Welcome to the mid-year mark of 2025!

Summer updates and mid-year revelations

I started off this month doing a mid-year reset, specifically on my handstand practice and all of the other odds & ends that have had to take a backseat in the past several months (turns out starting a business is hard? who knew??). I’ve posted weekly updates over on Instagram, but my hope for myself — and all of you — is finding a bit more spaciousness to keep returning to the intentions we set, and not letting other obligations take over in place of our values.

It’s really easy to get caught up in the flow of life and the people around us and lose track of the things we really value. It’s exactly that kind of unthinking that can lead us to some pretty terrible places…

ICE, the Banality of Evil, and You

That dynamic, and a broader culture of unthinking, supports what Hannah Arendt called the “banality of evil” — not evils arising from ill-intent or malice, but ones that we allow to happen when we’re just blithely following our career ambitions or submitting to social conditions.

I recently posted a 4-part series of videos on the Necessary Evil instagram account talking about recent developments in ICE enforcement, how the “banality of evil” underlies ICE recruitment and detention practices, and what you — as an engaged person who wants to do the hard work of creating political change — can do about it all. I’ve written a companion synopsis with a bit more analysis on the blog this month.

Here’s an excerpt from the post:

There are so many entry points for thinking about problems like this, but for me it's grounding and organizing to situate our current reality in history, and also in theory. That's not to say that you need to read a lot of academic literature to understand what's going on—it IS to say that, so many of the issues we confront today have been confronted before, they're older than us and have legacies of dominance and resistance that we can plug into and learn from, if we know where to look. So my goal with this series is to take you through one of those pathways, thinking about Hannah Arendt and the "banality of evil."

. . .

Keep reading on the blog, and feel free to re-watch all 4 parts of the video series at your own pace.

Related Links & Resources

As promised, there are a load of links and resources associated with this post and video series, and you lucky newsletter subscribers get the whole list.

More resources for understanding ICE & keeping up-to-date

• ICEBlock App

• People over Papers collects data on ICE sightings to keep the public informed

• Bellingcat open source investigation into what ICE called "targeted" raids

• Bellingcat: Masked, Armed and Forceful: Finding Patterns in Los Angeles Immigration Raids

News Mentioned & Related Articles

• New York Times: Lawmakers attempt to ban ICE from wearing masks

• N Plus One: Two days talking to people looking for jobs at ICE

• Reuters: 2/3 of DOJ unit defending Trump policies have quit

• 404 Media: Flight manifests reveal dozens of previously unknown people on 3 deportation flights to El Salvador

• Wired: DHS and DOJ face new pressure over collecting children's DNA

• Bluesky posts mentioned in the series:

  • Post 1

  • Post 2

  • Post 3

• SF Standard: Oakland/SF gave license plate reader data to ICE

• The Young GOPer Behind “Alligator Alcatraz” Is the Dark Future of MAGA

• Trump officials want to prosecute over the ICEBlock App

• Men Are Impersonating ICE to Attack Immigrant Women

• Wired: DHS Tells Police That Common Protest Activities Are ‘Violent Tactics’Books & Other Resources

• New Yorker: When America Tried to Deport its Radicals

Books and related resources

• About Hannah Arendt

• Eichmann in Jerusalem (book by Hannah Arendt)

• New Yorker Magazine original "Eichmann in Jerusalem"

• Evil of Banality (book by Elizabeth Minnich)

• Elizabeth Minnich talking about the Evil of Banality

• Discipline & Punish (book by Michel Foucault)

• Crime Data: 3 Things for Abolitionists to Consider

I’m planning some additional deep-dives in a similar format coming soon, so if there’s a topic you’ve been really wanting to see coverage of, shoot me an email and let me know!

Upcoming Happenings

OOO & Weekly Classes

I’ll be out of the country (!!) for a few weeks, so regular students and clients — I’ll miss you 😢 This Wednesday and Thursday (July 23/24) are the last all levels handstand and partner acro classes til I’m back on August 9th. In August, you can find me at the regular class times and places, but also making some guest appearances for handstands at Aloft 🎉 Stay tuned for updates on some other special offerings 🤫

Festivals & Trainings

I’ll be missing the Midwest Cluster Jam this weekend, but you can find me and Tim, The Acro Denim™ himself, teaching at AcrOhio over Labor Day Weekend. Do you have your tickets yet? I’d love to see you there 😇

And catch me August 17th in the AIDS Garden of Chicago at Brave Space Alliance’s Dignity Dash 5K — celebrating and supporting trans and GNC people through movement and athleticism. You can register to participate or just donate. If you stop by, come check out my table and say hi!

Stay in touch & Reach out for support

You’re already getting the newsletter, so that’s a great first step! You can also follow along on Instagram for daily and weekly updates, news, and other happenings.

If you’re finding that you need more 1:1 support, whether that’s in your strength training or handstand practice, or in your political work, reach out! I’m still enrolling for political mentorship, and I have spots open for strength training as well as remote or in-person handstand coaching. I’d love to work with you 🖤

In solidarity,

Sirus