Althouse: "Worrying about amorphous dangers can be paralyzing. Instead, if you’re considering non-coöperation work, write up a plan..."

April 13, 2025

"Worrying about amorphous dangers can be paralyzing. Instead, if you’re considering non-coöperation work, write up a plan..."

"... for the worst-case scenario—what you’ll do if you get fired or audited, or find yourself in legal trouble. Reach out to a lawyer and an accountant, or others who could help you navigate complicated decisions. Now is the time to clean up your life—your digital life and even, perhaps, your personal life. Dissidents describe a pattern: autocrats and their cronies use even the most minor personal scandal to undermine the credibility of activists and weaken their movements. 'You have to be a nun or a saint,' a prominent Venezuelan political activist, who asked not to be named, told us. 'If someone wants to find dirt on you, they will find it, so give them the least dirt possible.'... Another key strategy, ironically, is compliance—as in compliance with as many laws as possible. Tax laws. Traffic laws.... The price for those who stand directly in the way of Trump’s plans may indeed grow steeper in the coming months and years. But these early acts... point to a coherent vision of a just and compassionate society.... [Soviet dissidents] raised their glasses in the traditional toast: 'To the success of our hopeless cause.'..."

From "So You Want to Be a Dissident? A practical guide to courage in Trump’s age of fear" (The New Yorker).

72 comments:

Krumhorn said...: What’s with the diacritical mark?

- Krumhorn; 4/13/25, 8:10 AM
Big Mike said...: Or you could befriend a conservative and pick his brain, since that’s what conservatives had to deal with for four years under Biden.; 4/13/25, 8:11 AM
mikee said...: I was alive in the era of Soviet dissidents. These people are not now, nor ever were, nor ever will be, the equivalent of Soviet dissidents. To even make the comparison is to see their lie. To hell with them, to hell with their utterly false victim mentality.; 4/13/25, 8:12 AM
Quayle said...: Or you could follow Christ and love your enemies and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, and pick up your cross and follow him, to death if called upon to so perish, keeping your love of God and of others intact until the end.; 4/13/25, 8:21 AM
Amadeus 48 said...: Too bad the New Yorker didn't compare Trump's world to the UK under Two-Tier Keir Starmer or university groupthink here in the USA. Trump's gotchas involve actions. THe UK and university gotchas involve thoughts.; 4/13/25, 8:24 AM
Dave Begley said...: “ In a country with a centuries-long culture of free expression, the punishments for those who express even the slightest opposition to the Administration have been a shock to the American system.”

Where were these dissidents when Biden was censoring Facebook and Twitter?; 4/13/25, 8:24 AM
Michael said...: This is the type of article that promotes paranoia in the mentally unstable.; 4/13/25, 8:25 AM
Steve said...: Cosplaying like real dissidents. You want to try being a dissident take off your hijab in Iran, carry and anit-Hamas sign in Gaza or advocate for an end to the Russia-Ukraine war in Moscow.; 4/13/25, 8:26 AM
Sebastian said...: "autocrats and their cronies use even the most minor personal scandal to undermine the credibility of activists and weaken their movements" I seem to recall a few examples from the recent past.

What's different now is not simply that Trump has regained power, but 1. that the prog lies have been exposed, and 2. that, once prog hegemony has been broken, their arrogant unselfawareness comes across as silly projection.; 4/13/25, 8:26 AM
Immanuel Rant said...: I cannot decide whether this is more stunning than brave, or more brave than stunning.; 4/13/25, 8:27 AM
rhhardin said...: Look into insanity defenses.; 4/13/25, 8:27 AM
Wince said...: Reciprocity would be a bitch.; 4/13/25, 8:34 AM
Lucien said...: The Trump administration is filled with dissidents: Secretary Kennedy, DNI Gabbard, Director Patel, Secretary Noem, Director Bhattacharya.; 4/13/25, 8:43 AM
Mr. D said...: Bless your hearts.; 4/13/25, 8:44 AM
Aggie said...: "Dissidents describe a pattern: autocrats and their cronies use even the most minor personal scandal to undermine the credibility of activists and weaken their movements...."

