4 ms·

Goons don't scale well. Wide-scale intimidation does.

by Arubis 7mo ago

mystraline 7mo ago
Its called police. And they scale extraordinarily well. And turns out power-tripping men offered raw power over other humans on threat of violence is something they like. And ICE? Remember J6 and Three Percenter's and all those right wing militias? They ended up in ICE. Same reasons.
- brewcejener 7mo ago
  A very bold claim I have heard repeatedly, backed up with zero evidence. Care to share any proof you have found?
  - nurettin 7mo ago
    It is called swatting.
  - pstuart 7mo ago
    https://archive.is/nwxkh https://archive.is/nwxkh That was from a quick search, no doubt there's more. Now it gets down to trust issues on reporting.
  - pessimizer 7mo ago
    It's very important to pretend that ICE goons are significantly different from regular cops, because Democrats are going to wave a magic wand and declare ICE to be regular cops again when they are in control of them again. Meanwhile, regular cops have been doing the same awful things that they've always been doing, literally at the command of Democratic mayors who are pompously declaring that they won't enforce immigration law in speeches. They'll send cops to throw your shit into the street when your rent suddenly doubles, and won't report an illegal immigrant felon (whose history we know nothing about) to ICE. Organized white supremacists are nobodies with no power, they're all over the military, the cops, prison guards, and ICE. Meanwhile, Parchman Farm in Mississippi doesn't even report the people who are dying there, and has plastic all over the floors because the roofs are open to the elements. That's just legal American black people who this country actually owes something to, though. That was trendy like five years ago, it's so over now.
    - ToucanLoucan 7mo ago
      If you set aside social justice issues, the Democrats and Republicans basically agree. Republicans want a theocratic authoritarian state that can micromanage the workers and keep the economy going. Democrats want the same thing but with freedom of religion and more female CEOs of color. Now you obviously shouldn't set social justice aside, and given the choice, I absolutely prefer the capitalist hellscape where my friends and I are not being rounded up and killed, but that's a REMARKABLY low standard I've had to settle on as a voter.
      - KerrAvon 7mo ago
        GOPs and Democrats are the same on environmental, science, and public health policy completely, huh? You sure you wanna both sides it that hard?
        ToucanLoucan 7mo ago
        > GOPs and Democrats are the same on environmental, science, and public health policy completely, huh? Environmental: Democrats Joe Manchin, Jon Tester, Michael Bennet, Bob Casey, Martin Heinrich, John Hickenlooper, and Ben Ray Lujan all backed the pro-fossil fuel position and blocked the Biden admin's ban on fracking. And that's before you get to the eleven House Democrats who crossed the aisle to vote for gutting NEPA, which is basically the foundational law for environmental review in this country. Science: Democrats continue to stall on GMO foods despite thousands of studies confirming they're safe, and have pushed heavy restrictions treating them like health hazards with zero scientific basis. This is basically their version of climate change denial and it deserves way more attention than it gets. Public Health: The entire mess with the ACA, juicing the insurance industry while keeping healthcare gatekept behind financial hooks and ensuring workers MUST stay employed to have any reliable access to it. Yeah they get some points for trying to keep Medicare and Social Security afloat, they don't want all the poor people to just die about it, but those are remarkably low bars. So, the same? No. That said, NOTHING about ANY of that could be called "Left" by anyone being remotely intellectually honest.
      - mystraline 7mo ago
gzread 7mo ago
In a sense, surveillance is a multiplier on your goons, creating virtual goons. If you have 5 goons but you can send them directly to the house of people who disagree with the government with 99% accuracy, it's like you had 500 goons waiting outside 500 houses then only entering the ones where people disagree with the government.
rembal 7mo ago
Goons work MUCH better than rockets for intimidation, and actually scale much better. Rocket is obvious and spectacular. Those are for amateurs. A journalist got beaten up to the brink of death and will never walk again by 'unknown perpetrators'? Well, it's a dangerous country, and he had it coming, maybe some concerned citizens went a bit too far, but our dear leader cannot watch over everybody. Scaling: do you think other journalists will not take notice? And he will still be alive to reminder them how they may end up. If you want to see how far imagination can go here, look up Artyom Kamardin and think how would you behave after hearing his story .
deleted 7mo ago
[deleted]
ghywertelling 7mo ago
Goons are bad publicity. Doing your dirty stuff as hidden from view as possible is best option

Goons don't scale well. Wide-scale intimidation does.

by Arubis 7mo ago

Goons don't scale well. Wide-scale intimidation does.

