Two days after an ICE agent shot and killed Renée Good in Minneapolis, Rep. Roger Williams issued an ultimatum to the Trump administration’s critics in Minnesota and beyond.

“People need to quit demonstrating, quit yelling at law enforcement, challenging law enforcement, and begin to get civil,” the Texas Republican told NewsNation. “And until we do that, I guess we’re going to have it this way. And the people that are staying in their homes or doing the right thing need to be protected.”

That’s a pretty clear encapsulation of MAGA-world’s views on dissent these days. You aren’t supposed to protest. You aren’t supposed to “yell at” or “challenge” the militarized federal agents occupying your city. And anyone who wants to be “protected” should probably just stay “in their homes.” Williams isn’t some fringe backbencher; he’s a seven-term congressman who chairs the House Small Business Committee. He is announcing de facto government policy.

For nearly a year, President Donald Trump and his allies have been engaged in an escalating assault on the First Amendment. The administration has systematically targeted or threatened many of Trump’s most prominent critics: massive law firms, Jimmy Kimmel, even, at one point, Elon Musk. But it’s worth keeping in mind that some of the earliest victims of the president’s second-term war on speech were far less powerful.

      • 18107@aussie.zone
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        2 days ago

        straight, white, cis, male, adult, christian, republican…

        When do they add enough qualifiers that you* are excluded?

        \*

        First they came for the Communists
        And I did not speak out
        Because I was not a Communist

        Then they came for the Socialists
        And I did not speak out
        Because I was not a Socialist

        Then they came for the trade unionists
        And I did not speak out
        Because I was not a trade unionist

        Then they came for the Jews
        And I did not speak out
        Because I was not a Jew

        Then they came for me
        And there was no one left
        To speak out for me