CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

“Neighborism” Is Not Having “a Moment”

Downtown Minneapolis protest, January 2026. Image Wikipedia.

Earlier this year, when ICE invaded Minneapolis in a horrific siege that is no longer discussed but is absolutely ongoing, my home in the heart of “flyover country” was again thrust into the national and international spotlight, as it was after George Floyd’s murder. And again—as if the Twin Cities’ vibrant literary community is somehow unequipped to write about the happenings of their home with the nuance necessary for reporting that’s not only accurate, but actually sophisticated—the parachute reporting laced with intellectually lazy observations and pedestrian analyses from publications that are somehow still considered prestigious began.

Doing what all good parachute reporters do, one such writer from The Atlantic brought his superior ability to understand places he has seemingly never been with him on safari through the Twin Cities in order to, assuming that Minnesotans are considered part of these publications’ readership, mansplain our resistance to us.

“If the Minnesota resistance has an overarching ideology, you could call it ‘neighborism’—a commitment to protecting the people around you, no matter who they are or where they came from,” Adam Serwer crowed. “Minnesotans have found and loved one another in a world atomized by social media, where empty men have tried to fill their lonely soul with lies about their own inherent superiority,” apparently unaware of the superiority inherent in his own incorrect reporting.

Minnesotans didn’t “find” each other in the ICE raids; we activated and mobilized the community, care, and connections we already have which were cultivated and nurtured long before the masked military wannabes arrived. This effort of coastal parachute reporters to comprehend what they see as some kind of novel, spontaneous and nearly........

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