In Saturday’s DM, I shared stories of my links to Minnesota. Another is this. One January I was invited to conduct a weekend retreat at a center outside the twin cities. It was 75 degrees below zero with windchill, and participants drove up in cars, plugged them into outdoor outlets so their engines would not crack, AND—most notably—no one talked about the weather all weekend!
I was shocked and left thinking these Minnesotans are not to be trifled with. Beneath their ready smiles is a lot of strength, a midwest work ethic, and a minimum of self-pity.
Also in Saturday’s DM, I made mention of Dom Helder Camera’s iconic work, Spiral of Violence. He namesa three-fold spiral to violence: First comes injustice—the first violence. Then comes the response of protesting injustice. Third comes the crackdown on the protesters in the name of law and order by the regime. This violence number three invariably becomes the most severe of all.
One can see this spiral of violence playing out in Iran today, and also in Minnesota. There, ICE shot an innocent mother of a six-year-old in the face. The last words Ms. Good heard in her life came from her murderer, calling her a “f***ing bi***.”
Still more ICE goons are pouring into Minnesota, ordered by our government and paid for by our tax dollars. Last count, there were over 3,000 ICE goons in Minneapolis amidst fewer than 800 police officers.
Let the whole country beware that this can come to your city and state too—especially if they are blue and not red.
Camera’s analysis fifty years ago of how violence escalates under autocratic rule still applies to today’s scenes, whether in Iran or in MAGA America. There will be more because ICE is filthy rich—the Republican congress has voted them $70 billion to hire more goons, build more detention centers, buy more weapons and vehicles to carry on this war against American citizens and aspiring citizens.*
They are integral to the 2025 project whose goal is to throw out American democracy and replace it with an oligarchy.
The pretext for all this violence is immigration and immigrants. Since first running for president in 2015, Trump has pronounced about the evil of immigrants—even though two of his three wives have all been immigrants and, like all Americans except indigenous ones, all of us derive from immigrants.
Trump offered citizenship to white South Africans this past year, but not black ones. Clearly, he is in favor of white immigrants and not apparently those of other races.
Racism is baked into MAGA’s rhetoric and violence toward immigrants though it does not stop there. Ms. Good was white after all, and trying to support all her neighbors and fellow parents in her children’s school.
Even Joe Rogan, the MAGA manosphere broadcaster who convinced many young men to vote for Trump in 2024, is speaking out on the “horrific” deportations and “gestapo” tactics* currently going on. Lack of due process is “beginning to crack” MAGA’s unified front favoring Trump’s immigration policies, reports the New York Times.**
There is a connection between the still unreleased Epstein files and immigration, insofar as a large number of Epstein victims involve vast sums of dollars trafficked from abroad. Pedophilia and immigration seem to be mixing.
Is MAGA now a protector of pedophiles, as a worker at a Detroit factory accused Donald Trump of being this week?
DOJ has not even released 2% of the files that the law demanded be completed a month ago. How many distractions are being served up to prevent more coverage of the Epstein files? Is invading Venezuela one of them? Trump now calls himself “president of Venezuela,”—I hope he is a better president for that country than he is for ours. Good luck to the Venezuelans.
Threats to invade Greenland, Columbia, Iran and more serve to distract from the Epstein files. But the question persists: Where are they? Why are victims being ignored still again?
A Blessed Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to All. May his courage and love of justice inspire us in these times.
* Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, “ICE Is About to Get More Money That It Can Spend,” MSN, July 3, 2025.
** Julianna Bragg, “Rogan Blasts Trump’s Gestapo,” Axios, January 14, 2026.
To read the transcript of Matthew’s video meditation, click HERE.
Banner Image: Minnesotans pour into the streets for nighttime protests against ICE occupation, January 9, 2026. Photo by Fibonacci Blue. Wikimedia Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
Do you see the three levels to a “spiral of violence” as Camera names them playing out in America today? How can we best interfere with any of them?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society.
Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ.
Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet.
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice.
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3 thoughts on “More on Minnesota & the Spiral of Violence Playing Out There”
YES! That letter you received from Australia summarizes the sentiments, thoughts, and fears of most people around the world about our authoritarian, unhinged, and dangerous president Trump (and MAGA movement, wealthy oligarchs, and sycophant congressional Republicans who support and enable his fascist regime) who is not only destroying American society and democracy, but is also potentially endangering all humanity and our Sacred Mother Earth/Her living creatures/Her graceful life giving abundance. The Australian (world) rightly emphasizes that it is primarily our responsibility as US citizens to resist/protest peacefully this autocratic regime together in as many ways as possible, but especially during all local, state, and federal elections to get rid of the source/roots of the many human and social injustices being perpetrated on Our American people/democracy. Haven’t Americans learned enough from recent history about what happened to German society and the consequent tragic holocaust of millions of human beings under Hitler and his Nazi regime??? We’re not alone because God’s Spirit of LOVE~WISDOM~TRUTH~PEACE~JUSTICE~STRENGTH~COMPASSION~ONENESS… Is PRESENT within and among Us….
We’ve seen two playbooks. One is Germany in the 1930’s. We know how that ended. The other is the Civil Rights movement in the 1960’s; no progress would have been made if violence were the response to injustice. We MUST respond with coordinated non violence. Every act of violence in the name of justice gives the powers that be an excuse to repress even more. More trainings in nonviolent action is
necessary. Promote non violence.
Thank you Matthew for reading the powerful message you received from Australia; it essentially says, on behalf of the “outside world”: “America, PLEASE, get your act together before it is too late.”