The Nation

08/05/2025

Hannah Arendt observed that the occupying Germans who were surrounded daily by Danish resistance began to question orders from the Nazis: “Denmark is the only case we know of in which the Nazis met with open native resistance, and the result seems to have been that those exposed to it changed their minds.… Their ‘toughness’ had melted like butter in the sun.”

Americans must learn from this history and force the mirror upon those enacting violence in our names.

Ask ICE agents how they sleep at night. Record their actions. Ask collaborators if they recognize themselves. Emotional sabotage matters—now witnessed in countless videos by citizen journalists, in which recalcitrant voices ask, Do you have a family? Why won’t you show your face?

Interrogate collaborators, birddog them, let them find no rest.

Here and now—as elected officials are arrested, people disappeared, as censorship runs amok, rights are stripped, dissent criminalized, the most assailable among us targeted, and communities weaponized against each other—we are being summoned to act. And to do so urgently, before normalization sets in and before the unimaginable becomes routine. Let us reject the forces that divide us. Let us summon our own samfundssind—our shared duty to each other. Samfunssind was successfully resurrected in Denmark after Trump became fixated on Greenland—an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. The Danes won’t easily be intimidated; the muscle memory is too strong.

As the fight against fascism commences in our homes and communities, each act of defiance is a grain of sand—enough grains can bring the entire machine to a halt.

When asked to betray your integrity: hold fast to your ideals, gum up the works, disobey when able. Question everything, say nothing. Keep meticulous records. Leverage your advantages and harbor those who have none. Get in the way. Tell the story. Archive the truth.

Even in darkness, there is incandescence—the flicker flames of everyday people fixed on the side of morality. I want to recognize myself in the mirror when this ends.

Make yourself recognizable with me. Together, we can build an America we believe in.