(Like most of America, I am horrified by what is happening in Minnesota. And, like Will Leitch, I feel pretty inadequate just writing about it. But, it’s even worse if I don’t.)
We are frozen in. The snow, the ice, the cold have limited all of our wide-ranging wanderings to the triangle between the couch, the refrigerator, and the bathroom.
Minnesota happens. Pretti is dead. Good is dead. Children are being used as bait.
We are forced to bear witness to war crimes. The crimes multiply in front of our eyes, never mind what must happen behind locked doors and closed windows.
There is intent. Trump and the goons chose to attack in January. Tactically, they probably counted that the mass of humanity that arose for George Floyd wouldn’t come out in frigid conditions. They imagined that there would be some great video coming of brown people lined up on the street, marching ICE officers parading, and bruised, crying, and frozen protestors.
The intent was TV programming.
Trump has picked TV people to run key organizations. When they speak from a podium or to a camera, they knew where to look, how to put on the make-up, and how to mouth the craziness so that it sounds like sense.
Locked in our homes, we were to watch, fear, and seek relief on Netflix. We were to learn our lesson. White people, don’t get in the way. Brown people, we’re coming. And for you white women, keep an eye out. Know your place.
The lies that Bovino, Noem, and Vance put out there are also intentional. They are also programming. They lie because they can. They lie because nobody and nothing can call them to account. Each lie, each taunt, each eyeroll, is coded. To supporters, the lies underline the brazen control: “We can say anything we want and you can do nothing.” To opponents, the lies taunt: “We will never be responsible for what we say. You can’t stop us.” Underneath the words exist the tyrant’s bargain. If you oppose us, we will come in with more force. You are making us declare martial law. That was the tyrant’s bargain: we can do this the easy way or the hard way.
The programming included Governor Walz in furious tears, speaking to the cameras. His powerlessness got draped over him. You can’t arrest the murderers, you can’t get justice, you can’t get peace. No moments of silence, no grieving, no funerals.
The programming includes brutality and inhumanity. The ICE and CBP did what they were trained to do. When Good was shot with the third bullet to her temple in her car, spraying her blood over her children’s toys, we were to learn a lesson. No ambulance, no doctors, no police; just cameras. Get a good shot of the spattered stuffed animals in the glove compartment.
When Pretti was shot, they fired nine more times into a kneeling and bound body. Then they backed away. Clear pictures, get that blood. Yeah, those are his brains. Ten holes in that one. “Do you want some of that?”
Out there in America, someone is getting a tattoo to commemorate that. It won’t be a tear.
When the grieving left a rose at the site of Alex Pretti’s death, an ICE officer picked it up and made it his boutonniere. Not an accident. Not a mistake. It’s in the programming.
They miscalculated. If all of this were broadcast on TV and all of us were waiting for the CBS evening news, then the plan would work. If all of us were glued to CNN, the plan would work. If all of us turned to the NFL with no moments of silence, the plan works. If TikTok can be blocked, the plan works.
However, the internet exists and e-mail exists and cell phones exist. People are only as isolated as they want to be. They don’t want to be.
Instead, the people of Minnesota are organizing in church basements, in classrooms, and in Target lines. Those people are running a quiet underground movement to support and thwart. They are chasing ICE with whistles, leaf blowers, and cameras. Lots of cameras.
With all of those cameras, the narrative becomes a fire hose. If you are programming for Fox or for CBS, you can cut, edit, and obfuscate. “Was she trying to drive over him?” I guess we will never know.” But now, with video and commentary and reels and messages, the programming is overwhelmed. Martial law may still come, but the reaction to it will be head-snapping.
I am the most important part of the Tyrant’s Bargain. Out here in Massachusetts, frozen in my house, I am supposed to move on to the net thing. I am supposed to go on DraftKings to get my bets in for the Super Bowl. I am supposed to watch someone climb a tower in Taiwan. I am supposed to get my W-2s together. I am supposed to be disgusted by politics.
I am supposed to thank my lucky stars that I am white, male, and suburban. Nobody has noticed me. Best stay hidden.
I am frozen in, but I have not been programmed. The world exists outside of podcasts, TV shows, and influencer reels. My world walks through the grocery store, picks up the mail, and shovels the driveway.
I cannot march in Minnesota. I cannot stop the onslaught anywhere else but where I live. But I can do it here.
Last year, I remember watching a group of four MAGA blue hairs with signs and horns, proclaiming the second coming of Trump. They stood along the Main Street in Dalton. I brushed them off as good-hearted morons.
They haven’t come out recently.
When they do, I will be ready with my full attention.
And of a piece with Pretti’s whole life was this 2024 video. At his work, honoring a dead veteran, with words about freedom.
“Today we remember,” he said, “that freedom is not free. We have to work at it, nurture it, protect it, and even sacrifice for it. May we never forget and always remember our brothers and sisters who have served so that we may enjoy the gift of freedom. So in this moment, we remember and give thanks for their dedication and selfless service to our nation in the cause of our freedom. In this solemn hour, we render them our honor and our gratitude.”
Thank you, well said.
We are watching & we are listening…….to the truth.
Hopefully this horrible situation is the first domino……….