Long text post incoming!
Any popular resistance movement dies in the cradle if people feel isolated. Isolation breeds inaction. Therefore, to make people feel less isolated, word needs to go out to the general public to build solidarity and make them feel part of a greater whole. Resistors are not alone! It also has the psychological benefit of making oppressors feel surrounded (and rightfully so).
Therefore, to get those who want to resist motivated, we must advertise our cause. Thankfully, we live in a modern age where designing good looking graphics and printing them has never been easier.
The best information campaign will rely on guerilla tactics. Put posters up in heavy traffic areas outside, at work, in your neighborhood, on public bulletin boards, wherever needed to get the message out. One priority place would be inside government offices. There are plenty of federal workers who are resisting. If they put up even a few, we can psychologically terrorize the fascists, and this will force them to focus inward and divert from the rest of society.
Of course, these will be damaged or destroyed, whether intentionally or not, so we must be ready to replace posters as that happens, especially if it’s ripped down.
Design: This, I think, is paramount. To attract those who may not like the current actions but are hesitant to really resist, it is important to use American symbology. Don’t let the fascists take our flag, our symbols, our iconography. These things bind us together as Americans, and it can have an inspiring effect. We are all part of the greater whole.
Also highly important, make sure the designs are good. Marketers, graphic designers: that’s your cue. If your an amateur, get the opinion of a trusted friend on a design.
If you don’t have the time or ability to design, just take one off the internet. Therefore, I propose that we make repository of resistance posters on the web. Domains are cheap. VPSes are, too. It can also serve as a virtual poster.
I’d love to hear your thoughts. If you have some designs, post 'em, print 'em, and distribute 'em!
If you do end up participating, printer steganography is something to be aware of. I never knew about this till fairly recently, and I think it was a comment here that informed me.
Walk into a store and buy a printer with cash? Sure, if something else gets the feds on your tail, they could still find the printer you have and match it with something later, if they even think to do that, or if those posters even still exist to do it with.
Maybe buy a printer off the used market with cash, print a large amount to last you a while, then sell the printer off again. You would have to manage your stock of flyers as a sort of contraband i.e. hide them, but that’s probably more convenient than “tainting” your personal printer and having that risk laying around your home.
About the iconography, our flag, etc. I agree with you, but if you use them it is very important to be clear and specific in whatever else the poster says, because vague statements can be very easily misread and those symbols by themselves will likely give comfort/anxiety to the wrong people. You can’t just wave an American flag and say “resist fascism” or “preserve women’s rights” or “protect children” or something like that, because those phrases mean different things to different people, and the color of the flag has been a useful way to know at a glance what the speaker intends.
From what I can see in conversations with Trump voters, it’s the specifics that give them pause – did I really vote for that? So, pick some particular action to respond to, or several in separate posters. There are so many to choose from.
This is a great point, and I love the idea of picking specific issues! I do think some general “Fascists beware” style fliers would be good, though, at least from perspective of making them feel less secure. But I see what you mean that “fascist” doesn’t really meet the mark and could be misinterpreted. What is a less loaded term? “Trumpists”? “MAGAs”? (MAGAT is too loaded and negative)
Top: “Stop treating humans inhumanely” or “Stop being INHUMANE to HUMANS” Middle: graphic of handcuffed silhouettes being marched towards an airplane at gunpoint. Bottom: “RESIST”
“Deport this” and some symbology.
“[We] Protect [teachers|librarians|civil servants]”
“Everyone deserves liberty”
Throw a “Join us!” on any of those.
I have rolled around in my head a good simple symbol. The uppercase Greek omega (Ω) is used in electronics to represent … wait for it … resistance. This symbol is easy for anyone to remember and reproduce.
