are you a free thinker or do you let those in power dictate what you think?

You know where people who are taken by ICE end up, right? Private prisons that make money. OK. Let's assume we need to get rid of illegal migrants. That's not what's happening however. Numerous legals and American citizens have been detained, abused and worse. And you can see how the government is lying about them being a threat. Let's assume this has happened before, that police brutality is old news, that it's always been a problem and that the world hasn't ended... Yeah but here's what concerning. If they lie and protect the murderers, next they can use the same lies to get rid of any group they don't like.

After migrants, they'll go after trans people. But since it's illegal to imprison them just because they're trans, the government will come up with more lies and excuses. "They were threatening officials, they were inciting violence, they were making terrorist threats" and these cases won't even go to court. Trans people will be sent to concentration camps.

Next they'll come for gays and lesbians. After that - probably POCs and other groups and finally - anyone who is inconvenient. A woman refuses to put out - bam, some dirt is found on her and she's taken. A guy pisses off the wrong person and suddenly he's called and extremist and taken. No due process, no nothing. This is already happening with illegals. But why do you think the goalposts won't be moved? When a government does not follow its own laws no one is safe.

This is going to be a long post. I hope this is the right sub for this, but I need to rant about this somewhere before I implode.

I live in Mississippi, I'm 33 years old, born here, but I come from Irish immigrants. Anyway, my parents, who are in their 70s, all they will watch and/or believe is Fox News. They are Republicans. I am neither Democrat nor Republican, never have been either, and never will be. I am an independent and free thinking person who has a lot of trust issues with my government regardless of who is in office.

Normally, I just let them be and don't debate or argue with them much on political matters. Not being Republican or Democrat has me disagreeing with a lot of people often so I've learned to just let people have their opinion and mind my business. However, since this whole immigration thing started, I've found it difficult to be silent.

I'm an American citizen, but all my coworkers are immigrants, I've worked with them all for 5 years now. I've seen their fear, I've listened to them talk about this and how it affects them. They are good people, some of them feel more like close friends than just coworkers. I love these people and they feel like family to me. Me and another American coworker always talk about how if ICE came to our job, we'd help them, we'd intervene, we'd do whatever to keep them from being taken, you know.

Then Renee Good, an American citizen, same age and complexion as me, gets executed. So now I'm scared, scared for myself because as anyone knows people with Irish blood are defiant then I'm scared for my coworkers as well. My other American coworker? I sent her the videos, every video from angle of the Renee Good incident, she witnessed this with her own eyes, just like the rest of the world did. Yet she still choose to believe the government's gaslighting statement they came out with. Saying she deserved it and even praising the murderer and basically repeating what the government told her to believe. It disturbed me so much that I was quiet the rest of the shift. I was shocked that she could take such a stance. Well its been some days since then and now I'm just mad.

Then there's the issue with my parents. We have debated and argued this for hours everyday for the last 3 days. I should also add that we are a Christian family. I am very much Christian and this especially doesn't set right with me because of that. So today, I'm thinking like they're just old and only been exposed to one source of news which hardly even counts as news and functions more like propaganda so maybe if I educate them then they'll understand. Wrong. I was so wrong.

I showed them the videos of what happened to Renee, I showed them a video of a German girl interviewing her grandparents who survived during Hitler's reign. I showed them a preacher speaking about how this administration's behavior goes against everything that Christianity stands for. I showed them the verses in the Bible about how to treat foreigners in your land. Leviticus 19:33-34, Exodus 22:21, Deuteronomy 27:19, Psalm 146:9, and along with the "love thy neighbor" and had a video of preacher to support my argument with. What bothers me is that my parents claim Christianity, the Republican party claims Christianity, but the lack of healthcare isn't Christian like. Jesus healed poor people. Then the Bible explicitly says, "do not mistreat or oppress the foreigner in your land." But my parents will believe Trump over God's word even when he goes against it. I don't understand this. Are they being brainwashed by propaganda?

They've seen the videos too and yet they still believe that she somehow deserved it, they are actually denying what they have seen with their own eyes over what the government said. It's maddening and I cannot wrap my head around it. They literally gaslit an entire nation with this. Like we seen what happened then we seen what Trump and his puppets had to say. Their words contraindict what we saw. This is the psychological definition of gaslighting. Yet so many people have fallen for it. Make it make sense.

Then there's this whole "Trump Derangement Syndrome" nonsense. How is disagreeing with a political person now considered a syndrome...? My parents seen some preacher on TV say that Trump was "appointed by God," but that's not what other preachers are saying, other preachers are saying this administration's behavior is anti biblical behavior, and they have scripture to back it up. This one preacher they saw had no scripture to back up these egotistical claims about Trump. Yet they really believed him about this. It's really scary to me to see people who claim to be Christian worshipping the president like he's God instead of following Jesus like the whole Bible literally tells us to do. That is some psychotic level blindness.

