The 22nd Century Initiative

When they come for the arts, they come for our collective imagination and resistance. Support your local artists. Buy their work. Show up to their events. Art is infrastructure and essential.

Read more by visiting The Anti-Authoritarian Playbook: bit.ly/antiauthoritarianplaybook

THE VISTA: January 2026 Many around the country have been inspired by the collective action of the people of Minnesota in the face of ICE’s surge in the state. We’ve also been called to honor the many distinct responses people are experiencing to the murders in Minneapolis. But what is clear is that the egregious political violence has spurred many new voices to denounce the authoritarian tactics,

Here's what we're reading, watching and listening to this month.

@19thnews.org @onesixcomics.bsky.social @timothysnyder.bsky.social @weforum.org
@daniel-hunter.bsky.social @22ci.bsky.social @moreincommonus.bsky.social @wagingnonviolence.org @ivehaditpodcast.bsky.social @cftchange.bsky.social

11:45pm: the moment between complacency and collapse. But here’s the thing, we can still turn this around. Not by waiting, but by acting together.

bit.ly/antiauthoritarianplaybook

What happens when election workers, police, and business leaders all refuse to cooperate with authoritarianism? The regime falls. It's happened before. It can happen again.

Read the Anti-Authoritarian Playbook: bit.ly/antiauthoritarianplaybook

‘Backing down isn’t an option’: Minnesota ICE shootings mobilize Americans to join ICE observer groups The killings of Minneapolis residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti have inspired people across the US to document federal agents’ activities in their communities

for over 3 weeks, I've spoken to ICE watchers and organizers across the country: first right after Renee Good's killing — then 2 weeks into my reporting, Alex Pretti was killed.

ICE watchers are being detained and harassed — but they're also stopping ICE abductions and inspiring others to join them

Over the weekend, 75,000 Minnesotans from every walk of life marched and over 1,000 businesses shut down to demand ICE and the regime end their campaign of abductions and killings.

Minnesotans across races, faiths, and genders, are demonstrating that the #BraveOfUs stand with and for each other.

NO KINGS MARCH 28 Nokings.org

Stay tuned for further details…

An office building lit up in the dark with a crowd of people holding signs in front of it.

HAPPENING NOW: A massive crowd is gathered in freezing temperatures outside ICE headquarters in DC to demand ICE OUT OF ALL COMMUNITIES NOW.

YouTube video by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert How Blowing A Whistle Is An Act Of Nonviolent Resistance - Maria J. Stephan

“Disciplined nonviolent resistance can make state violence and repression backfire.” - @mariajstephan.bsky.social on countering the authoritarian playbook on Colbert last night www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7Mg...

Faith communities play a powerful role in civil resistance. Faith leaders are showing up in powerful ways in Minneapolis and beyond.

What Serbian Activists Can Teach Us About Staying Safe Under Authoritarian Pressure Lessons from the frontlines of the 2024 Serbian uprising for democracy defenders everywhere

As you join and organize actions this weekend and beyond, assume total surveillance and act accordingly. Serbian activists give us a powerful blueprint: stay connected to each other, stay diligent and clear, stay consistent, stay ahead. antiauthoritarianplaybook.substack.com/p/what-serbi...

Why You Can’t Understand American Authoritarianism Without Understanding Race Or: How the War on Black Freedom Became the Infrastructure for War on All of Us

The infrastructure authoritarians are using was built to destroy Black freedom. You cannot resist it effectively without understanding that. And you cannot understand it while remaining silent about race. antiauthoritarianplaybook.substack.com/p/why-you-ca...

Political violence is not normal and we will not let authoritarians make us feel like it is. In these difficult times, we must continue speaking truth to power, fostering community relationships and care, and taking action together.

We grieve Renee Nicole Good and all those killed by ICE. ICE’s lawless operations have made our neighborhoods less safe. This violence is not isolated but the predictable result of abuse of power. We demand accountability for this killing and an end to ICE raids.

Scot Nakagawa and Zev Mishell: Why Joy Is Essential to Democracy Podcast Episode · The PlayFull Podcast with Kristine Michie: Bringing Fun to the Serious Work of Changing the World · 01/08/2026 · 48m

In the face of exhaustion and the onslaught of authoritarian violence, joy, play, faith, and resistance can sustain our movements for democracy and justice. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

Our Executive Director Scot Nakagawa joins The Playfull Podcast TOMORROW to discuss democracy, resistance, and the serious work of changing the world. Tune in wherever you get your podcasts.

Taiwan showed the world how 23 million people can stand strong against authoritarian pressure.

Democracy isn't something you have. It's something you do. Every single day.

What will you choose to build?

We need to be clear and honest about where we are and strategic hope about where we can go! The Anti-Authoritarian Playbook draws lessons from movements that won against authoritarianism. Visit bit.ly/antiauthoritarianplaybook

Subscribe to The Anti-Authoritarian Playbook By Scot Nakagawa of The 22nd Century Initiative. Click to read The Anti-Authoritarian Playbook, by Scot Nakagawa, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.

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Where We Are A Strategic Assessment of Authoritarian Consolidation

The experts have done their job naming where we are. Now we do ours: building the resistance that prevents consolidation and creates the conditions for democratic renewal. antiauthoritarianplaybook.substack.com/p/where-we-are

Whether authoritarianism consolidates or gets pushed back depends entirely on whether pro-democracy forces maintain strategic coherence, organizational capacity, and the willingness to sustain pressure over time.

Now we must organize accordingly.

The bottom line is we’re in a qualitatively different moment than we were a year ago. The transition to competitive authoritarianism has occurred. But it’s early-stage, faces real structural constraints, and remains assailable.

Competitive authoritarian regimes are vulnerable to sustained, strategic opposition precisely because they maintain democratic forms. Those forms can be exploited by movements that understand the terrain.

The strategic imperative is staying in the fight, contesting power through every available channel: courts, elections, mass mobilization, economic pressure, and international solidarity.

It’s not inevitable that authoritarianism continues consolidating in the US.

But our strategy has to start with reality: we are no longer a liberal democracy.

Most importantly, US opposition is well-organized, well-financed, and electorally viable. We’re harder to co-opt, repress, or sideline than opposition movements in El Salvador, Hungary, or Turkey were. Our civil society is robust, our resources substantial, and our organizational capacity is real.

But here’s the critical part for our organizing strategy: Trump is politically weaker than successful autocrats typically are at this stage. The U.S. also has stronger institutional constraints than countries that slid into stable competitive authoritarianism.

The authoritarian playbook also looks like delegitimizing opposition, threatening media, suing universities, purging NGOs, and demonizing opposition donors. It looks like using immigration enforcement as a consolidation tool, including deploying military forces against state governors’ wishes.

The pattern is clear and follows an authoritarian playbook we’ve seen globally. Executive overreach through governance by decree. Politicized control of the civil service. Targeting perceived opponents through IRS investigations and regulatory agencies.

Competitive authoritarianism isn’t the strongman dictatorships or the one-party states history. Elections continue. Opposition parties exist. Courts still function. But the state apparatus is systematically weaponized against opponents, and the playing field is tilted to entrench executive control.