Sickens me that people are upvoting this and think this way. Oh won’t someone think of the poor fascists. They need to provide for their families, so its okay for them to terrorize and kill indiscriminately.
These are not golden-hearted dimwits who just need to see the light. This is not a Disney movie with a villain redemption plot. These are fascists, do you understand what that means? They take pleasure in what they do because they think they are purging mutants and heathens for the greater good. The paychecks are a bonus. They are not using them to provide for their beaten children and raped spouses, they are using them to buy bigger guns to slaughter more “others”
You want to stay on the fence about fascism, go ahead. I can’t stop you, I’m just text on the internet. But you are doing tangible harm to real people in this world by trying to white wash what is happening and giving a pass to the people making it happen.
That said, ya’ll being dramatic about this getting a few upvotes. It takes about 0 braincells to half-read a comment while doomscrolling in bed, and then upvote it. I don’t think it’s worth calling people out for this, feels toxic.
This place, it hosts many personalities that are unable to empathise. It’s why a simple comment reminding people to tap into empathy for fellow humans, reminding people to aim energy responsibly, it ends with this behaviour instead.
It really doesn’t matter for the cause if the behaviour is just as toxic as the opponent, though. A piece of shit is just a piece of shit, no matter how much they claim morality.
But in this case, they’re doing exactly what their opponent wants them to do. And if there’s a lack of empathy, a lack of seeing the hypocrisy, I doubt there’s much hope for clarity on that as well.
This is who you’re choosing empathy for. Violent insurrectionists and pardoned felons who hide their faces, commit violence for the regime, and violate the sanctity of our rights. You can try to smear me all you want and claim I have no empathy, but it is blatantly clear I have much more than you. I staunchly defend persons of color, LGBTQ, women, children and many other targeted groups that the fascists want to put in concentration camps. I am willing to put my own safety and wellbeing at risk in their defense.
If you believe the fascists and their attack dogs deserve the same level of respect, empathy, and defense as the real victims in American society, you and I already know which side you’re fighting for.
binary unnuanced thinking is a tool of the right. and this isn’t me trying to be a “informed centrist, both sides are evil, let’s maintain the status quo” motherfucker. it’s simply a fact that for the last 20k years these cycles of rising violence have happened over and over again and the thing that always happens is the demagogues flatten all conversation into us vs them binaries.
part of how this system works is it strips people of their humanity by first not studying what it means to be human in school, and then by telling one class of people that another class of people isn’t. it’s a matter of susceptiblity to propaganda. nazis, idf soldiers, ruzzian militants, genocidal leaders in sudan, they all have the same core belief that they are the ones who are righteous and good for carrying out their acts, and the people they carry them out against could have avoided it by not being here.
by the nature of how america was founded then expanded every single white person living here today is here because of someone in their family tree or someone they knew personally who thought this way. all of us are much closer to becoming ICE agents through the leverage of the propaganda machines, misinformation, and poor education than most liberals are willing to confront themselves with. the most horrifying thing about the banality of evil is that all of us carry a capacity for it. if you really want to avoid it you have to audit it daily within yourself and work to keep the people in your life from falling for it.
once people are lost, they’re lost. they become part of a great organism of hate that is driven by its leadership. that leadership must be removed and the people in the cult deprogrammed. some within the cult are lost forever and cannot be allowed to spread their hate to future generations. but if studying recent history has taught me anything it’s that only 20% of this country actually gets what’s goind on around here. 30% of this country are true, pure, hateful people who cannot be redeemed. and then the remaining 50% see both of those groups as the same and will go along with anything as long as there is a law that allows it and the proper paperwork has been filed.
ICE’s rank and file for decades have come mostly from the 30% of pure vile evil, but now they’re also pulling in people from the 50% and so far this republican regime has had all the paperwork they need to convince far too much of this country that all of this is fine and normal. you have to focus on breaking that myth more than you do on the individuals carrying out the atrocities because, to reiterate, they don’t understand they’re atrocities. they’ve been convinced that this is how the world works and better things simply aren’t possible.
if you want to help, get organized and get active. get a noisemaker and if ice shows up in your community make a racket to disrupt their operations while your neighbors hide from them until the accute danger passes. and remember, this is a marathon, not a sprint
i upvoted as part of an overall discussion about what to do. don’t be looking left and right look up and down. i hate every one of these bootlicking nazis. but i also won’t waste my energy on them when i know how you get people to turn class traitor is by keeping them desperately poor and uninformed of history.
i also fundamentally think that when we’re on the other side of this they all need to be punished for their crimes against humanity in the name of $50k
We already know why. They’re cowards and collaborators who think they’ll get to sleep at the foot of the bed if they obey and throw the rest of us to the wolves. They think they’re noble and pious by sticking to the middle of the road, better than all of us. Who needs messy ethics and functional moral compasses when you can just claim you’re above all the “petty squabbling”.
