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'Minnesota 15' Case Reveals Largest US Government Spying on Left Since COINTELPRO (www.commondreams.org)

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[-] AmbitiousProcess@piefed.social 43 points 21 hours ago

To be clear for anyone who might not want to read the whole article but also doesn't want to rely solely on the headline:

This isn't some new surveillance system that was revealed, or even really unprecedented tactics. This was just a larger number of HSI agents assigned to tracking activists, infiltrating meetings and chats, etc than the number previously assigned to investigate suspected foreign influence on the "New Left" and anti-Vietnam War movement. (which had 42 officers at its peak, vs the Minnesota 15 case having 119)

[-] Colloidal@programming.dev 11 points 15 hours ago

Not just larger, almost triple!

[-] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 67 points 1 day ago

The Trump administration is conducting what some experts believe is the largest government surveillance campaign targeting American leftists in over half a century, deploying undercover agents, drones, financial investigators, and digital monitoring against opponents of President Donald Trump’s deadly immigration crackdown, according to reporting published Wednesday.

Wired reporter Ali Winston examined court records regarding the prosecution of the so-called “Minnesota 15,” a group of activists facing federal conspiracy charges after organizing and taking part in protests and other resistance to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) deadly Operation Metro Surge crackdown in the Twin Cities.

[-] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 7 points 21 hours ago

also on minority areas, and places like parks and other places where "left gathers" you will never see these in right wing or rich areas.

[-] veeesix@lemmy.ca 34 points 1 day ago

Land of the Free my ass

[-] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 10 points 21 hours ago

Freedom for rich pedophiles that is.

[+] XiJinpingStanAccount@lemmy.ml -14 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

With the elections coming up theres a lot of posts saying vote. I don't think that will do much but if you want to vote do it. But you damn well better do 1 more thing too. BUY A GUN! The 2nd amendment exists. If you are in the US and you are a leftist I want you to be ARMED! Locked and Loaded! Legally! Go to the range and practice. Go skeet shooting.

Comment unrelated to the post. Just sayin.

Edit: For all the people acting like buying a gun is somehow crazy or whatever: I 100% Guarantee that the neo-nazis have guns. The MAGA people have guns. Do you really like the idea of them having plenty of them and your team not having any?

[-] iguessimlemming@lemmy.ml 8 points 9 hours ago

You go far enough left, you get your guns back

[-] moonshadow@sh.itjust.works 7 points 13 hours ago

"Buy a gun" is good advice. The whole framing where you're on a team vs other regular people and should be clutching one in fear is fucked. The second amendment exists to prevent a state monopoly on violence. Spreading that power as thinly as possible is the whole point. Worry about what police and military are consistently doing with theirs every day, not the 1:10000 chance of what your shittiest neighbor might do with his in your nightmares

[-] XiJinpingStanAccount@lemmy.ml 2 points 11 hours ago

I wouldn't categorize neo nazis as regular people personally, but to each their own. My point though was that if the state's monopoly on violence ever truly falters then the racist down the street who has an AR can suddenly go fufill has fantasies. And the only thing that would stop him/her (probably him) is a Black Panther like organization that is also armed.

[-] moonshadow@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 hours ago

I wouldn't go out of my way to construct a fearsome other to react to, but "to each their own". A slavering racist is a freakish anomaly, and you've got a lot more in common with even that guy than either of you do with any billionaire. The only thing that will get us anywhere is collective action and a sense of shared humanity, something you seem to be actively propagandizing against for whatever reason. Really don't love the "so you must be cool with nazis" angle, or much else about your violent, divisive schtick for that matter

[-] XiJinpingStanAccount@lemmy.ml 2 points 10 hours ago

And I don't really see your let's all hold hands and sing kumbayah until everything is fixed schtick as all that lovely either. The idea that we're just going to have the entire working class united against capitalists is an ahistorical fantasy. There will be brownshirts, and whites, and counter revolutionaries.

[-] moonshadow@sh.itjust.works 0 points 10 hours ago

Everyone isolated behind their screens with every interaction mediated by tech corpos is the worst case scenario. A fully captive population with no chance to relate to one another directly at all. Ingroups and enemies dictated entirely by what is useful to that power structure. Steps toward unity are worth taking. The paranoia that's been inflicted on you is worth rejecting. A better world is possible, and if you believe that you should try working towards it. At the very least you could stop (consciously or not) reinforcing the us vs us paradigm of your oppressors.

