猫咪社区

鈥淭hey鈥檙e not trying to impose dictatorship from a position of strength, they鈥檙e trying to impose it from a position of weakness and fear.鈥� 鈥�

鈥淚n the midst of discontent, talk, theoretical discussions, an individual or collective act of revolt supervenes, symbolizing the dominant aspirations.鈥� 鈥�Peter Kropotkin

The start of 2025 has been unsurprisingly chaotic. As a surge of wildfires engulfed the Los Angeles area, stealing people鈥檚 homes and livelihoods, the news broke that the world鈥檚 lands and oceans recorded the  in 2024. 

Even before his inauguration this week, President Donald Trump floated invading Greenland, retaking the Panama Canal, and making Canada the 51st state. While pointing his 鈥淎merica First鈥� policies toward expansionism and imperialist ends, he threatened the  justifying Israel鈥檚 ongoing genocide in Gaza. He also sought a public health justification for shuttering the southern border, much like the  that once inspired the Nazis. 

Since being sworn in, Trump acted on many of his statements immediately and  redefining birthright citizenship and gender as well as reversing climate regulations, among other terrible things. These issues alone paint just a portion of the picture of what鈥檚 coming to those of us who plan to fight back. 

The truth of these moments and many others is that if we plan to defy the order of the day, we must decide between what鈥檚 worth fighting about and what鈥檚 not the best use of our time. 

Often, the fights we choose to take up may not reflect the urgency other issues demand. Those emergencies can become so great that they choose us when we can no longer deny the need for our full participation. Now is the time to commit ourselves rather than wait to be forced into action by circumstances;  between proactively planning instead of waiting to see what happens and reacting to it. 

Resistance based on reaction may operate from the point of disadvantage if it usually requires an antagonism or a spark to mobilize a response. So we鈥檙e forced to admit that we have priorities if we understand this and then decide what to do about them.聽

Some fights are over issues that concern life and death, while others may be about much more trivial things. Internalizing awareness here will provide needed wisdom and precision about what makes the best use of our time during compounding crises. The nonstop news cycle, personal conflict, and the weight of survival make it hard to figure out where to focus our energy. However, as recent years have shown, it鈥檚 of the utmost importance to figure this out so that we don鈥檛 exhaust ourselves from pointless ventures. 

The political moment we鈥檙e in, where fascism is wearing us down, demands intentionality that should disrupt nonsense. Therefore, if we find ourselves amid unserious squabbles, it鈥檚 a testament to the unseriousness of the parties who choose to remain entangled. It鈥檚 not that we cannot multitask and focus on multiple issues simultaneously or that we should use dismissiveness to avoid accountability by labeling it a 鈥渄istraction.鈥� It鈥檚 that an unending circus of self-centeredness, celebrity drama, and political theater disrupts our focus and degrades our perspective. 

Unimportant fights are disagreements like those that center the famous and influencers as representatives people attach themselves to. They鈥檙e the conflicts that become inundated with pitfalls of disempowering political representation. That鈥檚 how the public ends up arguing for politicians who don鈥檛 care about them and stars who don鈥檛 share their class interests.  

This means that people must overcome the draw to participate in celebrity worship, symbolic issues, and other quarrels like the 鈥減etty ideological struggles鈥�  once spoke about. He said we have to 鈥渓ook at the substance,鈥� and that鈥檚 what鈥檚 always missing from so much of the messiness capitalist culture inundates us with. If more of us had genuine, deep relationships, too, many of the insignificant spats among us might subside. We can have our differences and even dislike one another while recognizing the gravity of this time we鈥檙e trying to survive. 

The oft-quoted psalm of revolutionary and author George Jackson to 鈥渟ettle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our situation, understand that fascism is already here鈥� rings hollow among much of today鈥檚 鈥渓eft.鈥� Anti-intellectualism, conservatism, and egos, among other things, make disputes a feature and not a flaw of bickering denominations. Siloed, powerless people fighting over who gets the most influence while those with actual power pummel them all is undoubtedly a goofy scene. 

This reality may overshadow another one of Jackson鈥檚聽: 鈥淓ach popular struggle must be analyzed historically to discover new ideas.鈥� Rejecting dogma and making movements past into prescriptive guides regurgitates old tactics, offering us new defeat. Bitter unity isn鈥檛 the answer; it鈥檚 often disastrous, too, but we have to answer something.聽Who is fed, housed, given health care, safety, and security by what we鈥檙e fighting about? Does the fight we鈥檙e in lead to a change that can alter people鈥檚 lives for the better or advance us toward a revolutionary shift?聽

What are the most important fights, then? That may depend on where you鈥檙e at and what the conditions say at a given moment. Someone fighting an actual fire knows that putting out the flames around them supersedes everything else at that time.

The beauty of the Black Panther Party鈥檚 intercommunalist proclamation 鈥渟urvival pending revolution鈥� is that it recognizes that we have to sustain ourselves to have any struggle whatsoever. It鈥檚 what led them to strategically confront problems about health care, housing, food, environment, and state violence. And while the Party was certainly not free from petty drama and avoidable conflicts, the model they established still matters today.聽

Nonsensical, repetitive debates on social media and posturing keep tiring us out. We need as much energy as possible to challenge the dominant status quo of capitalism. It鈥檚 one of the main reasons we have to be able to differentiate between disputes that happen for dispute鈥檚 sake or because people or entities around us want to create problems.

Our efforts should abandon self-aggrandizing optics, clout chasing, and content creation that doesn鈥檛 constitute a counterforce against oppression. The way we wage confrontation should be a threat to whomever or whatever is putting our lives at risk. Threats have to become kept promises too. 

When Black Power鈥揺ra theorist and former member of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers  reflected on the successes and failures of that time, he arrived at a conclusion that鈥檚 important now. Mohammed stated that we needed to 鈥渞eorganize our thinking.鈥� That reorganization 鈥渙f our political thinking,鈥� he said, 鈥渋s necessary because it has become too narrow, limited, and elitist. Unless we immediately begin to expand our vision, we will constantly find ourselves submerged in cynicism, pessimism, and despair.鈥�

He continued, 鈥渁 feeling of hopelessness and powerlessness has already begun to surface. 鈥� But that particular feeling can easily be overcome. 鈥� Not only must our analyses show our accomplishments, they must also show our failures and mistakes. If such analyses are properly done, we will have the type of transmission fuel needed to transcend feelings of hopelessness and powerlessness.鈥� One of the main mistakes generations have made in recent years is the sort of radical tourism and spreading of ourselves too thin. Focus is necessary to beat back everything that needs to be destroyed enough to gain new ground.聽

Our enemies and the oppressive elements we know all too well may not be as strong as we imagine. Teen hackers have made breaching federal authorities into . We saw this tyrannical president  when we rose against state violence in response to the killing of George Floyd. Even now, we鈥檝e seen that  with something to prove has sent shockwaves throughout the ruling elite. These aren鈥檛 distant memories; these things all tell us a lot about what鈥檚 possible in today鈥檚 world. 

A call to focus and concentrate our efforts is not necessarily a plea for centralization. Instead, it鈥檚 about being led by what the world around us is showing us our primary concerns should be. Sometimes, the stakes are so high it鈥檚 not even a question or a debate; it鈥檚 an immediate action that happens without question. You鈥檙e supposed to duck when someone throws a punch, but if you鈥檙e too preoccupied, the blow will hurt that much worse. We can look around and see who鈥檚 hitting us and who wants to knock us out of the frame completely. Instead of waiting for them to swing on us again, let鈥檚 evolve and hit them first.

This story was originally published in .