29 Comments
User's avatar
Robert Manz's avatar

This is a superb analysis. I have been watching this progression since 2016. More on resistance please.

Expand full comment
Brent Giannotta's avatar

Thank you so much! I just finished Blueprint for Revolution and am now halfway through "To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause" on the Soviet resistance movement. I feel like this is the education we all need immediately, even if starting from scratch.

Expand full comment
Robert Manz's avatar

thanks . I will keep following you and will track down these two books. I invite you to check out my Substack the white gloves legend. I have an interesting connection to the assassination of jfk and write about it. In turn thoughts of the German generals resistance connects through that to our current crisis. Good luck with your work.

Expand full comment
Robert Manz's avatar

I studied modern Germany in college. Wish I had written that Atlantic article. I’m currently reading up on the Resistance to Hitler.

Expand full comment
Brent Giannotta's avatar

Oh wow. Okay definitely subscribing. Thank you. And here’s to our glorious cause.

Expand full comment
Lisa Sands's avatar

More please. This is imperative reading. It should be in school curriculum. You cannot doubt history. It's all there for us to look at, review and understand.

Expand full comment
Lisa Sands's avatar

Thank you Robert Manz.

Expand full comment
Steve Schwab's avatar

Tuck Frump.

Expand full comment
Omega Generation's avatar

Great piece.

Expand full comment
Brent Giannotta's avatar

Thank you!

Expand full comment
Rolland's avatar

Gee, that was cheerful.

Expand full comment
Brent Giannotta's avatar

Sorry! :)

Expand full comment
Serena Fossi's avatar

Looks like we are to 9. And 10.

Expand full comment
Pandora’s Box's avatar

Thank goodness I found this article. Language is very powerful and the language we use to define a problem also defines and thereby limits the solutions.

Expand full comment
Brent Giannotta's avatar

Thank you so much :)

Expand full comment
T. Wu's avatar

This is excellent. So… solutions? Non violent civil disobedience? What would that look like? Getting to that mythical 3.6% tipping point? How? On what issues?

Expand full comment
Brent Giannotta's avatar

Thank you, T, for reading and commenting. I'll be doing my best to answer those questions in my next post coming soon. Please let me know if I hit the mark. And thanks again!

Expand full comment
Everett H Young's avatar

Another terrific piece. You appear headed to joining JVL, Anne Applebaum, Paul Krugman, and the occasionally wrong but still insightful Ezra Klein to round out my top 5 political writers.

Expand full comment
eric baum's avatar

Sadly- a bunch of crazy posts on X might move the needle more so :(

Expand full comment
eric baum's avatar

Brent, great article- the concept is totally sound and obvious to everyone reading on Substack

But to get it beyond 85 likes ? Mayb edit it down to half the words so the normies can find it? Idk

Also I’d wager that at this point in time Hitler comparisons don’t have teeth bcs what came of it was just too awful for people to assign to even the Don?

Mayb how Putin and orban undermined their govs would be closer to present times - but do Americans even know what it is in these countries that they REALLY DONT WANT~Mayb a new article moving backwards from where those countries are to how they got there ???

Expand full comment
TruthSeeker's avatar

We need to SERIOUSLY BOYCOTT WALMART, AMAZON, TARGET, etc…. To make the elite corporations realize and take notice, if we are going to survive. Put it out there. Not boycott for one day, but every f-ing day!!!!

Expand full comment
Robin Liberte’'s avatar

An excellent article…thank you!

Expand full comment
Brent Giannotta's avatar

Thank you!

Expand full comment
Carolyn's avatar

I think your analysis is sound. I have so many thoughts on this. But for now, just these two - 1. please spell out for me , li’l ol’ me, what I can do to challenge the elites. And 2. Trump is Putin’s handmaiden, Putin’s plaything. Everything that is happening is designed to benefit Putin. In that respect, Trump is weak.

Expand full comment
Brent Giannotta's avatar

Boycotts. For this crew, money talks. They believe they are impervious. But if we don't pay for their products, there's nothing for Trump/Musk to protect for them. Protests will be suppressed in the media, but falling revenues set off alarms in corporate board rooms.

Expand full comment
Pandora’s Box's avatar

I’m beyond freaked out but now realize it’s time to have some good fun.

Expand full comment
Remember Freedom's avatar

This article didn’t clarify to me how we should think about it. I’ve come to the conclusion that a virus, a person, or a robot is going to kill me. So I’m thankful for my 45 years on earth. I’ve not wasted them being married to a man. :)

Expand full comment
Brent Giannotta's avatar

I understand. This is a wildly disturbing time, way more than Trump 1.0. The best way I've found to stave off dread is to dive into a method of resistance: joining an Indivisible group, participating in and publicizing a boycott of Trump-friendly companies, or (my favorite) taking a writing class and publishing an op-ed on your perspective. All deeply palliative for the soul.

Expand full comment