How the post-truth politics of Donald Trump and Elon Musk engineered the brutal, unpopular ICE occupation -- and what the resistance is actually about.
"I am, as I imagine no shortage of you all are, mad and depressed and marinating in dread."
As alarmed as I am as well, I want to advance the following notion - us that have been standing before and that have seen this coming, we of all people should not fall into desperation or marinate in dread.
It is justified. Of course.
It is understandable. Of course.
But also: it's manufactured and absolutely intentional. And I do think we have to make it part of our counterattack to be - also against my own feelings and inclinations - to be as upbeat and as brave and as utopian realist as is possible in any way and to keep each other in that space.
They want us afraid and they want us shaking and we should not give them an inch.
And we don't have to. They are cowards. They are pathetic. And as scary as what you call "being beyond epistemic closure" is, we are better equipped to deal with this than anyone. You are, certainly, too. They are kneecapping their institutions left and right because they quite enjoy being in denial of reality. They are building a house which WILL fall, inevitably, the question is just how much destruction it will cause in the process.
It's going to be fairly dark, you are right, which just means that it's time to light the beacons.
In this spirit, thank you so much for all your work and for keeping us updated, it is invaluable already and gets more important by the minute. May we all live to see a day when we can go back to wondering whether what we are doing matters at all, because now it does.
I am grateful and happy that you are around, I am grateful and happy that you are still standing, and I am grateful and happy for all these people in the States that show up every day and prove that no amount of brainwashing and institutional failure will make them succeed.
We're going to have this. And we're all going to keep each other safe. These pigs got nothing on us.
I think you underestimate how much fear and anger motivates people to push back. Being upbeat is not required and can actually work to undermine people's sense of what is happening. Sometimes the only thing that wakes people up is when they are confronted with the reality of what is happening. When they can no longer look away.
Anger - yes. Fear - not so much. And when I say upbeat I certainly don’t mean in a good mood. If that was a requirement I’d be hella out.
What I am talking about is not “This is gonna work out anyway” and not “What are we gonna do” but “Those suckers _will_ pay and that’s not a threat, it’s a promise.” and “Let’s tear shit down.”
I might have a different notion of fear than you, however - because it seems to me that it is an intrinsically demobilizing feeling which is why people love to try to instill it so much.
People will never not be afraid in these circumstances. Recognizing that is simply the starting point. Whistling past the graveyard doesn't really help. Best not to make promises you can't keep. People are still underestimating the severity of the situation. We need as many people to step up who can in whatever ways they can. Very little to be "upbeat" about and posturing threats is just hyperbole.
You’re welcome to fear all you want and to invite others to be afraid.
I feel like vigorously arguing for the emotion that the enemy side wants you to have anyway is a bit of a tactically puzzling decision but it would be equally puzzling for me to waste my time to convince you of the opposite. I believe in allowing for different approaches anyway.
You are twisting what I said. Clearly I am not advocating for fear but rather acknowledging that fear is a big part of what we are experiencing. I will leave it to others to interpret my words rather than rely on your defensive response.
Well this is totally expected. OpenAI has just announced they are introducing ads to ChatGPT. They must be feeling awfully sure of themselves. Here's the announcement and it's very creepy.
I just want to amplify what you briefly alluded to at the end. Specifically in the Twin Cities and generally elsewhere, citizens are doing a beautiful job of refusing to engage in the violence the Trumpets are craving as an excuse to declare martial law, but also refusing to back down and just accept the invasion of their territories by masked thugs. Meanwhile, the Democrats in Congress with few exceptions, and the media, are AWOL. There are two reasons to stop fixing your hope on Dems winning in November. The first is the evidence that at best, Dems vocally oppose Republican crimes when they're safely out of power, so even if they took back both Houses of Congress, little would change. And the second is that the fascist regime isn't taking chances--they're working to rig the elections, but if polling at the election approaches suggests they can't cheat hard enough to win, Trump will just declare a state of emergency and cancel the election. SCOTUS will okay it. There is only one force pushing back--the people. But that force is stepping up well.
