Top Trump official Stephen Miller’s recent declaration that anyone who “preaches hate for America” will face deportation has ignited alarm online, with critics warning the statement disregards First Amendment protections.

Social media users and legal analysts raised immediate concerns, pointing out that expressing dissent or criticism of the government is protected under the First Amendment. Some worried the administration was veering into authoritarian territory.

The backlash has reignited broader debates over the limits of free speech, especially as civil liberties fall under scrutiny. While immigration enforcement remains a core theme of President Donald Trump’s platform, critics are increasingly questioning whether rhetoric like Miller’s is a precursor to more aggressive suppression of dissent.

  • TON618@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    16
    ·
    edit-2
    3 days ago

    If America wants people to stop hating, maybe instead of trying to wipe it’s ass with the first amendment, it should stop cultivating hate with it’s actions.

    • StinkyFingerItchyBum@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      3 days ago

      If America wants people to stop hating

      What makes you think that is on the agenda? Hate is their specialty. A divided people are no threat to the oligarchy. Hate for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

    • SwordandArt@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      3 days ago

      Hate has been actively cultivated online through various psyop campaigns over the years. It may have started offline but it skyrocketed with the growth of the internet to specifically destabilize the US.

  • lemmylump@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    10
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    4 days ago

    I’m unable to say what I’d like to say about this, sooooo, I’m just going to recommend a good movie.

    It’s called Inglorious Bastards, it’s a wonderful film.

    Also, baseball is a great pass time. 🐻 Go Cubs!

        • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          4 days ago

          I’ve heard that as well. I can also remember a time when pap paw would have gotten up out of his wheelchair to kill one last Nazi. I think it’s really interesting that the rise of open neo-nazism seemed to neatly coincide with most of the old WWII vets dying off or getting farmed off to nursing homes.

          • Lucky_777@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            4 days ago

            This is correct. Not only did I learn from my elders about how shitty the Nazis were. I got to slaughter thousands in multiple games over multiple genres. I still have the belief today, the only good nazi is a dead nazi.

    • lmmarsano@lemmynsfw.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      4 days ago

      I’m surprised more animus isn’t directed toward him specifically. I suspect he’s the mastermind behind most of the worst policies coming out of this administration.

      Vice News long ago ran a profile on him covering his hard-right radicalization starting from his reaction to his liberal high school in Santa Monica. Unfortunately, this video of that on facebook is all I can find.

  • Sam_Bass@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    4 days ago

    Better get his fat orange ass on the next plane to el Salvador then. He hates america more than anyone else

    • frezik@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      4 days ago

      every waking hour hating people because of different opinions

      You’re talking about the Trump Administration, right?

            • Lucky_777@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              4 days ago

              What excuse will you use when they start deporting criminals that are 100% US citizens? Will you use the excuse that “Hey, they are criminals”.

              What excuse will you use when they start deporting media members, podcasters and social media influencers? Will you use the excuse, “Well they shouldn’t be talking shit on America?”

              What excuse will we use for you?

              • Hellsfire29@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                5
                ·
                4 days ago

                What excuse? Why would I complain about living in the USA? If you think this country is so horrible to live in, move to Afghanistan. Or even Palestine. Oh wait …

                • frezik@midwest.social
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  3
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  3 days ago

                  Fuck you. Trans people are moving because of what’s happening. Just fuck right off with your bullshit.

              • Hellsfire29@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                3
                ·
                4 days ago

                No, that’s going too far. I think the criminals and the visa violations are legit, but the green card holders and the married immigrants should receive some leeway.

                If there’s legal paperwork in motion , they should be protected.

                • frezik@midwest.social
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  3
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  3 days ago

                  . . . “some leeway”. That’s a nice way to say “this never should have fucking happened, ever”. Legal paperwork my ass.

                  Edit: how about this? We toss you in prison for a few months while “legal paperwork” is in motion. Would that be alright with you?

