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The Bystander Challenge
In case you have not caught up with what’s going on in Portland, Oregon, militarized federal agents, deployed by authoritarians Bill Barr & Donald Trump, have been beating protesters, kidnapping a few of them in unmarked vehicles to unknown destinations, and firing tear gas, even as it has been caught again and again on cameras that these protesters were largely peaceful and more importantly, far away from the Federal properties which these forces were sent to protect (and the only legal authority these agents have when forcefully entering a state).
This Trump secret police should be called FODD (Fascist Organization for Murdering Democracy), along the lines of the Italian fascist Mussolini’s OVRA.
In case you are caught up on what’s going on in Portland in the past few days, and in general, every other anti-democratic step being taken by the current administration, then, like me, you are a bystander.
The Bystander Psychology
Mass societal destructions (and killings) are usually the outcome of an evolution on the part of the perpetrators, that starts with discrimination and limited acts of harm doing. Harming people and causing destruction changes the perpetrators (and the whole society). They feel encouraged…