Well--when the government shut down over the Dems' demand that the tax credit for healthcare premiums, just that one little thing--we had an extended break because the Republicans may not have been THAT opposed to that one thing, but they could not be seen to lose anything, while the Dems were responding to their constituents demanding they hold out. So of course the Dems capitulated. Will they do it again? Yes. Trump is afraid that if he doesn't cancel the midterms, Democrats will sweep both Houses and then impeach him. Dems are afraid of the same thing; and now they don't have Manchin and Sinema to act as honorary Republicans to ensure the billionaires get whatever they want--but likely they can find a couple other volunteers to do the dirty work.
Thank you for this. I live in the UK, so have a kind of buffer between me and the true horror - though I know it to be transient and likely illusory - we don't even have a Constitution to save us if the alt-right take over... and the current government is doing its utmost to turn into the alt-right anyway.
BUT
this is what strikes me most deeply "This suggests to me that alongside our resistance we must begin thinking far beyond electoral politics and even abolishing ICE—though that is a reasonable starting point—and onto imagining how the socio-technical infrastructure that has undergirded and accelerated this entire project might be dismantled, repaired, replaced."
We *need* Total Systemic Change - not just at a geopolitical level, but at a structural level. We're all quietly forgetting about the biophysical realities of the climate emergency - but the GHGs are still rising, the oceans are still dying, we are still accelerating towards tipping points that will make all of this look trivial - there are no masked knuckle-draggers on a dead planet. And ecosystem collapse is real - there will be no bands of plucky humans roaming the post-collapse landscape... the total loss of all complex life is not a trivial thing.
So - the key question is - what does total systemic change look and feel like - and how do we get there from here? I have some ideas. I'll post them soon.
If you have any, please do let me know. I'll credit all sources.
Tough but powerful read thank you for your strong moral clarity on this and so many issues. Those of us who thought social media and tech would lead to a more equitable world were SO, SO wrong, and I'm not sure how we get out of this mess we've made.
The unholy alliance of Big Tech and Government you describe started under Obama. 2+2=5 was true then. DOGE was just a renamed DSA. Mobs formed on twitter for wrong think and ruined people’s lives, same way X now sics the FBI on people.
And the Right refuses to acknowledge they’re copying that playbook (and taking it farther). The left refuses to acknowledge they ever engaged in this behavior, or their role in bringing this onto us.
Big Tech sells its services to whoever is in power. We’re just watching it in the service of Republicans for the first time and conveniently forgetting who it served before
Sigh... don't really know what to say except I feel the same despair and outrage, and we have to keep using every peaceful means to stop this madness. Appreciate your voice.
The role of the tech broligarchy is key here. The reason they are so involved is because they obviously benefit from this and have been instrumental in funding and creating the surveillance state. Below is a link to a recent interview between Chris Hedges and Bill Hartung that looks at how Silicon Valley is now a major part of the Defense Department. Their ideology is infused with beliefs of superiority based on their wealth.
It is time for economic disruption. Strikes, boycotts, and shutdowns. Too many of us are complicit by continuing to spend our dollars with these companies. Short term pain and inconvenience can really make a difference. Too many people have no idea what is happening in Minnesota. Even when people see the unadulterated version of Renee Good's murder there are two different versions of interpretation When you add AI into the mix, reality is quickly slipping away. What will it take before we understand what is happening? Soldiers in every blue community?
Meanwhile, in your country, thousands of people have been arrested for holding signs saying they oppose genocide and support Palestine Action--the only group doing anything significant to stop the genocide. Your country which agreed to extradite Julian Assange. This is going on all over the world. Those countries which are NOT sliding into fascism are the ones targeted by the Pentagon.
Meanwhile, also in England, thousands of young white working class girls are being brutally raped and pimped out by Pakistani gangs and the government is doing essentially nothing about it. And then the native Britons who complain about migrant crime on Twitter are slammed with longer jail sentences than the actual rapists. What kind of a nation are you????
"I am, as I imagine no shortage of you all are, mad and depressed and marinating in dread."
As alarmed as I am as well, I want to advance the following notion - us that have been standing before and that have seen this coming, we of all people should not fall into desperation or marinate in dread.
It is justified. Of course.
It is understandable. Of course.
