this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2025
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[–] [email protected] 165 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Kudos to the person who is sending the correct message. Everyone who believes in protecting the US Constitution should fly the US flag upside down.

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[–] [email protected] 67 points 22 hours ago

Is that the State Department flag or is it a flag near the State Department?

[–] [email protected] 36 points 23 hours ago (3 children)

The State is in distress. Who will answer the call? Who will come it's aid? We have all been summoned.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 23 hours ago (4 children)

Performative resistance from inside the machine. Cute gesture, but distress signals only work when someone's actually coming to help. Meanwhile, career diplomats keep writing memos and processing visas while posting their quiet protests on social.

Remember when we thought these symbols meant something would change? Now it's just content for the outrage cycle. Tomorrow there'll be a strongly worded letter, maybe some resigned LinkedIn posts from mid-level FSOs.

The machinery keeps grinding, upside down flag or not. Though I suppose watching institutional despair go viral is peak 2025.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 23 hours ago

This has happened in México too, the most famously recorded one was during Enrique Peña Nieto's term (sorry for linking to YT). They said the flag thing was an accident, but it was during the Flag Day and everyone was angry with the way the government was handling things. The government-influenced media was angry with the military because "they made a mistake", but we all knew why it happened.

https://youtu.be/cwW9X_GBtco

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago

There’s only one way this gets stopped. And the people that would need to do it think they’ll have a ‘prime minister’ title when the dust settles and not that they’ll be chucked out a window. It’s some weapons grade stupid and apathy letting this happen and they’re just hoping that god king chooses to keep them around it’s all so pathetic

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 day ago (7 children)
  1. Is this real
  2. What does it mean?
  3. Where are we in terms of worrying? Should I begin to start to think about worrying or something more urgent?
[–] [email protected] 27 points 22 hours ago (3 children)

#3 depends where you are on the hit list I suppose. I'm trans, so I'm well past worry-o-clock and am actively making arrangements to leave the country. Someone like a cishet white male tech worker has a lot less to worry about though

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 23 hours ago
  1. I see little reason to doubt it
  2. It means whoever hoisted it considers there to be a crisis, which is consistent with accounts of public offices being overtaken by random young white men who are rapidly taking control.
  3. Speaking as a non-American political scientist having worked a little with rule of law and fascism, it seems a bit late to start worrying. Think about what you can do for yourself, your neighbours, and your country, urgently or in the longer term. It's going to be ugly for a while.
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

The new "phone, wallet, keys"

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago
  1. I think so.

  2. That's unclear but my take is that this is an expression of the distress felt by the employees, and perhaps the only possible outlet for their feelings. I suspect that it's more likely the action of one or two people rather that some kind of collectively approved signal.

  3. I just don't know. I'm not even American but I feel very discombobulated.

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[–] [email protected] 151 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Imagine being the person running this up the pole at the fucking state department.

[–] [email protected] 104 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

The gravity well produced from the balls of this person (all genders included) is pulling me from miles away.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

balls so big they make black holes

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