The fascism, it's coming from inside the country
Plus, the official release of This Is Your Afterlife!!!!
Hella Immaculate is thoughts and FEELINGS, hyper-specific playlists, and little actions to improve the world, from comedian Dave Maher.
When we did our Holocaust unit in 8th grade English (as opposed to the ones in 4th, 9th, and 11th, holy shit there were a lot of Holocaust units), our essay assignment was to state the role we would have played during that time and make our case for why.
Looking back, it is a truly buck wild assignment. Did anyone say “Nazi”?! Did all the Jewish kids have to pick “refugee,” and were all of their essays super short, just the address of their temple?
None of these thoughts flashed through my head at the time because I was too proud when the teacher’s notes on my essay said I was the only person she actually believed would be a fighter in the resistance, as I claimed.
I think about that very specific compliment a lot, especially these days and even more especially this week. Have you seen this Belarus shit?! It’s epic, cinematic, and alarming.
Their president, Alexander Lukashenka, has rigged 5 elections since 1994. This year, he arrested two challengers and denied a third his place on the ballot. Then, all three of their wives banded together to form an opposition party called United Headquarters (badass). One of the three, Tsikhanouskaya became their candidate, a “thirty-seven-year-old housewife” Lukashenka apparently didn’t see as a threat. She had no interest in governing and promised to organize an actual free election within 6 months of taking office.
Tsikhanouskaya got a wave of popular support, and people thought this might be the year they finally got rid of Lukashenka. Apparently, he was a tough talker, but the Belarusians thought he was mostly talk and just corrupt as hell. And ho boy did he prove them wrong. Here are the abuses he’s inflicted on his people since election day, August 9 (when it appeared likely Tsikhanouskaya would win):
Blacking out the entire media and internet on election day, which was possible because the government requires all Belarusian sites be hosted on servers inside the country (an insidious evil it is wildly easy to imagine happening in the U.S.!)
Jamming an informal, alternative vote-counting platform designed to ensure the election’s fairness
Getting police to beat the shit out of protesters (already happening here)
Jailing and torturing protesters
Tsikhanouskaya fled the country, announced defeat, then returned and gave a very Hunger Games canned speech from what appears to be the office of the head of Belarus’ Central Elections Commission.
It’s a dire story, but there’s hope. Belarusians are showing out en masse.
They’re protesting through art on the streets.
The Belarus story is ongoing, and the parallels to America right now are obvious. We talk about encroaching fascism, but it’s not encroaching. The shit is here (if you’re in the U.S., and if not, I’d guess it’s where you are too).
Our election will show if the U.S. becomes a fascist country officially (e.g. Trump sabotages election, refuses to allow it, refuses to leave if voted out, does a straight-up coup, or makes a McD’s-style combo meal of a few of these), or if it just stays that way in the execution of its routine operations (e.g. ICE, militarizing police, cops doxxing young protesters on Twitter).
Reading about Belarus this week and living through these past few months (going on 6 now, fuck!) of unrest during a pandemic, I think about that 8th grade essay. The assignment felt so clear. There were set roles: bad guys, good guys, and victims, in a few different shades each. You just had to pick one.
And here I am, the closest I’ve ever been to living that assignment, wondering which role I’m in. If I were a true freedom fighter, would I be marching in the streets, immunocompromisation (I prefer the term “immunofucked”) from type 1 diabetes be damned? Would I be ditching comedic/artistic pursuits entirely to devote my life to the fight? I’m doing what I can from my house, providing administrative support, donating, and spreading the word. I’m doing what I can, but is it enough? I can do more.
Living that essay 20 years after writing it, I see the struggle less in terms of clear, heroic roles and more on the level of small, individual, accumulating actions. It’s not punching Nazis (at least not so far). It’s biking to a nearby neighborhood to hang door hangers in support of a civilian police accountability council. When I wrote the essay, I imagined the thrill and suspense of the underground resistance we see portrayed in movies, which is why it’s hard to see researching the positions of city council members as resistance work.
But after years of despair in the face of the monolithic forces that are finally bubbling over in 2020, those small actions are where I find hope.
I’m plodding my way through activist Grace Lee Boggs’ The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century, and she talks about upending the top-down view of revolution:
The two-step strategy (first take state power, then transform society) is no longer self-evidently correct.
Instead, she focuses on the ways we can transform the world directly, neighbor to neighbor, friend to friend, whether the ruling class appears to be changing or not. She quotes King saying (young) people need…
…opportunities to engage in “direct self-transforming and structure-transforming action.”
