Since Trump’s election, gun groups catering to progressives and people of color report a surge in interest as they look to defend themselves in a country that, to them, feels increasingly unstable.

  • AllHailTheSheep@sh.itjust.works
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    1 day ago

    if ice is raiding my house, I am already dead. the only thing I get to decide in that scenario is how long it takes and who I take with me.

    as for giving them the pretext, they will create whatever pretext they feel they need. they are already trying. remember the loser who shot migrants at the (Dallas?) ice office a few back? the only thing the government (and most media) would say about it was that he was shooting at ice officers when it was clear he was targeting immigrants.

    fascism does not care about legality, and it doesn’t care about pretext. if they do not fit the pretext they want in the timeline they want, they will do it themselves.

    • PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social
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      1 day ago

      fascism does not care about legality, and it doesn’t care about pretext

      Very very true. However, most of the country does. If they were already “doing it themselves” and this stuff didn’t matter, they would have arrested Pritzger, kicked Jimmy Kimmel off the air, that CBP commander in Chicago wouldn’t be showing up to court every morning, things like that. There is a reason they’re starting by focusing on vulnerable communities without much support from the rest of society, and obeying this elaborate pretense that they’re “enforcing immigration law” and pretending to stay inside those boundaries so elaborately.

      I can pretty much guarantee you that if the citizens of Chicago had been obeying your advice here so far, Pritzger would have been arrested by some sort of federal agents already.

      All I can really say is read the book. I know you have your way of looking at it and I’m honestly not trying to disrespect it, because I get it, but also, how many successful revolutions have you written the guidebook for? I think for Sharp that number is close to double digits now.

      • AllHailTheSheep@sh.itjust.works
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        13 hours ago

        does most of the country care about legality and pretext? if they did we wouldn’t have the president or supreme court we do.

        I’m familiar with sharps writings. he makes really good points but I think you are vastly underestimating the complexity of a revolution in a country such as united states. yes, his texts have been instrumental in may revolutions but as far as I am aware they have never been tested on such a world stage, and certainly not with the myriad of technological factors at play in the US, which changes things drastically as far as what is feasible.

        I subscribe to a far more franz fanon approach, which is that nonviolence relies on your oppressors sense of humanity. if they are opressing you, their sense of humanity is so drastically different than ours that it is frivolous to try to appeal to it.

      • Whostosay@sh.itjust.works
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        23 hours ago

        It would help if you included resources that prove that that book was the pretext for double digit successful revolutions.

        That said, “There is a reason they’re starting by focusing on vulnerable communities without much support from the rest of society, and obeying this elaborate pretense that they’re “enforcing immigration law” and pretending to stay inside those boundaries so elaborately.”

        Where do you think this is leading to, and the point theyre trying to take it always leads to armed resistance. Buy a gun and be safe. It’s really not even almost a chore to have a gun tucked away.

        • PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social
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          17 hours ago

          It would help if you included resources that prove that that book was the pretext for double digit successful revolutions.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_Dictatorship_to_Democracy

          It’s known to have been directly involved in Burma, the Arab Spring, Serbia, and Angola. It’s been translated by local activists into Amharic, Arabic, Azeri, Bahasa, Belarusian, Burmese, Chin, Chinese (simplified and traditional Mandarin), Dhivehi, Farsi, French, Georgian, German, Jing Paw, Karen, Khmer, Kurdish, Kyrgyz, Nepali, Pashto, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Tibetan, Tigrinya, Ukrainian, Uzbek, and Vietnamese. I have no idea how many of those led to it later being involved in a revolutionary attempt (let alone a successful one) in a “proof” sense. I was just telling you what I think about it.

          Here’s a story: https://edition.cnn.com/2012/06/23/world/gene-sharp-revolutionary/index.html

          The author is the real deal. He’s spent time in federal detention in the US, he’s spent a lot of time with people in resistance movements in these places.

          I want to call your attention to this part specifically:

          The Burmese were amazed by Sharp’s theories. They couldn’t believe they had been fighting and killing for 20 years when there was an alternative.

          I don’t know if you can really call modern Myanmar a “success story” but to me they seem like they’re making more progress now than in 30 years of bloody armed confrontation with the military, which of course is more capable at military things.

        • anomnom@sh.itjust.works
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          19 hours ago

          I hope your gun is securely “tucked away”. I have a kid and adding a gun to my household would make it statistically less safe.

          I think it’s important to know how to safely handle guns, but in my life it’s completely unnecessary to own and maintain one. I know where I could steal a few if society collapsed, which I don’t think is likely anytime soon.