Ah. You mean, having your own tactics turned back at you? 'Dissident' is just the new word for 'coddled brat'.; 4/13/25, 8:45 AM
FormerLawClerk said...: So much easier to just lob Molotov cocktails at Tesla Cybertrucks.; 4/13/25, 8:46 AM
Levi Starks said...: I don’t think it’s nearly that difficult.
Start by not calling him Hitler every time you open your mouth.; 4/13/25, 8:46 AM
Big Mike said...: I was alive in the era of Soviet dissidents. These people are not now, nor ever were, nor ever will be, the equivalent of Soviet dissidents. To even make the comparison is to see their lie.

Me too, and I agree with mikee 100%.; 4/13/25, 8:49 AM
tommyesq said...: Describe these "minor personal scandals" being used to discredit specific activists. As I recall, they involve partaking in actual crimes, taking personal actions in direct contrast to the positions they seek to foist on the rest of us, outright lying, and other things that directly call into question their honesty and sincerity.; 4/13/25, 9:05 AM
Jaq said...: "or advocate for an end to the Russia-Ukraine war in Moscow."

Or London.; 4/13/25, 9:16 AM
WhoKnew said...: I used to read some of the high brow magazines, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, etc. I don't anymore and every time I see the stories they are pushing these days, I thank God I gave them up, For some reason, articles from The Atlantic keep turning up n one of my feeds. I can't believe the moronic TDS that magazine has sunk into. "But these early acts... point to a coherent vision of a just and compassionate society." What is coherent about a paranoid?; 4/13/25, 9:19 AM
Iman said...: Another stunt from the cunning stunts at the New Yorker.; 4/13/25, 9:20 AM
Peachy said...: ALL of the fear is manufactured by the corrupt left.; 4/13/25, 9:21 AM
Quayle said...: Maybe that’s why Trump is so desperately trying to get a hold of Greenland, so he can build the Gulags there. It’s not Siberia, but it’s a close second maybe.; 4/13/25, 9:23 AM
Yancey Ward said...: If you want to protest against Israel and the Jews, get yourself a visa to Israel or Gaza. Have some courage to put your ass where your mouth is.; 4/13/25, 9:27 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: No, I'm an American. And I'll stay in the USA and criticize my Government supporting a foreign country committing Genocide in Gaza with my tax dollars. Why we've Israel's bitch, and help them enforce their speech codes on people in the USA is beyond me. Burn an American flag and everyone' yawns. Burn and Israeli flag and it might get you deported.

Even weirder are the Gentiles who support this. But i guess that's what the Jesus would do. Support the ADL and AIPAC. Deny Christ and you'll get into Heaven LOL.; 4/13/25, 9:38 AM
Amexpat said...: I had a long conversation with Grok yesterday about the New Yorker's use of the diaeresis. I asked Grok if the New Yorker would waive their use of pretenious pricks if a prestigious writer refused to cooperate with their style manaul for something they really wanted to publish. Grok thought not.

For some reason their use of diaeresis really irritates me. I'm tempted to subscribe to the New Yorker so that I could could cancel my subscription because of it.; 4/13/25, 9:42 AM
john mosby said...: Krumhorn: Everybody's a diacritic these days.

JSM; 4/13/25, 10:06 AM
Temujin said...: The resistance. Its pathetic. These people seem to bathe in misery.; 4/13/25, 10:11 AM
Jupiter said...: This ain't no party! This ain't no disco! This ain't no foolin' around!; 4/13/25, 10:13 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: autocrats and their cronies use even the most minor personal scandal to undermine the credibility of activists and weaken their movements

This is exactly how the Media treats Republicans. Also they spelled Democrats wrong while somehow keeping the "rats" ending in place.; 4/13/25, 10:14 AM
wildswan said...: Here's my advice to the NY dissidents. Realize that real dissidents suffer terribly and drop the idea of being one..

