Attacks on Vulnerable Groups Are Revolutionary Acts
Authoritarian movements target marginalized communities not out of simple prejudice, but as a deliberate strategy to transform the entire social and political order. They target groups that are unpopular or controversial because the attacks are polarizing in ways that divide their opposition and set legal and social precedents that make us all more vulnerable, whether we are trans people, Palestinian activists, members of the Movement for Black Lives, feminists, Native Americans, or socialists.
Here’s what these attacks achieve:
Testing democratic defenses: Attacks on the most vulnerable test whether democratic institutions will protect anyone. If society fails to defend those with the least power, it signals that democratic protections are hollow for everyone.
Normalizing state violence: Violence against marginalized groups normalizes the use of state power against civilians, creating precedents that can later be expanded to broader populations.
Fracturing solidarity: By targeting specific groups, authoritarians test whether broader coalitions will hold or whether people will abandon vulnerable allies to protect themselves.
Redefining citizenship; Attacks on marginalized groups establish who counts as a "real" citizen deserving of rights and protection, fundamentally altering the democratic principle of equal citizenship.
Creating administrative precedents: Bureaucratic attacks (removal from military service, exclusion from healthcare, denial of legal recognition) create institutional frameworks that can be expanded to target other groups.
Effective Counterrevolutionary Strategy
Community Defense Infrastructure:
Rapid response networks that can mobilize material support (legal, financial, physical safety)
Sanctuary systems that can protect vulnerable community members
Know-your-rights training and legal defense funds
Safe house networks and emergency relocation assistance
Coalition Solidarity:
Explicit commitments that no group gets abandoned for tactical advantage
Cross-community relationship building before crises hit
Shared security planning that protects everyone or protects no one (if only some are truly protected, entering into security agreements become dangerous for everyone and will drive further atomization)
Resource sharing that ensures vulnerable communities have what they need to resist
Institutional Protection:
Legal challenges that establish strong precedents for protection
Policy advocacy that strengthens rather than weakens anti-discrimination protections
Electoral work that puts protective allies in positions of power
Bureaucratic resistance that slows or stops harmful policy implementation
Narrative Counteroffensive:
Stories that humanize targeted communities and build empathy
Messaging that connects attacks on vulnerable groups to threats against everyone
Cultural work that makes inclusion feel normal and exclusion feel extreme
Education that helps people understand how authoritarian targeting works
The Key Strategic Insight: The most effective defense is understanding that attacks on marginalized communities are attacks on democracy itself. When we defend vulnerable groups, we're not just protecting those specific communities - we're defending the principle that democratic societies protect all their members.
Why this approach works: Authoritarians count on dividing coalitions by making people choose between their own safety and solidarity with others. Effective pro-democracy counterrevolutionary strategy makes it clear that everyone's safety depends on defending everyone, making solidarity the rational choice rather than just the moral one.
This requires moving beyond individual allyship to collective defense, building the institutional capacity to make attacks on any community costly and ineffective, while demonstrating that inclusive democracy works better for everyone than authoritarian exclusion.