They Sleep Just Fine
"The Iran war is part of God’s plan and President Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.'" -combat unit commander to non-com officers
It's a rhetorical question that you hear shouted by protesters aimed at ICE agents and other immigration enforcement goons: "How do you sleep at night?" A few "Aren't you ashamed?"s are thrown in for good measure, maybe the clincher, "What if that was your mother? or the equivalent.
These questions are bandied about during progressives' political conversations. "How DO they sleep at night??"
Fine.
I assure you, they sleep just fine. Like fat babies being laid down into thick blankets after their fill of warm mother's milk, they sleep just fine.
Violent confrontation IS their mother's milk. (And btw, you don't want to meet Mama ICE, either. She is certainly no prize.)
So stop it. It jus' don't work. It's like trying to change that guy/gal you dated in college... the one that was rude and inconsiderate to you at every turn, just like s/he had been with dozens before that you knew about. You were gonna be the one to turn him around, teach him some manners, be there for him, and maybe play little guilt games if he didn't shape up. How'd that work out for you? Let's hope your answer to that isn't, "I made a mistake and married the bastard." More probably, your answer is something like, "I wised up, cut him loose, and only a couple weeks ago ran into him. At a protest. He was wearing a helmet and a kevlar vest. Sure he had a mask, but I would know that asshole anywhere."
ICE is actually actively recruiting ICEholes. They're looking for guys (and gals, but not really) just like your old friend. The ones without much of a conscience, and with very little meaning in their life other than dominating the weak. Former military and current or former law enforcement officers are prioritized. A grossly understaffed federal prison system is also being targeted for recruiting, as well as local law enforcement agencies and state prisons. With generous salaries, $50,000 signing bonuses, federal benefits, and some fun hardware and gunware to play with, what's a lowly guard on Cell Block C to do?
The chance to tear-ass around a big, unfamiliar city at breakneck speeds to kick a few doors in, brandish a service weapon, maybe smack a few heads, all with (implied) complete immunity? Often staying in nice hotels and dining out in decent restaurants unavailable back home – on a government expense account? Where does the line form? Joining the gang, making new pals, taking down tamale vendors, legal children of immigrants, and house framers <checks notes> er, domestic terrorists? What's the downside for a veteran who has a hard time transitioning out into the 'real' world? How about a lowly cop in Palookaville, USA, who can't seem to get a promotion, or who gets moved around from location to location due to discipline problems that never make it into a personnel file? (You know, the ones that end up beating a suspect or two for busted taillights.)
And then there's the obvious: the disaffected high school grad in the proverbial parent's basement... playing video games, pumping iron, and themselves. The ones joining internet chat groups and forging an identity with any number of white nationalist groups. Never been laid. Hotbeds of rage and resentment, adherents to their MAGA president's message that immigrants are not just a problem but a threat. In fact, recruitment ads target the MAGA base.
"...the web browsers and social media feeds of anyone near, for example, military bases, particular sporting events or gun and trade shows can be pinpointed and served recruitment ads... ICE is also looking to "flood the market" with social media ads and use influencers on sites like Rumble, a video sharing popular with those on the political right."
Is calling it white nationalism simply more liberal hyperbole? Well, DHS recently used a Neo-Nazi anthem in a social media recruitment post right after Renee Good was shot and killed in Minneapolis during an "enforcement operation." Posts and Posters are filled with Neo-Nazi themes and white national pride.
To be clear, there are women ICE agents, and Hispanic and black. Just as those cohorts voted for Trump, they are in the ranks. Ain't that a shame?
What DID happen to shame and guilt?
As with the social institutions that doled out heavy doses of S&G, modern society (especially American society) has rejected their value in keeping some kind of social cohesion. There's not much of a church left to lay a guilt trip on you anymore. Schools and universities are afraid to veer into any kind of 'moral education' for fear of offending students and their religious upbringing (that they never received.) Most significantly, liberal parenting trends long ago decided that shaming a child damaged their self-esteem.
Trying to be objective here: there were micro reasons for this macro shift. Pastors, priests, choir masters, nuns, and religious leaders of all stripes were found, in shocking numbers, to be guilty of child abuse, sexual abuse, infidelity, and all manner of hypocrisy regarding how they approached their moral teachings. (The revelation of how many preachers were closeted gays, all the while damning such LGBT 'lifestyles' to hell, pretty much crushed religion's appeal for younger Americans.) The same happened with scouting organizations, which taught civics and personal responsibility - leaders were caught preying on kids, and like faith leaders, covered it up. Schools, both private and public, knew better than to wade into 'moral' teaching. Various 'honor codes' and trust between students, teachers, and administrators waned. Universities became paranoid about riling up donors by getting caught up in culture wars, and parents blamed teachers and institutions for kids' bad grades, misbehavior, or discipline issues.
On the plus side, disaffected, shiftless, underemployed young white virgin males who don't feel much shame or guilt make great ICE agents!