1. Dissidents have to look up from their cellphones for long periods of time. In jail the guards actually take your phone away. So, as I say, just drop the idea of being a dissident. Text your friends about the raw realization of just how brutal things can get in Trump's America. Use AI to make some pictures of dissidents being tortured by phone deprivation, suffering as they lie on their bunks with their phoneless, empty yet still curved hands held up before their faces. Yes and what about food? Consider food.
2. DoorDash doesn't do jails. You eat bologna on white bread with mayo, limp lettuce with tomato slices splatted with that orange dressing, warm milk, KoolAid, suede oranges and/or green or red Jello. No one cares how that makes you feel but, horrifyingly, you will find yourself liking it and even trading Jello for suede oranges in only a few days. Even to keep MS-13 in the country, is such repeated abuse of your body worth it? Be very honest with yourself - do you think 3.5% of the wokies will risk ordeal by Hershey bar?
3. But out of jail, you can work to expose undercover DOJ agents. Suppose that a "friend" talks to you instead of looking down and texting as a decent person would do. What do you do? Spring to your feet, scream "No, Kash Patel, not today!" and run. Run and scream. Thus only may we save Amerika though it isn't worth it which is the paradox. By "paradox," I mean, "um, so weird, huh."; 4/13/25, 10:15 AM
Jupiter said...: "And I'll stay in the USA and criticize my Government supporting a foreign country committing Genocide in Gaza with my tax dollars."
Careful, Dude. Stick to criticizing Trump. The ADL will take you down like WTC 7.; 4/13/25, 10:17 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Ocean your jew hate is truly something to behold. Could you trouble yourself to provide maybe just one name who has been arrested here for burning an Israel flag?; 4/13/25, 10:25 AM
Skeptical Voter said...: New Yorker writers--and readers--have rich fantasy lives.; 4/13/25, 10:31 AM
Hyphenated American said...: The same people who have been promoting the socialist regime in Venezuela, are now pretending that Trump is doing what Hugo Chavez did. Weirdly, they all have been the fans of Hugo Chavez when he was alive and destroyed the country.; 4/13/25, 10:39 AM
Jupiter said...: "Ocean your jew hate is truly something to behold."
If he were criticizing what the Chi-Coms are doing to the Uyghurs, would you accuse him of "hating the Chinese"? Criticize the US all you want, but object to Israel bombing civilians and you're an "anti-semite".; 4/13/25, 11:00 AM
GRW3 said...: It pinches when the shoe is on the other foot. Surprised that this not the enfeebled DOJ of the first term, the mice are scattering.; 4/13/25, 11:04 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: This article is obviously a CIA psy-op. Part of a color revolution strategy against Trump. The New Yorker, remember, was one of the prime conspirators puffing the Russia collusion hoax.; 4/13/25, 11:12 AM
boatbuilder said...: It's good advice. Where were these people over the last 20 years?; 4/13/25, 11:24 AM
boatbuilder said...: "Dissidents describe a pattern: autocrats and their cronies use even the most minor personal scandal to undermine the credibility of activists and weaken their movements...."

Donald J. Trump figured this out a long time ago. The antidote--flood the zone.; 4/13/25, 11:31 AM
Christopher B said...: Remind me who created the 'three felonies a day' situation.; 4/13/25, 11:31 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: "Stick to criticizing Trump. The ADL will take you down like WTC 7."

Yep, everyone from the worlds richest man to Presidents and PM's fears them. They are the last word on what gets permitted on the internet. They brag about it too.; 4/13/25, 11:58 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: I didn't use the word "arrested" and have no desire to get into rhetorical word games to ofuscate and derail the main point: Israel is/was committing genocide in Gaza, they've killed over 40,000 arabs and have just destroyed the last functioning hospital. Bibi has been labeled a war criminal by the ICC. And I don't want my tax dollars paying for it.; 4/13/25, 12:01 PM
Rocco said...: Krumhorn, the not-umlaut is called a diaresis, and is used to indicate that two consecutive vowels are not a dipthong. Compare "coop" as in "a chicken coop" versus the "coöp" in "co-operate".

"Coöperate" and its variants are the only common words where I've actually seen it used, though, usually by snooty publications. The only other place I've seen it used is the name Zoë(y).; 4/13/25, 12:01 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: “Cosplaying like real dissidents.”

And not even doing a good job of it. The other night I saw a social media exchange between two, absurdly privileged, women I know. One was checking her passport and musing over where to flee and the other said she was going to “stay and fight” which I think meant she was going to key a Tesla or something.

