There’s no doubt that there’s not going to be a direct political impact of today’s protests. The president’s not going to suddenly change his mind and stop hunting people who don’t fit his idea of ‘right’ and he’s certainly not going to stop treating executive orders like they’re law. But there is an importance to these gatherings.

This whole time, a decade of Trump’s political presence, has been about gaslighting and moving the goalposts so far to The Right that even the most simple of views is treated like radical leftist policy.

We’ve seen this before in life and literature: we know what this looks like. The most dangerous thing is thinking “that could never happen here” and “I didn’t think he would actually do it” because they will only enable this regime’s chaos.

The desire for dominance is rooted in fear. If you can’t coexist with something, then your only option is to rule over it. They know their goals are incompatible with—well—humanity. So they fight. They try to dominate because they fear coexisting.

So why is it important that we do all of this? To see hundreds of thousands—no—roughly 7 million people standing up for what’s right. They’re trying to make you feel like your basic liberties are some radical privilege.

They’re not. You deserve basic rights. We deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Immigrants are not the problem. The problem is people who think they can control everything instead of actually coexisting with it, destroying the economy, destroying the environment, and destroying humanity.

They win by making you think you’re alone. We’ve got friends everywhere.