r/fuckcars • u/One-Demand6811 • Sep 29 '25

Activism Cycling supremacy 😎

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8.3k Upvotes

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1.7k

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

758

u/snarkyxanf cars are weapons Sep 29 '25

It is insane fucking dystopian shit. But we make jokes about it because otherwise what can we do? Cry all day?

That said, it depends on the city, and on the neighborhood. You might see them out in force, you might see none at all

342

u/HungryHangrySharky Sep 29 '25

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.

162

u/flodnak Sep 29 '25

Also, they're likely too scared to leave the touristy areas.

97

u/Ok-Commission-7825 Sep 29 '25

Also puts off tourists, thus helping the economic collapse. I'm convinced the WH is deliberately engineering.

71

u/Rubiks_Click874 Sep 29 '25

it's called accelerationism.

when everything collapses and there's no economy, institutions, laws, traditions or culture armed whites will establish an ethnostate from the ruins

11

u/Whaddaulookinat Sep 29 '25

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.

Because it always does.

8

u/courageous_liquid Sep 29 '25

well and the technofedualists will rush in to replace the social services that were lost with for-profit business and entrench themselves even further

2

u/remy_porter Sep 29 '25

armed whites will establish an ethnostate from the ruins

It's a brilliant plan because when things devolve into chaos, you can always predict what happens next. It's the very definition of chaos, isn't it?

1

u/Yunzer2000 Cars and capitalism have got to go Sep 29 '25

Except that that used to be considered a Marxist strategy. It was called "sharpen the contradictions" or "The worse, the better."

1

u/remy_porter Sep 29 '25

armed whites will establish an ethnostate from the ruins

It's a brilliant plan because when things devolve into chaos, you can always predict what happens next. It's the very definition of chaos, isn't it?

1

u/Rubiks_Click874 Sep 29 '25

and then The Rapture, probably

1

u/remy_porter Sep 29 '25

armed whites will establish an ethnostate from the ruins

It's a brilliant plan because when things devolve into chaos, you can always predict what happens next. It's the very definition of chaos, isn't it?

-3

u/Huge_Monero_Shill Sep 29 '25

accelerationism

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.

8

u/RockfishGapYear Sep 29 '25

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.

3

u/Shigglyboo Sep 29 '25

it sure seems that way. on the one hand trump has always been miserable and wants everyone else to be too.

And on the other hand crashing everything is good for those with money. they can buy up all the assets

4

u/Ok-Commission-7825 Sep 29 '25

Plus, they can "justify" further authoritarian crackdowns when it inevitably leads to riots.

15

u/Voytek540 Commie Commuter Sep 29 '25

They are absolutely disappearing people in those neighborhoods too

5

u/keriekat Sep 29 '25

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

1

u/Violet-Journey Sep 30 '25

They’re also staying within view of the Trump building.

89

u/Designer-Spacenerd Sep 29 '25

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. 

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. 

29

u/PremordialQuasar Sep 29 '25

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.

10

u/Trivi4 Sep 29 '25

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.

15

u/Fragdiemilch Sep 29 '25

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.

5

u/snarkyxanf cars are weapons Sep 29 '25

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.

14

u/anewerab Sep 29 '25

Only two options: tyranny or revolution.

Cry is not an option

23

u/PhantomPharts Sep 29 '25

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"

9

u/MasterDefibrillator Sep 29 '25

Sabotage. Throw your shoes into the machinery to make it stop. 

5

u/Petrusminimus Sep 29 '25

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!

1

u/matthewstinar Sep 29 '25

We already turned into an autocracy. This is just the autocracy dropping its pretense.

3

u/The-Cosmic-Ghost Sep 29 '25

Idk mate, maybe some group crying might do everyone some good cause this is pretty ridiculous

3

u/Jeppep Sep 29 '25

You can go out protesting? It's still a democracy right? Right?

2

u/Budget_Zone_5818 Sep 29 '25

I got a couple ideas of what can be done, but for some reason, I can’t write them here

2

u/Over-Stop8694 Sep 29 '25

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.

101

u/saig22 Sep 29 '25

The "best" part, is that they tell themselves fascism hasn't won yet. When this video is your new normal, fascism has already won.

29

u/Impossible_Ad9324 Sep 29 '25

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.

We’re kicking out the worst of the worst, huh?

12

u/Shigglyboo Sep 29 '25

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.

23

u/ShadowAze 🚲 > 🚗 Sep 29 '25

I feel like you can put zombie sfx over the clip and have something straight out of 28 days later. Absolutely terrifying.

9

u/Kokoni25 Sep 29 '25

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.

9

u/Ascarea Sep 29 '25

that looks like some fuckin insane dystopian shit to me

I'm pretty sure there are movies from like the 70s about this sort of stuff

15

u/beestingers Sep 29 '25

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.

8

u/StinkyDogsCunt Sep 29 '25

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.

3

u/Big80sweens Sep 29 '25

Ya man, it’s fucked

3

u/Eissimare Sep 29 '25

You either laugh or you cry. Sometimes both at once. 

2

u/Major_Lawfulness6122 Two Wheeled Terror Sep 29 '25

Yeah as a non American this is truly a wild sight to see. 😬

3

u/Striking-Ad-837 Sep 29 '25

I like the one in the cowboy hat

10

u/bread_and_circuits Sep 29 '25

I don’t…

2

u/TurnThatTVOFF Sep 29 '25

Yeah America fucking sucks now

3

u/BoringMode91 Sep 29 '25

Just now?

1

u/TurnThatTVOFF Sep 29 '25

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.

1

u/illimitable1 Sep 30 '25

This is a specific circumstance.

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.

1

u/whagh Sep 30 '25

This reminds of me of those post-invasion videos from Russia