How You Can Help Stop The Creep of American Fascism

By getting involved with your local government, and learning to think about what those government employees and politicians tell you, you can help steer this great ship of ours back on course.

Hello and welcome to what I hope will become a reoccurring weekly feature here at The Monroe Gazette.

Since the Fall of 2023, I've been covering local news in and around the Southern Orange County region in upstate New York, which is just under an hour from Manhattan.

And even though I now live in Los Angeles, where bullshit is the currency of choice, my old home of Southern Orange County is about as dysfunctional as any place in America. Thus making it a perfect teaching tool.

So, using what I've learned from covering local news in that region, I'd like to offer a solution to its problems and maybe even some of your own. Because what's happening in Southern Orange County is also happening in your neck of the woods.

And if you'd like to do something about those problems — such as preventing further environmental catastrophe by getting your local governments to acquire as much open space as possible — I'm here to help.

I want to teach you how to get involved with your local government.

And so, the first thing we need to do is provide a refresher course on critical thinking.

Because one thing you're going to find, by getting involved with local government, is that your local elected officials, much like their national counterparts, are often embarrassingly full of shit.

If you'd like to learn more, most of what I will teach you is based on Jeff McLaughlin's book How to Think Critically: A Concise Guide. Professor McLaughlin teaches at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia. You can help support The Monroe Gazette by purchasing a copy of Professor McLaughlin's book here at Bookshop.org.

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Lesson 1: Why Are We Even Talking About This?

According to Professor McLaughlin, "Critical Thinking involves the assessment and evaluation of arguments — not just the kind of arguments you encounter in philosophy but the kind you come across every day. You need good reasoning skills in order to successfully reflect upon and respond to political commentary, newspaper reports, and mass media advertising. Confidence with these skills will help you discuss potentially lively issues in class, in the workplace, and at the dinner table."

He goes on to say, "If you are able to identify and understand the arguments of others, and if you can analyze and evaluate these arguments to distinguish the good ones from the bad ones, and if you can construct your own arguments and defend them, then you'll have a powerful tool to assist you in doing whatever you do in life."

During my time covering local news, I got asked a lot: "What's happening is fucked up. How can I get involved and fix this?"

And the answer was, and still is, you must attend local government meetings. This is the simplest, easiest, and most essential thing anyone reading this in America can do when it comes to taking back our democracy from the fascist weirdos who have crawled out from under their rocks since 2016.

Although just to be clear, the root cause of American Fascism stems from the North winning the military campaign of the Civil War with Lee's surrender at Appomattox and then promptly losing the next 100 or so years of a Cold Civil War.

A Cold Civil War that was fought by the South using propaganda and fear, beginning with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and then renewing itself with the Memphis Massacre of 1866, the New Orleans Massacre that same year, and continuing through, and then beyond, our botched Reconstruction, through Jim Crow, which then morphed into Barry Goldwater's brand of Conservatism which has infected our country ever since his defeat.

Goldwater may have lost his battle for the presidency, but Goldwater’s fascist baton was picked up by others, including Ronald Reagan. It's because of Reagan's activity as president that created the America we have today:

So, what I'm saying is you can't entirely blame Trump. He's just the latest variant of Northern Copperheads and the Slave Power trying to reassert its dominance after the Slave Power lost the military battle against Grant in 1865.

OK, But What If I Don't Want To Go To A Local Meeting?

The dates and times of your local government meetings can often be found on your local municipality's website.

If, for whatever reason, you can't find when your local government meets, there is an easy solution: Call the local Clerk's office.

They can get you the information you need. Unless, of course, they're in the middle of doing some shady shit themselves. But now we're getting ahead of ourselves, and I don't want to impugn the reputation of most municipal government employees. Mostly, they're just doing their job, and part of that job is to be helpful to residents. So you should never start out assuming that they're trying to fuck you.

If you don't go to a local government meeting, here's an example of what you get instead. First, using an example from the Town of Woodbury Board meeting held this week:

What do you see?

Nobody was in attendance, no public comment, and your elected officials dismissed legitimate community concerns as misinformation posted on social media.

Translated: There’s no accountability.

Now let's take a look at this week's South Blooming Grove's Village Planning Board meeting:

(Video Courtesy of Preserve Blooming Grove. The sign you can see, “It is what it is” was put up by South Blooming Grove Mayor George Kalaj to taunt local residents after a wealthy developer engineered a coup of the Village Board.)

Some residents speak up here, but the meeting is a clown show. A village employee is running everything and potentially lying to residents as he does.

As this series continues, we will have much to say about the Village of South Blooming Grove and its operations (or lack thereof.)

