Ethan Nichtern
@ethannichtern.com
2.6K followers 470 following 2K posts
Author: Confidence (Release May 21, 2024), The Road Home, The Dharma of the Princess Bride, Host of The Road Home podcast, Buddhist Student & Teacher
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ethannichtern.com
From Confidence: Holding Your Seat Through Life’s Eight Worldly Winds.
ethannichtern.com
“If you disagree with hateful ideas, you’re being hateful” is a very interesting structure. It’s very similar to somebody saying “that’s not very Buddhist of you,” when I express a clear moral position.

The whole philosophical structure of how we descended into this madness is to be studied.
ethannichtern.com
A fascinating way to win an argument is to claim that anyone disagreeing is the thought-police. Especially in an era of gestapo kidnapping/disappearing humans. It’s almost like the whole idea of “cancel culture” was a preemptive intellectual smokescreen in preparation for real dictatorship.
sallyjenx.bsky.social
Ratio me. Please. It's a badge of honor. If you don't like a link, go follow some chicken-heart who needs the approval of the thought-police. Caitlin Flanagan of @theatlantic.com is a tremendous writer and this piece is an excellent read. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Don’t Bet Against Bari Weiss
The new editor in chief of CBS News triumphs over her critics.
www.theatlantic.com
Reposted by Ethan Nichtern
caitlindeangelis.bsky.social
ICE kidnapped a 7th-grader with a pending asylum claim and spirited him out of state without notifying his parents, seemingly with the cooperation of the local police in Everett, MA.

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/12/m...
Everett 13-year-old arrested by ICE and sent to Virginia detention facility
By Marcela Rodrigues Globe Staff,Updated October 12, 2025, 44 minutes ago



31
A 13-year-old boy was arrested by ICE in Everett and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia.
A 13-year-old boy was arrested by ICE in Everett and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia.
A 13-year-old boy was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Everett after an interaction with members of the Everett Police Department and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia, according to his mother and immigration lawyer Andrew Lattarulo.

The boy’s mother, Josiele Berto, was called to pick her son up from the Everett Police Department on Thursday, the day he was arrested. After waiting for about an hour and a half, she was told her son was taken by ICE, Berto told the Globe in a phone interview.

“My world collapsed,” Berto said in Portuguese.

From the police department, the boy was taken to ICE’s holding facility in Burlington on Thursday evening, where he spent a night before being transferred by car to the Northwestern Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Winchester, Va., on Friday morning, his mother said. The juvenile facility is more than 500 miles away from Everett.

The boy is a 7th-grader at Albert N. Parlin School in Everett, his mother said. The teen and his family, who are Brazilian nationals, have a pending asylum case and are authorized to work legally in the United States, Lattarulo said.
Reposted by Ethan Nichtern
tomjoscelyn.bsky.social
“I spent three nights and three days in federal custody. During that time, I was never told what I was charged with, was not allowed to shower despite being covered in tear gas and pepper spray, had no phone call to my family, and no access to an attorney.” - George Retes, U.S. citizen and veteran.
I’m a US citizen and a veteran. ICE arrested me for no reason.
Jailed for three days without an explanation or ability to notify anyone, George Retes argues the only path to healing starts with the government taking accountability for its actions.
newsletter.ofthebrave.org
ethannichtern.com
This level of community mobilization and organization is really inspiring.
unraveledpress.com
There are a tremendous number of ICE watchers out in Rogers Park this afternoon after some early morning abductions.

People are guarding churches and patrolling alleyways. Ran into Alderperson Hadden. First timers tell us they're primed and ready to use their whistles.
Know your rights flyer in Spanish on street pole No ice in sidewalk chalk Rapid responder posing with whistle Alderperson Maria Hadden on street corner
Reposted by Ethan Nichtern
lauraolin.bsky.social
A friend ran the Chicago marathon today and said he couldn’t count the number of FUCK ICE signs along the way.
ethannichtern.com
Mamdani volunteers out and about on a rainy day in my neighborhood today. Simply the best organized local campaign I’ve seen in my lifetime.

The political party that doesn’t *beg* this campaign for help and guidance nationally just isn’t very interested in winning.
ethannichtern.com
It is impossible to craft a version of Buddhism— given how it defines every sentient being as a migrant through samsaric confusion until awakening— that is not completely and utterly pro-immigrant. Of that I am quite sure.
Reposted by Ethan Nichtern
katmabu.bsky.social
I’m horrified to hear that two people were kidnapped by ICE in Evanston this morning.

