After Ferguson, the nationwide George Floyd protests, and now the invasion of LA, I've basically come to the conclusion that it is structurally impossible for corporate US media to properly describe and analyze any sufficiently disruptive protest movement, particularly if that movement centers the rights of nonwhite people in any meaningful way. Obviously the narratives that LA protests are a foreign "invasion," an "insurrection," or a threat to the government of the United States find their origins in fascist propagandists on the American right, but these narratives are then buttressed by a "centrist" media, particularly on television, desperate to sell the drama of an equivalent two-sided conflict between angry brown people and armored police state thugs of various kinds; even as that "centrist" media decries the fascist conspiracy theories their focus on transmitting a "both-sides" narrative works to enforce. You cannot thread the needle in a struggle between an ethnonationalist police state engaging in open fascist repression, and the response of labor class Angelinos to that fascist repression; even trying to do so does nothing but serve white supremacy and the violent security forces that brutally maintain it in America.

I say all this because as our public discourse is purposely shifted towards a conversation about whether or not the Trump regime was justified in activating the army to suppress protests in LA, with most people who aren't literal fucking nazis agreeing that he was not, we've lost track of the conversation about whether or not the LA protests were themselves justified in the first place. Spoiler, they were. But by starting the conversation with Trump's fascist mobilization of military forces, a subtext that the LA protests themselves were the problem emerges, even if that is not actually the intention of the media organizations presenting that narrative. The reality that the invasion of LA started with fascist ICE workplace raids on Friday, and the feds absolutely deployed flashbangs and fired "nonlethal" ammo at the nonviolent (but not peaceful; why would they be peaceful?) protestors first, fades into the background of a debate about separation of powers and executive branch rights, when it is far and away the most important part of the story of the Trumpenreich invasion of LA.

Well, whatever the opinion makers and narrative writers want to do with the story of the invasion of LA is beyond my power to control, but I'm not just rolling over for this bullshit. I stayed up way too late last night cleaning up two stories about what I think are the outrageously fascist activities of the Gestapo in LA on Friday, that rightfully pissed Angelinos off enough to take to the streets and vigorously, but nonviolently protest; specifically the militarized nazi workplace raids on Friday, and the assault, arrest, and smearing of SEIU president David Huerta. I believe that once you understand why Angelinos were protesting in the first place, everything that happened afterwards, including the ongoing military occupation of an extremely small part of downtown LA, cannot be blamed on the protestors; the fault clearly lies with a fascist Trump regime who planned this exact scenario out in advance, and local California officials who not only did nothing to protect their citizens from militarized Gestapo mass kidnappings in broad daylight, but now seem determined to prove their own security forces can violate the rights of Angelinos just as well as US soldiers can, so Trump's assistance is not needed.

I don't have the time, energy, or platform to shout down a craven, or complicit (depends on the target audience) corporate media complex, but I'll be damned if I'm going to pretend Angelinos opposing fascism are responsible for whatever violence you're seeing on your TV screen. Consider this my very small contribution to the cause of resisting the manufacture of consent for fascist, often racialized, state repression.

https://www.ninaillingworth.com/2025/06/12/recommended-reading-origin-stories/

Recommended Reading: Origin Stories

"Ask yourself how you would feel and how you would respond, if this was happening in your community. Do you think you might protest? Spray a little graffiti? Might you even consider throwing an egg at the Gestapo? Folks every narrative being pushed by fascist propagandists and cop-loving centrists about the entire invasion of LA story hinges on the idea that the greater crime here is obstructing fascist mass deportations, and not the mass deportations themselves. Don’t let a cop-hugging white supremacist establishment convince you to take your eye off the ball because of some grafitti and some burning robo-taxis. "