{"id":42121,"date":"2025-06-22T23:19:26","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T06:19:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=42121"},"modified":"2025-06-22T23:19:27","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T06:19:27","slug":"someone-just-sent-me-a-toilet-in-the-mail-it-wasnt-as-funny-as-it-sounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/06\/22\/someone-just-sent-me-a-toilet-in-the-mail-it-wasnt-as-funny-as-it-sounds\/","title":{"rendered":"SOMEONE JUST SENT ME A TOILET IN THE MAIL. IT WASN\u2019T AS FUNNY AS IT SOUNDS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

OPINION<\/a>\/\/OPEN FORUM<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intimidation is a powerful weapon. And it comes in many forms \u2014 especially in the age of Trump<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Toilets are left on a Berkeley street in 2010. A commode sent anonymously to the author appears to send an ominous message about his anti-Trump opinions.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two Toilets on the Street \u2013 2:02 p.m. \u2013 Berkeley These reminded me of outhouses in the Saline Valley, where two toilets were side by side, no door, with the desert as a backdrop. Camera Settings: Canon EOS 5D Mark II, ISO 640, 1\/60, f 22, 24mm lensLiz Hafalia\/S.F. Chronicle<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By David Kirp<\/p>\n\n\n\n

June 21, 2025 (SFChronicle.com)<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intimidation is a powerful weapon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Donald Trump and his MAGA acolytes have taken a page from the classic autocrats\u2019 playbook, deploying fear to stifle opposition. Anyone who runs afoul of the movement risks the threat of a nasty reprisal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The threat of physical attacks on lawmakers and their families, fueled by the Trump regime\u2019s inflammatory rhetoric, is a reason why some Republican members of Congress are playing possum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are all afraid,\u201d Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said<\/a>, speaking on behalf of colleagues who are fearful of speaking for themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most widely used scare tactics against federal judges who have overturned executive orders involves anonymously sending a pizza<\/a> to their homes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This isn\u2019t just a prank. It\u2019s psychological warfare, a black humor way to convey an ominous message \u2014 we know where you live and where your family lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBe afraid\u201d is the message. \u201cBe very afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I get it. I have my own psychological warfare story. While it\u2019s unnerving, I\u2019m still standing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my case, it was a commode, not a pizza, that I received.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It recently arrived at the local post office in a beat-up cardboard box, a few days after the Chronicle published an opinion piece<\/a> in which I described my ambivalence about living in Donald Trump\u2019s America, where democracy is under siege. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My husband, Niko, picked up the box. Because it was too big to fit into the car, he opened it and brought it into the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHere\u2019s the commode you ordered,\u201d he told me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSay what?\u201d I replied, or words to that effect. \u201cI didn\u2019t order it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first, Niko was disbelieving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaybe you bought it by accident,\u201d he suggested, as if someone might buy a commode in a fit of absence of mind. To convince him, I called Amazon, which confirmed that I hadn\u2019t ordered it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The box didn\u2019t contain a note of explanation from the anonymous sender. Amazon, the shipper for a third-party vendor, was clueless and the manufacturer was unhelpful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being sent an unwanted commode sounds like the punch line of a bad joke, but it puts me in the same camp as the judges who are getting those pizzas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me, the message was plain: \u201cWe are targeting you and your husband, not just by outing you but also by delivering something that\u2019s usually needed by people of a certain age \u2014 people like you. Commodes cost more than pizzas (the one I received sells for $42.98 on Amazon), but we\u2019re willing to spend a considerable amount of money to intimidate you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy me?\u201d I wondered, once I decoded the implications of my \u201cgift.\u201d I\u2019m no firebrand leading the charge against the tyrant in the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a number of years, I taught a large undergraduate class at UC Berkeley called the \u201cEthics in the Age of Trump\u201d \u2014 the running joke was that it would be a very short course. Mentioning Berkeley to a MAGA acolyte is certainly a bit like enraging the bull with a red cape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My writings have invariably taken positions that are diametrically opposed to the Trump wood-chopper agenda. Apparently, that\u2019s enough to put me on a list of undesirables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After my Chronicle column ran, I received a bevy of emails that demanded \u2014 in language unfit for a family newspaper \u2014 that I, the \u201cscum of the Earth,\u201d do the country a favor and leave immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not easily cowed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I shrugged off the emails. I know from experience that if you take a controversial position in an opinion piece, you can expect obscene rants. But if the purpose of sending me the commode was to shut me up or convince me to depart, the strategy backfired. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump and his MAGA wolf pack want their opponents to \u201cself-deport\u201d because it smooths the glide path to autocracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To hell with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of rushing to buy a one-way ticket to a saner country, I\u2019ve doubled down on my opposition to the endless stream of outrages emanating from Washington and to the imminent threat to the rule of law posed by the autocrat in the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Millions of Americans have been demoralized by the Trump blitzkrieg. The zigzags can leave you gasping: sky-high tariffs one day, lower tariffs the next day; humiliate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, then send arms to Ukraine, but threaten to walk away from the war and hand Russia a victory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The litany of inconsistencies is endless: sledgehammer Columbia University into retreating on academic freedom, then tell the university today that its obeisance doesn\u2019t get it off the hook; require public schools to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs, then back down when New York says \u201cno\u201d; propose to annex Canada, then make nice with the prime minister.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The passivity of many of Trump\u2019s opponents during the first five months of his presidency resembles the despondency of the mice in famed psychologist B.F. Skinner\u2019s lab. When they were exposed to random punishments, the mice simply stopped trying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet now, as the implications of the president\u2019s misdeeds sink in, many Americans are trying to figure out how they can fight back. If you\u2019ve read this far, my hunch is that you may be in this camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s my advice \u2014 do not take it lying down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many ways to oppose this regime \u2014 joining demonstrations, writing and phoning your congressional representatives, enlisting in a political campaign, supporting immigrants when federal immigration agents swoop in and contributing to organizations that are defending the rule of law. Doubtlessly, you\u2019ll come up with other possibilities that work for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s crucial is that you combat the curse of fatalism \u2014 that you keep from becoming one of Skinner\u2019s mice \u2014 since that\u2019s precisely how the authoritarian administration wants you to react. Overcome your fear. (Yes, I\u2019m still working on that part, too.) Find a way of contributing to the survival of democracy that works for you. The stakes couldn\u2019t be higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the commode episode has a happy ending \u2014 my local senior center was pleased to take it off my hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inadvertently, the mystery sender did a good deed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Kirp is a professor emeritus at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OPINION\/\/OPEN FORUM Intimidation is a powerful weapon. And it comes in many forms \u2014 especially in the age of Trump Toilets are left on a Berkeley street in 2010. A commode sent anonymously to the author appears to send an ominous message about his anti-Trump opinions. Two Toilets on the Street… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42121"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42121"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42122,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42121\/revisions\/42122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}