How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future

by Maria Ressa

Until today, I don’t know what made Google kill the report. But it brought home to me, again, the lesson I was learning: silence is complicity.

Just because others compromise doesn’t mean you do. Just because they’re silent doesn’t mean you have to be.

I had chosen to build my life in the Philippines and I wanted to stay the course, whatever the consequences. Not long before, my cofounders and I had jokingly made a pact for what each would bring me (food, sheets, a fan, books) if I were thrown into jail.

The rule of law can be an illusion and can vanish in an instant—a lesson I had first learned in Indonesia as a young journalist.

“We know it’s a tough time to be a journalist, but I think what strengthens all of us is that there is probably no better time to be a journalist because this is when we live our values and we live our mission.”

If they could do this to journalists with some power, in the glare of the spotlight, what would they do to vulnerable citizens literally left in the dark? What recourse did a poor person have in a dark alley?

The message that the government is sending is very clear, and someone actually told our reporter this last night: ‘Be silent, or you’re next.’ So I’m appealing to you not to be silent, even if—and especially if—you’re next!”

Press freedom is the foundation of the right of every Filipino to have access to the truth. Silence is complicity because silence is consent.

“I want to make sure that I have done all I can. We will not duck. We will not hide. We will hold the line.”7

I hate feeling unprepared because that’s when I get scared. And I did.

You always have the choice to be who you are. I choose—as I always have—to live by the values that define who I am. I will not become a criminal to fight a criminal. I will not become a monster to fight a monster.

For Shoshana, every other problem is a distraction and by-product of the original sin of “primary extraction”—even those words were her creation.

This is why propaganda networks are so effective in rewriting history: the distribution spread of a lie is so much greater than the fact-check that follows, and by the time the lie is debunked, those who believe it often refuse to change their views, matching social media’s impact on behavior in other parts of the world.

So we do our best with what we have: we act, and each day we iterate. This, so far, is our only collective defense. The only way to find a solution is to act.

So how do you stand up to a dictator? By embracing values, defined early—they’re the subtitles of the chapters you’ve read: honesty, vulnerability, empathy, moving away from emotions, embracing your fear, believing in the good. You can’t do it alone. You have to create a team, strengthen your area of influence. Then connect the bright spots and weave a mesh together.

As for me, there are times I struggle. Because I refuse to stop doing my job, I’ve lost my freedom to travel. I can’t plan my life because I still have seven criminal cases that could send me to jail for the rest of it. But I refuse to live in a world like this. I demand better. We deserve better.

how fighting back goes from the personal to the political, from individual values to a pyramid for collective action. There are solutions: in the long term, the most important thing is education, so start now; in the medium term, it’s legislation and policy to restore the rule of law in the virtual world—to create a vision of the internet that binds us together instead of tearing us apart. In the short term, now, it’s just us: collaborate, collaborate, collaborate. And that begins with trust.

“What gets our attention is what gives our lives meaning,”

“Where we spend our time determines what we accomplish and what we become good at.

“My generation has failed, and we are handing you a broken world, which means you have to be stronger and smarter than we are,” I said, wondering whether they could even name what’s wrong with their world today. It’s all they know. So I asked them to think for themselves, be skeptical of social media, and walk in someone else’s shoes. Put your phones away, I said, because in the end what matters is the people you love. You find meaning by choosing where to spend your precious time. “What you remember are the people whose lives you’ve touched and those whose lives have changed yours.”

And the more horrific things have become, the more we turn to love. That sustains us against overwhelming odds.