Eye of the Beholder

Our political differences exist at a level beneath perception, determining what we do and don't see

N.B. I wrote this essay today, before the bodycam footage from the officer who shot Renee Good was released. You can see it here.

One of the great lessons of twentieth-century philosophy is that meaning structures perception. What that means, in basic terms, is that the way we see, interact with and ultimately think about the world depends, at a prior level, on what is meaningful to us. This is one of the reasons why, despite all the breathless predictions of scientists and futurists, computers have failed to do some of the most fundamental things our brains do with ease. Computers don’t have bodies, and that means they can’t get a handle on the world—can’t engage with it meaningfully—as humans do. Which isn’t to say computers can’t do plenty of useful things very well, in many cases better than us. They can. It just means humans aren’t computers, and computers aren’t humans.

This crucial insight leads in worrying directions. One is that our deepest, most firmly held beliefs—our political convictions, for example—could radically change the way we perceive the world. In a very real sense, whether we’re left or right or somewhere in between might make us see or not see certain things, because they are or aren’t meaningful. This would happen subconsciously, before we’re even aware of it.

In such a situation, the notion of objectivity, and of evidence and reason guiding interpretation and conclusion, would become far harder to defend. At the very least, dialogue between individuals and groups who hold radically opposing views would be made much more difficult, if not impossible.

If you’ve been watching events surrounding the death of Renee Good in Minneapolis, you could be forgiven for reaching these conclusions without the help of my little philosophy lesson.

Was it murder or self-defence?

We’re all looking at the same evidence—a number of videos of the incident posted to social media—and yet Trump supporters are saying one thing, and their opponents are saying the complete opposite.

Is there no common ground?

Here’s what I saw. Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent she was trying to run over in an SUV. She’d been following a group of agents for some time, doing her best to frustrate their lawful efforts to round up illegal aliens. With her vehicle blocking the road, an agent approached from the side and attempted to open the door. Instead of complying, Good slammed on the gas, and headed straight at an agent in front of her. He pulled his pistol and fired, shooting her in the head. She hits the agent, before crashing into another car.

Good was pronounced dead in hospital. The agent was also treated, then discharged.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has now revealed that the agent who shot Renee Good was run over and hospitalized in similar circumstances, just six months ago.

According to The New York Post, “The attack on the officer… happened June 17 in Bloomington, Minnesota, exactly a month after embattled Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz labeled ICE agents ‘modern-day Gestapo’ while speaking at a University of Minnesota Law School graduation in May.

“ICE agents conducted a traffic stop on Roberto Carlos Munoz, a serial illegal immigrant from Guatemala with a lengthy rap sheet with charges including domestic assault and sex crimes against an underage teenager, according to records.

“Munoz refused to exit his vehicle when officers approached his car, and the officer broke the back window in order to open the vehicle from the inside.”

The illegal sped away, catching the officer’s arm and dragging him for 100 yards. The officer sustained serious injuries to his arm and head, and required 33 stitches.

A photograph of the man, laid up in a hospital bed, his right arm covered in blood and deep gashes, was released by CBS Minnesota.

Compare this to the case of Baltimore police officer Amy Caprio, who wasn’t so lucky. Caprio was run over and murdered when she confronted a black teenager who’d stolen a jeep. She draws her gun, doesn’t fire—and dies.

I posted a video of that incident on Twitter, taken from her bodycam. The video cuts off as she’s hit by the vehicle. In the full footage, you can hear her bones being crushed.

A car, let alone an SUV, is a lethal weapon, even at close range and even at low speeds.

And yet none of this matters. None of this is evidence that can be used to convince Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, the hundreds of protesters still on the streets in that city, or the thousands of outraged libtards and Antifa members screaming about “Nazis” and “fascism” on Twitter and Reddit.

Walz has said his state is at war with the federal government, and he’s mobilizing the National Guard. Frey, speaking English instead of Somali for once, told ICE to “get the fuck out” of Minneapolis.

As far as the left are concerned, when a federal immigration agent kills a leftist, it’s murder. That’s it. The circumstances don’t matter. Nothing could justify it.

So far, the Trump administration has done very well refusing to back down or give an inch. The President and Vice President have both said that while Good’s death is a tragedy, it was her fault. She tried to harm a federal agent with a deadly weapon, and federal agents have the right to respond with force to threats to their safety. If you don’t want to be shot like Renee Good, don’t drive at an officer and try to run them over. It’s that simple.

The left won’t back down either. They’ll continue to push. They welcome violence, because it gives them what they want, whether that’s the death of an important right-wing leader like Charlie Kirk or the creation of a “martyr” they can rally round and use to shape and control the political narrative.

The left has been looking for a new George Floyd. Since Renee Good was white—since she’s “privileged” and a beneficiary of the “oppressive system” the left are trying to dismantle—it’s unlikely to be her. Leftists on the ground in Minnesota are actually saying this. But that won’t stop them.

The left have already decided Trump’s Hitler and ICE are his Gestapo, and that they’re murdering innocent Americans like Hitler’s opponents in the 1930s. There’s nothing you could show them to make them doubt the evidence of their own eyes.