Puff the Magic HaterYou have more in common with the people of Iran than you do with anyone in this administration, any member of the technocracy, anyone who is profiting from this war, or any billionaire. When you see Iranians forming human chains outside key infrastructure sites, you should feel a sense of kinship.
They are telling the world a story by putting their bodies on the line—a story about people clinging to the support structures that make their lives and their families' lives possible and livable.
Remember how you felt about people defending their neighbors in Chicago, Minneapolis, and other cities around the US? Extend that empathy a bit further, to people Trump is calling animals. It may hurt to stop and think about how much you have in common with those people. That's okay. Let it.
The empathy you feel for Trump's targets is not, in and of itself, a rebellion against fascism, but we will never win without it.
It's not just Iran whose surrender is being demanded. It's yours. Your hope. Your belief in yourself and our collective potential. Your empathy. They want to crush those things. They want you to believe their will is inevitable.
They want you to surrender.
One of the upsides of refusal is that saying "no" to evil and screaming "fuck you, this is wrong, and I will push back any way I can" doesn't necessitate having all the answers.
They want you to become listless and hopeless. They know that's easier for many of us than inhabiting uncertainty.
I get it. I don't do well with uncertainty. But I'm gonna stay here, in this ugly, messy uncertainty—grieving, refusing, denouncing, and trying to figure out what to do next.
So, if you're not sure what to do, but you're not willing to give up, if you're still thinking and trying—if you're willing to take a stranger by the hand, to try to make some hope—just know I'm here with you. I think a lot of us are, even if it feels lonely where you are right now.