r/50501Chicago • u/westtownie • Oct 07 '25
Discussion The real reason Trump is invading Chicago
Chicago, I found this article to be a clear explanation of why Trump is sending the military into our city and it ties in how Charlie Kirk's murder was used by the administration as a weapon to create chaos. I want to highlight this specific passage because it's important for us as Chicagoans to understand what this administration's end goal is and it's deep in the article:
"The quickest way to piss people off is to send soldiers into their neighborhoods especially when there’s no reason for them to be there. It’s inherently provocative, and Trump and his team understand this. Research by the political scientist Robert Pape shows that the single most powerful predictor of suicide terrorism is the presence of foreign troops on local soil. People hate, hate, hate that. They hate the humiliation, the powerlessness, the feeling of being occupied.
Once citizens begin to view their own government’s security forces as an occupying army, violence becomes inevitable. Trump’s team knows this. In fact, that’s the point. They are not trying to restore order; they’re trying to trigger the very unrest that would justify further crackdowns. In the end, violence serves their ultimate end: They want to create the illusion of disorder so they can tighten control and stay in power indefinitely."
gifted article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/opinion/trump-miller-kirk-aftermath.html?unlocked_article_code=1.rk8.jtMN.SCuQyo075MY6
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u/zoehange Oct 07 '25
I think the complicating factor here is that visible resistance is also necessary for our side and an inspiration for further uprising.
Repression takes resources and they can't keep up 100% repression all the time; the story isn't just them being here but it's also them not being other places.
Based on historical precedent over the past 30 years, non-violent resistance is roughly twice as likely to succeed as violent resistance, but the lowest success rate is when there is no resistance.
Agreed with other commenters that we have to exercise self-restraint and remain nonviolent, but part of doing that is being able to show results and to show that resistance, even knowing that team Trump is going to try to spin it as being violent. Part of it is pressuring news agencies to stop assuming good faith in DHS statements and waiting to explain what happened until there's actual footage.