LET'S get the disgusting truth out of the way first: Scotland, like every other country on earth, will have to deal with an America run by Donald Trump whether we like it or not. As long as he remains democratically elected and acts within the limits of a democratic system, then Scotland and every other nation must hold our noses and engage with a Trump White House when it is in our interests and the interests of the rest of the world. Of course, if he strays outside the boundaries of democracy, or tries to impinge on the rights of his own people or the rights of people of other nations then we must act against him and his administration as well.

But here is what we must not do: we must not let the election of a far-right, bullying billionaire, cresting a global wave of xenophobic populism, as typified by Brexit Britain, quell our fight for progressive values. The forces of reaction have been galvanised: misogyny, racism and bigotry are now in the ascendency. And this is all the more reason why those of us who believe in universal human rights and liberal values must up our game and deal with these dangerous opponents head on.

The only way to beat a bully is to fight back and hit them harder than they hit you. Let's take a more historical overview of what has happened. During the run-up to the illegal invasion of Iraq, the Bush and Blair governments and their hangers-on in the right-wing media got their way and pushed the US and UK into war by shouting loudest and bullying decent liberal men and women who knew the case for war was all lies in the first place. Decent people tend not to shout. They tend to believe that the truth will out. Well, for the best part of two decades now the truth has been in the loser's seat, and so have liberals and progressives. Why? Because we think it beneath us to fight fire with fire – to turn righteous ire on those who are wrong-doers. If Trump's win has taught us one thing, it has taught us that times have changed – and so must attitudes. Liberals have to stand up and if the fight gets dirty then liberals have to return fire accordingly. We wish the Michelle Obama mantra was one to be followed – "when they go low, we go high" – but it isn't. To a white supremacist, such a position is laughably weak.

Brexit prospered because liberals allowed racist and economic lies, that were spewed by the Leave side and the right-wing press, to steamroller them. Trump won because liberals allowed lies, spewed by him and his surrogates and amplified in the right-wing press, to steamroller them. In both cases, liberals should have hired their own steamroller and levelled those getting in their way.

Being liberal does not necessarily mean being nice – especially to those who wish to destroy the world you wish to create. If you believe in liberal, progressive values you do not tolerate the intolerable – in fact you do the opposite.

So how do we defend liberal values with such fierce tenacity? We arm ourselves with facts, we shout loud about what we believe in, we take on those who lie in order to defeat us and we defeat them with truth, and we support our own liberal media because without a liberal media to take on the right-wing media, we have one less weapon than those on what can now only be described as the far-right.

What we do not do is retreat in fear, or waste our time trying to win this fight on social media. The left has thrown away so much direct action by sitting in a Twitter echo chamber talking only to itself. No-one cares if you virtue-signal that you think Donald Trump is a terrible man, or that Brexit broke your heart. If you didn't get off your backside in the first place to fight for what you believe, then you are of no use in what is now becoming an existential fight.

Here's the liberal Village Voice in America mulling over how to react to the Trump win. "Who have I not cut off or called out on social media for saying things that might be off-color or not wanted to be mean to somebody because they said something that I didn’t appreciate?"

If you think unfriending someone has any purpose in the modern world, then please, vacate the stage and leave it to people with a stomach for a real fight. Don't unfriend some avatar in cyberspace, take on those you meet in real life who threaten your values – whether they are family members, acquaintances, MPs, journalists, anyone. Win the argument using every weapon at your disposal.

For centuries the left and liberals have fought, lost and then got up again the next day, brushed themselves off, returned to the fray and won in the long run no matter how hard it was. Your grandfathers and grandmothers knew that, and so do you. Don't be scared. Don't be defeated. Fight back. Win. There is no other alternative.