The author was trying to shield themselves from the despair of political doomscrolling by reading books, but was dismayed to learn of Trump’s plans to declare a national emergency and use the military to carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. The author speaks with anti-imperialist veteran friends who remind them that this is not the first time Trump has threatened to deploy the military against immigrants, and that actually carrying out such a plan would be a logistical and legal nightmare, requiring a massive expansion of the prison system at immense cost. The author argues that the only reasonable response for active-duty soldiers is to refuse to carry out these immoral orders, drawing parallels to the G.I. resistance during the Vietnam War. They advocate reviving networks of support like “G.I. coffeehouses” to provide a space for soldiers to organize and resist. Experts emphasize that troops have a moral responsibility to disobey illegal and immoral orders, and that immigrants are not the true enemy - it is the ruling class elite who are stealing from the working class. The author acknowledges the impulse to retreat into escapism, but argues that now is the time to collectively challenge these dangerous policies.

  • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    29 days ago

    The end game of this would be a military coup of the US government which is probably not the worst thing that could happen. Sadly i am not confident that the soldiers have the balls to do it.

    • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      29 days ago

      I mean maybe not the worst but pretty fucking bad I’d say. Look at Egypt. Just because your enemy is in power doesn’t mean a military junta would be better.

      • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        29 days ago

        If your population cant agree on whether they should build concentration camps or not, then i think they need a bit of civil war as a treat. Nah but really it cant go on like this, they need some big change and that wont happen without some big conflict.