In the long run, shutting up won’t save you from fascism. Every inch you give is a foot they take, and they will take and take and take if you let them.

If you’ve never wondered whether people living under dictatorships regret not exercising their rights more when they still had them, now’s the time to start pondering.

Dissenting is the only thing that will actually do anything to make things better.

Rolling over and stopping is giving up before the fight has even started.

Further, pretty sure the entire contents of the internet have been sucked down into that NSA Utah Datacenter since it opened in May 2014.

Not to mention the corporate surveillance systems of Meta, Reddit, Twitter, and so on. If you ever had an account, just because you deleted it doesn’t mean the data got deleted. Even Reddit has been seen restoring comments after they were changed and deleted.

Also Room 641A implies that the phone companies will happily divulge the history of your text messages to the administration as well. There is and hasn’t been privacy in a long time in any real way in the USA and they’re definitely gonna leverage that.

If Trump is ignoring the law, he’ll ignore any laws that prevent the government from using that data against American citizens. I think it’s healthier to accept it than to try to pretend all that data isn’t already out there for the taking.

If you’ve ever been critical of Trump or Republicans in the last 11 years, just get used to the idea that it’s probably a foregone conclusion and get prepared to be involved.

I don’t mean buy a gun. I mean get involved in community gardens, community support networks and other types of Mutual Aid. We’ll need to support one another and hiding from what is happening and hiding our opinions because we’re scared isn’t going to help.

Do you have respect for the journalism outfits that have already turned tail and given up on seriously criticizing Trump? Do you have respect for every judge who pussed out on holding Trump accountable before the election? Because I doubt you do. Well, history will look at you the same way, if anyone even remembers your name.

Nobody remembers Germans in 1941 as anything but Nazis. The only ones who are remembered for not being Nazis took risks and didn’t lay down and die. It’s different now, the surveillance network is massive, there’s no hiding from it, so it’s pointless to hide from it instead of embrace it and prepare.

I have the RIGHT to freedom of speech and expression and I will not waive it for Trump or anyone else. Without it, there is no United States.

Fuck Donald Trump. Fuck Elon Musk. Fuck the Republicans. Fuck the oligarchy. Fuck authoritarianism. Fuck this fear, and fuck advance compliance.

I serve no fucking king.

First of all, they won’t arrest everyone. Even extreme governments on the tail end of their horrible leadership don’t arrest everyone. They need some citizens to be there working jobs. Rather, they would aim to arrest enough people to scare everyone else and then some other people randomly just for the hell of it.

But if you think staying under the radar is going to make your life better, maybe you should read some history books. Who do you think is coming to save you? Who do you think is coming to make your community better? When do you think they’re going to arrive? Outside forces will not fix contemporary US political problems. It doesn’t work that way, not when everyone has armies and nuclear weapons.

Sadly, quite possibly things could get far worse before they get better, so if you want to plan for some unfortunate eventualities, that might be a reasonable decision. But don’t think for a second you can run from them. And even if you could, what kind of human would that make you? What kind of person do you want to be?

You know what they called Germans during WWII who just went along with the nazis because why fight, you’ll just lose?

Nazis.

Not likely. There wouldn’t be enough working hours in the 4 years available.

The fact that you are even worried about this says so much.

Love, A european

It’s more about setting up a system that rewards your neighbour for snitching on you. If that system is practical online, only time will tell. It worked well irl for other fascists.

Please watch this video about dictatorships and what to look out for.

Just enough so you know it happens. It wouldn’t be secret.

Listen at some point its time to realize you dont give a fuck about their threats, accept death as a possibility, and keep to your principles.

Like that man who stood in front of the tank during Tianamen Square protests of 1989.

Im pretty sure were headed into such an event locally.

The entire country would collapse if they did that. There would nothing to be president of.

Not to mention Jon Stewart, Jon Oliver, and the many other celebrities that shit on Trump. Plus all of MSNBC, CNN, and the other “left” news companies. I don’t imagine they have resources to do all that.

Extremely unlikely. Not for another 20 years or so, worst case scenario, and by then they probably won’t care about now.

First off, there’s way too many people who criticize the government to arrest everyone, secondly it’s completely unnecessary. Complaining about the government doesn’t really do anything other than allowing people to vent their frustrations and feel more content. It’s the same way Trump obviously isn’t going to “end elections forever” like people say, virtually every country in the world has elections, regardless of how actually democratic they are, because they’re a nice little ritual that lets you feel free and in control. It would be like saying that Trump is going to knock down the Statue of Liberty - he doesn’t have to.

Now, there are reasons to establish more secure lines of communication, like if you’re involved in actual organizing or if you’re either helping people do illegal things or planning to help people do things that could potentially become illegal - for example, shipping Plan B or trans hormones to people in red states. Laws in some red states about “pushing transgenderism on minors” could theoretically be interpreted so broadly that if you post information or supportive messages on a public forum and a minor in a red state happens to see it, they could try to come after you for it - but that would probably be found unconstitutional.

Using secure lines of communication for routine, everyday stuff helps keep those lines secure by generating more chaff they’d have to sort through, as well as familiarizing yourself with it and getting more people on board. However, you shouldn’t scatter to the wind preemptively and self-censor, beyond just not fed-posting.

I don’t see them coming for all of us. It’s just not practical to arrest everyone who complains.

It all comes down to other characteristics:

• are you someone influential or high profile they can make an example of, to promote fear?
• do you have any connection to another country, no matter how tenuous, where they can use this as an excuse to deport?
• are you part of another demographic bias they want to persecute, such as lgbt, where they can use this as an excuse to legally persecute?

All? Unlikely. But some? A lot harder to say. You’re asking for an opinion-based prediction at this point. I think they’ll probably eventually try to get the most outspoken critics, but I also think that’s a good time to not go silent. You get organized.

it’s pretty stupid and delusional to think you’re going to jail for posting things on social media. in countries where this actually happens (mine for example) you need to be stirring up some viral controversy which directly effects an interest of the government. it wouldn’t be useful to put every rambling stepdad in jail and they wouldn’t have the resources to do it anyway