Small Local Businesses Fight Back Against the Big ICE onslaught
You may have heard that restaurants in Chicago and the Minneapolis/St. Paul area have actively refused to serve ICE agents during the ‘surges’ or whatever the hell they are that the federal government initiated in those cities to round up immigrants. Kristi Noem complained that in Chicago, ICE agents couldn’t even find places to go to the bathroom.
That seems kind of inhumane. But then the people who aren’t serving ICE believe that ICE itself is inhumane.
The local businesses who post anti-ICE signs have reason to believe that is inhumane, most certainly in Minneapolis and St. Paul. After all, an ICE agent shot an American citizen in the face. And killed her. And let her vehicle roll into a parked car and a light pole. While he walked away.
And that was just an aperitif in the menu of the ICE onslaught in Minnesota’s Twin Cities. Arresting 5 year olds. Pulling citizens from cars. Breaking down doors without warrants in the freezing cold. Tossing tear gas at an infant who almost died. Harassing ordinary people who are just walking on the street. Detaining city police officers. Committing civil rights violations. Leaving empty cars running in the middle of the road. Violating the law.
And yes, being served at a small restaurant and then arresting the people who served them.
You hear about two kinds of people in the world.
Perhaps one kind is so fearful of being fucked with that they race to find a strongman or a bully who will fuck them continuously. Choosing their alpha gives them a sense of control and predictability that shields them from the scary surprise of being fucked with by an outsider. The Devil you know. You know?
Another Kind of Person Doesn’t like to Be Fucked with by ICE or anyone else
Another kind doesn’t like to be fucked with. And no matter how big or scary the fucker is – they say – well fuck you too then. Right back. Minneapolis clearly doesn’t like to be fucked with.
Trump, Noem, and ICE probably thought they were gonna invade a city full of bully-lovers. Because they surround themselves with bully lovers. So it is natural to come to the conclusion that bully lovers predominate in the population. But they don’t. Bully lovers are just loud.
People who don’t like to be fucked with, on the other hand, often get dangerously silent before they fight back. And they have a tendency, as well, to fight back to win. They may not win. But that is the purpose of fighting back.
Bully lovers make a show of being tough. Precisely so they won’t have to be. That is the purpose of showing off. Avoiding a real fight. In the animal kingdom, we call it ‘threat display’. Puffing yourself up and hissing in the desperate hope that you’ll convince your enemy not to start a fight. Bully lovers survive in certain hierarchical systems in the animal kingdoms. Everyone kicks the ones at the bottom, but the ones at the bottom also demand that those at the top protect them from rival groups.
Minnesotans, on the other hand, resemble tigers. Tigers don’t engage in threat display. They sneak up on you and try to make a meal of you if you’re their prey. If you escape, hey you lived. If you don’t run fast enough, you’re lunch. Not a press conference or a bragging session. Just a meal.
ICE is a show. That’s its purpose. Trump loves shows. Show business.
The local businesses are trying to survive. Different thing.
If ICE wasn’t a shit show
If ICE made it easy and reasonable for them to survive without being invaded and under siege and fucked with, then the local businesses would probably not have said a word.
But that wasn’t ICE’s purpose. ICE’s purpose was to threaten people by fucking with them.
Sometimes that works. Animals and humans who perceive themselves to have relative weakness or to be under threat use threat displays precisely for the reason that often it does work. There are reports of food vendors who lose 2/3 of their staff during ICE surges because people are afraid to come to work. That could be considered a win for ICE and its threat display. Right?
On the other hand, businesses that maintain hope are losses for ICE. Right?
Chaos and uncertainty serve the purposes of ICE. Right? Depressing economic activity serves the purposes of ICE too. While respecting the rights of American citizens from Somali is a loss for ICE.
WTF? How is depressing economic activity a win for ICE and respecting the rights of citizens a loss? Isn’t ICE about enforcing customs and immigration law? Isn’t respecting the rights of citizens a win since this is all about legal citizens? Didn’t Trump run on making the economy better?
what evil does
See, one of the first and most important things evil does is try to convince everyone that all people are evil, that evil is the only thing that exists, that evil is truth, that evil is inescapable. Stephen Miller said as much when he outlined his ‘might makes right’ foreign policy beliefs. Evil rules. Breaking things makes it appear that evil is more powerful than good. Respecting rights makes it appear that there is some hope for good. Obliterating the idea that anyone is good is crucial to evil’s survival. Hence the lies from Kristi Noem about Renee Good.
Evil is the survival strategy of the powerless. It is necessary for evil to convince good that capitulation is necessary. It’s necessary because evil is willing to do things that good is not willing to do.
And that, oddly enough, is why restaurants who won’t serve ICE agents know that they are, in their own small ways, striking a blow for good. Because it shows that not everyone is evil. Not everyone cowers or compromises themselves. That not everyone is powerless. That there are tigers in the eternal war that good must always fight. Even when good gets tired and very fed up.
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