A.R. Moxon: Lying to Fascists

https://www.the-reframe.com/lying-to-fascists/

*snip*

This is the thing that makes me flirt with despair the most, I think: when people who claim to want good things start with the premise that people like Sam Alito, who have already proved that they are acting in bad faith, are not acting in bad faith, and then proceed to let absolutely nothing change that opinion. Who tell us that we need a strong Republican Party. That the way to deal with police impunity and militarized brutality is to give the police even more money. That despite all the corruption, Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas aren't corrupt because they just can't be. That what open fascists want isn't fascism because saying that fascism is fascism is extremist and dangerous in ways that fascism itself is not.

It's how you go along with the current. It's how fascism rises; on a tide of goodwill.

Here's what I want you to understand today: These Americans who want to kill Americans have, through their intent and actions, already destroyed the thing you want to protect. What you want to protect is already gone. The reason we can't live in a society with them is not because we have any intention to harm or kill them, but because they are eager to kill so many of us that they are willing to destroy society to do it. Either they get their way, and society is no longer accessible to most of us, or they don't, and everyone including them gets to access society. Therefore, I think they shouldn't get their way or be treated as if they should. These are people who intend to destroy whatever they need to in order to rule over our lives to secure their own personal enrichment and comfort, and are so confident in their success that they announce their intent. They do not care about you, and they certainly do not care about your good-faith efforts beyond the extent to which they make it easier for them to seize control. They will never give you credit for working to find their rationales reasonable. They will never return the benefit of the doubt you extend. Our mission is not finding ways to work with them. Our mission is finding ways to sabotage their efforts and keep their targets as safe from them as we can.

Here's what I want you to understand today: The ends do not justify the means, but they do define them. Lying is usually wrong. It is bad when people lie to capture the Supreme Court because they want to establish a dictatorial theocracy, for example, or if you are for example a New York real estate developer and you want to commit billions in fraud. But lying is not always wrong. Do you think people on the Underground Railroad who hid formerly enslaved people sometimes lied to the nascent police officers hunting them? I think they did. Do you think they lied to those in their communities who they knew would report suspected slaves on the run? I think they did. Do you think that was wrong of them? I don't. Do you think they needed to justify the lie? I don't. What people are actually trying to do is what matters. Apply moral clarity to your thinking, and behave accordingly.

We are dealing with people who have proved that they are not safe—who insist, loudly, that they are not safe. They'll cheer when your murderer gets pardoned, and then they'll bring him up on stage to celebrate him. Our mission isn't to tell the truth to them. Our mission is to make it as hard as possible for them to do what they intend—as much as we can, wherever we are, however we are able.

*snip*

Long, but well worth the read.