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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   30590 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 22, 2025

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Of course it's not meant as an idea "helpful to their mission". What it's meant as, I argue, is a compromise - or at any rate an attempt at deescalation. Democratic lawmakers do not want ICE to succeed, but neither do they want civil war; unmasked, non-anonymous ICE agents would be a step away from the "Stormtroopers vs rebels" status quo and back towards a more stable situation.

unmasked, non-anonymous ICE agents would be a step away from the "Stormtroopers vs rebels" status quo and back towards a more stable situation.

Well, there's actually kind of a question there, which is why I said "mostly" above. There is the possibility that revealing all their identities would lead to mass attacks, and the resulting mass arrests as the counterterrorism apparatus moves in could escalate things even more. I kinda doubt it, because the limiting ingredient seems to be lunatics rather than targets, but it's possible.

(And no, you can't just not deploy the counterterrorism apparatus. You can't just let domestic terrorists operate unmolested and successfully deter people; that's partial state failure and drastically undermines the social contract.)

There is the possibility that revealing all their identities would lead to mass attack

Yes, it's a possibility. But like you, I find it less likely as an outcome than de-escalation. It is at the very least an uncertain practical question on which reasonable minds can disagree. By contrast, lots of Mottizens seem to take for granted that obviously demasking would lead to a spate of assassinations, and anyone who advocates it must secretly desire such an escalation - which I think is just farcical, boomer Democratic congressmen aren't secretly salivating for actual civil war even if some hotheads on Bluesky do.

The people attacking ICE aren't angry about the masks; that's just an excuse which resonates with part of the public. They are angry that ICE is doing their job. They will continue to do it if ICE drops the masks.

But the opposite, right? It is an escalation by hoping they get unmasked and personally targeted. As in them and their families getting payback for enforcing immigration law.

That’s the opposite of what needs to happen after a terrorist. Don’t legitimize terrorism. Pass a law that defunds any state that passes the mask law.

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