A video leaked this week of Greg Bovino, the former Minneapolis ICE honcho, that did the media rounds in the last 24 hours. He’s giving directions to his troops when he was in Los Angeles. It contained what you might expect:
This is our fucking city! ... Arrest as many people who touch you as you want. Those are the general orders, all the way to the very top! It’s all about us now. It ain’t about them.
Then this:
“Professional, legal, ethical, moral.” We’re on camera. But other than that, it’s what we do.
What checks might there be on an ICE empowered “from the very top.” Bovino tells us: “You’re on camera. But other than that…” My italics.
The iPhone seems to be the only serious threat to ICE’s violence. We know they feel emboldened to do virtually anything to anybody and have been granted a rhetorical “absolute immunity.” We also know that the federal government will tell big, beautiful, massive lies to justify any and all ICE abuses — before any investigations.
So Renee Good was a “deranged lunatic,” Karoline Leavitt declared. Good didn’t just try to run over an ICE officer; she did run him over, and it was unclear if he would survive his injuries, said the president. She was engaged in “domestic terrorism,” according to Stephen Miller. Equally, Alex Pretti was another “would-be assassin” who walked up to ICE officers “brandishing” a gun, trying “to murder federal agents” who, fearing a “massacre,” fired solely in self-defense. He was an “insurrectionist” rightly “put down,” in the words of one MAGA congressman. Last night, Trump repeated his description of Pretti as an “insurrectionist” and “agitator.”
But we’re left with a small but real reassurance: the propagandists don’t get away with it. And the only reason — I repeat — the only reason is because citizens’ iPhones recorded the split-second incidents, with footage before and after the killings, and everyone on earth could watch them. In both the Good and the Pretti cases, the iPhone footage simply, methodically refuted the Big Lies.
In the Good case, camera angles allowed us to see the agent who killed her was not realistically in fear of his life, and shot her as she was obviously trying to leave the scene. In the Pretti case, you see that ICE instigated the conflict as he tried to protect someone from pepper spray, and that his gun had been removed before he was killed — with many bullets in his back.
But the vids also exposed the confusion in the Pretti melée, a cry of “he’s got a gun!,” and an agent clapping as he celebrated a kill, suggesting the officers were as confused as they were gun-happy. The iPhone also captured Good’s last words: “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.” That obviously doesn’t match Miller’s description of her as a would-be killer. But it was also tinged with self-righteous condescension.
Videos told us more about Pretti too, as Trump just picked up on. In a previous incident not long before his death, Pretti badly lost his cool, spat at officers, and kicked and broke their car’s tail-light. None of that changes the injustice of their deaths, of course, but Good was irritatingly smug and Pretti had obviously been seriously radicalized. That context adds to our broader understanding. Without the iPhone, we wouldn’t have that either.
The quality of the videos have also been vital. A blurry photo of a melee, in particular, can be interpreted a million ways; but a high-resolution video — from more than one angle — can break it down, show us second by second what’s going on. Very complex human interaction can be decoded frame by frame.
We’ve become worried — with very good reason — about the damage phones have done to our brains, our attention span, and our democracy. But without them, the Trump lies about Minneapolis might well have prevailed. Yes, the phone brings illiteracy, antisemitism, white supremacism, and woke moral panics. Without the iPhone, after all, we would not have had the summer of Floyd. But it also provides a dose of granular visual reality that can be hard to wish or propagandize away, as the Floyd video did.
When the mullahs in Iran launched their murderous campaign against dissent these past two months, the first thing they did was take down the Internet. They remember 2009 and how Twitter was integral to the resistance. They crippled global Internet a long time ago, but this time took down domestic service. Only Starlink was an option, if a risky one, but the regime soon ended that as well. The Israelis did a similar blackout in Gaza. If you are going to do indefensible things, you first shut down the web.
In a country with a fascistic government that disseminates massive lies — ours — iPhone videos become essential to keep democracy and objective truth on life support. There are dangers, of course. Lack of context can deceive; AI has made every video’s authenticity suspect; people can subjectively interpret things any way they want. But what happened this past week in America was that, even with all those caveats, a big majority of sane Americans emerged out of the woodwork, looked at the videos, rejected tribalism, and said: Nah, ICE is lying. And ICE had to retreat.
