Watching Fedi and the world react to the US president go absolutely unhinged in public, threatening war crimes as his cognitive grip disintegrates before our eyes, watching the horror and the outrage…there is something I want to tell you from Minneapolis.
And I’m not sure how, and I’m not sure if I can, but I want to try. People are always thanking us and calling us heroes and asking us for some kind of…something, anything we can offer in the face of the authoritarian march, and well, here it is, here is something, if I can figure out how to say it.
🧵
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Paul Cantrell
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •In the first days of December, as it became clear that the ICE invasion was a real thing that was really happening to us, as groups of us gathered swapping rumors about the kidnappings and clearly inadequate tips about phone security, we had no idea what to expect, no idea what would happen, no idea what we were going to do. As much as we’d planned, heard from other cities, tried to be ready, we had no idea.
Only one thing was crystal clear: nobody, absolutely nobody, was coming to save us.
2/
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Paul Cantrell
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •It was clarifying. We knew, with complete certainty, that nobody was coming to save us.
If we don’t stand in their way when they come to kidnap our neighbors, nobody will stand in their way.
If we don’t try to help people who need to hide, nobody will help them hide.
If we don’t try to feed people who can’t work, can’t even go outside to get food, nobody will feed them.
It put things into focus really fast.
3/
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Paul Cantrell
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •I wish I could tell you that all our preparations meant we were ready, that we never despaired, that we knew we would endure. I don’t think any of that is true. I spent much of December and January considering, seriously and vividly considering, that this was the arrival of an authoritarian police state that could outlive me. But I didn’t spend too much •time• considering that — because there was work to be done, work right here, in my lap, and nobody was coming to save us.
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Paul Cantrell
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •I never quite understood what Carolyn Forché meant when she said “the choice is ourselves or nothing.”
I think maybe I do now.
5/
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Paul Cantrell
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •You don’t know what’s going to happen. You don’t know what to do. You feel powerless. Nothing you can do seems like it could possibly be enough.
And then the work is there, on your doorstep, in your hands, and you •just do it• because that is what you do.
Nobody is coming to save you. The choice is ourselves or nothing. The moment you believe that, that you •know• it in your bones, is the moment the work truly begins.
6/
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Joe Brockmeier
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Mother Bones reshared this.
Adrian Riskin
in reply to Joe Brockmeier • • •It was a dark, dark day when US cops repurposed this wise adage by inverting its meaning. Or maybe it's just the LAPD, but they use it a lot and I hate it.
Sir Rochard 'Dock' Bunson
in reply to Adrian Riskin • • •Joe Brockmeier
in reply to Adrian Riskin • • •Deborah Preuss, pcc 🇨🇦
in reply to Adrian Riskin • • •@AdrianRiskin
"Is justice, just … ice?
Governed by greed and lust?
Just the strong doing what they can
And the weak suffering what they must?
- Joni Mitchell, in "Sex Kills"
LukefromDC
in reply to Adrian Riskin • • •Levka
in reply to Joe Brockmeier • • •“In the halls of justice the only justice is in the halls” — Lenny Bruce
Nuwagaba Gift
in reply to Joe Brockmeier • • •If there's no justice, why are there laws?
Huntn00
in reply to Nuwagaba Gift • • •Nuwagaba Gift
in reply to Huntn00 • • •Laws have been used to protect those in power and the rich as they oppressed the poor. When a commoner breaks the law, he's instantly charged and punished by the authorities but when when the one in power breaks the law, it's justified to make it look that he was right to do it. But a solution without laws still turns into chaos so no one should be above the law and that's how we can preserve justice.
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GertrudeZane 🇺🇦
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Grymt likes this.
David J. Atkinson
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Thoughtful and heartfelt insights. Thank you for sharing this thread. Maybe we will all be a little better psychologically prepared when it come for us.
Any practical info to report? What worked and what did not?
Paul Cantrell
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •My fellow people of the United States, if I have anything to teach from what Minneapolis just lived through, it is this:
Nobody is coming to save us.
Not Congress. Not the courts. Not the ICC or the EU or NATO. Not the generals or the rank and file. Not the press. Not the markets. Not the elections. Not some mythical version of “The People” that materializes out of nowhere as some messianic external force.
We’re it. We’re all we’ve got. If we don’t stop fascism from completely engulfing the US, then nobody stops it.
7/
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Paul Cantrell
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •“OK, but what then?!” you ask me, “What are we supposed to do? What is your grand plan for ending this?? What more am I supposed to do?!”
