You might be amused by this letter to the editor in the Kansas City Star. Martin Dressman, retired social worker, is very upset. He’s horrified that ICE is killing people, but something else has made him so mad that he had to express his opinion at length.
I attended a protest at Mill Creek Park on the Country Club Plaza on Jan. 10. It was organized by a coalition of groups as a part of a nationwide day of action in response to the shooting death of Renee Good in an altercation with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis the previous week.
I wanted to be supportive. I do not like what I am observing and hearing in the United States right now. I’ve done my study of history. I know what I’m seeing. It’s vile. It’s dehumanizing.
As I approached the gathering, one of the first signs that was readable to me from a distance declared, “F*** ICE.” As I began to mingle into what was observed to be a growing crowd of participants, I viewed a couple of other signs with the same message. That said, much of the signage that I encountered struck me as reasonable, meaningful, focused.
I approached one of the people with a “F*** ICE” sign, And I shared my sense that their presence at the rally was what was most helpful, but the sign was not. I was not well received.
Shortly thereafter, I heard an announcement of the official start of the rally. A speaker introduced themselves and informed the crowd that there were representatives at tables set up around the park that would be available to field questions and concerns, and to provide information. The speaker then introduced the person they said would be responsible for safe execution of the rally, stating that they wanted this to be a nonviolent gathering. The first words out of that person’s mouth, through a bullhorn, were “F*** ICE!” The crowd responded loudly, “F*** ICE!“ This exchange was repeated three or four times with increasing fervor.
I proceeded to one of the tables the rally leader had mentioned, and I expressed that I thought our physical presence was the clearest message. I was supportive of the event and its focus, but I did not believe that the profane “F**** ICE” messaging was favorable to our efforts. The person leaned forward to me over the table and yelled, “She was shot in the face three times!” I responded that I was aware of that. The person that I engaged, and another at the table, waved me off stating that they were wanting to listen to the speaker.
At that point, I departed the rally. I would not support such messaging.
You will not be surprised to learn that he ends his complaint with a Bible quote.
Pay attention, Mr Tone Policeman.
As a kid I did my damnest not to say swear words. Then I realized the pointlessness of it all. Curse words don’t hurt anyone.
Meanwhile, ICE kills people and more.
I completely agree that ICE has amply earned all the profanity and contempt that is being directed at them.
But (as I posted on a different blog), one possible tactic is to have a large group of people: standing still, silent, and just STARING at the ICE-holes.
It can be unnerving. And should be.
Fuck you motherfucker this is language one employs if one’s a little bit cross and motherfucking Gestapo shooting women in the face.
With apologies to Tim Minchin.
Snarki: Or “a large group of masked people: standing still, silent, and just STARING”
Bless my stars and clutch my pearls, a cussword?! That is truly the most horrific response to what is happening. (Never mind the vile language the president uses on the daily. Never mind that he’s now taken to flipping MEN off, which is a whole other level than insulting women. Never mind that he literally threatened to do murder and said no one would care -and none of his cretins do………)
In the last year, 32 people have died in ICE custody.
There is very little accounting of how they died.
One recent one is being classified by the medical examiner in Texas as a homicide.
They likely used an illegal choke hold on him and he died from lack of oxygen.
There is no followup of all those migrants we dumped overseas in obscure places like Eswatini and El Salvador. It is likely some of those have also died.
Mr. Dressman, with all due respect: Fuck your feelings.
Fuck ICE? Not even with a 40 foot pole.
Naughty words never murdered a woman in her car or pulled people from the homes or workplaces or held detainees under inhumane conditions withholding basic human rights.
Know who did, Dressman? ICE.
Put on your big boy pants and focus on the big picture, shithead!
“I have three things I’d like to say today. First, while you were sleeping last night, 30,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition. Second, most of you don’t give a shit. What’s worse is that you’re more upset with the fact that I said shit than the fact that 30,000 kids died last night.”