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command,” is how Orwell describes the ultimate totalitarian triumph. Well, this past week, the Party failed. And reality won. More to the point, deeply divided Americans, thanks to the iPhone, can still see it. Which is, to be honest, something of a relief.
(Note to readers: This is an excerpt of The Weekly Dish. If you’re already a paid subscriber, click here to read the full version. This week’s issue also includes: the latest signs of Dem cluelessness in the gender wars; a discussion of Trump and fascism with Jon Rauch; many reader dissents on a variety of topics; 14 notable quotes from the week in news, including five Yglesias Awards over ICE; 13 pieces on Substack we recommend on a range of issues; a hand-sketched music video for a Mental Health Break; a window of deep snow from Pennsylvania; and, of course, the results of the View From Your Window contest — with a new challenge. Subscribe for the full Dish experience!)
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Just resubscribed because I feel like I’m scrambling to find out what’s going on in the world. And I wanted to thank you for being a sane voice as always, someone who does the work to find out what’s going on and tells it like it is. I’m more aware of the real courage this takes in this moment. Thanks.
Another returning Dishhead:
I’ve subscribed off and on over the years, and I’ve been a supporter of yours going all the way back to the Dish blog years. I am subscribing now again to help ensure that you can continue to share your unique perspective.
Back On The Dishcast: Jonathan Rauch
Jon and I go way back to the early days of the marriage movement and before. He’s currently a senior fellow at Brookings and a contributor editor at The Atlantic. He’s written many landmark books, including Kindly Inquisitors, The Constitution of Knowledge (which we discussed on the pod in 2021), and Cross Purposes (which we covered last year). His new essay in The Atlantic, “Yes, It’s Fascism,” is a must-read.
And this episode is, if you don’t mind me saying so, a must-listen. One of the best conversations I’ve yet had on the Dishcast. Jon is always lucid and fair and thereby chilling.
Listen to the episode here. There you can find two clips of our convo — on the glorification of violence by Trump and his officials, and the cowardice of mainstream conservatives. That link also takes you to commentary on last week’s pod with Kevin Williamson, along with many reader dissents — over my latest column on Trump, Israel, and Bari Weiss. Plus, a very moving email from a religious reader.
Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. Coming up: Jason Willick on trade and conservatism, Zaid Jilani on the Dems, Derek Thompson on abundance, Tiffany Jenkins on privacy, and Michael Pollan on consciousness. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.
The Left’s Blindspot On Science
This edition of the Brian Lehrer show on NYC public radio is fascinating. Start listening around the 15-minute mark. The guest is Michael Shermer, who is there to talk about reason and the importance of skepticism and empirical reality. Lehrer is purring at the theme. Enlightened science debunking nonsense is very on brand.
But then Shermer uses an example of scientific reality under assault — that the human species has a sex binary — and Lehrer gasps.
(Read the rest of that 800-word piece here, for paid subscribers)
Dissents Of The Week
A reader responds to last week’s column on the Trump abyss:
I’ve been a reader and an admirer for a very long time. But I must say, it is difficult to read your assessment of our current predicament given how much you’ve focused on “campus wokeness,” Biden, etc. over the past few years while the right-wing authoritarianism takes away our rights, rule of law, democracy, etc. It is disappointing to see such smart people fiddle away about language used by 18 year olds on college campuses, feeding into the right-wing messaging machine, while the ship goes under.
Jesus. The old canard that junking liberalism is just about “language used by 18 year olds on college campuses.”
Read my much longer response to a similar dissent here, for paid subscribers. More dissents, on a variety of topics, are behind the paywall on the pod page. As always, please keep the criticism coming: dish@andrewsullivan.com.
A dissenter follows up:
Thanks for publishing my dissent last week about Netanyahu, Putin, and Xi. You mentioned you’ve had many Dish cancelations over your critiques of Israel, but I’m writing to say I will not cancel, and won’t ever cancel, because of a disagreement over Israel or any issue. The point of what you’ve built here is to disagree but keep talking anyway. I look forward to the column every week, so criticize Israel as much as you want. I’ll read every word and be happy I paid for it.
