{"id":285,"date":"2025-04-18T23:37:05","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T06:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/?p=285"},"modified":"2025-06-07T23:40:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T06:40:21","slug":"this-machine-kills-fascists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/18\/this-machine-kills-fascists\/","title":{"rendered":"This machine kills fascists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Woody Guthrie was a DJ. He used the power of the social media of his time to spread the message of anti-fascism and pro-democracy. Pete Seeger had a television show. He used the power of social media to highlight outspoken advocates for social justice in song. Nina Simone used her platform to expose the abuses of power and hypocrisy in our society and our government. Paul Robeson traveled the world and spoke out at his concerts, championing anti-fascist causes in the US and abroad. Teresa Teng encoded revolutionary messages into her pop songs. Victor Jara lost his life for using his artistry to inspire people to defend democracy and resist authoritarianism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of these people were blacklisted, repressed, investigated, and trivialized by the systems of power they spoke and sang against. And many regular people went along with the program, belittling them as corny, or fringe, or eccentric, or out of touch with reality. Many people who look back on these figures as heroes might have ignored or laughed at them in their heyday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes revolution is ignored in its time, only to be looked back upon with wistful reverence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To heck with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyone who is called to inspire their people to coordinated action for the common good knows that the work is not sexy, and will not result in accolades or personal gain. Often, it seems like the people who are most responsible for igniting our spark are the least willing to engage in our efforts. Nevertheless, our passion and our recognition of the moment compels us to continue to reach out, connect, educate, and build alliances through whatever networks we have available to us. It’s a face-to-face, word-of-mouth, phone-call-in-the-middle-of-the-night kind of thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whose side are you on? Will you hear the call?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Woody Guthrie was a DJ. He used the power of the social media of his time to spread the message of anti-fascism and pro-democracy. Pete Seeger had a television show. He used the power of social media to highlight outspoken advocates for social justice in song. Nina Simone used her platform to expose the abuses … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,15,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musicology","category-politics","category-reflection"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paor1p-4B","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":282,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/05\/08\/extreme-wealth-is-not-compatible-with-democracy\/","url_meta":{"origin":285,"position":0},"title":"Extreme wealth is not compatible with democracy","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"May 8, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Extreme wealth is not compatible with democracy. The ultrarich are cushioned from fluctuations in the political landscape that can have life-or-death consequences for regular people. Even if a billionaire lost their job and got hit by a truck tomorrow, they would be able to afford healthcare, send their kids to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "politics"","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":265,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/02\/21\/general-strike\/","url_meta":{"origin":285,"position":1},"title":"General Strike!","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"February 21, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"While I do believe that individuals have influence, I see that we live in a society where actual power is accumulated in the hands of only a few individuals.While I do believe that peaceful protest has an influence on the powerful, I see that peaceful protest without the participation of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "reflection"","block_context":{"text":"reflection","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/reflection\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":792,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/23\/education-v-indoctrination\/","url_meta":{"origin":285,"position":2},"title":"education v. indoctrination","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"June 23, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Education builds bridges to new understanding. (educare: to bring up; to nurture). Indoctrination burns bridges and prevents new ones from being built. (endoctriner: to instruct; to imbue with an idea or opinion). Education makes the world bigger. Indoctrination keeps one sequestered in a silo. The reason anti-woke folks rail so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chronicle"","block_context":{"text":"chronicle","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/chronicle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/img_1520.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":787,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/22\/are-redheads-sun-drenched-brunettes-or-spicy-blondes\/","url_meta":{"origin":285,"position":3},"title":"are redheads sun-drenched brunettes, or spicy blondes?","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"June 22, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"I recently received pushback from the usual channels when I posted about decolonizing the gender binary. As is my way, I went looking to history to see if I was being unfair to white guys. What I found was pretty clear, and it's not just related to race (like gender,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chronicle"","block_context":{"text":"chronicle","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/chronicle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/img_1516.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/img_1516.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/img_1516.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/img_1516.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/img_1516.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/img_1516.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":413,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/23\/the-middle-way-hub-or-hollow\/","url_meta":{"origin":285,"position":4},"title":"The middle way: hub, or hollow?","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"June 23, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Imagine a conversation about a trip to a museum between a person whose instrument of recall includes a detailed cinema projected onto the back of their eyeballs and a person with no access to visual formations at all. Imagine a conversation about a favorite album between a person who hears\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "didactics"","block_context":{"text":"didactics","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/didactics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/img_0327-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/img_0327-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/img_0327-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/img_0327-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/img_0327-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":463,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/22\/neuroemergence\/","url_meta":{"origin":285,"position":5},"title":"neuroemergence","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"July 22, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Because no one asked, here's one take on neurodivergence: We have the Latin-derived terms horizontal and vertical to describe the x- and y-axes in a two-dimensional model. The fact that there is no handy, colloquial Latin-derived word for the z-axis, or depth, suggests that writers and thinkers driving language forward\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "didactics"","block_context":{"text":"didactics","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/didactics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":287,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285\/revisions\/287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}