They say we’re still free. But tell that to the folks being tracked for showing up at a protest. Tell that to the ones having their biometric data logged because they held a sign.

“Good Trouble” protests this July were peaceful, intentional acts of civil resistance. And yet DHS linked them to immigration enforcement. Not because it was necessary, but because it was politically useful.

This is how authoritarianism doesn’t arrive with a bang—it arrives with a quiet memo that says: Share the data. Track the voices. Call them threats.

We must not normalize this. Dissent is not disorder. It’s the duty of the free.