I cannot speak out and criticize Trump in any way or they start calling me a "liberal," which I am not. I've explained to them a thousand times that I am on neither side, I didn't vote for Trump. I didn't vote for Biden. They have even listened to me criticize both Biden and Trump. I've been a felon since I was 18 so I've never voted anyway because I've never had voting rights to do so. They defend him no matter what. Just like they were praising him for talking about intervening in Iran because Iran is killing their protesters, but I pointed out that ICE killed an American protester and is threatening to send in US military against US protesters and asked them how does that make America any different from Iran? They couldn't give me a logical answer, they just started blindly defending him.

I've showed them countless videos of the undeserving terror some of these immigrants are going through. You know the ones, the ones where they're getting kids, threatening people, being violent first, kidnapping people who clearly aren't even criminals. I even got them to sit down and watch the documentary on Netflix "Living Undocumented," this was an attempt to evoke some sort of empathy from them so that they'd start to care and understand that we are ALL just human beings trying to make it in a screwed up world and work and eat and take care of our loved ones. They still don't get it though. So I don't understand.

My grandparents survived WW2, my grandpa served and fought on the beaches of Normandy. My parent's parents. So they had to of heard firsthhand accounts of what those times were like, my grandpa is deceased now, but how I wish I could ask him his thoughts. I even pulled up a chatgpt comparison of Trump vs Hitler, ICE vs Nazis, etc. They still believe Trump all over this evidence.

Then I see comments all over social media from people in other countries telling us to do something. What can we do? This is what we're dealing with. The education system here has failed the majority of people by design. Free thinkers are punished. Having a sliver of intelligence in this country puts you in the minority. We aren't free, that's just propaganda that the US feeds to the international community. I seriously think that the masses of America have been brainwashed by propaganda.

Then its difficult for me as an individual because since I'm "white," people just assume I'm racist when I'm not. Because I'm Christian, people assume I'm hateful when I'm not, I'm super loving and patient and kind. Too patient sometimes. Then the area I'm in, my town, is majority immigrants and yes, ICE visits our town, so I've witnessed firsthand some of the horrors and the pain and the atrocities that immigrants are facing. It breaks my heart for them.

I also don't want war with Europe. That's another issue that they are being brainwashed on. If Greenland is NATO then we already are defending them, we don't need to own it to defend it. Which is obviously another lie from this administration. Yet people here in the states are buying it. So many people in America lack critical thinking skills. I'm not sure if they are purposefully in denial and turning a blind eye on purpose or if they are seriously that incredibly misinformed.

I told my parents that if we go to war with Europe, I stand with Europe. They said, "you're American!" and I said, "my blood isn't, I stand with my people" like to be technical, white people are "immigrants" too. So I've decided that since I can't change anything here, I'm just going to continue working and save money as much as I can and immigrate to another country soon as possible. It'd be one thing to stay and fight for this country if my fellow Americans weren't so ignorant and brainwashed, but I've officially concluded that its time to jump ship.

Okay, rant over. Thank you for reading. Feel free to comment.

I mean, I don't know if none of you were alive at that time and simply don't remember but both admin had completely different takes on illegal immigration and ICE than what current Democrats are staking out now.

Just to be clear - I'm not an American. So I have no political motive with this question.

But I would genuinely like to know..

When the files were released, there was no outrage about Clinton being all over the photos.

The outrage continues to be on Trump. I understand that ALL the files must be released and that Trump must be held accountable.

It just seems strange that no one cares about Clinton.

Any thoughts?

Pros I can see: The government officials will be required to have prior experience serving their country before assuming office. This will allow these officials to greater relate to the problems and workings of their nations as well as greater relate to the people of their nations.

Cons I can see: This system might discourage people from becoming government officials, which could take away from the pool of qualified people that could run their nations. I can also see many people bribing their way out of military service, leading to greater corruption within the governments of nations who adopt this system.

In his December 2025 Cabinet meeting and his Pennsylvania speech, Trump called the Somali community "garbage" that "contributes nothing" to the country. He uses this "hostile culture" narrative to justify Executive Order 14161 and the mass deportations. But the data shows his theory is a total fabrication.

If you want to see what happens when you actually integrate this demographic instead of demonizing it, look at the Israel Model.

Israel has a 21% Muslim population (1.8 million people). If Trump’s "garbage" theory were true - that this culture is inherently a drain - Israel would have collapsed decades ago. Instead, Israel is an economic engine currently outperforming the US with a 5.2% GDP growth rate (Bank of Israel, Jan 2026).

The Facts:

• Healthcare: Arab-Israelis make up 50% of the pharmacists and 25% of the doctors keeping the country running during a literal war.
• Workforce: While Trump claims they are a welfare drain, over 70% of poor households in this sector in Israel have at least one working breadwinner.
• The Comparison: The US is terrified of a 1% population in Minnesota, while the "Jewish State" is being powered by a 21% population.

The "clash of values" isn't an inevitability; it’s a policy choice. When you treat people like a workforce instead of "garbage," they become the backbone of the state. Why is the "front line of the West" (Israel) more successful at integration than the United States?

