I’ve seen one list going around but it consists mainly of books, which may be time-consuming or unavailable for some folks, and our ability to share them far and wide is limited. I compiled this list of online articles available for free plus archive.org links. Check on the notes if you save this link as I may occasionally reblog it to add articles that fit.
“Ur-Fascism” by Umberto Eco[mirror link] – an essential description of what fascism looks like.
“No, We Won’t Calm Down” by Robothugs [mirror link] – how to avoid shutting out our marginalized allies, and how to recognize when someone is doing it to you
“On Arguing with the Upper Class” by The Coquette [mirror link] – why arguing with your friends on Facebook isn’t activism and it isn’t like what happened to Derek Black.
I skimmed through these (I’d read some of them before) so if you want a quick takeaway:
The White Flight of Derek Black is excellent reading if you feel like you need some hope.
Ur-Fascism provides a lot of historical context to modern fascism.
How to Help the Cause When You Need Help Yourself is a GREAT resource for people who feel like they can’t possibly do everything they want to, and who feel limited by disability, physical or neurological.
On Arguing with the Upper Class is a short, concise, useful single-punch if you feel like you can’t handle anything deep or long today.
The post on fascist tactics is for if you really want to get mad and start some shit.
They’re about a girl, in a professional hierarchy created by women, growing into her own power, and growing as a person. At the end of each book, her good work is validated by the most powerful witches. For Tiffany’s success, she’s rewarded in an almost Mary-Sue like fashion (and I use that term in the most positive way). Granny Weatherwax bows to her. Granny Weatherwax takes off her hat to her. This lifts Tiffany’s spirits and reassures her that she’s on the right track, and it’s treated as SO IMPORTANT, and, like – how many other books do that?
The prizes at the end of the story – Tiffany becomes a better person, she protects people, she gains the respect of her superiors (who are also women).
Can you imagine that in another novel? The joyful moment of heartwarming, the cherry on the ice cream sundae of the adventure, the heroine’s crowning glory, is that some old women bow to her in respect.
The books are so positive towards women, it’s unreal. Sure, the witches don’t always get along (they’re witches, they’ll always argue), and Tiffany has to deal with some petty one-up-man-ship, but it’s so fucking mature, how it’s handled. Tiffany winds up helping her enemy, Annagramma, who slowly learns to become a decent human being, and is revealed to have her own problems. She also becomes friends with the woman her childhood crush marries, even though they were initially antagonistic towards each other. It would have been SO EASY for these women to be one-note villains, the “bitches” for Tiffany to triumph over, but they’re not, and that’s fantastic. Pratchett does not go for the low-hanging fruit, and tear other women down to build Tiffany up.
I once had the incredible privilege to speak to Terry Pratchett in person at the Edinburgh Fringe. I thanked him for the Tiffany Aching novels, which had helped me and my husband bond during our year of long distance. And I asked him how he, as a male author, was able to write such well-rounded women.
“Well, my mother was a woman,” he said, and the audience laughed, but basically he said that his life had been filled with just as many interesting women as interesting men, and it felt natural to reflect that in his novels.
The Tiffany Aching series is a gift for girls. It’s a gift for just about anyone who reads them, but girls in particular NEED stories like this, stories about a world of women helping and challenging each other. Stories where they get to be powerful.
So I’ve been one. A press flack. A spindoctor. An evil henchmen of a really disliked government.
The one thing I was NEVER EVER ALLOWED TO DO EVER was LIE. It was beaten into me on day one – if you do it you’ll be fired because you will be putting the reputation of everyone in this organization at risk.
Today, Sean Spicer could have:
Announced all the executive orders that are being signed (Look! Working Boss Working For You on Day One!
Or
Average Americans don’t have the luxury of taking time off from work or can’t afford travel and we’re here for everyone
or
LOOK A BIRD
or
JAZZ HANDS
but he chose to elaborately present a lie. A big lie. A YUGE lie. About something that is totally inconsequential. At the end of the day, if only fourteen people and a squirrel turned up, Trump still got sworn in.
But he chose to lie that it was a record breaking crowd out there when it was below-average.
That is a PROBLEM. Because this is easypeasy stuff that is of little consequence. It would have been better to not even bring it up – let alone make it the whole reason you’re there – to lie?
What if there is an emergency? What if the lights go off or SARS comes back? Because I was in the middle of both those things as well. And that’s when it was really important that reporters trusted me and the information I was giving and that the information we were sending out and the accuracy of it. Lives were at stake.
You lie to a reporter once, no one will ever believe you again. His bridge with the press corps is burned.
And you’re not upholding democracy by lying for your guy, you’re in fact doing the opposite of that. Lies coming out of a press office are every day in a fascist authoritarian regime.
There is a rule with political staffers: you get ordered by the boss to go out and lie? You quit on the spot. Because you’re paid in tax dollars and you are responsible to the people – all of them.
You know why Mike McCurry left the Clinton White House? Because he knew the time was rapidly approaching when he was going to have to cross a line, and lie for the president.
So he resigned.
