Kelly Hayes: This Is a Long Fight

 

My husband's protest sign.

Multiple things are true here.

This is a fascist, authoritarian administration.

It has not yet fully consolidated power.

Some of its efforts to do so have been frustrated.

Trump is a doddering, confused egomaniac who started an unpopular war that's costing everyday people a lot of money.

The demagoguery doesn't work as well when people are paying high gas prices.

The GOP is in bad shape ahead of the midterms.

This is going to be a time of desperate Trumpian shenanigans because, as y'all may recall, they don't believe in fair fights and never admit to losing anything.

Some people, and I don't just mean Trump, have been moving through the world as though they would never face a consequence for any action ever again, because they never planned on losing power. That means they think they can't afford to lose now. There are a lot of desperate moves ahead.

They can lose. But it's going to be messy and dirty.

And btw, the midterms are not a lock. They will pull every dirty trick in the book, and then some. We are playing the game at a disadvantage and have to win anyway. That's no easy task.

And even if they take huge losses during the midterms, we've still got a very ugly road ahead. These people will thrash about and cause tremendous harm. They will keep killing, jailing, kidnapping, and bombing.

This is a long fight.

I am not trying to discourage anyone. I want us to orient ourselves.

And remember, all of this is happening amid the AI buildout. AI, which is not a coherent set of products and services, but rather a commercial and political project, can be understood as a full-spectrum class-war offensive. An offensive waged by one industry, which put their guy Vance in the WH.

People talk about AI not turning a profit and how it's a massive bubble—they're not wrong. But remember when Uber was willing to take tremendous losses FOR YEARS to engineer dependence and bleed out the competition? AI is basically that for the whole economy and the workings of government. It's a bleed-out of current conditions. Not all of these companies are going to make it, but the billionaires are counting on a situation in which existing social relations can no longer be reproduced. A re-ordering.

It's not about placing themselves at the top. They're already at the top. It's about putting us more firmly under control. Deskilled, devalued, hyper-surveilled, desperate. That vision of fascism won't be defeated in the next two elections.

It's a long fight.

Big Tech can lose, too. But we're going to have to organize for our god damn lives.

So, if you're feeling tired, burnt out, or discouraged, do what you've gotta do. Tend your wounds. Hug your cat. Watch some bad TV. Don't argue in circles with strangers on social media. Don't tell everyone they're doomed. The world does not need your particular spin on giving up.

Find your team. We need a multi-tendency movement of movements.

Find your front. And trust, it won't be the last.

Then dig in and hold the fucking line.

— Kelly Hayes

All photos are taken at several of countless protests my husband and I have participated in.