Minneapolis unmasked the anti-Trump movement's secret weapon: analysis

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks as he visits Machine Shed restaurant in Urbandale, Iowa, U.S., January 27, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

The Atlantic's Gale Beckerman wrote on Friday that there has been a debate over what the uprising in Minneapolis is called.

There have been accusations from the right that the "protests" have turned into "riots." There are questions about whether it's activism or resistance. Beckerman took a page from her colleagues calling it “neighborism,” or even “basic decency.” She even cited one elderly couple who decided it is humanism.

She opted for the term "dissidence." She wrote that it isn't a revolution or even political opposition. Dissidence unfolds when "power— usually government power — tramples on the basic conditions of life as people know and value them," Beckerman said.

She remembered the pink knitted hats of the first Donald Trump administration, noting that these actions are far different as people are using their own bodies to protect their neighbors from federal agents.

She compared it to the Argentinian mothers from the 1970s and the Underground Railroad. One dissident she described was the man photographed standing in front of tanks rolling toward Tiananmen Square.

"These people are not looking to replace one governing order or ideology with another. They are fighting an incursion, reacting to a violation of humanity, and deciding to do something about it," Beckerman wrote.

While there have been the "No Kings Day" protests and nationwide boycotts, Beckerman described what is happening in Minneapolis as a next-level effort.

"Compare the grievances of these protests with the issues and stakes that dissidents have revealed in Minneapolis. The assault by federal agents was an attack on something pre-political, on parts of our communal existence that people, in normal times, take for granted," she wrote.

"You should be able to assume that parents, immigrant or not, won’t be ripped away from children. You should assume that people don’t have to hide in their house because their skin is brown or black," she added. "You should assume that filming an interaction with the police won’t end in your death. These are all pre-political assumptions, and we hold them not as Democrats or Republicans, but as individuals who just want to live freely."

She added that it might seem lonely to be a dissident but that the spirit of those who came before them should inspire the movement to grow. While there might be policy disagreements over things like taxes or rent freezes "normal" is a universal idea.

"To be a dissident in this moment means moving beyond scoring points and underscoring differences, and on to recognizing what we are all losing — and blowing a whistle in order to prevent that loss," she urged.

Read the full column here.

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