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Oct. 12th, 2025 12:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seeyatI feel frightened and simultaneously curious about the evolving parallels between ICE tactics and Gestapo tactics. Marking homes and residences with color tape and stickers is just a sign of systematic execution of orders... like the ground search lines we set up in Scouts. Yes, that's a functional tactic for identifying where you've been and recording information for efficiency.
The concern here isn't just their process. It's the foundational element of their orders... deportation.
Any time you're given strict, regimented orders and instructions while simultaneously "othering" a person as your intended target or task, it's a fundamentally dehumanizing process applied through repetition and that mundanity eschews humanity and empathy for the sake of task completion.
By the very nature of these orders... we are allowing something Marshall Rosenberg called "amtssprache" in reference to Nazi "office speak" or bureaucratic language. These ICE officials are "just following orders" and those orders become less and less novel and spectacular, deepening the loss of empathic connection.
It's true these people are being used as fleshy robots to carry out what their consciousness deems menial tasks. It's also true that their trust and sense of belonging, empowerment and values are rooted in the people and systems giving them those orders.
That means they've already denied their own personal responsibility in this. That means when people attack them, shame them, complain or otherwise attempt to punish the ICE agents for their "decisions" we're already missing a key component... in their subconscious and cognitive reasoning mind... these aren't THEIR decisions. They are self-righteously blameless and therefore cannot and will not ever be reached by means of individual hate.
The ICE agents will simply internalize their beliefs that ordinary citizens and activists are "unruly" and even "stupid" because their rationality is so far detached from individual responsibility.
I wanted to mention this before October 18th's No Kings day.
It seems very important for me to share this understanding because no matter what, to "fight back" directly in those moments is just walking us backward and reinforcing what those "soldiers of the gestapo" already believe. No matter what violence they visit upon protestors and activists... we cannot respond with violence. We can protect. We can stand tall and defend. We can even use the protective use of force by physically restraining someone who has already clearly initiated an unacceptable physical act of violence that may end in harm or death of a protester.
...because if protesters ever, and I mean EVER throw a punch, even in response, the optics could be catastrophic. Biased news outlets are notorious for twisting a visual with whatever verbal narrative they choose and they're often not above cutting things out and leaving voids they fill with propagandic words. ...like a narcissist who just calls their partner or scapegoat crazy, unruly, difficult, problematic and otherwise nonspecifically bad.
What must happen on October 18th is a celebration of life, unity and collaboration... where some stand and hold ground and others dance, sing and show the world what humanity shares; love.
The concern here isn't just their process. It's the foundational element of their orders... deportation.
Any time you're given strict, regimented orders and instructions while simultaneously "othering" a person as your intended target or task, it's a fundamentally dehumanizing process applied through repetition and that mundanity eschews humanity and empathy for the sake of task completion.
By the very nature of these orders... we are allowing something Marshall Rosenberg called "amtssprache" in reference to Nazi "office speak" or bureaucratic language. These ICE officials are "just following orders" and those orders become less and less novel and spectacular, deepening the loss of empathic connection.
It's true these people are being used as fleshy robots to carry out what their consciousness deems menial tasks. It's also true that their trust and sense of belonging, empowerment and values are rooted in the people and systems giving them those orders.
That means they've already denied their own personal responsibility in this. That means when people attack them, shame them, complain or otherwise attempt to punish the ICE agents for their "decisions" we're already missing a key component... in their subconscious and cognitive reasoning mind... these aren't THEIR decisions. They are self-righteously blameless and therefore cannot and will not ever be reached by means of individual hate.
The ICE agents will simply internalize their beliefs that ordinary citizens and activists are "unruly" and even "stupid" because their rationality is so far detached from individual responsibility.
I wanted to mention this before October 18th's No Kings day.
It seems very important for me to share this understanding because no matter what, to "fight back" directly in those moments is just walking us backward and reinforcing what those "soldiers of the gestapo" already believe. No matter what violence they visit upon protestors and activists... we cannot respond with violence. We can protect. We can stand tall and defend. We can even use the protective use of force by physically restraining someone who has already clearly initiated an unacceptable physical act of violence that may end in harm or death of a protester.
...because if protesters ever, and I mean EVER throw a punch, even in response, the optics could be catastrophic. Biased news outlets are notorious for twisting a visual with whatever verbal narrative they choose and they're often not above cutting things out and leaving voids they fill with propagandic words. ...like a narcissist who just calls their partner or scapegoat crazy, unruly, difficult, problematic and otherwise nonspecifically bad.
What must happen on October 18th is a celebration of life, unity and collaboration... where some stand and hold ground and others dance, sing and show the world what humanity shares; love.
