I was referencing La Résistance, which started by disorganized mischief makers in Paris cutting phone lines, slashing tires and tearing down propaganda and in a matter of months developed into a formidable fighting force.

The recent Behind the Bastards two-parter podcast on Reinhard Heydrich outlined the rise of the Sicherheitsdienst including the development of concentration camps (detention centers) and what ultimately lead to the genocide machine of the German Reich, and there are a conspicuous number of similarities between the policies and behaviors of the SD and of law enforcement in the US in the 2020s. Of note is how the SD ignored the exceptions that would make certain undesirables exempt from arrest and detention, so they were detained and processed anyway which compares to ICE in the US persecuting undocumented persons when their actions were supposed to be confined to those that had committed felonies. (Deportees also included nonwhite Americans that looked sufficiently foreign.)

That said, I think we’re moving towards a mischief and sabotage campaign as law enforcement moves to enforce laws criminalizing the existence of marginalized groups like trans folk, or for that matter, enforcing corporate interests, such as when ICE raided repair shops in Florida for repairing Apple products without an Apple license (which informed the movement towards right-to-repair legislation).

So yes, France has given us more than a little bit of inspirational history.