We’ve put together the 13 terms you need to know to resist right now... and 10 days from now, and two weeks from now, and next month.
1. Oligarchy: A pathetic situation where a small portion, one percent, owns everything, and more than 99 percent of the population are getting just poorer. This is the current state of affairs in a number of countries, including Russia and the U.S.
2. Putin: A tiny, malicious KGB agent, whose main goal in life is to steal more and more money from the Russian people. He would love to see patriarchal ethics-free oligarchy spreading all around the globe, and is making strides in achieving that goal by pulling his Trump puppet’s strings.
3. Obstruction Of Justice: According to Putin, this is how you run a country. Trump is proving he shares Putin’s views on this.
4. Impeachment: Something you should demand if your president is a dangerous, uncontrollable a**hole.
5. Greed: An emotion that whispers in your ear and tells you it’s the most important thing in the world. “Money! Fame!” If you don’t fight it actively, it creeps in and takes over. It’s sneaky like that. And before you know it, you find yourself doing sh*t you never would have imagined. Greed is corrupting. Once it has crept in, you lose all clarity and sense of self.
6. Emoluments Clause: The U.S. constitutional clause that forbids government officials from accepting payments and gifts from foreign governments, which Trump did. Trump “flagrantly violated” the Emoluments Clause by maintaining ownership of his businesses after inauguration. Just one example: The Trump International Hotel took in about $270,000 in payments tied to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is lobbying to pull back a U.S. terrorism law. There is so much of this bald-faced, illegal corruption going on, we have to press Congress to act, and we also have to keep saying this out loud: President Trump is in violation of the law he has sworn to uphold.
7. Free Tuition: An educated population is a powerful population. The raping of the public education system in this country is political tactic. If you want to kick against the pricks, read and fight for your right for free college tuition, something that the U.S. does not have, which is just straight-up embarrassing.
8. Universal Health Care: This is a basic human right. End of story. End of discussion.
9. Clitoris: In the same way that defunding education is a means of social control, repressing women is a tactic, a means of retaining white male power. Female pleasure is female power. This part of the human body, which has been extensively repressed by patriarchal culture ― either ignored by phallocentric society or eradicated through the barbaric procedure of mutilation ― belongs in our whole, collective revolution.
10. Celebrity Fascism: The disease taking over the world, and one that must be eradicated by any means. An ultra-corrupted state of mind in which someone believes that money and status allows you to get away with literally anything. “Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.” No. You can’t.
11. Organize: Don’t just tweet. Occupy the streets and squares! And do not leave until your demands are met. Our job is to make those who are in power scared. Our job is to scare the sh*t out of them, because that’s the only way power reacts. Politics is a game of fear. Appealing to its better nature is a waste of time. It doesn’t work. Show the f*ck up.
12. Riot: The ability to ask radical questions, to dream, and to fight for those dreams. It’s a skill, an act of radical nonviolence, that we have been losing, but that we need to reclaim as soon as possible. It’s the key to any kind of meaningful future for humankind.
13. Pussy: Something everybody wants and that nobody is going to get without a riot. No riot, no pussy.
Xo
Nadya Tolokonnikova with Lizzy Goodman
