Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
you can't fight City Hall en · X
Meanings
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(US, figuratively, qualifier:literal) Nothing can be done to change the situation, because it is a governmental decision or a similarly institutional decision (e.g., high-level corporate, senior military brass, dominant cultural norm).
I see they're going to build the airport after all. I suppose you can't fight City Hall.
As Audre Lorde, my professor at Hunter College, told our class in 1982, "That you can't fight City Hall is a rumor being spread by City Hall."
1998, Sarah Schulman, Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS, and the Marketing of Gay America, Duke University Press, page 45:
Forms
Relateds
if you can't beat them, join them · beat the system