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View all search resultsThe anti-fascist playbook: How we can reclaim our democracy
From weaponized algorithms to creeping militarism, an urgent blueprint for exposing authoritarian power and defending civic freedom before it is too late.
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University of Indonesia (UI) students take part in a protest against wasteful state budget spending, President Prabowo Subianto's flagship programs and expanded military roles in civilian affairs in Central Jakarta, on Aug. 18, 2026. (Reuters/Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana)
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peaking in remembrance of poet and government critic Wiji Thukul at Gramedia on Aug. 16, I deliberately urged fellow citizens to unite against Indonesia’s gradual slide toward fascism.
The warning signs are already here at home. As this ideology creeps into everyday life, staying on the sidelines is no longer an option. We have an urgent duty to raise our voices in civil resistance against an encroaching authoritarian threat.
We urgently need a clear, unyielding anti-fascist playbook designed to dismantle the eight defining pillars of fascism: militarism, tyranny, propaganda, division, anti-intellectualism, personality cult, technofascism and post-truth.
The anti-fascist playbook begins with a little political slogan: Say no to militarism. Militarism, along with its paramilitary groups, lies at the core of fascism. We stand together to resist the growing fascist leadership of military-style governance, for there is no room for any military involvement in politics, business and civil affairs. Our priority is returning the military strictly to its professional mandate of national defense.
Because fascist politics concentrates too much power in the hands of the executive branch of government, we must name it plainly for what it is: tyranny. The anti-fascist playbook guides every virtuous citizen to prevent the President and his or her military-style government from holding too much executive power at the expense of the legislative and judicial branches of government, ensuring each remains truly independent.
We should take part in civil resistance against the fascist playbook of propaganda. Recalling the words of Adolf Hitler in his Mein Kampf (1925), that “propaganda is a truly terrible weapon in the hands of an expert,” we come to understand how the fascist playbook of propaganda functions so well as a political weapon against the enemy.
History shows that past and present authoritarians use state messaging not only to erode critical reasoning and deliberative debate, but to manufacture scapegoats and imaginary enemies. We see this plainly when critics at home are smeared as "foreign agents" or "black Dutchmen".