It isn’t the ignorant ideology I wonder at. Throughout history millions, billions, of people have been captured by the most simple-minded shit. It’s the complete lack of self-awareness.; 4/13/25, 12:02 PM
JAORE said...: Damn shame this article came too late to save Whoopie Goldberg from being spirited away to that Ecuadorean prison in the dark of night.; 4/13/25, 12:03 PM
Rocco said...: Lucien said...
"The Trump administration is filled with dissidents: Secretary Kennedy, DNI Gabbard, Director Patel, Secretary Noem, Director Bhattacharya."

Yeah, while reading the quoted paragraph, I was thinking of them and the J6 crowd. Then I read the article title.; 4/13/25, 12:05 PM
Ampersand said...: Tom Wolfe, writing in 1984: "We were told that... the American veneer of freedom was no longer possible—that shortly the citizenry would be cowering in fear, awaiting that knock on the door in the dead of the night and that descent of the knout on the nape of the neck." Tyranny is always approaching when Republicans are in power, and that approaching tyrrany justifies the enactmant of tyranny by the left.
BTW the Wolfe article is entitled "Idea Fashions of the Eighties: After Marx, What?"; 4/13/25, 12:28 PM
Rabel said...: "In a country with a centuries-long culture of free expression, the punishments for those who express even the slightest opposition to the Administration have been a shock to the American system."

That sounds terrible. What is to be done?; 4/13/25, 12:40 PM
mikee said...: Once again the lie of a purposeful Israeli genocide of Gazans is being promoted, absent only any facts to support that claim. The Hamas Health Ministry even had to roll back many claimed dead, mostly children, due to the inconvenient fact of their still being alive after being countad as genocided. I note in passing that Hamas hides among civilans, and purposefully puts Gazan civilians in harms way, for propaganda purposes, which is a war crime. And if it is a genocide, even accepting the inflated Hamas-provided numbers of dead, it is one of the least effective genocides in human history. Less than 5k deaths per month of "genocide," which includes both combatants and the civilians they hide behind, are really amateur numbers. Rawandans did much more rapid slaughter with farm implements and machetes. Russians did that sort of killing in a few days in Katyn Forest to the Poles. Mao did orders of magnitude greater killing in China just via starvation in the time Israel has had to genocide Gazans. So when I hear someone say "Israeli genocide of Gazans" my BS meter pegs at "that someone is a lying asshole of a human being."; 4/13/25, 12:44 PM
Krumhorn said...: Krumhorn, the not-umlaut is called a diaresis, and is used to indicate that two consecutive vowels are not a dipthong. Compare "coop" as in "a chicken coop" versus the "coöp" in "co-operate".

"Coöperate" and its variants are the only common words where I've actually seen it used, though, usually by snooty publications. The only other place I've seen it used is the name Zoë(y)

Thanks Rocco. I was being snarky pointing to the “snooty” thing, but I was too lazy to look it up. You see it in “naïve“, but who can find the mark on a windows keyboard. iØS mäkěs ĩt ęæsŷ.

- Krůmhörn; 4/13/25, 1:08 PM
john mosby said...: Krumhorn: "Krůmhörn" would be a great name for a heavy metal band.

JSM; 4/13/25, 1:13 PM
Fred Drinkwater said...: What would "snoöty" mean?; 4/13/25, 1:34 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: @mikee - thanks. I was going to try to correct the record about Gaza, but you did the heavy lifting. It’s all lies. Moreover, the rot runs deep. Both Al Jazerra and UNWRA people have been shown carrying weapons and actively assisting the terrorists in Gaza.

Remember who attacked whom, and how this started. The heavily armed Palestinian terrorists crossed the border, invading Israel, and killed, butchered, raped, assaulted, and or, kidnapped hundreds of Israeli civilians, in almost the most barbaric ways possible. Murder during rape. Rape after Murder. Rape of children. Murder of children, often quite brutal. Rape then murder of children. Etc. At least no murder, then rape, of children - at least so far.; 4/13/25, 1:37 PM
Krumhorn said...: Would the Sex Spatulas make it as a punk band?