I want you to know that I spent all of December and January here in Minnesota racking my brains with this very question, and I never found an answer. Nothing could possibly be enough. I had no idea what to do. We had no idea what to do. And we were already doing it.
The whole time, we were lost — and we were already doing it.
8/
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Faraiwe
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •LukefromDC
in reply to Faraiwe • • •Paul Cantrell
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •And because we believed that nobody was coming to save us, miraculously, the world shifted around us. Help came pouring in from everywhere. Suddenly, we were heroes?? That part still doesn’t sit well with me, the whole Nobel Prize thing, all of it. But one thing does sit well, very well: when the work fell to each of us, we all started doing it. All of us.
I’ve felt a lot of things during the ICE siege, but one thing I’ve never felt is alone.
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Paul Cantrell
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •I used to wonder whether, say, the French resistance or the Underground Railroad could ever form in the modern US today. I don’t wonder that anymore. I watched it happen. I made it happen. •We• made it happen. And my part was so small! And yet…we made it happen.
Because we knew that if we didn’t, nobody, nobody would.
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Paul Cantrell
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •I cannot tell you what to do, watching the US president and his horrific regime trying to plunge the world into flame and darkness. I can’t tell you because I have no idea either.
All I can tell you is this:
You have to know, with total and completely clarity, that nobody is coming to save us.
And knowing that, you will feel lost — but strangely clear.
And suddenly the work will be on you.
And you will do it, because that is •just what you do•, because you •know• that nobody else is coming.
And you will still have no idea what to do, even as you are already doing it.
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Paul Cantrell
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •And of course there are a thousand practical lessons in fighting authoritarians, and we are passing them on as best we can as so many thousands of thousands have before us — but for now, for today, this is the one thing I can tell you: stop waiting for someone else to save you. This is it. We’re all we’ve got. Either we do this or no one does.
❝
It is either the beginning or the end
of the world, and the choice is ourselves
or nothing.
❞
/end
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DB
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Paul Cantrell
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •reshared this
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Joshua Neds-Fox
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •tinydoctor
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Weird Socks
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •These poems aren't exactly jumping into my lap but I'll give them a few reads.
She has quite a 1980s leftist story.
Camille Winds Down
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Paul Cantrell
in reply to Camille Winds Down • • •If you talk to your friend, please tell them to pass along my thanks to Forché for her writing. As you can tell, it’s been deeply important for me.
DonCC
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Eric Likness
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Heroes for realz. Even reluctant ones. Still heroes ✊
youtube.com/watch?v=L8LbWYKMkN…
David Bowie - Heroes (Official Video), Full HD (Digitally Remastered and Upscaled)
Enhanced Music Videos (YouTube)Nichol Brummer
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •this reminds me a bit of 2018 when Extinction Rebellion got started. At the same time with Greta and her friday kids.
Very different, different goals, short vs long term, but also similar.
cobalt
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •I’ve looked it up the shortcut, almost cheater way and read one of the reviews there among very positive reader reactions. This review made me order it because I see the time and context for some of the poems. Now I can imagine the difficult stories written efficiently but forceful. Will order—thanks, Paul.
“This slender volume of poetry may do more than the dozens of thick works of sociology hitting the bookshelves to explain why tens of thousands of Central Americans --- primarily from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras --- try so desperately to enter the US with their children each year.
Like Cassandra, Forché has been relegated to the realm of the unheard prophet who could have prevented the current (2018) tragic spectacle of the US running concentration camps for migrant children.”
𝐿𝒶𝓃𝒶 "not yet begun to fight"
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Melissa B
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •BrambleBearSnoring
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •That was one of the first books of poetry I ever bought for myself as a new young adult and poetry student, many moons ago. Very powerful. Eye opening for my privileged, protected young self. Big impact on my political development.
Highly recommend. Also her translation of Claribel Alegría's poems Flowers from the Volcano.
Paul Cantrell
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •I’ve received requests about sharing this thread in other venues. You are welcome to do so, and I’d be honored.
I hereby release the contents of this thread under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license (creativecommons.org/licenses/b…).
Please credit to:
Paul Cantrell
innig.net
Please let me know if you do anything cool with it.
Stay warm, stay strong.
Deed - Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons
creativecommons.orgnomadfarmer
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Paul Cantrell
in reply to nomadfarmer • • •Wonderful! Please share if you do it.
