It was only after Miles Pickering arrived at Scotland Yard following his arrest that the police realised they had got things embarrassingly wrong.
The T-shirt worn by the Brighton engineer did not express support for a proscribed terrorist group, instead the words on it read “Plasticine Action” and inside the letter “o” was an image of the stop-motion character Morph giving two thumbs up.
Speaking to the Guardian, Pickering admitted it was designed to be an easy mistake to make, appearing to look like the logo of Palestine Action, the protest group banned under terrorism legislation last month, but text underneath the logo reads: “We oppose AI-generated animation.”
So, call a group a terrorist group, and they lose all their rights.
Literally yes.
Fascists LOVE this one weird trick!
For such a long time Trump railed against antifa calling it a terrorist organization. Any protest he didn’t like was labeled as antifa, allowing him to use full force in breaking up protests. Meanwhile antifa wasn’t a real thing.
Correct. And when the mean terrorists suddenly become useful to you, declare them a splinter faction, take them off the terrorist list, put them in a suit and warmly receive them when they visit your presidents.
About five minutes later, the arresting officer approached him again. “He said: ‘I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news.’ I said: ‘What’s the good news?’ He said: ‘I’m de-arresting you.’
“And I said: ‘What’s the bad news?’ He said: ‘It’s going to be really embarrassing for me.’ And then I walked free, while all the real heroes are the people that are actually getting arrested.”
The reall heroes indeed. Still this Chad got to draw some needed attention to the outright stupidity of it all…
‘It’s going to be really embarrassing for me’
“As it should be, you fascist pig”… would have been my reply.
This is exactly why I quoted that bit. Introspection is the natural enemy of fascism, and this employee isn’t deferring to outside reasoning for his actions.
I mean outside of him feeling obliged to abide by his superiors, he’s really thinking (starting at least) for himself.
I think it is safe to say that specific cop was just following orders that he doesn’t really agree with.
Calling him a fascist is the same over generalization they are doing to anyone supporting the “terrorist” organization. And when you say the cop should quit rather than follow orders… you don’t know thier situation. They may have a family depending on that job.So what I am saying is, stop just calling everyone a fascist. It cheapens the insult for those who truely deserve it.
Every Nazi was ‘just following orders’ did that make them less of a Nazi?
The answer is no… going along with ‘orders’ is being complicit with them, following fascist orders makes you a fascist… so yes… he is actually a fascist… and that now makes you a fascist apologist.
So by your logic, the jews we worked in the factories helping to make the rockets for van braun were nazis too. They were just following orders. For both them and many non-jewish Germans, if they didn’t, they would have been killed or worse.
Do fascist stuff, you’re a fascist.
I’m currently unemployed. ICE is hiring in my country. I’d rather fucking starve to death than join them or the police because I’m not a fascist.
See the difference?
There are fascists, and those who would rather die than be associated with them. Which one are you?
I do see the difference, you can only see black and white. You also have no long term vision at all. But a few other people can see the value of treating people like people and blaming the system and leaders for what they forced people to do.
I’m with you but have you considered joining just to fuck things up by being obstructive from the inside?
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Yes, actually, but don’t believe I’d be able to do much good. I could be “incompetent” and maybe achieve slower arrests and cost them money unnecessarily, but outside of just “accidentally” burning a precinct to the ground or something else that could be done by anyone, i feel joining would just make me another incompetent fascist slowly fumbling the agenda forward.
I mean, embarrassing actions tend to do that.
Interesting that this guy was able joke about it, that’s not really the personality I was expecting.
Precisely why I thought that quote validated highlighting. He’s in the purgatory between following orders and thinking for himself.
The way he brings it does endear me.
Friend: Tell me we live in a fascist country, without saying we live in a fascist country
Me: Posts link to this article
In hindsight, when George W. Bush realized he could reuse the “terrorist” label to infringe on country’s and people’s rights, that’s when the whole descent into fascism started.