But also: it's manufactured and absolutely intentional. And I do think we have to make it part of our counterattack to be - also against my own feelings and inclinations - to be as upbeat and as brave and as utopian realist as is possible in any way and to keep each other in that space.
They want us afraid and they want us shaking and we should not give them an inch.
And we don't have to. They are cowards. They are pathetic. And as scary as what you call "being beyond epistemic closure" is, we are better equipped to deal with this than anyone. You are, certainly, too. They are kneecapping their institutions left and right because they quite enjoy being in denial of reality. They are building a house which WILL fall, inevitably, the question is just how much destruction it will cause in the process.
It's going to be fairly dark, you are right, which just means that it's time to light the beacons.
In this spirit, thank you so much for all your work and for keeping us updated, it is invaluable already and gets more important by the minute. May we all live to see a day when we can go back to wondering whether what we are doing matters at all, because now it does.
I am grateful and happy that you are around, I am grateful and happy that you are still standing, and I am grateful and happy for all these people in the States that show up every day and prove that no amount of brainwashing and institutional failure will make them succeed.
We're going to have this. And we're all going to keep each other safe. These pigs got nothing on us.
Venceremos, comrade.
I think you underestimate how much fear and anger motivates people to push back. Being upbeat is not required and can actually work to undermine people's sense of what is happening. Sometimes the only thing that wakes people up is when they are confronted with the reality of what is happening. When they can no longer look away.
Anger - yes. Fear - not so much. And when I say upbeat I certainly don’t mean in a good mood. If that was a requirement I’d be hella out.
What I am talking about is not “This is gonna work out anyway” and not “What are we gonna do” but “Those suckers _will_ pay and that’s not a threat, it’s a promise.” and “Let’s tear shit down.”
I might have a different notion of fear than you, however - because it seems to me that it is an intrinsically demobilizing feeling which is why people love to try to instill it so much.
People will never not be afraid in these circumstances. Recognizing that is simply the starting point. Whistling past the graveyard doesn't really help. Best not to make promises you can't keep. People are still underestimating the severity of the situation. We need as many people to step up who can in whatever ways they can. Very little to be "upbeat" about and posturing threats is just hyperbole.
You’re welcome to fear all you want and to invite others to be afraid.
I feel like vigorously arguing for the emotion that the enemy side wants you to have anyway is a bit of a tactically puzzling decision but it would be equally puzzling for me to waste my time to convince you of the opposite. I believe in allowing for different approaches anyway.
You are twisting what I said. Clearly I am not advocating for fear but rather acknowledging that fear is a big part of what we are experiencing. I will leave it to others to interpret my words rather than rely on your defensive response.
Well this is totally expected. OpenAI has just announced they are introducing ads to ChatGPT. They must be feeling awfully sure of themselves. Here's the announcement and it's very creepy.
https://openai.com/index/our-approach-to-advertising-and-expanding-access/
I just want to amplify what you briefly alluded to at the end. Specifically in the Twin Cities and generally elsewhere, citizens are doing a beautiful job of refusing to engage in the violence the Trumpets are craving as an excuse to declare martial law, but also refusing to back down and just accept the invasion of their territories by masked thugs. Meanwhile, the Democrats in Congress with few exceptions, and the media, are AWOL. There are two reasons to stop fixing your hope on Dems winning in November. The first is the evidence that at best, Dems vocally oppose Republican crimes when they're safely out of power, so even if they took back both Houses of Congress, little would change. And the second is that the fascist regime isn't taking chances--they're working to rig the elections, but if polling at the election approaches suggests they can't cheat hard enough to win, Trump will just declare a state of emergency and cancel the election. SCOTUS will okay it. There is only one force pushing back--the people. But that force is stepping up well.
A test is coming up. The Republican Senators don't have the votes to fund ICE w/o some Dems voting for it. Will the Dems hold the line? Doubtful.
