Comment by Aurornis

> I find it fascinating that people will genuinely worry about this happening to them, despite it not happening

Oh, but it is. Lots of people are getting picked up for online speech, the government is letting "their guys" off the hook for open crimes, and it's escalating to talking openly about imprisoning the other party.

We're there, it's fascism happening openly, and America isn't what it never was anyways.

Ive been a resident of two countries and am a citzen of the USA. 2 years Norway. 3 years Bahamas. Along with a lot of work in Europe and Asia. So Ive witnessed a wide spectrum of governments, and have been detained by all of these governments at some point for reasons Im not going to speak on.

Maybe its because im a citizen of the USA and they have the ultimate power over me, but i felt the most terrified when under their custody. Hell in the Bahamas the officials took me to Burger King (in handcuffs lol). To be clear im not a criminal I just have a wierd line of work that people question.

The president of the US personally threatened to illegally take away Rosie O'Donnell's citizenship because he doesn't like her. That seems more 'lawless' to me than some third-world countries.

I also have spent 6 months in a USA jail for what ultimately resulted in my pleading to a misdemeanor, and never was a crime. My world view is likely a lot different than yours, and the white vans do exist. They are here RIGHT NOW.

I am manifestly certain it won't happen to me. I tick just about every box: straight, white, male, native-born US, healthy, moderately well off.

But I see it happening to others and that makes me upset. And my intention to fight that might some day make me a target, but that's not the core of it. The core is that it shouldn't happen to anyone.

I agree with everything that you said but it's a "better the devil you know" type of situation.

The vibe that many people have in the US is that things are constantly in flux and that we have less and less control over our lives and environments. Anything could happen.

Considering that, I could understand wanting to go somewhere where there's a known quantity of danger and a known set of rules for avoiding it.

tbh its wild you assumed my world view was curated by headlines. You probably have had the softest, easiest life and have never put your neck on the line in a way that might result in you being locked in a cage by a government official, so you welcome the white vans, because you don't take enough risk in life for it to ever matter to you.

Wild, and offensive. How do you like it when people make assumptions about you?

> I find it fascinating that people will genuinely worry about this happening to them, despite it not happening

I mean, the "white van pulling up in front of a house" is happening on the daily now [1], the current administration has claimed they can suspend habeus corpus [2], they pick up US citizens and legal immigrants in these things [3], and they allegedly deny entry because of political reasons the administration doesn't like [4] (+allegedly [5]).

I don't think the fear of getting disappeared by an administration is unfounded, nor do I think we need to see documented evidence of exactly that particular circumstance happening before we're allowed to worry about it.

I also think the "lil dangerous" part is ironic, given most of these "other" places aren't particularly dangerous, nor is the US particularly safe as-is. "lil dangerous" and "degree of lawlessness" are apt descriptions of the United States, and has been for my entire lifetime.

[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=masked+ice+raids&udm=2 [2] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/what-is-habeas-corpus-... [3] https://abc7chicago.com/post/george-retes-disabled-vet-us-ci... [4] https://apnews.com/article/immigration-detainees-students-oz... [5] https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/06/18/australian-deported-o...

It's a different kind of lawlessness.

I have little worry about some muggers and slumlords creating substandard construction and some restaurant paying off the inspector. I greatly worry about the HN demographics (rich white collar people, generally) voting for solutions to those problems that are worse than the problems while not solving the problems, something they do all over the US.

I mean, the president did just threaten to (somehow) revoke the citizenship of a celebrity who disagreed with him online. Based on what we've seen already, what's to stop them from dubiously claiming to have revoked someone's (natural born) citizenship and then deport them to somewhere before anyone has time to argue anything before a judge?

There was a time I would have agreed with you, but now it doesn't seem that implausible anymore.

The current state of the US is not that the secret police would come dissapear you for being sarcastic online, but the un-secret heavily-armed SWAT police could certainly show up if your sarcasm pissed off the wrong person.

That ain't great.

Do you feel like the trend of policing in the US is going in the direction of:

1) less heavily harmed, more accountable, more community-involved personal treatment

or

2) more heavily armed, anonymous, opaque large bureaucracies answering only to distant executives?

And which of those directions does the product in the linked article point?

>I find it fascinating that people will genuinely worry about this happening to them, despite it not happening

Trump very recently suggested he would revoke Rosie O'Donnell's US citizenship, a natural born US citizen, because of things she's said that's (rightly) critical of him. I have no doubt he will try to do it, and SCOTUS probably won't stop him. This is political retaliation, and it's absolutely abhorrent.

That's where we are. I have no doubt the "white vans" are coming for people who speak out against the tyranny this administration is foisting upon us. I have no doubt that this very comment may even be used against me someday, as ridiculous as that may sound to you right now.

I'm not sure why you're being downvoted so hard, it's a good point.

I'm not thrilled with where we are and I'm very cautious, but as a Black man in America the net difference in my fear and concern over my own government/police right now, as opposed to e.g. during Biden or Obama, isn't huge.

While I don’t think you should be downvoted… brother, maybe the headlines aren’t being exaggerated.