The Propaganda Must Flow
DHS is more than willing to actively lie.
While the most disturbing element of the shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent last week is the needless death of an American citizen, a very close second is the fact that the federal government is actively lying about the events that happened and doing its best to foster divisive views of the event.
It is not hyperbole, in my view, to call it all an attempt at authoritarian gaslighting with the goal of solidifying support of the MAGA base, as well as illicit fear in the general population. I think that fear takes on at least two manifestations. One is aimed at those who can see that the official version (that Good was a domestic terrorist and the action of the ICE agent was a combination of self-defense and heroic protection of his compatriots) is a lie. They want those people to think twice about protesting and to also internalize what the federal government can get away with. The second is the ongoing attempt to paint ICE as protecting the population. Therefore, fostering stories about “domestic terrorists” and assaults on law enforcement are meant to increase support for ICE and increase general fear of crime.
It seems worth noting that there already exists a tried-and-true way for officials to respond to an officer-involved shooting. It consists of promising an investigation, some level of concern for the victim, and usually some general attempt to point out how difficult a job law enforcement is. That route always has pro-law enforcement overtones. I am not defending that route, per se, but it at least has the connotation of some level of professionalism and even-handedness. It can be quite frustrating to watch, I will readily allow, when a video of a given event is available, and we are asked if we are going to believe our lying eyes or not. But that method is superior to outright propaganda.
We saw immediate lies in the aftermath of the killing of Good last week. Noem took to the podium and asserted that a vehicle was stuck in the snow, and made it sound as if that was part of the attack. There were claims by Noem and Trump of injured officers. Yet, if one watches any of the videos of the incident, it is clear that whatever else Good was doing, she was not making it impossible for ICE vehicles to pass, and she was simply sitting in her car until ICE tried to forcibly open the door of her vehicle, at which point she clearly was seeking to leave (note the tired in the screencap above). I cannot stress enough that the ICE operative who shot and killed Good placed himself at the front left of her vehicle while casually videoing with his phone. Good did not aim at him, and the video shows the tires turned away from him (again, see above).
We can have a debate about what appropriate legal conclusions should be reached after a formal investigation, but it is impossible to watch the videos and then reconcile them with Noem’s account.
Any fair-minded person knows that it is impossible to have firm conclusions about such an event in its immediate aftermath, especially at a distance.
Worse, DHS has ramped things up. Here is a propaganda video that feels like it was made for a movie or TV show.* At the barest of minimums, it is irresponsible because it asserts conclusions that could only be ascertained by a formal investigation. Worse, however, it uses voice-overs and edits to create a story that contradicts what can be seen from watching the copious available video of the incident.
It is chilling to have a government-produced video claim that it is fighting fake news by producing its own fake news.
*If anyone remembers the show Babylon 5, there is a fourth-season episode, “The Illusion of Truth,” which is about an authoritarian government using “news” to smear an opponent. It shows the seemingly legitimate gathering of footage and then the way it is cut with voice-overs and other propaganda tools to make real images appear to be something else. I thought of this technique immediately as I watched the DHS video.
And, along those lines, the whole “Defend the Homeland. Protect the American way of life” sloganeering reminds me a bit of Nightwatch from B5 and really any other similar sloganeering from usually hamfisted and heavyhanded TV shows/movies from the Cold War era that were usually supposed to be anti-communist morality tales.
This is apparently by design. I thought the whole business of the ICE officer walking around and filming the vehicle (and the subsequent shooting) extremely odd. Who TF films with a phone in one hand and shoots a weapon in the other? DHS has allegedly been instructed to get video for the express purpose of posting to social media, to “go viral.”
If true, this is a weird and chilling turn for the worse in a situation that I didn’t think could get any worse.
It is also clear in the video the government released–the one the murderer filmed and which they thought was exonerating–that the officer moves his phone from his right to his left in order to be able to free his fire arm.
This was many seconds before the shooting. Many.
Premeditated. He knew he was going to murder her long before he pulled the trigger.
In a fact free society, fair-minded people are a weakness to exploit.