Well--when the government shut down over the Dems' demand that the tax credit for healthcare premiums, just that one little thing--we had an extended break because the Republicans may not have been THAT opposed to that one thing, but they could not be seen to lose anything, while the Dems were responding to their constituents demanding they hold out. So of course the Dems capitulated. Will they do it again? Yes. Trump is afraid that if he doesn't cancel the midterms, Democrats will sweep both Houses and then impeach him. Dems are afraid of the same thing; and now they don't have Manchin and Sinema to act as honorary Republicans to ensure the billionaires get whatever they want--but likely they can find a couple other volunteers to do the dirty work.
Thanks for this Brian. It is appropriately bleak and hopeful. Sorry you needed to rise from your idyll, but you have put your wakefulness to good use.
Thank you for this. I live in the UK, so have a kind of buffer between me and the true horror - though I know it to be transient and likely illusory - we don't even have a Constitution to save us if the alt-right take over... and the current government is doing its utmost to turn into the alt-right anyway.
BUT
this is what strikes me most deeply "This suggests to me that alongside our resistance we must begin thinking far beyond electoral politics and even abolishing ICE—though that is a reasonable starting point—and onto imagining how the socio-technical infrastructure that has undergirded and accelerated this entire project might be dismantled, repaired, replaced."
We *need* Total Systemic Change - not just at a geopolitical level, but at a structural level. We're all quietly forgetting about the biophysical realities of the climate emergency - but the GHGs are still rising, the oceans are still dying, we are still accelerating towards tipping points that will make all of this look trivial - there are no masked knuckle-draggers on a dead planet. And ecosystem collapse is real - there will be no bands of plucky humans roaming the post-collapse landscape... the total loss of all complex life is not a trivial thing.
So - the key question is - what does total systemic change look and feel like - and how do we get there from here? I have some ideas. I'll post them soon.
If you have any, please do let me know. I'll credit all sources.
Thank you - and good luck.
Tough but powerful read thank you for your strong moral clarity on this and so many issues. Those of us who thought social media and tech would lead to a more equitable world were SO, SO wrong, and I'm not sure how we get out of this mess we've made.
Brilliantly done as always Brian. Your writing continues to push me to report even more rigorously
The unholy alliance of Big Tech and Government you describe started under Obama. 2+2=5 was true then. DOGE was just a renamed DSA. Mobs formed on twitter for wrong think and ruined people’s lives, same way X now sics the FBI on people.
And the Right refuses to acknowledge they’re copying that playbook (and taking it farther). The left refuses to acknowledge they ever engaged in this behavior, or their role in bringing this onto us.
Big Tech sells its services to whoever is in power. We’re just watching it in the service of Republicans for the first time and conveniently forgetting who it served before
Just curious and thought you might know since The Atlantic won’t respond - why does the print magazine run full page ads from Palantir??
Because it’s a rag?
I'm so sorry this is happening and I'm really grateful for your work. Stay safe, solidarity.
Sigh... don't really know what to say except I feel the same despair and outrage, and we have to keep using every peaceful means to stop this madness. Appreciate your voice.
The role of the tech broligarchy is key here. The reason they are so involved is because they obviously benefit from this and have been instrumental in funding and creating the surveillance state. Below is a link to a recent interview between Chris Hedges and Bill Hartung that looks at how Silicon Valley is now a major part of the Defense Department. Their ideology is infused with beliefs of superiority based on their wealth.
It is time for economic disruption. Strikes, boycotts, and shutdowns. Too many of us are complicit by continuing to spend our dollars with these companies. Short term pain and inconvenience can really make a difference. Too many people have no idea what is happening in Minnesota. Even when people see the unadulterated version of Renee Good's murder there are two different versions of interpretation When you add AI into the mix, reality is quickly slipping away. What will it take before we understand what is happening? Soldiers in every blue community?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wAtd9SAPmY&t=18s
Meanwhile, in your country, thousands of people have been arrested for holding signs saying they oppose genocide and support Palestine Action--the only group doing anything significant to stop the genocide. Your country which agreed to extradite Julian Assange. This is going on all over the world. Those countries which are NOT sliding into fascism are the ones targeted by the Pentagon.
Meanwhile, also in England, thousands of young white working class girls are being brutally raped and pimped out by Pakistani gangs and the government is doing essentially nothing about it. And then the native Britons who complain about migrant crime on Twitter are slammed with longer jail sentences than the actual rapists. What kind of a nation are you????