The Blackmail of Acting Out
When California’s Leaders Became Codependents, and Riots Became a Vote
You don’t need to be the child of an alcoholic to understand what’s happening in California right now—but it helps.
Because if you grew up learning that peace meant compliance, that not upsetting dad was your job, you know this moment. You know what it feels like to be held hostage by someone else's rage. And you know what it means when the whole family conspires to avoid confrontation—because otherwise, he might blow.
That’s the logic now running California.
From May 6–9, 2025, Los Angeles, Paramount, and nearby cities saw riots erupt in response to federal ICE enforcement operations. This wasn’t a military invasion. This wasn’t roving brownshirts. It was administrative law enforcement—picking up overstayed visas, executing lawful deportation orders, addressing known illegal entries.
But to the activist class and their enablers, it was fascism. And to the state’s leadership, it was a cue to panic.
Because when ICE shows up, the game begins. The extortion game. The street-level shell game.
If you dare enforce the law—and we’ll burn your city.
Riot as Referendum
By the morning of May 7, storefronts in Paramount were torched. Police were pelted with frozen water bottles. Traffic lights were ripped down. Someone set a public works truck on fire and called it resistance.
And Mayor Bass? She called for understanding. Compassion. Restraint.
Not for the ICE officers, mind you. For the people throwing Molotovs.
This isn’t leadership. It’s emotional hostage negotiation disguised as social justice. And everyone sees it—especially the ones setting the fires.
This Wasn’t Spontaneous
None of this was spontaneous. It was planned, organized, livestreamed, gamified.
Telegram and Signal groups were buzzing with instructions. Posts told protesters which intersections were “hot,” which stations had scanner chatter, and where to find pallets of bricks.
“No justice, no peace.” “Make it ungovernable.”
The message was clear: try to enforce immigration law, and we will burn down the optics of control.
And it’s working. Not because it’s overwhelming. But because it’s theatrical.
The Shell Game of Threat
Call it what it is: a three-card monte of outrage.
You think it’s about ICE? Flip the card: it’s about Palestine. Flip again: it’s about income inequality. Now it’s climate. Now it’s police reform.
The issue doesn’t matter. The threat does.
And just like a shell game, it only works if the mark keeps guessing.
California’s leaders have stopped guessing. They’re not even playing. They’ve surrendered.
The Buick Revisited
So here we are again.
In the Buick.
The family car metaphor still holds. But this time, the dad threatening to drive into a tree is a mob in a balaclava, and the mom telling you to just agree is Gavin Newsom.
“If you provoke them, it will escalate.” “If we show strength, they’ll retaliate.”
Strength, in this case, meaning lawful ICE removals—acts so bureaucratic they barely merit a press release. But in the current climate, every knock on a door is a spark. And every spark risks another night of L.A. on fire.
The Real Fires Are Just Bonus Footage
Yes, Pasadena had fire scares. Yes, the Palisades burned. But those were side quests. Secondary effects. The real blaze is psychological, political, and strategic.
The arsonists aren’t mad. They’re operational. The looters aren’t desperate. They’re opportunistic. And the state? It’s acting like a battered spouse—hoping that if they just say the right things, the fists won’t fly.
Trump Refuses to Play the Game
Say what you want about Trump—and I have—but the reason California fears him isn’t because he’s lawless.
It’s because he enforces law without apology. He doesn’t flinch. He doesn’t negotiate with firebombers. He doesn’t offer trauma counseling to people throwing bricks through ICE vans.
That’s not authoritarianism. That’s adulthood.
And that’s why the activist class, the pundit class, and the donor class are desperate to brand him a dictator—because if the public ever starts thinking adulting isn’t fascism, the game’s up.
The Final Extortion
We are being told that law enforcement equals violence. That immigration control equals oppression. That protest means permission to burn down your neighbor’s business.
And we’re told that to resist that logic is to be a monster.
But here’s the truth:
We are being blackmailed. Not metaphorically. Literally.
If you dare enforce the law—and we’ll burn your city. Vote for our policies—or the bricks fly. Reinstate ICE—or we torch Paramount.
This isn’t democracy. It’s hostage governance. And if no one says no, the Buick is going into that tree.
Glossary
ICE: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, responsible for enforcing immigration laws.
MAP-Pro Torch: A high-heat torch used for soldering, often misused in arson due to its heat output and portability.
Three-card monte / shell game: A street scam where the observer tries to follow a moving card or object under shells—used here as a metaphor for shifting activist justifications.
Buick metaphor: A recurring image of a dysfunctional family dynamic where threats of mutual destruction are used to maintain control or submission.
Hostage governance: A term for when policy decisions are made primarily to prevent violent backlash from radicalized groups.
FAQ
Q: Are you saying all protest is terrorism?
A: No. This article distinguishes between protest (protected speech) and performative destruction used as political blackmail.
Q: Isn’t this just ICE overreach sparking backlash?
A: The article argues that enforcement actions were lawful and measured, and the reaction was engineered, not organic.
Q: Are you defending Trump?
A: I'm saying Trump’s refusal to flinch in the face of extortion is interpreted as strength—not sainthood.
Q: Why use family trauma metaphors?
A: Because the emotional logic at play in L.A.’s response to unrest is exactly the same as in codependent or abusive households: compliance to avoid explosion.