    • Madison420@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      92
      ·
      4 days ago

      We really are deep into dear leader territory with the cabinet spending an hour jerking the president off instead of fixing the economy he drove off a cliff.

      • underwater@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        78
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        4 days ago

        The whole party is a cult now. I got banned from the conservative subreddit just for asking - as a conservative myself - what conservative values they think a criminal like him is embodying. What exactly is he conserving? This man has cheated on all of his wives, is a racist, extremely egotistical, etc. He’s closer to the Antichrist than the second coming of Christ. His entire admin is just birds of a feather.

        • Madison420@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          53
          ·
          4 days ago

          This is part of the issue.

          That is the conservative platform and has been for as long as I’ve been alive, he is accurately representing them hence the lack of pushback.

          That said yes he’s so very close to the anti Christ’s description it’s not even funny.

          I don’t know you and I don’t want to judge or tell you what you are or sound like but from that description you’re more left of center then right.

          • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            29
            ·
            4 days ago

            It’s funny because “true conservatives” usually mean they are fiscally conservatives and if we look at Canada the most fiscally conservatives governments (i.e. the ones that ran the least deficits whole in power) are the ones on the left side of the political spectrum.

            • floofloof@lemmy.ca
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              21
              ·
              4 days ago

              That tends to be the case in many countries because the left are under so much scrutiny they have to be very careful with budgets. The right, on the other hand, are given a pass to do all kinds of irresponsible things because they are assumed to be “fiscally responsible” and their supporters only want to hear them say “tax cut” a few times and they’re satisfied.

              • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                16
                ·
                edit-2
                4 days ago

                That and social programs are actually cost effective. Give access to education to people, they end up with better jobs and repay the investment via taxes. Give them access to healthcare, they can keep working instead of being disabled for life because they couldn’t get treatments. House them, they can find work.

                • floofloof@lemmy.ca
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  10
                  ·
                  4 days ago

                  For all their professed know-how with money, conservatives have never understood the idea of investing in society for a long-term return. They’re always very short-sighted.

            • Ledericas@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              4 days ago

              currently conservatives, in most govt around the world, is mostly Right wing or ALT-RIGHT now.

          • underwater@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            21
            arrow-down
            7
            ·
            4 days ago

            I don’t know. Before Trump, the conservative platform was actually conservative - though of course there were extremist fringes. But Trump sparked a sudden transition to extreme nationalist populism, which validated and legitimized those fringes, making them mainstream. Now, that ideology is the de facto face of conservatism. It’s depressing. I’ve considered myself a conservative Democrat since the 2015-2016 election cycle.

            • Impleader@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              26
              ·
              4 days ago

              You’re not wrong about “conservatism” undergoing a rapid metamorphosis in the past decade, but it was only possible in the first place because republicans put party before principle, and they’ve been doing that for a long time.

              In the Bush era, how many times did the “party of small government” tell you it needed to restrict abortion, regulate marriage rights, wage a war on drugs, and expand the surveillance state? There was no rhyme or reason to any of it other than culture wars and security theater, and it certainly wasn’t part of some coherent conservative ideology.

            • Madison420@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              18
              ·
              4 days ago

              sudden transition to extreme nationalist populism,

              White nationalists terrorists down to like McVey were all conservatives for reason and it isn’t love and inclusion.

            • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              9
              ·
              4 days ago

              I don’t know. Before Trump, the conservative platform was actually conservative

              No it wasn’t. Not since at least Eisenhower.

            • Ledericas@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              4 days ago

              its because OBAMA broke thier minds, they couldnt handle a half-black, muslim was the POTUS.

          • Ledericas@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            4 days ago

            The DINOS are in on it, but they cant come against the gop, for fear of getting primaried. we know for a while manchin and sinema are just 2 of the many Dinos in the senate, hence also the reason of the lack of pushback.

        • grue@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          22
          ·
          4 days ago

          The conservative value he’s embodying is authoritarianism. That’s it; that’s what conservatism has always been ever since Burke and DeMaistre, who were literally monarchists, invented the concept.

