No Mercy / No Malice: Resistance Infrastructure

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Indeed and McDonald’s Ads

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• Key Takeaway: Indeed sponsored jobs yield four times more applicants than non-sponsored jobs.
• Summary: Indeed offers a $75 sponsored job credit via Indeed.com/slash podcast. McDonald’s is promoting the return of the snack wrap in the form of the hot panny snack wrap. Rinse offers expert laundry cleaning and delivery, allowing users time to pursue passions.

Defining Resistance Infrastructure

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• Key Takeaway: Effective action requires building resistance infrastructure rather than merely being right about political failures.
• Summary: Scott Galloway introduces the concept of building “resistance infrastructure” for America’s pro-democracy movement, as read by George Hahn. The current political landscape is described as a slow burn to fascism, echoing David Frum’s observation that if progressives won’t enforce the border, fascists will. Being right is insufficient; effectiveness demands building tangible structures for change.

Congressional Ineffectiveness and Authoritarianism

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• Key Takeaway: Congress is functionally irrelevant, comparable to the Russian Duma, because structural changes like de-gerrymandering have not occurred.
• Summary: Congress cannot be relied upon to save the populace from authoritarianism, as demonstrated by past negotiations resulting only in blame assignment. Democrats appear neutered playing by an incinerated rulebook, while Republicans act as sycophants to the president. Without structural change, America remains bipolar and subject to leaders eroding checks and balances.

Snyder on Competitive Authoritarianism

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• Key Takeaway: In competitive authoritarianism, the people must push ahead of the opposition party to set moral terms and build coalitions.
• Summary: Historian Timothy Snyder defines the current state as competitive authoritarianism where an elected leader attacks institutions. Change requires the people to proactively set moral terms and build coalitions, rather than waiting for the opposition party to lead. Pro-democracy movements are created by people, not political parties.

Protest as Infrastructure Incubator

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• Key Takeaway: Protests are vital not just for immediate results, but as a gateway to organizing infrastructure, like the Montgomery bus boycott’s carpooling network.
• Summary: The Montgomery bus boycott, despite initial failure, succeeded after 13 months by building sustained action. Timothy Snyder argues the main reason to protest is to signal to observers that current events are abnormal. Initial protests incubate organization; the boycott’s carpooling network sustained the movement, costing the city an estimated $35,000 per day in inflation-adjusted terms.

Resist and Unsubscribe Strategy

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• Key Takeaway: Withholding money via surgical strikes against tech giants is the most radical act in a capitalist society to influence authoritarian enablers.
• Summary: Resist and Unsubscribe aims to show consumers their spending power, noting that consumer spending accounts for over two-thirds of the U.S. economy. The strategy favors surgical strikes over broad boycotts due to the concentration of economic power in seven tech companies, making them uniquely vulnerable. Losing just 200,000 subscribers caused Netflix’s market cap to drop $50 billion overnight, illustrating subscription model vulnerability.

Targeting Ground Zero and Blast Zone

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• Key Takeaway: Companies in the ‘BLAST zone’ actively enable ICE and are targeted because they have an outsized influence over the national economy and the president.
• Summary: The companies targeted are consumer-facing enablers of ICE, representing the ‘juggler of American authoritarianism.’ Consumer spending power forced Disney to reinstate Jimmy Kimmel after a small percentage of streaming subscribers acted. Political scientist Erica Chenoweth’s research shows that 3.5% active engagement in a peaceful movement always results in political change.

Business Elite Complicity Parallel

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• Key Takeaway: American business elites are making a chilling parallel bet to 1930s German industrialists by supporting authoritarians for regulatory and economic favors.
• Summary: The parallel between today and the 1930s is the relationship between business elites and authoritarians, where industrialists supported Hitler to crush unions. Powerful American leaders trade support for tariff carve-outs and AI regulation promises, exchanging it for shareholder value. The goal of Resist and Unsubscribe is to force a change in CEO incentive structure, evidenced by mentions on earnings calls.

Boycotts and Media Attention

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• Key Takeaway: The primary predictor of a boycott’s effectiveness is the amount of media attention it generates, not the number of participants, as it pressures leaders to change behavior.
• Summary: A 1962-1990 study found boycotts caused an average 1% decline in stock price, indicating they are not tools to permanently destroy shareholder value. Media attention is crucial because it serves as a vehicle to pressure leaders into behavioral change. Sharing cancellation screenshots and community tips builds infrastructure and inspires others to resist and unsubscribe.

Frictionless Politics and Resilience

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• Key Takeaway: Treating politics like a video game with ‘cheat codes’ lulls people into believing change is frictionless, leading to atrophy of necessary resilience muscles.
• Summary: The lack of friction in conceptualizing politics—using terms like ’level up’ or ‘speedrunning’—hides the messy, unpredictable struggle required for real change. Resist and Unsubscribe is a one-month campaign to build resilience by making small sacrifices, signaling consequences if the regime attempts to steal the midterms. Saving democracy requires showing up, enduring discomfort, and wielding actual power, which absorbs anxiety.