• TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    We’re past the point of speaking out.

    I would like for you to consider why the US constitution outlines free speech in its first amendment, and the right to bear arms in the second. The reason why is not that different than the principal of charity, or the social contract of tolerance. The first amendment outlines and sets speech, language, as the first step in challenging authority. But implicit in that principal, is the idea that governments are precluded from not listening, or not being available to that speech. It is literally in why the US constitution is structured the way it is, in putting limits and restraints on governments, not people.

    We have devolved long past the point where free speech is respected by the US government, under any interpretation of the words.

    The second, is an enshrining of the right to to the use of violence when the first is no longer being respected.

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      As awful as he is, I think he serves a good example of the opposite being true. It can serve as a warning.

      “If we give any President this authority, someone like Donald Trump could use it if they ever got elected.”

  • Grizzlyboy@lemm.ee
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    5 days ago

    Early warning signs of fascism:

    1.) Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism

    2.) Disdain for the importance of human rights

    3.) Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause

    4.) The supremacy of the military/avid militarism

    5.) Rampant sexism

    6.) A controlled mass media

    7.) Obsession with national security

    8.) Religion and ruling elite tied together

    9.) Power of corporations protected

    10.) Power of labor suppressed or eliminated

    11.) Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts

    12.) Obsession with crime and punishment

    13.) Rampant cronyism and corruption

    14.) Fraudulent elections

      • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        3 days ago

        USA was founded by slavers who were the pre-cursors to fascism.

        USA was fascist from inception even before fascism.

      • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        They helped building it, by constantly taking the “moral high ground” (succumbing to fascists, not calling them fascists because some people making racist jokes might weren’t actually fascists).

      • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        The Democrats were less obvious but still bow down to corporations.

        "Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.” — Benito Mussolini.

        • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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          4 days ago

          Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.

          i’m struggling to think of a single capitalist state i have some knowledge of that doesn’t work like this. there are probably a few of them…?

          • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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            4 days ago

            Merger is the key word.

            Corporates do have some power, to greater or lesser degrees, in most government systems. But very few have the level of control over writing laws and paying politicians that the USA has.

                • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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                  4 days ago

                  oh we had a literal fascist as our head of state very recently and the current one reminds me of us democrats, as in he barely even acknowledges it properly, and even lets fascist policy pass. i think this is definetly a sign lololol

          • seeigel@feddit.org
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            3 days ago

            Corporatism doesn’t have to come with racism. Technically fascism neither, but nobody uses it like that.

                • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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                  2 days ago

                  oh, they divide by sex and gender too. and they are literally deporting people because of the place they came from in the us.

                  and more.

      • Venator@lemmy.nz
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        5 days ago

        It’s a sliding scale and it’s recently descended into unambiguously facist territory.

        Its like diagnosing a disease: just one symptom isn’t conclusive, but when you have all the known symptoms you can be pretty sure what it is.

      • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        4 days ago

        Freedom of the Press still exist

        Exhibit A: The journalist that just exposed the government fucked up on OPSEC, and their attempt to shield their communications from official records as mandated by law, via the use of Signal

        Not completely fascist, yet.

        Then one day, out of nowhere, you’ll hear a bunch of helicopters hovering, sirens wailing, your browser says “Unable to connect”, calls get dropped, SMS says “undeliverable”, phone says “Emergency Only” instead of the carrier name. Then you’ll go to the grocerry store and on the way there, you see a bunch of soldiers with a roadblock thing and… it’s a checkpoint…

        …aaand enjoy! This is the Bad Place (now the actual Bad Place)

        The auto-coup will not be televised (not for those within the regime anyways.

        • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          3 days ago

          Freedom of the Press still exist

          lol. Gotta remember freedom means dollars and press means buying politicians.

          Not to mention the many actual journalists murdered by empire. There have been hundreds in palestine alone… Plus prisoners like chelsea manning, etc.

          • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            3 days ago

            in palestine

            Palestine is under Israeli occupation, and as we all know, Israel doesn’t care about human rights.

            prisoners like chelsea manning

            Publishing the documents weren’t the crime, the crime was obtaining it illegally.

            Similarly, Edward Snowden obtained it illegally, but Glenn Greenwald got it legally from Snowden who has already already obtained the documents. So that’s why Snowden has a criminal case, while the journalist Greenwald never got in trouble for it.

            This is not to say that I agree with their prosecutions, I do not. It’s just that, legally, that’s what’s not currently protected by the First Amendment (although it really should be protected).

            In this case, Jeffrey Goldberg obtained it legally via someone else’s fuck up, that’s why he didn’t get in trouble (yet, but since this administration does not obey laws… we’ll see if anything happens).

            Greenwald and Goldberd would’ve never been able to publish it if this was Russia or China. (Although, it seems like the US is heading in that direction now)

  • BreadOven@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago
    First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
         Because I was not a socialist.
    
    Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
         Because I was not a trade unionist.
    
    Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
         Because I was not a Jew.
    
    Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
    
    • Martin Niemöller

    Just in case people don’t know the original.

    • badmin@lemm.ee
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      4 days ago

      That’s not the original.
      Hint: any version that doesn’t mention “communists” is “filtered”.

      • wieson@feddit.org
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        4 days ago

        Good call, I didn’t know that. This is the original

        Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten,
        habe ich geschwiegen,
        ich war ja kein Kommunist.
        
        Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten,
        habe ich geschwiegen,
        ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat.
        
        Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten,
        habe ich geschwiegen,
        ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter.
        
        Als sie mich holten,
        gab es keinen mehr,
        der protestieren konnte.
        

        It’s not straight forward to translate, because there is no active verb in English for “to remain silent”.

        When the Nazis came and took the communists 
        I remained silent
        Since I wasn't a communist.
        
        When they imprisoned the social democrats 
        I remained silent
        Since I wasn't a social democrat.
        
        When they took the trade unionists 
        I remained silent
        Since I wasn't a trade unionist.
        
        When they took me
        There was no one left
        Who could protest. 
        
          • wieson@feddit.org
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            4 days ago

            Good idea, but I think “remain silent” applies a bit more generally. The phrase “you have the right to remain silent” is always translated to “sie haben das Recht zu schweigen”. So I went with that.

            (“schweigen” being the verb I’m looking for here)

            • oo1@lemmings.world
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              3 days ago

              I think I’d say ‘I kept silent’ as more common or ‘I kept quiet’, probably an even more common phrase. ‘Kept’ would be slightly more ‘active’ than remained I think.

              But “remain” does some nice extra poetic work here; it foreshadows another usage of [narrator’s] “remains” - the corpse or ashes or whatever lifeless material is left after their death.

      • BreadOven@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Good point. I forgot about the communist part and only copied the first one on wiki due to laziness. Thanks for reminding me.

          • Nalivai@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            Wikipedia is not an entity, it’s a collective. You, personally, can fix whatever is incorrect there. And some would say, should.

          • BreadOven@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            Not that I love wiki or anything, but in their defense, the translated original is below the one I copied. Only separated by a sentence or two. I didn’t read them out of laziness, so that’s on me.

  • green@feddit.nl
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    3 days ago

    I’ve said this in another post, and I’ll say it again.

    Where are the resources? Where are the leaders? Where are the groups?

    People are scrambling right now because there are a million people screaming and no one leading nor taking direction. We need courage, focus, and precision to win but everyone is acting spineless, scattered, and aloof.

    We need every single person online using TOR and/or a VPN. We need an underground railroad. We need protocol to fight against ICE raids. We need places to find weapons (yes, even in blue states because a lot of people still don’t own). And most importantly, as our greatest civil disobedience, we need to stop paying federal taxes. I would even like to go as far as a general strike.

    So how are we going to get this and more together? Or are we instead going to sit and cry about this?

    • Snowclone@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      I’m donating to Sanders, I donated before and volunteered before for his presidential runs. He’s not perfect by any means but I’m putting money I barely have there. I want to volunteer again, but I’d also look at AOC for organizing and raising money she is very capable. If you want to cross the line to real effort, there’s some good CIA booklets you can find online about simple sabotage. It’s worth looking into.

    • arotrios@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Well, I look at this way.

      Trump is going to fuck me and my family no matter what.

      The only way Trump is not going to fuck you is if you make over $250k a year, are a white male adult, and are willing to kiss the ring.

      Eventually I will be on that list of people to oppress/disappear because of who I am, not what I’ve done or will do. It’s more than likely you or your family members will be too.

      Because while they start with the outspoken, when opposition is silenced, they will move on to crush the meek with a horrible glee. In the end, it won’t matter one whit to them what you do or say unless it gets in their way - it’s about what they want to do to you.

      So let your inner Luigi roar. They’re coming for us anyway. You have a chance to speak NOW. Use it. They haven’t won yet, and they won’t if enough of us speak out.

    • Snowclone@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Fight to you die. People will care a lot not when it escalates. You want them to show their colors as soon as possible fascism heavily depends on people slowly boiling alive until it’s already to late.

    • arotrios@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      You’re not powerless, and you’re not alone.

      They want you to be afraid. You know how you beat fear? You fucking let your anger out. Turn that flight reflex into fight. Forge the adrenaline of threat into rage at what this Nazi fuck is doing to our country, to your neighbors, to your family, to YOU.

      And then let it cool just enough so that it becomes the blade of freedom that will drive and defend you. Let it guide you tactically and strategically, and find others willing to raise their blades to join yours.

      Start going to your local town halls and visit your representatives in person. Write and call them if you can’t - use physical mail.

      Join the protests, but with a group looking out for each other and has smart tactics - not carrying cell phones, is ready to defend themselves, masked, and has a smart exit strategy. Be aware that if the police know who you are, so do the alt-right thugs who are willing to do what the police won’'t.

      We beat the Nazis before. We beat the Confederacy before.

      We will do it again.