Mid-home invasion. Prowlers in the yard. Someone hands you a gun.
“This is a Nazi gun,” you say. “A Luger P08 or whatever. I can’t possibly use that to save myself and my family. It wouldn’t be right.”
Cute. Noble. Dead.
Am I being extreme? Not really. The point is this: it’s 2025. All the righteous stands you rehearsed for 2016, 2020, 2024 — they sound good in a Twitter thread. But rhetoric doesn’t stop a midnight break-in.
So yes: fuck Gavin Newsom for platforming Steve Bannon. We can enjoy his Trump trolling. We don’t have to elect him president. Yes: put Substack on notice if it hosts fascists. Yes: T-Mobile, Disney, Starlink — add them to the boycott guide where it hurts.
But this is not 2019 or some moral purity workout. This is 2025. We’re not arguing about brand alignment in a slow-moving democracy; we are arguing about survival. If collapse comes, if platforms go dark, if apps vanish or get cannibalized by power grabs — what then? Who will still be able to talk, organize, warn, call for help?
That’s the thing: refusing to use the only network left because you don’t like the logo is the moral equivalent of refusing the Luger when someone’s trying to kill your kids. Strategy over scruples. Boot the Nazis when the war is won. For now, collect the tools that let you live to fight another day.
Is T-Mobile a target? Hell yes. It’s in the boycott guide for a reason. But if it’s the last company that keeps phones working — if Starlink or some other cluster ends up the only conduit — then a principled boycott that gets everyone dead was a poor strategy from the start.
I don’t know whether T-Mobile will be the last provider. I don’t know if Starlink will be the backbone. Maybe Substack goes down first. Maybe none of this comes true. For that reason I’m not saying “everyone sign up tomorrow.” I’m saying: think beyond virtue signaling. Think survival. If we’re all dead, who gives a damn about moral consistency?
Principles matter. So does strategy. You don’t get to practice your virtue while you’re dead.