In A Time of Compliant Democrats, Resist Like Bill Burr
Resistance starts by pointing out that fascists are pathetic losers.
Everyone who didn’t vote for Donald Trump entered his second presidency on the same page. We recognized that our new leaders and their sycophantic online followers would try to exhaust us with a whirlwind of objectionable executive orders and asinine statements to the point we’d be too tired to form a competent resistance. So, we planned to ignore the absurdities and focus on combatting the things that mattered.
It was a good, solid plan. But as Prussian Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke said: “No plan survives first contact with the enemy.”
At a post-inauguration rally on Monday, Elon Musk, the Guinness Book of World Record holder for the world’s Most Insecure Man, gave a Nazi salute.
I know it was a Nazi salute because I have eyes, which are attached to my brain, which recognized this iconic gesture. An oligarch openly seig heiling at a Presidential inauguration seems unbelievable, but the below side-by-side of Musk’s salute and Nazis confirms my brain’s first inclination.
Immediately, the shitstorm began. The popular conservative account LibsOfTikTok compared Musk’s gesture to AOC waving. The ADL, which is the public relations branch of the Israeli Army, excused it as “an awkward gesture.” Even ICC-indicted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu rushed to Musk’s defense to clarify one can’t be a fascist if they support Israel. (Palestinian political prisoners could not be reached for comment.)
If you’ve been online over the last week, I’m sure you’ve witnessed this thinly veiled gaslighting. And make no mistake, that’s what it is. Everyone from heads of state to FreedomLover1488 knows Musk did the fascist salute. They’re not trying to convince people it was actually a wave or an awkward gesture — they’re trying to make you lose your mind.
Yes, we could take the bait and make a factual, well-researched case proving Elon Musk is sympathetic to Nazis. We could remind everyone he re-invited Nazi accounts back onto Twitter. I could debunk the claim that Musk did a “Roman Salute” by directing Elon fanboys to the numerous historical resources detailing how 19th-century theatre performers made up the “Roman salute,” which was then repurposed by Mussolini and eventually the German fascists. Or, we could point to Musk’s support for the far-right German AfD Party, which he encouraged to forget about Germany’s “past guilt” two days before Holocaust Remembrance Day.1 (I wonder what he meant by that…) Then I could bring the debate to checkmate by reminding everyone that actual Nazis exist and are delighted to learn Musk is one of them.
I could do all that. And it would take up a lot of time and emotional energy, but the claim would be vindicated. But only for a while. The next day, Trump-world will do something equally as outlandish, and the cycle will start all over again. Perhaps Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth will get a swastika tattoo, and Candace Owens will claim it’s because he prays for the Hindu Surya to bring him good luck. Maybe RFK will advocate for replacing the polio vaccine with daily calisthenics, and the fanboys will mockingly say, “What, you don’t think children should exercise?” This will go on and on, an endless cycle of political debauchery and a surrounding chorus of “Well, actually…” from guys who get their news from video game channels. As always, they’d be aided and abetted by legacy media who are more concerned with staying “balanced” than they are informing their audiences.
Rather than repeating the mistakes of the last Trump presidency when I felt the need to address every obscure statement, racist executive order, and deplorable policy as a good-faith argument, I’m adopting a different strategy this time around. For the next four years, I will be basing my anti-Trump resistance on the mindset of stand-up comedian Bill Burr.
Enter William
In a now-viral clip taken from his appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Mr. Burr, who escaped the L.A. fires, addressed the internet conspiracy theories rightists were circling about the tragedy.
While Bill offers a few factual points disproving their claims, his central argument is clear, easily repeatable, and effective: You people are gullible dipshits, and your nonsensical statements don’t deserve a response.
Oh, you think the firefighters were too “DEI” to manage the fire? That’s because you’re a dumbass who fell for billionaire race-baiting. Are you a popular podcast host who believed a lie spread by the “Texas Patriot” Twitter account? Well, you should probably stop talking about politics and go back to watching people eat donkey shit (or whatever else they did on Fear Factor).
The strength of this communication strategy lies in its clarity: treat conservatives how they ask to be treated, so that sane Americans can recognize them for the psychopaths they are. If right-wing media insist on acting like children who can’t tell the difference between a hand wave and a Nazi salute, oblige them. And please, make no exceptions. This applies to all the pundits, politicians, and personalities who insist on acting this way, even if they are Very Serious People with Very Serious media jobs. After all, when the new White House Press Secretary didn’t know if her administration was defunding Medicaid, The New York Times chose to describe her as “Steely.” Both the writer and subject of such a story should be ruthlessly scorned.
