Why Knowing Our History Matters
And what our history can tell us about the political moment in which we find ourselves
While much of this book will include personal and cultural history, including family history, it will also make an attempt to use that history as a lens toward understanding what is happening in the United States—and much of the world—in this moment, particularly as it applies to the rise of antidemocratic and antisemitic rhetoric and violence.
Two days ago, justsecurity.org posted a complication of the expert testimony delivered to the January 6th committee. Because it’s important to establish source credibility, and lots of sketchy blogs have impressive-sounding names, let me share their statement about who they are from their website:
Just Security is an online forum for the rigorous analysis of security, democracy, foreign policy, and rights. Founded in 2013, we aim to promote principled and pragmatic solutions to problems confronting decision-makers in the United States and abroad. Our expert authors are individuals with significant government experience, academics, civil society practitioners, individuals directly affected by national security policies, and other leading voices. Our Board of Editors includes a broad range of leading experts on domestic and international law and policy. Just Security is based at the Reiss Center on Law and Security at New York University School of Law.
We are grateful for support from Craig Newmark Philanthropies, Open Society Foundations, Global Institute for Advanced Study at New York University, Atlantic Philanthropies, New York University School of Law, and individual donors.
I share this because, at this moment, it feels completely possible that someone would create a fake repository of fake documents. If the QAnon mishegas has taught us nothing else, let us at least learn to vet our sources and ignore those that can’t be verified.
This compendium is full of terrifying and heartbreaking analysis. I found the following pieces most useful in understanding where we are and how we got there:
Anti Defamation League
“Extremist Movements and the January 6, 2021 Insurrection”Anthea Butler (Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought, University of Pennsylvania)
“What is White Christian Nationalism?”Kate Masur (Professor of History, Northwestern University) and Gregory Downs (Professor of History, University of California, Davis)
“Our Fragile Democracy: Political Violence, White Supremacy, and Disenfranchisement in American History”Mike Rothschild (Journalist and Author)
“Regarding The Role of QAnon in the Events of January 6th and Beyond”
These four pieces, by and large, cover the major topics echoed by the other expert testimony. Lurking behind almost all of it are the old blood libel and world domination conspiracy theories that have always been a part of leveraging antisemitism as a means toward enabling authoritarianism. I encourage those of you who feel like it would be useful to you have to have a greater understanding of this political moment to read them.
Things being what they are, the publication of these testimonies coincided with a conversation I as having with a queer friend in Columbus, OH about how to respond when actual Nazis show up at an event. It’s a complicated question, but sadly, we actually need to start strategizing so that we have answers to it when it happens.
I reached back into my “old activist” knowledge and came up with the guidelines we used to use when bad actors would show up at protests and rallies back when that was my primary method of civic engagement. Here is what I remember from all the pro-choice and anti-war rallies of my youth:
If the bad actors are on your side of the issue, you have no choice but to leave for both moral and practical reasons. If you stay, you are providing support for the bad actors and sullying your own cause. (Back in my No Nukes days, this meant leaving when the weird Stalinists would show up in faux Russian military garb; today it means leaving when the Nazis, Proud Boys, or other such organized groups show up. If it’s just one or two random nuts with offensive signs, that’s different. You always get those.)
If the bad actors are on the other side, do some risk/benefit analysis:
Are you doing something other than protesting, such as running your business or participating in a mutual aid event? If so, do your best to stay and limit the impact of their presence.
Does your presence limit the bad actors’ ability to do harm in the moment? If so, stay. (This is where local clergy often play a particularly important role.)
Do the bad actors make it impossible for you to carry on the activity for which you have gathered? If so, document that with video but then leave.
Does your gut tell you that there is the potential for violence and a lack of police support to control it? Leave.
If there are bad actors on both sides:
Leave. We’re in a moment when there are a lot of people cosplaying as “warriors” on both sides, and nothing good will ever come of that.
The real work happens not in the streets, as much as we’ve been taught to imagine that it does, but in the organizations and coalitions that develop and deploy policy recommendations, mutual aid societies, and grass roots organizing. Given the limited unitality of public events like protests, the amount of risk you or your cause take on to participate in them should be equally limited. Also, you should just never, ever stand with Nazis. It confuses me that that’s a thing that needs to be said, but apparently it is.
You are a wise and wonderful person Sarah darling. I love you