Or keep mocking the concepts of unity, cooperation, and shared purpose themselves. I'm not your real mom. Just don't think it'll get you anywhere worth being.

[-] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago

Edit: For all the people acting like buying a gun is somehow crazy or whatever

no. it has nothing to do with that.

With the elections coming up theres a lot of posts saying vote. I don't think that will do much but if you want to vote do it.

it's this.

surprise surprise, it's a ml user telling everyone your votes don't matter and the only option left is to start killing people.

for reference, I own guns and know how to use/care for them. I think it's wise to purchase a firearm, no matter how small, to properly protect yourself in the event of the worst case scenario.

WE ARE NOT THERE YET.

democracy, though wounded, is still operating.

laws, though broken, are still enforcing.

I think this is what most people who live outside the US and even some of the agitators that live inside don't understand. Our government, and society, is still operating within expected parameters. until the government starts to pull a Stalin or begins killing entire towns/cities, fighting back with guns is not an option.

[-] bilb@lemmy.ml 4 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

I'm an ml user, listen to me. I think you should vote, personally. I don't think it's enough for what needs to happen, but yeah, do it.

Now that you know my opinion, you may all proceed. 😎

[-] XiJinpingStanAccount@lemmy.ml 0 points 9 hours ago

So basically you can't handle the idea that there are people who don't think voting is going to make a difference? Even when i say to do it if you want to? I'm not telling people not to vote. I'm just saying my opinion on it. And then on the guns thing you say basically exactly what I said verbatim but then act like your version is the more reasonable and mine is somehow "violent" in a way yours isn't. Like what do you think "protecting yourself" in a worst case scenario would look like? It would look like a civil war. Do you have some fantasy that you'd somehow just be going it alone like rambo and wouldn't need to pick a side? What exactly do you take issue with in regards to guns that I was saying?

[-] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world -1 points 9 hours ago

So basically you can't handle the idea that there are people who don't think voting is going to make a difference?

you can think it all you want, IDGAF. you didn't just think it though, you expressed it to the world by posting it. then you got butthurt that nobody agreed with you and attempted to make it about the guns.

you know back in 2016 I remember a large amount of "people" online expressing the same opinion. "your vote doesn't count because every candidate is shitty". same thing happened in 2020, and again in 2024. it's almost always by "people" who advocate for violent unrest. through multiple studies it was found that many of these "people" were actually foreign assets interfering with American democratic process.

now, looking at your handle, and the instance you call home it's not hard to draw conclusions, but I won't. then again, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...

[-] XiJinpingStanAccount@lemmy.ml 0 points 6 hours ago

I'm butthurt? You seem a lot more upset about this than I am. I literally told you to do whatever you want, but you can't handle the fact I'm not gonna vote for your democrats lol. I wish I was a foreign asset. Then I wouldn't have to live in this shit hole of a country. But yes, everyone who disagrees with you is a bot. Good job. You figured it out. Bee-boop. Em-Dash. etc.

[-] Mongostein@lemmy.ca 9 points 15 hours ago

So you’re gonna skip the voting part because you’re itching to shoot people?

I agree that everyone should get prepared for the worst, but you shouldn’t definitely still go vote.

[-] jaykrown@lemmy.world 4 points 14 hours ago

You are roleplaying as a Chinese bot, and you're telling US citizens that voting won't do much and to buy a gun? Do you see how stupid that seems?

I'm a US citizen, I voted, I do not own a gun. My fellow US citizens should never think that violence is a primary solution, we are far from that being an extreme situation. The amount of calls to violence from suspect accounts is genuinely concerning.

[-] I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago

Buddy, I can barely afford rent. I just blew past my food budget to make sure I had a few months of dried goods and water on hand, that's about the extent I can do. I can't afford to drop several hundred on a gun and ammo just so I can LARP as a freedom fighter.

[-] moonshadow@sh.itjust.works 3 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

You could at least not be shitty about the people who do bother. Think of fascists kicking down your door as a disease and firearm ownership as a vaccine. Be fuckin grateful for the people around you who exercise that right/responsibility instead of buying a ps5 or whatever. Correlate ICE "enforcement actions" with regional firearm ownership stats some time for a much more compelling argument than I can give here. You're larping as a helpless bootlicker right now and acting against your own interests in doing so. ~$300 for the ability to defend resist and protect is a pretty good deal.

this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2026

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