          I’m sorry that you got sold a lie, but what you thought conservatism was was never correct.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4CI2vk3ugk

        • rayyy@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          4 days ago

          People today don’t know what conservatism is about. It is definitely left of today’s far right Republican party.

      • Ledericas@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        4 days ago

        emulating russia, almost as if trump is getting his suggestions from putin, if not directly.

    • floofloof@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      36
      ·
      4 days ago

      It can also mean disapproval of genocide, or having the wrong skin color, or speaking Spanish, or being gay or trans, or saying it’s OK to be gay or trans. Basically it means doing anything Nazis don’t like.

  • SupraMario@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    145
    ·
    4 days ago

    To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. -Theodore Roosevelt

    • witnessbolt@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      61
      ·
      edit-2
      4 days ago

      They ARE traitors. Russian-backed, Nazi-seig-heil throwing traitors. They aren’t joking about wanting to jail liberals. They 100% mean it.

      They’ve been prepped to be fine with it since they started calling “liberalism a mental disorder.”

      Straight Russian propaganda. The Kremlin wants to stamp out western liberal democracy. MAGA’s the push to destroy America

      • seeigel@feddit.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        13
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        4 days ago

        Why have the billionaires not prevented it? Project 2025 was known. Billionaires will lose huge parts of their wealth when the USA collapses and Russia or China take over.

        • witnessbolt@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          25
          ·
          edit-2
          4 days ago

          Billionaires are not our allies. And some of them are genuinely stupid enough to have thought they could contain what was going on that it was just gonna be more tax cuts for them. They, like the public, didn’t all actually believe it would be true. They are not inherently smarter or more immune to propaganda than we are.

          They just have more access to information - if they don’t surround themselves with people that are only yes men and such.

          Other billionaires are betting on the collapse, and are willing to take less monetary power, to have more literal power if they can create their own city states. Literally what they’re hoping for.

          They are short sighted, stupid, arrogant, heartless… and, many, traitors.

          Some need to be made an example of.

          But we accept those who ask for forgiveness. I’m not saying to actually forgive them. Or to re-establish normal lives with them. Other people can do that work.

          But they do have to have SOME kind of off-ramp, or you might as well be making the same arguments that MAGA are when they claim “liberalism is a mental illness and should be jailed.”

        • Log in | Sign up@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          14
          ·
          4 days ago

          Billionaires will be absolutely fine if they never make another penny and even if they lose 99% of their money in some stock market complete and final death. Millionaires are worried, but they aren’t the ones with the real power.

          • seeigel@feddit.org
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            4 days ago

            It’s not the same. Why should they give up their power without a fight? They must believe that they at least maintain their power and wealth.

            • Log in | Sign up@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              4
              ·
              4 days ago

              Yes. They do. And they’re right. They’ll be fine. Billionaires will be absolutely fine. The stock market crash doesn’t worry them. Not even a little bit.

              They’re still incomprehensibly richer than millionaires in the same way that someone with an office job, a flat, a TV, games console and a car who goes out to eat on the regular is incomprehensibly richer than someone who lives under a piece of sheet metal next to a rubbish tip and scavenges for food.

              • seeigel@feddit.org
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                3 days ago

                Yet when the office worker is informed that his car is going to burn down or somebody will come into his house and smash his TV, he will take action.

                Billionaires identify with their property. They won’t simply accept that it melts down.

                • Log in | Sign up@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  ·
                  3 days ago

                  But billionaires are so desperately unlike the office worker. You know, how if someone took your penny, you wouldn’t worry. And in fact they could take a penny from you every day for three years and now you’re down a whole ten dollars but it just simply isn’t an issue. You know that a thousand times as much as you’ve lost will be turning up in the next few months. That’s how billionaires relate to a million dollars. A million. It’ll show up for them in the next month or two. They’re not worried. Why would they worry about money? You don’t worry about pennies, they don’t worry about millions. Stop thinking that billionaires worry about money.

