As of late, most of us have been reading the news with a sense of anxious trepidation. At least, those of us who read from a position of relative comfort and privilege. Many more read the news with fear. Some of us are already no longer in a position to read the news at all, having become the unfortunate subjects of the news. Fascism is on the rise worldwide and in the United States the news is particularly alarming. The time has arrived to act.
The enemy wants you to be overwhelmed and depressed, to feel like the situation is out of your control. Propaganda is as effective on me as it is on you, and in my own home the despair and helplessness the enemy aims to engineer in us often prevails in my own life. We mustn’t fall for this gambit.
When it comes to resistance, I don’t have all of the answers, and I cannot present a holistic strategy for effective resistance. Nevertheless, I have put some thought towards how someone in my position, or in my community, can effectively apply ourselves towards resistance.
The fact of the matter is that the tech sector is extraordinarily important in enabling and facilitating the destructive tide of contemporary fascism’s ascent to power. The United States is embracing a technocratic fascism at the hands of Elon Musk and his techno-fetishist “Department of Government Efficiency”. Using memes to mobilize the terminally online neo-right, and “digitizing” and “modernizing” government institutions with the dazzling miracles of modern technology, the strategy puts tech, in its mythologized form – prophesied, even, through the medium of science fiction – at the center of a revolution of authoritarian hate.
And still, this glitz and razzle dazzle act obscures the more profound and dangerous applications of tech hegemony to fascism. Allow me to introduce public enemy number one: Palantir. Under the direction of neo-fascist Peter Thiel and in collaboration with ICE, Palantir is applying the innovations of the last few decades of surveillance capitalism to implementing a database of undesirables the Nazis could have never dreamed of. Where DOGE is hilariously tragic, Palantir is nightmarishly effective.
It’s clear that the regime will be digital. The through line is tech – and the tech sector depends on tech workers. That’s us. This puts us in a position to act, and compels us to act. But then, what should we do?
If there’s one thing I want you to take away from this article, something to write on your mirror and repeat aloud to yourself every day, it’s this: there’s safety in numbers. It is of the utmost importance that we dispense with American individualism and join hands with our allies to resist as one. Find your people in your local community, and especially in your workplace, who you can trust and who believe in what’s right and that you can depend on for support. It’s easier if you’re not going it alone. Talk to your colleagues about your worries and lean on them to ease your fears, and allow them to lean on you in turn.
One of the most important actions you can take is to unionize your workplace. We are long overdue for a tech workers union. If tech workers unionize then we can compel our employers – this regime’s instruments of fascist power – to resist also. If you’re at the bottom looking up at your boss’s boss’s boss cozying up with fascists, know that with a union you can pull the foundations of his power out from beneath him.
More direct means of resistance are also possible, especially for the privileged and highly paid employees of big tech. Maneuver yourself towards the levers of power. At your current job, find your way onto the teams implementing the technology that enables authoritarianism, and fuck it up. Drop the database by “mistake”. Overlook bugs. Be confidently wrong in code reviews and meetings. Apply for a job at Palantir, and be incompetent at it. Make yourself a single point of failure, then fail. Remember too that plausible deniability is key – make them work to figure out that you are the problem.
This sort of action is scary and much riskier than you’re probably immediately comfortable with. Inaction carries risks also. Only you are able to decide what your tolerance for risk is, and what kind of action that calls for. If your appetite for risk doesn’t permit sabotage, you could simply refuse to work on projects that aren’t right. Supporting others is essential resistance, too – be there for your friends, especially those more vulnerable than yourself, and support the people who engage in direct resistance. You didn’t see nuffin, right? If your allies get fired for fucking up an important digital surveillance project – you’ll have a glowing reference for them when they apply for Palantir, right?
Big tech has become the problem, and it’s time for tech workers to be a part of the solution. If this scares you – and it should – I get it. I’m scared, too. It’s okay for it to be scary. It’s okay for you not to do anything about it right now. All you have to do right now is be there for your friends and loved ones, and answer this question: where will you draw the line?
Remember your answer, and if and when it comes to pass… you will know when to act. Don’t let them shift your private goalposts until the frog is well and truly boiled to death.
Hang in there.