It doesn’t help that Labour seem determined to fuck things up. They have such a big majority that they could do so much to actually speak to the problems that regular people are experiencing that drives people to vote Reform.

I live in a pretty shitty area that has a high proportion of Reform voters. Our MP is Labour, but on the track we’re on, we might have a Reform MP next time. Some of the Reform voters round here are racist arseholes, but most of them just feel so demoralised and unrepresented by the mainstream political parties that they are desperate for something — anything different.

Some of them actively acknowledge that if Reform won enough seats that Farage became MP, that they would almost certainly fuck up the country significantly, but they don’t care anymore. They’re so desperate for change that the idea of burning the established order down feels appealing, because even if things will get very shit, very fast, that feels like the only path where there’s the possibility of hope for something good springing from the ashes.

It’s simultaneously an irrational and entirely reasonable thing to crave. I can’t say I don’t sympathise.

Fucking twat.

This is fucking stochastic terrorism

TL;DR:

• Fight if you can

• Flee if you must

• But always resist

Connect with networks in your community. We need to rely on each others’ support to get through this, no matter how the situation develops

The person who replied to you said “Fight”, and they’re not wrong, but I want to emphasise that there are people whose personal circumstances mean that they feel they need to flee, and that is okay. You should not feel guilty if this is something you genuinely need to do.

If you need to flee, do so by relying on your community. Don’t do things along. Look for ways that you can resist while still keeping yourself safe, and use your community connections to support other people who need to flee. There are some people who are not as able to fight, but there are still ways they can contribute.

To give an example of the kind of thing I mean (albeit in a far less explosive context, because I’m not in the US), I am physically disabled and have a bunch of other factors that mean I am not safely able to attend most protests, even as a legal observer. However, there have been a few times where I have been on standby, parked near the police station overnight, waiting for people to be released. This is because UK police tend to make a lot of arrests at protests and either not charge you, or charge you at a later point. They tend to let people out in the middle of the night, and they often do not have resources to travel home, or easy ways to contact people for help. When people in my network find out which station arrested protesters have been taken to, we can coordinate to ensure that there’s definitely going to be someone there when they are let out.

Like I say, that’s an example from a very different political climate. Things on the ground where you are is changing so fast that I can’t possibly know what kind of support roles are both relatively safe, and useful right now. This is why it is crucial to connect with your communities. Figuring out what works is a work-in-progress, but I am confident that there are ways you can help contribute to the resistance efforts while also relying on your community to help you or your loved ones flee if you need to.

Things are awful, and it sucks. Nothing is safe right now, even fleeing. But we have a duty to do whatever we can to reduce the harm done to the people in our communities. At times like this, all we have is each other, so let’s look after each other.

That fact that this exists is Art