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lisaandsaints.bsky.social
@lisaandsaints.bsky.social
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masksaregood.myatproto.social
I always think of this quote (from They Knew by Sarah Kendzior) when people say this.

"'nobody saw it coming' is an admission of whom the speaker considers to be nobody"
Text from "They Knew" by Sarah Kendzior: As I wrote in Hiding in Plain Sight, the oft-recited claim that "nobody saw it coming" is an admission of whom the speaker considers to be nobody. In the United States, "nobody" historically included women, immigrants, poor people, and anyone who is not white. People dismissed as nobody are those most likely to be affected by a terrible situation and therefore the most likely to warn about it in advance. "Somebody" is a similarly convoluted category. For centuries, to be somebody in the United States meant to be a wealthy white man or to be treated like one. This idea of "somebody" is baked into the founding of the country, in which only white male landowners were granted the right to vote. White, land-owning men who deviated from the establishment were often punished for their efforts: castigated as troublemakers or conspiracy theorists. The goal was to reduce them, at least in their ability to gain institutional support, to the status of "nobody."
October 6, 2025 at 1:29 PM