this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2026
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Honestly, I would fall into this trap.

The federal agent genuinely sounds like she is a person having car trouble, this trap would work on me because I guess I too am a fundamentally decent person.

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[–] ExtremeDullard@piefed.social 184 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (3 children)

As we all know, the worst of the worst tends to stop to help stranded motorists. It's a well-documented criminal trait.

[–] NKBTN@feddit.uk 1 points 1 day ago

In the UK in the late 70's they rolled out a scheme where they fitted disabled drivers cars with little flags they could raise if they were in trouble. There were TV campaigns to make people aware - "if you see this flag, the driver needs help".

Campaign was swiftly abandoned, because enough people saw the flag to mean "I cant defend myself and will be easy to steal from!" that it did more harm than good.

[–] KayLeadfoot@fedia.io 46 points 6 days ago (2 children)

I may be from a hive of scum and villainy (southsiiiiide!), but also I have jumper cables, so back up while I take care of this.

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[–] kunaltyagi@programming.dev 14 points 6 days ago

A common use of spare battery is torture. There's a clear correlation /s

[–] deathbird@mander.xyz 47 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I... this reminds me of a time that a good samaritan actually helped me when I was in trouble. He had a Hispanic accent and fucked off before the cops came, but him stopping to help might have saved my life.

I of course had no way of knowing his legal status, but it doesn't matter to me. That's the kind of person you want in your country.

This kind of "trap" is antichrist behavior. As in against the Bible and against the words of Christ.

[–] ContriteErudite@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago

Many Americans proclaim that they are a "Christian" nation, even though its own founding documents prescribed no religious alignment. It's not hard to figure out why.

When the printing press was invented, the Church was against it because it did not want the knowledge of the scriptures to be accessible by commoners; it wanted control over how the scriptures were interpreted to keep the common folk acted in line with the Church's interests.

For the most part, their fears were unfounded. Even today, with near-universal literacy rates, the average religious American has not actually read their holy book. They rely instead on preachers and the media to interpret the text for them, hence America's widespread endorsements of the "prosperity gospel" and "empathy is a sin".

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[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 44 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Sounds like the end result of thinking empathy is a sin.

arresting those who are kind enough to help.

and conveniently, those people tend not to be republican.

[–] VinnyDaCat@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Wouldn't call it the end result, but rather the practice of attempting to make people less empathetic is that of an aggressor looking to divide the people. It has nothing to do with the concept of sin, and everything to do with breaking people apart, making people singular, more manageable targets.

This is a way of convincing people to be less trusting of those around them to prevent them from wanting to organize or cooperate with others out of fear that they may be suddenly arrested by undercover agents.

[–] MutantTailThing@lemmy.world 102 points 6 days ago (4 children)

What the fuck are you doing America?

[–] phx@lemmy.world 103 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Punishing people for any form of kindness so that they are wary of helping anyone else in the future....

[–] ExtremeDullard@piefed.social 58 points 6 days ago (1 children)

That's how you wear down the population, to dissuade people from engaging in resistance. This is also the point of the violent ICE raids: breaking the social fabric to better control people.

[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social 9 points 5 days ago

Sadly, it was worked perfectly for a whole generation.

[–] bhamlin@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago

No good deed goes unpunished

[–] kunaltyagi@programming.dev 14 points 6 days ago

Teaching individualism /s

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[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 68 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Where the fuck is the suspicion, nevermind "reasonable suspicion" behind the use of this tactic? Is helping someone with a broken car a crime, an antifa gang symbol or something to that effect?

There isn't even the pretense of crime fighting in this clip, just a bait trap to kidnap normal, caring people.

[–] kunaltyagi@programming.dev 37 points 6 days ago

Helping someone is communist /s

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 25 points 6 days ago

Isn’t Oklahoma passing a law that makes it illegal to help an illegal Immigrant in any way? If these laws pass, then the agent can say they were posing as an illegal immigrant, making the helper immediately guilty of a crime.

