“It is less important that people define this government as fascist (even though it is) than that they know they are being screwed, spied on, and denied a future. I do not believe that the way people should learn this is “the hard way”. I hope the mass firings of federal employees, including hard-working people like the stewards of our national parks, end that terrible logic. Innocent people should not have to suffer so that misguided people can “learn”.”
—Sarah Kendzior
#trump #usa

“…it is important to highlight the concrete cruelties of this administration and that anyone could be next. … You are not safe even if you think you are. But you are safer when you acknowledge the existence of the goddamn mafia, and band with others to expose it.”
—Sarah Kendzior, Your Questions Answered: We're Already in the Aftermath
#trump

“…stand up for those targeted. We are living in a time of incredible threat and pain, and no one deserves to feel alone, or like they will be abandoned out of political convenience. … This is a civil rights issue: an important one, and a straightforward one.”
—Sarah Kendzior, Your Questions Answered: We're Already in the Aftermath
(Sarah Kendzior’s Newsletter Feb 26, 2025)
#values

“Trump is easier for me to understand… Musk is more unpredictable, as are his tech cohort. It’s not hard to understand what they want — money, power, depopulation… — but predicting their daily activity is difficult. … That said, Musk is much more erratic than Trump. Whereas Trump is a career criminal whose behavior and beliefs have remained consistent over decades, Musk shifts alliances and behaves in wild ways. So yes, things may backfire.”
—Sarah Kendzior
#trump #musk

“…I think the odds of someone powerful getting in a real feud with Musk are high, and he may get ousted. How much damage is done by that point is hard to say. The US crisis should be viewed as a global crisis, one made worse by technological dependence.”
—Sarah Kendzior
#musk

“My advice here is do not wait for elections. … Work to improve and protect your community or focus on whatever causes interest you. …if everyone does something small, bigger changes will happen. But do not rely on people with a track record of betrayal.”
—Sarah Kendzior

“The tide of corruption is already here, so seek shelter and swim. … Folks are going to have to get very creative. … Be strange and obnoxious and loud, like an American! Be furious while grinning, like an American! Before I focused on the US, I studied authoritarian states in the former USSR. … People defied the regimes subtly, even when they were afraid. We don’t have to be so subtle. We are Americans and not very good at subtlety anyway.”
—Sarah Kendzior
#usa

“The FBI is, overall, an abhorrent agency with a long history of abuse dating back to the days of J. Edgar Hoover. That is not why Trump wants to transform it. He wants to transform it because it’s not abusive enough, and not obedient enough to him and his cohort. He wants a full gestapo. … I think it is possible for there to be a federal legal protective body, but it needs to be pared down, transparent, and subject to enormous oversight so that it cannot abuse power.”
—Sarah Kendzior
#trump