NEVER OBEY IN ADVANCE
In 1943, German occupied Denmark was able to save the lives of 90% of their Jewish population, rescuing 7,000 men, women, and children from certain death. How did they do it? In a word: Resistance.
An order was intercepted from Berlin mandating that on October 1, 1943, Nazi soldiers planned to kidnap approximately 7,000 Jews and move them to concentration camps. Immediately, ordinary people sprang into action. People began helping Jewish families sneak across the thin strip of water between Denmark and Sweden, a country that declared neutrality during the war. Courageous fishermen, taxi drivers, and everyone in between raised funds for the passage, hid neighbors, and above all else kept Nazi soldiers unaware of their plan.
Danish Jews in 1943 Escaping to Sweden
This didn't happen because the Danes were not anti-semetic. on the contrary, there were many cases of anti-semetism both before and after the war. This happened because regardless of religion, the Danes considered the Jews who were living there as a part of Denmark. And to them an attack on one group of Danish citizens was an attack on them all.
But, there's another aspect of this story that is very important, and extremely relevant to what we are going through as Americans in 2025-
The Danish people and their government practiced malicious compliance.
What is malicious compliance? Malicious compliance is pushing back on mandates, slowing down bureaucracy, basically gumming up the works. You know, GOOD TROUBLE.
We bring this up because as of this morning, March 15th, 2025, The US Senate Democrats did the exact opposite of good trouble. Instead of putting up the slightest fight to slow down the cancer of fascism that is quickly invading every cell of healthy institution we have left, they OBEYED IN ADVANCE and handed the Republican government the cruelest budget in US history, slashing billions from departments that help the most vulnerable of us in this country. The poor the tired, the needy, yearning to breathe free.
The sliver of hope is that this is a huge country, and although we are governed by laws, those laws must be enforced by people. Everyday people like you and me. And we can gum up the works in every way we can. It's never too late to slow down fascism however we can. If we are to get through this with shreds of the government we once had, it's an absolute priority. RESIST.