There’s a protest at Home Depot shortly. We’ll be delivering water and supplies to protesters — I hope you’ll join us in standing with our community.
ethannichtern.com
Wow. No longer hyperbolic to say that a vote for Cuomo is a vote for Trump.

Just…wow.
zohrankmamdani.bsky.social
Andrew Cuomo is incapable of speaking clearly and directly about Trump’s authoritarianism.
Reposted by Ethan Nichtern
johnpavlovitz.bsky.social
Good people need to start outing their ICE family members, neighbors, and community members.

They need to be made into pariahs in the places decent Americans gather.
ethannichtern.com
All those years that Mitch McConnell planted Republicans to run as Democrats for Senate seats (Sinema, Fetterman etc.)

Is Marjorie Taylor Greene a secret revenge?

I don’t understand this, but I like it.
thetnholler.bsky.social
“These poor women.”

Marge making even more sense with Tim Dillon on Congress failing to address the cost of living/health care prices… and the truth about what’s really in the Epstein files. #TrumpEpsteinCoverup

Full: www.instagram.com/reel/DPsYFQ-...
Reposted by Ethan Nichtern
indivisible.org
No Kings Day is almost here.

The Trump regime believes that if it can overwhelm us with atrocities and threats, we'll surrender our rights without fighting for them.

But the people won’t bow down. We will rise. Join us at a peaceful protest on Saturday: www.nokings.org?SQF_SOURCE=i... #NoKings
ethannichtern.com
Continue to feel that fascism needs to be lowkey to succeed, and this excessive messaging from the people who control the government blaming people who DON’T control the government for what the government isn’t delivering on will backfire.
ethannichtern.com
Crimes against humanity.

When America rebuilds itself (or when parts of it do), the people that run for office on a platform of prosecuting these goons will win in a landslide.
joshuaeakle.com
In Chicago, four vehicles descended and eight ICE agents moved in to kidnap a child.

She screams, “I’m 15,” as ICE yanks her from the car and kneels on her neck.

This is not about immigration enforcement.

It's about terrorizing Americans.
ethannichtern.com
Protesting is extremely powerful—both as a political tool and a spiritual one—and anybody who says it isn't is far too addicted to their keyboard.

See you on the 18th.
toolazytofail.bsky.social
Don't let anyone tell you that protesting is pointless, especially folks who mock it as "baby's first resistance."

First, it's wonderful to be among a bunch of people who feel the way you do about the way things are going.

Second, it drives the administration CRAZY.
ethannichtern.com
Approval seems higher than other polls.
Reposted by Ethan Nichtern
willbunch.bsky.social
I saw myself as maybe all in for J.B. Pritzker

But I am losing faith, rapidly.

Police state fascism in America is bigger than Trump. It's backed by Democrats just like Republicans. And it's not going anywhere
unraveledpress.com
Note: it's not even curfew yet.

State police just started pushing people off the business park corner. Here in the road, a brave group of demonstrators are attempting to hold their line.
Reposted by Ethan Nichtern
ecmclaughlin.bsky.social
I’m going to keep repeating that one reason why they are escalating violence is because they know they are wildly outnumbered.

It is a sign of weakness, not strength, that they are tear gassing and pepper ball shooting and slamming protestors to the ground and dragging them into facilities.
ethannichtern.com
I’m not sure if Abolish ICE is “the” Buddhist position, but I am confident enough to say that Abolish ICE is the only compassionate position.
ethannichtern.com
Overvalued like a cybertruck.

Hold on tight.

Or practice letting go.
justinhendrix.bsky.social
"Sceptics are privately - and some now publicly - asking whether the rapid rise in the value of AI tech companies may be, at least in part, the result of what they call 'financial engineering'. In other words - there are fears these companies are overvalued."
A tangled web of deals stokes AI bubble fears in Silicon Valley
Some are worried that the rapid rise in the value of AI tech companies may be a bubble waiting to burst.
www.bbc.com
ethannichtern.com
Very grateful for the increasing frequency of convos with smart, grounded people who agree that AI’s capabilities are vastly overstated.

I was feeling like a curmudgeon, but feel better now.

Shout out to everyone who refuses to live in the world where humans get dumber and more isolated.
Reposted by Ethan Nichtern
georgetakei.bsky.social
The great actress Diane Keaton has left us at the age of 79. Too soon to say good-bye to the woman who made us smile at the quirky Annie Hall, and who broke our hearts in Reds. Your charm and talent will be sorely missed.