It was not so long ago, on the venerable pages of 1EyedEeel, that those of us unfortunate enough to have landed on the left of the political spectrum were scolded for apparently celebrating the murder of Charlie Kirk. No, we said, we are not celebrating that murder. Instead, our point was that the canonization of Kirk was a means to avoid frank discussion of his actual words. We would not participate in canonizing such a divisive figure. No matter said our critics. The issue was stated to be that ‘the left’ were responsible for the Kirk shooting. This ‘fact’ showed ‘the left’ are "loonies", "cancerous", they killed Kirk "because of his beliefs", they are "losing their grip on reality", "showing their true colours" and "cannot accept contrarian views". Yes, receipts available if memory does not serve. Some actually HOPED for "civil war" and that 'lefties' would be "carted off to work camps". Others opined that "far left violence is becoming a trend [and they will] definitely not like what comes next". Well, I guess that last remark was prescient?
Political irony is a gap between ideals and reality. With all this Kirk-inspired defence of free speech, and the deploring of political violence in response to "contrarian beliefs", we on the loony left were asked to ignore two obvious contradictions coming our way. One, our free speech to NOT fall into normative line was self-evidently denied. Apparently, we could not walk and chew gum. In this case, oppose murdering based on disagreement with beliefs but also have our own evaluation that said we oppose canonizing someone we regard as possessing many noxious beliefs. Two, apparently leftists were prone to political violence and deserved violent retribution because political violence was wrong. It is not even possible to parody that one, it is so comically contradictory.
Anyway, now we all watch as US ICE murders a soccer mom in her car and a male nurse trying to assist a woman who was being set upon by ICE agents. Senior US politicians from Trump down on through VP Vance and Congressman like R. Fine, plus Trump’s loyal protection squadron in his administration (Noem, Miller, Hegseth etc), have set about blaming the murder victims for their fate. The soccer mom was called a domestic terrorist trying to use her car as a weapon, when she was shot twice in the body and once in the head. The ICE agent is heard saying “f***en b***h” after murdering her. MAGA is saying the soccer mom deserved it, apparently because women should not be challenging men. The nurse is being accused of sedition and for deserving to be shot, because he was carrying a (licensed) hand-gun on his person (so much for gun rights?) when half a dozen ICE agents piled on top of him on an icy road and shot him multiple times at point-blank range. An ICE agent is on video dancing and clapping moments after the nurse was murdered. The US Republican leadership and their MAGA support base are literally celebrating the murders.
Political irony is a gap between ideals and reality. Is there really any kind of substance to the idea that there is some ideological debate going on here? If everything that was said in those Kirk blogs is true, that free speech extends to free political speech and political action, that political violence in response to political disagreement is wrong, that trends toward violent retribution are abhorrent, where are all the blogs calling for action against the Trump Regime. The Trump Regime that is quite literally terrorizing and violently suppressing its own citizens?
Is there not some common humanity, unfortunately too often hidden behind vicious and pointless trolling of people, usually based on their identity differences, that isn’t screaming out that there is potentially something terrible both germinating and unfolding in the USA at this present time? If political irony is a gap between ideals and reality, when does reality intervene to say stop pretending that free speech and abhorrence of political violence can just be memes launched by the right against the left or the left against the right, and that they actually should mean something, regardless of partisan identification? The US Government is celebrating the murder of its own citizens by its own agents. We are beyond hypotheticals. They’re celebrating murder, FYI.
Replies
Bellingcat is fine, you are still missing the point.....independance is a good example of just that, nothing to do with my commentary. If you think that Daz is independant in his views, then again it is your perogative.
Your reaction to my post is the example I am using is "missing the point" i.e. at no point have I implied Daz's credability when it comes to being unbiased, he would tell you he carries a natural bias to the left, doesn't mean anything he published in this thread is untrue. JUst tainted with that bias. I am sure he will come up with a strong view as to why I am wrong with what ever view I have, which is:
"Any intelligent people will realise what is happening is wrong and reminiscent of so much in human history."
"Any intelligent people will realise what is happening is wrong and reminiscent of so much in human history."...true. But what is it reminiscent of? Spell it out old man, because the dumb and the young don't know their history. They need your help.
What is occurring in USA is remeniscent of and has many similarities with pre-war Germany.
