2025-06
Assume that you are a citizen of a democratic country in which a fascist party is gaining influence and starts to threaten the constitution. Here are some low-effort, high impact things you can do right now to stop them.
Join a democratic political party
Most of them have an online form for applying directly. You don't have to agree with all or even any of their positions on actual policy, as long as you are sure that they are a hindrance in the way of the fascists. A good test to find this out: watch a speech of your favorite fascist politician and notice the party they spend most time on ridiculing and ranting against. Then join that party. You may think that merely joining a party doesn't help but this isn't true: you'll probably pay them some monthly membership fee which will be used to organize party work. In some countries, political parties also get some amount of money from the state for every bit of money they get from membership dues, so your contribution acts as a multiplier. Besides money, you appear in the statistics. A high number of members acts as a signal to the media and the entire political system that a party is important and powerful. You want the democratic parties to be seen as more important and powerful than the fascists. You may think that the democratic process is hopelessly corrupted by the influence of powerful lobbies. Well, the only thing to do is to dilute their influence.
Consider participating in party politics
Even a little bit will help. Consider voting in primaries, answering surveys, participating in discussion groups or conferences. Your goal here should not be to make the party take the policy positions that you personally favor but those that will help the party win elections. Often, the most engaged members of a party are also the most radical ones. The most radical positions, by definition, rarely win elections. Elections not won by democratic parties will be won by non-democratic parties. Beware the pundit's fallacy: people often think that the positions they favor themselves will also win elections. When selecting candidates for office, support candidates that are popular, well-spoken, capable, and fit the politics of their constituency (don't select a radical leftist for a race in a conservative neighbourhood). Do not support candidates just because you personally like them. We often have a tendency to support people who show no hunger for power but this is a mistake. If democratic candidates don't strive for power, guess who will?
Consider donating money directly
Donate to people and organizations that stand in the way of the fascists. Money is very important in politics, it allows to broadcast more advertisements, get more news coverage, organize protests. It is easy to find out who to donate to: ask a fascist which organization should be defunded, which foreign government we should stop supporting. Then start supporting them! Again, you really don't have to agree with whoever you are giving money to. It's more important that 1. the _fascists_ disagree with them and 2. they are part of the democratic coalition. (What is the democratic coalition? Everyone who would uphold the democratic constitution if they were elected with an absolute majority. If you're confident you could un-elect someone after they've been elected, they are probably part of the democratic coalition.) Donating directly allows you to be tactical. Support candidates that draw votes from people whose votes would otherwise go to the fascists, support candidates who have a chance to win tight races.
Protest
This one is obvious. Protesting signals to everyone around that you care. If your protest is large enough, you can make the news which will encourage others who are sympathetic to your cause. You don't have to actually carry or shout anything if that's not your style. Consider it a nice walk.
Subscribe to a national newspaper or magazine with a large readership
Think New York Times, Le Monde, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, The Guardian. You don't have to agree with their spin or even read them.
In the online communities I visit regularly, there's a pretty strong anti-media sentiment. You may have read an essay called "Don't watch the news" or some other online opinion arguing that mainstream media is a distraction and that you should instead learn about the world via blogs or books or video essays on Youtube. It's true that there are big problems with mainstream media and that some content on the internet is really well researched but it's also true that 1. the people making these claims usually refer to News-As-Entertainment television, not weekly news magazines (reading long-form journalism is better than watching short news clips) and 2. some functions of the news really can only be done by large-scale media organizations.
Journalists often take themselves too seriously, are stuck in their (capital city) bubble, and often are simply wrong. But if fascists find it necessary to rail against the so-called "mainstream media" so frequently, there must be something to them. I specifically recommend print media (though I don't care if you read them online) because they seem to be the most important supporters of investigative journalism. This is important because it's the only way to keep people in power from lying too much. You may have observed that people in power often don't care about being caught lying but 1. it would be good to make them care again (make liars lose elections) and 2. it's important to at least be able to _know_ when they are lying. The reason I recommend large publications is that modern democracy (whose invention coincided with the invention of the nation state) is contingent on mass media. It's not just important that you personally know about some event but that you and your grandma and your neighbour and your teacher and your colleague know about some event, including a set of basic facts about it. This kind of building of common ground can only be done by somewhat uncool, unhip, mainstream media.
By subscribing to a newspaper, you are directly funding people that do this job. Because you are free to choose which newspaper you subscribe to, you can choose the one that in your perspective does the best job. Maybe you think that they are all doing a terrible job but the baseline here is a newspaper run by fascists. Surely you can find one existing newspaper that does a better job at reporting than a fascist one would?
Subscribe to a local newspaper
(Nowadays there's often only one left.) Local news are often boring and produced on a a shoestring budget, so I'm not asking you to actually read them. But if enough people subscribe, there's at least the funding ready to do some real reporting on local affairs. Even if your local newspaper does not currently do such reporting, your subscription signals to the market that there is demand for it. Assume that your mayor is corrupt, how would you get to know about it?
Try to do a good job
One of our best defences, historically, has been that democratic societies are better at providing stability and prosperity. This is not by accident. A fair and open society allows for mistakes to be exposed and fixed. It allows for people to choose the jobs they are best suited for and thus generate more value. If you personally do a good job, you are, in a small way, contributing to a prosperous and generally better-functioning society. This is true in your place of work but it's also true for work you do in the context of your church, your local sports association, your family life, and even your group of friends. Open societies depend on people who give a damn. If democratic societies function visibly better than non-democratic societies, they will win.
You may think that autocrats have a natural advantage at governance because they don't have to care about rules and regulations and don't have to think about the next election. It is not clear that this is really the case. Democratic societies have displayed a surprising amount of flexibility and decisiveness in the past, as soon as the majority has committed to a course of action. Autocracy meanwhile has some disadvantages on its own: it often comes with close-mindedness, censorship, corruption, and a general sense of fear. For a citizen in a democratic country, the main lesson should be: don't let due process and election cycles stand in the way of doing the right thing. There's no law of nature that rules and regulations must be inflexible. There's no one forbidding you to think and act long-term, even if that may come with a short-term cost.
De-radicalize your friends
When fascism is on the rise, there will come a moment when someone close to you starts sympathizing with the fascist view. When that happens, it is important that you don't react by flipping out and ending the relationship to that person. Ostracized people often become more radical. Instead, make clear that you disagree with them but also that you still value them as a person. Instead of saying sentences like "X is wrong and you are stupid for thinking otherwise", try to ask questions: "Why do you think X is right? Like, I've only seen the contrary so far.", "Where did you get that from? I don't trust that source". Try to understand where they are coming from and genuinely engage with their position. Make yourself familiar with deradicalization strategies.