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.
"Trump was totally unhinged last night after he found out how big the No Kings Protests were. He was posting weird AI videos of himself wearing crowns. Then he posted an AI video of himself flying a fighter jet and defecating on peaceful protestors at the No Kings protest in Manhattan. Yeah, that was not a typo. He posted a video of himself dropping feces on the faces of peaceful protestors."
~ Ben Meiselas
#NoKings #democracy #Trump #authoritarianism
/10
"The president posted an AI video showing himself as a pilot, wearing a crown, literally dumping shit on protesters from the air: A clear statement of what he feels about Americans exercising their rights to free assembly and free speech."
~ Anne Applebaum
#NoKings #democracy #Trump #authoritarianism
/9
anneapplebaum.substack.com/p/w…
What happens when "democracy" isn't part of our identity anymore?Anne Applebaum (Open Letters, from Anne Applebaum)
"Nationwide protests comprised of millions of people are a direct rebuke to the president’s narrative. They send a signal to the most disconnected parts of the American public that the president is far from as popular as he says he is, and they send a clear warning to those institutions under pressure from the administration: Bend the knee and lose our business and support."
~ Jamelle Bouie
"Today was the largest political protest in American history.
Don’t let Donald Trump pretend he’s popular, beloved, or even respected.
He isn’t. And he never has been."
~ Steve Hofstetter
#NoKings #democracy #Trump #authoritarianism
/6
threads.com/@stevehofstetter/p…
Today was the largest political protest in American history. Don’t let Donald Trump pretend he’s popular, beloved, or even respected. He isn’t. And he never has been.Threads
Here's what Olear said at Kingston:
"If there’s one thing we can say about Donald, it’s that he’s unfit.
This is why we’ve come here today—to give him our message, which consists of just one single word—the word Donald Trump hates most of all to hear:
NO.
ICE in our cities? NO!
Soldiers in our streets? NO!
Political retribution? NO!
Plenary authority? NO!
No thrones. No crowns. NO KINGS!"
Noting that he spoke at the No Kings demonstration in Kingston, New York, Greg Olear says,
"The press estimates there were seven million Americans participating in the rallies. This figure seems low to me.... WaPo had it as the lead story yesterday. The craven New York Times led with the Venezuela stuff, which, in hindsight, seems like it was cooked up just so the New York Times would lead with it and not No Kings.)"
#NoKings #democracy #Trump #authoritarianism
/4
gregolear.substack.com/p/sunda…
Delivered at Academy Green Park, Kingston, New York, October 18, 2025Greg Olear (PREVAIL by Greg Olear)
"Americans across all 50 states marched in protests against the Trump administration on Saturday, aligning behind a message that the country is sliding into authoritarianism and there should be no kings in the US.
Millions of people turned out for the No Kings protests, the second iteration of a coalition that marched in June in one of the largest days of protest in US history."
~ Rachel Leingang and Edward Helmore
#NoKings #democracy #Trump #authoritarianism
/3
theguardian.com/us-news/2025/o…
Crowds of Americans, many in costumes, aligned behind message that US is sliding into authoritarianismRachel Leingang (The Guardian)
"Such a high turnout means businesses and institutions that thought they must cater to the administration to appeal to a majority of Americans will be forced to recalculate.
And the protests showed that Americans care fervently about democracy."
"The No Kings demonstrations ran the gamut from hundreds of thousands of protesters in large, blue cities, to smaller crowds in small towns in Republican-dominated states. Together, they demonstrate that the administration’s claims to popularity are a lie."
~ Heather Cox Richardson
#NoKings #democracy #Trump #authoritarianism
/1
heathercoxrichardson.substack.…
Today, millions of Americans and their allies turned out across the United States and around the globe to demonstrate their commitment to American democracy and their opposition to a president and an administration apparently bent on replacing that d…Heather Cox Richardson (Letters from an American)
MAGA Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra says he is offended by the term "Elbows Up". He says it's anti-American. He doesn't like Canadians using the term "tr...YouTube
#StateTerror
A brief guide for Americans
by #TimothySnyder
Yesterday the president defied a #SCOTUS ruling to return a man who was mistakenly sent to a gulag in another country, celebrated the suffering of this innocent person, & spoke of sending Americans to foreign #ConcentrationCamps.
This is the beginning of an American policy of state terror, & it has to be identified as such to be stopped.
#law #Trump #tyranny #authoritarianism #autocracy #dictatorship
snyder.substack.com/p/state-te…
I must once again urge you: please do not record your abortions on the blockchain.
mollywhite.net/micro/entry/ple…
I must once again urge you: please do not record your abortions on the blockchain. There are a lot of very worried people right now, fearful of an impending regime that may well crack down on things like reproductive care, gender-affirming care, or t…Molly White
⚠️ The article rightly points out the thin line between national "#digitalTransformation" & "digital #authoritarianism" -- through governments, or the corporations those they coddle/empower.
It also reminds us that for non-US leaders, "increasingly, the biggest threat to the future of the internet is the United States".
(Including nonprofits, who've increasingly been exposed in building and deploying systems that are misused to abuse human rights like privacy.)
2/4
jacobin.com/2022/06/us-tech-co…
The United States claims it benevolently promotes democracy over authoritarianism through its international technology policies. In reality, America forces poor countries to let US-based Big Tech companies steal their data.jacobin.com
