AcidicBasicGlitch

Many people find comfort in authoritarian personalities.

It's also possible if you're just willing to stop paying attention, and believe the people in power are doing what's best for you. Trust them 😉

I'm not sure what you mean?

Do you mean a patriarchal hierchy? It may be pretty obvious to you in 2025, but if that's what you mean, you can probably thank Judith Herman for that.

Herman was the first person to really focus on trauma as a psychological concept, and to distinguish between trauma following an acute event vs trauma that develops after repeated traumatic events.

Acute trauma results in PTSD. Repeated/inescapable trauma such as domestic violence, repeated sexual assault, or even living under an authoritarian regime, often results in the development of complex PTSD.

Both cPTSD and PTSD result in an overactive nervous system, that can be easily triggered by a traumatic memory. However, when trauma is chronic or inescapable, often the person experiencing the trauma will develop coping skills that are necessary to survive while continuing to go about daily life as though everything is normal.

For example, think of people in Ukraine right now. There are often times when people wake up in the middle of the night and rush into a subway as a makeshift bomb shelter, hiding there until the bombs stop dropping and it's "safe" to come out.

They may come out to find casualties and destruction, only to then go get ready for work and continue living their 9-5 lives like they did before the war. Going about life as though everything is normal is a form of dissociation, but it's a necessary coping skill during times of war or high stress.

The current head of the Heritage Foundation, pulling the strings of Trump's administration is quoted as saying "Put them in trauma," regarding the plan to overwhelm the U.S. with so much chaos that eventually people just give up and completely dissociate from the trauma going on around them. They want complacency. They want you to just give in, and trust that what they're doing is for the best, even though everything inside of you is telling you it's wrong. The leader/authority figure always knows best.

Masses of people everywhere are dissociating right now, and convincing themselves that maybe if they play along, they will be safe. Maybe things will eventually work themselves out. That's not how it works. Complacency is victory for the people in power.

The first post I made in this community was based on Herman's work for a reason. Understanding how to cope and survive repeated trauma that is often out of our control, without just fully dissociating or checking out is key to fighting back.

How to reason through solving a problem or fixing something. Not necessarily being successful, but just the process of thinking about possible things to try or steps to take.

There are some within ice who were reshuffled as punishment for Jan 6 investigations when Trump took over. They have been leaking information about what was going on to the press, and facing threats from the administration

I'm guessing we wouldn't even know about this memo if not for people like this. I bring this up bc it's important to keep in mind that if Congress will not act (which it seems like they won't) we will be relying on the agents who are not loyalists, refusing to carry out orders.

If public opinion does not support agents who take a stand and refuse orders (not the loyalists, fuck them without a doubt) and have been leaking information like this memo, Trump will have ammunition that he can use to kill dissent and show other ice employees it's in their best interest to carry out orders because the public is not on their side.

This is likely why he's trying to reshuffle as many agents and even city police to get involved in immigration policy.

I voted for the current sheriff of my parish. First time I was ever passionate about voting for a sheriff because she was also a former police corruption monitor. She is now being taken to court by our state AG this Wednesday to force her to adopt federal immigration policy in her own jurisdiction.

If the judge agrees with the AG, which sadly, she probably will, the sheriff and local police will also be under legal orders to carry this shit out or face termination/possible jail time for interfering with immigration policy.

I am hopeful if it does, but the memo is saying they can just do this. So it will take this actually being enforced and someone's (or multiple people's) rights being violated for this to end up before the supreme court.

I think it's no coincidence there was such a high profile arrest of that judge in Wisconsin just before this happened.

There are federal agents that have been reshuffled to ICE as punishment for the Jan 6 investigations, and have been accused of leaking information to the press.

I originally just thought the termination of civil rights offices would mainly be to use polygraphs on these employees and refuse due process rights because so many were trying to warn people of what this administration is doing.

I wasn't expecting something like this memo so soon.

There are definitely plenty of loyalists carrying this shit out, but I believe the administration may be intentionally trying to reshuffle as many federal employees as possible (and now city police to ICE) to increase civil unrest and increase the chances the public will turn on the same people leaking information.

If Congress won't do their job, it will come down to these people willing to refuse orders and face termination if not arrest. The only reason I bring this up, is that if this happens we should keep in mind that there have been people inside ICE trying to warn the country about this stuff for a long time.

If we are too quick to dismiss all of them as loyalists, the administration will be able to downplay any dissent when orders are refused, and possibly convince others who are on the fence that it's in their best interest to comply bc the public is not on their side.

I hope so. If the Senate and representatives won't take a stand (which seems they won't), it will be up to police, federal agents, and military leaders taking a stand and refusing orders, probably being terminated if not jailed/court martialed, and public support for them.

An angry group of civilians would not stand much of a chance against an entire military/police force.

In addition to the entire military/national guard, state police, you also have Palantir and blackwater now on the side of the government

Trump has always described himself as the law and order president

The argument of ivy league legal scholars that are helping run his administration is that the people elected the president. The president's duty is to do what he believes is best to protect the greatest number of people.

If Trump says that this is law now, and this law is necessary to protect the country, then individual liberty and rights will have to be secondary for the good of the country

The Harvard constitutional law professor that created this legal theory is a huge fan of Carl Schmitt.

Schmitt created the Nazi legal agenda using a similar legal argument which argued the will of the leader should be placed above all written law because it was best for Germany, making the German constitution basically useless.

This allowed Hitler to legally carry out genocide.

The things is based on their legal interpretation of the constitution, the people chose the president to uphold law and order and do what's best for the people. If the president determines this is what is necessary in order to protect the people from terrorists, his legal team will argue for a constitutional interpretation that says individual liberty is always secondary to the common good.

Just to be clear, this is not what I believe or support. This is what they will argue. I am writing this to try and warn people what they have in mind when they talk about constitutional interpretation

They are supposed to have some freedom from the state within their own city/county jurisdiction, but small government loving members of the GOP are trying to do away with that and force cities and counties to adopt state policy(which is often just federal policy).

My state AG is taking my parish to court over it this Wednesday

If you heard about the 2 year old that was just deported by ICE last week, that was also my state/parish.

This shit is so similar to the reign of terror and other failed authoritarian playbooks, I've honestly wondered if they're just feeding AI historical data to come up with plans that avoid the pitfalls of previous dictators.

Like they don't comprehend that dictatorships will always inevitably fail because people have an innate desire/drive to be free from oppression and tyranny. Not because dictator X did Y instead of Z, so maybe if they combine dictator X's strategy with dictators A and B, it might just work this time!