When fascism threatens, take proven action

Fascism—in the White House, for example—makes all the issues so clear they don't need humor for help.

During "normal" times, creative humor can help expose what's wrong with the old world so that public opinion can sweep it away, surely and steadily (that "moral arc" thing). But in periods of incipient fascism—like the years between 2016 and 2020 in the US—the old world's evils are already laid bare, for anyone who cares to look. Trickery isn't needed; reliable, proven tactics are (phonebanking, deep canvassingbecoming a poll worker, sending postcards to votersspreading info).

Between 2016 and 2020, we learned at least four times the apparent uselessness of trickery (at least our sort of trickery) against incipient fascism:

Whether it's established tactics or more vigorous forms of resistance, resistance is low-stakes when your country's not yet a full-on dictatorship... so it's best to take real action while you still can.

Instances in which we learned this lesson

Using our first (2004) movie's publicity budget, as well as a rather large philanthropical grant, we bought a used radio truck and outfitted it as a…
In 1999, while working on RTMark.com, Mike and Andy receive an email from a fellow named Zack Exley, who has had the foresight to register the domain…
... and if we don't win the two Georgia Senate seats, 2024 could be even bloodier.
We thought we were making satire—then Trump actually did it.
In August of 2017, we were given a speaking spot by Politicon, a conference at which we'd previously brought Ed Snowden back to US soil, to enormous…