This is why mutual aid, Patreon, and Bandcamp Fridays are so exciting to me right now. You see your support going directly to people you care about.
I’m not driving to an overarching point here. I just wanted to say:
The situation in Belarus is fucked, and you should read the work of the actual journalists I linked. It’s easy to ignore or lose track of because you’re like, “wait, which one is Belarus? That’s different from Ukraine?” But it feels like such a preview of America’s November, and it’s important we don’t just slide into that reality unaware.
It’s fucking hard to know you’re doing the right thing, and enough of it, in grave times.
I truly believe there’s hope, and it’s in the small actions.
I fucking aced a morally questionable 8th grade Holocaust essay assignment.
Free: Writing Prompt
Here’s a free writing prompt from my Unblock the Artist Within class!
If you could take a pill to magically solve a problem, what problem would it be, and what would the pill do to solve it?
I watched that Project Power movie on… Saturday? (Who knows days anymore?) It was fine.
Wamp Wamp (What to Do)
Apply to vote by mail (find out if you can here). I just did so I could say this without being a hypocrite! If you’re skittish about dropping your ballot in the mail with all the USPS fuckery, your state may have drop points where you can deliver your ballot. If you get overwhelmed even hearing about this stuff like I do, just take 5 minutes today to google your voting questions.
Read this whole thread from standup Ramon Rivas for a glimpse into what I think is the future of art. Minimal gatekeepers, independent ownership and operation, and the kicker, direct support from people who love the art. This is the infrastructure small actions can build!
Find media organizations you want to give money. I’m starting to budget for regular donations, and right now, I have 3 (sorta 4) categories: artists (via Patreon), political/social justice organizations, and media organizations (the sorta 4th is an earmarked reserve for miscellaneous artists and mutual aid funds). Supporting publications that have integrity and amplify traditionally marginalized voices is important to me, so join me in finding the writers and publishers who can help keep us informed and free. I’m looking into Block Club (independent news for my hometown, Chicago), The TRiiBE (Black Chicago millennial-owned and operated), and Salty (newsletter publishing women, trans, and non-binary voices). Who have you found that’s good?
Listen to my podcast (finally!), This Is Your Afterlife. This show is The Thing for me right now, and I’m really proud of it! I released the first four episodes yesterday as part of the big premiere, and they include conversations with two comedians, a musician, and a drag queen. Below are a few quotes to get you excited. Subscribe to the show, rate it, review it, and then you’ve accomplished all anyone needs to accomplish in a day in quarantine. These things take seconds, and they can make a big difference for me on the back end.
Earth is heaven for white people.
Btw, here’s the bench dance (from “So You Think You Can Dance”) that Shantira raves about.
I think I want to be cremated, although ultimately, if I had it completely my way, I would have my body thrown out in the woods, just in case I woke up.
What’s the life cycle of a beautiful bug?
They usually ask me a lot of questions, like do I have a penis? And I say, “I do, but it’s really far inside myself.”
I Want to Make a Mix for You
Since This Is Your Afterlife is a direct outgrowth from Feed Wolf Ice Cream, working on the podcast has given me a chance to revisit the music for the one-man show. This means songs that inspired the show (early on, I wanted FWIC to be the hour-long-comedy-show version of the Yves Tumor song, “Economy of Freedom,” which as you’ll hear is a very weird and probably-not-comedy goal) as well as the songs in the show itself (I’ve heard that Future song hundreds of times now, and it’s wild how unsick of it I still am).
In the original batch of mixes I made for people in early quarantine, my pal Hal Baum asked for a playlist like the songs in FWIC, so I copied it and made some additions. It’s full of dramatic, pretty, and slick tunes, and I’m happy to say it still bangs!
Close the blinds, hit the mood lighting, wrap yourself in silky fabrics, and dance existenti-rotically.
‘Til next week!
DM
Yo, thanks so much for reading! Hella Immaculate is a free newsletter, and I bust my ass to make it great. I’m a DIY operation, which means we’re in this together. If you love and believe in my work, please consider supporting me, so I can keep dedicating my life to it. I believe direct support for the artists we love is the way past celebrity, blandness, and corporate control and into a future where there’s an abundance of vital and varied art. Here’s how you can support me.
Come to a show! My live shows are the ultimate manifestation of my whole thing.
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Who is Dave Maher?
I’m a writer/performer and comedian who creates one-man shows that combine standup, theater, improvisation, storytelling, and performance art. I also teach, act, and do voiceover. I've appeared on/at/with This American Life, the Edinburgh Fringe, Steppenwolf Theatre, the Annoyance Theatre, and the Neo-Futurists, and I used to write for Pitchfork.