For my friends in South Blooming Grove: I contacted Orange County attorney Richard Golden to fact-check Mr. Shepstone's comments about the County. Specifically, he said in the video above that the County doesn't always have the final say on the completeness of applications.

Given that Orange County is currently in litigation with the Village of South Blooming Grove involving the Village's inability to follow directions, I'm anxious to hear what Mr. Golden has to say.

However, only some towns or villages have someone covering local news and checking what employees and politicians say, which is why this series is so important.

Neither of the above examples represents how a healthy and normal functioning government is supposed to operate in America.

Just listen to "Honest Jake" M. Howard, a prominent antislavery attorney, former congressman, and former U.S. Senator who served during the discussion, debate, and passage of the 14th Amendment:

"The last two clauses of the first section of the [14th] Amendment disable a state from depriving not merely a citizen of the United States, but any person, whoever he may be, of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, or from denying to him the equal protection of the laws of the State. This abolishes all class legislation and does away with the injustice of subjecting one caste of persons to a code not applicable to another."

Senator Howard added:

"I look upon the first section, taken in connection with the fifth, as very important. It will, if adopted by the States, forever disable every one of them from passing laws trenching upon those fundamental rights and privileges which pertain to citizens of the United States and to all persons who may happen to be within their jurisdiction. It establishes equality before the law, and it gives to the humblest, the poorest, the most despised of the race the same rights and the same protection before the law as it gives to the most powerful, the most wealthy, or the most haughty. That, sir, is republican government, as I understand it, and the only one which can claim the praise of a just Government."

We will talk about the 14th Amendment a LOT in this series—specifically sections 1 and 5.

So, just so everyone is on the same page, I'm going to give you the language of the 14th Amendment's first and fifth sections, and we'll revisit this language and the history behind the Amendment throughout this series.

Section 1.

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 5.

The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

To Restore Our Country To A Functional Democracy, We Should ...

You need good reasoning skills to reflect on and respond to what your local elected officials say at meetings, online, and in the press.

If there's any press at all.

Over 200 counties in America are now considered news deserts, more than half of all our counties.

A News Desert is defined by the University of North Carolina Hussman School of Journalism and Media as "a community, either rural or urban, with limited access to the sort of credible and comprehensive news and information that feeds democracy at the grassroots level."

Southern Orange County is considered a news desert. There is one weekly newspaper (or, really, a bunch of clones of the same newspaper distributed under different names in the region by one company, Strauss News). The coverage presented by Strauss News often leaves a lot to be desired.

We also have News 12, a 24/7 local news channel primarily focused on Westchester but occasionally covering news in Orange and Rockland counties. While great to have— I'm a big fan of Orange County reporter Blaise Gomez — even News 12 is a bit limited on what they can and can't cover. For one thing, being in the television business, stories usually require a significant visual component. For another, producing the news is expensive, and editors often decline more important stories in favor of ones that are quicker and easier to make. That's not a fault of News 12; it's just the economic model for the remaining corporate media outlets that exist.

Straus News and News 12's parent company, Altice USA, is in the advertising business first and foremost and the journalism business second.

And then ... There's not much else in Southern Orange County.

There are some small independent outlets, like The Monroe Gazette, but that's about it. This explains what PEW found when they said in 2023 that 30% of Americans get their news from Facebook instead of a local media outlet.

This lack of watchdog journalism, which used to exist at The Times-Herald Record under Chris McKenna and Steve Israel, among many others, is long gone.

That makes critical thinking incredibly important. Because the media outlets you have left, like Straus News, rarely question what your local elected officials say. They repeat what was said uncritically and move on to the next story, not wanting to rock the boat.

Like any skill, the more you practice critical thinking, the better you get at it.

When I was working for Serial Box / Realm.fm, one of the guys I was working with told me about how he would listen to audiobooks at 3x speed. I thought this was crazy. Then I tried it and thought the guy was fucking with me because there's no way a normal person can listen to a book at 3x speed and retain what's being said.

But listening to audiobooks (and, if you want to save a lot of time, YouTube videos) at faster speeds is a skill. You can learn how to do it by slowly advancing the speed little by little until you've reached 3x. The trick is to only adjust the speed when you can comfortably recall what you're listening to. (How do you know when you're comfortable? When something at 2X speed sounds no different to you than something at normal speed.)

Today, I listen to fiction at high speed and nonfiction at no more than 1.5X because, beyond that, I found I couldn't retain the information I was hearing. The point is that it's a skill, just like Critical Thinking. The more you practice, the better you'll be at it.

The good news is that critical thinking isn't new. You do it every day. You just might not realize it.

For example, There's a listeria outbreak in certain brands of Silk milk.

You should probably stop drinking Silk brand milk until the outbreak is under control.

