We All Thought It Was Going to Destroy Any Shared Reality. The Minneapolis ICE Killing Proves We Didn’t Need It. |
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A decade ago, when we imagined the horrors of living in a world fractured into different realities, we pictured something technologically dystopian. Experts warned that the time would come when we, as a public, would no longer be able to tell what’s real and what’s not. We would be fed snippets meant to inflame our anger and disgust. There would be candidate sex tapes and footage of crimes committed by racial minorities and leaked audio files with politicians saying horrible things—all fabrications. We would live in a swirl of anguished mass confusion.
But now that that technology is here, it’s finally time to admit it wasn’t ever necessary. At least not to destroy our own shared reality. For that, we just need partisan loyalties.
On Wednesday, when an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed a woman in her car in Minneapolis, the casual and disproportionate violence seemed indisputable: no angle showed Renee Good, the driver, gunning for the ICE agent. The most charitable defense of the agent was that he was jumpy and reacted out of fear when the car started moving near his foot; it was harder to defend him shooting at the window after Good had already cleared him. But immediately, people with partisan and commercial interests in defending ICE declared that the video showed Good was trying to kill the ICE agent. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called it “domestic terrorism.” Official government statements cited a “ramming” event.........