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In 2017, about six women were killed intentionally by people they knew every hour. Of the 87,000 women killed that year, fewer than half were killed by strangers. Femicide takes different forms, and different concepts are used around the world. But while the differences between femicide and feminicidio, for example, are not merely linguistic but also cultural, there is some agreement on significant key elements. Generally, femicide refers to the killing of women and girls because they are females, i.e. because of their gender. These killings result from unequal power structures rooted in traditional gender roles, customs, and mindsets. And they are the tip of the iceberg in terms of gender-based violence against women and girls.

Given this dire state of affairs, it is painful to consider that some men are trying to justify their hate and violence against women. Shortly after a 22-year-old gunman murdered five people on the streets of Plymouth in the UK, news reports emerged linking him to the obscure, largely-online incel movement. Women are arrogant and entitled beyond belief, the killer had posted on social media shortly before the attack, describing himself as bitter and jealous and seemingly confirming his allegiance to the movement.

The incel ideology is based on the concept of involuntary celibacy the idea that certain physical, biological, social, and mental characteristics prevent men from having access to some kind of sexual marketplace. That marketplace, they claim, is dominated by so-called Chads and Stacys, who exclude incels from participating. The result is an embittered community of male forum-dwellers who perceive themselves as social outcasts and turn their ire primarily against women, but also men and romantic couples. Unlike most acts of femicide, many incels do not attack women they know in line with broader terrorist targeting preferences, the victims are typically randomly selected.

Misogyny, and sexual frustration, is certainly a key part of the movement and the ideology.

On the complex domestic extremism and terrorism stage, incels occupy a curious space. They do not appear to pose the same threat as white supremacists or Salafi-jihadists, yet they inflame fear and intense discussion. And their often-bizarre creed transcends assumed ideological boundaries. A far-right extremist who attacked a synagogue and kebab shop in Germany, for instance, repeated several tropes common in incel chatrooms. But regardless of how we understand them ideologically, violent elements of the movement retain a threat of terrorism against Western communities.

Firstly, its important to note that 2020 and 2021 were bad years for incel violence. Most lethal, of course, was the Plymouth attack, which killed five, but incidents in the US and Canada also claimed victims and provided reminders of the threat to North America. The most serious US case was one Arizona-based incel that opened fire at a mall in Glendale in May 2020 to kill couples. Three people were wounded. In Toronto, a teenager wascharged with a terrorist crime after killing a woman at a massage parlour. And in Virginia, an individual blew his hand off building a bomb.

Counterterrorism analysts often reference the nexus between intent and capability where they meet, terrorism is inevitable. With incels, intent often outpaces capability, and the only reasons the violence has not been worse or more visible these past two years isincompetence on the part of the attackers and good policing but, crucially, not a lack of intent. As long as intent persists, we are at threat.

Secondly, profound pandemic-related concerns about radicalisation to extremism may prove disproportionately true in the case of incels. Experts are concerned that the same troubles weve all experienced during the pandemic isolation, loneliness, boredom, and too much time spent online will feed extremism. The reason the pandemic is so dangerous forincelradicalisation specifically is because, unlike with other extremist movements, those factors are actually part of the ideology itself.

Incels are radicalised online, and they talk incessantly about a lack of friends and romantic prospects, about spending day after day at home alone, and about trouble in school or finding work. Misogyny, and sexual frustration, is certainly a key part of the movement and the ideology. But we must also recognise that incel ideology is self-reinforcing. And those feelings, emotions, and conditions that lead incels into radicalisation have only intensified during the pandemic. Already, most acts of incel violence have been murder-suicides like in Plymouth, violent incels primarily aim to end their own lives, while maximising the number they take with them.

Thirdly, were seeing an expansion to Europe. Most incel violence has been contained to North America, but multiple arrests in Scotland and England were followed by the tragedy in Plymouth, while Germany and Italy have also witnessed incels mobilising towards violence. Incels represent the ultimate case study in an ongoing trend in terrorism, in which movements previously assumed to exist purely domestically have instead crossed oceans and borders, accelerating along social media tentacles to radicalise newcomers in new countries. This makes them far more difficult to challenge, as they evade any traditional conceptualisations employed by national counterterrorism agencies. And this trend may intensify. There is nothing inherently Western about incel ideology that would prevent it from expanding further, for instance, to Asia.