I remember watching him walk out of the West Wing. Best advice anyone ever gave me, just a green kid trying to find her way in DC, was from him.
At the end of the day if you can’t look at yourself in the mirror, straight in the eye, then there’s nothing more to be done. Don’t sacrifice what you know to be right for anyone.
This. What she says is true, because I’ve been there, too. And I’ve lost a job because of it. Bill Kristol – BILL KRISTOL – has expressed his complete disbelief at Spicer’s conduct in the press room yesterday. If you’ve sunk so far that Bill Kristol is calling you out publicly, you should resign.
Chiune Sugihara. This man saved 6000 Jews. He was a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania. When the Nazis began rounding up Jews, Sugihara risked his life to start issuing unlawful travel visas to Jews. He hand-wrote them 18 hrs a day. The day his consulate closed and he had to evacuate, witnesses claim he was STILL writing visas and throwing from the train as he pulled away. He saved 6000 lives. The world didn’t know what he’d done until Israel honored him in 1985, the year before he died.
Why can’t we have a movie about him?
He was often called “Sempo”, an alternative reading of the characters of his first name, as that was easier for Westerners to pronounce.
His wife, Yukiko, was also a part of this; she is often credited with suggesting the plan. The Sugihara family was held in a Soviet POW camp for 18 months until the end of the war; within a year of returning home, Sugihara was asked to resign – officially due to downsizing, but most likely because the government disagreed with his actions.
He didn’t simply grant visas – he granted visas against direct orders, after attempting three times to receive permission from the Japanese Foreign Ministry and being turned down each time. He did not “misread” orders; he was in direct violation of them, with the encouragement and support of his wife.
He was honoured as Righteous Among the Nations in 1985, a year before he died in Kamakura; he and his descendants have also been granted permanent Israeli citizenship. He was also posthumously awarded the Life Saving Cross of Lithuania (1993); Commander’s Cross Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (1996); and the Commander’s Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2007). Though not canonized, some Eastern Orthodox Christians recognize him as a saint.
Sugihara was born in Gifu on the first day of 1900, January 1. He achieved top marks in his schooling; his father wanted him to become a physician, but Sugihara wished to pursue learning English. He deliberately failed the exam by writing only his name and then entered Waseda, where he majored in English. He joined the Foreign Ministry after graduation and worked in the Manchurian Foreign Office in Harbin (where he learned Russian and German; he also converted to the Eastern Orthodox Church during this time). He resigned his post in protest over how the Japanese government treated the local Chinese citizens. He eventually married Yukiko Kikuchi, who would suggest and encourage his acts in Lithuania; they had four sons together. Chiune Sugihara passed away July 31, 1986, at the age of 86. Until her own passing in 2008, Yukiko continued as an ambassador of his legacy.
It is estimated that the Sugiharas saved between 6,000-10,000 Lithuanian and Polish Jewish people.
It’s a tragedy that the Sugiharas aren’t household names. They are among the greatest heroes of WWII. Is it because they were from an Axis Power? Is it because they aren’t European? I don’t know. But I’ve decided to always reblog them when they come across my dash. If I had the money, I would finance a movie about them.
He told an interviewer:
You want to know about my motivation, don’t you? Well. It is the kind of sentiments anyone would have when he actually sees refugees face to face, begging with tears in their eyes. He just cannot help but sympathize with them. Among the refugees were the elderly and women. They were so desperate that they went so far as to kiss my shoes, Yes, I actually witnessed such scenes with my own eyes. Also, I felt at that time, that the Japanese government did not have any uniform opinion in Tokyo. Some Japanese military leaders were just scared because of the pressure from the Nazis; while other officials in the Home Ministry were simply ambivalent.
People in Tokyo were not united. I felt it silly to deal with them. So, I made up my mind not to wait for their reply. I knew that somebody would surely complain about me in the future. But, I myself thought this would be the right thing to do. There is nothing wrong in saving many people’s lives….The spirit of humanity, philanthropy…neighborly friendship…with this spirit, I ventured to do what I did, confronting this most difficult situation—and because of this reason, I went ahead with redoubled courage.
He died in nearly complete obscurity in Japan. His neighbors were shocked when people from all over, including Israeli diplomatic personnel, showed up at quiet little Mr. Sugihara’s funeral.
I will forever reblog this, I wish more people would know about them!
I liked this before when it had way less information. Thank you, history-sharers.
Tucked away in a corner in L.A.’s Little Tokyo is a life-sized statue of Chiune, seated on a bench and smiling gently as he holds out a visa.
The stone next to him bears a quote from the Talmud; “He who saves one life, saves the entire world.”
I had no idea it existed until a few weeks ago, but it’s since become one of my favorite pieces of public art.
girls, do me a favor and be your loudest, brashest, weirdest, truest you tomorrow. show the world what carrie has taught us: we don’t have to conform to be princesses
“… Remember that you have the power to be the lippy bitch she would encourage you to be. Let her legacy be a bunch of honest, powerful women who are not going to be told to sit down and shut up.” – Leena van Deventer
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