You're here because you want to actually understand what's happening, not just react to it. That already puts you ahead of about 90% of the people posting about Minneapolis right now.

Trump is threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act. The city looks like a war zone. ICE agents are getting mobbed. Protesters are looting federal vehicles. And depending on which screen you're watching, you're seeing completely different movies.

I'm going to walk you through what's actually happening. Then I'm going to show you the framing tricks both sides are using. By the end, you'll see things that most people scrolling Twitter will completely miss.

That's why you're here, right?

ICE has been conducting enforcement operations in Minneapolis for the past few days. Yesterday, things escalated. Badly.

What's on video:

The circumstances of the shootings are, predictably, disputed.

Sources:

Here's where it gets interesting. And by interesting, I mean here's where you start to see what everyone else is missing.

Federal paramilitary forces are terrorizing immigrant communities. Agents are shooting unarmed people. Families are being gassed. An infant reportedly stopped breathing after exposure to tear gas. This is an occupation.

Tim Walz is calling them "atrocities" and telling people to document everything for future prosecution.

Law enforcement officers are trying to do their jobs while being attacked by violent mobs. One shooting involved a suspect who allegedly attacked an agent with a shovel. Rioters are stealing weapons and agent information from federal vehicles. This is anarchy.

Trump is threatening military intervention to restore order.

Same city. Same 24 hours. Completely different realities.

The fact that you can hold both of these framings in your head at once and ask "what's actually true?" is exactly why you're reading this instead of just retweeting whatever confirms your priors.

Let me show you something most people will never notice.

Watch the word choices. This is where the manipulation lives.

Neither side is technically lying. They're just choosing words that pre-load your emotional response. By the time you get to the facts, you've already been told how to feel about them.

You see this now. Most people never will.

Walz told people to record "atrocities" and build a "database for future prosecution."

Let's break that down:

"Atrocities" is a war crimes word. It's not a word you use for disputed law enforcement incidents. It's a word you use when you've already decided the verdict.

"Future prosecution" implies these agents will face criminal charges someday. It's a technique called "thinking past the sale." You assume the conclusion and get people acting on that assumption before they've even decided if it's true.

"Database" turns citizens into intelligence gatherers against federal officers. It frames surveillance as civic duty.

Sources:

Trump's team is using words like "lawlessness" and "insurrection."

That's not neutral either. That's laying groundwork for military deployment. You don't use "insurrection" casually. That word does legal work.

Both sides are pre-selling their conclusion. Both sides want you to see what they see before you even look at the evidence.

There's a video going around that's getting millions of views. And it's a perfect case study in emotional manipulation. I don't mean it's fake. I mean watch how it's being used.

A family in a minivan, trying to escape a tear gas cloud. Flashbang goes off near the vehicle. Kids inside. An infant, reportedly, stops breathing temporarily.

This is the kind of story that bypasses your rational brain entirely. It goes straight to the gut.

A baby. Tear gas. Federal agents.

Sources:

If you're on the left:

This is proof of everything. Indiscriminate brutality. Innocent families terrorized. Abolish ICE.

If you're on the right:

Why was that family in the middle of a riot zone? Who created the conditions where tear gas was being deployed? The agents didn't gas a neighborhood for fun. They were responding to a mob.

This is the part most people never think about. Every frame includes some things and excludes others. Here's what each side conveniently forgets to mention:

Both framings contain truth. Both framings leave things out.

You're now thinking about this more carefully than 99% of the people who will share these videos today. That's not flattery. That's just math. Most people don't stop to ask what's being left out.

This is how it works at a societal level. You pick the frame. You pick what to include. You pick what to leave out. And then you let people's emotions do the rest.

The baby story will be used to argue for abolishing ICE. The looting videos will be used to argue for the Insurrection Act.

Both will be called "just showing what happened." Neither will be the whole picture.

Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, made a speech yesterday that's worth your attention. Not because of his politics, but because of the persuasion technique on display.

He told people to:

I already broke down the individual words above. But here's the bigger picture:

This isn't neutral governance language. This is resistance movement language. It's designed to radicalize. To turn passive observers into active participants. To make people feel like they're part of something bigger.

And the thing is, it works. The crowds in Minneapolis are larger today than yesterday. The confrontations are more intense. The videos are more dramatic.

Whether that's good or bad depends on which movie you're watching. But you can at least see the mechanism now.

Rioters broke into abandoned ICE vehicles after agents retreated. What they found is a serious problem.

Sources:

From the videos:

Videos show people going through the vehicles like it's Black Friday at a government surplus store.

Federal agents' home addresses are now potentially in the hands of people who spent the day calling them murderers.

If you're wondering why Trump is talking about the Insurrection Act, this is why. That's not a stable situation. Whatever your politics, you can probably see why that escalates things.

There's another shooting being debated. The accounts are completely split.

A suspect attacked an agent with a shovel. Agent responded with lethal force. Self-defense.

Excessive force on a fleeing suspect. Brutal execution.

Not much. Bodycam footage isn't out. The investigation hasn't happened.

This is a perfect example of selective clip usage to control narrative. Both sides are showing the parts that support their story. Neither is showing the full context.

Because nobody has the full context yet.

Here's a useful rule: When people are certain about something that's genuinely uncertain, that tells you more about them than about the situation. Keep that in mind as you scroll today.

Protesters swarmed abandoned ICE vehicles after agents retreated from a crowd.

Videos show people going through the vehicles like it's Black Friday at a government surplus store. "Free gear" chaos.

Like Black Friday for anarchists.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey originally told ICE to "leave my city."

Now the city is on fire and he's asking for... not clear what, actually. Help? Understanding? A do-over?

You'll see this pattern again. Save this for future reference:

It's like telling someone you'll fight them, then being shocked when they throw a punch.

While Minneapolis burns, there's a completely different story brewing that almost nobody is connecting to the bigger picture.

Trump made statements supporting the Iranian people and potential uprisings against the regime. Pretty standard stuff for an American president, honestly.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard's response?

Source: Ted Cruz message

Ted Cruz posted about it. The usual foreign policy hawks are circling. Lindsey Graham reportedly looks "drained" because we haven't bombed anyone yet. (That's a joke. Mostly.)

Here's something useful you can apply beyond just this story:

Trump's language: Aspiration-based.

The regime's language: Fear-based.

Historically, aspiration beats fear in persuasion. People want to move toward something, not just away from something.

The regime's response tells you they're worried. You don't threaten to cut off hands when you're feeling confident. Confident people don't need to make threats.

File that away. It's useful for reading any conflict.

Minneapolis right now is a masterclass in how reality fractures. And you just got the decoder ring.

Same city. Same events. Same videos, even. And two completely different stories about what's happening and why.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: The facts won't settle this. The facts never settle these things. Because people don't process facts neutrally. They process facts through frames. And the frames were set before any of this started.

You know this now. Most people don't. Most people think they're just "seeing the truth" when they're actually seeing a frame.

If you want to understand what's actually happening, here's my advice:

You won't find the capital-T Truth that way. But you'll get closer than if you only watch one movie. And you'll be able to see the manipulation that everyone else is blind to.

That's the whole point of this newsletter. Not to tell you what to think. To help you see what's actually happening so you can think for yourself.

Thanks for being here. Seriously. The fact that you read this far means you're the kind of person who actually wants to understand things rather than just react to them. That's increasingly rare. Don't take it for granted.

That's all for today.

See you tomorrow.