Court Cantrell does not comply
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Gondor
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Anarchist Trans Ace Pirate
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Wilson
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •libramoon
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •if enough of us wrote/emailed/phoned/screamed outside their office to our congressional reps to IMPEACH or face voter outrage leading to being voted out, and kept it up, we could regain our democracy
5calls.org
citizensimpeachment.com/
couragefordemocracy.com/#candi…
vote.gov/register
Courage For Democracy
ballast@gmail.com (Courage For Democracy)Grymt
in reply to libramoon • •Parliamentary democracy is not going to save you from fascism. You and I will.
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tend2wobble
in reply to Grymt • • •Paul Cantrell
in reply to tend2wobble • • •@tend2wobble @libramoon @grymt
Oh, yes, 100%. Both these things at once.
We did not wait for our electeds to do anything here in MN — but our taking action created a space for them to be bold too. We led, they followed.
It’s the difference between begging politicians to save us and telling politicians “come on, join us.”
See this thread here, for example: hachyderm.io/@inthehands/11616…
Paul Cantrell
2026-03-03 15:46:16
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tend2wobble
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Jonathan Doughty
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Martin Rust
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •If they had known in advance what would happen, would they have resorted to more violent or more subversive means of resistance?
Means that could serve as pretext to the tyrants for more brutal repression?
Massacres on protesters like in Iran this year or in China in 1989 seem more unlikely in the USA, but not impossible, what do you think?
And sure MAGA is waiting for a pretext to cancel or constrain the midterms.
Paul_IPv6
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Grymt likes this.
Linda Sgoluppi Artist
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •My late Father-in-Law and his family helped hide escaped prisoners and pilots etc in WW11, to have been discovered would have meant all the family being shot. I'm glad that didn't happen, not least that I would not have been married for 54 years to his late son who was 6 months old at the time.
#fediverse #Mastodon
B Haas
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •A labor organizer once told my colleagues & me something along the same lines to what you're saying now, and I've come back to it again and again in the years since, since applies in many contexts:
"If you’re waiting for the cavalry to come over the hill, they’re not coming. It’s just you, but you are enough."
It's just us, but we are enough!
MrEdgarBass
in reply to B Haas • • •libramoon
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •if enough of us wrote/emailed/phoned/screamed outside their office to our congressional reps to IMPEACH or face voter outrage leading to being voted out, and kept it up, we could regain our democracy
5calls.org
citizensimpeachment.com/
couragefordemocracy.com/#candi…
vote.gov/register
Courage For Democracy
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disorganized tropical low
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •This is definitely where I am. We have (only) whispers of opportunities in a different country, but excitement gave way to a sense of responsibility, of rolling up our sleeves to fight for our communities and a different vision of our country. Few have the option to leave. That means we fight or roll over. The latter doesn’t really seem like an option.
LOVE the Carolyn Forche callout. I pulled her books out when this all started. They’re still on the corner of my desk.
Nando161
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Wm.son
in reply to Nando161 • • •@nando161
There's several organizations aiming for May Day, 5/1/26.
Need about 12 million to be effective .. no work, no school, no shopping (a big one) no driving no nothing but protesting
TheNovemberFella ✊🏳️🌈 🇺🇦☸️🛰️🚀
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •0ptimist
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •hamid 🆓🆓🇵🇸
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Su_G
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Such a powerful piece, thank you. 🙏🏻
“ Nobody is coming to save you. The choice is ourselves or nothing. The moment you believe that, that you •know• it in your bones, is the moment the work truly begins.”
Can be infuriating to read commentary by some/ many who have not experienced / do not actually believe this; oxygen thieves! 😐
LukefromDC
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •First things first: THANK YOU for your service!
What you describe is how it always is in war. We are at war against a fascist, racist theocracy. Either we win this war or much of the world descends into a slave pit of misery.
And we are winning it! Crimethinc's analysis shows deportation flights from Minneapolis plunged after that Jan 14 neighborhood uprising.
Now Trump is in a war with Iran that he sought just after it became clear he had no path to victory in Minneapolis. He's losing there too.
Notice there have been no futher large scale, widely reported urban invasions intended to sow fear.
The deportation machine grinds on, one of the main threats now seems to be 287 (g) in shithole states like Florida which are much harder to fight. This however isn't flashy stuff that energizes the GOP base.