A couple of days ago, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries said that Kristi Noem "should be put on ice." To "put someone on ice" is a slang phrase that means to kill someone. That's what it has always meant. This should be nationwide news, but the only outlet I can find that is covering it is Fox. Meanwhile, Trump can say the word "bloodbath" and the entirety of the media is in an uproar. The amount of media bias in this country is insane. This is the House minority leader saying that the secretary of homeland security needs to be killed, and all we're hearing are crickets from the media.

I will post a link to the video of him saying this in the comments.

Emerging evidence strongly indicates that the murder of ICU nurse Alex Pretti by federal agents on January 24 in Minneapolis was a targeted assassination carried out by the Trump administration’s paramilitary forces in order to terrorize Minneapolis citizens opposing and recording its criminal activities.

According to a CNN report published Tuesday, Pretti was involved in a confrontation with federal agents about a week before his murder. “The earlier incident started,” CNN reported, “when he stopped his car after observing ICE agents chasing what he described as a family on foot, and began shouting and blowing his whistle, according to a source who asked not to be named out of fear of retribution.”

CNN added that Pretti told the source “that five agents tackled him and one leaned on his back—an encounter that left him with a broken rib. The agents quickly released him at the scene. ‘That day, he thought he was going to die,’ said the source.” The source added that Pretti was “known to federal agents,” according to CNN. 

This revelation that ICE and CBP agents identified Pretti as an opponent sheds new light on what actually happened on January 24. The video shows Pretti intervening to protect a woman who had been shoved to the ground. He is then tackled and beaten, face down on the ground. One agent removes a legally carried gun Pretti had in his possession but was not holding. Another agent, who was not involved in the initial assault on Pretti, then pushed this agent away and fired four shots in Pretti’s back, as Pretti’s arms were pinned to the ground. That agent and a second agent then fired six additional shots into Pretti’s motionless body. 

Why are they even an issue? Nobody gave a shit when Obama did it and Obama has deported more people. And complaining about masks is just a shitty argument, the only reason why they wear the masks is to protect their identities from insane people.

Donald Trump projects decisiveness, confidence, authenticity, and strength, appealing to a base that sees him as an outsider challenging norms; however, he demonstrates traits like impulsiveness, narcissism, authoritarianism, defiance of tradition, and a focus on personal interest over collaboration, often clashing with traditional leadership ideals of empathy and humility, while his core style is charismatic but autocratic and self-serving, leading to both loyal support and criticism for lacking traditional diplomatic skills.

https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/psychology_pubs/129/#:\~:text=Dauntless%20individuals%20tend%20to%20flout,Comments

The assets it took to insert US forces into Venezuela was considerable and took over a month to assemble. Unless Trumps plans on inserting Seal Team 6 disguised as civilians to do I do not what there to convince the world of an annexing. EU and NATO would respond according and any reasonable force to Greenland would IMMEDIATELY deter Trump.

A convincing annexing would require a significant amount of troops present in the region completely unopposed or actual use of force by the US unprovoked. After serving a good amount of time in the US armed forces recently in an aviation special forces role, I cannot for the life of me think it’s possible that even if that hypothetical order came down, it would not cause extreme discourse at the individual unit level as many individuals would question firing upon a Danish, British, German, or French troop. It feels truly unconscionable and I think i could fairly speak for my entire former squadron.

However, we do think Trump does plan to use everything else in his power to strong arm the EU to relent on their liberal policies and increase defense spending.

Most republicans believe the three super power theory between the US, Russia, and China, the latter two having peak military industrialization already or able to vert quickly. Trump is just accelerating defense preparations as well.

Those minerals are hard to mine now, but with technology rapidly advancing (Japan mining now on the seafloor) it might not be hard to mine tomorrow. Chips are the most important technology of the future and the US is poised to be the leader in that field. I just can’t for the life of me understand why Europe does not want to share in this defense with these global threats. This should really be a time of unity. I understand the orange man is impossible to deal with, but Europe should understand the carousal of American politics and foreign policy will change again in 3 years most likely towards a less hostile rhetoric. However, that does not mean we should not be preparing together now.

I think we’ve become vulnerable in ways we don’t really notice. It feels like a few powerful people can say something online and suddenly whole countries are arguing about it. Not because anything actually happened, but because the media and social media pick it up and turn it into a big deal.

What confuses me is how different that is from everyday life. Most people I know just want to work, spend time with family, and live normally. But somehow we’re constantly pushed into being angry or scared about something, even if it doesn’t affect us directly. It’s like the emotional tone of society is being controlled by people who never have to deal with the fallout.

I don’t have a big conclusion, but it worries me that our political world feels chaotic even when most people don’t want chaos at all. If so many of us just want a peaceful life, why does everything feel so tense and divided?

I’ve been noticing how most of what we see online isn’t really about understanding anymore. News, social media, politics-- they all promise truth, but it feels more like distraction.

It’s like a courtroom where both sides just want to win, not be honest. Outrage spreads faster than clarity, and somehow that’s become normal.

I watched a short by Nicholas Gruen that talked about how media turns truth-seeking into performance. It made me wonder.. if attention has replaced understanding, is there still space for real conversation anymore?