FAFO? I'm Not Celebrating. By A. Spike // U.S. for Action There’s a phrase that keeps popping up in progressive circles these days. It shows up a lot when people are talking about MAGA voters, Christian nationalists, or the extremist policies now coming home to roost. We’ve all watched the same clips and read the same headlines. You’ve seen it. I’ve seen it. Maybe you’ve even tossed it around, I know I have. FAFO or Fuck Around and Find Out. It means exactly what it sounds like. Mess around with power and sooner or later you learn what that power really does.

There’s a phrase that keeps popping up in progressive circles these days.

Or is it? I don’t know about you, but I have really been struggling over the last couple of days. I have never felt so disconnected from my community and my country. This 4th of July was nothing, nothing at all to celebrate. How can people celebrate Independence Day when our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is being stripped away daily? How can people celebrate a country that has lost its soul and is openly condoning violence and oppression against its own citizens and others? We used to be the ones that would condemn the things we are now actively doing ourselves.

To quote The Clash, this is a question I have struggled with more in the last 6 months than at any other time in my life. I’m sure I am not the only person struggling with this decision, which is why I decided to share my thoughts. Before the trump regime, I always thought it would be cool or awesome to live abroad, always knowing that I would have a home base in the States. Now the decision is based on our new normal. Do I want to flee an authoritarian regime, hell bent on torturing our country and attacking marginalized communities, or stay and fight for our country and those who don’t hold the same privilege I do as a native-born Caucasian American.

This is not a metaphor or an alarmist story about a future United States. It is happening. Right now. A taxpayer-financed, barbed-wire-fenced, swamp-surrounded migrant camp now occupies the middle of one of the country’s most delicate ecosystems. If that wasn’t bad enough, the regime is openly proud of the feat. Even cracking “jokes” that the alligators will eat the detainees. And of course, the Florida governor who hurried the build ignored environmental review, Indigenous consultation, and practically all federal oversight.

🚨The Difference Between Police, Sheriffs, the National Guard, and the U.S. Military. 🚨 Local Police & Sheriffs Local law enforcement, including city police departments and county sheriff’s offices, are classified as civilian authorities. This means that they are not part of the military and were never intended to act like it. They are governed by local laws, funded by local or county budgets, and are expected to follow state and federal constitutional protections such as due process, civil rights, freedom of speech, and public transparency. Their role is supposed to be grounded in community service, not coercion or combat.

If you want to understand how we got to where we are now: a country where ICE can jail people for what they say, where civil servants are being fired for not pledging loyalty, where billionaire tech elites are reshaping government policy behind closed doors, and where the President of the United States openly refers to himself as a king, then you need to know Curtis Guy Yarvin.

A movement starts with the people. This isn’t just my blog, it’s a headquarters. A digital front line. A space built by and for people who refuse to stay silent while power is abused and rights are stripped away. United Strength for Action was created to inform, inspire, and organize. We track authoritarianism. We tell the stories they try to bury.