Yesterday it was "Palestine Action are terrorists"
Today it's "The citizens of Minnesota are terrorists"

Do we get what's happening now?

#Antifa #Antifascism #Minnesota #Fascism #Politics #Authoritarianism

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Kat Abughazaleh © @katmabu.bsky.social - 56m As the government raids “antifa groups” in Minneapolis with the SAME charges levied against myself and the rest of the Broadview Six, we need to be asking how they got this indictment. And as charges (hopefully) get dropped, we must remember the process is the punishment. Aaron Rupar © @atrupar.com - 36m Q: How is DOJ defining "antifa'? ROSEN: What is antifa goes beyond | think the scope of what this indictment is Q: Is that a crime to be affiliating with a group, if it is even a group? ROSEN: It's a crime to conspire for the purpose of impeding or injuring federal officers.

So, maybe I'm biased, but I personally think that degrees in #LiberalArts and #Humanities are very important in having well-rounded citizens -- who are exposed to art, history, geography, philosophy, etc. And I think that sort of education should be free and start at the high school level (or even before).

Hampshire College Will Close Amid Student Enrollment Declines

Other small private colleges like Hampshire have closed in recent years as financial pressures and competition for students increase.

by Mark Arsenault, April 14, 2026

Hampshire president, Jennifer Chrisler: “Some of it is a persistent and ill informed, I think, belief at the federal level that the only value of an education is what you earn four years after your graduation”.

Read more:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/14/us/hampshire-college-closing-amherst-massachusetts-enrollment.html

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/snPv7

#Authoritarianism #DumbingUsDown #CharacteristicsOfFascism #HigherEducation #Education #LearningForLearningsSake

#Trump demands unprecedented control at #ColumbiaUniversity, alarming scholars and speech groups

By COLLIN BINKLEY and JAKE OFFENHARTZ
Updated 7:52 PM EDT, March 14, 2025

NEW YORK (AP) — "The Trump administration brushed aside decades of precedent when it ordered Columbia University to oust the leadership of an academic department, a demand seen as a direct attack on academic freedom and a warning of what’s to come for other colleges facing federal scrutiny.

"Federal officials told the university it must immediately place its #MiddleEasternStudies, #SouthAsianStudies, and #AfricanStudies Department under 'academic receivership for a minimum of five years.' The demand was among several described as conditions for receiving federal funding, including $400 million already pulled over allegations of #antisemitism.

"Across #academia, it was seen as a stunning intrusion.

"'It’s an escalation of a kind that is unheard of,' said Joan Scott, a historian and member of the academic freedom committee of the American Association of University Professors [#AAUP]. 'Even during the #McCarthy period in the United States, this was not done.'"

https://apnews.com/article/columbia-university-mahmoud-khalil-ice-arrests-1921e26f6b5a8585ad5cbda790846324
#CharacteristicsOfFascism #USPol #Censorship #DumbingUsDown #Authoritarianism #SilencingDissent #AcademicFreedom #Fascism

I'm old enough to remember when having your photo and fingerprints taken by the authorities was reserved to convicted criminals.

Now it will eventually be all of us.
All of us constantly tracked by governments and corporations alike, requiring our biometric data for anything they feel like.

Our privacy rights are going down the drain under the pretext of security.

But it will not make us safer, on the contrary.
Don't believe their authoritarian lies.

#Privacy #MassSurveillance #Authoritarianism

Do not provide your ID or facial scan to access social media.

I repeat, do NOT provide your ID or facial scan to access social media when requested.

This is not a drill.

If everyone refuse to comply, and let their accounts dormant instead, I promise you the platforms themselves, with their immense budget and network of lobbyists, are going to fight these absurd laws to recover their users.

They need you more than you need them.
Make them fight for your rights.
Do not comply.
Spread the word and boycott ID checks ✊

#StopIDSurveillance #AgeVerification #Privacy #HumanRights #Democracy #Safety #MassSurveillance #Authoritarianism

@maxleibman People say that because so many of us want to submit to others. And that number is one the many ways we express our #authoritarianism

Age verification laws forcing platforms to restrict content access have been multiplying exponentially.

The problem is, implementing such measures necessarily requires identifying every user accessing the content, one way or another.

This is bad news for everyone.

If these regulations continue
to proliferate, this could lead to the end of pseudonymity online, and much worse.

I wrote this article last year,
but unfortunately this problem has only become worse, and it is sadly still very relevant.

https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/05/06/age-verification-wants-your-face/

#Privacy #AgeVerification #MassSurveillance #Authoritarianism

Whenever you hear "ban for kids" on the internet, read in reality "ID collection by a sketchy third-party company that will definitely use it or leak it or both for every adult."

Because that's what this truly means.
Also, it doesn't even help the kids.

#AgeVerification #Privacy #MassSurveillance #Authoritarianism

First they ask for your date of birth,
but later they claim it's not enough.

Then they ask for your full name and location,
but later they claim it's not enough.

Then they ask for a copy of your passport,
but later they claim it's not enough.

Then they ask for your facial scan,
but later they claim it's not enough.

Then they ask for your fingerprints,
but later they claim it's not enough.

Then they ask for your palm scan,
but later they claim it's not enough.

Then they ask for a scan of your iris,
but later they claim it's not enough.

Then they ask for ...

#MassSurveillance #Authoritarianism #AgeVerification #Privacy #Democracy #HumanRights

In reality, what they call age verification is abusive ID surveillance checks for everyone.

