We Had Whistles; They Had Guns

As much as I can, I avoid using my blog to recount the endless provocations and destructive actions Trump and his administration are taking. I would rather spend my time writing about what these offenses mean to me and holding up a mirror to those who support this madness, hoping to appeal to their better angels. If there is a goal with a post like this, it's to help people see another perspective and, hopefully, to cause them to think outside the lines conservative media and conservative politicians would like them to remain in, in steadfast loyalty to them and their narrative.

I recall learning about propaganda in middle school. I was fascinated by the thought of so many people being lied to and not realizing it. I never imagined it could take root here in the United States. We're too smart for that, or so I thought. But I lacked imagination. I lacked the understanding of what billions of dollars fed into a media conglomerate could do as they invited people to come for the headlines, but stay for the culture wars — culture wars designed to appeal to the most base part of the brain while disregarding alternative considerations — and making fertile the ground they needed to plant their seeds of propaganda. 

And neither did I think fascism had a chance of taking root here, either. Again, we're too smart for that, or so I thought.

What is propaganda? An internet search says: "Information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a particular cause, doctrine, or point of view." It's straightforward and easy to spot, but you have to want to see it for what it is; otherwise, you're simply a mark. I was. 

Most propaganda has a kernel of truth woven into it to make it more persuasive, but sometimes not. George W. Bush's administration propagandized the public with outright lies about "weapons of mass destruction" that they claimed existed in Iraq but did not. We went to war over that at huge expense, both in lives lost and the enormous cost ($1.8 trillion through 2023). I naively gave them the benefit of the doubt then, swayed by their lies/propaganda. I was also swayed by the lie that tax cuts for the wealthy would "trickle down" to the rest of us as the billionaire class shared in their windfall. I'm embarrassed by my naivety then, but as George W. Bush once said, roll the video — or something like that. 

So yes, I've been swayed by propaganda in the past — I'm sure we all have. But what do we do when we find out we're being lied to? What lies are we willing to overlook, and what lies cross a line where they expose a more sinister, devious action that depends on my ignorance, and am I okay with being used in that way? Am I okay with being lied to again and again and again? 

Nearly all of us watched January 6th, 2021, play out on our TVs. We were horrified by what we saw, only to learn later that Trump sat and watched the destructive and riotous behavior of his supporters for 3 hours and 18 minutes, sometimes replaying more gruesome segments to watch again, before finally asking his supporters to please go home, and that he loved them. How anyone could watch that and still support the man speaks volumes about the role propaganda can play in deluding people's minds. But conservative media, with the help of Kevin McCarthy, did just that; they breathed life back into Trump and set him on a course for another term as president. Fox News' lies to its viewers about Dominion Voting Systems may have cost it $787.5 million, but its viewers were likely none the wiser, as the story had been buried on its network.

This past week, we've seen a master class lesson in propagandizing the public by Trump and his administration as they wasted no time blaming the death of Renee Nicole Good, a 37 y/o woman shot three times in the head by an ICE agent in South Minneapolis, on her "radical left behavior," saying she was a "very high-level paid agitator," a "professional troublemaker," "a domestic terrorist," and other defamatory remarks about her. And not only that, but they also mischaracterized her actions, saying she "behaved horribly" and that Trump claimed "she ran over him" when none of that was true. 

The actual story is that she behaved very cordially, waving other ICE vehicles ahead of hers before turning around. In fact, she waved through the car that the officer who murdered her was riding in. She wasn't obstructing them. Her last words to the officer, 25 seconds before he shot three bullets into her face, were, "That's fine, dude. I'm not mad at you." 

His last words to her were, "Fucking bitch."

Here is a video of Renee's murder. 

We had whistles; they had guns.

That's all I've got.