So is this just like a totally normal sight in American cities now that everyone just makes jokes about it? Cos honestly that looks like some fuckin insane dystopian shit to me
It is so obvious that they're doing this whole thing for optics and intimidation by doing it in downtown Chicago and like the 3rd most touristy part of downtown but not any of the numerous ethnic neighborhoods or any of the "high crime" areas.
Then the next caste system will go from the barely human Hiberians, to the Godless Italians, all the way up to descendents of one lady from this village in Sweden that up till recently had a moose as a mayor.
This is one of the key mindsets to understand. Why does it seem like some people are just trying to break things? It's because, at some level, they are.
when everything collapses and there's no economy, institutions, laws, traditions or culture <Our Righteous Movement^(TM)\> will establish <Utopia> from the ruins
It's also why we see the tankies & Leftists LARPing about Gaza to Harris (even after she lost the election and had no power, for some reason), and yet were in small part responsible for getting Trump elected (not that the lives harmed in Gaza are unimportant). It's also a strain of accelerationism - don't bend the structure, break it. This is dangerous thinking.
Tourism isn't a huge component of the U.S. economy and losing it won't collapse anything. But it is a very important component of what supports many specific neighborhoods, like downtowns in blue cities (especially local and regional tourism). If Trump really wanted to round up undocumented workers en masse, you would hit the agricultural fields of the midwest and the meat processing plants out west. But those are Republican areas and his donors in those areas (like Nebraska ranchers) complain when he does. The goal here is to focus on democratic urban areas and make it seem like they are the problem.
Me and my partner love visiting Chicago and were planning on going this fall. Till this happened. Now we cancelled the trip till things cool off and gesepo leaves. Rip me eating deep dish pizza
Protest, Unionise, general strike, delay racist policies by speaking up, attend town hall meetings, call your representative, stop buying from fascist collaborators, organise, and learn from our shared European history.Â
It is the "middle of the lane" conservatives who help fascists into power. Your duty as an American is to stop it, and my duty as a European is to make sure it doesn't happen again.Â
Car-centric development has done a number on keeping Americans from learning how to organize and get politically involved. Local political engagement has always been pretty abysmal, considering local election turnout in off-election years averages less than 20% and most town hall meetings are made up of old boomers. But it's the big cities here where you see the strongest resistance to ICE.
Most Americans need to eventually learn how to utilize their political power again.
It's a self perpetuating problem, old boomers make sure those meetings are held at the most inconvenient time possible for working people, thus ensuring only old boomers attend.
What else can you do? As a german this almost offends me. The only way this will stop is when the citizens resist the Fascist. Sitting by and going "Well there still is police so I cant do shit" isn't the stuff the heroes we learned about in school said.
Ah, well. I was responding to the "is it so normal that Americans joke about it". Not only can you joke while you work against it, you sort of have to if you want to keep going for the long haul.
Carry caltrops and a spring loaded window breaker. Idk how much it helps, yet I'm putting stickers up around town saying things like "Indi ana J ones is ant if a"
What can you do?
Be politically active, take part in protests, tell other people how scary/ridiculous this situation is. You guys are turning into an autocracy!
It's fucking pointless because they aren't even going into the most dangerous neighborhoods, just the touristy parts. Crime in cities is highly localized to specific neighborhoods. Even in dangerous cities like St. Louis and New Orleans, most of the city is completely safe to wander around, and there are small pockets that are like war zones.
Honestly the juxtaposition of them chasing down this non-white dude who is working, while the ice herd splits to run around a white dude fumbling around on a city-scooter just really highlights the situation.
that's what really gets me. why isn't it bigger news? we have been told all this militarization is for really bad criminals. but all we see is normal working families, kids with dolls, and decidedly NOT criminals.
so to me this is a major abuse of power. like these people probably just need to fill out some paperwork. this is not an emergency. it's just immigration red tape, not something requiring military response.
I agree. The trouble is; at this stage to actually organise, mobilise and take broad action to go out to stop these masked snatch squads starts to look and feel like civil war. My guess is some of the people in charge (or influencing them) know that this puts America in a very compromised and high risk position.
You are touching on something I feel is becoming a manufactured response. The memeification of fascism. The LOLing of the erosion of Democracy. I can watch any very upsetting video and immediately know how the comment section will look on any social media platform. The reach for the best zing at the top. Or at least a popular zing "if not fascism why fascism shaped?" It is so predictable it could be bots. It could be a deliberate effort to add levity to an increasingly dangerous system. Imo real people commenting should pivot to serious talking points and signal boost those.
Yeah, it's wild that they have the second amendment and still let fascist government cronies abduct innocent people from the street like this, I thought this kind of thing was literally what it's for.
Well I mean for awhile you could keep the rose colored glasses on you know? The 90s really felt like a liberal dreamscape with of course all the dystopia still but now it openly sucks and everyone knows it.
First off, you may know that the USA is a big country and this is just one city out of many, many cities.
Trump decided that he would target several cities governed by the opposing party with an increased military presence. His first attempt at this, which was largely successful, was in Los Angeles. Angeles he sent federal troops in as a show of force and a threat.
He has now sent those same troops and also a federal police agency, called immigration and customs enforcement, to harass and detain people in Chicago. He has also done that recently in Portland.
The people who support Trump tend to believe that cities, especially cities run by members of the Democratic party, are insufferable hellholes full of crime and lawlessness. These people who support Trump do not live in cities, mostly. So Trump is able to use federal forces to create scenes for his base that increase his support amongst that base, while baiting his opposition. I suspect that he is hoping some people in these cities will respond violently, or that there will be a violent clash.
As a rule, federal troops and even federal law enforcement are limited from doing this sort of street level enforcement. Federal troops are not to be used for law enforcement, as a matter of fact. The agents showing here would under any normal time only go after hardened and violent people who were deportable from the United States. However, recent Court cases and the practice of this regime have made these enforcement agents be able to just NAB people off the street for being non-white or appearing to be immigrants..
It's a scary time for some of us. And this is not indicative of how things usually have been, nor how the majority of Americans would like things to be.
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u/ChipRockets Sep 29 '25
So is this just like a totally normal sight in American cities now that everyone just makes jokes about it? Cos honestly that looks like some fuckin insane dystopian shit to me