                  Now if the entire global capitalist system were to completely crumble, then that’s an issue, but that’s absolutely not what’s happening. Billionaires are almost incomprehensibly wealthy and a crash of 10% just doesn’t matter. At all. There are other countries than the USA and they’ll absolutely leave if necessary. They spend plenty of time in their overseas properties anyway for tax purposes. Borders are for ordinary people.

        • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          4 days ago

          cause they didnt think it would fail.

          They thought they’d buy the country for pennies on the dollar and carve it up into their own little capitalist nightmare fiefdoms.

          • seeigel@feddit.org
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            4 days ago

            This can’t be the plan. Only land with sea ports would be acceptable in that situation. Every other fiefdom would be taxed by their neighbors into poverty unless they unite again.

            For sure there are stupid billionaires but the top 100 won’t follow a plan that can be rebuked easily.

            • Log in | Sign up@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              5
              ·
              4 days ago

              Vast swathes of the USA is accessible by navigable river ever since the Louisiana purchase. It’s one of the three main original reasons the USA was so powerful economically before Trump.

              • seeigel@feddit.org
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                4 days ago

                This only works if the rivers aren’t taxed. How could anybody trust that that doesn’t happen? That’s why I specified sea ports.

                • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  3
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  4 days ago

                  because you enter an economic cold war, very much like trump is doing right now with china, where the port people demand taxes, and the middle america people just embargo them and don’t give them any food/minerals/etc.

                  and you see how much they are loving that happening right now.

                  They don’t want to fuck eachother. They just want to fuck you and me.

    • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      14
      ·
      edit-2
      4 days ago

      Ok, but what about critics of the zio regime? Both “parties” agree that they should be kidnapped and encaged, right?

      • witnessbolt@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        19
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        4 days ago

        Nope. Jailing anyone without due process/etc is un American. We talked before.

        We are on the same side. If you’re not a bad actor, I encourage you to take a more constructive approach to this discussion.

        When Hamas very first attacked, I was on Israel’s side. Not everyone is as educated on Israel’s influence on our politics/etc. (fuck Israel. They can figure shit out on their own. I don’t want to fund genocide. Period.)

      • HalfSalesman@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        16
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        4 days ago

        Zionist Democrats want to fine you and repress you in financial ways. They want to “tut tut” you for being anti-Semitic.

        Zionist Republicans want to put you (and immigrants, and LGBT, and dissenters) in a death camp.

        • Mirshe@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          3 days ago

          And the death camp is only a formality. If they thought they could get away with it, they’d have the police gun you down in the street and start issuing death warrants.

  • colforge@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    112
    ·
    4 days ago

    Fuck you Mr Miller. Fuck what you and yours are doing to my country. I hate it. I fucking dare you to deport me.

        • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          10
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          4 days ago

          I don’t, I just want to lose the Republicans. And the purists who would rather have Trump than support Harris. And people who Vape.

        • colforge@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          13
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          4 days ago

          So we can’t criticize the country we were born and raised in without “wanting to lose all we have”? Sounds like some bootlicking bullshit to me.

    • meyotch@slrpnk.net
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      38
      ·
      4 days ago

      I, too, love what the USA should be and can be. This is my home, they are my people. I am staying right here.

      • colforge@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        16
        ·
        4 days ago

        I’ve never for a second planned on going anywhere but if they want to try and deport me I’ll happily spit in the faces of all my relatives who act like this shit would never happen and leftists are full of it for saying it would. It’s fucking happening. It’s fucking happening right now.

      • Captain Janeway@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        4 days ago

        I fucking hate it here but I can’t get a job abroad that’ll sponsor me. This is my home. But it’s a dump rolling towards a cliff. Get me out.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      21
      arrow-down
      11
      ·
      4 days ago

      This nation was birthed in blood and has existed parasitically on the global south for over 250 years. It is a fascist ethno-nationalist state that exists only to consume and destroy.

