Interested in these emails?
Do us a favor and click on one of the links (any one will do). That’ll tell us you’d like to keep getting updates.

Indivisibles,

Last month, Leah wrote a great piece -- [ [link removed] ]The Case for Hope. Since then,
Mar-a-Lago was raided, inflation has dropped, gas prices have plummeted,
the polls shifted in our direction, Democrats passed the largest climate
bill in American history, and President Biden wiped out billions of
dollars of student loan debt. The case for hope looks pretty darn good
right now. 

I want to take it a step beyond hope: the case for fun. But bear with me,
this is serious. Fun is one of the most powerful tools we have to defeat
the fascists. Fun takes the fascists down a peg, gets free advertising for
our pro-democracy movement, brings more people into the fold, and makes it
easier on all of us to keep up the fight.

I’ll share some of the fun on the campaign trail I’m seeing around the
country, and I’ll ask you to share some of your fun with me. If you want
to reach out to me directly I’m over at [ [link removed] ]@ezralevin on Twitter. Ok
enough throat-clearing. Let’s have some fun.

Fun vs fascism

Let’s take fun seriously. 

Even before Indivisible, Leah and I would talk about the success of Otpor!
-- the Serbian pro-democracy movement that successfully took down the
dictator Slobodon Milošević in the early 2000s. As we were writing the
original Indivisible Guide, one of the books I had at my side was by a
leader of the Otpor movement Srdja Popović, [ [link removed] ]Blueprint for Revolution.
It has a funny, long, and descriptive title: How to Use Rice Pudding, Lego
Men, and Other Non-violent Techniques to Galvanise Communities, Overthrow
Dictators, Or Simply Change the World. It’s an insightful work on the
power of creativity, irony, ridicule, and generally humorous nonviolent
confrontation in the fight for democracy and against repressive political
power. More recently, Popović and international affairs professor Sophia
McClennen published another book on the topic -- [ [link removed] ]Pranksters vs
Autocrats -- which has informed Indivisible’s work this year to bring
media attention to MAGA extremism.

With a little thought and planning, fun can be truly powerful. This is
from McClennen and Popović’s article on the subject: [ [link removed] ]Don’t Fight the
Fascists. Laugh at Them:

The best counter to the aggressive and delusional anger of the right is
creative, playful, often humorous counterprotests. Strange as it may seem,
there is a lot of evidence that proves that the lighthearted, fun-loving,
ironic challenges to Nazis are more effective than anger.

“Laughtivism” accomplishes three big things:

 1. It gets media! Media likes fun stuff -- it gets clicks and eyeballs.
People enjoy reading, watching, and hearing about fun stuff, so the
media is more likely to cover it.
 2. It gets people! Who wants to be part of a sad and serious movement?
Think of the radical pro-union activist Emma Goldman -- “If I can’t
dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution.” Make your movement
fun and cool, and your movement will grow.
 3. It puts the fascist in a bind. Successfully pulled off, laughtivism
takes the fascists down a peg -- they look ridiculous or humorless or
both. And while fascists can afford to be hated, they can’t afford to
be a laughing stock.

How to have fun while beating the fascists

Fun ain’t easy. These are fascists we’re talking about. They’re doing
despicable things. They’re attacking us, our loved ones, our schools, our
communities, our democracy. It’s no laughing matter.

In their book, McClennen and Popović explain that effectively implementing
fun isn’t just about spontaneity. It’s serious stuff that
“requires…strategic components to prepare, design, and perpetuate a
constant stream of creativity to stay in the news, headlines, and tweets,
as well as to maintain a movement’s momentum.” 

In nearly six years of Indivisible history, we’ve done a lot of the hard
work to have fun at the expense of the fascists. Some examples:

* Indivisibles in Michigan orchestrated a widely attended public town
hall, and in place of their no-show GOP congressman, [ [link removed] ]they brought a
live chicken on stage to represent him. (The congressman retired
rather than seek re-election).
* Colorado Indivisibles [ [link removed] ]paraded a “Cardboard Cory” throughout the
state -- the joke being that, unlike the MAGA senator Cory Gardner,
the cardboard version actually showed up to talk to constituents. (The
Senator lost re-election).
* Indivisibles across the country held [ [link removed] ]early retirement parties for
their MAGA reps -- a friendly and fun little nudge out the door ahead
of the blue wave. (Dozens of those MAGA members lost re-election). 

One of my favorites came just this last month. You might have seen Mehmet
Oz’s ridiculous video of him shopping for “crudite” (somehow his own
campaign released this video making him look out of touch). Stories like
this can fizzle out quickly -- the media will move on. In an effort to
prolong the story with some chuckles, [ [link removed] ]Indivisible: Mayday in
Pennsylvania donned enormous broccoli costumes and traveled around the
state, carrying signs like “Veggies for Fetterman.”

[ [link removed] ]Veggies for Fetterman posing with candidate Fetterman

They got a ton of press for their little stunt: John Fetterman embraced
them at a rally, and his campaign ended up [ [link removed] ]cutting an ad featuring
their work. How’s that for some fun? 

This kind of fun isn’t a replacement for traditional tactics for building
power -- it’s an additive. Indivisible Mayday themselves understand this
well:

[ [link removed] ]Indivisible Mayday has been knocking doors, attending round-tables,
asking hard questions, holding Q&As, organizing rallies, and registering
voters.

What fun are you having?

There are a lot of reasons to be concerned right now. President Biden’s
[ [link removed] ]brilliant speech last week on the MAGA threats to democracy laid out
the stakes clearly and compellingly. He called on all of us to be part of
the fight for our democracy. We’re with him in this.

And we know that we’ve got to find joy in this work. When we can, we’ve
got to find a way to be happy warriors in this struggle for democracy. For
the cause, for the movement, and for ourselves, it’s important. So I want
to hear from you. In big and small ways, how are you having fun in this
campaign? How are you keeping your local group engaged and energized? How
are you sticking it to the fascists? What songs are you singing, what
games are you playing, what jokes are you telling, what shenanigans are
you orchestrating? [ [link removed] ]Send me a quick note here -- we can use it to
inspire others. 

It’s the fun newsletter, so I’ll end with a song, an old Woody Guthrie
classic: [ [link removed] ]All You Fascists Bound to Lose. 

I'm gonna tell you fascists
You may be surprised
The people in this world
Are getting organized
You're bound to lose
You fascists bound to lose

In solidarity,
Ezra

--

Ezra Levin

[16]Indivisble Co-Executive Director

Pronouns: He/him

PS: At 22 months old, our son Zeke is an expert at fun. Be like Zeke.

[17]Zeke on a merry-go-round

[ [link removed] ]Indivisible Facebook

[ [link removed] ]Indivisible Twitter

[ [link removed] ]Indivisible Instagram



You can unsubscribe from this mailing list at any time:
[link removed]