We face a male supremacist movement producing extremists who are as emboldened to attack as ever.

Fourthly, incels have attracted a lot of media and counterterrorism attention, but there are other misogynist movements that are just as dangerous and that we risk ignoring with too much focus on incels. The clearest example is the Atlanta shooting earlier this year, during which women were targeted at multiple Asian-majority spas. The attacker was not an incel but similarly combined deeply personal, sexual grievances with an ideology that justified violence against an outgroup, which in this case also included a racial dimension. The importance of tackling broader misogyny and male supremacism at large (including the myriad forms of femicide worldwide) should not be missed while our focus is on incels.

There are ongoing debates about the countering of this movement, and about efforts to combat it as a terrorist ideology. Canada, in particular, has led the charge to classifyincelviolence as terrorism, inspiring passionate debate on the topic. The US appears to be following suit, but far more cautiously. This is one of the major questions in efforts to counter incel violence: does calling it terrorism help or hurt?

Those questions are complicated by the fact that not all acts of incel-inspired violence involve equal ideological components. Here, Plymouth provides a worthwhile case study. The first recognised incel attack, which targeted a sorority house in Isla Vista, California, involved a gunman who published a manifesto and videos directly claiming credit for his attack and linking it to the ideology. Plymouth did not. The word terrorism and the legal ramifications that might accompany it should be reserved for ideological violence that clearly targets a defined outgroup and aims to spread psychological fear a standard that does not fit every act of violence linked to incels, including the attack in Plymouth, but certainly does meet some.

In any case, we face a male supremacist movement producing extremists who are as emboldened to attack as ever, will benefit from the pandemic, are expanding to Europe, and are actually just one of many male supremacist subsects. On the post-Covid-19 counterterrorism stage, then, incels may play a leading role.

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The incel threat Democracy and society - IPS Journal

One year before Americans got embroiled in an ugly debate about the validity of the 2020 election results, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts unleashed a warning flare about threats to U.S. democracy.

We have come to take democracy for granted, and civic education has fallen by the wayside, Roberts wrote in his 2019 year-end report on the federal judiciary. In our age, when social media can instantly spread rumor and false information on a grand scale, the publics need to understand our government, and the protections it provides, is ever more vital.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge John Tunheim will deliver a speech in Minneapolis that lays out how the creation of two Minnesota Justice & Democracy Centers will address the problem that Roberts diagnosed.

In an extended interview with Twin Cities Business, Tunheim explained how the centers will fill a gap in civics education and why children and adults need to pay more attention to understanding their government and restoring respect for democratic institutions. He also talked about why its essential for the business sector to be able to operate within a functioning democracy.

The first center is expected to open next year in the federal courthouse in downtown St. Paul, and the second center will be inaugurated a year later in the federal courthouse in Minneapolis.

The primary reason for doing this is to create a place for school children to come in on field trips with their teachers and learn about the Constitution, to learn about voting, to learn about major cases, to learn about the judiciary, and the importance of judicial independence, said Tunheim, who has been chief judge of the U.S. District Court of Minnesota since 2015.

President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, nominated Tunheim for a federal judgeship in 1995. President George W. Bush, a Republican, nominated Roberts in 2005 to become chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Both men were confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

While presidents from two political parties selected Tunheim and Roberts for pivotal roles in the federal judiciary, they share strong, common views about the need to buttress civics education and build trust in democratic institutions.

Tackling a civic education deficit

In recent years, Tunheim said, spending on STEM education has greatly increased, which is a good development for U.S. competitiveness. But he said another trend has had a negative impact on the nation. Weve disinvested from education in history, and particularly civics and education about our democratic institutions, the judge said.

That civics deficit is why Chief Justice Roberts encouraged federal courts to become partners with schools in increasing knowledge about government.

At noon Tuesday, Tunheim will be the featured speaker at the Westminster Town Hall Forum in downtown Minneapolis. One outgrowth of neglected civics education among the young people of our country is that many students cannot even name the three branches of government, Tunheim said.

In addition to explaining why the new Justice & Democracy Centers are needed, Tunheim said he will talk about what they will offer, and what we hope to inspire and hope to make a difference in the community fabric of Minnesota.

