this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2026
1216 points (99.7% liked)

News

35774 readers
2651 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious biased sources will be removed at the mods’ discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted separately but not to the post body. Sources may be checked for reliability using Wikipedia, MBFC, AdFontes, GroundNews, etc.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source. Clickbait titles may be removed.


Posts which titles don’t match the source may be removed. If the site changed their headline, we may ask you to update the post title. Clickbait titles use hyperbolic language and do not accurately describe the article content. When necessary, post titles may be edited, clearly marked with [brackets], but may never be used to editorialize or comment on the content.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials, videos, blogs, press releases, or celebrity gossip will be allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis. Mods may use discretion to pre-approve videos or press releases from highly credible sources that provide unique, newsworthy content not available or possible in another format.


7. No duplicate posts.


If an article has already been posted, it will be removed. Different articles reporting on the same subject are permitted. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners or news aggregators.


All posts must link to original article sources. You may include archival links in the post description. News aggregators such as Yahoo, Google, Hacker News, etc. should be avoided in favor of the original source link. Newswire services such as AP, Reuters, or AFP, are frequently republished and may be shared from other credible sources.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 40 points 1 month ago (2 children)

What I want to see is people telling these ICE agents the truth.

Point out Trump's failing health, and that he might not even live long enough to finish his term. Show them that he has attacked anybody who could be his successor so the MAGA movement will collapse as soon as he's gone.

Let them know that they will be prosecuted like the guards for Hitler's concentration camps. Just following orders won't be any excuse. Even if they manage to avoid prison time, the fact they worked for ICE means that when Trump's out of office, nobody will ever hire them again. It doesn't matter if they were just doing it to feed their families, being a former ICE member will be seen like being a former member of the Gestapo, a mark of shame for their families for decades to come.

Tell them that hiding their faces isn't enough. Ask them if they fully trust every other ICE agent, or if ICE might have been infiltrated by protesters. Point out that their fellow agents have already screwed up and left behind lists of ICE agents when they've had to leave a place in a hurry. Tell them that with modern cameras it's just a matter of time before an unusual mole or the edges of a tattoo are enough to identify them.

Then tell them that there's only one way to salvage their reputations and their future career prospects, and that's to become whistle blowers.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 42 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Nice story, but January 6th rioters were all eventually given a pass, and that's what the ICE clowns anticipate. Just following orders, etc.

[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

They were...by Trump. He's gone in this scenario.

[–] Horsey@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago (2 children)

And in order to prosecute, you need an opposition party win or a republican with a backbone.

[–] Kalon@feddit.online 8 points 1 month ago

opposition party will win. unless democracy in this US is totally subverted (Unfortunately a real possibility). The real question is whether or not this Democrats have learned their lesson from last time, and be swift and bold.

[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago

True, true. I don't think many other Republicans who could win an election would have been willing to pardon the Jan. 6ers, but simply not taking action? Yeah, they'd do that easily.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Jan 6 rioters got a pass because Trump was elected. Once Trump is dead, that's no longer going to be possible.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

most of them got slap on the wrist even before the election began, it was clear they dont want to upset the voter base of republicans.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 0 points 4 weeks ago

Most of them weren't caught doing anything more than breaking into the capitol building. The ones who actually attacked cops or did something violent got standard prison sentences for those kinds of crimes. Sure, I would have liked longer sentences. But, these were mostly first-time offenders who didn't do a violent crime, so they got sentences that go with that. The aim of the justice department wasn't to try to put them in prison for as long as possible, but to treat them the same as any other criminal. Maybe the idea was that that was going to make the cases harder to overturn on appeal because there wasn't any hint of political bias in the sentencing.

I think it would have had a pretty solid deterrent effect if Trump hadn't come back and commuted their sentences / pardoned them. But, pardoning them is yet another way he's completely throwing away the rule book.

[–] Aljernon@lemmy.today 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Tons of sociopaths are watching Trump and taking notes. With series reforms to both our society and political system, this will just happen again and with Peter Thiel practically owning JD Vance, it could be sooner than you think.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

Trump is a one in a million manipulator. There's a reason this hasn't happened since Hitler and Mussolini. Various others like Marco Rubio, Ron DeSantis, etc. have all tried to use the same playbook and failed completely. If you think MAGA is going to fall in line behind couchfucker JD Vance, you're deluded. A big reason that Trump picked him as VP is that he knew Vance was no threat to him.

[–] Aljernon@lemmy.today 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Trump picked Vance because he thought Vance was physically good looking enough to be his VP. No joke.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 weeks ago

But not charismatic enough to challenge him. That's key.

[–] Aljernon@lemmy.today 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

There’s a reason this hasn’t happened since Hitler and Mussolini

That's a wild statement to make considering that Putin is a household name these days.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Putin is hardly a charismatic leader. Might as well throw in Maduro or Noriega, or Saddam Hussein if you're going to talk about leaders who ruled through fear and force rather than charisma.

[–] Aljernon@lemmy.today 1 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

Putin has been more often than not genuinely popular with Russians; he was very successful at creating a persona that worked in his culture to secure and maintain power.

And while Maduro wasn't charismatic, Chavez certainly was

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

You don't talk about Hitler "more often than not" being popular with Germans. Hitler famously had huge rallies filling stadiums.

[–] Aljernon@lemmy.today 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Putin has been in power for longer and there have been times were his popularity dipped. Then he launched a successful military operation and boom, popularity back up.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 0 points 3 weeks ago

How many rallies has Putin held?

[–] ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Oh hell yeah. And I'd add this:

The truth is that they are counting on getting a signing bonus in five years from a man who famously never pays his bills and probably won't even be alive then, working for a woman who they think has their back but who doxxed Jonathan Ross within two hours of committing murder for her. Within a year they will wish with all their might they'd never even heard of ICE, and there will never be a moment for the rest of their lives when it does not hang over their heads.

And if they really want truth, they should go talk to some retired cops, and talk about how the passage of time eats away at the excuses while magnifying the bare facts of one's own actions, to the point that a disproportionate number of them eat their guns. So whichever way they look, the forecast is shit in every direction. It doesn't pay to be a murderous fucking ghoul.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

And cops are well respected compared to ICE agents, in every way. I'd say about 70% of the US hates ICE agents, whereas about 50% truly like and respect cops. But, even among the die-hard MAGA Republicans who want ICE to snatch people off the street and beat up the non-whites, they still don't respect them. They're thugs who are working for their own side.

[–] lolo@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I totally respect where you’re trying to go, but what are these percentages you’ve imagined? Where do these numbers come from? That’s my favorite thing on the internet, people make up numbers and just proclaim them. I can’t, lol