That gave the fascists a potent tool that they would use to great effect, but the seeds were planted way back with Nixon’s Southern Strategy.
I keep seeing this conversation happen. The eternal contest of “who can connect the dots back the furthest without sounding ridiculous” must have occurred in nearly every conversation among learned people who have had the occasion to bemoan present circumstances, which has been almost continually - presumably even in the public baths of Mohenjo-Daro.
On the strength of that observation, I have a new hypothesis to put forward: history has some degree of self-similarity. Sort of like Nietzsche’s eternal return, but in a more fractal sense rather than a repetitive sense. Things don’t merely repeat, events have a self-similarity and causal intercourse can be apprehended at many levels simultaneously. People have often said “history rhymes”. But I find history less like a song and more like some kind of a fractal crime scene, and the culprits are always legion.
At least this way we might have these discussions (repetitively, I note) without having to feel churlish every time we connect another dot, nor aggrieved by having been one-upped. Time is not a flat circle, it’s a Mandelbrot set.
But I find history less like a song and more like some kind of a fractal crime scene, and the culprits are always legion.
Poetry. You have a way with words.
Arr it drives me nuts
No the seeds of fascism were planted when the first Cro-Magnon bashed another’s skull in with a thigh bone.
Then threw it up into the air and it turned into a spaceship. Loved that movie,
It started when we designed economic and political systems that pools power in fewer and fewer peoples hands. Bush Jr and his actions are just a symptom of the problem.
9/11 was the beginning of the end of the West.
Bin Laden would be so proud. Converting the west into an authoriatarian dream and in the case of the USA, even with a strong religious taste.
The judicial coup that brought Dubya to power was the beginning. 9/11 was just a convenient pretext but the surveillance state and the undermining of civil rights was always going to happen.
Brooks Brothers riot… No we can’t count the presidential election votes because there’s dudes in suits jumping around yelling outside
Terrst
Nucular
In hindsight, the Dominionism Cult was started in the 70s to take over America. The fascists have been the same this whole time. Checkout “Totalitarianism in America” by Chris Hedges. My mom was in this cult in the 90s, and I have disgusting memories of going to secret meetings where they taught ppl how to brainwash ppl and become their “friend” so they could use them. Now it’s rich ppl and republicans, same MOs though.
Two, three decades ago, it was just another snake cult. Now, everywhere.
Ironically enough that was also the exact moment when the terrorists won the War on Terror.
Which ones? The Muslim or the Xian flavor?
Someone should start selling t shirts that look similar to reach other but of different subjects so then cops there have a hard time telling the difference. My proposals are:
Palepstein Action: Release the Epstein Files
Palworld Action: Screw Nintendo
Plasticine AcTiON₂: Stop Petroleum Pollution
Palladian Action: Preserve Classical Architecture
Paladin Act20n: The Best DnD Class
Pallial ACTON: Wear Helmets, Ride Safely
Ballantine Attraction: Visit Yellowstone
Palestine Paction: 1947 British Mandate Period
Pastime Abstraction: Netflix and Chill
Someone should start selling t shirts that look similar to reach other but of different subjects so then cops there have a hard time telling the difference.
After the bill banning their organization was signed, Palestine Action changed its name to “Yvette Cooper”, the Homeland Secretary who authored the bill.
I hope this is real
Palpatine action: Lay with the Sith
Palpatine Action: Do it.
Palpatine Action: Let the hate flow through you
I think it would be great if at the next protests the crowds were filled with these nonsense t-shirts and signs to waste the police’s time. It is completely legal to protest a proscription order so I don’t think they have any legitimate grounds to arrest anyone. And if they do, they look very silly.
Palladium Action: Require catalytic converters for every car made after 1993!
It’ll be a good litmus test. Will they start banning anybody wearing shorts remotely close to the Palestine action? They either have to lean into fascist or dip back out of it.
Anybody taking odds?