As I said elsewhere, a defeat for Trump in Minneapolis followed by a defeat for him in Iran could trigger a blowout defeat for the GOP in November even over ICE agents at polls etc. If THAT happens, Trump loses much of his influence, cannot rule by de
... Show more...First things first: THANK YOU for your service!
What you describe is how it always is in war. We are at war against a fascist, racist theocracy. Either we win this war or much of the world descends into a slave pit of misery.
And we are winning it! Crimethinc's analysis shows deportation flights from Minneapolis plunged after that Jan 14 neighborhood uprising.
Now Trump is in a war with Iran that he sought just after it became clear he had no path to victory in Minneapolis. He's losing there too.
Notice there have been no futher large scale, widely reported urban invasions intended to sow fear.
The deportation machine grinds on, one of the main threats now seems to be 287 (g) in shithole states like Florida which are much harder to fight. This however isn't flashy stuff that energizes the GOP base.
As I said elsewhere, a defeat for Trump in Minneapolis followed by a defeat for him in Iran could trigger a blowout defeat for the GOP in November even over ICE agents at polls etc. If THAT happens, Trump loses much of his influence, cannot rule by decree, cannot push bills through an opposing Congress-and loses his path to an illegal 3ed term or otherwise staying in office past Jan 20 2029. Sweeping him out will leave the Dems owing huge debts to our street fighters and a torrent of public rage will be unleashed against the GOP. Hopefully we can then throw down everything Trump stands for and smash it to bits, burn it to ashes.
If Trump goes for an auto-coup after defeats in Minneapolis and Iran, expect it to blow up in his face. In that scenario, we may be able to get him out immediately. Every Federal official will have to choose between obeying Trump and obeying the courts, and they will mostly be trying to cover their own asses.
Worst comes to worst we fight an open-ended guerilla war, and Trump's successors are never able to pacify the continent. Eventually their regime burns out, exhausted from the war.
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Nicole Parsons
in reply to LukefromDC • • •@LukefromDC
commondreams.org/news/trump-oi…
I have one suggestion, go after the money of the billionaires funding MAGA.
Here's a list to be Investigated for RICO & sedition.
Bradley, Koch, Coors, Scaife, Mellon, Seid, Uihlein.
desmog.com/2024/08/14/project-…
desmog.com/2025/01/21/mapped-d…
desmog.com/2026/04/01/the-vest…
The fossil fuel industry funds fascism globally.
nytimes.com/2025/12/20/us/poli…
Tech is co-opted
axios.com/2017/12/14/koch-trie…
bloomberg.com/news/articles/20…
businessinsider.com/saudi-arab…
1/
Saudi Arabia's millennial crown prince got a rare tour inside Apple's new $5 billion campus
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Nicole Parsons
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •2/
63 billionaires funded Jan 6.
commondreams.org/newswire/2021…
Mueller never investigated the recipients of Putin's election meddling. It is as illegal to give bribes as to accept them, or at least it used to be.
Why not?
vanityfair.com/news/2018/06/th…
washingtonpost.com/politics/20…
This isn’t simply campaign finance, it's vast public corruption on an international scale.
Trump’s Billionaire Enablers: The 63 Billionaires Worth $243 Billion Who Bankrolled Trumps Re-Election Bid
newswireeditor (Common Dreams)DoomsdaysCW reshared this.
Nicole Parsons
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •3/
nytimes.com/interactive/2021/0…
theintercept.com/2022/06/30/su…
The donors that bought 147 congressional election deniers, a Supreme Court, and numerous government bodies
Investigate these entities first.
1. SpaceX $288,723,409
2. Adelson Clinic/Miriam Adelson $146,881,700
3. Uline Inc $146,027,201
4. Citadel LLC $108,669,316
5. Susquehanna International Group $101,468,362
6. Andreessen Horowitz $89,036,553
7. Empower Parents PAC $82,500,000
8. Coinbase $79,008,020
9. Elliott Management $68,846,510
How Charles Koch Purchased the Supreme Court’s EPA Decision
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Nicole Parsons
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •4/
10. Securing American Greatness $67,558,284
11. Senate Leadership Fund $67,445,300
12. Club for Growth $59,846,594
13. Koch Inc $49,092,685
14. Blackstone Group $48,609,890
15. Stand Together Chamber of Commerce $44,801,948
16. Restoration PAC $41,168,363
17. Crownquest Operating $35,752,512
18. Bigelow Aerospace $34,991,590
19. Building America's Future $33,670,000
20. Stephens Inc $27,343,518
21. British American Tobacco $26,175,838
22. American Prosperity Alliance $22,549,000
Nicole Parsons
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •5/
23. Manzanita Management Group $22,159,143
24. America First Action/America First Policies $21,724,798
25. Mountaire Corp $21,375,080
26. Reyes Holdings $21,192,607
27. Energy Transfer LP $19,321,695
28. Hendricks Holding Co $19,306,538
opensecrets.org/elections-over…
These individuals fund Trump & the GOP's corruption:
1. Elon Musk $291,482,587
2. Timothy Mellon $197,047,200
3. Miriam Adelson $148,304,900
4. Richard Uihlein $143,498,936
5. Ken Griffin $108,402,284
6. Jeff Yass $101,128,680
Nicole Parsons
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •6/
They funded an insane wannabe dictator into the Oval Office. Deliberately.
