So, amidst all of the horror, stupidity, and stupid horror going on in Minneapolis and elsewhere in Minnesota, there is one factor I believe isn’t being discussed enough. And that’s the role in this mess played by a lazy, underinformed public who refuses to seek out reliable information, who treat reading like they are the worst student in a 7th grade classrom, and turn to online videos from questionable sources for their information. We have to own up to how easy it is to manipulate such a society to create scenarios like what we have in Minnesota, and the need for people to at least try to be better.

Because those kinds of people are partially responsible for our national nightmare.

The violence and chaos surrounding the federal immigration crackdown in Minneapolis did not appear out of nowhere. It was fueled by a familiar political pattern: a right-wing influencer manufactured a moral panic, the story went viral because people who should have known better believed it was true, and the machinery of state power followed.

In late 2025, YouTuber Nick Shirley posted videos claiming widespread fraud among Somali-run child care centers in Minnesota. The allegations were selective and misleading, presented without meaningful context or evidence of systemic wrongdoing. Yet they spread rapidly across conservative media ecosystems, where nuance rarely survives the chase for outrage. Unfortunately, a lot of people, even outside of MAGA, were underinformed, so they didn’t understand a key part of this story.

What Shirley’s videos obscured was that concerns about child care fraud were not new, and they were already being addressed through existing regulatory and investigative processes. State agencies had been monitoring, auditing, and investigating providers long before his content went viral, treating potential violations as bureaucratic and legal matters rather than racialized scandals.

In other words, there was no hidden conspiracy suddenly exposed by a YouTube influencer, only an ongoing system of oversight doing what it is designed to do. But that reality was inconvenient for a narrative built on spectacle and suspicion.

The deeper problem was not just the misinformation itself, but the audience that embraced it. Large numbers of people, unfamiliar with how regulatory systems actually function and uninterested in verifying claims, accepted Shirley’s framing as truth. Their ignorance—sometimes passive, sometimes willful—became a political force. By amplifying his videos, sharing them uncritically, and demanding punitive action, these underinformed viewers helped transform routine administrative issues into a justification for sweeping state intervention.

The consequences were real and devastating. Federal authorities froze funding, intensified law enforcement presence, and escalated investigations, destabilizing an entire community and fueling fear among Somali families and business owners. The Trump administration compounded this dynamic by deploying thousands of federal agents to Minnesota, creating an atmosphere that many residents described as militarized and punitive rather than protective. What began as viral misinformation became policy, policing, and intimidation. And, as you know, a woman was murdered over this nonsense.

Here’s the thing: The people who refuse to be more informed, who make excuses about how it’s hard to know what is a eliable source (it’s really not), and are allergic to reading, so they turn to TikTok and Youtube videos, are a big problem. So, take a bow, all you “I ain’t readin’ all that” people. You played a role in creating this mess, including Renee Good’s death. In fact, you are at least partially why Trump is president now. Before you start pouting and getting offended that this is not true, sorry, kiddo, but the facts ain’t on your side. I know, those darn pesky facts!

And I will add, it’s also an issue on our side. Misinformation and “I’S IN MY CAR SPEAKIN’ DA TRUTHS” videos are not something we on the left are immune to. Monetization of social media has created a world where the sensational, the dark, the over-the-top get the most clicks and therefore the most cash, so it behooves influencers to preach to the choir. It is true that we need better messaging and a lot more messengers out there to counter the bullshit from the right. But what if the stuff our side puts out is also sometimes bullshit, also based on lack of understanding so it’s not really true, and also done by people as underinformed as the viewers? Knowing what you are doing, having an understanding of what constitutes good journalism, and fact-checking really are imporant.

This leads me to a question I never seem to get an answer for: What is the value of wrong information? Things are bad enough. We don’t need to scare and discourage people with things that are based on speculation and/or just aren’t true. Everyone talks about Trump being a distraction machine, but some of these TikTok people send folks down rabbit holes when the reality is bad enough, and needs to be focused on and dealt with.

I really don’t know how to fix this until our society grows the hell up. But it’s vital that we do much better with being informed. The favored hobby of the slack-jawed moron, conspiracy theories, often flourish because the people who believe them are either unknowingly or willfully ignorant of certain facts that would crush the conspiracy, but the conspiracy thrives due to the reign of the underinformed.

So, take a bow, underinformed Americans. ICE couldn’t have done it without you. And if you think I am being mean, sorry, but there are a growing number of us who are shifting from alarm about how ignorant you are, and are moving rapidly towards anger. Of course, I don’t think too many underinformed Americans will get all that mad at me.

I doubt they read this far.

The last word goes to The Hoodoo Gurus.