A really ugly thought keeps running through my head, based on stories

[niyad]

from other regimes and pogroms and witch hunts (the REAL ones), and thinking about the seeming randomness of sone of their "captures". How many of them are based on anonymous "tips" from hateful or disguntled neighbors, acquaintances, rivals, etc.We all know how it worked during those terrible times. Is it happening again, here and now, in what used to be at least a semi-functioning not-dictatorship?

[marble falls]

1. And the rumor that a lot of the J6 convicts have been recruited by ICE.

[Attilatheblond]

27. Hiding their faces so we don't photograph and compare them to mug shots of J6ers

And maybe some creeps who have been convicted for various domestic violence, parole violators, deadbeat dads, oh, the list goes on.

Pretending to be ICE is the newest, best paying job in the gig economy.

[marble falls]

28. Honestly, that is what they are doing.

[TommyT139]

2. It is.

Likely in a number of streams, but there is certainly clear information that peaceful pro-Palestinian / anti-genocide protesters were doxxed, with information going to ICE, sometimes directly.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/01/us/israel-gaza-student-protests-canary-mission.html

https://archive.is/lIE91

[johnp3907]

3. Last summer our crazy neighbor called the cops on our roofers.

Most of them were Mexican, and she had run them off once already--calling them murderers and rapists. She called the police when they eventually came back to finish the job. The roofing company finally shut her up by giving her a $100 CVS gift card.
Funny thing is she's friends with the convicted child molester across the street. But of course he has a big crucifix tattooed on his arm and a Trump sticker on his car.
I often wonder what would happen if we were having our roof done THIS summer.

[KentuckyWoman]

4. Your thoughts make more sense than

ICE randomly showing up at immigration court for one specific individual and leaving everyone else alone. The whole point of MAGA is the "joy" of making the people they don't like suffer. Truly awful people.

[0rganism]

5. A practical question: how does one quickly demonstrate one's citizenship to an armed thug who hates one's guts?

The available answers to this question will now become quite interesting to a large number of people who've never really considered this before.

Truly a Brave New World.

[Iamscrewed]

6. Old playbook

Not surprised and have been expecting it.

[LoisB]

7. I fear you are right. There also could be a "reward" for turning in an "illegal".

[yardwork]

18. There are already rewards for turning in "abortionists."

[LoisB]

29. Geez! What the heck have we become as a country?

[yardwork]

30. Good question.

[niyad]

31. A theocratic, authoritarian, misogynistic, third-world shithole???

[LoisB]

33. Yep.

[Skittles]

8. based on the irrational hatred I see coming from MAGAts

I'm betting there are LOTS of such "tips". I have zero doubt which side these racist, fascist assholes would have been on during WWII

[canetoad]

9. Yep it's ugly and also true

It was common during pogroms in the middle ages onward, right up to the Inquisition which lasted up until the 19th and 20th centuries. Neighbours could become very rich by denouncing their neighbours then claiming their property and land when they were arrested. It was an easy way to cancel out debt.

Never underestimate the greed of some humans.

[ecstatic]

10. I'm pretty sure that's what's going on and it's disgusting.

I wouldn't do that to my worst enemy.

It's shameful, but I really do believe karma is real. The people who are doing nasty stuff like that will get theirs at some point.

[niyad]

11. . . .

[eppur_se_muova]

12. Try turning in Marco Rubio and see how that works. Either way, the results will be interesting. nt

[Blue Full Moon]

13. 100%

The kid from Cincinnati comes to mind. He is a star athlete and good student. Here legally absolutely no record. No one else in his family was taken by ICE.

[niyad]

14. That was definitely one that got my antennae going.

[yardwork]

17. Star athlete? Somebody's kid was being overlooked.

[Hugin]

15. It's an extension of doxxing and swatting.

That’s very true.

[yardwork]

16. Definitely. This is one of things that happens under authoritarianism.

Anybody with a grudge or greedy desire can send an anonymous tip and rain hell on their neighbors.

Somebody's business competing with yours? Call in a tip on them.

Mad at your ex? Call in a tip.

As you probably know, the Salem witch trials were all about getting land from widows. Very convenient way to get the land - have the owner executed as a witch.

[niyad]

21. Same thing in the Burning Times. .well, that, and eliminating women

who did not bow to male/church authority.

[yardwork]

23. A twofer. Probably swept up gay and trans people that way, too.

Anybody who didn't conform to prevailing norms. Anybody independent, artistic, animal-loving. All folk healers. Definitely all uppity women who had independent financial means.

[niyad]

24. Exactly!!!

[Bluesaph]

19. I said same thing yesterday!

And it is sick!

[niyad]

20. It seemed pretty obvious, but I had not noticed it being mentioned

anywhere.

[Bluesaph]

22. True story...

The reason I thought about it yesterday is because I’ve been talking to a MAGA acquaintance and he’s always complaining about the “illegals Biden let in through our open borders”. The thing is if you look at this guy he could easily be mistaken for one of those illegals at the wrong place wrong time.

So this guy posts pictures over the weekend of a party he threw at his house in the middle of a hugely Latino neighborhood east of LA. And in looking at the photos EVERY SINGLE GUY in the photo could be mistaken for an “illegal”!!!

And the sick thought occurred to me that what if someone called in this party at this moment and ICE showed up?!!! What would they all do to prove they aren’t undocumented? And it dawned on me that this is probably happening all over the place. People who have some grudge ratting out nemesis to ICE.

THE THOUGHT MADE ME SICK!

[niyad]

25. Sadly, there are many truly hate-filled, ugly people out there.

[Irish_Dem]

26. Another vender who wants a tamale stand location.

Another vender who wants the IHOP landscaping gig.

A man who has his eye on a woman and gets rid of her husband.

[Kid Berwyn]

32. Hypernormalization

Systems are crumbling – but daily life continues. The dissonance is real

If everything feels broken but strangely normal, the Soviet-era concept of hypernormalization can help

by Adrienne Matei
The Guardian, May 22, 2025

Excerpt...

First articulated in 2005 by scholar Alexei Yurchak to describe the civilian experience in Soviet Russia, hypernormalization describes life in a society where two main things are happening.

The first is people seeing that governing systems and institutions are broken. And the second is that, for reasons including a lack of effective leadership and an inability to imagine how to disrupt the status quo, people carry on with their lives as normal despite systemic dysfunction – give or take a heavy load of fear, dread, denial and dissociation.

Snip...

The effects of hypernormalization

Confronting systemic collapse can be so disorienting, overwhelming and even humiliating, that many tune it out or find themselves in a state of freeze.

Greguski likens this feeling to sleep paralysis: “basically a waking nightmare where you’re like: ‘I’m here, I’m aware, but I’m so scared and I can’t move.’”

In his 1955 book They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933–45, journalist Milton Mayer described a similar state of freeze in German citizens during the rise of the Nazi party: “You don’t want to act, or even talk, alone; you don’t want to ‘go out of your way to make trouble.’ Why not? – Well, you are not in the habit of doing it. And it is not just fear, fear of standing alone, that restrains you; it is also genuine uncertainty.”

“People don’t shut down because they don’t feel anything,” says Hickman. “They shut down because they feel too much.” Understanding this overwhelm is an important first step in resisting inaction – it helps us see fear as a trap.

Continues...

https://www.theguardian.com/wellness/ng-interactive/2025/may/22/hypernormalization-dysfunction-status-quo

The image at the top is a detail from "The Life Line", an 1884 oil on canvas painting by Winslow Homer. The masterpiece is part of the collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. To me, it says "We must keep trying our best."

DU original: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220349864