Its called police. And they scale extraordinarily well. And turns out power-tripping men offered raw power over other humans on threat of violence is something they like. And ICE? Remember J6 and Three Percenter's and all those right wing militias? They ended up in ICE. Same reasons.

brewcejener 7mo ago
A very bold claim I have heard repeatedly, backed up with zero evidence. Care to share any proof you have found?
- nurettin 7mo ago
  It is called swatting.
- pstuart 7mo ago
  https://archive.is/nwxkh https://archive.is/nwxkh That was from a quick search, no doubt there's more. Now it gets down to trust issues on reporting.
- pessimizer 7mo ago
  It's very important to pretend that ICE goons are significantly different from regular cops, because Democrats are going to wave a magic wand and declare ICE to be regular cops again when they are in control of them again. Meanwhile, regular cops have been doing the same awful things that they've always been doing, literally at the command of Democratic mayors who are pompously declaring that they won't enforce immigration law in speeches. They'll send cops to throw your shit into the street when your rent suddenly doubles, and won't report an illegal immigrant felon (whose history we know nothing about) to ICE. Organized white supremacists are nobodies with no power, they're all over the military, the cops, prison guards, and ICE. Meanwhile, Parchman Farm in Mississippi doesn't even report the people who are dying there, and has plastic all over the floors because the roofs are open to the elements. That's just legal American black people who this country actually owes something to, though. That was trendy like five years ago, it's so over now.
  - ToucanLoucan 7mo ago
    If you set aside social justice issues, the Democrats and Republicans basically agree. Republicans want a theocratic authoritarian state that can micromanage the workers and keep the economy going. Democrats want the same thing but with freedom of religion and more female CEOs of color. Now you obviously shouldn't set social justice aside, and given the choice, I absolutely prefer the capitalist hellscape where my friends and I are not being rounded up and killed, but that's a REMARKABLY low standard I've had to settle on as a voter.
    - KerrAvon 7mo ago
      GOPs and Democrats are the same on environmental, science, and public health policy completely, huh? You sure you wanna both sides it that hard?
      - ToucanLoucan 7mo ago
        > GOPs and Democrats are the same on environmental, science, and public health policy completely, huh? Environmental: Democrats Joe Manchin, Jon Tester, Michael Bennet, Bob Casey, Martin Heinrich, John Hickenlooper, and Ben Ray Lujan all backed the pro-fossil fuel position and blocked the Biden admin's ban on fracking. And that's before you get to the eleven House Democrats who crossed the aisle to vote for gutting NEPA, which is basically the foundational law for environmental review in this country. Science: Democrats continue to stall on GMO foods despite thousands of studies confirming they're safe, and have pushed heavy restrictions treating them like health hazards with zero scientific basis. This is basically their version of climate change denial and it deserves way more attention than it gets. Public Health: The entire mess with the ACA, juicing the insurance industry while keeping healthcare gatekept behind financial hooks and ensuring workers MUST stay employed to have any reliable access to it. Yeah they get some points for trying to keep Medicare and Social Security afloat, they don't want all the poor people to just die about it, but those are remarkably low bars. So, the same? No. That said, NOTHING about ANY of that could be called "Left" by anyone being remotely intellectually honest.
    - mystraline 7mo ago

gzread 7mo ago

In a sense, surveillance is a multiplier on your goons, creating virtual goons. If you have 5 goons but you can send them directly to the house of people who disagree with the government with 99% accuracy, it's like you had 500 goons waiting outside 500 houses then only entering the ones where people disagree with the government.

rembal 7mo ago

Goons work MUCH better than rockets for intimidation, and actually scale much better. Rocket is obvious and spectacular. Those are for amateurs. A journalist got beaten up to the brink of death and will never walk again by 'unknown perpetrators'? Well, it's a dangerous country, and he had it coming, maybe some concerned citizens went a bit too far, but our dear leader cannot watch over everybody. Scaling: do you think other journalists will not take notice? And he will still be alive to reminder them how they may end up. If you want to see how far imagination can go here, look up Artyom Kamardin and think how would you behave after hearing his story .

deleted 7mo ago

[deleted]

ghywertelling 7mo ago

Goons are bad publicity. Doing your dirty stuff as hidden from view as possible is best option