Resist with Love
What History Teaches Us About Hate
ABC News ejected veteran correspondent Terry Moran after he posted controversial tweets in which he called the president a “hater.” More illustratively, he called Stephen Miller "a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred," whose "hatreds are his spiritual nourishment." Terry’s on Substack now.
The reporter is standing behind his tweets, and he’s putting on a good face, but I think, deep down, he recognizes the comments were out of line for a senior network news correspondent. I also believe ABC’s response was an overreaction, demonstrating how much the press fears the president’s wrath.
And I think Terry Moran’s characterization of Stephen Miller is objectively accurate. Miller has proven he is “richly endowed with the capacity for hatred.” Consider this Fox News clip from April, where he accidentally calls illegal immigrants “people” before immediately correcting himself to use the dehumanizing propaganda term “monsters.”
In The Nazi Mind: Twelve Warnings from History, historian Laurence Rees writes that Hitler gave a private speech to the Hamburger Nationalklub in 1926 where he proclaimed that “the only stable emotion is hate.” Hitler used hate to consolidate his power and orchestrate the Holocaust.
Perhaps comparisons of the current administration to the Third Reich are overused. They’re certainly a non-starter if you want to have a productive conversation with a conservative about the White House’s authoritarian tendencies. What’s difficult to deny, however, is that Stephen Miller, a Senior White House Aide, leads with hate, and he’s dehumanizing a portion of our population.
When I think about my resistance goals, the first is to make sure I’m not part of the problem, and to ensure I never become a fascist. I’d rather die or be thrown into a gulag. Laurence Rees notes that the people of Germany in the 1930s were people of their time and place. Rees admits that he doesn’t know whether he would have resisted fascism had he been a German in the 1930s. He would like to think so–but he can’t be sure. None of us can.
We have the benefit of knowing history. We can learn from the Germans’ mistakes. In the weeks and months ahead, I believe many of us will have to make difficult choices. It won’t always be clear what we should do, but if we make our decisions from a foundation of love and grace, rather than from a place of fear and hatred, I believe the results of our choices will reflect our values.
Soon, our resistance group will be sending letters of support to people who dare to stand up for immigrants’ right to due process. Next month, we’re organizing a food drive. These are some of the most non-fascist things we can think of. We’re leading with love. We invite you to do the same.
Liking, sharing, or commenting on this post IS an act of resistance. Corridor Rabbit is meant to serve as a casual guide for how to start and grow an informal resistance group. It is not authoritative; it is a live journal documenting our efforts. It is a call to action. It's an invitation to connect and share what you are doing to resist authoritarianism. Read more about the goals of Corridor Rabbit. We design our illustrations with the help of AI.