Sexual harassment and abuse (and misogyny, discrimination, assault, and bullying) are so rampant that there is a whole National Academies of Science report on the topic.  Accountability has to start in our home institutions. Accountability has to start with us.

Since relaunching our weekly wrap-up posts in March, we have consistently stated what we are against. But what do we stand for? What is our vision for the world we are trying to build?

Numbers matter. If they didn’t matter, wanna-be authoritarians wouldn’t be censoring labor statistics that don’t show them in favorable terms. The “flood the zone” strategy the Trump administration has been implementing is causing harm on a scale that is truly difficult to enumerate but all those numbers matter too. 

As the good folks at Stroika point out, the authoritarian playbook is a playbook for a reason. This is, in fact, precedented. And that means we can learn from what has worked previously. 

Power is more important than the truth and no one know that better than survivors of sexual assault.

All these things are connected. The vision for the world that emerges when these individual events are put together is one of isolationism, stalled progress, rabid racism and sexism, a fallen democracy and country, destroyed from within. There is an acute danger of normalcy amidst fascism, of shrugging while there are people intentionally starved and bombed in faraway lands and locked up without due process on our own soil.

In 1980, James Baldwin wrote in The Nation: “The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.” Are the more than 50,000 children killed or injured in Gaza not also ours? 

Finding hope at this moment is hard but absolutely necessary. We must contest every harm and every loss. We must cede nothing. 

If you want to know what a society values, look at what they spend their money on. As we write this week’s update, the US Senate passed a monstrosity of a budget that strips healthcare and food assistance from the most vulnerable people in our society, cuts science funding and kills our ability to solve our most pressing challenges, gives rich people a huge tax break, and funds gestapo and literal concentration camps on US soil and abroad.

As our US government institutions increasingly fail to keep us safe, many individuals and civil society groups are organizing and stepping up to protect each other. That’s heartening and much needed at a time when the slide into authoritarianism is more rapid in the US than most experts anticipated. Life may seem “normal” in your corner of the world, with the daily grind of work and life, brunch, kiddo playdates, concerts, etc. That normalcy is deceiving and dangerous, as dissidents from other authoritarian regimes warn us.

Violence is escalating in the US and across the world, from targeted assassinations of Minnesota legislators and their family members to violence against peaceful protesters (including violence perpetrated by law enforcement groups), to escalation of war in the Middle East, Sudan, and Ukraine. It is tempting to look away, but we need to remember that turning away is a privilege and many do not have that option. 

What does everyday bravery look like? How can we take strength and inspiration from ordinary people doing incredibly brave things?

Authoritarianism is rapidly spreading in the US and globally. As scientists who are deeply concerned about the onslaught of attacks on science, we must learn how to navigate a world where multiple things can be true

At times, the world feels unlovable. The people who are taking a wrecking ball to our institutions do not love the world, they only love themselves. But to love, even in the face of a purposely cruel and violent world, is revolutionary and an act of resistance. 

“We are not in Kansas anymore, folks - we’re in an authoritarian fever dream with bad spray tans and worse policies. But guess what? Resistance isn’t a one-day protest. Its a daily sabotage of the unjust.

Be petty. Be loud. Be ungovernable”