The St. Paul center will be 1,360 square feet, and the Minneapolis center will be larger at 2,850 square feet. Structural building of the centersflooring and wallswill be covered by federal funds.

It will cost about $1.5 million to create exhibits and install technology in the two centers, according to Rebeccah Parks, public information officer for the U.S. District Court. The court is not allowed to raise money for those expenses. Park said leaders of the Minnesota chapter of the Federal Bar Association are soliciting contributions from businesses, foundations, and other community sources to help support the exhibits and other center costs.

School trips to the centers likely will be taken by students in grades four through nine, although nobody will be excluded from the centers.

Were going to populate [each center] with interactive screens that help students understand the Constitution, court cases, and how a case proceeds through the judicial system, Tunheim said. There also are plans to make a film about government that students can watch during their visits.

In conjunction with center visits, Tunheim said, he hopes that students can also enter actual courtrooms. He noted that it would be valuable for students to watch a real judicial proceeding, and then spend a little time with a judge, so they get a chance to meet a judge, and talk to a judge and ask their questions.

Almanac creators leadership role

Bill Hanley, who led the creation of TPTs long-running Almanac program, is working closely with Tunheim on the start up and programming of the two centers. Earlier this year, he became the executive content officer for the centers.

For many years, Hanley was executive vice president of Minnesota production at TPT, which brought him into contact with judges. In particular, hes proud of the TPT documentaries that examined how people with developmental disabilities were affected by the legal environment.

As I was leaving TPT, it just began to bug me that the court is so essential, it is so crucial, and yet it continues to be the one branch of government that is misunderstood, Hanley said.

Hanley met with Tunheim to explore ways the court could be more visible in community settings, and he helped coordinate a 2019 naturalization ceremony at Allianz Field in St. Paul that Tunheim presided over.

Everybodys got their own definition of justice, but justice under the law means something, Hanley said. Its not healthy for this society, especially for young people, to think of judges as being detached, in a robe, and behind a bench. This is not good.

Just as Almanac increased understanding about the Minnesota Legislature, Hanley wants the centers to make progress in demystifying the judicial branch and the judges who serve within it. [People] need to understand that these are real human beings making real judgments and that those judgments are based on something real and not just something they are making up, he said.

Beyond the exhibits in the centers, Hanley said the centers will provide a website and host live events. Hes currently collaborating on an event focused on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women that is likely to be held in March.

Tunheim said some live center events might celebrate the opening of exhibits. Over the years, the District of Minnesota has developed exhibits that have been on display in a given courthouse. Currently, there is one in the Duluth courthouse that commemorates the lynchings that happened in Duluth in 1920. [We] made sure people knew what a horrific, racial terror event that was and that it didnt just happen in the South, it happened in Minnesota as well, Tunheim said.

The judge added that the court traditionally offers a summer program for high school students in which they study the judiciary and other branches of government. He hopes that program can be expanded in connection with the Justice & Democracy Centers.

Business, media, and democracy

Informed and engaged citizens support democratic institutions. Tunheim noted that a functioning democracy also supports a capitalist society.

Having strong democratic institutions, as our country has had throughout history, has always been an important foundation of our entire business community, Tunheim said. Businesses need a fair, independent and responsible judiciary to resolve disputes, he said, and democratic institutions also make sure that competition is fair and those with the great ideas and great initiatives can flourish.

Both the Minnesota Business Partnership and the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce have emphasized the important role that immigrants play in the states economy. In March, the Minnesota Chamber Foundation released a report that examined The Economic Contributions of Immigrants in Minnesota.

Tunheim has elevated the roles that immigrants occupy in Minnesotas workforce and communities by holding some naturalization ceremonies outside of courtrooms. He will be doing one Tuesday at Westminster Presbyterian Church before he gives his democracy speech. About 25 people will take the oath of allegiance and become new U.S. citizens.

There is such heated rhetoric about immigration in this day and age, Tunheim said. These are wonderful people who have worked very hard to become American citizens. The court administers oaths to more than 15,000 new citizens in Minnesota every year, he said.

We have people who have chosen to come to America to become an American citizen, much like our ancestors did a long time ago, Tunheim said. It is important for us to get out to the community to do these ceremonies to give it a different side of immigration, a side that celebrates the fact that we are welcoming people, that we need them, we want them, and they are good citizens.

