cineSOURCE magazine

Fascism Is Unhealthy for Living Beings—So Just Say No!
by Doniphan Blair

Freedom Tower, New York

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IT'S BEEN A ROUGH RIDE THE LAST FEW
years for me and most other liberals as Russian fascists invaded Ukraine, Islamo-fascists attacked Arab liberals, Christians, Druze and Yazidis, as well as Israelis and Jews, and Americans reelected Trump.

It might seem obvious but it bears repeating: average Russians, Palestinians and Middle Americans will not prosper under fascism, even if it promotes some programs they support. Conversely, it's up to liberals to make the cost benefit analysis: Is it cheaper to take a stand now or later?

As I learned from the young soldiers on my first trip to Ukraine, in October 2022: We're already in the Third World War, ever since Russia violated Ukraine's sovereignty by seizing Crimea in 2014, although it's "stochastic," meaning irregular and hybrid. Sure, it's hot as hell in Ukraine, where they're enduring the dystopian future of drone warfare as well as classical Russian brutality, but you wouldn’t know it next door in Poland or across Europe. Indeed, I saw no Ukrainian flags, nor heard much advocacy or even concern, as I crossed from Paris to Warsaw. In Cologne's crowded main square, a Support Ukraine table was entirely empty.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Berlin, Germany

Such is the liberal dilemma. Ensconced in democratic largess, with liberalism's intoxicating consumer goods, civil rights and assurances, it takes time for a voting majority to cognize we're under attack, stochastic or otherwise, by fascists, meaning those opposed to democracy.

Eventually, however, tomorrow or in two years or ten, we classical liberals—which is everyone who supports democracy, from Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger on the Right to socialist democrats (but not so much democratic socialists) on the Left—will have to decide. As rational, responsible adults: What the fuck are we going to do?

I tried writing articles like “Meet the Kids of Maidan: My Journey into Ukraine’s Democratic Revolution”, published on two news sites besides cineSOURCE, or “Dear Oakland: Why Doth Thou Forsake Our Freedom Fight?”, but journalism can’t quite capture the looming threat or assuage the impotent feelings.

Art Institute Museum, Chicago

Rooting around for a strategy, I knew I needed a slogan and settled on JUST SAY NO TO FASCISM, an homage to Nancy Reagan’s laughable “Just Say No to Drugs” campaign. It suggests a nonviolent, voluntary activism, in a tone open enough to attract diverse adherents but sardonic enough to not dampen enthusiasm with dour catastrophizing.

Once I had my slogan and logo in September 2024, I made a T-shirt and began doing various forms of performance, some modest. For example, I drove from New York City to California wearing my JUST SAY NO TO FASCISM T-shirt, and received quite few nods, smiles or words of solidarity, even in the South. In Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, I performed my song “What they Did Here,” my version of Abraham Lincoln’s 272-word political poem, “The Gettysburg Address” (see my performance here).

JUST SAY NO swag: T-Shirt, $25, Stickers, $1, Bumperstickers, $5

Shameful Plug Warning: JUST SAY NO TO FASCISM T-shirts are available, in all sizes, including tapered for women, $25 plus shipping. Or you can earn one as a gift by donating to Buy Me a Coffee or subscribing to cineSOURCE magazine. The JUST SAY NO revolution has plenty of swag, in fact, including 2.5” square stickers: $1 for one, $5 for eight, $10 for 20—email orders . When you're wearing a T-shirt and get a smile, you can hand them a sticker—kids love stickers!

I also started doing presentations and lectures, like “The Liberal Way of War: Reinterpreting Sun Tzu for the Modern Era", at the Henry Miller Memorial Library, in Big Sur, California, on July 27th. In that one, I explained how liberals can fight strategically, shedding the least blood but still effectively defeating the enemy. My main example was Israel, which did a reasonable Liberal-Way-of-War job under difficult circumstances. I also have presentations on ancient matriarchies, the Sufis, and reinterpreting Darwinian Evolution though natural, sexual AND conscious selection, but those await a more peaceful time.

Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, Germany

Although I did get a few proPalestinian protestors at the Henry Miller, I was able to hold my own with fresh perspectives. The proZionist arguments are many—ancient residency, tiny land grab, the Arabs expelled all their Jews, while Israel accepted two million Arabs—but I focus on the foolhardiness of supporting Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, which blended 7th century Islam and fascism.

No one wants to be beaten by their father, while most people prefer liberalism in most aspects of life. To stand against the four fascisms—Russo, Islamo and the hard right and left—we need a large, multicultural center. Fortunately, we have hidden allies, from the Middle West, where cannabis is legal in 30 states and there are plenty of reluctant Trump voters, to the Middle East, with liberal traditions like the Partisan of the Nude art movement of the 1950s, the Arab Enlightenment of the 1800s, or the Sufis, the spiritual leaders of Islam for centuries (see "My Half Century with Islam"), as well as the many modern Arab Zionists (see "Why Arab Liberals Support Israel").

Fortunately, my JUST SAY NO project is an appropriate culmination of my 49 years of public art projects, beginning with the Art War Show at Ancient Currents Gallery which I co-directed from 1976 to '88. It also ties into my Holocaust research, which led to the production of a film, and book. To that I can add a number of other studies but most importantly that of conspiracy theories, the assault on truth that forms fascism's intellectual foundations (see article).

Post-modern Orthodox, Warsaw, Poland.

Admittedly, my successes so far are minimal, especially compared to my father, Vachel Blair, who volunteered for the Lincoln Brigade and fought fascism, first against Franco and then Germany, in North Africa, Italy and over Europe in the air, see his story, not to mention my mother. After she survived the Lodz ghetto and Auschwitz, she travelled through Europe, South America and the United States determined to reach the cultural capital of New York. She was putting herself through college when I happened.

Regardless, each of us must do what we can to stand against fascism, be it Russian, Islamist, Trumpian or of the radical left. The latter is tricky, since I'm left-leaning, but “Doctor, heal thy self” is the first, mandatory step to wellbeing. Indeed, coaxing the Left toward increased rationalism is required to cure the intractable “horseshoe politics” that infects our body politic today, much as it did Germany in 1930s. Expecting the Right to solve that standoff is absurd. I explore addressing horseshoe politics my recent article about Oakland.

Warsaw ghetto memorial, Warsaw, Poland

In any liberal-fascist relationship, it is only a matter of time that the latter grows greedy and violent. No matter how seemingly stable, one of their selling points, they are not. Indeed, fascists will eventually begin to insist that, "The liberals are too rich, they must be corrupt," or "Liberals are spoiled, decadent and weak, hence, easy to beat." After years of appeasement, trying to buy them off with money, land or forgiveness, it becomes obvious: Fighting fascism is periodically required, for the sake of their children as well as ours, both of whom prefer to live under liberalism. We have to prove to the survival-of-the-fittest freaks that sexual and conscious selection evolved out of natural selection simply because both were more effective than simple strength. Indeed, liberalism's openness and ability to innovate does, in the end, provide peace through superior power.

My next stop is Ukraine and Israel. I am searching not for the breaking story, although I will dispatch some of those, but a new worldview that will enable us to crack our opponent's codes, proceed without repeating our errors, and balance left and right, male and female, artist and soldier, romance and pragmatism.

Sticker wall at Batyarska Brew Pub, Lviv, Ukraine.

These times are reminiscent of 1939, but it doesn't have to end horrifically. We still have time to pull together a big-tent coalition, to train up and supply those fighting the Liberal Way of War. When not on the frontlines, we can enjoy ourselves as the Ukrainian soldiers as well as my mother showed me. It will be a long struggle, since it requires not so much defeating an actual enemy but becoming adults, as I explore in my article about Witold Gombrowticz (see it here), and evolving beyond adolescent wishful thinking and conspiracy theories.

If any of this is of interest, check out my Instagram or YouTube or support me at Buy Me a Coffee, cineSOURCE magazine or GoFundME.

Posted on Oct 09, 2025 - 09:54 AM