When Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II, the Danes created a simple symbol of resistance: wearing a paperclip on your shirt or coat. Given Trump’s replacing so many bureaucrats — “paper pushers” — you feel this is a good symbol. Anyone can participate. The message is simple: “By wearing a paperclip, you agree to refuse to take orders, even push papers, for any autocrats. You only obey the Constitution.”
You and many others spread the idea. Soon tens of thousands of people brand paperclips on their social media photos, wear them at work, and spread them all over the country. The symbol is a commitment “to refuse to do anything unconstitutional, anti-democratic.” People sell rainbow-colored paperclips or U.S. flag-decorated paperclips. There’s a pop song about paperclips that hits the charts. Among D.C. insiders, paperclips are secretly shown at personal risk.
The New York Daily News begins to cover the protest, and soon commentators on CNN wear the paperclips just below U.S. flags. But the Trump train continues. Trump vows to arrest former U.S. Representative Liz Cheney and a dozen other “dissidents.” Trump posts on social media: “IF YOUR PARENT IS WOKE, turn them in.” His secretary of education orders a revamp of all school curricula to remove “woke references,” which is widely understood to include references to the LGBTQ community and to slavery, like the 1619 curriculum.