When Tunheim was a boy growing up in the small town of Newfolden in northwestern Minnesota, many people got their news from daily newspapers and discussed government issues from a common set of facts. From grades five through nine, Tunheim delivered newspapers seven days a week on his bicycle.

Being a paperboy, I was always proud of the fact that most of the people in town took the daily Minneapolis paper, he said. And if you didnt take the Minneapolis paper, the Star or the Tribune, you took the Grand Forks Herald in the afternoon.

Bundles of Minneapolis newspapers were tossed off of the Soo Line northbound passenger train, Tunheim said, and he would retrieve them from the depot boardwalk. Virtually everybody was reading daily newspapers when I was young, and I think that contributed greatly to a sense of the importance of understanding the news, the importance of our democratic institutions and the work that they did, Tunheim said.

In 2021, many people rely on partisan broadcast media and social media for their news. That reality has fueled tribalism, Tunheim said, adding that national trends have adversely affected Minnesotas decades-long pattern of healthy civic involvement and good government.

You can see the difficulty of reaching compromises that were much easier to reach a generation ago, particularly if you look at the Legislature, Tunheim said, and if you look at the differences among our members of Congress in terms of their viewpoints on issues.

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Buttressing Democracy in Minnesota - Twin Cities Business Magazine

On 20 October, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, traveled to Ecuador to set out a vision for democracy in the Americas. Over the past five years, the hemisphere has suffered an assault on its democratic institutions, as political leaders from Donald Trump to Jair Bolsonaro have adopted a new authoritarian playbook: lies, violence, repression, and more lies. Two-thirds of US citizens now believe that democracy is under threat, while a majority of Brazilians fear a military dictatorship will return to the country. We find ourselves in a moment of democratic reckoning, announced Blinken.

But the Biden administration continues to put the US on the wrong side of this reckoning. Consider Blinkens recent trip. In Quito, he lavished praise on President Guillermo Lasso in the same week that Lasso declared a nationwide state of emergency to intimidate critics of his government and distract from an investigation into alleged tax fraud following his appearance in the Pandora Papers leak. In Bogot hours later, Blinken applauded the democratic credentials of the Colombian president, Ivn Duque We have no better ally on the full range of issues that our democracies face in this hemisphere, Blinken said while his government stands accused of targeting protesters and allowing an unprecedented number of assassinations of Indigenous, Black, and peasant leaders to take place under his watch.

The US government is complicit in these attacks on democracy, not only as an ally but also as a leading member of the Organization of American States (OAS). Just two days after Blinkens South America jaunt, the governments of Bolivia, Argentina, and Mexico held their own event at the Washington DC headquarters of the OAS to discuss the organizations controversial role in the 2019 Bolivian election. The experts findings were clear and damning: while the OAS found no evidence of fraud in the election of President Evo Morales, it lied to the public and manipulated its own findings to help depose him. It was later reported that the US representative to the OAS actually pressured and steered the observation mission to reach a determination of fraud, testified Jake Johnston of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Bolivia is not an isolated case. In Haiti, for example, the anti-democratic interventions of the OAS stretch over decades. In 2000, the OAS observer mission concluded that the Haitian election had been a great success only to change its position under pressure from Washington to claim it was illegitimate. The goal was evident: to dislodge the Aristide administration, as Dr Paul Farmer, deputy special envoy for Haiti at the United Nations, testified to Congress. Then, 10 years later, the OAS intervened again to reverse the result of the 2010 presidential election on the basis of faulty statistical methods. It is difficult to overstate the destabilizing consequences of these interventions. Juan Gabriel Valds, the former head of the UN in Haiti, recently described the 2010 OAS decision as the origin of the present tragedy in the country.

The OAS, then, is no longer a credible observer of democracy in the Americas particularly under the present leadership of Luis Almagro, which has been described as the worst in history. In the eyes of several member states, the institution is too beholden to US interests to provide an effective defense of democratic institutions, leading some to call for autonomous organizations to contest it. The world is currently going through a very worrying moment, where attacks on democratic institutions happen with frightening frequency, said Brazils former foreign minister Celso Amorim. The creation of an international electoral observatory popular and non-partisan will fill an important gap in defense of democracy and human rights.