We have become a self-centered, ego-driven society. David Brooks, the recently retired opinion writer for the NY Times, was at one time, considered their flagship "conservative" writer. Why? Because for a time, he bought into the Republican brand of "family values," the importance of faith, the value of institution building, and all the things that Trump has finished off with a flamethrower. He continues to write about personal and community moral frameworks.
From a piece he wrote in the Atlantic titled How America Got Mean:
The most important story about why Americans have become sad and alienated and rude, I believe, is also the simplest: We inhabit a society in which people are no longer trained in how to treat others with kindness and consideration. Our society has become one in which people feel licensed to give their selfishness free rein...In a healthy society, a web of institutions—families, schools, religious groups, community organizations, and workplaces—helps form people into kind and responsible citizens, the sort of people who show up for one another. We live in a society that’s terrible at moral formation.
Moral formation, as I will use that stuffy-sounding term here, comprises three things. First, helping people learn to restrain their selfishness. How do we keep our evolutionarily conferred egotism under control? Second, teaching basic social and ethical skills. How do you welcome a neighbor into your community? How do you disagree with someone constructively? And third, helping people find a purpose in life. Morally formative institutions hold up a set of ideals. They provide practical pathways toward a meaningful existence: Here’s how you can dedicate your life to serving the poor, or protecting the nation, or loving your neighbor.
As moral formation has broken down, 'service to others' has become 'all-in service to ourselves.' Our primal, biological instincts come roaring to the front – drives that are aimed at survival and reproduction, including fear, aggression, sexual desire, and tribalism. Hollywood shovels out more and more violent movies. Video games have become more violent as well, and are available at an earlier and earlier age. Social media is a universe of rage and physical violence. Extreme porn is available to anyone with access to the innerwebs.
In politics, campaign posters feature guns as much as they feature candidates. And candidates continually rage-bait their constituents. Senator John Cornyn for one, engaged in a tight primary runoff, has said that "Sharia Law is the antithesis of the rights, beliefs, and values that make Texas and America great, and we must root out and eradicate this existential threat to our way of life." (Tell us, John. Is the Sharia in the room with us now?)
So, lock and load, MAGA. Or join the Noem Army and really kick some immigrant butt. Or whatever is "threatening" you.
The whole find-some-yokels, don't train them, give them some power over others, and set them loose has already been tried. I mean, beyond every authoritarian regime since time immemorial. Remember the famous Stanford Prison Experiment?
It was a controversial 1971 psychology study at Stanford that examined how ordinary people conform to roles of power and submission. Twenty-four male college students were randomly assigned to act as “guards” or “prisoners” in a mock prison set up in a university basement. The guards were told to keep the prisoners in the prison. Simple enough. It was planned to last two weeks, but was halted after just six days because guards began exhibiting abusive, authoritarian behavior while prisoners showed signs of emotional distress, anxiety, and helplessness. Sound familiar?
It's easy to make goons. You can create one, sometimes even override their individual personalities. Those Stanford students didn't even have to dress up...a couple "guards" wore sunglasses. Within hours, they were treating their fellow student "prisoners" like they were in Abu Ghraib. Now imagine giving them actual tear gas, guns, masks, and protective military-style gear like helmets and bulletproof vests.
Tah-dah! You get ICE! No Stanford degree required.
Most importantly, imagine that the president of the United States is the one to egg them on. Celebrate their violence. Revel in the worst traits of hyper masculinity. He's excited by the fight, and instinctively labels his political enemies - which means anyone who disagrees with him - as terrorists, enemies of the country, and traitors. "Get him the hell out of here... maybe he should have been roughed up." "If you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore."
Last Sunday night, 60 Minutes aired an interview with a federal judge who outlined the number and severity of death threats made against judges for rulings against the president.
CBS News
Trump's Sec. of Defense, Pete Hegeseth, declares now that he is the Sec. of War and he's got... thoughts. Warrior thoughts. “We... don’t fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt, and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement.”
Lately, it's hard to tell if those 'enemies of our country' are external or internal.
On CBS Sunday Morning, UFC CEO Dana White outlined the plans to hold a fight card on the South Lawn this June, for Trump's 80th birthday and for <checks notes> something about America's 250th anniversary. As our Founding Fathers could only have dreamt about.
He loves a fight, but in a Christian, Nobel Peace Prize-winning way.
I hear a rumor that, in addition to ICE continuing mass arrests, there is now a rumor, just a rumor, mind you, that Trump, the peacemaker, has attacked Iran with a massive bombing campaign. Rumors suggest that American service personnel have been killed and wounded, as well as Iranian civilians, including over 60 school children. Iran is lashing out at neighboring countries. The Middle East is afire, once again.
And yet, have no doubt, that they'll sleep just fine.
I, however, can't seem to close my eyes.
(I would dream of seeing the complete, unredacted Epstein files.)