[–] tourist@lemmy.world 15 points 5 days ago

I think their "rationale" is to snag the cartoon characters they've invented in their minds.

They expect an opportunist criminal to crime them.

This only makes sense if you believe there are literally millions of criminals in a town of 50 thousand residents.

I expect them to shoo away helpful people indefinitely

(Or, more likely, just arrest a random passerby and call it a success)

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 51 points 6 days ago (26 children)

I keep hearing people speculating that, when the American regime changes, these DHS and CBP agents will be put on trial.

But I think we all know that's never going to happen. Best we can do is name, shame, and socially ostracize them.

[–] jonne@infosec.pub 33 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Yep, if history is any guide, Democrats, if they ever get back in power, will want to look forward, not back. They've done that with Nixon, Reagan, the GFC, torture, Trump's whole ass coup, ...

It just means that the exact same characters will just try again.

[–] VitoRobles@lemmy.today 22 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Democrat president year: "We must set aside our differences and be united."

Republican president year: "The evil Democrats who plan to kill us all and take away our guns need to be executed."

Democrat president year: "oh what a doozy! We may have lost a lot of people in the Enslavement Camps, but now we must come together and be united."

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago

Ford set the tone by pardoning Nixon.

[–] P00ptart@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago (1 children)

There's not going to be a regime change. It's just going to collapse like Haiti.

[–] greyscale 6 points 5 days ago (9 children)

The American Century of Humiliation is underway.

Only question is do we consider its start Trump II (2120), Trump I (2116), Reagan (2080) or Nixon (2069).

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[–] Sanctus@anarchist.nexus 9 points 5 days ago

Stop waiting to be saved. It should be on sight at this point. The civil war is here and the rightoids are winning.

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[–] ExtremeDullard@piefed.social 74 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

So here's the new way to help stranded motorists in the US: hold them at gun point, handcuff them to a tree, then fix their car.

[–] stoy@lemmy.zip 18 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Don't even need handcuffs, just need a thin tree or a pole.

Have them wrap one leg around the tree/pole and sit down on it, I remember reading that it would be nigh impossible for them to get up from that position without help

[–] Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 16 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Tried it at as a child, got out easily

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[–] itsathursday@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago (3 children)

I mean… you could pull yourself up with upper body strength surely

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[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 66 points 6 days ago

Cartel tactics

[–] Tigeroovy@lemmy.ca 27 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Yeah that was Ted Bundy's tactic too.

[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 17 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I am a fan of pilling people at bar trivia:

'Which tactic did Ted Bundy and Immigration Customs Enforcement both use to capture their targets?"

[–] Soulphite@reddthat.com 57 points 6 days ago

Hey, isn't this what gangs and other criminals do the rob or kidnap and murder people? Oh, it's the same picture?

[–] Dry_Monk@lemmy.world 56 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

This is honestly pretty smart on the part of the fascists. A big portion of what is so effective about the resistance is that it's founded on strong community action. Neighbors helping neighbors, because it's the right thing to do.

Posing as a neighbor in need makes that act feel riskier. It changes the calculus, just a little, in favor of not helping your neighbor. They achieve their near term goal of getting their victim, but there's an even more valuable (to them) effect of weakening community ties overall.

Time to double down on looking out for your neighbors.

EDIT: Looking out for them so you can help. In case that wasn't clear.

[–] Quexotic@infosec.pub 5 points 4 days ago

Just another example of manufacturing fear so that we don't trust each other.

[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 19 points 5 days ago (5 children)

Imo the fatal flaw in the US system is that DHS doesn't have to have courts with juries for prosecutions. No jury would convict after hearing this was how somebody was caught

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[–] whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I've known people who got car jacked using the same tactics, DHS are continuing to use criminal tactics to fuck with working class people

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[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 11 points 5 days ago

The real goal is to turn nice people into assholes like them.

[–] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago

War on Decency

[–] SirMaple__@lemmy.ca 10 points 6 days ago
[–] foggy@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Feel free to call my take hyperbolic but this is genocidal.

This aims to eradicate a culture. That's the definition of the word.

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