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Posted by wmeredith 1 day ago

White House alters arrest photo of ICE protester, says "the memes will continue"(arstechnica.com)
333 points | 113 commentspage 2
1attice 10 hours ago|
How is this flagged? Deepfakes aren't a tech story now?

HN reveals itself again as the manicured lawn of the fascist tranche of our industry

dev_256 16 hours ago||
Damn, HN is turning into Reddit, fast.
ChrisArchitect 1 day ago||
[dupe] Earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46725268
phplovesong 1 day ago||
The US has become such a disgusting place. A failed democracy.
loudmax 1 day ago||
As a US citizen, I'm proud of Minnesotans for standing up for American values.
mothballed 1 day ago||
It's nice that they're doing it. And they are certainly the bravest we have to offer; much braver than you or I.

That said, the bravest we have are asking that they please not be murdered. And then peacefully kneeling down to be executed, even when they are armed.

Obviously this only emboldens the murderers. The options moving forward look bleak.

filoeleven 1 day ago|||
The instant there is armed pushback, Trump will declare martial law. It's entirely plausible that had there not been so many people with cameras around, this would have been used as the excuse.

The best thing to do is to be out there recording everything. You are right that they are emboldened, so you're putting yourself in danger by filming. When people continue to do that despite the danger, and despite the internal or external pressure to escalate, it shows more people what's really happening.

I've witnessed people change their position on ICE's actions based on the video evidence of the last killing. Videos 1 and 2 weren't convincing to them, but the 3rd angle was. That's important, because they now know that the administration is lying in the face of directly contradicting evidence.

tremon 1 day ago||
will declare martial law

I don't understand how that will be meaningfully different from what is happening already?

mike50 1 day ago|||
Use the actual military with more personnel tanks and air support.
filoeleven 1 day ago|||
Suspension of 2026 midterm elections
hackable_sand 1 day ago||||
What a bitchy comment

Do yourself a favor and sit this one out while the rest of us fix it.

PearlRiver 14 hours ago||
It cannot be fixed. Red states would have to flip to blue states. I recall general Lee to consider the civil war a stupid mistake but still off he went because he was from Virginia.
spencerflem 1 day ago|||
I’m not convinced we’d be in a better place if the ICE officer had been shot in self defense. It’s a really powerful story and cements to ‘normal people’ who are just barely following the news what ICE is like.

FWIW I do think things might be different later but there’s still a lot of room for escalation left

madeofpalk 1 day ago|||
I find it very difficult to come to a different conclusion. What is tolerated in the United States is deplorable.
whateveracct 1 day ago|||
Failing - I didn't hear no bell.

We have a fascist President, yes. We will see if this means we have a fascist government within the next decade.

ku-man 1 day ago||
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danorama 1 day ago||
Not to be too reductive, but while there are some amazing technical achievements there, generative AI seems to be really good for individuals (particularly wealthy ones) and bad for society as a whole. I can create lots of neat new things for my own purposes while social trust dissolves in a sea of slop.

Collective action problems are just the worst.

SilverElfin 1 day ago||
Here’s a direct link to the tweet from the White House deputy communications director that said this, after being caught red handed altering photos to spread propaganda and lying to the public:

https://xcancel.com/Kaelan47/status/2014410500096856358

Even crazier is the reply further down on that post from the deputy press secretary, Abigail Jackson, making fun of people who debunked that post like Snopes:

https://xcancel.com/abigailmarone/status/2014411002561863790

It’s horrifying but shows that they’re completely shameless about lying. And shameless about being aggressive and obscene. You see this from the other people too like press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who regularly abuses journalists asking reasonable questions.

And more horrifying are all the accounts replying in support of this. That’s evidence of the hardcore MAGA base that’ll support Trump no matter what he does, I guess.

squigz 1 day ago|
> And more horrifying are all the accounts replying in support of this. That’s evidence of the hardcore MAGA base that’ll support Trump no matter what he does, I guess.

I'd just like to say that judging public perception based on online comments, in 2026, is probably not a good indicator at all. Sort of ironic having to point this out in a thread about AI faked images, but...

hhh 1 day ago||
Why? There’s plenty of people disavowing their actions and plenty supporting them. There will be plenty of blue checkmarks with full face shown selfdoxxing while they gleefully call for more to be killed.
squigz 1 day ago||
There is lots of propaganda being pushed online with fake accounts. Checkmarks and pictures of a face do not make a real account.
hhh 1 day ago|||
my point is that there’s enough information that it’s a selfdoxx of it being an actual person that you can find from the information given there alone.

Plenty of people pay for the ‘i think my opinion matters more’ boost button, malicious propagandist or regular person alike

SilverElfin 1 day ago|||
That could be true. But the damage is real still. Posts by bots influence real people. If Twitter / X has lots of fake accounts, we need to figure out how to force them to do something about it. I’m sure they can do more about bots if the replies on most big accounts are mostly bots. If they aren’t mostly bots, then that’s a problem of a different kind. But mass spam by bots can still corrupt our political process.
squigz 1 day ago||
> It influences real people

Sure, but only because people think that that's what the public really thinks.

Swoerd 1 day ago||
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codyb 1 day ago||
[flagged]
codyb 1 day ago|
Non-violent protest only! Encouraged by me based on successes at Selma, in India, and in response to the killing of George Floyd.

It's a long, inexorable march, but violence only perpetuates more violence and reduces sympathy for the protest movement.

filoeleven 1 day ago||
Not sure why this is being downvoted. It's from the same poster who just gave all the info.

It mirrors what is working in Minneapolis. It shows public outrage at what is happening. The absence of violence in the crowd makes it even clearer that ICE are the ones provoking incidents. It helps city and state officials make their case that their people need protection from ICE, not the other way around.

codyb 1 day ago|||
There's a lot of folk out here downvoting my protest and boycott encouragement. I just assume they're do nothing goobers or worse.

The sad fact is, even most of the people who're sympathetic to democracy and human rights will do just about zero to protect or fight for them.

I don't really know what else to do though, so I keep trying!

paperwallet 1 day ago||
Working with your local government and particpating in it will create greater change because you have the ability to influence laws at a local level.

From there, it opens doors to working with towns and eventually the state.

States have the power to override Federal laws in greater numbers.

This is by design. If you dont understand how your country works, the systems that run it, then you will fail.

Awareness helps, but it rarely changes things. Participating in the democratic process creates the potential for change before it's too late.

codyb 1 day ago||
Sure. I participate quite frequently through calls, donations, and voting.

But I'm not sure if you've looked at the news lately... we're pretty far into "too late".

Non-violent protest movements have a great record of creating real, and sustained change. Whether that's in India, or the civil rights and gay rights and suffrage and abolition movements here, peaceful protest is a powerful way to send a message to the people in your governments what you and the rest of the people there support and expect of them.

It's a great way to meet folk, to get good energy, to get a message out, to get a little exercise and fresh air, and to support your causes in an effective and, relatively light time commitment manner.

relaxing 1 day ago|||
It’s both condescending and unhelpful, since the people doing the violence aren’t on here reading hn.
codyb 1 day ago||
You found my message condescending? Lol. You must be really easily offended
cocodill 1 day ago|
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