I could set up a website selling these at cost to test it out
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Palletline Action
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As much as the US is fucked and how much we hear about how it’s fucked, it feels a little bittersweet to see other developed countries’ governments fucking up just as bad. The fact that you can’t protest about Palestine is asinine.
The US and UK have been in an arms race to see who can tank their country the fastest for quite some time now.
Remember how putin arrested women, old grammars and gramps for saying anything about the “military exercise” in terms of war?
It’s kind of grating that it’s so bad in the United States that people start applauding the EU doing stupid shit too.
We should be united against this stupid shit, not laughing at each other over our particular forms of suffering.
This has nothing to do with the EU though
It’s really not the ‘where’, it’s the general thought ((less)(ness)) we should not be slightly relieve at other people doing stupid shit, we should -as people- make a stand against stupid shit.
I think we should unite against stupid shit being laid upon us by greedy people rather than laugh at each others’ misery.
As true as that statement is it is very unnerving to see a lot of countries see a rise in the alt-right movements gain footholds and numbers in elections in multiple countries … with we could all agree nazis are bad again ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Britain has been using the Troubles for a long time to justify all manner of perverting freedoms and rights. They’re not far behind China in surveillance and suppression.
They’re not far behind China
They’re leagues ahead. We just don’t like to acknowledge it, because they’re White Westerners rather than Evil NonWhite Communists.
I’m a naturalized immigrant and loudly anti-regime online. Just today I had two people tell me to “go back to China and see how long you last criticizing the government there”(ironically they never seem to realize that they’re advocating for Chinese style authoritarianism under trump), and “Get out of this country you commie.”
Most non-POC simply don’t understand this reality of racism and tension in this country. It’s the definition of privilege. Not needing to think about how police forces or others will react to you because of the color of your skin.
This is just normal treatment of any kind of POC in a western nation in the modern day. Getting randomly screamed at, assaulted, or reported to the police entirely due to skin color and accent.
To their credit, they did release him once they realised their mistake.
Bloody funny though.
They won’t next time when there’s dozens with that shirt. They’ll just make up a reason if they have to.
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Be funnier if the police in the UK weren’t arresting people for wearing the wrong T-shirt.
Welcome to Russia where you can go to jail for “No to dried fish”. Dried fish type “вобла” is written slightly alike to war-“война”
I wonder how long it will take before someone shows up with a blank piece of paper?
Checked. Already there was the precedent. Maybe not in Russia but in Belarus? Don’t remember exactly…
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blank_paper_protest has a list. It’s incomplete though. For instance it doesn’t mention Australia https://joinouramerica.org/when-even-a-blank-sign-is-a-crime/
A Soviet political joke describes a disgruntled man holding up a white piece of paper in the street in protest and, when asked why, the protester replies that everyone knows what the paper is supposed to say.
Protestors in the anti-war protests in Russia that followed the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine were arrested for holding up blank paper.
It definitely happened in Russia, possibly Belarus as well.
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That’s very clearly thinly veiled anti war statements. Those are illegal over there. It is unclear if this, too is meant against Palestine or ist just random.
if this, too is meant against Palestine
This situation is older than the modern Israel-Palestine thing. Plus Russians (I’m Ukrainian but was born in the SU, so know basic nuances) are mostly anti-Israel. USSR was pro-Palestine since '60? I’m not that old to remember details.
Neither russia and urss are pro palestine , they just pretend to because they was usa enemy and israel is it’s proxy in the middle east
??? I mean the plasticine action shirts
Oh, sorry. Yes, I suppose it IS Palestine-related the same way as “Нет войне” is related to “Нет вобле”.
I support Plasticine Action.
I also support Plasticine Action.
I just bought one. We’ll see how my fellow Canadians deal with it. ;)
Now I want a plasticine action t-shirt. Surprisingly easy to find: https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirts/plasticine-action
Illustrating very clearly why freedom of speech and expression are so vitally important.
They clearly are on the side of Play-Doh Action.
“We oppose AI-generated animation.”
Their 1st call was right: these pricks won’t stop & need to stay locked away.
