This is what fascism looks like.
As someone arrested at a campus protest last spring, I have major qualms with how the Biden administration handled campus dissent. But it was nothing compared to what we are in for now.
Our reaction to this statement will help decide if Trump's regeime is able to consolidate power to form the strong-man dictatorship he envisions. Our reaction should be to protest in force across every campus while wearing MASKS.
@FantasticalEconomics
Yes , we need protests enmasse across the nation , every day...
@palin @FantasticalEconomics
If only Right Wing #fascists were as hyper-protective of the FIRST Amendment as they are the Second. 
@MugsysRapSheet @palin @FantasticalEconomics It's because they're confident they won't get shot, and are certain they'll get skewered.
@MugsysRapSheet @palin @FantasticalEconomics
but it's so much easier to show force with guns, especially for the illiterate
@MugsysRapSheet @FantasticalEconomics @palin Unfortunately, they read the Constitution like they do the Bible: very selectively.
@FantasticalEconomics @academicchatter
It's time for lots of mass protests nationwide. Flood the zone with demonstrations to the point where even the dumbest major media organizations can't ignore them any longer.
Administrators should issue explicit permits for the protests and. (If the school authorized it it isn't illegal, right?) Keep it peaceful, folks, but fill the streets and quads.
Off-campus protests should be held as well, especially where administrators won't permit on-campus gatherings.
Maybe we need a quantity purchase of Guy Fawkes masks...
I support a universal Guy Fawkes mask policy (and everything else you said, but especially that part)!
@FantasticalEconomics @electricarchaeo @academicchatter But most protests are legal.
@dan613 @electricarchaeo @academicchatter
True. But they are only legal until defined otherwise. That's the challenge of relying on legality, especially as governments move toward authoritarianism.
@FantasticalEconomics @dan613 @electricarchaeo @academicchatter A lawyer observing a protest last year was arrested and recounted the exchange between the arresting cops and their superior: What are the charges? Doesn't matter, we'll figure it out later.
Released a day later, no charges ever filed.
@salixsericea @FantasticalEconomics @dan613 @electricarchaeo @academicchatter Yeah, that shit pisses me off, and it's way too common.
The reason it is is that qualified immunity makes it all but impossible to impose consequences for those legally wrong actions.
@FantasticalEconomics @dan613 @electricarchaeo @academicchatter Sort of true, sort of not.
Under US law, non-violent, non-disruptive protests are legal. If you do something in the process that infringes on the rights or safety of others, that's illegal, but protest itself is protected.
Problem is, local authorities may be capricious about what's 'disruptive' or 'unsafe', and we all know many examples of those official excesses. Opponents may also plant people to cause problems.
Be careful!
@FantasticalEconomics @academicchatter
Its starting to look like slowing one's death has become illegal.
This is to say: Our rights are now confined to how quickly we die.
Thanks, America.
Oh nice! And the support is much appreciated.
I can't make it, but some faculty I know are headed your way in a few weeks. Feel free to pass this info on if it hasn't already corculated through your spheres of inflence!
@FantasticalEconomics @academicchatter Honestly, the sudden 'NO MASKS!'- outburst made me laugh. I don't live in the US, though, so that's maybe easier for me to do.
I send you love and power!
I'm happy it made you laugh. I feel finding every glimmer of happiness is valuable, and gallows humor is becoming more valuable by the second.
I appreciate the love and support from afar too <3
@academicchatter @FantasticalEconomics #trump will be pushing for civil unrest. Very important it doesn’t get violent.
#trump wants to call for martial law because that is part of the playbook for removing all freedom, calling in the military and becoming king
I've already personally confronted an agitator trying to stoke violence at a priest this year. Not only does Trump want violence, his supporters are actively working to make it violent.
It is our job to deescalate. Be pressure to tone down the retoric even, or especially, when you are in the right. Be prepared to take a shove without pushing back.
@SaanichGuy @academicchatter @FantasticalEconomics people need to understand, here and now, that there is absolutely fucking nothing that is going to stop them from doing that. Period.
Complying in advance is not going to do jack shit. They will eagerly find some other excuse. Baby-factory fentanyl mules. Soros-funded terror networks. "Woke."