      The more history I learn, the more I am disgusted and horrified by the place I call home. Trump is exactly what this country deserves. If he brings the whole project crashing down, its no less than we all deserve.

      • zbyte64@awful.systems
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        16
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        4 days ago

        Why does the wage worker at McDonald’s deserve an even shittier life? You all think that if America gets punished they will learn their lesson.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          4 days ago

          Why does the wage worker at McDonald’s deserve an even shittier life?

          Because that worker has not unionized with their coworkers and organized with their apartment neighbors to reclaim their surplus labor from their landlords.

          The US is still an extraordinarily rich country. But the wealth is congealed in the hands of a tiny fraction of the total population. If you’re in the service sector and you want your fair share, you need to start pulling back on the revenue streams you are closest to. By any means necessary.

          • zbyte64@awful.systems
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            5
            ·
            4 days ago

            Do you believe people choose to be ignorant of what they should be doing? Blaming oppressed people for being ignorant shifts blame from those with overt power and the systems they serve. Either the system is unjust because it keeps people impoverished, which includes their ability to make better decisions, or the people deserve whatever system they operate under. If this is a matter of people getting what they deserve, then the system is just.

            • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              4
              ·
              4 days ago

              Do you believe people choose to be ignorant of what they should be doing?

              It Is Difficult to Get a Man to Understand Something When His Salary Depends Upon His Not Understanding It.

              Blaming oppressed people for being ignorant shifts blame from those with overt power and the systems they serve.

              I don’t blame oppressed people for being ignorant. I blame selfish and self-conscious people for abandoning their neighbors in time of need. Individualism is a choice. Saying “it’s not my problem” and looking the other way is a choice.

              the people deserve whatever system they operate under

              People deserve whatever system they facilitate. You don’t get to “just following orders” your way out of culpability.

      • newfie@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        13
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        4 days ago

        The U.S. government is one thing. The people who live here are another.

        We should never judge someone just because they were born in a certain country. Blaming people for where they come from is prejudice, plain and simple.

        Yes, Americans can be frustrating. Many seem unaware of what their country does beyond its borders. Many have failed to demand change. But instead of writing them off, we should ask why that is.

        The truth is, they’ve grown up inside one of the most powerful propaganda systems in history. From the moment they’re born, they’re fed myths about freedom, greatness, and endless growth—while being isolated, overworked, and misled. Their ignorance isn’t always a choice. Often, it’s something that’s been done to them.

        So instead of condemning them, let’s choose compassion. Let’s challenge the system that raised them this way—and reach out to those willing to see through the lies.

        Real change means building solidarity, not more division. Speak the truth. Share knowledge. Offer empathy. That’s how we turn a misled population into a powerful force for transformation.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          4 days ago

          We should never judge someone just because they were born in a certain country.

          Broadly speaking, I agree. But at some point, we have to recognize the US government a corrupt extension of the American consumer culture. State agents, state media, and public-private partnerships that employ millions of people all operate to extract the wealth of occupied territories on pain of blockade, bombardment, sabotage, and assassination of popularly elected leadership.

          This isn’t just “Donald Trump is a bad dude”. It’s multi-national industrial manufacturers, globe-spanning banks, and militarily-embedded data firms all operating as a unit to compel the entire globe to pay fealty to the US financial system. Trump just got greedy and squeezed way too hard.

          The truth is, they’ve grown up inside one of the most powerful propaganda systems in history.

          Propaganda is like rabbies. It turns nice people into slobbering monsters over a long enough exposure time. And then they spread it by biting their friends and neighbors, until the whole community is frothing. Its horrifying to witness and you feel pity for anyone subjected to infection. But you can’t just wave away a rabid dog as a victim. Neither can you wave away a QAnon cultist or a blood thirsty Zionist.