For example, allowing the premise that the administration is “fighting fake news” is a concession that the fair-minded have given that has gained too much purchase in our information ecosystem. The government is creating fake news to combat facts, evidence, data, and our own lying eyes – the truth as it were.
As @Neil Hudelson notes, the video from both bystanders and the government is clear in what it reveals. But, as @Jen notes, the government doesn’t see that is a problem. What is evident in the visual record isn’t what you see but what they say. OMG, this is bad. “Propaganda” and “gaslighting” seem far too weak as words to describe how dangerous this is.
Watching what’s happening in Iran, as well as seeing the ICE murder last week, has reminded me of something that isn’t brought up enough, which is that attempts by governments to control the flow of information are harder than they used to be due to the Internet, social media, and smartphones. It’s a double-edged sword—the decentralization has made the spread of misinformation and the retreat of people into ideological echo chambers more common—but it’s worth recognizing for all its effects, good and bad.
Of course. Because, ultimately, MAGA and like-minded movements are about emotional gratification and not about reality (or making things better in that reality).
That’s one reason why accusations of hypocrisy are so ineffective. MAGA doesn’t care about consistency, or even that much about reality. It’s about getting off emotionally in the immediate here and now, again and again and again.
Usually by seeing a boot stomping on somebody else’s face.
Can’t provide that without propaganda.
+100 for B5 reference.
I’m trying to recall what my reaction to that was when I first saw it (B5, that is). I don’t think it was shock, or “they can do that?” but more “this crap again” Probably because of the Soviet-era garbage. Which they have now exported to the US. So Reagan won the Cold War, but Trump surrendered?
It’s telling that none of the people who are claiming he was hit are talking about physical evidence. They have the car, they have this guy’s body, and you aren’t seeing any mention of this. Why? Because nobody who is defending him cares. The video evidence blows apart any idea of this being a rational decision by this man, or of multiple interpretations. It’s like the least multiple interpretative footage on earth.
This is all about the right for a police state to murder people for not being submissive. That’s why these online freaks are talking about eye contact. They think that’s a triggering offense.
“I cannot stress enough that the ICE operative who shot and killed Good placed himself at the front left of her vehicle while casually videoing with his phone. Good did not aim at him, and the video shows the tires turned away from him (again, see above).”
His own video shows her cranking the steering wheel to turn away from him. He’s looking right at her as she is maneuvering to avoid him.
It was even worse — she was trying to move her car before that. She began to drive forward but then stopped and waved at approaching vehicles to pass her. One vehicle passed her. But the next one stopped as she was waving them on, and someone got out of that vehicle and tried to forcibly open the door of her vehicle.
As for the bigger picture and the subject of this post, the administration clearly didn’t care about the truthfulness of their reflexive propaganda, since the MAGA network will parrot the propaganda, say whatever they think backs it up, and sure as hell not admit they were wrong. As @drj: said,
What I see is a standard “She wasn’t respecting our authority.” shooting. And yet if you check any RW site everybody says they see what Noem says. It reflects underlying attitudes about cops and protesters, but mostly it’s what Paul Simon said, “ The man sees what he wants to see and disregards the rest.”
Are the feds still refusing to cooperate with the state in investigating a state crime? That makes pretty clear what’s going on.
In my little corner of FL yesterday there were a few hundred protesters (local paper said 500, but that seems high) at a major intersection. I’d have been there, but I hadn’t heard about it til I drove past. Across the street there were 14 counter protesters looking pathetic with their Trump flags. The county went over 60/40 for Trump.
@Modulo Myself:
The people who are claiming he was hit seem to be talking about at least these two things: The shooter’s cell phone video that some interpreted as body cam video showing the vehicle hitting him, when it was actually his left arm moving around as he drew and shot; and a more distant video taken from the right side of her vehicle, showing him moving back as her vehicle passes, after possible contact between him and her vehicle, but where his feet are never in the vehicle’s path and his upper body can be seen leaning over the front of her vehicle as he shoots through the windshield. It looks like this psychopath moved toward her to shoot as she turned away from him.