7. Paul E. Singer $66,800,800
8. Marc Andreessen $42,365,113
9. Stephen Schwarzman $40,202,039
10. Timothy Dunn $35,780,200
11. Rob Bigelow $34,991,500
12. Diane Hendricks $33,165,417
13. JJ Ricketts $32,273,650
14. Shirley W. Ryan $32,198,116
15. Warren A. Stephens $25,895,650
16. Isaac & Laura Perlmutter $25,344,890
17. Vince & Linda McMahon $23,961,659
18. Ronnie & Nina Cameron $21,372,500
19. Jan Koum $20,855,091
Nicole Parsons
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •7/
These folks fund Trump's kleptocracy.
20. Thomas Klingenstein $17,410,263
21. Rob Walton $17,572,601
22. Janet J. Duchossois $16,306,033
23. Howard W. Lutnick $16,503,667
24. Kelcy L. Warren $16,151,105
25. Walter W. Buckley Jr. $15,522,500
26. Thomas Peterffy $14,305,900
27. Anthony Pratt $14,000,000
28. Sherrilyn Fisher $13,299,894
29. David Millstone $13,413,486
30. Lynne Walton $13,037,750
31. Charles Schwab $12,801,600
32. Stephen Wynn $12,518,750
33. Anthony Lomangino $9,529,705
Nicole Parsons
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •8/
Tax the rich.
34. J. Christopher Reyes $9,536,425
35. Jay Winters Faison $9,084,324
36. James Davis $8,497,854
37. John W. Childs $8,694,286
38. Patricia Duggan $8,446,099
39. Richard G. Haworth $7,500,800
40. Marc J. Rowan $8,721,299
41. Jeffrey Specher, Kelly Loeffler $7,052,013
42. John L. Nau III $7,030,556
43. John & Shannon V. Addison $6,757,065
44. Robert H. Book $6,986,387
45. Susan Fox $6,687,414
46. Patricia Perkins-Leone $6,606,600
47. Jeffrey Hildebrand $6,508,389
Nicole Parsons
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •9/
Get rid of Citizens United & their tax cuts.
48. Bernard Marcus $9,397,150
49. Steve Brodie $6,481,298
50. Daniel Newlin $6,063,928
51. Trevor D. Rees-Jones $5,765,124
52. Ross & Sarah Perot $5,643,416
53. Harold C. Simmons $5,596,530
54. Kelly Navarro $5,373,100
55. Alice Walton $10,248,000
56. Rob Granieri $5,587,899
opensecrets.org/elections-over…
Conny Nasch
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •Nicole Parsons
in reply to Conny Nasch • • •@connynasch
Peter Thiel supports Trump in ways that he did not report as campaign finance in the 2024 election cycle.
Thiel and his tech allies are an extraordinary threat to every democracy.
motherjones.com/politics/2025/…
As Palantir cashes in on Trump 2.0, Peter Thiel is bankrolling Republicans again
Daniel Friedman (Mother Jones)Siobhan
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •Expropriation Now!
nanowiz
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •End the fallacy that corporations are people
Nicole Parsons
in reply to nanowiz • • •Koch Network waged decades-long malign influence campaigns to get "corporate personhood".
Their next effort is "AI personhood" so they can buy swarms of AI agents to overwhelm and overturn the will of real people.
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
futuristspeaker.com/artificial…
news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-w…
acsh.org/news/2025/11/20/your-…
For people freaked out over extremely rare non-citizen voter fraud, the GOP are weirdly unperturbed by Putin launching "AI voters" at elections.
