Sarah TaberHello Americans on Mastodon, I know we don't feel like there's much to celebrate this July 4th. It's been a rough several years.
So I want to talk about how we're making history right now.
If you started paying attention to the US in 1960, this sure feels like the darkest timeline. But unfortunately, purges against Black & brown people are normal US behavior.
You know what's NOT normal US behavior?
This is the first time there's been a mass movement to STOP a purge in real time.
This is new and unusual. To get an idea of how weird this is, let's take a quick tour of some of the many times the US federal government has officially persecuted entire groups of people.
And what (if any) pushback there was at the time.
1929-1939: the US "repatriated" somewhere between 300K and 2M Mexican Americans. No due process. The federal government removed them from the US to "stop them from competing with Americans for jobs."
About half of the deported people were US citizens.
Few if any Anglo Americans seemed to have a problem with this.
Mexican Americans ran the court battles, protests, and educational campaigns against forced deportation on their own. While they were struggling to keep their families together day by day.
WW2: the US jails 120,000 people, who hadn't been charged of any crime, as a "precaution." 2/3 were US citizens. Many were farmers. White folks wanted their land, & got it.
The loss of so many skilled farmers dented the US food system & made it harder to fight the war.
Some white Americans did publicly oppose rounding up their Japanese neighbors. They were in the minority & overruled.
Resistance was limited to individual efforts to tone down the impact of incarceration- tending jailed neighbors' farms while they were away, sending supplies to the camps, etc.
Operation Wetback, 1954: a federal program to hunt down & deport undocumented immigrants from Mexico.
Somewhere between 1.1 and 1.5 million were rounded up & deported.
And yet again, many were documented migrants or US citizens.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wetback#Operation_Wetback_(1954)
Public outrage over the many US citizens deported caused Operation Wetback to get its funding pulled. … After 3 months & over 1 million people deported.
This was the fastest a purge ever got rolled back. But it still took people a while to notice & stop it. At the supposed peak of US unity.
Slavery & Jim Crow: millions of Americans held in captive labor.
Enslaved & sharecropping farm workers knew things were bad! They did what they could to push back the whole time.
But that wasn't enough. Both slavery & Jim Crow finally ended when a critical mass of white Americans decided they should. Not even the majority of white Americans. Just a critical mass. And it took us ~250 and close to 100 years to get there, respectively.
The US & its preceding colonies were at war with tribes ~each year from 1610 - 1920s- 300 years.
There was more opposition from white folks than you'd think; but it wasn't broad-based, organized, or effective. We're still breaking treaties with tribes today.
Sometimes, replacing tribes with settlers wasn't enough. The federal gov't put in the work to keep the new guys down too.
When coal miners went on strike, they sent in the National Guard. To push people back into the mines at gunpoint.
My grandma left Harlan Co so she didn't get stuck in company store debt for life.
So it's frustrating to hear things like "This is the darkest timeline" and "late-stage capitalism."
Yes things suck & you gotta vent. But... do people think the US started in 1960?
We really forget our country, and capitalism, *started* with people on the auction block.
When you know what the US has been about this whole time, that really puts the current moment in perspective.
We've been up to some ugly, ugly stuff. And it usually gets either silence or applause.
2025 is a whole different animal. The response has been strong and immediate. We had *preemptive* mass mobilization.
By millions of people who *aren't* being targeted by raids, jailing, and deportation. (Yet. 🙃)
That's never happened in US history before. This is different.
That's why the right keeps sniveling about how they're under attack. Even while they're successfully pulling off another purge.
They're not used to getting yelled at when they blow taxpayer dollars on witch hunts, they're used to getting high-fives at the country club.
We still have a long way to go. And it's frustrating bc we have leaders who supposedly want to run our country better, and they plain don't have the levers to do much. I'm not making excuses.
I'm just pointing out how weird it is for the US to even *have* leaders who want to do better.
We have so much more going for us than any generation that's tried to stop these things before.
