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Saturday, January 10, 2026

WHEN THE SPECTACLE BECOMES THE WEAPON: TRUMP'S MINISTRY OF DISTRACTION AND THE DEATH OF RENEE GOOD #JusticeForReneeGood #EndMetroSurge #RestoreTransparency

 

WHEN THE SPECTACLE BECOMES THE WEAPON

TRUMP'S MINISTRY OF DISTRACTION AND THE DEATH OF RENEE GOOD

How a government learned to make authoritarianism entertaining—and why one mother's death in Minneapolis reveals the cost of looking away

January 10, 2026

America has become a choose-your-own-dystopia novel. On one page, we're living in Orwell's 1984—where the Department of Defense gets rebranded as the "Department of War" while the administration calls itself the "Peace Administration." On the other, we're trapped in Huxley's Brave New World, where AI-generated deepfakes of Obama getting arrested flood our feeds while 8,000 government web pages vanish into the memory hole.

The twist? Both pages are the same chapter.

And while we've been scrolling, liking, and rage-tweeting at the latest surreal meme of Trump photoshopped as a muscle-bound warrior, 2,000 federal agents descended on Minneapolis in what the administration cheerfully calls "Operation Metro Surge."

On January 8, 2026, one of those agents shot and killed Renee Good—an American citizen, a mother, a neighbor—during a pre-dawn raid.

The FBI immediately seized jurisdiction. No body camera footage has been released. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was barred from the scene. And within 48 hours, the news cycle had moved on to Trump's latest Truth Social post: a digitally altered video of himself as the Pope blessing a crowd at Mar-a-Lago.

Welcome to the Huxleyan-Orwellian hybrid, where repression is packaged as reality TV, and a woman's death becomes a footnote in the algorithm.

The Ministry of Truth Runs on Memes Now

George Orwell warned us about a government that rewrites history. What he didn't anticipate was that the government wouldn't need to rewrite it—they'd just delete the URLs.

Since January 20, 2025, the Trump administration has scrubbed over 8,000 federal web pages and 3,000 datasets from public view. The casualties include:

  • CDC health data on HIV, transgender health, and vaccine safety
  • EPA climate assessments and environmental justice screening tools
  • DOJ databases tracking police misconduct and hate crimes
  • NASA profiles of women scientists and indigenous leaders
  • Foreign aid transparency records spanning two decades

The official reason? Executive orders targeting "gender ideology," dismantling DEI initiatives, and pivoting toward "energy dominance." The actual effect? A government that controls the past controls the future.

In Orwell's Oceania, the Party had to physically burn books. In 2026, they just need a server admin and an executive order.

And while archivists scramble to mirror the data on shadow servers (shoutout to the Internet Archive and EDGI's guerrilla archiving heroes), the rest of us are too busy watching Trump's latest AI stunt to notice that the National Climate Assessment—a federally mandated scientific report—no longer exists on any .gov domain.

Doublethink 2.0: "Peace Through War"

Let's talk about the rebrand.

In late 2025, the administration floated the idea of renaming the Department of Defense back to the "Department of War." The stated reason? "Honesty in government."

Except the same administration simultaneously markets itself as the "Peace Administration."

This isn't just hypocrisy—it's Doublethink: the ability to hold two contradictory beliefs and accept both as truth. Orwell called it the ultimate tool of control. Trump calls it Tuesday.

Other examples from the 2025 playbook:

  • "Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies" (Executive Order) → Actually removed independent inspectors general, eliminating oversight
  • "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs" → Targeted federal employees based on their identity and beliefs
  • "Restoring Scientific Integrity" → Deleted the EPA's Scientific Integrity Policy

Political scientists have coined a new term for this: Contraspeak—naming a policy the exact opposite of its effect. It's Newspeak for the TikTok generation.

The Two Minutes Hate Goes Viral

In 1984, citizens gathered daily for the "Two Minutes Hate," a ritual where they screamed at a screen showing Emmanuel Goldstein, the state's designated enemy.

In 2026, we have Truth Social.

Trump's inflammatory posts—AI deepfakes of political rivals, calls to prosecute "enemies," and surreal imagery designed to provoke—function as a digital Two Minutes Hate. They keep the base in a state of perpetual outrage, directing fury at symbolic enemies (the "Deep State," the "Fake News Media," "Radical Left Prosecutors") while the administration quietly rewires the federal government in the background.

Case in point: While the nation debated whether Trump's AI-generated video of Obama being "arrested" was parody or propaganda, the administration:

  • Launched the "Weaponization Working Group" to investigate those who previously investigated Trump
  • Pressured the FCC to open investigations into NPR, PBS, and CBS
  • Established a White House "Media Hall of Shame" portal to publicly target critical journalists

It's not about the truth of the posts—it's about controlling the attention economy. As long as we're arguing about whether Trump actually thinks he looks like a muscular gladiator, we're not organizing against the $170 billion funding bill that just militarized immigration enforcement.

