Two Movies On One Screen

The Minnesota ICE Shooter and the Stark Divides in Perception

This morning it finally happened. Scott Adams’ body succumbed to the cancer within and he passed away. Rest in peace to the one who popularized the phrase that is the title of this article. I learned a lot from Scott, despite many things I would disagree with him on. He had a way of uncovering the simplicity of seemingly complicated things. Even if you never heard him speak you can see it in the Dilbert cartoons, and that is why they became so popular. And going on now, we’re living through the two movies on one screen phenomenon via the shooting of Renee Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross.

It’s maybe the biggest national example of such a thing since George Floyd died under the knee of officer Derek Chauvin.

Coincidentally, both killings happened in Minneapolis—a bit of a nod to the simulation theory that Adams was also fond of. Minnesota is taking its share of the national attention these days with the allegations of widespread welfare fraud, too.

But these type of events are fascinating. Beyond the human tragedy of a life lost unnecessarily, and the debate about what to do about “illegal” immigration, this is as good a case study as you can get of people watching the same footage and coming away with diametrically opposed conclusions.

One side sees a deranged leftist who put herself in harm’s way, aggressed toward the ICE agent with her car and “FAFO’d”. The other side sees a trigger-happy government goon murdering a woman who was just standing up for her community. I won’t keep you guessing about my opinion - I don’t believe government should exist, and therefore ICE and all other agencies are illegitimate. The agents acted well outside a reasonable expectation for law enforcement, and Ross murdered Good. But my take isn’t what this is about, and I don’t expect I can convince anyone to change their mind.

The point is: what you see in that situation was decided well before the incident occurred. In a case where there may be some complicating factors, and some questionable activity by both parties, this kind of split is bound to happen. As I said, I’m already primed to view all State action as illegitimate. When an agent of the State kills a civilian, there are very few possibilities that would make it justifiable to me. The government should not have created the situation that led to mass immigration from third-world countries, they should not be subsidizing their living costs, and they should not be trying to “fix” their mistakes by raining terror on American cities via ICE thugs.

The “Left” is on my side on this one, even though we came to it from different priors. Their view is more simplistic. I don’t think they have worked out the ‘why’ behind it all, but their instinct of not wanting human beings treated poorly is generally a good one. They’ll still enthusiastically back the State when it goes after their enemies, even though this should be a glaring example of the absurdity of national democracy.

The “Right” has been sold the idea that immigrants (and foreigners) are responsible for all the ills of society. Don’t have a job? An “illegal” underbid you to work below market wages, or a corporation shipped it overseas to take advantage of low wages in other countries. They swallow whole bottles of propaganda that tell them China or Russia or Iran is just days away from destroying the United States if we don’t throw our weight around all over the world. If I’m being generous, they crave order and they see the other side trampling that order in favor of people that are not “us”. Sometimes they have a good point on that last part. (But what is “us”? A question for another time…)

But the Right’s views lead them to believe that rounding up thousands of immigrants across the country is not only necessary, but good. And anyone getting in the way of what they voted for is asking to be a casualty. They celebrate the death of Renee Good in the same way many on the left gloated about the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Hypocrisy abounds, but no one will see it. It’s easy to point out to someone you disagree with. It’s much harder to admit about yourself.

It shouldn’t be hard to say that killing is bad (whether you choose to call it murder or not). The political fights are exactly what “they” want us to be doing. And this is another win for “them”, the people in our government that don’t care about you and me as long as we’re feeding their parasitism with our attention and our tax dollars.

That’s why it’s so disheartening to see anyone, Left or Right, take up the cause of violent federal agents. No matter how distasteful you find the other person’s politics. But here we are. This time it’s just one more example of the Right being an utter disappointment in the Trump era.