A major reason police officers wear uniforms is for their obvious identification as a legal law enforcement entity formally trained and endorsed by the state. While it’s generally symbolic, it is at least a basic-ass demonstration of good faith identification/adherence to the law. EVEN IF it’s just performative, it’s still at least saying their actions will be in accordance with the law, and at least implying that their intent is enforcement of that same law.

However, if they not only ditch the uniform, but even literally wear things to mask their identity, the symbolism of good-faith action and intent go out the window. Why would any reasonable person trust such a blatant disregard for clear establishment of authority figures? Furthermore, if such symbolism is reversed in such a manner, how could any reasonable person not assume ill-intent? If they’re taking away even US citizens for an indeterminate amount of time and to an indeterminate place, then wouldn’t it be in the best interest of the people that encounter law enforcement to resist by any means–even lethal means? And to further compound the problem, there were recent high-profile political murders by someone impersonating a police officer. So not only are we unable to trust legitimate police officers while they’re in uniform, we now have(admittedly weak(for now)) evidence that the uniform no longer implies good-faith intent of the person wearing it. Which leads me to one final major issue; if our confidence in officers’ law-bound behavior is shattered, and our confidence in our citizen status to ensure our rights is shattered, and our confidence in police uniforms being fairly reliable identification symbolism is shattered, then what amount of confidence is left in any law enforcement officials when they then wear clothing that is symbolically indicative of someone acting in bad faith with ill-intent? And then local law enforcement, in uniform, protect and assist alleged federal law enforcement in their very high-profile raids.

So, moral reasoning aside, it would be unwise to even engage with any law enforcement or anyone that claims to be law enforcement. They can’t be trusted and their intent is unknown. They are visibly armed with a variety of weapons and are currently engaging in illegal operations systematically–even though the confines of current law effectively gives them legal means to do whatever they want. All that said, it can reasonably argued that it’s effectively a death sentence if you get swept up by someone claiming to be law enforcement, regardless of whether or not they can be confidently identified as such. All that to say: some fed bois are gonna get smoked before the end of the year and they’ve earned it by undermining themselves in the public eye. I have extreme confidence that things will get better in the long run, but as for the foreseeable future, the worst is yet to come.

Tl;dr: Law enforcement abandoning clear uniform identification for bad-faith/ill-intent symbolism logically justifies lethal resistance. There will probably be multiple shootings of feds by the end of the year at this rate. If some alphabet feds get shot, could be claimed as a cases belli for some real bullshit.

Man, one thing that kills me is democrats perpetually eating up the rabid opposition to populism. Like, I get it, obviously establishment democrats are gonna push back since it directly affects their status, but it’s like democrats have been falling into this stupid politics as a team sport bullshit real hard in recent years, and you see it with the blanket demonization of something like populism of all things. “Like, akshuallee, the elites are good bro”. They don’t think for themselves anymore.

Tensions within the GOP are growing, with hawkish Republicans supporting Waltz and Trump loyalists opposing him.

Fuckin gottem.

Well, when you figure out why exactly you want to do it, when you want to do it, and who all should be involved, build off of that with actionable steps. The why is the most important as you need to be able to communicate exactly what it is your demands are and what will be considered satisfactory to end the strike not only to those you need to negotiate with, but with those you want to participate and as a message to the public. Make a realistic ‘when’ so that you have a deadline and something concrete to work with. The who needs to be quantifiable. Do you want a certain percentage of workers participating before you start? Get a number and stick with it.

The main thing to keep in mind is to communicate with others and yourself in clear and actionable steps. Asking someone to strike with you? What does their role looks like? What will they be doing? When will they be doing it? What resources will be provided to them? Found your way to the negotiating table? What are your demands? What will you not compromise on? What are you willing to compromise on? Do you have someone who understands corporate lawyerspeak that can translate for you? Do you have a reliable way to effectively communicate the results of negotiations with the participating workers?

