• masquenox@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    35·
    8 days ago

    A lot of people are pretending that this is a nothingburger, but I’m afraid it’s probably not - they are manufacturing consent for a crackdown.

    • PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S [he/him]@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      7·
      8 days ago

      I mean I’m not pretending it’s a nothingburger, but IMO this is nowhere near the first piece of “manufacturing consent” in recent memory for repressing antifascists. Like IMO it’s like there’s an indicator is going off…but like 69 other indicators are going off that indicate the same condition. You feel me?

      • masquenox@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        5·
        6 days ago

        You feel me?

        Sure thing… but two things.

        First, thanks to ICE, the Trump regime now knows how to disappear people without getting stuck on any legal or institutional obstacles. Two, thanks to ICE (again), they now know exactly what reaction (or, rather, lack of it) to expect from the wider US public and/or media when they do.

        It’s one thing to get hold of the hammer, it’s another to figure out how to turn every problem into a nail - and I’d say they have now managed both.

        That might be why this feels… different.

    • degen@midwest.socialEnglish
      433·
      8 days ago

      I really don’t understand these comments. There is no distraction; both are symptoms of the same disease, and everyone in power is past worrying about diverting attention.

      • Frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        7·
        8 days ago

        They’re starting to remind me of “it’s been X days since Sean Hannity agreed to be waterboarded for charity” that used to be on Reddit all the time. At a certain point, you just have to realize it’s not gonna happen.

        My one exception here is that Hannity being waterboarded would ultimately be a stunt with a meager charity benefit. The Epstein Files would actually cause a whole lot of damage to power structures.

      • kingofras@lemmy.world
        61·
        8 days ago

        The Files are important for a number of reasons:

        • this is about the president being a multiple accused pedophile
        • it show the people are not backing down no matter what other rabbits he pulls out if his hat
        • there is rare consensus across party lines that this issue matters, so it is potentially unifying the citizens of the US
        • the files are bigger than just him, it implicates a lot of powerful people
        • I agree he would be doing these things whether there were files or not, but it is our responsibility to nail him to the cross for a single issue that is so damning it would collapse his support with his own base and party and encourage whistleblowers to cone forward and expose the extent of his corruption

        I don’t think we need to stop talking about his endless firehouse of flooding the zone, but we need to keep our focus on the one thing that can bring him down and by now the longest standing scandal around his neck he hasn’t yet been able to shake.

    • 野麦さん@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      274·
      8 days ago

      Fuck the Epstein files, eroding rights isn’t the distraction. The Epstein files ARE the distraction. You’re a fool.

    • PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S [he/him]@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      22·
      8 days ago

      The Epstein Files are absolutely important and still relevant, but let’s be real… he’d be doing this whether or not the Files were hanging over him. And although I would argue that the US government has never stopped repressing antifascists, this is at least a signal that it’s gonna get worse for us or anyone the government can paint as an antifascist…i.e. anyone with a conscience. I.e., I don’t think this meme applies.

      • Whostosay@sh.itjust.works
        31·
        8 days ago

        As far as I’m concerned, that was our last chance to change the minds of the cult. That being dropped as quickly as it was plus all the Charlie Kirk shit cemented it imo

        • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
          4·
          8 days ago

          There was never a chance to change the minds of the cult. Late stage capitalism will collapse into fascism as sure as gasoline will burn when exposed to fire. The absolute best case scenario would be that a new (likely more competent) fascist demagogue would get into power. Epstein is and has always been a bust.

        • PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S [he/him]@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
          4·
          8 days ago

          Who’s to say (nice username) it’s been really dropped? I think a lot of MAGA people are still very upset about Epstein even if they are momentarily distracted by Kirk dropping a new public toilet. Which is why for almost any other mainstream news story I would absolutely agree with the meme, but I do think that openly repressing antifascist groups is more than just a distraction from Epstein.

    • Chloé 🥕@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      7·
      8 days ago

      they could murder your whole family in front of you and you’d say “why would you distract me from the epstein files like this?”

  • xxce2AAb@feddit.dk
    21·
    8 days ago

    Hear ye! Hear ye! King Trump the Defiler has issued another decree!

    Crowd of peasants groans

  • juliebean@lemmy.zip
    16·
    8 days ago

    this is great (/s), cause even though ‘antifa’ is not and never has been an organization or group of any kind, the way they’ve written this, they can just have an “anonymous” plant claim that “antifa” provided assistance to anyone the administration doesn’t like, and bing bang boom, they can upgrade anyone they don’t like to terrorism charges. course i’m sure they’ll also use this in plenty of other fucked up ways too.

  • PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S [he/him]@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    151·
    8 days ago

    Were they not repressing antifascists before, but just in “”“norm-preserving”“” ways that didn’t upset pearl-clutching liberals? Like what does this change other than making it even easier to argue that America is a fascist country?

    • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      7 days ago

      What part don’t you get? This is an official proclamation designating anyone the administration doesn’t like as “antifa”. What happens if I put a flag or sign in my yard? Straight to jail. And terrorism charges open your happy ass up to anything they want to do.

      Why you think they hit Luigi with terrorism charges? Only way to get the death penalty for a case like that in New York State.

      • PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S [he/him]@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        3·
        7 days ago

        What happens if I put a flag or sign in my yard? Straight to jail. And terrorism charges open your happy ass up to anything they want to do.

        Basically for my entire adult life, I have always been operating under the assumption that this would be a strong possibility even if the law didn’t say so directly. I.e. laws only apply when convenient for the government because the US has always been a fascist country. I.e. one of the foundational precepts in the liberal monoculture is a lie.

        Why you think they hit Luigi with terrorism charges?

        Exactly my point: they don’t need an Antifa to make us into terrorists, although this will certainly be convenient.

        My point isn’t really that this is nothing to worry about, because it is something to worry about. It’s more of a remark that it’s part of a broader pattern that, hopefully, antifascists and anarchists have been preparing for even during the Brandon admin or further back.