Political Pawns

The Renee Good tragedy in Minnesota did nothing to stanch the fervor of either the ICE protestors, or ICE itself.

Quite the opposite. This past Saturday, another encounter between ICE and protestors resulted in another death. This time, a man named Alex Pretti. Per current reports, Pretti was protesting in the “stretch/cross the limits” fashion that we’ve been seeing in Minnesota… and had a gun in his waistband while doing so. Legally, per current reports - open carry is legal, and he appears to have had a permit. But, interfering with ICE agents’ efforts to detain illegals is a felony, and the matter of carrying a gun while committing a felony must be considered. For more on that, give this video a gander.

As in the previous instance, I am waiting for more information to come out before rendering an opinion. Recall that it took days for the full set of available videos to make it out to the world. I want everyone who acted improperly held accountable, but there are no bonuses for being first to judgment. I am also capable of assigning fault to both sides in this and other incidents, as I am currently leaning in Good’s shooting.

While I wait, I offer that it’s remarkably stupid to carry a gun - whether open or concealed - while getting in cops’ faces and tangling with them. Bordering on moronic, and revealing either a desire to martyrdom or a deeply skewed risk assessment.

As I wrote in the aftermath of Good’s death, these tragedies are not only predictable, in that encouraging protestors to clash with armed LEOs increases the chance of something going terribly wrong, but are invited/welcomed by the puppet masters orchestrating the protests. Good was just a pawn on their chessboard, and a sacrificed pawn can advance a game. I await further info on Reade, but “pawn” again seems apt at this point.

While we mourn two unnecessary deaths, some secretly smile at the publicity victories.

This callous attitude is a broad theme in leftist politics, all the way back to its roots.

The heroism of the working people making voluntary sacrifices for the victory of socialism—this is the foundation of the new, comradely discipline. V.I. Lenin

One death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic. -- J. Stalin (in some form)

Hitler similarly preached that individual lives are subordinate to the State.

Today, your identity’s utility in the cultural and political wars is all that matters to them. Your wants and needs as an individual do not.

Here’s a great big tell-tale that affirms this conclusion: Obama’s deportation efforts were greater and “messier” than Trump’s, but the Left issued nary a peep about them at the time. Libertarians such as I have long aimed hairy eyeballs at our militarized law enforcement, at activities such as stop-and-frisk and other forms of profiling (including some condoned by the Court), and at the “blue wall of silence” that shields the bad actors in LE ranks from punishment or termination. And, it should go without saying, every single instance of an American citizen wrongfully detained. Yet, the loudest decriers of ICE deportations today said diddly-squat while their Messiah deported millions.

Hypocrisy in politics should surprise no one. You can’t swing a dead cat around the political sandbox without hitting a hypocrite. Make that a thousand hypocrites. We are all guilty of it at various times - sins and stones etcetera etcetera etcetera. Nevertheless, hypocrisy is a stellar exposer of underlying motives. And attitudes.

The Left’s indifference to Obama’s deportations tells us it’s not and never was about the migrants, at least as far as the power brokers, puppet masters, and political schemers are concerned. Like everyone else, migrants are only useful for what they bring to the political battlefield. As “victims” of the Republican Party’s mistreatment, they are useful. But, calling out The One for doing what the Trump administration is doing would be bad for Team Blue, so they didn’t.

Because it’s not, and never was, about the migrants themselves. They, like every other person in the country, matter only for the leverage their numbers provide. A single migrant is an irrelevance. Fifteen million migrants are a political wedge.

Likewise, protestors are only useful to the Left in quantity. Unless and until one becomes relevant via pawn sacrifice.

This theme underlies just about every high-priority issue on the Left’s slate.

The Left doesn’t care about persons. It only cares about power.

Power comes from numbers, and numbers are at the core of identity politics.

Why is “Asian-American and Pacific Islander” (AAPI) a single identity group, when there are stark differences in culture (and more) between Mongols and Maoris, and when Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans (not to mention others) will be offended if mistaken for one another?

Why are lesbians and gay men put in the same group as trans persons, when the trans activists dismiss what it means to be gay or lesbian with condescending euphemisms such as “genital preference?”

Why are minors coaxed/bullied into “gender affirmation” therapies, often after only the flimsiest assessments, when they are not yet fully formed humans, when there are almost always other psychological issues in the mix, and when society won’t let them make far less consequential life choices, such as getting tattoos, taking on debt, signing contracts, or giving sexual consent? Why, for that matter, does there appear to be such great desire to inflate or exaggerate the percentage of trans persons in society?

Why are women and blacks, both squarely in the “oppressed” category, deeply loathed and viciously attacked when they voice opinions that don’t conform with leftist orthodoxy?

The answer is always about the numbers. The individual doesn’t matter other than as another click on the counter and addition to the “us” column.

Remember, the smallest minority is always the individual.

Remember, also, that we are individuals. Our consciousnesses are individual, we think as individuals, we act as individuals. Political and cultural philosophy should recognize and honor that reality. Elevating and respecting individuals above groups is not only the only path to justice and fairness, it’s the only one that won’t destroy itself due to internal dissonance.

“Treating people just like pawns in chess” (h/t Geezer Butler) is the last thing that the Left wants us to recognize about its behavior. The “caring” message is pushed and pushed and pushed, no matter the truth and no matter how divisive and destructive its policies have been. That message is repeated ad nauseam by the pawns, both because they’ve been suckered into doing so and to avoid the cognitive dissonance that would result from realizing they’ve been life-long suckers.

As for the migrants? Ask their champions where they were during Obama’s deportations. They, too, are pawns.

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A footnote. The puppet masters setting up these provocations are being abetted by reckless rhetoric from, among others, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. That their words and actions may be bordering on insurrection is of little concern, it appears, and we would not be wrong in pondering how much of this is about deflecting from the massive Somali day care scandal that seems to have evaporated billions of taxpayer dollars.

Walz has already announced he won’t run for re-election, and I’m sure that any investigation into what he knew, what he ignored, and how much dirty money was sent his way will be rebutted with cries of “political/selective prosecution” and his own declarations of martyrdom. If he tries to de-escalate the protests/provocations, he loses that avenue, so expect him to continue to keep the pot boiling.

Showing no regard for the safety of the protestors.

Affirming, yet again, that this is all about political power rather than moral outrage.