I am about to ask you to do something that may go against everything you have been taught your entire life. I am going to ask you to be angry—to be extremely clear, I’m not asking for rage, read on to see the important difference. I understand that this is an unusual ask, but whether you have consciously acknowledged it or not, your life, as you know it, has been placed in suspension. Whether it returns to normalcy or ceases to exist forever will be a function of the chain of events that take place starting today, October 1, 2025.
Some of you will notice my heavy use of “they” throughout this piece. It is intentional. You have to understand something: “they” have already otherized you. They have already decided you’re a terrorist for correctly describing them as fascists, and that for doing so you may belong behind bars, or worse. I want us to live in a world where I can speak of “we,” but they—who have captured all three branches of government and are, right now, deploying the greatest war machine in the history of mankind against Americans—have decided that a world of “we” will not exist right now. To delude ourselves that we currently live in that world is to grant them the denial they need to win.
These are not normal times. The worst thing you can do is to operate as if they were, because that is the regime’s ultimate objective: to make you accept this as the new normal. That is the one thing they cannot control, the ultimate victory that only you can surrender to them.
So don’t. Be angry. Wake up.
You should be furious. When you see a government hijacked by billionaires and a political movement built on cruelty, anger is the only sane and necessary response.
The people in charge are counting on our exhaustion, but their real strategy is more sinister: They want us numb.
This isn’t new. For decades, the very structure of our society has been engineered to pacify us. The system built to exploit us also provides a constant dose of dopamine and trivial releases for our frustration, all designed to make us accept the unacceptable.
And it has worked. But the slow creep of numbness has now given way to a full-scale fascist takeover. It is time for us, the American people, to awaken from this slumber. Anger is the antidote to numbness—the jolt that proves we are still paying attention and that what they are doing is not, and will never be, normal.
This article is a call to embrace our righteous anger as essential fuel for this fight. Because a numb, passive movement can only play defense—and a movement on defense is a movement that has already lost. The goal, then, is to learn how to focus that fury, making it a strategic, constructive force that stops them, instead of a self-destructive fire that consumes us.
Before we go further, we must confront the biggest obstacle to embracing our own anger: the fear of becoming what we despise.
You look at the MAGA movement—at their rabid cruelty and performative outrage—and you pull back. You tell yourself, “I don’t want to be that angry, lest I become like them.” It’s a noble instinct, born from a desire to hold on to your own decency in the face of their barbarism.
But this hesitation is based on a false equivalence. You are not them. And your anger is not their anger.
Their Problem Isn’t Anger—It’s Moral Bankruptcy
Their problem is not the anger they feel; it is the moral vacuum in which it exists. Their rage is not a righteous response to injustice; it is a tool for inflicting it, flowing from a corrupt foundation.
It’s the Rage of a Cult, Not a Cause: Their loyalty is to a man, not a principle. They operate within a psychological framework where facts are threats and fealty is the only virtue. Their anger serves to protect the cult leader, not the country.
It’s the Fury of Cruelty, Not Justice: The cruelty is the point, not a byproduct. It’s a deliberate strategy to normalize hatred and “own the libs.” This isn’t the righteous anger that seeks to correct a wrong; it’s the sneering contempt of the bully who enjoys the suffering of others.
It’s the Drive for Destruction, Not Progress: They are not trying to build; they are trying to burn. They wrap themselves in the flag while waging war on our institutions, our values, and our fellow citizens. Theirs is the anger of nihilism—a destructive force with no vision for the future beyond its own power.
Our Anger Is Grounded in a Just Cause
Anger is an energy. Fueled by moral principles, it is a force for good. As long as your anger is grounded in a just cause, you will never become them. Our anger is different because it is a protective, moral response to the violation of the principles we hold dear.
It’s Grounded in Truth: Our anger is a rebellion against their relentless information war. It is a sane reaction to the propaganda and lies designed to shatter our shared reality.
It’s Grounded in Fairness: Our anger is a response to systemic injustice. It is fury at a system rigged for billionaires while working families are crushed. It is outrage that the vulnerable are sacrificed for profit and power.
It’s Grounded in Empathy and Responsibility: Our anger is a protective fire lit in defense of those they target. It is the fury we feel for the families they harm, the communities they terrorize, and the children whose futures they are auctioning off.