And yes, that's left us without much of a playbook on how to do this kind of change quickly.
These movements usually take decades or centuries to build up steam.
This time, we already had one in place when the problems started. That's weird & nobody knows what to do.
So if you're looking at the US & thinking "This isn't the country I know," you're 100% right. It's not.
We're actually fighting back in real time for once.
I know it doesn't feel like much to be proud of right now, because we're nowhere close to done.
But you deserve to know- in the middle of all of this, we ARE making history right now.
Aaron@sarahtaber Thank you for the positive take. Much needed.
Yappari@sarahtaber The internet has changed our response time. It sheds light into some of the darkest corners and allows us to work through the cycle faster. I am hopeful being able to see and fix the problems faster will limit some of the damage.
jabjoe@yappari @sarahtaber that is kind of true, but also kind of wrong. The internet is also the place people can find out whatever they want, true or not. The crazies in the villages find each other now, rather than get normalized.
Martin Vermeer FCD@jabjoe @yappari @sarahtaber Both are true. Both information and disinformation travel faster, and the Internet offers both SURveillance and SOUSveillance. But not just the Internet: cameras on mobile phones in the hands of ordinary people, Internet connected.
This is how BLM became a thing - though still not a big enough thing. In the old days, it was the cops' word against the victim's or his family's - or a random witness's - word, and the cop's word always won. Now there is video all over social media.
This is also what changed the dynamic with Israel/Palestine. In the days of corporate legacy media, it was relatively easy to control the narrative. They are still trying, cf. all those dead Gaza journalists, but no way to stop war criming IDF soldiers from proudly posting all over TikTok...
64 Islands Aroha Cooperative@sarahtaber 1954! living memory for those involved, people who grew up in a conservative tradition, whose parents and grandparents were part of the effort, or benefitted from it
cakemix@sarahtaber Thank you. Seriously. Thank you.
social elephant in the roomI appreciate the vision that all is not hopeless.
I would also add there was another first lately; people actually cheered the death of a C.E.O.
Perhaps people being fed up increased response time?
Mathias ❄️🐺🐶 is wrathly 
@sarahtaber Thanks Sarah. It's important perspective, both on the brutal history of this flawed nation and how things are tangibly different today than in the past.
For what it's worth I totally understand the, it's worse than it's ever been, I don't recognize this country, sentiment. I think for a lot of us (some millennials, gen Z & beyond) it's "worse than it's been in my lifetime", and it's not just the horrendously racist and cruel acts of 🧊 and their ilk, I think it's colored by the rest of the environment. The rollback of rights that seemed solidified, whether from before some of our lifetimes or for much of it (or especially our adult lives), everything that feels like a reversal of progress, even the 🏒-graph greedflation, all at once. I empathize with how hard it is not to see doom when you can't afford your rent or even a 🍔 (at home or fast food), your healthcare is getting taken away, your neighbors are getting kidnapped, and you or your 🏳️⚧️ loved ones are being actively targeted.
Play Ball and Fight FascistsDidn't realize how much I needed to hear this, especially today.
Thanks for taking the time to put this out there.
Viss@sarahtaber fantastic thread
Joy_intl@sarahtaber Thank you for bringing together this thread, for doing the research and for sharing it in a hopeful way.
I think we needed this more than we even knew.
I'm rooting for democracy, for the real freedom that means getting close to self actualization - for everyone.
I think we needed this more than we even knew.
I'm rooting for democracy, for the real freedom that means getting close to self actualization - for everyone.
Tink@sarahtaber thank you. This was very helpful and encouraging.
manchicken@sarahtaber I needed to read this thread. Thanks.
Candace Robb@sarahtaber I needed to read this, to hear this. It gives me hope.
fool@sarahtaber I appreciate what you're saying here, and am grateful, but I'm having to intentionally stop thinking about how this could be interpreted as "the bastards got away with it every previous time"
.
sandywb14@sarahtaber Thanks so much for this thread. It helps put things into perspective. I’m still in a major funk but it gives me the incentive to keep showing and speaking up.