Operation Metro Surge: When the Spectacle Turns Lethal

Which brings us to Minneapolis.

In December 2025, the administration deployed 2,000 federal agents to the Twin Cities under the banner of "Operation Metro Surge." The stated goal? Root out fraud tied to the Feeding Our Future scandal and remove "criminal aliens."

The actual effect? A military-style occupation of a major American city, complete with:

  • Heavily armed Special Response Teams (SRTs) conducting pre-dawn raids
  • Door-to-door sweeps in predominantly Somali-American neighborhoods
  • Workplace raids and traffic stops of U.S. citizens
  • Revocation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS), rendering thousands suddenly deportable

Local officials called it "a war waged against Minnesota." The administration called it "restoring the rule of law."

And on January 8, 2026, a federal agent shot and killed Renee Good during one of these raids.

Renee Good Was Not a Statistic

Renee Good was a mother. A neighbor. An American.

She was not a "criminal alien." She was not a fraudster. She was a person who, like many of you reading this, woke up one morning and found armed federal agents at her door.

And now she's dead.

The FBI has asserted exclusive jurisdiction over the investigation. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension—the state agency that typically investigates police shootings—was barred from the scene. No body camera footage has been released. No federal agent has been named.

The administration's response? Silence from the White House. A brief statement from DHS calling it an "ongoing investigation." And then, within 48 hours, the news cycle moved on.

Because that's how the hybrid works: Orwellian repression (a federal agent killing a citizen with no accountability) + Huxleyan distraction (a viral AI video of Trump as a superhero) = a public too exhausted to demand justice.

Fear as Policy: The Real Goal of "Metro Surge"

Let's be clear: Operation Metro Surge is not primarily about immigration enforcement. It's about fear.

The administration has learned that you don't need to arrest everyone—you just need to make everyone feel like they could be next. You flood a community with agents. You conduct high-visibility raids. You revoke protections without warning. You shoot someone in their home and then control the narrative.

And suddenly, people stop organizing. They stop speaking out. They stop trusting their neighbors.

Fear is the most efficient form of control. And it's a lot cheaper than actual governance.

What We Can Do (Because Despair Is Also a Tool of Control)

Here's the thing about authoritarian spectacle: it only works if we keep watching instead of acting.

So here's the plan:

1. File FOIA Requests (Yes, Really)

The data they deleted? It's not gone—it's hidden. Use the Freedom of Information Act to compel agencies to release the datasets, reports, and records they've scrubbed from public view.

Start here:

Template: "I am requesting [specific dataset/report] previously available at [URL]. I am a [journalist/student/citizen] and request this in machine-readable format (CSV/Excel)."

If they stonewall you, escalate to the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS): (202) 741-5770 | ogis@nara.gov.

2. Support the Shadow Archives

While you're waiting on FOIA, use the guerrilla archives that are preserving the deleted data:

These are run by librarians, scientists, and activists who saw this coming. Donate. Share. Use them.

3. Organize for the 2026 Midterms

This is not hyperbole: The 2026 midterm elections are the most important of our lifetime.

If the administration retains control of Congress, there will be no oversight, no accountability, and no check on executive power.

What you can do:

  • Register voters (especially in communities targeted by Metro Surge-style operations)
  • Support candidates who pledge to restore transparency and end militarized enforcement
  • Demand your current representatives publicly oppose Operation Metro Surge and call for an independent investigation into Renee Good's death

4. Protest (Strategically)

Mass protests work—but only if they're sustained and focused.

Demand:

  • Release of body camera footage from the Renee Good shooting
  • Independent investigation by the Minnesota BCA (not the FBI)
  • Withdrawal of federal agents from residential neighborhoods in Minneapolis
  • Restoration of deleted federal data and reinstatement of scientific integrity policies

Organize locally. Join or form coalitions. Make noise. Make it impossible to ignore.

5. Refuse to Be Distracted

This is the hardest one.

Every time Trump posts an AI deepfake, every time a new "controversy" floods your feed, ask yourself: What is this distracting me from?

Renee Good's death should have been a national scandal. Instead, it was a footnote.

Don't let them make you forget.

The Spectacle Is the Weapon. Attention Is the Resistance.

Aldous Huxley once wrote: "A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude."

Trump has figured out how to make us love the spectacle—even as it kills us.

But here's the thing about spectacle: it only works if we keep watching.

So let's stop watching.

Let's start acting.

Renee Good was an American. A mother. A person.

And she deserves more than our tweets.

She deserves justice.

For more information on filing FOIA requests, supporting shadow archives, or organizing in your community, visit https://www.fiftyfifty.one/ https://indivisible.org/

#JusticeForReneeGood
#EndMetroSurge
#RestoreTransparency

If you found this article valuable, share it. If you're angry, channel it. If you're scared, organize. The spectacle wants you passive. Be anything but.



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