It Coalesces into a Refusal to be a Bystander: Ultimately, these principles fuel an overarching refusal to sit back and watch a fascist cult destroy everything that makes America great. No matter how many “Make America Great Again” hats they wear, their actions prove they are anti-American. Our anger is the active, moral opposition to their project of destruction.
Grounded in these principles, your anger is not poison. It is the antidote to their moral decay. It is the force that will stop them and build a better world in their place.
The Anatomy of Destructive Anger: What Not to Do
With that permission granted, we must establish clear, actionable rules for wielding this righteous fire. Anger without discipline becomes a weapon that harms our own cause. To be constructive, we must first understand what it means to be destructive.
Rule #1: Reject Violence. Always.
Let’s make this unequivocal:
Do not commit acts of violence.
Violence is their tool, not ours. It is the language of the fascists we oppose, a sign of both moral and strategic failure. Our fight is for the soul and the principles of America—for a just and decent society. We cannot win that fight by adopting the tactics of terror and oppression. The moment we do, we cede the moral high ground and give them the very justification they need to tighten their grip.
Rule #2: Know Your True Enemy.
Destructive anger punches down or sideways. Strategic anger punches up at the true architects of this crisis. Wasted anger on the wrong targets is a strategic gift to the opposition, draining our energy on battles that won’t win the war.
Our focus must be precise. That means understanding who is—and who is not—the primary target right now.
These are NOT the primary targets:
The economically desperate who were manipulated by false promises.
The faithful whose religion was hijacked and weaponized to capture them.
Even the corporatists who capitulated for profit are a secondary threat. There will be a time for their reckoning, but that time is not now.
Even if you believe they should have known better, these groups are not our real enemies; they are, in many ways, also victims of the same machine.
We shouldn’t just see these people as non-enemies; we must see them as our fellow Americans. They may be flawed, but no one is perfect. Many of us, under similar circumstances—exposed to relentless propaganda, crushed by enough economic despair, and feeling abandoned by our democracy—may very well have made similar choices.
Furthermore, say what you will, fascism can only grow where democracy fails. Even those of us who have not succumbed to their ideology must bear some of the blame for our collective failure to deliver a democracy where fascism cannot take root.
Because of this, we have a duty. We must, at minimum, be willing to offer a clean off-ramp for those willing to turn away from the fascist regime—those who are there not because they are steeped in its ideology, but because we were unable to show them a better path. A path built not on empty promises, but on actually delivered dignity.
These are the true enemies: We must focus our energy on the core of the fascist movement.
The Ideologues: The white supremacists who genuinely believe in a master race that must rule over others.
The Theocrats: The fundamentalist leaders who weaponize faith to control the masses and enforce their dogma.
The Grifters: The propagandists and mouthpieces who wrap this cancerous ideology in patriotism to sell it to the public.
Rule #3: Let Anger Fuel You, Not Control You.
Uncontrolled rage leads to irrationality and weakness. If you let anger take the lead, you become predictable, easily provoked, and unable to work as part of a coordinated force. You become a liability to the movement.
Our goal is to be “focused like a laser and aimed like an arrow.” Focused fury is a weapon; uncontrolled rage is a bonfire that consumes you. Remember this core mantra in the fight ahead:
Let the righteous anger move you, but not steer you.
The Playbook for Constructive Anger: What to Do
Now that we have established the guardrails, it’s time to learn how to aim. If our anger is to be a laser, we must know how to focus it. If it is an arrow, we must know how to shoot. This is the playbook for turning righteous fury into a strategic, constructive force.
Tactic #1: Fuel Your Anger with What You Love
This is the most important tactic because it is the “why” that powers all the others. When you feel yourself going numb, when the outrage begins to fade into apathy, I want you to look at the people you love.
They are what you are fighting for, and they are what is at stake.
If you have a child: They—the architects of this movement—will destroy their future, strip them of opportunities, of healthcare, and of the ability to love people who are different, all in the name of their ideology.
If you have a wife: They will watch her die in an emergency room so they can control her body in the name of their false god.
If you have a husband: They will turn him into a monster to serve the state—a shell of who he once was, a machine of hatred and despair.
If you have parents: They will watch them suffer in despair as they age, without access to good healthcare, forced to sell everything they own for a shred of dignity.
If you have neighbors: They will turn them against one another, feeding them cynicism, jealousy, and hatred, all so they can control us as we fight amongst ourselves.
