When are people going to wake the fuck up and realize most of the existing Dems are fine with fascism?

This is an excellent point

For those who don't know the term, "fandom" stands for "fan domination" and is a type of kink where a "fan submissive" (eg, a Lakers fan) gets off on having a "fan dominant" (say, a Dr. Who fan) belittle the submissive's hobby ("oh sportsball?") while monologuing aggressively about their own

But I've been told repeatedly by Bluesky that people aren't arrested just for being at a protest and that if they are there won't be any lasting consequences to such an arrest... www.wral.com/news/local/c...

This is exactly why oppression is also damaging to the oppressor & why vindication of any oppressed group's rights is intertwined w/getting the oppressors to understand/change. It is impossible to deny the human rights of any subset of people w/o also harming everyone else. Human rights for all.

That is adorable. They actually think they're superior. How precious.

Look at this absolute burnt turnip LOL

OMG I'M DYING

The hero we need

[Goes to rules of Federal Procedures] [Looks up Rule 8] *passes out from laughing* For non-lawyers, its literally this meme

It is WILD how so many of these people claiming that we're scaring people and there's no risk to an RSVP have just come right out and said that their tactics and intent are deception to gain numbers.

So, really, the problem is people want to gain followers and organize by deception. And somehow think that's acceptable.

Huh. So this is not meaningful repercussions? bsky.app/profile/mulc...

by the way, 15 hours ago, someone form Indivisible posted a reel in response to concerns like mine stating outright that you don't need to RSVP to any protest to attend the protest. Which is all I was saying. I appreciate that they recognized concerns and addressed them.

No no no. This cannot possibly be true. I am told by a whole bunch of new activists, including Will Stancil, that you don't need to worry at all about a peaceful protest unless you're planning to occupy a building or something!

But if we tell people what to be prepared for we'll scare them! It's so unlikely to happen! We're interfering with organizing! Congressional candidates and office holders will be there, which makes it even safer!

Wait, wait, Bluesky has been telling me that it is VERY UNLIKELY that anyone would be arrested or detained just for being at a peaceful protest! You only need to worry if you're planning to occupy a building or something!

Oh, would you look at that. A planned peaceful protest turned violent because authorities instigated violence. But golly gee, if it's a planned peaceful protest, there's no risk at all! It's super unlikely anything would happen!

I'm a lawyer. Politically active since before I was old enough to vote (nearly 30 yrs). Interned for legislators, volunteered on state/nat'l campaigns for office. Worked at an issue-based education non-profit. I've also seen what police/courts have done to protestors in my community. 1/

And this is how we know Will hasn't ever been involved in more than just a rally. People have ABSOLUTELY been arrested just for being present at a protest. It has happened in multiple cities multiple times. Will is talking out of his ass.

HEY HEY HEY Raleigh and Greensboro are on this list! Another opportunity for community action.

Huh. They never investigated the white man, so clearly it's fine for everyone else. And just because Stancil has a big following doesn't mean he knows shit about protests and being safe.

Oh dear god no that's not true.

Again, I'm just describing the situation. If we want to transform it, there's pretty much only one thing for converts to do: shut the fuck up and listen. But even that might be too much to ask.

Unfortunately, social progress has revealed to the oppressed that they no longer have to be subordinate to their oppressor, convert or otherwise, and so we refuse to accept this subordination in progressive spaces aimed at transforming the situation of oppression. Thus, we have an impasse.

As habit is a disposition towards action, essentially, we recognize that any potentially privileged ally's solidarity is conditioned upon whether we make ourselves subordinate to them. This habitual stance forces a reinstatement of the situation of oppression where the oppressor decides for us.

To be clear, this is not a one-time thing: this is a history of actions by supposed allies of demonstrating themselves to be unworthy of the trust we place in their desire to get out of the situation of oppression. It, in our eyes, becomes a habitual stance of would be converts.

Now, Freire doesn't really talk about this, but the oppressed have to trust that converts actually want out of the situation of oppression in order to extend a hand to converts in solidarity. Insofar as the converts don't trust us, they demonstrate that they are unworthy of our own trust in them.

This is, for Freire, a sign of our supposed "allies" inability to trust us. Because they can't or won't trust not only that we know something, but that our knowledge is valuable, they're fundamentally incapable of being in solidarity with us. This, in turn, fractures our trust in our allies.

Here's the wrinkle, we need these supposed converts. Not only do they possess access to resources that have been denied the oppressed, but our liberation is interdependent with their liberation from being oppressors. If we do not free them from the situation of oppression, they'll just reinstate it.

We can see this in how folks are pushing back hard against even the barest hint of disagreement with horrible fucking ideas like "RSVP online for a protest," as if we should sit the fuck down and let our betters decide our path to liberation. As if we don't know how best to deal with the moment.

Because they refuse to let go of this world, because they have been conditioned to see themselves as experts on all things, they can NEVER be the architect of the new world. They lack the capacity to transform the situation of oppression and liberate themselves from the ways it dehumanizes them.

Insofar as this is the case, these would be converts to the cause of the oppressed (which is really just fighting fascists, tbh) approach their solidarity with hesitance and spring upon any opportunity to demonstrate that they know better how to achieve liberation than the oppressed.

What we're seeing in the "don't sign up for protests" discourse is what Paulo Freire described as the convert's failure to trust the knowledge of the oppressed. As the convert tries to stand in solidarity with the oppressed, they refuse to let go of a world where they were the authority by default.

I'm not sure why these people insist on being so dishonest, but it sure doesn't make me want to associate with anything they're part of. Literally no one is saying not to be involved with protests. I've seen tons of people saying that yes, protests are good and people should go.

You know what else is delusional? Thinking anyone has said anything like that. Connor is very dishonest.

"Peter" thinks it's "white women tears" to criticize someone calling people cowards for refusing to sign up as attending a protest. Funny that Peter is hiding his own identity.

I'm shocked, shocked I say, that a hwite guy doesn't have any idea of what can and has happened to protestors before. But I suppose if all you're interested in is performative signaling, like him, it's easy to ignore the reality.

Oh HELL no. If you have to sign up to know the location of a protest, then you should absolutely not trust that organization. At all.

Democrats are entirely out of touch with ordinary people. They're now turning into the elites that they were accused of being.

Federal felony charges were filed against a protestor in Raleigh and it wasn't even on government property. abc11.com/post/raleigh...

Protests famously never escalate when people involve their kids.

Baby activists need to stay out of the way. Because they're gonna get people hurt.

Baby political activists are adorable.

Anyone out here saying that there's no risk to registering online to attend a protest or that you won't get charged just for being there or that it's fine to bring your phone hasn't ever been to an actual meaningful protest with things on the line. Or they're a cop.

This is one of the stupidest things I've heard so far. People have, in fact, been prosecuted for being at a protest. And for fuck's sake, no one said opposing fascism would be safe, but you don't have to make yourself a sitting duck as a target by doing stupid shit like this.

So I think everybody is talking past each other. People should not hide away at home and let Trump be a tyrant, but a corrupt DOJ can and will find ways to ruin the lives of some of Trump's political opponents.

3) while any individual's odds of being charged and having those charges stick will be low, beating a serious felony charge is an extremely unpleasant experience.

2) therefore their strategy will involve trying to intimidate people out of participating in political activity with a smallish number of high profile prosecutions.

My mutuals are fighting about this so here is my take re legal suppression of protests by the Trump administration: 1) they will encounter a lot of legal hurdles and limits on administrative capacity if they try a bunch of super aggressive felony murder/incitement charges against protesters.