Margaret Killjoy, in a thread on Bluesky (via Kottke):
I came to Minneapolis to report on what’s going on, and one of the
main questions I showed up with is “just what is the scale of the
resistance?” After all, we’re all used to the news calling
Portland a “war zone” or whatever when it’s just some protests in
one part of town. […]Half the street corners around here have people — from every walk
of life, including republicans — standing guard to watch for
suspicious vehicles, which are reported to a robust and entirely
decentralized network that tracks ICE vehicles and mobilizes
responders.I have been actively involved in protest movements for 24 years. I
have never seen anything approaching this scale. Minneapolis is
not accepting what’s happening here. ICE fucking murdered a woman
for participating in this, and all that did is bring out more
people, from more walks of life.It’s genuinely a leaderless (or leaderful) movement, decentralized
in a way that the state is absolutely unequipped to handle. There
are a few basic skills involved, and so people teach each other
those skills, and people are collectively refining them.
Apple’s “whatever you say, boss” compliance with the Trump administration’s “demand” back in October that they remove ICEBlock from the App Store — with no legal basis, nor any evidence backing the administration’s claims that the app was being used to put members of the ICE goon squads in danger — is looking more and more like a decision on the wrong side of popular opinion. And, ultimately, on the wrong side of history.
ICEBlock was designed for exactly what these protestors are doing.