Make Germany Great Again
Bellingcat do some good work, but their choice of targets gives their bias away. Even the fact they've linked to Bluesky (an app hostile to conservative opinion, like Twitter was prior to Musk's takeover) reveals how partisan they are.
At this stage the US media is so hopelessly aligned that we are better to ignore their analyses. Hopefully we can glean some facts from their reporting but thanks to AI, even video is dubious evidence.
Media pushing stories like this will continue to create a perception that US law enforcement is a legitimate target of violence in certain 'no go' zones. This is why ICE go masked now. They have been forced into the mentality that they are in a hostile war zone, which is going to lead to some miscalculations. As a former soldier I well know how a low risk appetite toward your own safety creates the conditions for overreaction to perceived threats. Cars driving towards you, smartarses with handguns, even the fact every fucker is now pointing their phone at you like they're Travis Bickle. People just need to let them do their job. If you don't like ICE enforcing the law, vote harder next time. Don't lose an election and then spend the next four years ruining the country. Wait your turn.
Poupou, Harris once said Trump would suck the military on his own citizens and the GOP lampooned her. Turning around now as if doing so was included in Trump's mandate is first rate historical revisionism, it seems? Are you claiming Trump ran on a "ICE will target indiscriminately and drag even US citizens and then shoot you"? Feel free to cite that promise.
I also suggest "just let them do their jobs" is horribly reminiscent of Nazi Germany. Normalizing the SS and Brownshirts didn't end up in a good place. I mean "I was just doing my job" became a very unsuccessful defence at the Nuremberg Trials for very good reasons. But today, put simply, if due process is out the window and Noem and Bovino can literally ask people to ignore the evidence of their own eyes, "just let them do their jobs" is the very last thing anyone should do
Nobody is sending citizens to Polish death camps, they are trying to legally deport unlawful residents to their country of origin. That's not a war crime. It's not even a domestic crime in the US.
It's a shame that US citizens are being caught up in this, but what is ICE supposed to do? "I'm a US citizen, trust me bro!" would be an easy way to avoid deportation.
They are being kept in US detention, sent to CECOT/etc or being dumped in 3rd countries as often as being sent "home".
What PouPou is saying is that the US Trump Regime is not (yet) an exact replica of Nazi Germany. So, like, ho hum move on?
My question is how did that work out in Cambodia, under the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot?
There is a fantastic essay by Umberto Eco, called "Ur-fascism", where Eco shows how trying to understand a political movement like fascism by hunting for exact replicas is exactly the wrong method.
PouPou asks "what is ICE supposed to do" as if approximating Nazi Brownshirts isn't already a stark sign that the policing operation has gone off the rails. ICE does not have to be sending illegals to gas camps to have really obvious red flags, including ethno-nationalist targeting, indiscriminate violence, no accountability, cult of personality leadership, and negligence around training and restraint on force.
Here is Eco for anyone interested in why exact replicas are not the gold standard comparison
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/umberto-eco-ur-fascism
Minnesota. Canada. Norway. Denmark.
When the literal nicest people in the world are upset & are your targets you need all the PouPou's you can find to help rationalize it. It's normal, whatabout.
Yeah they point phones and film, as is their right. They know that it is the only path through the lies!...and if they are shot by feds for it, according to fuckheads like you, that's fine, because you cannot ever imagine it ever happening to you or yours. It's a failure of lateral thinking and embarrassingly obsequiousness to authority figures whom you see as above accountability.
No I can definitely imagine it happening to me. I want to visit the US but won't, on account of their recent trend toward xenophobia. The colour of my skin is irrelevant.
For context, I was working overseas, hosted by US military at the time Trump was first elected, and we felt a very anti-foreigner vibe from the rank and file (the more senior staff were lovely to us). The Brits on that base noticed it too. Our skin colour was no protection, because it wasn't racism, it was xenophobia at work. But I had worked with Americans for years and never noticed it before 2016/2017.
Anyway, I believe governments should take their borders seriously, just like I do with the doors and windows of my house.
Randy, that comment about "fuckheads like you" directed to Pou, does you no credit and probably gives you this weeks "jersey" for being part of the "looney" doesn't matter if its left or right!
His story is real and gives me more information in the discussion, than anything you can extract from your "bong".
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