If you love anyone who is different—whether they are disabled, LGBTQ+, a foreigner, or anyone who doesn’t fit their “perfect” vision of an American—they will throw them into the flames of hatred to fuel their movement.
They are a threat to everything you hold dear.
Never allow yourself to forget that.
Tactic #2: Wield Language as a Weapon
Language is power—let your words cut like a hot knife through butter. This is not a polite debate; it is an information war, and we cannot afford to lose.
This is not the time for civility with those who want to destroy everything you hold dear. Whether they deserve mercy or grace is a function of their choices, not yours. The moment they chose this ideology of hatred, they forfeited any claim to it.
This isn’t a call to be needlessly vulgar or to sound deranged. It is a demand to:
Stop pretending the other side is having a good-faith debate.
Stop looking for the good within people who are morally bankrupt.
Start letting their actions speak for their beliefs, and call them what they are without hesitation.
If you need an example of this principle in practice, listen to Jennifer Welch and Angie Sullivan from the I’ve Had It Podcast. They are masters of using sharp, direct, and unapologetic language to cut through nonsense without losing their focus.
Tactic #3: Own the Frame—Never Defend, Always Attack
Before we go further, this isn’t about devolving to pure vitriol and screaming at the world in frenzied anger. There’s a way to handle individuals that are open to persuasion versus those who are committed to the fascist ideology. For more on that, read our Anti-MAGA Messaging Guide.
If you’re defending, you’re losing. Their goal is to put our values—which are about building a just society—under constant scrutiny, while their ideology of hatred grows unchallenged.
Do not let them.
Never get trapped defending your values against their bad-faith attacks. Their questions aren’t genuine; they are traps designed to make you waste time and energy. The correct response is to always pivot immediately to the offensive, forcing them to answer for their own record.
If they talk about “Protecting Kids,” you pivot to: The children they sacrifice at the NRA’s altar, the children who go hungry because they block school lunches, and the children who suffer from treatable illnesses because they are denied healthcare.
If they talk about “Protecting Women,” you pivot to: The women dying in Texas emergency rooms because their bodily autonomy was stolen so politicians could control their bodies.
If they talk about “Jesus,” you pivot to: How they spit on His face every time they shut the door on immigrants, every time their mouthpieces call for giving lethal injections to the homeless, and every time they let working people go bankrupt from medical debt.
If they talk about “The Pain of Young Men,” you pivot to: How they stripped men of dignified work to enrich their donors and turned them into machines of hatred who are repellent to any self-respecting partner.
If they talk about “America,” you pivot to: How they’ve turned Americans against one another, embarrassed us on the world stage, and strengthened our enemies abroad.
Give no quarter to their ideology. Relentlessly repeat the truth that they are betrayers of everything they claim to care about. To understand what giving quarter looks like, look no further than commentators like Ezra Klein. This is the intellectual posture of strategic surrender: consistently telling us not to hold a firm moral line while lionizing an opposition that has no problem drawing its red line based on hatred. While they constantly push their line of hatred forward until it consumes everything, we are told to find nuance in their fascism. We must reject this approach completely.
This fight cannot be won from inside our own bubbles. Speak this truth everywhere, especially on platforms and in spaces currently controlled by the enemy.. We must invade their information territory and tear it apart with the truth.
Tactic #4: Inspire and Hold the Line
Your anger is not just for you. It is a tool to awaken and mobilize others, and a standard to which we must hold our own leaders.
Your first job is to do for others what this article is doing for you: show people what’s at stake. Inspire them to feel this fight. This is not an academic debate. It is a battle for our future.
Your second job is to hold our own leaders accountable. Too many, like Schumer and Jeffries, are wholly unprepared for this fight because they appear to lack anything that resembles a moral spine. We must tell them to grow one or to resign and make room for someone who actually will. This goes directly back to the last tactic: it is not enough for us, the people, to give no quarter to the fascist ideology if our own leaders will. We must ensure their actions match the urgency of the moment and the strength of our conviction.
Tactic #5: Focus on Impact, Not Just Action
There is a lot of noise out there about what people should do. If we are all doing different things, or all doing the same ineffective thing, we will not succeed. Success depends on getting enough of us to do something that can meaningfully change the direction our country is going.
