A Chill Sets in, before Ice arrives.
Note: This is probably going to be a tough read for some, but I hope you do, and consider the message and it’s intent. I am using my 1st Amendment right to speak on an issue from a very straightforward and human perspective. I am critical of Conservatives as a former Conservative. I identify as Independent, and all views expressed by me on this page and otherwise are purely my own. As always, it is my belief that our highest calling is to love each other, and I maintain that, and love to me, means giving people the respect by holding them accountable to their beliefs, words and actions. We all deserve to live happy, healthy, productive lives, regardless of skin color, sex, religion, or political affiliation. Thank you. - Kai
A chill sets in, before ice arrives. Nature has a way of easing us into change. We ourselves, have ways of being eased into change - depending on what we’re talking about this comes down to two things: consideration or conditioning.
As a child living in the most conservative county in Texas in the 90’s and 2000’s, I heard Fox news in the background of my home every night. I heard things from trusted adults like…
“This is AMERICA! Speak English!” (There is no official language in America.)
“We got all these damn Mexicans making things worse.” (“Mexican” was used often as a general slur for all hispanic and latino people.)
“Well, it wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for all these damn illegals making my taxes go up!” (This was then, and remains to be a major talking point for conservative propaganda.)
As a little white girl living in a safe suburban neighborhood where a majority of neighbors where also white, I was conditioned by the adults in my life and the media they consumed, that “Mexicans” were bad. That was the gist. They were “stealing out jobs”, and coming over here “just to have babies so they can stay in America/ use our tax dollars (for what I’m not sure, this line is applied to damn near every issue.)
The problem is that the narrative being fed wasn’t based in truth (that’s what makes it propaganda.)
Propaganda is defined as: information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a particular cause, doctrine, or point of view.
I was told that hispanic people were “sneaking into this country” to have “anchor babies” so that the parents could then sign up for benefit programs and “mooch off a system they didn’t pay into.”
Let’s break down the narrative.
Here’s what’s actually being said in these conservative talking points from the early 2000’s: Hispanic people have no right to be in this country, they have no rights to social benefits, and they shouldn’t be here. Their language and culture wasn’t welcome, it was lesser than the status quo. They were lazy, dishonest, and untrustworthy - and bottom line? The conservative talking heads wanted you to know one thing: we should not tolerate them being here.
Decades of this rhetoric has been mainstream talking points, way before anyone ever heard of MAGA. The chill set in long before.
To properly call something out, I like to discect all the ugliness…
It went even deeper than just a sentiment of un-belonging, there were harmful stereotypes:
“well, everyone knows the men love to beat their wives and cheat on their wives.”
“their little girls dress too skimpy, none of them have any morals, they look like little whores.”
Hatred is spread casually, and plainly, presenting itself as moral and factual when it is neither.
Then I grew up. It’s 2016, my hispanic friends are worried about la migra coming to take them away. I try to comfort them by giving the tired answer that “they’re only coming after illegal immigrants.” I cringe thinking about that idiotic retort.
Hispanic and Latino people are not foreigners to this land. They are indigenous. That’s why hispanic people look like Native Americans — because they are. What we think of as Hispanic, is just the same “American Indian” colonized by the Spanish and given Catholicism. I’m saying they belong here. This IS their home. Texas was part of Mexico long before it was part of America.
If you can de-legitimize Hispanic people and separate them from what they are, it is that much easier to manufacture justification for their removal.
We didn’t get ICE terrorizing Minneapolis overnight. We didn’t get this proverbial freeze out of nowhere. This is the result of slow-dripping propaganda designed to slowly make its white audience hate , fear and distrust an entire group of people, by utilizing the racist beliefs they secretly hold.
It is hypocritical for whites with European heritage to say that they don’t belong on these lands.
Dear white conservative,
Your country will not be safer when Hispanics are removed. Your taxes will not decrease because Hispanics are gone. Your job will not pay you more, and better opportunities will not come when they are removed. You will not be happier. You will not benefit from this.
In fact, the opposite will happen.
There is a belief that “illegals” (I really hate that term more and more every day, it is absolutely derogatory and dehumanizing) don’t pay taxes. There is also an argument that they should come here legally. But legality doesn’t just happen. It is a long, costly process. They must pay for visas, attend court hearings, show that they are trying by finding work and holding down a tax paying job. It’s not black and white to go from illegal alien to legal citizen, and it’s important you understand that. Since it is a process, that “gray” area between citizen and noncitizen is one that many live in FOR YEARS.
Note, ICE has used people’s immigration hearings as traps to nab them and bring them to detention facilities. This was happening all throughout 2025. Judges would let people leave the courts through back exits to avoid being handcuffed and dragged away. These events really happened, dear conservative. It is very important that you remember your government can do bad things, not all bad things live only in history, ignorance and denial make you complicit.
What happened to Keith Porter, Alex Pretti, Renee Nicole Good and little Liam and all the others should have never happened, and is indefensible for anyone who is still able to be honest with themselves.
The immigrant didn’t make it harder for you to afford car repairs. They didn’t make it harder for you to afford groceries. They aren’t the reason dentistry work is barely covered by insurance. They aren’t the reason you feel so fucking numb and hopeless and drained. They aren’t what’s beating you down.
But just like one man could weaponize prejudice to turn Germans against Jews, this administration has preyed upon the seeds planted decades prior, and the underlying racism that never truly left, to make you think that all the ways they are fucking you over is the fault of the guy with brown skin, and not the result of policy created by Republicans for multiple decades now, designed to weaken the power of the American people and consolidate power and money for the elite. The things your party tells you the Democrats are doing are the very things they take your donations and support and do. It is time you accept that.
A chill always sets in before we get snow and ice - and that’s on how propaganda made you cold hearted towards your fellow man.