- Krumhorn; 4/13/25, 1:48 PM
Lazarus said...: So, is this a humor column? More Andy Borowitz?; 4/13/25, 2:40 PM
narciso said...: seriously what are they smoking, the left were the ones who were cancelling people, over remarks they had made a decade ago, or some allegation of some behavior from someone,

by comparison, Effendi Khalil was openly screaming 'death to jews' and well that's just a mistranslation,; 4/13/25, 3:45 PM
Kirk Parker said...: RCOCEAN,

The next time I give a single molecule of care for what the ICC says, will be the first time.

Note that I am not (or at least not yet) saying that they should be treated like Jim Cramer -- that their accusation should be considered an endorsement - - but they are certainly heading for that distinction.; 4/13/25, 3:54 PM
narciso said...: no because cramer is a fool, whereas they have proven themselves as knaves many times over,; 4/13/25, 3:59 PM
Not Illinois Resident said...: Boo hoo. Saw our local progressive-liberal dissidents today at our local progressive-liberal coffee house, sipping their espressos and lattes, munching their vegan frosted cupcakes, spooning their organic bean hummus and rice chips. Beanies and buttons in-place, cross-body canvas totes and artisan-aged jeans. All on i-phones even while conversing with their tablemates about planning dissident actions. So hard to be a dissident in America.

I agree with mikee, if you haven't experienced Soviet-style oppression, than you don't have any dissident cred.; 4/13/25, 6:22 PM
Rocco said...: john mosby said...
"Krůmhörn" would be a great name for a heavy metal band.

I’m thinking a Deathtöngue tribute band.; 4/13/25, 6:23 PM
Rocco said...: Krůmhörn, I gotcha. The best snark is delivered with a loose, cavalier relationship to the facts, such as you did.; 4/13/25, 6:54 PM
Earnest Prole said...: Call it a faux umlaut or a diuretic but either way it’s unAmerican.; 4/13/25, 8:00 PM
Rocco said...: Earnest Prole said...
“Call it a faux umlaut or a diuretic but either way it’s unAmerican.”

Agreed. The French invented the idea, stole the umlaut from the Germans, and gave it to the Spanish as a linguistic disease.; 4/13/25, 8:27 PM
JIM said...: They probably compare themselves to Freedom Fighters while they contemplate which key to use on a Cyber Truck and curiously wonder in which direction the legs on the swastika point.; 4/13/25, 11:54 PM
stlcdr said...: Dissident? Typically, dissidents are against government, not against the dismantling of government. Are they not?; 4/14/25, 6:42 AM
stlcdr said...: Quayle said...
Maybe that’s why Trump is so desperately trying to get a hold of Greenland, so he can build the Gulags there. It’s not Siberia, but it’s a close second maybe.

4/13/25, 9:23 AM

The sad fact is that people truly believe this. They have lived a prosperous life, and have zero first or second (or third!) hand experience of any kind of discomfort. Yet this is going to happen, with zero evidence that such a thing could possibly occur.; 4/14/25, 6:47 AM
JAORE said...: " Criticize the US all you want, but object to Israel bombing civilians and you're an "anti-semite". " BS. BS on steroids. The objection was the claim - evidence free, of course - that burning the Israeli flag would get you tossed out of the country.
Willfully obtuse or lying.; 4/14/25, 8:53 AM
bagoh20 said...: "Or you could follow Christ and love your enemies and pray for them..."
I hope Christ doesn't mind if I just ignore my enemies. I have a hard enough time loving my friends with the heart he gave me.; 4/14/25, 10:41 AM
Tina Trent said...: It is deeply offensive to compare Soviet life with American life. I know a Sovient dissident artist who was punished for drawing a cartoon of Lenin -- early in grade school. He was never again permitted to draw or purchase any art supplies. He spent three years locked in a mental institution in Siberia. He is my age. We were born in the mid-sixties. Do people not understand real, present fascist-communism? It is happening now.; 4/14/25, 4:26 PM
Tim said...: Classic case of projection. It is what they want done to those who disagree with them when they are in charge.; 4/15/25, 6:33 AM