July! Our Sex Is On Fire! 🔥☀️🧨Really good thread. Appreciate all the historical context. I learned something here. So, definitely well done.
But.
This also has vibes of, bc I like sports, hey last week we lost 100-0 and this week we only lost 90-0. Progress!
Uhhhh, we're still getting our ass absolutely kicked.
I can't put lipstick on this pig. Not today.
Marc Singer@sarahtaber good points all, but I guess this time seems worse because we thought we were making progress and we expect that people should know this is wrong. If you’re trying to make me feel better, I don’t know if it’s working.
Matt McIrvin@sarahtaber So far it doesn't feel like fighting back, it feels like shouting down a hole in the ground. The bad guys have all the cards and even our side seems to agree that this is somehow all our side's fault.
contrasocialPeople won't start fully fighting back until they're able to actually admit that, yes, people like Biden, Newsom, Buttigieg, Jeffries, Pelosi etc. are not leaders who will fight and who are in fact complicit in fighting to keep the racist, imperialist status quo.
We need leadership that will lead the charge, and that means letting neoliberalism fall by the wayside and admitting it's non-viable. There can be no centrism with fascists.
ohwellhereweare@sarahtaber Thank you for this historical perspective, it's very helpful.
Ricki Bowie Knives Tarr@sarahtaber Fucking fantastic and well researched thread Sarah, thank you so much.
Venita@RickiTarr @sarahtaber The United States is based on a White Supremacist system which includes laws and institutions and that hasn't changed. Constitutional amendments and social/cultural changes have been made, and there has always been backlash. Change the system and change the outcome. I don't see that happening.
Tiota Sram@venitamathias @RickiTarr @sarahtaber I'm half in agreement with you here, but it can be true both that the whole system is rotten and that we are currently in a moment of unprecedented change/challenge in/to that system. Recognizing that newness doesn't mean you have to be hopeful, but I think it helps create room for hope if you want to.
@tiotasram @RickiTarr @sarahtaber Of course, I can't say that the US white supremacist system will never change. The quick overturn of DEI policies and institutionalized racism shows me that the system is intact and holding strong. The fish rots from the head.
MooMoo the Cat@sarahtaber Thank you for this. 🙏
BenjaminKlein@sarahtaber thank you for this thread, it's often useful to listen to people who have been dealing with oppression and fighting fascism for 400 years. Here is Dr. Cornel West & Rev. Amos Brown on America's chickens come home to roost moment.
Dr. Cornel West & Rev. Amos Brown - A Conversation W/ Clergy (POWERFUL)
BoudSupportive evidence:
"Contrary to conventional wisdom, the size and scale of anti-Trump protests this year have dwarfed those in 2017, and they have been extraordinarily peaceful." - #EricaChenoweth, #SohaHammam, #JeremyPressman, and #ChristopherWileyShay June 12, 2025
"... at least through April and May, protesters associated with the anti-Trump movement were extraordinarily nonviolent in their tactics." [1][2]
[1] https://wagingnonviolence.org/2025/06/american-spring-nonviolent-protest-accelerating
[2] https://wagingnonviolence.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/April-and-May-Plot-615x459.png
CavyherdThere's another factor at play here, also. Not only are we seeing a backlash in realtime but, possibly even more important, we're seeing into the perspectives of the target populations, also in realtime, in a way that hasn't been possible or available before.
The humanity of the marginalized groups is much more visible than previously. & that humanity is MUCH harder to gloss over with propaganda than it used to be.
Troubled Clef@sarahtaber I moved to the USA in 1989 from Australia. Got ciiizenship, moved my family there, etc. In March 2025, we left and moved to Mexico. I'm watching things implode from outside the blast range, but spent last week back in the USA. It was like being in the eye of a hurricane. No one seems to realize what is going on, and yet the homeless on the streets, drugs, despair, boarded up buildings. How could people not see the bleeding obvious?
