876: Bigger Than Me
Episode
60 min
Read time
2 min
Topics
Leadership, Philosophy & Wisdom, Books & Authors
AI-Generated Summary
Key Takeaways
- ✓Military hotline surge: Organizations like GI Rights Hotline receive over 200 calls monthly from service members concerned about orders to support ICE operations, occupy American cities, or participate in boat strikes off Venezuela—operations they believe violate their oath to refuse illegal commands.
- ✓National Guard resistance: Quick Response Forces of 500 National Guard members per state are being assembled for civil unrest control. Service members report voluntary orders to join these units, with many declining because they view anti-protest deployment against American citizens as fundamentally contrary to their enlistment purpose.
- ✓Conscientious objector options: Service members have multiple pathways when facing objectionable orders: file for conscientious objector status leading to reassignment or discharge, publicly speak out within limits, refuse orders risking court martial, or go AWOL. One soldier stopped reporting after receiving detention facility construction orders.
- ✓Women's protest tactics: Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti organized 10,000 Nigerian market women using literacy classes as organizing meetings, documented grievances through hundreds of letters, deployed 200 protest songs with explicit lyrics, and used traditional "sitting on a man" tactics including public disrobing to weaponize spiritual power against colonial authorities.
- ✓Indirect colonial rule vulnerability: British colonial strategy of controlling local leaders like the Alake proved fragile when women protesters created ungovernable conditions through sustained palace occupation, market shutdowns, and round-the-clock shifts. The British feared creating martyrs more than the protest itself, ultimately forcing the king's midnight evacuation and abdication.
What It Covers
This American Life examines military personnel facing potential illegal orders under Trump, then features Jad Abumrad's podcast about Nigerian activist Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, who led 10,000 market women to depose a colonial-backed king in 1948.
Key Questions Answered
- •Military hotline surge: Organizations like GI Rights Hotline receive over 200 calls monthly from service members concerned about orders to support ICE operations, occupy American cities, or participate in boat strikes off Venezuela—operations they believe violate their oath to refuse illegal commands.
- •National Guard resistance: Quick Response Forces of 500 National Guard members per state are being assembled for civil unrest control. Service members report voluntary orders to join these units, with many declining because they view anti-protest deployment against American citizens as fundamentally contrary to their enlistment purpose.
- •Conscientious objector options: Service members have multiple pathways when facing objectionable orders: file for conscientious objector status leading to reassignment or discharge, publicly speak out within limits, refuse orders risking court martial, or go AWOL. One soldier stopped reporting after receiving detention facility construction orders.
- •Women's protest tactics: Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti organized 10,000 Nigerian market women using literacy classes as organizing meetings, documented grievances through hundreds of letters, deployed 200 protest songs with explicit lyrics, and used traditional "sitting on a man" tactics including public disrobing to weaponize spiritual power against colonial authorities.
- •Indirect colonial rule vulnerability: British colonial strategy of controlling local leaders like the Alake proved fragile when women protesters created ungovernable conditions through sustained palace occupation, market shutdowns, and round-the-clock shifts. The British feared creating martyrs more than the protest itself, ultimately forcing the king's midnight evacuation and abdication.
Notable Moment
When Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti addressed 10,000 assembled market women before their palace march, she turned her back and told anyone uncertain to leave unobserved. When she turned around, every single woman remained, then simultaneously removed their head wraps and tied them around their waists as battle sashes.
Episode Transcript
Support for This American Life comes from Squarespace. Squarespace gives you everything you need to offer services and get paid all in one place. From consultations to events and experiences, showcase your offerings with a customizable website designed to attract clients and grow your business. Plus connect with your audience and raise support for your cause by fundraising directly on your website with built in donation tools. Visit squarespace.com/american to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. A quick warning, there are curse words that are unbeeped in today's episode of the show. If you prefer a beeped version, you can find that at our website, this americanlife.org. Okay. So I wanna tell you a story. I'm gonna start with the part you probably already know about. In November, six Democrats, all veterans of the US military or intelligence communities, came out with a video saying to people in uniform, you took an oath like we did. Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders. You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders. No one has Those are senators Mark Kelly and Alyssa Slotkin and congressman Chris DeLuzio. They did not specify what illegal orders they might be referring to. At the time, just like now, the Trump administration was shooting boats of supposed drug runners out of the water off the coast of Venezuela. And lots of military experts and veterans are saying this did not seem to be legal. In the past, if we found boats of drug runners, we arrested them. We didn't just kill them on the spot in cold blood with no due process. The video also didn't mention the president trying to order the National Guard into American cities, Portland and Chicago, where judges stopped the orders saying they were illegal. Like I say, the video mentioned no specific orders at all. And really, the video meant it vanished into the daily noise of a million news stories and online videos like almost everything else does these days. It really could have come and gone and been forgotten, except that the president went on Truth Social and called the video seditious behavior, punishable by death. Say he wanted the lawmakers to be tried as traitors. Stephen Miller, who seems to run so many things in the White House these days, went on TV to declare It is insurrection plainly, directly, without question. It's a general call for rebellion saying that those who carry weapons in America's name should defy their chain of command and engage in open acts of insurrection. So in other words, we ended up in one of those completely exhausting and very familiar standoffs between Republicans and Democrats, with the Democrats saying, we're just telling people to obey the law, and Republicans saying that Democrats, as always, are trying to overthrow Trump, this time with a military insurrection. And in the middle of all that are the 2,000,000 people serving in the active military …
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“Organizations like GI Rights Hotline receive over 200 calls monthly from service members concerned about orders to support ICE operations”
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by Jad Abumrad
“features Jad Abumrad's podcast about Nigerian activist Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, who led 10,000 market women to depose a colonial-backed king in 1948”
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