For me it’s at work where we don’t acknowledge what’s really happening and it is starting to drive me a little mad.
I work in a very diverse workforce, but for a very old fashioned company, and politics are not spoken of.
But I am surrounded by immigrants and people who are probably here on work visas, or are just dark skinned, and I have to think they are living with a constant background fear that is steadily rising but they never talk about it and I never say anything. I have a whole cycle of shame with it.
There is a way you can quietly, unobtrusively support these people: just get to know them. If you get to know people, and by this I mean really listen, and take interest in what they say when they speak of whatever is important to them, later on all the little ways you can help will arise from that personal, direct knowledge over time, and between now and then maybe you’ve made a friend.
I’m not saying drape yourself over their cubicle wall and ask them detailed questions about their national traditions until you’re glowing and they’re weirded out; I’m saying get interested in who they are and what they have to say, and try to do it as naturally as you can. If you’re not good at friendly small talk, at least know their names and greet them like you’re glad to know them. In whatever way it means to you, be a friend so that when friends are needed, you’re on their list.
Don’t think that this casual ongoing personal interaction is powerless: rather, it is the source of our greatest strength. Community is what is saving Minneapolis, community is what is defeating ICE, community is what is getting people spontaneously out on the streets in freezing weather to prove that together we – a whole lot of individual I’s – WE have no intention of quietly standing for this shit.
WE is the most powerful thing we have.
And it all starts right where you are now: wanting to help and having no idea how. But you asked. To me, that counts.
Getting to know people before the trouble starts is how you know the best ways to act in their behalf if they ever need it, in ways that do not trample their agency or cause humiliation or, god forbid, increase their dread. As a nation of citizens we have been set at each others’ throats for far too long, a division that only succeeds because we plant ourselves behind screens and let complete strangers tell us what to think and how to feel. In doing this, we have forgotten how to just be friends. So start there. Pay attention to others. Greet people when you see them, even a nod. Learn to listen. Take general interest. See who responds and who doesn’t. In time this will open every door that can be opened, and also allow those who have their own reasons for staying aloof the personal privacy they want.
I feel the whole shame thing, but if you can, give yourself permission to set it aside. Seriously. Everyone starts somewhere. You’re starting here, and honestly I’m grateful for every single one of us who is feeling just as lost and wondering right now what can I do to help? But you asked; you’ve already made a start. It’s a good one. No shame required. And if you have nothing better in mind, then the answer is, build community. However you can, wherever you can, in whatever small ways feel right to you so that when the shit starts you’re already known as an ally.
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Be the change you want to see then?
I’m in Canada but also a very diverse group of people around me at all times. I make it very clear with everyone that politics aside, I have all their backs regardless of race, colour or creed. Differences are what makes us stronger not weaker and anyone who is afraid of differences shows themselves as weak.
Most of my coworkers in my area are older and white, but the rest of the company is highly mixed. I know most of them are Republicans and are enjoying this sick show even if they’re not saying it. Most days I just want to scream.
They all are waiting on someone to fix it. They wont do anything until it comes to their door. By then it will be way too late for most of us.
the average person has no idea how to fix any of it. they have been voting back and forth for years, and nothing has changed.
average people also deeply disagree on how to fix it. and above average people are more than happy to take average people’s money to tell them how they are going to fix it, and use it to enrich themselves while doing nothing.
Invite folks to join you at a protest, or canvassing, or almost anything else that is more than zero. A big chunk of the population can be hooked on action if somebody they know asks.
I am the token white guy where I work and none of my coworkers want to talk about it. They don’t want to protest. They think they are gonna be left alone. They are just one ICE encounter away from finding out but until then they will not step outside their bubble.
Why would they? It’s an additional hazard. They know exactly where the line is for being the slow gazelle that gets killed. It’s in their bones. You’re just new to the game and haven’t internalized how fucked how quickly things will get for you if you step out of line.
Head in the sand until dead in dirt. That is some solution.
i’m not welcome at protests because i’m white and male. why would I go if I am not welcome and seen as a threat rather than a friend? i’m not interested in attending events where i am not welcome.
This is utter nonsense. Just show up and don’t be an asshole. Nobody is going to kick you out over skin color or gender.
it’s nonsense to you. It’s my lived experience of attending multiple protests. being told to go fuck myself for just being there. because i look like ‘the enemy’. whatever that means.
so i stopped protesting at all, because it’s not worth it to be verbally assaulted and physically threatened by your so called ‘allies’.
All I can say is that your experience is wildly different from any I’ve run into, and would be really unlikely unless you did something.