What would such an observatory do? Three capacities are critical. The first would be to organize delegations to countries where democratic institutions are clearly under threat both by domestic actors and international observers like the OAS. Bringing together data scientists and parliamentary representatives, these delegations would provide independent analysis of the electoral process and a defense against false narratives that threaten to derail it. The goal is not only to observe how votes are cast and counted; it is also to observe the observers.

The second critical capacity would be to launch investigations of unlawful interventions in the democratic process. Over the course of the last decade, the dominant mechanism of democratic undoing has been legal, namely the weaponization of the judicial system to intimidate, exclude, and even incarcerate political opponents a tactic known across Latin America as legal warfare, or lawfare. Deploying a global network of legal experts, a new observatory could challenge these tactics to help ensure a free and fair democratic process.

The third and final capacity of the new observatory would be communications. In the technological era, bad information often travels faster than good. Big tech platforms such as Facebook not only serve to disseminate false stories and stir civic conflict; evidence suggests that their executives intervene to favor some candidates and ban others from the platform altogether. In the context of such bias, this new observatory would need to build an autonomous communications infrastructure to ensure that the findings of its delegations and investigations are rapidly spread, widely read, and well understood.

The call for a new observatory could not be more urgent. Contentious elections lie just on the horizon in 2022. In May, Colombia will head to the polls after a year of roiling protests against government violence, corruption, and a failed pandemic response. Five months later, Jair Bolsonaro will face Lula da Silva after profiting from his flagrant persecution on the road to the presidency in 2018. Bolsonaro and his allies in Congress have already pushed a legislative package to rewrite Brazils electoral laws, while parroting lies about potential fraud in the countrys electoral system.

Meanwhile, back in Washington DC, Secretary Blinken is moving ahead with plans for a Summit for Democracy. Convening leaders from a diverse group of the worlds democracies in early December, the summit aims to encourage commitments to fight corruption and respect human rights an opportunity, as the White House press release suggests, to speak honestly about the challenges facing democracy so as to collectively strengthen the foundation for democratic renewal.

But the crisis of democracy will not be solved by summitry alone. We cannot delegate democratic renewal to our presidents, nor to the OAS that claims to represent them. We need an observatory to defend democracy from the bottom up an institution with the capacity and credibility to fight authoritarian tactics and even the playing field for democracy to flourish. That fight starts now.

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We need a new observatory of democracy in the Americas - The Guardian

America is in deep trouble and I say that not out of hatred but out of love. James Baldwin once explained that he loved America "more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually."

With little fanfare, last Monday was World Freedom Day. President Biden offered an obligatory public statement, including the somewhat dubious claim that since the fall of the Berlin Wall 32 years ago, "we have seen great progress to advance human rights and fundamental freedoms as well as to build and consolidate democratic institutions across the formerly communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe and around the world." But democracy, the president admitted, "remains under threat" in many parts of the world where "we see aspiring autocrats trample the rule of law, attack freedom of the press, and undermine an independent judiciary."

Biden's proclamation continues:

Today, we reaffirm our commitment to the ideal that democracy a Government of the people, by the people, and for the people is how we best safeguard the rights, freedoms, and dignity that belong to every person.Together with other free nations, the United States remains committed to the vital work of strengthening our democratic institutions, defending civil society, advancing human rights, and holding those who commit abuses and foster corruption accountable.

It isa statement of what the United States wishes it were, not whatit actually is, especiallyin this era of democracy crisis and ascendant neofascism.In total, there is something apprehensive and sad in this overly hopeful tribute, not to mention a hefty dose of denial. Biden's proclamationalmost sounds like the words of a president who knows his country is losing a war, yet tells the public:"Victory is imminent! Do not despair!"

Many Americans can sense the country's inner turmoil and understand that something is very broken.

RELATED:Republicans would "rather end democracy" than turn away from Trump, says Harvard professor

That despair and feeling of wrongness reflect a deep intuition, even if ourlanguage is often insufficient to capture it,that this American interregnum will resolve itself in a period of chaotic transformationand perhaps thedefeat of multiracial democracy. But many millions of people remain indenial about America's escalating democracy crisis or support the emerging fascist movement, mistakingit for "patriotism."