In The ‘Stacks
This is a feature in the paid version of the Dish spotlighting about 20 of our favorite pieces from other Substackers every week. This week’s selection covers subjects such as the ICE emergency, Bonfire of the Murdochs, and steep electric bills. Examples:
Baloxavir is a better flu treatment than Tamiflu, so why isn’t it widely used?
Why have peanut allergies surged?
Here’s a list of the substacks we recommend in general — call it a blogroll. If you have any suggestions for “In the ‘Stacks,” especially ones from emerging writers, please let us know: dish@andrewsullivan.com.
The View From Your Window Contest
Where do you think it’s located? Email your guess to contest@andrewsullivan.com. Please put the location — city and/or state first, then country — in the subject line. Proximity counts if no one gets the exact spot. Bonus points for fun facts and stories. The deadline for entries is Wednesday at 11.59 pm (PST). The winner gets the choice of a VFYW book or two annual Dish subscriptions. If you are not a subscriber, please indicate that status in your entry and we will give you a free month sub if we select your entry for the contest results (example here if you’re new to the VFYW). Contest archive is here. Happy sleuthing!
The results for this week’s window are coming in a separate email to paid subscribers later today. Here’s an entry from last week’s write-up:
In internet lore for the very online, Malaysia boasts about Nigel Ng — a talented and sometimes controversial comedian who has a character named “Uncle Roger” who critiques Westerners’ attempts at Asian cooking. Of all the Westerners he’s has had beef with, no other rises to the top quite like British chef Jamie Oliver and his chili jam:
Now, I have long considered myself a connoisseur of Egg Fried Rice, but watching Uncle Roger, I now know I have been doing it wrong all along. One of the tricks for American kitchens is that few if any have an indoor stove that can heat a wok hot enough to a) stir-fry everything at once, and b) get sufficient Wok Hei (the breath of the wok), giving fried rice that distinctive, slightly smokey flavor.
So the key is to cook in batches and have ALL of your ingredients cut and portioned beside you. Very important: do not turn your burner off high. Run your exhaust fan. And if your significant other or pet is concerned about smoke detectors going off ... wave a shiny object at them or something. Your subterfuge will be rewarded.
The perfect egg fried rice:
day-old leftover rice
2 eggs, beaten
neutral oil (avocado oil works great, or rice bran oil if you want to be fancy)
green onions, with whites and tops separated, finely sliced
soy sauce (eyeball to taste)
white pepper
MSG
1-2 clovers garlic, crushed
the cheapest, flat-bottomed, carbon steel wok you can find
To cook, make sure that your wok is on your largest burner and heated until you see wisps of smoke coming off of it when putting oil in. Add a tablespoon or two of rice bran oil, swirl, and discard the oil. Add fresh rice bran oil to the wok. Put in your beaten eggs and allow to set (15-24 seconds) prior to moving. Flip the eggs (do your best, no one is watching; it isn’t like eggs cost exorbitant amounts of money). Let cook and set, no more than 10 seconds, and remove to a side plate.
After that, a touch more oil, then add your green onion whites, your crushed garlic, your white pepper, and your MSG. How much MSG? Eh. Half a teaspoon? You are writing your own story. Go nuts. Stir fry for 10 seconds and then add your rice.
Your egg goes back in, and you will begin the process of breaking up all the sharp-as-daggers rice bits into their individual grains so that they can begin to meld with the rest of your aromatics. Once everything is nicely coated and warmed through, you want to add your soy sauce. Now, I have done this wrong most of my life. You want to run your soy sauce on the edge of the wok above where the rice is. You actually want it to sizzle and steam for a moment before stirring and incorporating it in. How much soy sauce? Enough to go around the top 180 degrees of the wok. Or more. You are the champion here.
Taste, adjust seasoning, and plate, garnishing with those green onion tops. It took you more time to cut your food than it did to cook your food, and you have now an amazing meal. Fuiyoh!
Additional accoutrement could be spam, pork, Chinese sausage, or just more egg and rice.
No chili jam.
See you next Friday.