I think it’s better to try and start this yourself. Find like-minded people at work to help delegate out the tasks needed to organize and sustain the strike. As you organize, you might have certain organizations reach out to provide assistance, which would be great, but plan on doing it all yourself. Afterall, the movement is about empowering the workers, and what could be more empowering than having come together to do this yourselves?

https://youtu.be/8CcOimOqDVM

Aw, why the downvotes? I thought it was funny.

Oh yeah, I guess those can also do that.

No, it’s really not the same thing. You can legislate better schools with a variety of methods, the main point being that you’re regulating government jobs(to oversimplify). You’re more limited to negative legislation for parents, such as punishing child abuse. I guess you could technically legislate certain mandates for parents to be better parents, but like, good luck passing said legislation. And even if you do(and this is the big boi), how the fuck do you enforce that??? And on top of even that, how can you be sure parents will be qualified/able to teach their kids such a wide variety of skills? You can fire teachers for incompetence and publicly investigate school districts for failing to faithfully implement good practice. And it should also be mentioned that shifting these expectations (especially via legislation) onto parents will disproportionately burden the poor who will be less likely to have the time, skills, or knowledge to teach said things.

I’m struggling with answering this question. I mean, obviously, I don’t know. I could give an opinion on what I think is most likely to happen, but what does it matter? Like, legitimately, what does it matter? And I do mean it earnestly, what would it matter even if I just so happened to be right about my speculation?

We all certainly hope that 2025 will be better. But I think the important thing to remember is that 2025 being better is possible. In fact, I used to be a homophobic ultra-conservative fundamentalist Christian bigot. In my remorse over the person I used to be, I noticed I felt shame rather than self-righteousness over my condemnation of people just being who they are. In my longing to undo the evil I committed in the past, I realized I have the opportunity to fight for good, even if it means fighting what feels like my own reflection. I got better. I still have a ways to go and even more internalized prejudice I need to demolish, but at least I know getting better is possible, because I did it before goddammit. And if a dickhead like me can be better, can’t we all?

And even if things just turn to absolute shit, I know I can at least make my tiny corner of the world a little bit brighter if I can make myself better. And you know what? I think it’s good enough for me to know that I can start doing something about that right now. Afterall, as Marcus Aurelius would say to himself; It is up to you!

Civilization III Final Fantasy IX Valheim Kerbal Space Program Stellaris Empire Earth Borderlands 2 Morrowind Halo: Reach Rimworld

The must be mentioned: KOTOR Bioshock(and Infinite) Final Fantasy 4, 14, 5, 6 in that order AOE 2 Red Alert 2 Total War: Rome, Rome 2, Medieval 2, and Shogun Lords of the Realm 2 No Man’s Sky Horizon series Space Empires V Battlefield 1942 Medal of Honor(the first one from the 90’s, not that bullshit reboot from 2010) Smash Bros Melee, 64, Brawl in that order Crysis Warcraft II: The Tides of Darkness Theme Hospital MDK2 Chrono Trigger

It was tough leaving some of those mentioned ones out of the top ten, but the top ten belong where they are for me for how definining they were/are for me.

Oh shit! Independent Fundamental Baptist! I had to deal with living with that shit, too. At the end of the day, if the king james bible was good enough for Peter and Paul, it’s good enough for me. Also, rock music is the devil.

Hello, so I’m not autistic as far as I’m aware, but I do have ADHD-C and have also greatly struggled with anxiety throughout my life. I hope my experience and knowledge can be of some use to you.

To start off, man, hard relate on both those fears. I mean different mechanism for me in terms of fear of trying new things since it’s more of a “how much time and money am I gonna sink into this obsessively only to completely lose interest in an indeterminate amount of time?”. And to your second point, yeah, the world isn’t built for those of us who aren’t nt. I could go on and on about many anxieties I continue to struggle with to this day, including worry about never truly gaining mastery over myself, losing access to healthcare and/or medication my wife and I need, and external events of climate change, political turmoil, anti-intellectualism, misinformation campaigns, and academics seeming to be losing their fucking minds when it comes to anything philosophy related. I just want to let you know that you’re not alone.