Demanding non-violence just tells them you're a soft target for the brownshirts.
@rootwyrm @SaanichGuy @academicchatter @FantasticalEconomics Whelp, hopefully Canada and other countries can make room for American students...
Part of university life is to become more aware of the world and to protest injustice.
Protests are the fabric of the US, it's how the US became the US.
@FantasticalEconomics
Masks everywhere. It will be a lot easier to argue that masks aren't just for "committing crimes" (exercising the right to protest) if people are also wearing them to grocery stores, the pharmacy, doctors offices, work or school, town halls, etc.
Not to mention the protecting others part. But yes, fully right.
@FantasticalEconomics @summerfallwinter
As the poster says:
This is a great article. Worth the read
Why Are People Wearing Masks in 2025?
OP: https://aus.social/@DenisCOVIDinfoguy/114101061206293111
@FantasticalEconomics not to mention protecting others!! Unfortunately that argument hadn't gotten much traction the last 2 or 3 years.
An uncontactable truth :/
@FantasticalEconomics @academicchatter @echopapa please tell me that this is a joke. Agitators? "Illegal“ protests leading to prison? Is this Russia? OMG
Eveline Sulman 
@EvelineSulman @Mastokarl @echopapa
The US may not be Russia, but it's starting up look an awful lot like it. Putin has invested well to help make that happen.
@FantasticalEconomics @EvelineSulman @Mastokarl
All that's needed is a minor rewrite of the Constitution (of the Russian Federation) for the US Oblast to be formally recognised as part of the Federation. And then #ComradeKrasnov will be Governor Krasnov.
@FantasticalEconomics I could imagine that in France, masses would be out in the streets, all masked. In Germany, grandmas would crochet or knit masks for every Republican governor and the whole government.
Imagine Trump flooded with pink Pussy Masks!
#resist #creativity #activism #fightTrump #antifascism #protest
@ForestOrca I learnt that thing with the Pussy Hat and Womens March from the USA ... and I miss this determination and creativity. They once had fuelled these protests worldwide!
@FantasticalEconomics Our French craft club would be delighted to send an easy knitting or crocheting pattern for anti-Trump masks to the USA. 
It can be made by all genders and ages!
Love it! I hope there is great demand for that in the near future :)
@FantasticalEconomics @academicchatter
I honestly think Biden bowed to Israel on that one to give this generation's kids some experience at protesting and organizing.
And getting arrested.
Not all white boomers who marched with MLK turned around and voted for Reagan fifteen years later. Some had memories. Some still do.
I can think of one notable exception there :)
You might like this guy:
That's an interesting hypothesis! I'm not sure I buy it on have value, but it's definitely something I'll think on more.
Also, I appreciate the recommendation and I'll check him out.
@FantasticalEconomics @academicchatter
All the more important to rise up and protest
Free Palestine@FantasticalEconomics @academicchatter this is what fascism looks like
@FantasticalEconomics @academicchatter who would have thought that wearing masks could become a statement of civil disobedience?
@FantasticalEconomics @academicchatter I just finished reading #MLK's WHY WE CAN'T WAIT, and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to engage in public protest. Dr. King gives excellent delineation on how it's done.
That's a wonderful recommendation and I'll check it out imminently!
(Here "imminently" is defined as ~10 weeks as that is the estimated hold time at my library for it.)
@FantasticalEconomics If you can spare the $, it is well worth purchasing. I have turned down and marked so many good things in the pages, having to keep it pristine as a library book would've driven me crazy! 
@FantasticalEconomics @academicchatter I guess the speed at which rights are being stripped away shows they weren’t “inalienable” after all
@FantasticalEconomics @academicchatter
Peaceful protests are legal. He can't amend the constitution with a tweet.
But he can ignore it on a whim.
I was arrested at a peaceful protest under Biden. What's written as law has very little bearing on what actually happens.
@FantasticalEconomics @academicchatter
it's not a law because some dude posts that, is it. Don't let the fear take control over your actions. just resist! a pig with a haircut is not your god, is it?
#us #politics #society #social_engineering #trump #dictator #fear #resistance #fediverse #mastodon