Yeah, that’s the nature of experience, people have different ones. I would agree with you that, for the most part, if you show up to support a protest then you’ll be welcomed and not pushed out, but someones experience in Ohio might be different from someone else’s experience in Texas, California, Florida, or NY.
I live in the US south east and moved from one city to another about 3 hours away. When I did so my workplace went from 95% white to 65% black. Protests went from politically charged and racially neutral to religious based and racially charged. Your experience in one place is no guarantee for other people’s experiences in another.
I have no idea where this guy is from, but I could totally see a place in the US where a middle class white guy showing up would raise some eyebrows.
All in all my experience matches yours, but I am also reminded of this video from several years ago. Maybe this video is fake, maybe it’s doctored, or taken out of context, but as it appears in the video it’s just an example that perceptions and opinions can be different for different people and the crowd doesn’t always support you.
Nah she’s playing with fire. Maybe she “don’t talk gud “, but this is a favorite talking point of deniers. This is exactly the scenario of dismissing BLM concerns with “all lives matter”. Technically true but offensively misleading
Is she right? Sure, anyone can be racist, no demographic has a monopoly only on that. All lives should matter
But she’s absolutely wrong to bring it up in this scenario, it’s another case of “both sides the same”, or a what aboutism. She’s effectively dismissing their concerns
and maybe your expereince isn’t universal. maybe leftists are as accepting and tolerant and wonderful as you think they are.
oh by the way, you know one reason i harassed? because i look jewish.
weird how the anti-nazis behave like nazis…
You’re giving yourself away by frothing at the mouth about leftism and pretending that anyone on the left is advancing the cause of anti-Semitism.
Maybe be more subtle next time.
What protests are you going to? The overwhelming majority of people I know who goto protests are white and no one has had such a complaint (yes I don’t have a diverse acquaintance group). Yes I’m white Middle Aged Christian male, ticking all the boxes except “sociopath”, and I’ve always felt welcome
I especially note the BLM protests from a few years ago, as predominantly darker skin people, but I still never felt anything but welcome
I bet you don’t have a girlfriend cuz “all women are whores and sluts”.
I don’t have a girlfriend because I keep meeting women who want 1950s style marriages where I am their sole provider. And I’m not interested in that. I want an equal partner.
You’re an imbecile. There are 1000s of white males at all of the large protests from coast to coast, Boston to L.A.
You spout a lot of BS. You need to get lost or get your head out of your ass and learn reality.
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There’s 3 states. You could probably subdivide it further, but the basics are -
- Fuck yeah, make kings and inflict suffering
- can’t be bothered to deal with it for whatever reason
- How the hell can we stop the crazy train?
We know how to stop it, but we’ll probably end up dead or imprisoned forever for it so… The revolution will only happen when a lot of people of nothing left to lose.
A lot of organized people with nothing to lose. Nothing changes if one man with a gun takes to the street, see Willem Van Spronson.
I just can’t be friends with people who don’t seriously want every republican drown.
Same, but it can’t stop with “republicans”
Well, people who protest vote in an important election, people who abstain from voting in an important election, and people who think doing either excludes them from responsibility when things go wrong.
Those people should also be drown in a river and their names erased from existence.
Sounds like democracy is a sham. Good talk.
Sounds like all governments are a sham
Everything happening right now is normal for the US, the only difference is 2 white people got killed this time so people started paying attention. The ones protesting are protesting Trump’s ICE when they should be protesting ICE.
Typical .ml tankie bullshit take.
Everything happening right now is normal for the US, the only difference is 2 white people got killed this time so people started paying attention.
This is such bullshit
You say bullshit because you feel targeted by the statement. Your type haven’t been upset before Goode because you didn’t have to face it, and it’s easy to dismiss victims that don’t look like you.
Christ how you stay balanced on that edge all the time, must be exhausting.
Also, it’s Good, not Goode you child.
Liberals argue semantics because they can’t defend their positions of supporting of fascism and the police state.
Her name was Good, not Goode. Shows how much you pay attention
They’re a .ml user, should tell you enough right there.
I used to doubt such stereotypes when I started on Lemmy but now I don’t, every single interaction I’ve had with a .ml user has been an exercise in daycare for troubled youths. They are literal children, and have the most deluded, horseshoe-theory-personified, edgelord, leftist-MAGA takes I’ve ever seen online.
I got banned from one of their communities for criticising the Chinese government. Yeah, I feel like all big .ml communities should be blocked as an indivisible part of the process of setting up a Lemmy account.
Just a checkmark box on account creation would work.
“Do you like the taste of boots? Y/N”
You have leftists because we make you feel like that bad people you are. We make you face the evil you support.
I love that you have to scan comments to see if people are talking about you. Kind of telling.
I’ll pass on this anime roleplay villain talk, I didn’t bring a costume or anything. Thanks. Bye.
