South Koreans just quashed a fascist coup in 6 hours

We could learn a thing or two about how to resist fascism from the people who did it efficiently in the middle of the night.

In one of the the most stunning “ICYMI” situations in recent history, thousands of South Koreans—some of them kinda drunk, per a reporter on the scene who was also drunk and live-skeeting it (skeets are the new tweets)—just heroically shut down a fascist coup by their Trumpian president, Yoon Suk Yeol, overnight. It was a masterclass in resisting authoritarianism, and also the opposite of what we do in the face of wannabe dictators, which is to re-elect them to give them a second shot.

For those who missed it, as any South Koreans who went to bed before 10:30 p.m. Tuesday night likely did, allow me to recap the highlights: Right-wing President Yoon Suk Yeol, who rose to power as part of an antifeminist, anti-“Me Too” backlash (much like Trump!), declared emergency martial law Tuesday night, which is essentially a military takeover of the government. In a televised address—as his power was slipping due to corruption scandals and general unpopularity—Yoon randomly accused opposing political parties of pro-North Korean sympathies and vague “anti-state activities.” South Korea’s democratic party quickly sounded the alarm on what was “essentially a coup d’état,” at which point MPs (members of parliament) leapt out of bed and civilians began pouring out into the streets in near-freezing weather to mobilize and stop the power grab.

The National Assembly needed a majority vote to override the president’s declaration of martial law, but the military tried to stop the lawmakers from getting into the capitol at all to cast a vote in the middle of the night. So angry civilians literally boosted these guys’ asses over the barricades to get into the building. Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the nation’s Democratic Party, live-streamed himself scaling the walls to vote. A woman lawmaker, former news anchor Ahn Gwi-ryeong, was filmed grabbing a soldier’s gun with the barrel pointed at her chest.

In less than three hours, the National Assembly managed to gather a majority of members (190 of 300) to cast a unanimous vote to reject martial law as declared by the president. And roughly six hours after the coup started, Yoon backed down with his tail between his legs and said he’d comply with the vote. The coup was over.

This is not the first time even since Trump was re-elected that another country has shown us how to resist fascism. Brazil managed to hold its authoritarian former president to account last week: Jair Bolsonaro was indicted and barred from politics for participating in a 2022 coup plot to stay in power.

Let’s just contrast this to our country, where Trump incited an insurrection because he was angry about the 2020 election results. Four years after a violent mob scribbled “murder the media” on the capitol door, killed five people, and threatened to hang the vice president, we’ve re-elected Trump and effectively dropped the criminal case against him entirely for trying to overthrow democracy. We also gave him control of the House, Senate and Supreme Court, just to give him the best shot possible of a bigger and more successful authoritarian takeover than last time.

I dream of a situation where I could stumble out of a bar 11 p.m. on a Tuesday, hear a warning of sudden martial law, take to the streets and literally hoist my own representative’s ass over a military barricade to vote to defend my freedoms. It would mean that any politician gave enough of a shit about democracy to get out of bed in the middle of the night and fight past soldiers to shut down a would-be dictator.

The warning signs are long past here: Trump is installing puppets into cabinet posts this time around to ensure there’s no resistance. He’s openly drooled over other murderous dictators and said aloud that he aims to be a dictator himself. He’s using the authoritarian playbook to come after journalists and sow distrust in newspapers. HE TRIED A COUP ATTEMPT ONCE ALREADY. When does it become enough to take to the streets?

Food for thought.