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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   31695 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 7, 2025

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10+ arrested after a rifle ambush of security at Prairieland Detention Center near Alvarado, TX on 4th july.

Shortly before 2300, some of the arrested fired fireworks at center to draw out a response, when it arrived at least two of them started shooting at the responding officers from a distance of 100-150m. Soon after, a driver (trans, seems the only one) with a van that had 2 ARs was stopped by a responding cop (map & times)

The shooters fired about 30 shots at responding cops, hitting one in the neck, suffered a jam, probably faced return fire and then started running. Shortly after cops arrested 9 of them in a field 300 m away, armed and in body armor in addition the driver in the van. At least one got away. $25k reward.

Total equipment recovered so far on the spot: 4 AR rifles, pistols, 12 sets of body armor and several helmets.

NYT article: https://archive.is/CBvms Unusually big ambush, usually it's just one guy.

Here's a twitter thread with more details. Can't vouch for the veracity of it. It seems logical - we've been hearing for years how antifa can organise and has people. These people look too clean though, antifa protesters usually look much scruffier.

This looks very.. amateurish. Sure there was a plan but it seems they underestimated the difficulty of hitting anything at night. Or just chickened out.

Andy Ngo has some good long form coverage of the suspects. Actually he's got a few good articles on his substack about this and other culture war adjacent incidents. Some of the shooters were trans which is an interesting datapoint.

I don't know what these clowns were thinking. How did they expect this to end? They're lucky the majority of them are still alive.

Are people really in such a mental state that they think an assault on trying to murder federal agents over deportations is an appropriate course of action?

The insane thing is that they imagined that cop killing would be a step towards defeating ICE. That firmly places them in the bottom political intelligence percentile of the broader SJ movement.

It should obvious to anyone that the US in 2025 is not China ca. 1930. It is very much not like there are millions of wokes just waiting for a signal to put down their pumpkin spice lattes and pick up their assault weapons and wage a civil war against the USG. They don't have the guns, they don't have the training, they don't have the stomach and I would argue that most of them do not have the ideological radicalism which enabled Mao's troops to win through atrocities. Sure, they might cheer on Hamas, but they would likely shy away from Hamas-level violence in the US. The slogan of the BLM riots was "defund the police", which misguided as it is, is notably different from "shoot the pigs".

It is obvious that the less violent resistance to ICE seen in California is a much less suicidal way to express their dissatisfaction with Trump's policies. If this is successful in affecting policy remains to be seen, the way I see it, Trump can use the publicity to highlight how he keeps his campaign promises, and he does not really care how much it will cost to continue the deportations despite widespread disruptions, it is not like he is fiscally responsible or anything.

But escalating to a firefight with the feds is terminally stupid.

Also, the group managed to have an excellent gender balance for a terrorist cell (four cis-women, two trans-women, four men, presumably cis), but their racial composition is Problematic. One of the women might be Asian, but all the rest is White. Let us hope that they were not shooting Black cops from their position of privilege.

Also, why post a picture of one of the guy's Mexican wife? That guy just tried to murder cops, he could be in a polycule with bearded North Koreans and it would not be relevant. Put the picture of his wife in once she is wanted or charged with anything.

It should obvious to anyone that the US in 2025 is not China ca. 1930.

China circa 1946, more like. The Nanjing decade was relatively stable for most Chinese people; the KMT lost an enormous amount of credibility from the general population during WW2. Mao has explicitly referenced this when speaking to Japanese officials.

Lots and lots of people believe their ideas are common and the normie sheeple are just waiting for a spark to fly.

I'm reminded of Day of the Jackal; the OAS fanatics thoroughly convinced that once DeGaulle was assassinated, the populace would "rise up and sweep away the treasonous rabble" and allow the OAS to take over France.

ICE agents are very disproportionately Hispanic. This was probably a whites on Hispanic and non-Hispanic whites ambush.

they imagined that cop killing would be a step towards defeating ICE

This isn't that uncommon a delusion. Remember that McVeigh thought that his actions would ignite a second revolutionary war. People who want to engage in direct action are quick to believe that such action can do a lot more than its immediate consequences, and slow to believe that it can have adverse consequences. Because direct action is cool, and ratting your way up the long march through the institutions is lame.

Antifa, by its very nature, selects for people who want to do the cool parts of politics.

The McVeigh story as understood in the popular consciousness is incomplete at best and outright wrong at worst. I'd recommend anyone wanting to learn more to read Aberration in The Heartland of the Real.

I'll add it to my reading list, but perhaps you can be more specific?

Also, why post a picture of one of the guy's Mexican wife? That guy just tried to murder cops, he could be in a polycule with bearded North Koreans and it would not be relevant. Put the picture of his wife in once she is wanted or charged with anything.

This group being whiter than a white nationalist meeting doesn't fit with the narrative.

Who's narrative?

The observation that BLM protests are often whiter than the police departments they're protesting is a running joke in southern states.

Are people really in such a mental state that they think an assault on trying to murder federal agents over deportations is an appropriate course of action?

If you truly believe that these are concentration camps and you're living the rise of a new fascism, it seems only appropriate.

Now it's insane to believe that evidently, but we're talking specifically about violent communists, so it's not surprising at all they believe this stuff.

Until the trigger actually has to be pulled, anyway.

Appropos of nothing but would love to know the statistics for how overrepresented Trans individuals are in violent political crime. Considering how small a percentage of the population gotta be like 40-50x

Also apropos of nothing, this reminded me of how so many pro-trans-rights-activist comics I've seen on social media just feature a punchline of someone of the wrong opinions being murdered, and how their slogans like "punch a transphobe" or "throw bricks at transphobes" tend to be along those lines. My pet theory is that this is due to TRAs being dominated by people with far more testosterone than a typical woman but also who have a tendency to indulge in their emotional urges as is the common stereotype of a woman in contrast to a man.

A simpler explanation; transwomen are often formerly (still?) autistic men, who have difficulties with regulating emotions, especially emotions that arise from what they feel as personal attacks. This would explain the overly violent comics and memes; it's emotional dysregulation.

I feel also lack of permissible targets for aggression within the hugbox makes for super performative expression directed towards those allowed. If you're a modern liberal you're only really allowed to express hatred or violent intentionality towards MAGA or transphobes.

Same way I feel if Trump walked into the middle of one of the Floyd riots he'd likely be significantly more at risk of spontaneous crowd violence than if Joe Biden was at Jan 6

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