This isn’t just a tactic for remaining sane during the next four years; it’s also a very effective political strategy. Not long after Tim Walz joined Harris as her VP pick, clips of the governor calling Republican politicians “weird” resurfaced.
While Walz chose to label GOP lawmakers “weird” instead of using my preferred term (shit-eating freaks), the attack worked. Polls found swing state voters agreed with Walz’s “weird” claim,2 and following his return to Minnesota, the state’s Democratic party was giddy about the young-voter excitement Walz generated for their future campaigns.3 Anecdotally speaking, I felt a renewed enthusiasm for the Democratic ticket during the Weird Era. People seemed genuinely excited one of the two political parties had some semblance of common sense and normalcy. Plus, it highlighted how pathetic fascists are, as they have no problem with slurs but cry to mommy when someone calls them “weird.”
Unfortunately, we didn’t hear much of Walz’s attack as the election continued. It was quickly muzzled by the Biden-Harris campaign strategists who decided to run on the things Americans care about least: Washington D.C. politeness, bipartisanship, and how great Liz Cheney and her mass-murdering father is.
What’s most infuriating is, despite seeing how the personal attacks moved the needle and how staying polite resulted in an electoral ass-kicking, the Democrats are still employing the latter as their opposition strategy. Not long after Trump won, Democratic politicians raced to their favorite Politico reporters to clarify they would be looking to cooperate with his administration. Many outright surrendered and adopted Trump’s most reactionary ideas, particularly around trans rights. If these politicians had an ounce of courage or even a semblance of political aptitude, they would understand this only reinforces America’s worst view of Democrats: they care about nothing except remaining in their seat, making them untrustworthy and unable to fight for the working class.
Some Democrats have not only surrendered but defected. Congressmen Jim Himes jumped onto national television to compliment Trump’s economic team, which had just tried to freeze funding for public cancer research. You don’t need a poll to tell you Americans aren’t going to like that and it’s the equivalent of a political opponent net.
While the Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is busy googling “What does an opposition party do?” and the junior congressmen are trying to focus-test their way into the 2028 nomination, the rest of us are forced to live with the consequences of a Trump presidency. ICE is pulling 3rd graders out of health class and its now legal for the federal government to say, “Actually we prefer to give contracts to non-Jews.” Given the shocking deplorability of Trump’s first weeks, I strongly suggest we do not follow the Democrats complacency. To help increase the chances of working class politics rising about this pathetic fascism in the future, we must do what the politicians won’t — resist.
Labor unions, political activists groups, and even joining a local community center are all ways in which we fight back. And to mount a true resistance, we need to bring more people into those spaces with clear and concise communication. As the proprietor of a leftist blog, I am more than willing to discuss the finer points of Marxism and progressivism with anyone who is curious. But that’s a complex message, one that is difficult to communicate in a world of short attention spans. Given the absurd nature of the enemy we face, we should employ a communications strategy inspired by the short-temper of an emotionally repressed Irish Catholic comedian. Call weirdos weird, and continuously clarify that the right wing is an oligarchical cesspool filled with lunatics who want to take food out of school chidren’s mouths because that’s the only time they can actually feel anything besides the cold hollowness where most people have a soul. Trump, his cabinet, and the online reactionaries thrive on being the tormentor who trigger women who remind them of the girl who shot them down in high school. Please, flip the script. Don’t engage with the bad faith bullshit, tell them their losers, and focus on attracting people to the working class cause with a simple message: Donald Trump is a pedophile who is so insecure he has to wear platform shoes to inflate his fragile ego. If you need proof this will work, check out all the faceless rightists freaking out in the comments.
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In Solidarity — Joe
https://www.npr.org/2025/01/27/nx-s1-5276084/elon-musk-german-far-right-afd-holocaust
https://www.masslive.com/politics/2024/08/new-poll-weird-is-a-winner-as-walz-harris-take-the-lead-in-key-swing-states.html
https://minnesotareformer.com/2024/11/06/weird-won-now-walz-comes-home/
“Don’t engage with the bad faith bullshit, tell them their losers, and focus on attracting people to the working class cause with a simple message: Donald Trump is a pedophile who is so insecure he has to wear platform shoes to inflate his fragile ego.”
I love how uncomfortable Kimmel sounds lol. Bill Burr is a legend, he is the spiritual successor of George Carlin. Most accurate bullshit detector we have right now. ‘They’re wondering ‘why did it happen?!’ He wrote on the bullets why it happened!’ Love him.