The democracy advocacy organization Freedom House reports that the"democracy score"of the United Stateshas decreased by 11 points since 2010, placing it in a groupof countries with the largest such declines by that measure. As Freedom House reported in March, the Trump administration worsened that trend significantly:

The final weeks of the Trump presidency featured unprecedented attacks on one of the world's most visible and influential democracies. After four years of condoning and indeed pardoning official malfeasance, ducking accountability for his own transgressions, and encouraging racist and right-wing extremists, the outgoing president openly strove to illegally overturn his loss at the polls, culminating in his incitement of an armed mob to disrupt Congress's certification of the results. ... Only a serious and sustained reform effort can repair the damage done during the Trump era to the perception and reality of basic rights and freedoms in the United States.

Groundbreaking research by the V-Dem institute at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden has foundthat the Republican Party has becomeso extremethat it more closely resembles openly right-wing authoritarian and fascist political parties in Europe and elsewherethan it does mainstream center-right partieslike the Conservatives in Britain or the Christian Democratic Union in Germany.

As legal scholar Robert Kagan wrote in the Washington Post in September, "The United States is heading into its greatest political and constitutional crisis since the Civil War, with a reasonable chance over the next three to four years of incidents of mass violence, a breakdown of federal authority, and the division of the country into warring red and blue enclaves." He concluded:

We are already in a constitutional crisis. The destruction of democracy might not come until November 2024, but critical steps in that direction are happening now. In a little more than a year, it may become impossible to pass legislation to protect the electoral process in 2024. Now it is impossible only because anti-Trump Republicans, and even some Democrats, refuse to tinker with the filibuster. It is impossible because, despite all that has happened, some people still wish to be good Republicans even as they oppose Trump. These decisions will not wear well as the nation tumbles into full-blown crisis.

Social scientists, investigative journalistsand other experts have shown that even before American neofascism's risethat the country's status as a "democracy" was alreadyimperiled bythe power of therichest Americans and corporate oligarchs to set the political agenda whilethe concerns of the average American are all but ignored by elected officials and other elites.

The meaning and spirit of Biden's World Freedom Day proclamation is further complicated by how much the world's self-described "greatest democracy"now resemblesthe failed oraspiring democracies who supposedly look to it for inspiration.

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There are too many examples to list in full, beginning of course with the coup attempt and violent assault on the U.S. Capitol last January. That coup attempt was not decisively defeated.Republican fascists and their propaganda machine are using the Big Lie, claiming thatthe 2020 election was stolenand Biden's presidency is illegitimateto further discredit and undermine American democracy.

Thatpropaganda campaign has beenhighly effective: A large percentage if not majorityof Republican voters believe that Trump is somehow still the real president, that the 2020 election was fraudulent, andthe Democratic Party is an enemy of "real" Americans.Public opinion and other research has also shown that a large percentage of Republican voters and Trump supporters are willing to accept or condone political violence and other forms of terrorism in order to "protect" their "traditional way of life."

Across the country, Republicans and their anti-democracy operatives are enacting laws and other policies (such as partisan gerrymandering) aimed at preventingBlack and brown people and otherDemocratic Party's constituenciesfrom voting or otherwise receiving fair representation. Channeling the Jim Crowreign of terror, the Republicans are also using threats of violence and other forms of intimidation including potentially armed"poll watchers" and "election police" in an effort to suppress or restrict the votes of Black and brown people, among others.

In perhaps their greatest success, the Republican fascists, along withtheir propagandists and dream merchants, have also underminedthe very idea of truth and empirical reality itself. Tens of millions of people exist in a right-wing echo chamber structured by conspiracy theory, anti-intellectualism, irrationality, hatred, and where authoritarianismis worshipped as a civic religion and personal identity.

Too many liberals or "moderates" have deluded themselves into believing that rationaldialogueor factual evidence can somehow persuade the Republican fascists and other members of the right wing to abandon their alternate reality. But such appeals to logic and reason holdlittle power over the emotional pleasures to be found in fascism.

Democratic leaders,the Biden administration and the Department of Justice are not acting with the necessary urgency to investigate and punish Donald Trump and other collaborators forthe crimes of Jan. 6 and their ongoing coup attempt. Without the rule of law and justice, democracy will die.