Tony Campolo – Baptist Pastor
The other side has murdered, and you’re offended by a curse word. Maybe this isn’t the arena for you.
Perhaps the signs should have said “We cordially invite all members of ICE to explore the auto-erotic potential of a Bosch demolition hammer” This might have been more to Mr. Dressman’s taste.
Fuck ICE, and fuck anyone who thinks that salty language is a bigger issue than people’s lives and freedom. Fuck that ignorant prick in particular.
Here’s just one of the other recent atrocities.
https://www.rawstory.com/ice-minneapolis-2674900256/
This Christian clod probably thinks we can defeat fascism with love, and friendship, and puppies, and rainbows…
We’re going to have to do a lot more than just hurl harsh language at them, snowflake.
Some one should tell hime that sticks and stones (and Glocks) will break your bones, but words will never hurt you. And as long as he is reading his bible, might I recommend Exodus 20:13
I doubt that Martin Dressman is a real person, though the right-wing trolls and bots are doing their best to flood the internet with fascist opinions on. Dude sounds like he would be quite at home in the Victorian Era if some harsh language made him clutch his pearls.
Meanwhile, here is a cheerful list of all of rump’s loses this week. Impeachment of the entire regime is getting closer every day, and they know it.
Amanda’s mild takes:
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/Gta4mvCjz2M
I just looked, Tethys.
There is real person named Martin J. Dressman exists who is a licensed social worker.
https://doctor.webmd.com/doctor/martin-dressman-9e3ec029-90b4-4cdb-a1f5-0a0490f6594a-overview
(Location matches)
I don’t believe a real social worker would take their ball and go home because of a some f-bombs. They tend to be made of sterner material as they see some real horror in their work.
If he is real, he is useless at social justice. I think it’s more likely that bots and trolls scrape public information to conceal their own identities.
“Martin J. Dressman is a retired social worker. He lives in Prairie Village.” at the bottom of the article in the OP, and the locations match. Rather suggestive.
Took a while for my memory to pin-point the resonance, but ah-ha, of course: Stephen Fry.
“It’s now very common to hear people say, ‘I’m rather offended by that.’ As if that gives them certain rights. It’s actually nothing more… than a whine. ‘I find that offensive.’ It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. ‘I am offended by that.’ Well, so fucking what.”
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/jun/05/religion.hayfestival2005
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astringer, an extension of his generic worldview; cf. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjXkuzTs4ZE
Also: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/abandoning-past-bad-idea-stephen-fry-jordan-peterson-tackle/ — such chumminess!
He could have been more of a dickhead. Like responding to a woman being shot three times in the face by complaining someone used the phrase “could care less”.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/01/08/her-name-is-renee-nicole-good/#comment-2289100
It is as if he has been asleep since 2016 and never noticed the vulgarian-in-chief.
Before we validate Mr Dressman’s underlying agreement with “aggressive immigration enforcement based largely on suspicion,” I’d like to see his tribal ID card. The First Nations are the non-immigrants, even those “tainted” with immigrant blood.
Somehow, I don’t think he’d agree to participate in this comparison of records. And if he does — and if he turns out to actually be a tribal member — that says something else not too favorable.
Mark Twain had some wise words to say about swear words.
But like spices, they should not be overused, as I hear Swedish teenagers using Merican swearwords all the time. If the ratio of swear words exceed 30% of your average word count you probably need to work on how you talk.
-My favv poison speech is by characters like the Black Adder, or in Spitting Image. They really show imagination in how to desecrate the object of anger.
‘Stephen Miller is the black stuff between dead people’s toes’.
There may be something to this.
Saying, “fuck you,” is cathartic, but it’s an off valve.
I would prefer a sign that said, “Why do you hate me?”
Martin Dressman, retired social worker, dude, pretty please witha cherry on top :
ICE murdering poeople, terrorising your country, destroyng your Democracy, being literal nazis and behaving like them vs some “naughty words” being used & spoken against them by the people they are brutaly, thuggishly, horrendously attacking, intimidating and attempting to silence and subdue.