Fascists only protect their own. Centrists are useful idiots and tools for the extreme right and always have been. They think they’re safe by staying “neutral”. What they refuse to understand is that they are on the purge lists like everyone else, they just aren’t as high up in priority as the rest of us.
I personally get freaked out when everyone gets super pumped up about treating a group as being subhuman and worthy of death, because that’s basically the same argument people used against the immigrants and look where that went as soon as they got power.
Also, I have no idea what a typical ICE employee is like; it is possible that most or at least a significant fraction have never engaged in any fascist acts and have no desire to. Heck, for all I know, that ICE employee you took joy in watching die was actually working hard within the organization to try and make things better precisely because the violence was bothering them as much as it bothers you.
So, I totally oppose the fascist things that ICE does, and don’t really even have a problem with people calling it a fascist organization since that is how it is being run from the top down, and I would even go so far as to say that no moral person can be associated with them at this point (although I have sympathy for the people who were working there before things took a sharp turn for the worse). But having said that, I prefer to follow the words of the Tao Te Ching, Chapter 31:
Good weapons are instruments of fear; all creatures hate them.
Therefore followers of the Tao never used them.
The wise man prefers the left.
The man of war prefers the right.
Weapons are instruments of fear; they are not a wise man’s tools.
He uses them only when he has no choice.
Peace and quiet are dear to his heart.
And victory no cause for rejoicing.
If you rejoice in victory, then you delight in killing;
If you delight in killing, you cannot fulfill yourself.
On happy occasions precedence is given to the left,
On sad occasions to the right.
In the army the general stands on the left,
The commander-in-chief on the right.
This means that war is conducted like a funeral.
When many people are being killed,
They should be mourned in heartfelt sorrow.
That is why a victory must be observed like a funeral.
So I (optimistically) look forward to the day when everyone doing these terrible things is locked away for our safety, or killed if absolutely necessary, but I do not rejoice in the prospect, except insofar as it means the end of the terrible suffering that they are inflicting on others.
Just upvoted, because I believe in Arendt banality of evil. These are horrible movie collabs. Most are just doing their job. I think we should protest against them, sure, but they themselves are just cogs in the machine.
Also: this sort of divisive approach to a political discussion is corrosive to any good faith argument. That’s why I will not engage any further with this thread
Sickens me that people are upvoting this and think this way. Oh won’t someone think of the poor fascists. They need to provide for their families, so its okay for them to terrorize and kill indiscriminately.
These are not golden-hearted dimwits who just need to see the light. This is not a Disney movie with a villain redemption plot. These are fascists, do you understand what that means? They take pleasure in what they do because they think they are purging mutants and heathens for the greater good. The paychecks are a bonus. They are not using them to provide for their beaten children and raped spouses, they are using them to buy bigger guns to slaughter more “others”
You want to stay on the fence about fascism, go ahead. I can’t stop you, I’m just text on the internet. But you are doing tangible harm to real people in this world by trying to white wash what is happening and giving a pass to the people making it happen.
Well these are the people upvoting this shit, maybe we should ask them why?
I downvoted the top comment in this chain.
That said, ya’ll being dramatic about this getting a few upvotes. It takes about 0 braincells to half-read a comment while doomscrolling in bed, and then upvote it. I don’t think it’s worth calling people out for this, feels toxic.
This place, it hosts many personalities that are unable to empathise. It’s why a simple comment reminding people to tap into empathy for fellow humans, reminding people to aim energy responsibly, it ends with this behaviour instead.
It really doesn’t matter for the cause if the behaviour is just as toxic as the opponent, though. A piece of shit is just a piece of shit, no matter how much they claim morality.
But in this case, they’re doing exactly what their opponent wants them to do. And if there’s a lack of empathy, a lack of seeing the hypocrisy, I doubt there’s much hope for clarity on that as well.
This is who you’re choosing empathy for. Violent insurrectionists and pardoned felons who hide their faces, commit violence for the regime, and violate the sanctity of our rights. You can try to smear me all you want and claim I have no empathy, but it is blatantly clear I have much more than you. I staunchly defend persons of color, LGBTQ, women, children and many other targeted groups that the fascists want to put in concentration camps. I am willing to put my own safety and wellbeing at risk in their defense.
If you believe the fascists and their attack dogs deserve the same level of respect, empathy, and defense as the real victims in American society, you and I already know which side you’re fighting for.
