Some Thoughts on the ICE Protests Around the Country

By now, it hardly seems like I would need to even point out the biggest news of recent days. It had been so obvious, because it dominates the headlines and evening news, as well as social media.

Of course, I am referring to the ICE protests. The major focal point has been Los Angeles, which is also where these protests began. And while Los Angeles remains the largest of the protests being monitored, they have spread like wildfire.

Everyone, it seems, has a different point of view on these protests. If you are pro-MAGA, then you get outraged by images of Mexican or other foreign flags at the protests. Also, you see images and hear stories of stores being looted and other riots, and that just adds more fuel to the fire of your rage.

Here's the problem with that, as far as I see it: too many of the stories are simply not true. After all, a part of my job has been to monitor some stores in certain cities. So I specifically had to look into a report that I saw, posted by a MAGA supporter and influencer last night, regarding a Walmart being looted. Except that when I look further, the story was actually from years ago (from 2020, if memory serves correctly). Yet, it was being "reported" as breaking news.

The problem is that too many MAGA people will never look deeper into these things. Already, far too many of them have shown a blatant disregard for facts, and even a skepticism towards any kind of official facts or narrative. So then, you cannot exactly rely on them to try and dig even a little bit deeper and get some semblance truth.

Yesterday, on the Facebook page of former Pearl Jam drummer Dave Abruzzese, he pointed out how President Trump gave credit to the National Guard for quelling the Los Angeles protests, even though they had nothing to do with it, and had not yet even arrived or been dispersed at the time when Trump said this. But too many of his supporters will never dig deeper. They will simply take him at his word and be led to think that the National Guard should be given credit for maintaining order in LA.

Then, of course, they will turn around and call everyone who does not agree with them "libtards" and accuse them of being "sheep" who believe whatever the media tells them to believe. And they never stop and think about the irony.

For my part, it seems like there are two different protests going on. In the daytime, it seems like most of the protests are largely peaceful and orderly. These are law abiding citizens who are unhappy about the excesses of ICE, and more generally are expressing concerns about the direction that the country is going in. But the media largely wants sensational headlines, and so they always turn to the few unruly elements - a tiny fraction of the protesters who sometimes feel a little too convenient not to be paid agents to discredit the protests more generally - who engage in destructive behavior. There is looting and possibly outbreaks of violence at times.

Personally, I have no issue with people protesting peacefully in our streets, expressing disapproval over ICE or anything else. That is what democracy is supposed to look like. And it feels like it should hardly be a surprise that people would be protesting excesses and government abuse under the Trump presidency. 

Yet, the focus always seems to be on those unruly elements - almost always young people, particularly males - who start agitating and breaking things.

Oh, and they just happen often to be masked, so you never actually see who they are or what they look like. Again, rather conveniently.

To me, however, this once again shows that the media can be relied upon to focus on the wrong things, and to let the guilty parties off scot free, as they almost always do. After all, look at how the media still fixates on the health of Joe Biden, instead of the health of the nation after what has not even been half a year of abuses under this Trump administration. 

Looks and feels like the same old same old. 

With all of that, however, I wanted to say one more thing. There have been many comparisons with what is going on in the United States right now in comparison to Germany in the 1930's. Indeed, there may be some comparisons worth being made. I am not sure that Trump is Hitler, or that the situation is truly comparable. And in the interests of trying to remain hopeful and end this little piece on a hopeful note, there just was not this level of resistance and very visible dissent to what was going on in Germany at the time.

That, to me, is not a minor point. It gives me some hope that people see the increased militancy and propaganda in the United States, and recognize the danger. We need to understand that a lot of the "official" news is bound to fixate on what is perceived to be the darker sides of the protests, or dissent more generally. But I, for one, am still thankful that we still retain enough of our obviously fragile democracy that such dissent still exists, and is being broadcast on television and dominating headlines in newspapers. Seems like a good sign to me, and an indicator that there may still be some life to our democracy yet. That Trump & Co. have not yet managed to dismantle democracy and the Constitution as much as they would have liked to have done by this point.