Your Chatbot Will Soon Be Alive - Courtesy the Lawyers and Philosophers
Barbara Pfeffer Billauer JD MA (Occ. Health) PhD (American Council on Science and Health)reshared this
Huntn00 reshared this.
Tattered
in reply to nanowiz • • •@nanowiz @Npars01 @LukefromDC
It was a useful piece of propaganda for the side winning the class war, wasn’t it?
One day, the working class will rise, even in the US.
Ruth O'Day
in reply to nanowiz • • •Bumper sticker: "I will believe that corporations are people as soon as Texas executes one."
Lisa Gets Politik
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •GinevraCat
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •DoomsdaysCW reshared this.
Pollinators
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •BrambleBearSnoring
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Her work is so powerful. I am so sorry that it is so apt for these times, on your own doorsteps.
Thank you for posting this thread, for resisting.
For anyone new to Forché, her works below.
carolynforche.net/bibliography…
Books – Carolyn Forché
WebTree (Carolyn Forché)Infrogmation
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Reminds me very much of New Orleans in the months after the Hurricane Katrina Federal Flood and continuing disaster.
web.archive.org/web/2006081407…
Ashley Morris: the blog: Sinn Fein: Ourselves alone
web.archive.orgInfrogmation
in reply to Infrogmation • • •Nicole Parsons
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •The fetishization of "heroes" in American culture has always been cognitively dissonant.
professionalsoutherner.com/202…
People waiting around being miserable, suffering, and dying, waiting for the cavalry to arrive, or a small group of superheroes, or a lone man coming to the rescue.
It portrays Americans as a passive people letting others step forward & do the hard stuff.
Perlmutter, a major GOP donor, is the former owner of several movie franchises like the Marvel Universe.
1/
The Problem of the Hero — How to Watch
gedwardjourney (Professional Southerner)Paul Cantrell reshared this.
Nicole Parsons
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •2/
I sometimes wonder if such movies, with their strong theme that citizens are powerless collateral damage as the powerful battle each other, that they train voters to think they can sit on the sidelines & be Monday Morning Quarterbacks, second guessing but not participating.
16. Isaac & Laura Perlmutter $25,344,890
hollywoodreporter.com/business…
The Epstein Class wants us to believe someone else has the job of fighting fascism and the electorate just has to sit on their asses & ...
A Scary Sight for Disney: Ousted Marvel Mogul Seated Next to Trump at Mar-a-Lago Gatsby Bash
Erik Hayden (The Hollywood Reporter)Su_G
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •@Npars01
Resonates & has a lot of explanatory power: “ The fetishization of "heroes" in American culture has always been cognitively dissonant.” ☹️
A striking but dissonant feature of US culture, as you say. 🤔
Makes what Paul writes all the more important.
#passivity #heroWorship #heroFetish #USPol
@inthehands
ChookMother 🇦🇺🦘
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •JeremyMillar
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Faraiwe
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •courage is not the absence of fear; absence of fear in face of clear, present danger is foolishness. Courage is being scared, and still doing whatever needs done.
Why does this add up? Because there are no heroes. They are not coming to save us, swooping from the clouds. We are each others' heroes.
Also because the villains are also like us. And there are more of us.
Keep trucking!
Andreas
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •"You have to know, with total and completely clarity, that nobody is coming to save us."
in Europe - in other aspects like the war of the rich against the poor (Warren Buffet) we are still waiting for someone to save us ... worst mentalitiy of this kind in Germany...
stay brave !
Pseudo Nym
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Jean-François Mezei
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •barbra
in reply to Jean-François Mezei • • •@jfmezei
His cognitive abilities have never been that great, which is why he used to keep his academic records private.
Being a thug and a bully works only until it doesn't. He's so ready lost his war with Iran, and oil prices went up again today in reaction to his threats.And
He's been vigorously TACOing on every deadline he's set. Iran is getting $2 million for every ship they let through. And with the presence of VIA assets being active in Iran publicly known because of news reports of CIA activity in the rescue of the lost pilot, you can be sure those agents will be hunted down, even if it means killing 100 suspects for each real one.
This is the essence of survival. Iran can't afford to back down, ever. Not to the US, not to Israel, not to anyone. The US simply doesn't have the manpower to pull off a successful invasion, which wouldn't reopen the Strait anyway, and businesses would prefer to pay the Iranians to let their ships through rather than have them blocked for the next 3 months or more.
Simple economics. Trump is a lame duck even before the midterms.
