Ran into an old friend that I hadn't seen in a few years at the supermarket today. We got to talking and catching up, asked if they'd been to the 'No Kings' protest a couple weeks back. Told me no, that since they had a green (legal permanent resident) card, they hadn't been out for fear of getting fucked with and deported.
Mind you, this friend and I have been in more than a few hairy situations together, I know they don't scare easy. They've lived here for decades, could have gotten citizenship long ago but had never fooled with the hassle because it didn't seem to really matter. Now that masked men are snatching people off the street for the things they say, the math is a little different and self-censorship is the result.
I don't blame my friend, don't know that I'd do things any differently in their shoes. Still, I couldn't help but think of a conversation I'd had a week or so before, was discussing possible stories to work on with a journalist and they mentioned they weren't covering anything related to the protests. They were afraid it'd cost their dad his security clearance and job, and so was sticking to safer stories.
Y'all, what the actual fuck? I remember the 'W' years, how we thought he was a threat to democracy, but this is something different. White people self censoring is a novel thing in this country, I've certainly never encountered it before now. Throw in the media's newfound fondness for kowtowing and it just ain't a good look. Gives me the heebie-jeebies.
Thankfully, there's still plenty of folks that ain't going to comply in advance. Where this goes from here is anyone's guess but I'm betting it ain't going to be pretty. Guess there's nothing for it but to document it.