Outlasting the MAGA Darkness: Why You Must Never Let Conditions Decide Your Fate
How to Confront Brutal Reality Without Losing Faith in Victory
Outlasting the Darkness: Why You Must Never Let Conditions Decide Your Fate
How to Confront Brutal Reality Without Losing Faith in Victory
The Jack Hopkins Now Newsletter #509: Thursday, August 28th, 2025.
The Stockdale Frame: How to Outlast Hell
Admiral James Stockdale had every reason to break.
In 1965, his jet was torn out of the sky over North Vietnam. He parachuted into a village…was beaten nearly to death…and dragged off to the infamous Hoa Lo prison…the “Hanoi Hilton.” That cement box became his home for the next seven and a half years.
Seven and a half years.
Imagine it. A concrete cell…often pitch-black…stinking of rot. Summers so hot you could feel your skin blister. Winters so cold your teeth cracked. Interrogations that weren’t conversations but acts of torture. Limbs shattered. Ribs broken. Whippings with rubber truncheons until flesh hung like ribbons.
At one point…to keep his captors from parading him as propaganda…Stockdale deliberately smashed his own face with a stool and slashed his scalp with a razor blade. Better to be disfigured than broken. Better to spit in their faces than be used by them.
And yet…he endured.
He endured when fellow prisoners gave up. He endured when the pain was unthinkable. He endured when he had no idea if his country remembered him or if he would ever see his wife again.
What Stockdale proved is this: your survival does not depend on your conditions. Conditions are always miserable. Conditions are always stacked against you. Conditions are always the tyrant’s weapon.
Survival depends on one thing alone: your refusal to let the conditions dictate your belief that you will outlast them.
Stockdale called it the paradox of survival:
You must never lose faith that you will prevail in the end.
At the same time…you must confront the brutal facts of your current reality.
That paradox carried him through nearly a decade in hell. He organized resistance inside the prison…taught fellow POWs a tap-code system so they could communicate through walls…and shielded the weak. He never surrendered his soul…even when they owned his body.
And when he finally walked out in 1973…he didn’t shuffle out broken. He walked out …proof of a deeper law: even in the pit of hell…a free man can say: You cannot dictate my belief that I will outlast you.
I’m sure you recognize that you’ve seen this reflected in my writing. Over forty years ago…Stockdale’s story wove itself deep into my heart and mind. It’s long been a central theme in my approach to life.
The American Prison We’re In
You are not sitting in a concrete box. You are not shackled in Hanoi.
But you are living in a nation where authoritarianism is accelerating…and its aim is the same: to convince you that resistance is futile.
Just this week…Gavin Newsom warned that Trump doesn’t even want another election…that he is turning the government into a permanent personal apparatus of power.
The Guardian reminded us that we are already 200 days past Day One of Trump’s “dictator” promise…and he’s delivering. Purges of civil servants. Legalized vengeance. Rule by decree.
CIVICUS…a global watchdog…placed the United States on its civic space watchlist…right next to countries we used to lecture about democracy. Why? Because dissent is being criminalized…protests are being crushed…and civil society is being strangled.
And yet…millions are marching. Five million people in over two thousand cities took to the streets in the June “No Kings” protests. That is not despair. That is proof that the spark remains alive.
But here’s the enemy’s trick:
They don’t need to jail every dissenter. They just need you to believe resistance is pointless. They don’t need to lock you in a cell. They just need you to lock yourself in the mental prison of hopelessness.
Stockdale refused to let conditions decide whether he would prevail. So must we.
The Brutal Facts (Confront Them Without Flinching)
Let’s be brutally honest:
Trump has already shredded checks and balances.
Federal agencies are being weaponized.
The courts are being packed with loyalists.
The press is muzzled and mocked.
Opponents are being investigated…prosecuted…and smeared.
And the global authoritarian network is watching…cheering…and feeding the flames.
You must see these facts for what they are: brutal. Do not sugarcoat them. Do not rationalize them. Do not hope they’ll “just go away.”