Yeah, I think that people often just assume that there is no path by which they could end up becoming a monster.
binary unnuanced thinking is a tool of the right. and this isn’t me trying to be a “informed centrist, both sides are evil, let’s maintain the status quo” motherfucker. it’s simply a fact that for the last 20k years these cycles of rising violence have happened over and over again and the thing that always happens is the demagogues flatten all conversation into us vs them binaries.
part of how this system works is it strips people of their humanity by first not studying what it means to be human in school, and then by telling one class of people that another class of people isn’t. it’s a matter of susceptiblity to propaganda. nazis, idf soldiers, ruzzian militants, genocidal leaders in sudan, they all have the same core belief that they are the ones who are righteous and good for carrying out their acts, and the people they carry them out against could have avoided it by not being here.
by the nature of how america was founded then expanded every single white person living here today is here because of someone in their family tree or someone they knew personally who thought this way. all of us are much closer to becoming ICE agents through the leverage of the propaganda machines, misinformation, and poor education than most liberals are willing to confront themselves with. the most horrifying thing about the banality of evil is that all of us carry a capacity for it. if you really want to avoid it you have to audit it daily within yourself and work to keep the people in your life from falling for it.
once people are lost, they’re lost. they become part of a great organism of hate that is driven by its leadership. that leadership must be removed and the people in the cult deprogrammed. some within the cult are lost forever and cannot be allowed to spread their hate to future generations. but if studying recent history has taught me anything it’s that only 20% of this country actually gets what’s goind on around here. 30% of this country are true, pure, hateful people who cannot be redeemed. and then the remaining 50% see both of those groups as the same and will go along with anything as long as there is a law that allows it and the proper paperwork has been filed.
ICE’s rank and file for decades have come mostly from the 30% of pure vile evil, but now they’re also pulling in people from the 50% and so far this republican regime has had all the paperwork they need to convince far too much of this country that all of this is fine and normal. you have to focus on breaking that myth more than you do on the individuals carrying out the atrocities because, to reiterate, they don’t understand they’re atrocities. they’ve been convinced that this is how the world works and better things simply aren’t possible.
if you want to help, get organized and get active. get a noisemaker and if ice shows up in your community make a racket to disrupt their operations while your neighbors hide from them until the accute danger passes. and remember, this is a marathon, not a sprint
i upvoted as part of an overall discussion about what to do. don’t be looking left and right look up and down. i hate every one of these bootlicking nazis. but i also won’t waste my energy on them when i know how you get people to turn class traitor is by keeping them desperately poor and uninformed of history.
i also fundamentally think that when we’re on the other side of this they all need to be punished for their crimes against humanity in the name of $50k
Exactly 👍
We already know why. They’re cowards and collaborators who think they’ll get to sleep at the foot of the bed if they obey and throw the rest of us to the wolves. They think they’re noble and pious by sticking to the middle of the road, better than all of us. Who needs messy ethics and functional moral compasses when you can just claim you’re above all the “petty squabbling”.
Fascists only protect their own. Centrists are useful idiots and tools for the extreme right and always have been. They think they’re safe by staying “neutral”. What they refuse to understand is that they are on the purge lists like everyone else, they just aren’t as high up in priority as the rest of us.
Wait what are we upvoting? I didn’t get the memo
Don’t worry, it’s not too late to join in! Just look for the comments that have a lot of upvotes already, and add yours to the pile.
I personally get freaked out when everyone gets super pumped up about treating a group as being subhuman and worthy of death, because that’s basically the same argument people used against the immigrants and look where that went as soon as they got power.
Also, I have no idea what a typical ICE employee is like; it is possible that most or at least a significant fraction have never engaged in any fascist acts and have no desire to. Heck, for all I know, that ICE employee you took joy in watching die was actually working hard within the organization to try and make things better precisely because the violence was bothering them as much as it bothers you.
So, I totally oppose the fascist things that ICE does, and don’t really even have a problem with people calling it a fascist organization since that is how it is being run from the top down, and I would even go so far as to say that no moral person can be associated with them at this point (although I have sympathy for the people who were working there before things took a sharp turn for the worse). But having said that, I prefer to follow the words of the Tao Te Ching, Chapter 31:
So I (optimistically) look forward to the day when everyone doing these terrible things is locked away for our safety, or killed if absolutely necessary, but I do not rejoice in the prospect, except insofar as it means the end of the terrible suffering that they are inflicting on others.
Just upvoted, because I believe in Arendt banality of evil. These are horrible movie collabs. Most are just doing their job. I think we should protest against them, sure, but they themselves are just cogs in the machine.
Also: this sort of divisive approach to a political discussion is corrosive to any good faith argument. That’s why I will not engage any further with this thread