          The good news is that nothing cuts through propaganda like material conditions. And while the Great Depression was shit for American quality of living, it worked wonders on American politics. Perhaps a downturn will awaken more Americans from the Individualist fantasy and reawaken the kind of mutual aid and community building that we so desperately need.

          Real change means building solidarity, not more division.

          Real change means finding people who can work with you and dedicating time and energy to build a new kind of organization. Right now, the only people with the luxury of time, capital, and resources to build movements are extremists on the right. And the reason they have that glut of resources is due to their blood-sucking grip on the rest of the planet.

          One upshot of Trump’s tariffs is that he’s (unwittingly) cutting the Musks and Thiels and Dimons and Mercers off from the wellspring of dirt cheap foreign materials and domestic lumpen labor. That creates some opportunity for Americans who aren’t awash in blood money to begin organizing in earnest opposition.

          • newfie@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            5
            ·
            4 days ago

            You’re absolutely right to draw the distinction between criticizing systems of power and recognizing the ways those systems shape and limit ordinary people. The U.S. government, as it exists, is undeniably an imperial and extractive entity, and its global reach is felt through violence, finance, media, and tech alike. But that same system also crushes many of the people within its own borders—economically, intellectually, and spiritually.

            The analogy to rabies is powerful but tricky. Yes, propaganda can infect people with hate, fear, and delusion. But if we begin to see our neighbors only as rabid dogs, we risk becoming cynical and cruel ourselves. A QAnon believer isn’t the same as a policymaker at the Fed or a war planner at the Pentagon. One is sickened by ideology; the other wields it with intent.

            I fully agree that material conditions can break the spell—and that crises can clarify things. But that clarity won’t lead to solidarity unless we create the groundwork now. The far-right is already doing this—they’re building networks, feeding people, offering meaning. If we wait for collapse to act, we’re just ceding more ground.

            The real task isn’t just to oppose the empire—it’s to build a counter-power that can replace it. That starts by reaching out to the people closest to us, even the ones we’re tempted to write off, and giving them something stronger than fear and conspiracy: a vision, a purpose, a role in something bigger.

            We need to organize not just against, but for—for community, for care, for justice. And yeah, maybe even for a future where nobody needs to grow up inside a machine that trains them to be obedient or cruel. That’s a future worth fighting for

            • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              4
              ·
              4 days ago

              Yes, propaganda can infect people with hate, fear, and delusion. But if we begin to see our neighbors only as rabid dogs, we risk becoming cynical and cruel ourselves.

              If we see them as misguided innocents, we’re going to be in for a rude awakening when they rat us out to the El Salvadorian kidnap vans. At some point, liberals need to recognize this isn’t a coffee-shop debate. It’s a matter of self-defense. Organizing means building networks of trust and support. That means taking people into confidence when they tell you their views on Palestine. That means locking arms with people who may not express the gender printed on their birth certificates. That may eventually extend to having a neighbor hide in your attic while you stare down the police. And if you’ve opened your front door to “I’m just following the law” / “They shouldn’t be here anyway” fash-curious centrists and conservatives, what kind of organization do you think you’re building?

              The real task isn’t just to oppose the empire—it’s to build a counter-power that can replace it.

              A counter-power that rises to the point of defiance of authority. That level of opposition requires real material support and genuine sincere trust. You don’t get that without some degree of ideological orthodoxy.

              There’s a test I’ve discovered as a standard issue when a retail establishment is hiring. One of the questions you get asked is some variation of “Would it be wrong to take a single penny from the cash register if <insert compelling reason here>?” And if you answer “Yes”, you’re immediately disqualified for the job. This kind of ideological rigidity is common in the commercial sector because acknowledging certain fundamental standards is central to trusting the people you put in charge of your business resources. Expecting any less from an activist political organization is foolhardy.

  • RejZoR@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    79
    ·
    4 days ago

    Yup, America is officially a fascist state. They just admit they are full on Nazis now. Never in my lifetime I thought America will turn into that and here we are. It’s fucking wild, like I’m living in some alternate timeline of Wolfenstein The New Colossus. Just wild.

  • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    59
    ·
    4 days ago

    Some worried the administration was veering into authoritarian territory.

    Oh good, you’re finally awake. Let’s get you caught up on the last six months.

      • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        18
        ·
        edit-2
        4 days ago

        Yeah, no, this term there’s a lot less kayfabe, a lot more actual speedrunning tyranny. Not to say that they weren’t angling at tyranny before, but it’s clear they learned their lessons and came back with a plan.

      • Doctor_Satan@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        4 days ago

        For us, yes. For Republicans, no. In Trump’s first term:

        He stacked the Supreme Court in his favor (2 of the 3 he appointed helped steal the 2000 election for Bush)
        He appointed a record number of federal judges (260, most of which come from the Federalist Society)
        He reversed a CFPB rule that made it easier to file class action lawsuits against banks for fucking us over
        He oversaw more federal executions of prisoners than any president in 120 years
        He cut corporate tax rates from 35% to 21%, the lowest rate since 1939
        He pulled the US out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and our spot was filled by China

        There is so much more that he got done which set the stage for what is happening now. For example, he tried to pass about two thirds of the Heritage Foundation’s ‘Mandate for Leadership’ policies in his first term, which is what inspired them to write ‘Project 2025’, another iteration of the Mandate on steroids.

        The fact that Trump lost the election in 2020 is a total fluke, and it took a global pandemic that killed over a million Americans to make him lose.

        His first term was far from a shit show in terms of making the current shit show possible.

        • Jikiya@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          4 days ago

          “He stacked the Supreme Court in his favor (2 of the 3 he appointed helped steal the 2000 election for Bush)”

          Fucking, what!?

          • Doctor_Satan@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            7
            ·
            4 days ago

            Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh worked on the legal team for Bush in 2000, helping swing the case after the Brooks Brothers Riot.

  • octopus_ink@slrpnk.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    47
    ·
    4 days ago

    critics are increasingly questioning whether rhetoric like Miller’s is a precursor to more aggressive suppression of dissent.

    I dunno folks. we certainly don’t have any other examples of Trump policies or behavior that might support this notion. I’m glad they are just “increasingly questioning” it.

    Maybe when the concentration camps start showing up on US soil that will be enough.

    • WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      29
      ·
      4 days ago

      They’re not going to be on US soil. There’s a reason the Nazis built there’s in foreign soil as well. If people are being rounded up into camps, they really have nothing to lose at that point. If you build them on US soil, you legitimately have to worry about crowds of heavily armed Americans showing up to liberate people from them. If you’re going to get sent to a camp anyway, you have nothing to lose taking up arms against them. It’s a lot more difficult to try and liberate a concentration camp in El Salvador.

    • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      4 days ago

      If they’re on US soil then no one can get in the way to prevent these people from being released, by sending them to another country it’s much more easy to say “Nothing I can do!”

      • LeninOnAPrayer@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        4 days ago

        Yeah and much better than having Cuban intelligence report on all your crimes against humanity in GITMO.

    • crusa187@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      4 days ago

      The media is going to question and further legitimize this fascist state right up until their networks go down because other nations are bombing us. It’s up to Americans to stop this travesty before it gets that far…”they”, ie media pundits or current crop of political leaders, are not going to do it for us.

  • AmidFuror@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    46
    arrow-down
    7
    ·
    4 days ago

    We need to ratchet this up, actually. Not just those who hate America. but those who have publicly declared in the last 12 years that America is anything less than great. Citizen or not, if we have record of you declaring America is not great, I want you gone. Start with the ones who said it loudest and to the biggest crowds.

    • RootAccess@lemmynsfw.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      24
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      4 days ago

      As we all know, a person defines themselves through their actions. So does a country.