Before you undertake any action, ask yourself:: “How is this action, if completed successfully, going to tangibly shift power?”
Look, I have nothing to gain by telling you to reconsider the effectiveness of street protests. I could just go along to get along and say they’re a great idea—it would be the popular thing to do. I will likely lose some of you for saying what follows, so consider that when you evaluate it.
Many of us look to the protests of the 60s and 70s for inspiration and rightly so. But while the recent “No Kings” marches were a success in turnout—record breaking in U.S. History by many measures—did they meaningfully stop or slow the fascist menace? They did not. In fact, more recent protests have backfired, serving as an excuse for fascists to deploy the military, normalize the use of military force in domestic politics, and rally their base.
What if all that time and effort went into a relentless social media campaign to reach those who have tuned out of politics? Some will say the algorithms are a barrier, but pro-democracy voices are still reaching millions every day. Others will say they want to avoid the toxicity, but what’s the point of avoiding online toxicity today if it means living under the boot of a fascist regime for the rest of your life?
Today, October 1, 2025, is the first day of a government shutdown that will determine our course in history. We have a plan that involves each of you calling—as it is far more effective than emailing and obviously more realistic than going to D.C. in person—your Representatives and Senators. We must push them to keep the government defunded until the fascists meet three specific demands designed to break the regime. You can read the full plan here.
Many of you will say we can walk and chew gum at the same time, and I agree. But make sure you do the things that have the most impact first.
Anger is the start. Action is what wins the fight. If you’re ready to move beyond anger and into strategic action, then stand with us. The American Manifesto is not just here to make you angry—it’s the playbook for how to weaponize that anger effectively. We provide the strategy and the messaging to turn righteous fire into a focused, unstoppable force.
Every subscription is an act of resistance. It fuels this work, sharpens our weapons for the information war, and helps us reach more people who need to wake up. Join us in this fight.
Wake Up. Fight Back. Win.
The Fire That Forges a Future
After learning how to wield our anger, we must answer the final question: What is it for?
Anger is a tool, not a destination. A movement defined only by what it hates will eventually consume itself. Our anger is the energy that clears the ground of their rot, but its true purpose is to make way for what we will build in its place.
Our fight is not just against fascism; it is for a fair, just, and prosperous society for all. Our blueprint for that society is the Unified Societal Operating System (USOS). This isn’t just a collection of ideals; it’s a plan for a country that works. This is the vision we are fighting for:
We are fighting for Fairness. This means a country where a living wage is tied to the cost of living and where every single American has universal access to healthcare, housing, and education.
We are fighting for Truth. This means an education system that teaches critical thinking and media literacy from day one, and a digital world where social media algorithms are held accountable for the lies they spread.
We are fighting for Responsibility. This means a system of progressive taxation where billionaires and corporations pay their fair share, and where those who poison our environment are forced to pay for the harm they cause.
We are fighting for Merit. This means a society that truly values the contributions of teachers, nurses, and caregivers just as much as it values CEOs, and where success is earned, not just inherited.
We are fighting for Simplicity. This means a government with streamlined, transparent systems that are easy for everyone to navigate, not a complex web of bureaucracy designed to be exploited by insiders.
This vision is our most powerful weapon—and the ultimate offramp. We aren’t just telling people what to leave; we are showing them what they can join. We invite them to be builders.
So don’t just be angry. Be angry for something. Channel the fire—not just to tear down their world of hate, but to forge one worthy of our loved ones and our country.
Your move — I want to hear from you
I need to hear from you in the comments:
Do you agree that righteous anger is a necessary fuel for this fight, or do you still worry about the risks? What’s the biggest barrier for you?
I argue that we must prioritize high-impact actions (like the government shutdown strategy) over some traditional forms of protest. Do you agree with this assessment, or do you see a way that street protests can defeat fascism that I’m missing? Be specific.
When it comes to holding our own leaders accountable, what do you see as the most effective way to demand they grow a spine?
Which tactic in the playbook resonates with you the most, and why?
What angle on this topic did I miss? If you have other strategies for channeling anger constructively, I want to hear them.
Go to protests AND use social media. Also boycott.
At some point, likely in the near future as the ICE and maga thugs amp up the violence, I think as a last resort peaceful mass civil disobedience could work to shut down much of the economic activity, blocking highways and terminals and rail etc. Desperate times make for desperate interventions. What do you think?