{"id":123212,"date":"2025-06-17T17:03:23","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T01:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/06\/17\/hell-yeah-i-was-there\/"},"modified":"2025-06-17T17:03:23","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T01:03:23","slug":"hell-yeah-i-was-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/06\/17\/hell-yeah-i-was-there\/","title":{"rendered":"Hell Yeah, I Was There"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ed. note<\/u>: Please welcome Vivia Chen back to the pages of Above the Law. Subscribe to her Substack, \u201cThe Ex-Careerist,\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

YOU BET I WENT to the \u201cNo Kings\u201d protest.<\/p>\n

Despite all the sage advice on how to stay below the radar, I\u2019m outing myself. I\u2019m telling you I was there in Bryant Park, right smack in the middle of Manhattan, holding my handmade sign in the drizzling rain on Saturday, June 14.<\/p>\n

I would not have missed it, though lots of folks in my friend group sat it out. \u201cI\u2019m getting a facial, then a mani-pedi,\u201d one friend announced when I asked her whether she planned to go to the protest. Another said, \u201cSorry. Gotta go to Costco!\u201d<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t surprised by the I-have-better-things-to-do attitude of my liberal cohorts. I sort of expected it. (I have bougie friends, okay?)<\/p>\n

But what stunned me was the fear\u00a0<\/strong>voiced by others in my circle \u2013 those who pulled me aside, lowered their voices, and warned me not to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou should be very, very careful,\u201d one friend whispered, as if she expected someone to be listening in. She reminded me how Donald Trump had called up 4,000 National Guard troops, plus 700 Marines, to quash the anti-ICE demonstrations in L.A. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to be caught in something that turns violent,\u201d she warned, as if I was considering running into a spray of bullets.<\/p>\n

At Pilates that morning, an acquaintance gave me the look of a worried mother. \u201cThere could be agitators. And, you know, Trump could use that as an excuse to order shooting.\u201d Another cautioned: \u201cSafety first, then protest.\u201d<\/p>\n

I know they mean well. But still.<\/p>\n

How did we become such chickenshits?<\/strong>\u00a0As recently as seven or eight months ago, I doubt anyone would have regarded participating in a political demonstration as a dangerous act. I mean, we\u2019re not in Hong Kong, right?<\/p>\n

Not yet, anyway.<\/p>\n

But Trump has cast a spell, and he has us where he wants us: scared. Even before a baton is raised or an order issued, we\u2019re already doing the work for him \u2013 gagging ourselves, curbing our actions, hiding our faces or retreating to our homes. It\u2019s acquiescence borne out of fear, analogous to what we\u2019re seeing from companies and law firms that are\u00a0paying Trump<\/a>\u00a0billions of dollars, cancelling DEI programs or contorting themselves to align with this administration\u2019s priorities.<\/p>\n

And the left is complicit in stoking this culture of fear too<\/strong>. One example is the protest tips found on social media. While the ACLU offers a\u00a0good primer<\/a>, some of the advice offered by\u00a0self-designated experts<\/a>\u00a0strikes me as alarmist:<\/p>\n