Start calling it what it is:
ID Surveillance.

We must all fight to Stop ID Surveillance.

#StopIDSurveillance #AgeVerification #MassSurveillance #Authoritarianism #Privacy #HumanRights

When you read about Bans of Social Media for Teens and Age Verification, you must remember what it truly means:

• Official identification of every adult using social media.

• Deanonymization of every account, endangering groups that often rely on pseudonymity for safety, such as victims of domestic violence, victims of stalkers, people of color, and LGBTQ+ people.

• Putting every adult at great danger of exploitation, fraud, and identity theft by forcing them to share their official ID with a for-profit third-party company with no incentive to protect it. Breaches have already happened.

• Constructing a system of mass surveillance to attach every comment on social media to a legal identity. Effectively allowing authoritarian governments to silence their critics and opposition.

• Potential for dystopian censorship and cutting off means of organization for groups of resistance to oppressive regime and organizations.

• Endangering children online by putting a clear identification beacon over every child or family with children online.

• Endangering the data of children who will inevitably try to pass as adults, and have their information collected by the third-party for-profit company.

• Diminishing the value of official identification due to the inevitable data breaches, eventually pushing the system to require even more intrusive identification techniques, such as iris scans and fingerprints.

• Installing a system of mass surveillance capable of attaching even more information to everyone's legal identity. With a potential to built list of people in certain groups, and scale-up state censorship and discrimination in unprecedented ways.

• The list goes on and on.

This isn't about protecting the children.
It never was.

Do not be duped by this excuse used to convince you to let go of your human rights. They are only trying to manipulate people lacking information.

Stay informed on the issues related to Age Verification, and push back for your rights to privacy and democracy.

The future depends on us.

#AgeVerification #Privacy #HumanRights #MassSurveillance #Authoritarianism

“One of the things Trump spat at Welker was that ‘[a] country can never be great with a dishonest press.’ With this statement directed at the legacy media, once again, Trump illustrated that he was accusing his opponents of what he, himself, is doing, a classic authoritarian technique to muddy the waters so people stop trying to figure out what is real and cease to believe anything.”

#Politics #USPolitics #LegacyMedia #Authoritarianism #LettersFromAnAmerican

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/june-7-2026

The New York Times reviewed over a dozen hours of cabinet meeting footage to analyze how Trump’s administration spoke to him. On average, at least one of every six sentences either flattered #Trump, gave him credit or criticized his political opponents.

#POTUS #vanity #narcissism #gaslighting #propaganda #MentalHealth #dysfunctional #authoritarianism #autocracy #dictatorship #despotism #idolatry #tyranny #USpol
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/us/politics/trump-cabinet-meetings.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

‘#60Minutes’ #Journalist Who Accused #CBS of Political Meddling Loses Her Deal

#SharynAlfonsi, whose segment on a brutal Salvadoran prison [#CECOT] — where #Trump was sending immigrants — was pulled abruptly in December, said that #CBSNews & its top editor, #BariWeiss, did not renew her contract.

#StateMedia #authoritarianism #fascism #dictatorship #censorship #propaganda #DavidEllison #law #FreePress #Constitution #journalism #FourthEstate
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/27/business/media/cbs-sharyn-alfonsi-bari-weiss.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

#CBSNews declined to renew its contract with the “#60Minutes” correspondent #SharynAlfonsi, 6 months after her segment on #torture in Salvadoran prisons was pulled off the air abruptly by the “news” division’s editor in chief, #BariWeiss.

Alfonsi’s deal expired Saturday. She said in a phone interview that her agent’s inquiries with #CBS News over the past several weeks had been met with silence.

#Trump #StateMedia #authoritarianism #censorship #law #FreePress #Constitution #journalism

“It sends a chilling message to the entire newsroom,” Alfonsi said. “I think it was a deliberate choice to penalize a #journalist for refusing to sanitize accurate reporting.”

Alfonsi remains employed at #CBS, but with no contract in place, she said she had no expectation of returning to “#60Minutes.” “I’m not resigning,” she said. “If they want me gone because I did my job, they’ll have to fire me.”

#Trump #StateMedia #authoritarianism #censorship #law #FreePress #journalism #FourthEstate

It seems that in the modern world, armies which move at the behest of a single, belligerent individual are doomed to failure....

#GeoPolitics #IranWar #Trump #Putin #Authoritarianism #Military #War

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Trump's War Is Staggering to an Incoherent Defeat Even the president's supporters are alarmed.

Zoe Williams: Oppressing women is how #authoritarianism begins. So listen to what Reform is saying. We saw it when #Russia jailed members of Pussy Riot, and again when the #US overturned Roe v Wade: misogyny is a powerful political weapon. Let’s focus on fighting it, not ‘understanding’ it.

#misogyny #ReformUK #UK #abortion
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/25/oppressing-women-authoritarianism-reform

#StephenColbert’s top-rated late-night TV program goes off the air for the final time Thursday, effectively silencing a high-profile #Trump critic.

“The legacy of this show needs to be that we remember it as the show that was canceled because a presidential administration wanted it off the air,” says Heather Hendershot, a professor of #communication studies & #journalism at Northwestern University.

#law #democracy #FreeSpeech #FreePress #media #authoritarianism
https://apnews.com/article/colbert-final-show-late-night-cbs-13d6bbf9fe8ed40d72aed0c02d158377