023. But guess what? It didn’t work and guns are still the number one killer of children in the United States, gun advocacy orgs are still sending emails begging for money every time a kid gets shot, and our politicians are still muttering thoughts and prayers in between media appearances celebrating their Second Amendment rights.

Jesus wept.

This is exactly why my first article focused on legal non-compliance. On building networks of mutual aid. On learning when to keep quiet instead of performing outrage. Because real change doesn’t come from working within a system designed to neutralize dissent — it comes from quietly building alternatives that make that system irrelevant.

So you want to “do something”? Great! Because your right to remain silent isn’t just a movie quote — it’s a tool. So let’s all skip the self-congratulatory matcha lattes, and learn the subtle art of shutting the fuck up.

Over. And over. And over again.

• Stop performing outrage and start building community networks

• Learn to recognize the difference between action and activism

• Build mutual aid systems that don’t need government approval

• And understand that exercising your right to remain silent can protect more lives than your protest sign.

They’re counting on our need to be seen doing something.

But remember that the most radical act might be doing nothing — visibly, loudly, performatively — all while quietly building Every. Fucking. Thing.