What are we up against? Progressives dominate our culture and will not accept dissent. If you can’t tell by their governing decisions, you can tell by their prevailing aesthetics and propaganda. They are in the Conservative Party and the Church of England. Does the revolution reach the mind of the King? Do you know what happens after you wear a red Phrygian, sir?

You have to fight with the army you’ve got

Like the mafia, they will tell you that cancel culture doesn’t exist. All warfare is based on deception. You don’t ever admit the existence of this thing, ever — but if it did exist, it would be a good thing.

What is the state of their opponents? Dispersed, disorganised, powerless, but numerous. How many groups exist? Reform, Reclaim, Heritage, UKIP, various independents, some factions of the Conservatives, even many normie Labour voters. (Is this all a bit People’s Front of Judea?) Not that majorities matter for winning or change, but maybe it’s nice to have. Perhaps it’s reassuring that there are more people out there who agree with you, more than you think, and certainly more than the progressives understand.

What is the state of the fight? Defensive or reactive at best. Initiatives like the Free Speech Union are promising but react after the damage is done. Successes over nonsense like “The Family Sex Show” or Nicola Sturgeon’s unorthodox take on the Prisoner’s Dilemma are good but late. How did these things ever happen in the first place?

In the face of these less than promising circumstances, book building is a tactic from investment banking that could take the fight to cancel culture.

You need tactics which keep you hidden, let you determine support levels, and build them to a point where you can win. You have to fight with the army you’ve got.

With just a little purpose and direction, failures like dispersal and disunity can be turned into virtues. Doesn’t it make more sense to learn from clandestine structures of resistance movements? “If you’re drawing flak that means you’re over the target.” No. The trick is not to get shot.

If you want to take your company public, you don’t just list on a stock exchange and hope people buy shares in your company. What if no one wanted to buy? That would be embarrassing. What if the price was wildly different to what you were expecting? That could be ruinous.

Instead, you go to an investment bank (the bookrunner) which organises the sale ahead of time. The bank knows lots of rich traders. It shows them the deal, and they negotiate in confidence. This warms people up to the idea, lets them know a deal is coming, lets them weigh it up, lets them know they’re not going to be the only buyers, and lets everyone figure out what the price should be, all ahead of time. It makes a stable success much more probable.

How can this be used to oppose progressives? How many times have you heard someone cancelled say that they’ve received floods of sympathetic messages? That so many people also agree with them, but are afraid to also get cancelled if they speak up? What does this mean? Are there the numbers? What happens if there are the numbers? Can they cancel them all?

The smaller and more tightly knit the hobby or company, the better

A key moment in the fall of communism was the visit of Pope John Paul II to Poland in 1979.

Religion was banned and oppressed, along with much else, and people couldn’t talk very freely about it for fear of much worse than cancellation. The Pope went to Poland anyway. What were they going to do? Send the Pope to the gulag? Maybe, actually, because he was Polish, but still he went, and people turned out to see him. Suddenly, what they couldn’t even speak about became apparent in the crowds. They had much more support than they realised. They had the numbers. It gave them the confidence they needed to push further. Nobody rioted or “stormed” any capitals. They didn’t need to.

The next time some video games person or ladies angling team or whatever runs into trouble with progressives, why not try book building?

Start the confidential organisation of anyone who wants to come forward as supportive. Build up that list until there’s a critical amount of people who can all move at once, united, in a planned way, to achieve whatever result you’re after. Is it a new league, organisation or company? Is it a boycott of a questionable beer?

You know what, why wait? Start opening the books now. The smaller and more tightly knit the hobby or company, the better. The best people to become bookrunners are probably the ones involved in whichever given sphere. They’ll know when critical numbers are reached. You probably don’t need a majority — just enough of the right people. Simultaneously, the book builders can start working out what the most effective moves are, what is in line with what’s viable, cool, et cetera in their area.

At least find someone trusted. Those with proven track records of opposing the progressives will be promising.

The main point is the secrecy. It keeps you safer and entails an element of surprise. Besides, you can enjoy the secrecy for its own sake — enjoy being “in the know”, “one of us”.

Start building the books.