As for how I’ve dealt with this in my life, it’s primarily come down to Stoic philosophy. Especially when it comes to the anxiety, it’s usually about the framing of how I think about something–much like how modern therapy looks for underlying beliefs and/or experiences that may be a root cause. Someone cuts me off while I’m driving, so I become angry, but it isn’t the other driver that has made me angry, it’s my opinion on the matter. While it’s true that they shouldn’t do such things because it’s unsafe and can cause harm, it’s possible that they didn’t do that on purpose and/or out of malice. Even if they did, what would my anger truly accomplish other than increasing my potential to escalate the situation? In fact, if they truly are a ‘dumbass’ or ‘idiot’, why would I become angry with them when they act according to their nature? Ultimately, I’m not in control of that person, so why react in emotional futility? I’m in control of me and how I treat others with respect, kindness, and charity. I just give them some extra space for everyone’s safety and move on. It’s about what I can and cannot control. I cannot control these externalities of reality. It’s reality, why not just neutrally accept it as such? I must keep in mind that I always have the option of not having an opinion.

I’ve always struggled with anxiety in my relationships and my marriage is no exception. I fucking love my wife. She my best friend, the best lover I’ve ever had, and my whole world. But I don’t own her. She isn’t mine to keep forever. As the bittersweet saying goes; this too shall pass. She could leave me, she could suddenly and rapidly decline in health, she could die today or in 3,000 years, we could be married for just one more year or maybe 100 more years, who knows? What I do know and can do now is love and appreciate her now, because, well, she is what matters to me and someday she will no longer be in my life. I must admit that despite my many years of therapy, bettering myself, and practicing Stoic philosophy, I’m certain I couldn’t handle suddenly losing my wife right now. I don’t mean that in the sense that I ought to be able to emotionally shrug it off, because that’s insane, unrealistic, and counter to Stoic philosophy, but rather in the sense that I would lose rationality. While I recognize this is a problem, I have found that it’s something that is too insurmountable for me to master on my own. So yeah, I still need therapy and I must accept that this is where I am in my efforts to master myself.

The important techniques I’ve learned that have worked for me that come from Stoic philosophy is daily self-reflection, mindfulness, constant reminders of what I do/do not control, reminders that I will inevitably run into daily troubles, and ‘amor fati’(or ‘love your fate’, that is: to not only accept your life as it is, but to love and appreciate it while you have what you have). Constant self-reflection is crucial because no one truly “controls” how they immediately react to things, as it’s the beliefs that will dictate the outcome of your reaction. I became more calm as a driver because of my end-of-day self-reflections in examining why I reacted the ways I did and honestly reasoning with myself about it, which led to me catching myself in those reactions more and more until the unreasonable behavior waned into the past. It’s the same with my anxieties, although much more of a game of whack-a-mole and work in progress. But boy have those moles dramatically decreased their frequency in popping up and boy have I regained so much of my life by no longer ceding control of myself to them.

If you want further resources, I strongly recommend reading Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. I can also recommend videos from The Daily Stoic with the asterisk that he can get a little… ‘markety’ every now and again. As I like to say; eat the meat and throw out the bones. And, of course, I always recommend finding a good therapist that you click with as this stuff is their specialty. I mean, obviously, sure, but I think it’s worth mentioning that much of modern therapy finds it’s roots in Stoic Philosophy. Anyway, I hope my wall of text is of some use to you or anyone else who took the time to read. I’m open to questions, comments, and any accusations… or just a shrug. It’s up to you, afterall, I’m not in control of you.😘

TL;DR: Can relate, although not autistic. You’re not alone, your feelings are valid, I recommend Stoic philosophy, I give examples of how it helped me, read Meditations, and I feel gross for using an emoji, but like ¯_(ツ)_/¯