Fighting Fascism Requires Feeling: Why Emotional Processing Is a Tool for Collective Resistance
Part 1: Steve Bannon Did It — Our Psyches Are Flooded with Shit
Feeling your emotions might seem like a personal practice — something you do privately or in therapy — but in times of rising authoritarianism, emotional awareness becomes something else entirely: a political and collective act.
The Digital Age Makes Avoidance Easy
It feels ironic—almost disingenuous—to make the case for feeling our emotions when I’ve spent the last 30 minutes avoiding this blank page, letting my anxiety drag me toward email, Instagram, texts. Technology has become the perfect vehicle for distraction and avoidance.
Why Feeling Matters in a Time of Fascism
I’m writing this as much for myself as for you: we will never defeat fascism if we can’t face, feel, and understand our own emotions. My throat tightens as I type that; thoughts race: “So I have to actually let out the tears I swallow every time I see a Gaza post? I have to read the whole article about ICE’s daily cruelty against Black and brown migrants at Federal Plaza? I have to feel the despair in my chest for every parent struggling to feed their kids without SNAP? How am I supposed to function?!”
And while my internal voice snaps back, Well, yes—at least more than you’re doing now, the truth is this: no one can fully process every emotion that arises in a single day.
But if you’re like me—privileged enough to scroll past misery you’d rather not witness, but not wealthy enough to delude yourself into supporting this fascist shithead administration for the tax breaks—then we need to feel more, not less, because feeling is the quickest route to doing, and doing reconnects us to our agency — a theme I explore deeply in my work, both as a dancer and therapist.
“Flooding the Zone” Is a Psychological Strategy
You’ve probably heard analysts explain that the Trump administration’s rapid-fire assaults on every pillar of democracy have a purpose: to overwhelm, confuse, and disorient us until we freeze or turn away. We numb out, shut down, or retreat into what’s termed inner emigration: a psychological distancing into personal joys, hobbies, or spirituality when one is unwilling—or unable—to physically leave (Pylypushko, 2017).
These tactics help us avoid not only the overwhelm of “flooding” but also the original emotional pain that the flood activates. When Steve Bannon advised Trump’s first administration to “flood the zone with shit,” his successful aim was to dismantle the free press with misinformation.
In this second Trump term, the “zone” now includes the American psyche: a constant deluge of chaos, destruction, and misery in every direction we dare to open our eyes.
This distancing doesn’t just protect us from overwhelm; it disconnects us from the original emotional pain underneath the overwhelm — the very pain that might otherwise mobilize us.
This is not just political warfare; it is psychological warfare.
And our bodies respond exactly as designed: freeze, collapse, or shut down.
What If We Didn’t Have to Feel Alone?
And even though it may feel impossible, I want us to imagine something together:
What would change if we experienced our massive emotions in community instead of isolation?
What becomes possible when we actually feel? What if overwhelm wasn’t a dead end, but a doorway into connection?
As a somatic therapist, I deeply believe that fully experiencing our emotions is profoundly useful. Emotions evoke urges, and urges—whether consciously or not—lead to action. Jaak Panksepp (2010) calls emotions “ancestral tools for living”: neurophysiological systems we evolved not just to navigate individual lives in a world perpetually in flux, but also to propel our species forward into the future.
Rage, Felt Together, Becomes Power
Imagine you see a video of an ICE raid.
Instead of scrolling past or shutting down, you let yourself feel the rage — with a trusted friend.
Then imagine your whole community doing that together.
Zoom out - now imagine all of New York City truly feeling their rage in connection.
What urges would arise? What actions? How would our sense of purpose transform?
What would become possible if we knew how channel our rage as an opportunity to collectively access our power?
Emotional Suppression Is Part of the Authoritarian Strategy
Steve Bannon understood exactly what would happen if we couldn’t tolerate the psychological pain his strategy evokes: we would become collectively constipated with anxiety, numbness, hopelessness—immobilized and complacent.
But just as a strong iced coffee says “all systems go!” to your digestive system, feeling your emotions signals your authentic self—the part of you that is wise, values-driven, courageous, and brave—that it’s time to move.
And what else, if not a collective movement, is the antidote to fascism?
Works Cited
Walters, G. (2022). Steve Bannon’s stay-out-of-jail strategy. VICE
Panksepp, J. (2010). Affective neuroscience of the emotional BrainMind. Article
Pylypushko, B. (2017). The phenomenon of inner emigration. Article
