Pat Taub
I’ve been thinking about kindness, and how dangerous its disappearance has become at this particular moment in American life.
Kindness is usually considered a private virtue—a quality we teach our children and practice with our friends. Kindness is also political. Kindness is essential to bridging differences and creating an equitable community over one that prioritizes billionaires.
Presently we are facing a crisis of community.
We are living through a political culture of extraordinary meanness and cruelty. Our core democratic values are being dismantled. We are witnessing a fascist takeover of our country. Authoritarianism does not arrive all at once. It grows when people become frightened, divided and accustomed to cruelty.
ICE, in typical response mode, manhandling a peaceful protester (Minnesota Star Tribune)
In spite of the Supreme Court’s ruling against blocking mail-in votes, the 2026 midterm elections remain at risk of sabotage by Trump who has proven his determination to win at any cost.
This is precisely why civic participation matters so much, and why we can’t pin all our hopes on the midterms. We are called to anticipate Trump’s interference with a Democratic midterm win. We must build a mass movement, too big for Trump to easily dismantle. We must show up at community meetings, join populist organizations like the DSA, (Democratic Socialists of America) protest ICE and AI centers, support independent journalism, help migrants understand their rights and remain vigilant against a daily onslaught of repression.
Portland, Maine protest against ICE
We need to build a mass movement that demands universal health care, a living wage, affordable housing, racial justice, abortion rights, and an end to our forever wars.
I remember when civic life felt more tangible. People gathered in community centers, living rooms and town meetings. They argued about politics and then went home knowing one another. They could disagree about politics and still help a neighbor whose house had flooded or whose child was sick.
That kind of community is harder to create now.
The internet has given us extraordinary tools for organizing, but it has also made it possible to mistake communication for connection. We can spend hours arguing with strangers while knowing almost nothing about the people living next door. Social media rewards outrage. Political insults become more powerful than reasoned political arguments.
This is exactly the environment in which authoritarianism flourishes. When we stop talking to one another, we become easier to divide. When we stop seeing one another as human beings, it becomes easier to accept cruelty toward people we have been taught to fear, as in the new wave of anti-Muslim attacks.
Kindness doesn’t mean being quiet in the face of injustice. Community organizing sparked by kindness and concern for one’s neighbors was exemplified by Minneapolis last January. After ICE murdered Renee Good and Alex Pretti, neighbors took to the streets, protesting for weeks in frigid cold, bringing food to their migrant neighbors and escorting their children to school. Their efforts paid off, forcing ICE to abandon Minneapolis.
Wisconsin, Missouri, Kentucky and North Carolina are among states that have organized to stop the construction of AI data centers, objecting to increased energy costs, noise and air pollution and water waste.
A community demonstration against AI in their area
Kindness is more than being nice. It means building relationships. It means inviting someone with different political views into a conversation. It means listening before dismissing.
Kindness is not an escape from politics.
Kindness is intrinsic to building an equitable human community.
Kindness is how we resist the spread of Fascism.