But also…you must hold fast to the Stockdale paradox: you will prevail in the end.
The Paradox in Action: Why Hopelessness is the Tyrant’s Weapon
Hopelessness is not neutral. It’s not harmless.
Hopelessness is the oxygen mask you put on the dictator’s face. It is surrender dressed up as “realism.”
The tyrant wants you silent. Wants you scrolling…not speaking. Wants you defeated before the fight begins.
But if Stockdale could resist for seven and a half years in a box where the beatings never stopped…how dare we say “it’s too hard” to make a phone call…to write a letter…to organize a protest…to speak without fear?
The only thing worse than despair is becoming its evangelist…spreading the infection of defeat to others.
This is why your role matters more than you think.
Proof That One Person Matters
Proof tops theory.
Here’s proof:
One person started the Greensboro lunch-counter sit-ins. Within weeks…it was a movement.
One woman…Rosa Parks…ignited the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
One priest in Poland…Father Popiełuszko…sparked a fire that fed Solidarity against communism.
And today…one post…one rally…one phone call can ripple into thousands.
Never forget: tyranny is brittle. Courage is contagious.
Ten Daily Actions to Break the Doomlock
This is your toolbox. Pick one a day. No excuses.
Call your representative. It’s not futile. Offices measure pressure by the pound.
Show up. Protests are proof of life. Everybody matters.
Fund the frontline. Support independent journalists…watchdogs…and civil-rights lawyers.
Tell your story. Don’t argue…share. People don’t forget human truth.
Host a gathering. Even three people in a living room is power.
Join a node. Find or build a local resistance cell.
Fight disinformation. Don’t scroll past lies. Challenge them relentlessly.
Educate yourself. Read one history of authoritarianism each month. Arm your mind.
Recruit one ally. Expand the circle every week.
Model courage. Fear spreads…but so does defiance. Be the one who refuses to bow.
The Surge of Energy
Picture America in the next year.
Imagine if millions take these small daily actions. Imagine if despair turns into discipline…fear turns into fire. Imagine if every subscriber reading this decides: “I will outlast this.”
The authoritarian project crumbles not because of one hero at the top…but because millions refused to let conditions dictate their fate.
This is the Stockdale Paradox applied to democracy.
Your Marching Orders
Confront the brutal facts. Do not hide from them.
Hold unshakable faith that democracy will outlast tyranny.
Act daily…no matter how small.
Spread courage. Recruit others. Build momentum.
Refuse despair. That is the tyrant’s victory.
The Final Word
Admiral Stockdale walked out of seven years of torture because he chose to outlast conditions.
Now the burden is on us.
The darkness is thick. The train is speeding. But if we embrace the Stockdale Paradox…unflinching realism + unbreakable faith…we will not only endure…we will prevail.
And when history turns…and it will…we will walk out together…not broken…but unbowed.
I’ll be back later this evening.
Your partner in prevailing,
-Jack
As always you inspire me and it reminds me of my mother who never let conditions dictate her belief in what was right or wrong. My father was a piece of work (like VILE PILE) even after he divorced her he continued to try and make her life miserable. She wouldn't allow it - just a quick example - she learned to drive after he left her and he was required to provide a vehicle to her, one day he announced he wanted the car back and he was coming to get it. My mother had 1 neighbor put the car in their garage, another had the keys and my sister and I were at another neighbor's house. When he arrived he was greeted with a copy of the divorce decree and my mother told him that he would not be able get the car. This is just one example, you should also know that the divorce complicated my mother's life and ours because the woman who my father had an affair with and later married her sisters were married to my mom's brother and the other was married to my dad's brother so we were never able to step away from the drama that created. I will stop there because I refuse to let the darkness that was then define me now. It is why I will continue to fight and will do whatever is necessary to make a difference in this world and for this democracy!
Thanks, Jack! I was especially feeling low today so, reading your post was the best antidote for me. I got inspired once again.
I don't have the words to tell you how much I appreciate all that you do!