this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2026
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Flippanarchy

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Flippant Anarchism. A lighter take on social criticism with the aim of agitation.

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[–] MagnificentSteiner@lemmy.zip 49 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (14 children)

What a braindead take.

By calling out ICE as masked thugs you're calling them exactly what they are thereby stripping them of any legitimacy they may have in people's eyes by being part of the government. As for calling them gang members, that's exactly what they are. They're members of the biggest gang - the government.

Only a racist person who believes in race would automatically think of non white people when they hear "masked thugs". Anyone who isn't racist and doesn't believe in race just pictures thugs with masks.

The counter to racism is to realise that race doesn't exist, not joining in believing in this arbitrary social construct. Once you adopt this view you stop seeing race everywhere. If you're anti-racist but you believe race exists and you see it everywhere in everything then you're part of the problem.

[–] cabbage@piefed.social 19 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Also it's not like there's not plenty of history of white gangs (also Irish, Italian, and Russian) and masked thugs in modern American history. If you think these terms are just for Latinos and blacks maybe stop watching Fox News for a second and read a fucking book.

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[–] araneae@beehaw.org 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

100%, thank you. We can not be handwringing every little thing because people like this just want to "be part of the conversation". The only good point here is that this IS just cop shit, but that's the thing, it's on a whole other level where it actually threatens the police themselves, and rhetorically that's useful for once.

Please pick and choose your battles here in 2026 instead of falling for this faux-intellectual college kid bait discourse I'm begging you. ICE are thugs. That term comes from India and refers to a class of dudes who were so hard up under British Imperialism they would just kill people in the road by sneaking up on them. The US govt us debt trapping white supremacist goons into killing for them (no I am not making excuses for them) I'd say it etymologically fits the bill. And if it doesn't okay, I get that you want to make world better and Always Say The Exact Right Thing, but these people are hurting us NOW and when they're down the fucking street taking my neighbors I need everyone to be on the same page with me and not moralize at me about my choice of words! This bullshit is fedposting whether accidentally or intentionally, it's like when CHUDs make fun of us for our best impulses and we can't argue back or else it looks like we're abandoning principles to assholes who are moving the goal posts they control around us to present us as idiots.

"Gang" I more strongly see the argument for... but they ARE that, they ARE organized criminals, and they wouldn't be the first mix-race-yet-white-supremacist-fascist-organized-criminal outfit. See also LAPD and the Proud Boys, etc etc. You cannot just retcon language into being race-based because CNN used it a certain way in the 90s when running urban crime stories. You cannot let the Neoliberal racist world order be the weather vein for what literal words you are and aren't allowed to say, because before those words were forcibly associated with racialized crime reporting THEY WERE REAL WORDS. We cannot do this to all language or we'll be talking like "Orange Man(bad) uses COP ARMY (ACAB, almost forgot heh) to distract us from the fact he grpd and unal*ved Persons of a Younger Persuasion." Please defend our language and our right to express what we're seeing in real time, do not automatically self-censor with no wider consensus based off merely seeing a post. PLEASE.

[–] MagnificentSteiner@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Did you respond to the wrong person? I fail to see how any of what you said could be directed at me.

do not automatically self-censor

grpd and unal*ved

lmao pretty sure you can say raped and killed here

[–] araneae@beehaw.org 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I was replying to you but then I went on a whole extended soap box that wasn't all the way directed at you, apologies.The self-censorship is my point.

[–] MagnificentSteiner@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 days ago

Haha yeah, I was a bit confused but all good!

[–] Dippy@beehaw.org 3 points 2 days ago

Ive been calling them goons instead. Not because of any reasoning, its just what me and my friends have been using

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[–] mastertigurius@lemmy.world 46 points 3 days ago (8 children)

I can get behind the term "masked thugs", just as the Einsatzgruppen were thugs. The correct term might be paramilitary secret police, which puts them in that sweet spot where they basically don't have to answer to anyone...Like the Gestapo. The cure for those kinds of people is at the end of a rope.

[–] cabbage@piefed.social 21 points 2 days ago (7 children)

Yeah, they're thugs. If people lack the imagination to realize thugs can can be white that sounds like a them problem to me.

Honestly, this reads almost as "they're not thugs, they are white so it's just policing as usual and that makes it alright". I'm assuming the post is trying to say cops are bad, but if the white authoritarian racist would agree 100% with your statement maybe consider reformulating.

[–] TherapyGary@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Tbf this goes both ways though. This administration has conditioned me to assume "masked thugs" & "gang members" = "the good guys"

[–] athatet@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 days ago

Also a bunch of ICE are not white people so it makes even less sense.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 days ago

Also, ICE isn't exclusively white people

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[–] lurch@sh.itjust.works 24 points 2 days ago (2 children)

This reminds me of that Simple Sabotage Field Manual the CIA declassified. It containes things like:

Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions.

... to interfere with organizations and production.

But it certainly can't hurt to add more info, like calling them "masked government thugs", for example, if you'd like.

[–] gsdsam@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 days ago

Pointing out nonsense like this with this in mind is important, keep up the good work.

I call them Pedo led white supremacist paramilitary gangs. could add more, but it gets a bit long to type on my phone

[–] TheSlad@sh.itjust.works 14 points 2 days ago (12 children)

Ok but they're not just cops. As shitty as cops are, they still have legal rules and procedures they must follow. ICE is a separate organization that exists outside of that. ICE is literally the president's personal militia that can do whatever he says and act with near impunity.

[–] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 days ago

they still have legal rules and procedures they must follow.

wew

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[–] Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago (6 children)

Why would it be racist to use the terms "thugs" and "gangs" to refer to white people? If anything, we should keep using them this way - decouple those terms from racial connotations.

[–] shiftymccool@piefed.ca 2 points 1 day ago

If we don't reclaim words from use in hate speech, we'll run out of words and communicate like cavemen using grunts and pointing. We're currently in the process of losing the word "ice" to hatred ffs

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[–] Saapas@piefed.zip 11 points 2 days ago (3 children)

What's the racist aspect of it..?

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[–] Soleos@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

You might be right, in which case "just cop shit" may be rather damning. Regardless, what does associating cops with criminality have to do with racism?

[–] cabbage@piefed.social 9 points 2 days ago

Well, you see, if you're a violent black you're a "thug" or "gang member", if you're a violent white you're a "cop", and if you disagree with this analysis you're apparently racist.

[–] RumorsOfLove@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

It is sad that white shitlibs in here are allergic to being called put.

Fuck em. fuck em all, they are just fascist enablers and just sad that white poor are no longer part of the imperial ingroup.

minorities suffering under this shit for generations have been warning that it is a matter of time before the police state designed to target minorities will include them. they are now reaping what they sowed.

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