Jean-François Mezei
in reply to barbra • • •@barbra I do not disagree. However, if one is to speak of mental illness, you need to prove degradation, and since he has never been able to negotiate and always been a thug to impose his terms/condition, he isn't really degrading. He is just stuck into conditions where he was NEVER able to deal with.
(he is a mafioso thug unless subservient to someone who rescued him financially like the Russians).
The crowd size when first elected closer to psychosis illness than current war.
barbra
in reply to Jean-François Mezei • • •@jfmezei you don't have to prove mental degradation for a mental illness diagnosis. Look at the people who are obviously mentally ill without any past baseline history, based on their current behaviour.
When someone is standing on the corner howling at the moon it's obvious they have a problem. When they let addictions drive their every action they're tucked up at a pretty basic level. When they want sex with underage minors who can't consent and they insist it's the kids fault they are messed up. And then there's bestiality ...
Marianne
in reply to barbra • • •barbra
in reply to Marianne • • •@noodlemaz @jfmezei the legal term is sexual assault, not rape. That's why Trump won $$$ when someone said he raped one of his victims. Same as Clinton said "I didn't have sex with that woman" because "sex" was defined as penis penetrating vagina in that state. Oral didn't count.
Sleezebags gonna sleezebag. Always.
Marianne
in reply to barbra • • •Yes some areas define differently. We don't have to equivocate on that.
Don't call it "sex" is the bottom line.
barbra
in reply to Marianne • • •Unfortunately, with Trump he will sue AND win if you say he raped someone, he's done it in the past. Also, we now use the term sexual assault to go beyond the old term rape because rape didn't cover a lot of actions that are sexual assau!ts, and wouldn't be punishable as rape. For example, a lot of places, forced oral sex wasn't counted as rape under the law since there was no penis to vaginal penetration. Which also meant forced anal sex was not legally rape either.
Marianne
in reply to barbra • • •If you're scared of a threat from him and don't want to say rape, at least don't call it sex. That's all.
barbra
in reply to Marianne • • •@noodlemaz @jfmezei using the term "sexual assault" includes way more sex crimes than rape ever did. As I pointed out, rape in many jurisdictions only included penis-vagiina, so it wasn't possible to charge anyone with rape if the perp and victim were both male. Has zero to do with consent. The law was too restrictive and left too many unprotected. Using the term sexual assault fixed that. Think of it - a man could not be charged with raping his son, because no vagina. Sexual assault has that covered. There's a reason people pushed for the term sexual assault - it left less wiggle room for perps to try to wiggle out, same as scum bag Clinton argued he never had sex with his intern because state law didn't consider a blow job as sex - only a penis penetrating a vagina. So anal sex, blow jobs, and hand jobs weren't sex. And forcing someone to do the same wasn't legally rape.And
Sticking with the term rape instead of sexual assault favours the Epstein class. Not a good look.
Marianne
in reply to barbra • • •@barbra @jfmezei you: "When they want sex with underage minors who can't consent"
My objection: that is not sex.
If you'd said 'want to sexually assault minors' I wouldn't have commented.
Does that help?
Paul Cantrell
in reply to Marianne • • •unsubscribe please
ozeng
in reply to barbra • • •Eric T. MacKnight
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •HTPC NZ
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Misuse Case
in reply to HTPC NZ • • •@htpcnz Way to miss the point of the entire thread, but I would expect that from someone who gripes about “limousine liberals” or whatever without any prompting.
Heh. Why am I even talking to you? There’s an even chance that you’re an LLM.
ArchaeoIain
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •brilliant thread and very chilling that the fascists and billionaires have taken such control that it is up to individuals sharing with each other to resist the invasion by the evil forces. Well done and thank you. I hope I never have to experience it in such a raw way.
Paul Cantrell
2026-04-05 22:34:27
Bob Blaskiewicz 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇬🇱
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •elala@nrw.social
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Lisa Gets Politik
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Randulo.com (Randy)
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •AAA365
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Community that worked together to save their neighbour from deportation
Tara Cobham (My London)Sea
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Well spoken Paul. The choice is indeed ours to make: freedom, or tyranny, all, or nothing.
Thank you for your words and actions. Thank you for your sacrifices.
Long live the people of Minneapolis, may your deeds inspire others to resist tyranny around the world.
the
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Darren du Nord
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •philmehew
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •…and still no one will do anything to stop him.
To me, that’s far more disturbing than one man with syphilitic dementia.
lonely extrovert
Unknown parent • • •