Following threads isn’t scanning. And what exactly is it telling?
It doesn’t fucking matter, you argument semantics while defending a police state
I like how this ignores the massive waves of protests that have taken place since the very first ICE operations, and basically the entire story up to this point.
But hey if it gives you a way to shame white people for being white, while being white yourself, I guess it gives us all something to do, right?
This is not normal. Quit trying to convince people not to take action by pretending Trump is no different
This is very different. Democracy is genuinely under threat
There is no democracy when you are ruled by oligarchs
the only difference is 2 white people got killed this time so people started paying attention.
Which unveils the nature of the dual state in operation, exactly as the article is pointing out.
What is wild to me is that it’s been obvious to me since I was a teenager, several decades ago, that the US has been like this for many (most?) people for ages. If you’re black, poor, an immigrant, deviate from the acceptable behavior template in any way, they’re perfectly happy to bust down your door and take everything and anything from you. It’s nearly always been like that. If it hasn’t been for you, you’re probably invested heavily in keeping it that way. And now what we’re seeing is the “in” group is just shrinking a bit more, the acceptable behavior template is shifting just slightly. Enough to provoke alarm in many but not action in enough.
Everything is normal.
It’s always been this way. You’re just upset you have to be confronted with it rather than having it be hidden and silent. Protestors have always been killed or hurt. Immigrants have always been persecuted.
And everyone is political, they just don’t care to make it a everyday of every moment facet of their identity, activist do. Most people are not, and never will be, activists. And that’s fine.
And you don’t win average people over by screaming, crying, and lecturing them how awful they are for not being ‘as upset’ as you are. Or why they aren’t ‘doing anything’. You push them away from your cause.
You’re just wrong, but that’s alright.
9/11 is really where the modern world was birthed in terms of American politics.
Sure it’s been terrible in the past, but it hasn’t always been this terrible and for about 30 years or so it has been restrained (Rodney king protests). It went Cold War during this time and most adults 40 and below have known relative peace in the U.S. in conjunction with government sanctioned violence towards our own people.
Don’t twist these ideas with a flawed concept of we “always have done it this way ” as if human society hasn’t progressed whatsoever. With this outlook we would have been living in caves and fields all the way up to now. It’s like oppressive defeatism, and it’s just utterly pointless.
Just because things have been one way doesn’t mean it can’t be changed.
The world is not binary and we can always push forward for positive changes.
study more history.
american history has always had oppressed groups being throw in camps and persecuted.
the world existed before 2001.
Yeah, you are right!
The world did exist before 2001, and yet clearly your reading comprehension skills don’t exist in the year 2026.
Yeah, I’m stupid. Please tell me more how wrong I am daddy. You are so correct and right.
The patriot act is the source of all evil, and Americans never hated each other before then!
I asserted you were wrong and listed why I said that to you.
You begin the ad hominem attack by telling me to study more history without providing any reasoning behind your claim.
You could have said “oh just look at the Tulsa Massacre, CIA Activities, government toppling, agent orange, My Lai Massacre, the treatment of minority groups throughout our countries history, slavery, systemic racism and injustice, rampant corporatism, resource guarding, Kent State Massacre, political assassinations of civil rights leaders, mkultra, fbi congress bribing scandals, the Tuskegee experiment, and etc”
you deliberately ignored the nuance of the first half of my message to respond with the same tired message of “America Bad”.
We are both allowed to express our opinions, and mine is that even if my first point is wrong, we can do better.
You just went full circle and now are arguing in support of what I originally claimed.
You’re just mad I didn’t spout off specific incidents and made some grandiose claim that one incident is the ‘root’ of all of this.
You are just being petty and trying to ‘one up’ me. Yeah, it’s a ad hominim attack, because you’re attacking me for an ad hominem reason. You don’t like the way I said something.
I don’t regard you argument as nuanced at all. I regard it as crude and biased to living memory as if our current atrocities are somehow unique and special, they aren’t. Americans always have hated each other and should out internal enemies amongst their fellow citizens. The enemy just changes over time, but there is always one.
This is why the left in this country is such a joke. lots of petty people trying to ‘have the better argument’ rather than just shut up and agree. or worse, trying to be ‘more enlightened’ about an issue, or ‘more woke’ or whatever buzzword virtue status bullshit they are chasing for clout.
First time you’ve been right in this thread.
They hated the frog, because it told the truth.
“first they came for…” and so on.
Always. Repeatedly. Forever.
The “grandparent test” won’t necessarily work on child-free and anti-natalists though. Unless they plan on adopting I guess in the latter category.
Dual state isn’t doing it justice.
Faceted is a proper word choice.
