Do You Want to Win???
Do You Want to Win???
Trump’s message is that the United States is being invaded by illegal immigrants who are part of a plan to replace white Americans with brown people. Consistent with this idea is his ordering ICE to jump out of vans while wearing masks and taking people into ICE custody without legally-required warrants. It’s an invasion, he tells us. These tactics are necessary.
There is considerable public resistance to ICE tactics, but the yelling and pushing cars and smashing windows just hasn’t stopped it. Regardless, resistance influencers try to coattail these emotions on their platforms to profit off of the illusions of power the video snippets provide. But every “WATCH PEOPLE CHASE AWAY ICE!!!” video I have seen shows a successful abduction.
Now Trump has sent the National Guard and Marines into Los Angeles to combat public resistance to policies flowing from his “white replacement theory.” This action has brought condemnation from the Mayor of Los Angeles and the Governor of California.
Let’s examine the messaging war:
Trump
We are being invaded by brown immigrants, and other ones too, but mostly brown ones
This is a war
Those protesters hate America and want to hurt your country
The protesters want to replace you with brown immigrants and are violent
The Governor of California should be arrested for not supporting the ICE raids.
Resistance Protesters
Let’s waive the Mexican flag!
We hate the Governor of California who is supporting us! The Mayor of LA, too!
Let’s throw things at the police
Let’s set cars on fire
The anti-ICE protesters are not creating imagery that counteracts Trump’s message. They are doing the opposite.
Pictures talk.
And whatever you are thinking, photos of anti-ICE demonstrators waiving the Mexican flag won’t win you any converts. It will lose you the battle for the middle. If you have to take time to explain what you mean by that flag, you have already lost.
Yes, Gavin Newsome sucks, for more reasons than I have time to list here. But he is on your side on this one, so maybe don’t attack him during your protest or you are working against yourself.
During the Black Lives Matter protests the messaging evolved into “Defund the Police.” That’s a stupid message. No one agrees with it. It hurt the support for the movement and impeded moves for progress.
We are in danger again of creating pictures that counteract our goals.
Idea
Every protester wears an American flag. We are Americans. Let’s take back the symbolism of our flag from anti-democracy forces and put it back where it belongs.
I get the impression that, those who support & enable the protests, whoever they are, have willfully turned their backs on the realities of the issues and put forth a rational rooted in a fantasy the reinforces their lack of integrity. Violence, bought and paid for.
Your comments remind me of a discussion that I had with a long-time animal rights activist many decades ago. She talked about how she told Alex Pacheco that he needed to show up to demonstrations in a suit and not in ripped jeans. Appearance does matter. How much is the question. We are still in the early days of this movement, and I think that the atrocities committed by Trump have more of an effect on the middle-of-the-roaders (if there truly are any of those left) than a Mexican flag or destruction committed by a very, very few people. I think the destruction that Trump and his little buddies are allowing to be committed is more of an influencer. Hard to tell. What I do know is that I won't give up my Palestinian flag or my kafiyah.
The craziness of the violence being aimed at Newsom is going to influence more people, I think. And he is calling for open resistance. He is positioned to be the leader of this movement. I hope that the anti-ICE, anti-Trump, and the anti-Zionist movements can find common ground against the craziness that is running this country. Ultimately, violence against humans will matter more than violence against cars, and fear that another Kent State is in the making. Police, at least the ones not trained in Israel, are taught to deescalate these sorts of situations. Marines are trained to kill.