America's democracy crisis, when viewed in the context ofthe many other crises facing the country and the world,has led to the anxious coping behavior known as "doom-scrolling,"in which each individual dreadful event is lost amid many others ina never-ending stream.

We might more accurately described howthe American people at least those who are paying attention and remaininvested in saving democracy are stuck ona "doom treadmill," which is creatinga sense of physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectualexhaustion. The only way to escape is torunfaster than the infernal machine forces those stuck on it but most Americans lack the strength and endurance to do so.

What can be done?

Pro-democracy Americans mustally with others locally to find mutual aid and support in what will likely be a long struggle against American fascism. It's not enough to supportDemocratic candidatesand other "mainstream"political figures or organizations. Normal politics, almost by definition, is insufficientto defeat fascism. Political pragmatism will be required to prevail in this struggle.

Collective actionwill also be necessary strikes, protestsand other forms of corporeal politics and direct action to confront and cause substantive consequences for those political leaders,businesses and organizations whosupportthe Republican fascists and their movement.

Americans who support democracy need to share information, knowledgeand other resources, in order to help create an alternative public sphere as a counterbalance to the Republican-fascist assault on truth and reality.As survivors of authoritarian regimes in othertimesand places have suggested, keeping a private journal is a valuable way todocument the changes insociety as neofascism gains power. When reality is under siege it becomes the responsibility of individuals andsmall groupsto maintain some formof documentary record.

Democracy is a noun and a verb. Doing the work necessary to defend and reinvigorate American democracy will not be easy and cannot be understood as a short-term endeavor. As we have seen in the U.S. and other countries, this is likely to be an intergenerational struggle.

In a recent essay,anti-racism educator and activist Tim Wise observed: "Maintaining democracy, a livable planet, or a functioning society is like any other job. If you don't work at it, it doesn't get done." Fascists, he noted, "are the only ones showing up and punching the clock. They don't "take a break from the news," and they don't "do nomadism, digital or otherwise. They show the fuck up."

Pro-democracy Americans mustinternalize the wisdom of others who have fought (and won) similar battles. That is certainly thebest way tocreatesolidarity and finding energy and inspiration for what will often bethankless or evendangerous political work.

The Italian philosopherand activist Antonio Gramsci famously spoke of the need for "pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will" in the battle againstauthoritarianism. That combination will surely be necessary but then the fundamental question becomes:Do the American people want a real democracy and are enough of them willing to work and sacrifice to reclaim that possibility as reality?

More from Salon on the Trump-era crisis of democracy:

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American democracy is on the treadmill of doom: How do we get off? - Salon

Cuban authorities have snuffed out protests planned by activists to call for nationwide demonstrations for democracy and more freedom of expression.

After being caught off guard by unprecedented protests in July, the government acted in advance to ban the demonstrations planned for Monday, ran a media campaign arguing it was a US attempt at regime change, and placed protest leaders under house arrest.

Edel Prez, 35, a television actor arrested in the July protests, was prevented from leaving his house by two plain-clothed state security agents. I feel impotent and angry, he said. They are violating my constitutional rights.

Cubans posted videos of arrests on Facebook, while activists who dared to go out were driven away in police cars, and others were bundled into vans. Acts of repudiation, in which government supporters shout revolutionary slogans at alleged counter-revolutionaries, were reported outside many protest organisers homes.

In Havana, where plain-clothed state security officers were out in force, a tense calm prevailed. Though schools finally reopened after a long lockdown, many parents opted to keep their children at home.

One 22-year-old university student, who did not give his name for fear of retaliation, trekked across the capital looking for a protest to join. Nothings happening, he said.

I feel satisfied for having done this, but Im also sad about how scared people are, he said.

Having avoided the spectacle of mass protests, the government will feel it won this round. The Biden administration, it hopes, will now conclude that Julys protests were a blip, that the regime is stable, and that sanctions ought now to be eased.

The Biden administration has so far left all the Trump-era sanctions in place. These powerful sanctions coupled with Covid have halved foreign currency inflows over the last two years, leading to shortages of basic goods and fomenting discontent.

But the desire of young Cubans for greater freedoms will not disappear. There will now be other attempts to march and more repression, the university student said.

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Cuba democracy protests thwarted after rallies banned and leaders arrested - The Guardian