In early to mid-2025, Star Wars’ Andor aired its second season, and many Americans resisting the Trump administration escalated their “resistance” rhetoric, seeing themselves reflected in the universe’s Alliance to Restore the Republic. Most notably, many pointed to Senator Mon Mothma’s speech in Season 2, Episode 9, where she accuses the Galactic Empire of genocide on the fictional planet of Ghorman following a brutal massacre of peaceful protestors in their Palmo Plaza.1
The “death of truth” in American society
As per Huffpost, Sara Westcott, a “No Kings” protestor who works as a paralegal, was “inspired” by the speech and raised a sign with the quote, “The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil.”2 The article goes on to assert that Andor is “the most politically relevant sci-fi series giving people hope.” This was reflected in a Tumblr post by a fan, which reportedly said, “I wish we had real liberal politicians who fought fascism.”
Unfortunately, while inspirational—as the Tumblr post implies—the comparison is flawed. If liberals invoke Mon Mothma, they inherit the narrative logic of Mon Mothma; while liberal politicians and voters across the Americas adopt “resistance” rhetoric, claiming to “fight fascism,” they have failed to truly represent or even support material resistance efforts, whether domestically or abroad.
Further, the “death of truth,” when applied to American society, does not merely apply to Republican/conservative rhetoric. The idea of “spreading democracy”—for some strange reason, through bombing—has been used by Democrats and Republicans alike, and both parties were involved in US aggression in Vietnam. Both major parties have historically participated in propaganda (in the negative sense) and mass violence, so the moral high ground claimed by liberals is misleading. So much for Democratic “truths.”3
True resistance, or controlled opposition?
A crucial aspect of Mon Mothma’s character in Andor is her ties to Luthen Rael, a spymaster who led a covert network of rebels through his Axis network. During the show, Rael worked with fragmented rebel groups across the galaxy, including the Partisans led by Onderonian freedom fighter and insurrectionary anarchist Saw Gerreram, a militant group that fought occupation first on Onderon, then across multiple planets.
While Mon Mothma herself was a classical liberal idealist who valued purity, pacifism, and justice, this did not stop her from allying with Rael and indirectly (later, directly) with more “radical” groups. Despite their ideological differences, Mothma recognized that they all fought for the same thing: the end of the Galactic Empire.
Yet what of liberals in the real world? Protestors who resisted police were opposed—in some views, betrayed—by their own “peaceful” compatriots, who claimed that “this is not what we’re here for.” This was seen recently in a viral clip recorded the night of May 30th, 2026, where a protestor stopped others from pushing against barricades at the Delaney Hall ICE facility.
An anonymous submission to the anarchist blog Anti Everything Action recalled a similar incident in Australia in June 2025 where a protestor resisted unlawful arrest, asserting that it was “[as] if resisting police wasn’t the point of this protest. So then we just had this scene where people were told to sit down rather than stand up against the police.” The author questioned, “[Whose] direction do you follow, and how does that match your politics?” Even this most barebones form of domestic resistance is opposed by many liberal voters, who instead opt for nonviolent displays of spectacle like the aforementioned “No Kings.”
On the institutional front, do real-world liberal politicians work with or even simply offer the most basic vocal support to militant groups resisting occupation abroad, like Hamas in Palestine or Hezbollah in Lebanon?4
Even so-called “democratic socialists” like Senator Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who supposedly support Palestine, have voiced opposition to the Axis of Resistance.5 Just a few months ago, both condemned protestors who chanted, “Say it loud, say it clear: we support Hamas here.”
The former called it “disgusting” and “antisemitic,” while the latter claimed that “that language had no place in New York” and called Hamas a “terrorist organization” despite resistance against “colonial and racist regimes” being legal under international law. This put their true stance toward so-called “Israel” on full display—regardless of whether they care about the suffering of the Palestinian people, they hold “Israel” in high regard as well, shining a light on their “both sides” liberal opportunism. They have no intention of dismantling the colonial occupation, only condemning its most extreme actions.6
Liberal politicians as controlled opposition
Instead, liberal politicians in the Americas serve only as a controlled opposition group, doing nothing to cause real material change. Worse still, they do not even seek to end Western imperialism and hegemony at all. Some wish for reform—just for their reforms to be reversed at the start of the next presidency—while others simply want better PR.
While the Empire in Star Wars’ Original Trilogy was brought down through a revolutionary war, real-life liberals instead keep the masses in check, actively lowering revolutionary potential. Had Harris become president instead of Trump, Palestine would still be under siege and Iran would still be attacked—simply with more talk about “democracy” and “authoritarian regimes.” In a similar vein, despite dropping more than 26,000 bombs into seven countries in 2016 alone without formally declaring war, Obama is still seen as a "hero" by Democratic voters.
Regardless of Mothma’s pacifist and idealist beliefs—of course, these beliefs were themselves insufficient to overthrow the Empire in the Star Wars universe, as a full revolutionary war was ultimately needed—it seems real-world liberal politicians are even more useless. Their self-branding as “anti-fascist resistance” figures is entirely performative, lacking the alliances, risks, and material commitments required by actual resistance.
This fictional massacre has been compared to China’s Tiananmen incident, which is completely erroneous and historically inaccurate. For more information, see “37 Years of the June Fourth ‘Tiananmen Square Massacre’ Narrative.”
Many other signs inspired by the show were shared on its subreddit, r/andor. For the sake of brevity, they are mentioned only in this footnote.
There is an old joke that was allegedly told in the USSR:
A Soviet and an American are seated next to each other on a plane travelling from Moscow to Washington. The American says, “I have to hand it to you; your propaganda is very impressive.” The Soviet smiles and thanks him but replies that it’s nothing compared to American propaganda. Confused, the American tells him, “But we don’t have propaganda.” The Soviet smiles and says, “Exactly.”
These real armed resistance groups no doubt have their own internal contradictions and complexities, as they exist in real political conditions, while fictional groups like the Partisans can be written to be morally tidy or narratively convenient. Still, these groups all share the structural role of armed resistance to occupation.
AOC and Mamdani were chosen as examples because they are widely regarded as the “furthest left” of the centrist DNC (alongside Bernie Sanders). There is little reason to consider those to their “right,” including the rest of their party, if not even these supposed “leftists” back actual resistance organizations.
This is not new for AOC. This publication previously reported on her July 2025 Iron Dome funding controversy, where she refused to vote against “defensive” funding for “Israel” and called her own Democratic base “MAGA” for correctly criticizing her actions.
This is a really good article. It also highlights the lack of media literacy in liberal spaces, something that they blame the right of lacking. Hyoerfixating on the ideal while ignoring the wider critique of said ideal in both seasons is willful blindness of the need for both words and actions to promote resistance.
As a huge fan of Andor I really appreciated this piece, haha. I found the show deeply fascinating in how it portrayed insurgent action -- both aboveground and belowground, in a way that does evoke many elements of different revolutions.
Mon Mothma is a very fun character *because* she acts as the aboveground, legal face of controlled opposition while secretly funneling funding and resources to the growing revolutionary forces. I do not think a single American democrat fits that bill, lmao. It's the equivalent of Kamala or Hillary funneling funding to Hamas or Hezbollah.
For liberals to claim Mothma just completely misses the point in order to say "see, she's just like one of the Good Guy Democrats!" lol.