Get a sense of fucking proportion and perspective for FUCK’S SAKE!!
@20. John Morales : If someone could contact Martin Dressman via that or other links and ask him and point him here to see what he thinks of what we say, well, that’d be nice. Or be something anyhow.
I understand someone being offended by language they don’t like. I can even understand that they might question whether this is the best approach for voicing disagreement.
However, once you decide to entirely abandon the protest because you think it’s more important to take a stand against harsh language than against your government murdering innocent people in the street, I’m done being charitable about it.
#3 @mordred, I had a go at the whole song (upgrades welcome):
ICE song
Fuck the motherfuckers, fuck the motherfuckers
Fuck the motherfuckers, they are fucking motherfuckers
Fuck the motherfuckers, fuck the fucking fuckers
Fuck the motherfuckers, they are total fucking fuckers
Fuck the motherfuckers, fuck the motherfuckers
Fuck the motherfuckers, fucking fuck the motherfuckers
Fuck the motherfuckers, fuck the motherfucking ICE
Fuck the motherfuckers, and fuck you, motherfucker
If you think those motherfuckers are pillars
If you cover for that other motherfucker who thrice had plugged her
Fuck you, you’re no better than the motherfucking killer
And if you don’t like the swearing that these motherfuckers forced from me
And reckon it shows moral or intellectual paucity
Then fuck you, motherfucker – this is language one uses
When one is fucking cross about fucking state abuses
I don’t give a fuck if calling out ICE as motherfuckers
Makes you unthinkingly brand me an unthinking apostate
This has naught to do with other governmental motherfuckers
I’m not interested right now in fucking political debate
There are other fucking songs, and there are other fucking ways
I’ll be a constitutionalist on other fucking days
But the fact remains, if you protect a single citizen fucker
Then D or R or Indy, you’re a fucking motherfucker
You see, I don’t give a fuck what any other motherfucker
Believes about citizens and our immigrating brothers
I’ve no problem with the political beliefs of all these fuckers
While those beliefs don’t impact on the happiness of others
But if your presidency’s built on claims of fucking legal authority
And, with threats of jail, impose it on others in society
Then you, you motherfuckers, can expect some fucking wrath
When it turns out you’ve been fucking us in our motherfucking asses
So fuck the motherfucker, and fuck you motherfucker
If you’re still like Trump as the boss
If you cover for a single motherfucker who thrice had plugged her
Fuck you motherfucker, you’re as evil as Jonathan Ross
And if you look into your motherfucking heart and tell me true
If this motherfucking stupid fucking song offended you
With its filthy fucking language and its fucking disrespect
If it made you feel angry, go ahead and write a letter
But if you find me more offensive than the fucking possibility
That Trump’s goading on ICE as they lost all their civility
Then listen to me, motherfucker, if you’re such a stan:
You are just as morally misguided as that motherfucking
Power-hungry, self-aggrandized bigot with the sprayed-on fucking tan
Silentbob@23,
Or indeed like responding to a woman being shot three times in the face by complaining about someone responding to a woman being shot three times in the face by complaining someone used the phrase “could care less”.
Mr. Dresden (retired social worker) is just one of a long line of “moderates” who counsel civility, appeasement and caution in the face of MAGA pogroms against brown/LGBTQ+/women people.
If you haven’t read Letter from Birmingham Jail it in a while, check it out. Same shit, different decades, and we will never give up.
— Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
KG #33: https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/12/30/infinite-thread-xxxviii/comment-page-2/#comment-2290157
Also, there was no complaint; there was an informative observation which is true; over-reacting to it by claiming I am a thread-cop thereby and then persistently harassing me was not helpful and caused a derail. No complaint, no orders, no citation.
The complaint came from another person, and it was about me.
