Philip Bump, “The Killing in Minnesota”
They will lie about you and then kill you and they will kill you and then lie about you.
And I don’t mean some ambiguous, imaginary “they” like the one the right invented and blamed for trying to kill President Donald Trump. I mean an actual they, a they that includes federal officials and federal law enforcement and Donald Trump himself.
Pastor Sergio Amezcua, “They’re reading their Bible backwards”
Born citizens here have to carry their passport so they can avoid getting arrested and losing a day of work. I got citizens, permanent residents, they avoid coming to church. They’d rather stay home, watch it online. We preach to the world religious freedom, and in Minnesota people cannot go to church. And if they come to church, there’s ICE agents outside of churches waiting for them.
It’s really evil what’s going on. And coming from the conservative government, “Christian” government? I just think they’re reading their Bible backwards.
Ana Marie Cox, “The Key to Minneapolis’s Successful ICE Resistance”
People offer assistance without hesitation and without question; I don’t think I ever even heard someone dismiss thanks with, “Just pay it back someday.” Of course you will—everyone knows it. Some might find it remarkable that the generosity exists right alongside the stubborn interpersonal Midwestern microdistance that can take years to thaw. But the caution of their relationships speaks to the universality of the principle: You don’t help people out because you like them. You just do.
Someone once described that cushion of reserve as “Minnesota nice right up until the front door,” but I think that buffer of formality is another reason these normies have risen up with such ferocity against the federal occupation: On top of everything else, invasive operations to detain and arrest people without cause in their cars and homes violates cherished, sparingly offered intimacy. It sounds a little insane to put it this way, but a civil occupation? It’s rude.
Andrea Pitzer, “Into the abyss”
I’ve looked at mass civilian detention around the world. I’ve visited the facilities where people were held. I’ve talked to the people involved—those detained and tortured, those who supported camps, and those who stood idly by. It’s critical to recognize that each of the societies that has had camps underwent a lengthy process. This process is often easier to see happening in your own country if you first look at an example in another one.
My goal today is to warn you that the U.S. has already been seized by the same camp dynamic. It’s not that I’m trying to tell you that bad things are coming, and you have to look out for them. What I’m saying is that the camps have already taken root and are on a fast-track to get exponentially worse. We’re already deep inside the process.
Alan Elrod, “Remigration, Recolonization, Rechristianization, Restoration”
Remigration has become a watchword on the right across the U.S. and Europe in recent years. The idea is simple and noxious: we should not only be curbing foreign immigration but actively working to deport legal residents and naturalized citizens of undesirable origin. We have seen this discourse flare up most recently around the Minnesota daycare fraud scandal, which the right has turned into a means of arguing for the remigration of Somali-Americans. The excitement over the quick deposition of Maduro has only further energized these demands. And the killing of Renee Good by ICE is another reminder of how anyone who opposes that mission is viewed.
Christian nationalists, far from embracing traditional gospel messages of charity and hospitality, have eagerly taken up this cause. More importantly, however, the nationalist dimension is heightened by an emphasis on the inherent unsuitability of certain peoples, in this case Somalis, to American life.
Rachel Cohen, “Those who are Supposed to Die”
It is mind-boggling the number of Republicans who have convinced themselves that Good’s murder was a legitimate exercise of state violence. People are justifiably outraged by the number of formerly Don’t-Tread-On-Me zealots now arguing that ICE agents have ultimate authority to execute people in the streets because the law is the law. Perhaps forgetting that the country has accepted that status quo for police officers for a long time. Perhaps also forgetting that the country has seemingly accepted that status quo for ICE agents as well, at least for Black and brown people. As liberals search for an explanation, they focus on Ross’ fucking bitch because they know Good’s murder is laced with dehumanization. They do not search for an explanation for Villegas González’s murder, even if they condemn it. The systems function as intended, sustaining our long-existing social order. The law is the law.
There was no poll asking Americans whether Villegas González deserved to die.
Susie Aquilina, “Now That I Am Old Enough to Enroll in Medicare, I Am Against Socialized Medicine” (McSweeney’s)
We all know that socialized medicine has never worked, except in Canada, Great Britain, Sweden … well, let me just stop there since it’s like a really long list. But it is well understood that those countries ration care. And by “ration,” I mean they pay for essentially every healthcare necessity their citizens can possibly have at significantly lower costs than what we in the United States pay, and see much better outcomes, like longer life expectancies and lower infant mortality rates.
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