This post by attorney Tor Ekeland has been making the rounds on Blue Sky and I think it’s worth sharing:
My dad was tortured by the Gestapo for 4 days and thrown in a concentration camp for being in the Norwegian Resistance. Growing up, he would tell me things he learned in the Resistance. I thought, I’m never going to need this stuff. Here’s some of those things #Thread
First, you’re never going to win a head on battle with an adversary that’s got you outgunned. That’s not the point of the Resistance. The point is to create friction, make it hard for your adversary to operate, to increase transaction costs.
Second, resistance doesn’t have to be a dramatic act. It can be a small act, like losing a sheet of paper, taking your time processing something, not serving someone in a restaurant. Small acts taken by thousands have big effects.
Third, use your privilege and access if you’ve got it. He and his buddies stole weapons from the Nazis by driving up with a truck to the weapons depot, speaking German, acting like it was a routine pick up, and driving away.
Fourth, and this is part of the third point really, sometimes the best way to do things is right out in the open. Because no one will believe something like what you’re doing would be happening so blatantly. All good Social Engineers know this.
Six, and this is a no brainer, operate in cells to limit damage to the resistance should they take you out. Limit the circulation of info to your cell, avoid writing things down and . . .
Seven, be very careful with whom you trust. Snitches and compromised individuals are everywhere. My Dad was arrested because of a snitch. His friends weren’t so lucky, the Gestapo machine gunned the cabin they were in without bothering to try and arrest them.
Eight, use the skills you have to contribute. Dad was an electrical engineer. When the Nazis imposed the death penalty for owning a radio (the British sent coded messages to the Resistance after BBC shows) he said he became the most popular guy in town.
He adds sarcastically:
But everything’s cool and we’re not going to need to engage in any of this. We don’t have a President who openly admires and coddles dictators while trashing our democratic allies. Our President has read the Constitution he’s taken an oath to uphold, and so have his followers.
Yeah…
I was listening to a podcast yesterday with JV Last at the Bulwark and he suggested that lawyers in the DOJ not resign when they’re asked to do some of the unethical, illegal and unconstitutional things that Trump and Bondi are going to demand they do. He says they should stay there and just fuck up the work. And maybe that applies across the government. I don’t know if it will work but these are huge agencies employing millions of people and it’s hard for me to believe that the toadies Trump hires to supervise know what they’re doing. I mean, Russ Vought can’t oversee every detail, right?
Anyway,these are thoughts that apply to all of us. We are looking at two years of being relatively powerless in the institutional sense (although the House of Representatives is so close that it’s going to be very difficult for them to get any legislation passed —- unless Democrats cooperate and they’d better not.) So these ideas about subversive resistance are useful and I really hope people are thinking along these lines. Trump’s agenda is massive and it’s in danger of hurtling completely out of control. Resistance in whatever way we can find it vital.