Actually, it was a ‘Oh dearie me. Oh me oh my.’ on others’ part regarding me. Kinda ironic.
^ Turning yet another thread into a discussion about yourself is exactly why PZ told you to
“Shut the fuck up.”
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Tethys, I am literally responding to a claim about me that was introduced by other people, so your claim is patently false.
Also, PZ told TWO people to neither talk to nor about each other, and I am one. And I have complied.
(How’s your promised thread-copping of me going? :) That is a horrible briar patch!)
Maybe he thinks this is a negotiation with reasonable people on both sides. Its not. It is a just side demonstrating solidarity, venting, and unifying while fronting thugs.
Maybe he is one of those constantly trying to disuade the protests. Online they say “don’t bother responding to the comments”. Its all just a way of telling everyone to be quiet and let the thugs get on with it.
“FUCK ICE”. While I agree with the sentiment I would wonder what the effect would be on ICE and its supporters. I would wonder, especially if I were in the crowd, what saying that might precipitate from the thugs. Maybe it would be positive, but I would certainly ne afraid to yell that if I were alone on the street among the thugs.
The ICE agents react with surprise and fear when the people refuse to be cowed by them, like all bullies.
Many seem ashamed, and then there are the truly violent sociopaths among their ranks who strut around unmasked and clearly enjoy terrorizing the citizenry. They are a minority, but scary as fuck to both citizens and their fellow agents. It’s toxic masculinity personified.
Asymmetric warfare is heavy on psychological tactics.
We will continue screaming fuck off at them and completely demoralizing their ranks.
Tethys: “The ICE agents react with surprise and fear when the people refuse to be cowed by them, like all bullies.”
Body armor, weapons, gadgets, virtual impunity, the power of the state behind them.
A false sense of security can be damaging to one’s health.
(You know, sometimes the bullies actually bully, instead of running away due to lack of cowing)
In the news: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/01/14/renee-nicole-good-ice-shooting-protests/88176614007/
↓
Tear gas, snowballs, arrests. Feds and protesters clash in Minneapolis.
Over the last week, tear gas and pepper spray have become familiar on the streets of Minneapolis amid protests following the fatal shooting of Renee Good by a federal agent.
Videos have shown tense standoffs between demonstrators and immigration agents. Protesters with signs reading “ICE get out” could be heard chanting “go home.” Some threw snowballs and shot fireworks at agents; others trailed masked officers across Minneapolis, blowing horns and whistles.
Multiple videos show agents firing pepper spray from their vehicles, throwing protesters to the ground and yanking people out of cars.
Shut the fuck up John.
Tethys, what’s wrong with anything I wrote, other than it may prevent some harm to someone who is credulous enough to believe your claim?
They won’t necessarily just run away because you are not cowed.
Fact.
As someone recently pointed out, as one of the ideas from books he always, even now as an atheist, found value in, one of the only ones from the Bible worth anything is Thessalonians 5:21 – but test all things. Hold fast to what is good.
The problem, of course, is like everything with liars, fascists and fanatics, its all too easy to redefine both the words “test”, and “good”, such that it ends up reading, “Hold fast to your self defined ideas of what is good, and if you can, even define good as, ‘that will is good for me, even if it is terrible for all others’, then test all things against this delusional standard.”
After all, the whole point, for some people, is to double speak everything.
Kagehi, I’ve had a look, and its scope is explicitly about testing spiritual or prophetic claims, not general knowledge*.
(I suppose one could generalise that, but one gets comments such as #42)
Here is the source material: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Thessalonians%205%3A20-21&version=NKJV
—
* It’s a scholarly consensus, here is one source: https://scholar.ufs.ac.za/server/api/core/bitstreams/435269dd-da61-4445-85e7-99c6cadb736e/content
@ 32. imback : Nicely done! Thanks.
To the tune of Tim Minchin – Pope Song (A Fraser Davidson Animation).- 2 mins 20 secs.