Lately I’ve been hearing a few influencers talking about how you shouldn’t be anti anything – you should be pro the things that you support, but being anti is reactive, bad energy, etc. Step into your power and be PRO things, but don’t be anti. I’d like to clarify my stance on this, and I’d love to hear what you think about it. 

So I am very much pro a bunch of things – democracy, inclusion, mutual aid, supporting trans people of all ages, reproductive rights, housing equity, supervised consumption sites, universal health care, public transit, using people’s preferred pronouns, respecting the rights of minorities, masking in indoor public places during surges in respiratory viruses. I’m sure I could come up with a dozen other things, but I think the point is made. We are all pro many more good things than we are anti bad ones, but they take up so many words.

So, getting all of that to fit into a social media bio could be a little tricky. As a person who is not part of the Black community, I don’t think I should be using their vernacular, so I’m a little queasy about using the word “woke”. Of course, I could just use the words “decent human being”, but that might come over as overly judgmental. I made a social media post about a funeral in our community and a few commenters got their feelings hurt when I called everyone who masked good people. What to do?

All of us in North America are living under the cisheteronormative ableist White Christian hegemony. For people who check all or even most of those boxes, it’s only a problem if they want those who are not like them to have good lives. If they are more concerned about protecting their own privilege and enforcing their norms on everyone, there’s a word that starts with f that describes authoritarian movements like that. Not all conservatives are fascists, by any stretch of the imagination, but it would appear that all fascists are in favour of supporting White supremacy and everything it brings with it.

While I am generally in favour of protecting our mental health by minimising complaining and negativity, as espoused by the influencers I mentioned above, there is no doubt in my mind that being an antifascist is a very positive and pro-humanity thing to be. I’d love to know how you feel about that. Cogent counter arguments are welcome!