      Imho, saying Trump(ism) isn’t America is like people who do evil, but still think they are good people. Admitting you have a problem is the first step in getting better. You need to hate what America has become. Shifting the blame to the current administration just lets people feel good about themselves. They shouldn’t. There is work to do.

      The second step is meeting up with others in your community already working to fix it.

      • intheformbelow@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        11
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        4 days ago

        Yep. At least 30% of americans supported this maga crap while the majority did nothing to stop him. As a Canadian, I’m not going to distinguish between those who supported trump and those who didn’t care enough to stop him. Both are equally responsible, and both must pay the price. Personally, i’m hoping the price will be so great that the US will split apart. Of course, Canada alone won’t make the US disappear, but the world united against the US absolutely will.

        • Ledericas@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          4 days ago

          also haver to point out voter suppression works either through propaganda or straight up legislation,

        • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          3 days ago

          As a Canadian, I’m not going to distinguish between those who supported trump and those who didn’t care enough to stop him

          So you’re a racist idiot then?

          • RootAccess@lemmynsfw.com
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 day ago

            I think you may be confused. Americans tell the international community who represents them as a whole, as most countries do. In this case America picked Trump. They picked him using the method they created. They enforce their pick with the institutions they created. How self-absorbed and entitled do you need to be to call someone bigoted because they don’t have the time / inclanation / patience / stomach to then make their own arbitrary decision on each individual in your shithole country?

            Maybe, if Americans weren’t such feckless, lazy, cowards you wouldn’t be in this situation. But no, the American way is to blameshift, like their Leader does. Like you do here: unless their is 100% internal consensus in your electoral process you expect the rest of us to distinguish between each of you. And those who don’t are bigots. Not your fault, is it… we are just bigots to you.

            Do they still teach critical thinking in America, or is it just Pledges of Allegiance to Dear Leader now?

            Maybe stop posting and go do something about it? One has to have their fat American neck buried pretty deep to not know how to help nowadays. Find people in your area already doing something and go ask them what needs doing. Or, as I expect, post about how it’s not your fault and how you can’t do anything. In 5… 4… 3…

            “Home of the brave.” Ha ha fucking ha.

            • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 day ago

              I think you may be confused

              No, that’d be the group of people assigning blame to 100% of a group for the actions of sub 50% of said group

              Bunch of disgusting bigots pretending your bigotry has a reason when you just wanna insult a group of people you don’t like because you’re a shitty person

              • RootAccess@lemmynsfw.com
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                21 hours ago

                Ewww. Dude, your American Victim Card isn’t accepted in Canada anymore. Sorry. Nearly everywhere outside the USA stopped accepting it. It’s still used widely in the U.S. I understand you all have one, and present it to each other regularly when the topic of ‘doing something’ comes up. What a testament to your ‘Land of the Free’ and ‘Home of the Brave’.

                If you think my posts are insulting hold-on-to-your-RED-hat. I’m just a private citizen with no political power afterall, so you are not going to believe what your elected Leader has been saying about my country! And yet, I haven’t seen any victims up here in Canada. Crazy huh? I suspect it has something to do with our “character”. It’s a word your great grandparents knew a lot about.

                It’s also affirming to be called ‘shitty’ by the people who brought the world Donald. Please, continue… or go do something more useful to help out those working against Donald. … Hahahaha … nah, why bother, amirite? Predictable. Better to put your energy here, defending yourself against me, someone who could-not-matter less.

                Your turn snowflake.

                • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  19 hours ago

                  Jesus Christ that reads like magat bullshit so well I stopped reading halfway through due to headache

                  You’re being a massive bigot, it’s a bad look. Especially since you keep implying I’m somehow responsible for the election of the president, proving you know nothing about me or my countries electoral system

                  Quite literally identical behaviour to the people in my country spouting bigoted nonsense about the Mexicans, dude, down to it being the country directly south of you

            • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              3 days ago

              Oh, I’m sorry, bigoted dipshit. Forgot you need to specify exactly what level of stupidity someone’s on or you’ll get pendanted to death