Making that kind of decision is an example of critical thinking.

If you're faced with the choice between watching "Con Air" on E! with commercials, censorship, and scenes removed or watching "Con Air" as a video on demand — assuming you have some extra cash lying around to purchase and experience one of the greatest films of our time — that's critical thinking. You're making a choice. Do you want to see Nicholas Cage and his awful/amazing Southern drawl, or do you want to be frequently interrupted by commercials for treating toe-nail fungus?

One more example: Suppose a New York State Assembly candidate writes a letter to the editor in a Straus newspaper saying the FBI is going to round up all the Catholics. You would use critical thinking to determine whether or not this was the statement of a sane, functional adult you should vote for or someone who shouldn't be allowed near sharp objects.

As Professor McLaughlin said, "What is common in all of these examples is that you are making a decision and drawing a conclusion about what to do or think based upon various bits of evidence or prior knowledge or judgments. In other words, you formed an argument and acted from it."

How To Turn Off Your Brain’s Auto-Pilot

"We're going to bring America back together, Brother."

That's what former professional wrestler and notorious liar Hulk Hogan said this week at the Republican National Convention in Miluwake.

He said this at the same event where people held signs calling for mass deportations.

(Photo Source & Story on Trump’s plan for mass deportations)

You're not bringing “America back together” when you're talking about deporting nearly 20 million, almost exclusively non-white, people upon taking office. Especially when you consider the New Framers (the people who wrote the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments) believed that even though they were limited by the prejudices of the time, the 14th Amendment should apply to ALL people inside of the United States, not just citizens. Something Democrats (modern-day Republicans) vehemently opposed.

Often, fascists will tell you ridiculous claims like there’s an “invasion” and “immigrants commit all the crimes.”

But if you use your brain, you’ll find that you're also not exactly protecting your fellow Americans by deporting those people you claim to be dangerous. Why? Because immigrants, regardless of status, are statistically way less likely to commit crimes than your ordinary, run-of-the-mill Born in the USA citizen.

What the Hulkster also didn't mention is that the people trying to tear this country apart are the same people he was giving his speech to.

There are no "both sides" when it comes to fighting fascism.

Some people work and act in good faith to run this country, while others do not. MAGA extremists, including the ones on the local level in Southern Orange County like this guy, are not working in good faith.

When you listen to speeches like the above on autopilot, which is a real thing that happened and not a feverish nightmare ginned up by a large language model being passed off as the next big thing in tech — it's easy to fall into a trap.

That’s because we're all running on autopilot, especially watching TV or using the Internet.

"When you do things or believe things without having ANY reasons (as opposed to having weak reasons), you are not thinking critically. You are just reacting without thought, judging, or care," said McLaughlin.

You can break out of autopilot by practicing mindfulness.

And no, I don't mean the stuff packaged and recycled by wealthy white ladies on Instagram. I'm talking about the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, which can be found for free on his Plum Village App.

One exercise you can do while washing your dishes can help you turn that autopilot off.

As Nhat Hanh explained:

"To my mind, the idea that doing dishes is unpleasant can occur only when you aren't doing them. Once you are standing in front of the sink with your sleeves rolled up and your hands in the warm water, it is really quite pleasant.

I enjoy taking my time with each dish, being fully aware of the dish, the water, and each movement of my hands. I know that if I hurry in order to be able to finish so I can sit down sooner and eat dessert or enjoy a cup of tea, the time spent washing dishes will be unpleasant and not worth living. That would be a pity, for each minute, each second of life is a miracle. The dishes themselves and the fact that I am here washing them are miracles!

If I am incapable of washing dishes joyfully, if I want to finish them quickly so I can go and have dessert or a cup of tea, I will be equally incapable of enjoying my dessert or my tea when I finally have them."

Why Is This So Important?

Because most people don't think critically enough, if at all.

Most people are running on autopilot and uncritically accept what's being shared with them. Especially by their local politicians.

That's how democracy dies, and I don't know about you, but I don't want that shit happening on my watch. How about you?

McLaughlin quotes Socrates to close this section, pointing out that the unexamined life is not worth living and that the unexamined argument is not worth accepting.

Those are sage words to live by.

We need you, yes, you reading this, to get involved and fix all this.

And that can only happen if you get involved with your local government by going to meetings, asking questions, and being ready to call your elected officials out on their embarrassing behavior.

You can’t do that without thinking critically.

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Sources:

1. How to Think Critically: A Concise Guide (1st Edition)

2. Epps, Garrett. Democracy Reborn: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Fight for Equal Rights in Post–Civil War America (pp. 232-233). Henry Holt and Co. Kindle Edition.