Chris Petrilli@sarahtaber thank you for bringing some reality tinted lenses to this dark time.
Mx Verda@petrillic @sarahtaber there is no reality, only relational meaning and choice of perspectives (one at a time).
DB@sarahtaber This is an exceptionally well written essay and it brings home some much needed perspective as we experience July 4 this year.
Faraiwe@sarahtaber the solutions are there, plainly, same ones as before.
Lacking is will. Apathy kills.
I don't have the stomach to do the necessary homework, but I suspect it might be a worthwhile, as a first approximation, to go through Project 2025, invert the signs, & list out the objectives & strategies—a detailed plan—of what it would take to systematically build a society anchored firmly in the Liberal Consensus. (& block off shenanigans like we've seen from the Right in the last 40 years, though that may not be possible, because humans.)
Beeks@sarahtaber we need to start killing Nazis, by the million. Anything less isn't enough.
an oven mitt@sarahtaber This is deeply heartening to read — I’m a few days late, but thanks.
I’m a history teacher and yet I still constantly need reminding of historical context, because it’s the counterbalance to the urgency one feels (and should feel) in being in the moment.
sleepfreeparent@sarahtaber ok I was with you until you got here. US "leaders" who "want to do better" are you fucking kidding me? Where?! The so called opposition are competing to try and outflank Repubs on the right, same as they ever do.
Nah, the whole system is a system designed to to exactly what it's doing today. It all needs to go, and all the folks who have any power as a result of that system need to be removed as a matter of urgency, because they're the absolute least likely people to help any of us
Nah, the whole system is a system designed to to exactly what it's doing today. It all needs to go, and all the folks who have any power as a result of that system need to be removed as a matter of urgency, because they're the absolute least likely people to help any of us
LukefromDC@sarahtaber We need to do now what should have been done in 1492: put settler colonialism under the most powerful attacks we can muster.
The US is going into another one of its internal wars, as this thread points out there have been many before. Guerrilla warfare at least has advanced a great deal since the end of WWII, and the US government has lost almost all of those it tried to suppress. This gives us a real advantage if this blows up.
In my lifetime I have seen three "Devil Presidents" these being Ronald Reagan, GW Bush, and Trump. Each has been worse than the last, but the worst ever in my book was Andrew Jackson, author of the Indian Removal Act and the Trail of Tears.
Another real piece of shit was George Washington, known to the Six Nations as "Town Destroyer" for his attacks on Indigenous communities.
Today we have the Internet but must fight pervasive surveillance. Today the cops are more militarized, but we have shown we can be too in places like Portland 2020 or LA today.
We beat Operation Wetback, and we can win this war today.
Radio Free Trumpistan@sarahtaber
I was with you up to this point--the U.S. has NOT been about this the whole time.
What the U.S. has been about the whole time is the see-saw between the people in power who do that sort of thing and the people who give that lot the boot from time to time.
If the U.S. was all about that the whole time, there never would have been a Civil War OR an end to the Vietnam War, and this should be said. No, the U.S. wasn't born in 1960 , but it was in the 1960s that the people you describe lost power--Vietnam ended, Civil Rights were encoded into law--and it was also the time when the Republican Party morphed from the Party of Lincoln into the Dixiecrat-Kremlin Party.
But understand this: I stand with the NAACP and ACLU to make it known that we're Americans too, and we will NOT be overlooked.
John Abbe (aka Slow)@sarahtaber I think I hear you, this scale of response this quickly being new. That, makes sense and suggests how key it is to get more coverage of that resistance and especially its successes out there, so that it can keep growing quickly.
Curious if you are you drawing on any particular sources that bring a lot of that history together?
Bob Blaskiewicz 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇬🇱I needed this.
Paul 💙What next for the USA?.....I suspect organisations who could support any sort of fight against Government will be banned or controlled
Unions?... Mass communication like Whatsapp?