Have to agree with Dr. T that the coordinated gaslighting of the Administration is more troubling than Good’s death, and Good’s death is an abomination. Noem concocts a domestic terrorist and a snow bank, Trump concocts a “viciously run over” ICE agent clinging to life in the hospital, and the odious JD Vance scolds the country for having an ounce of sympathy for a woman “who put herself in trouble of her own making.” THERE’S VIDEO!!! If they will brazenly lie about something that happened in plain sight, they are certainly going to lie about what is happening behind the scenes. Where’s the media’s outrage? Where’s the GOP Congressional outrage?
The NYT The Daily podcast today had an interview with the MPD police chief Brian O’Hara.
Worth listening to: A Breaking Point’: The Minneapolis Police Chief on ICE
I have another question if anyone can answer it. Is there any legal liability or actions that can be taken by individuals that are the subject of the lies and propaganda? My first reaction would be to sue their asses for everything they have. But I don’t know if that is possible under our legal system.
I ask myself whether this bunch of transparent lies are something new, or is Trump simply more overt because he knows that the majority doesn’t care? There have been previous instances of plain and simple lying and spinning of the truth. Most people keep their head down unless the ruling elites really screw up. We have some stress in our country with high rates of personal debt, visible homelessness, and affordability. So far, this combination has not reached a critical level. I believe that the chronic deceptions have inured us from being shocked. We habitual visitors to this site are upset, but we are a minority. This is more of the same. I doubt that any low income person is shocked by cops killing people.
@Scott:
On the subject of legal questions, it seems inevitable that the family will file a wrongful death civil suit against the ICE perp(s). I’m assuming that such a suit would involve discovery motions that would compel the feds and agents to provide evidence to the plaintiff. What I’m wondering is if all of that has to wait until criminal investigations and court proceedings are complete, and what happens if the DOJ slow-walks the case for the next three years. Also, when the perp is found to be civilly liable, I’m thinking that he’d no longer be eligible to keep his job. It’s not justice, but it’s one way to turn some of the facts of the case into court findings. Maybe I’ll see if the legal podcasts are discussing this.
I find the government lying far more disturbing.
Individuals make mistakes, “mistakes,” bad decisions, or let the fact that they are vile, evil people show all the time. Any human organization will be corrupted by humans. Someone is going to steal from Target, someone is going to use too much force as a cop, someone is going to take advantage of access to children to do unspeakable things, etc. Given enough time and people, something bad or horrifying will happen.
An organization has to decide how to deal with that.
It’s relatively rare for an organization to look at the situation and say “good job, everybody, let’s do more of that,” issue transparent lies, defame the victim, and have the President say that the victim was very, very disrespectful and that the state actors shouldn’t have to put up with that disrespect.
We’ve passed “the Catholic Church protects pedophiles” level of evil, and have moved into a “Hypothetical Church telling its priests that they can and should be seeking out and raping children on the street” level of evil.
@Gustopher:
Ultimately, that is correct. This is a very disturbing turn (or, really, a stark deepening of existing behavior by this administration).
FWIW, In a recent substack, Heather Cox Richardson compared the phone video of this murder with that of the Ahmaud Arbery murder in Georgia some years back. her reasoning is that to white supremacist bigots, the latter , where you may recall the killers chased Arbery, looked like self defense, but to most people it would look like what it was: murder.
So the latest video looks like self defense for those in the authoritarian bubble.
The speed with which Trump, Noem and Leavitt lied suggests very strongly that they had anticipated and agreed in advance on a response for an event like this. Once the lies were told so dogmatically, the regime had no option but to double down on them no matter what evidence emerged discrediting their narrative.
@Kathy: Remember these are people who claimed that George Zimmerman and Kyle Rittenhouse, both of whom shot and killed unarmed men in circumstances where they themselves courted a fight, were only “defending themselves”. And the cop who shot and killed 12 year-old Tamir Rice for the crime of having a toy gun was entitled to do so because reasons. So they have cause to be confident they can get away with lying.