Activism or Anarchy? The Line Just Got Blurred

If you think comparing ICE to the “Gestapo” is activism, you’ve already lost the plot. Today’s episode of The Rant Network unpacks how outrage culture is turning into real-world chaos—when officials “high‑five” resistance, when commentators blur the line between journalism and protest, and when anyone (yes, even a medical professional) floats the idea of harming federal agents, we’re not talking about justice anymore—we’re flirting with anarchy. This isn’t a pro‑left or pro‑right rant; it’s a plea for basic standards: debate hard, protest legally, and stop normalizing rhetoric that escalates conflict. Watch, disagree, argue in the comments—but do it with facts and a shred of common sense.

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Transcript

Travel Plans Upended

SPEAKER_00 0:05

That's what I learned this morning. No matter what you plan, things are gonna change at some point or another. I was supposed to be here today. It's all Stuart as I'm traveling today. I'm in Calgary, Canada. And yet, Stuart unfortunately felt brutally sick. So here I am taking on for today the rent for a Friday. Yes, and you know, folks, I gotta tell you something.

Setting The Stage: Media Hype

Minnesota Meltdown

Journalism Or Activism

Calls For Violence Cross Lines

Government Shutdown Stakes

Blame Both Sides

Misusing History And Labels

Real Problems Ignored

Paid Agitators Allegations

Authority, Policing, And Bad Apples

Extremes, Values, And A Needed Reset

Closing And Weekend Sign-Off

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Uh I I'm I'm just absolutely just in shock of what we consider tolerant. You know, I'm not I'm not gonna sit here today and tell you that I'm a major fan of Donald Trump. In fact, I'm not a big fan of Donald Trump, and a lot of people have accused me of being a Trumpist. You love Trump, I was told. And I'm like, I don't know where you get that. Some of his policies make sense, some of his policies not so much. But this time around, I got to ask the question is is it Trump that's nuts? Or are people nuts? Right. Are people simply gone berserk? If we look at what's going on in Minnesota right now and the consistent fallout and the dominoes that we are seeing tipping, oh come on, people, we gotta be really off our freaking rocker. So when we think of Minnesota, tell me, is this sane? Hi everybody, I'm David Solomon. This is the Rant Network. I do this every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, noon, and Eastern, usually with my colleagues, Stuart Brazil. He's out. He's sick. Okay. Hope you're feeling better, buddy. Meet you back on Monday. We've talked about all kinds of different issues from you know the crazy to rant about politics, culture, social stuff, and so much more. So, folks, sit back today as I try to solo this again. You know, I'm just I I open up this morning the um the news, and I I speak to people who are supporters of the left, supporters on the right. And it is just incredible how people spew what they hear on media. We've talked about this, I know. They spew this garbage. Now, when I say this garbage, I mean garbage. Garbage, garbage, garbage, garbage, garbage. It's, you know, everything to do with the Department of Homeland Security and all that is and ICE is horrifyingly bad if you're on the left. And on the right, it's just it's great. We talked about how Tim Walls compared on Holocaust Memorial Week, which was this week, how he talked about that children are afraid just like Anne Frank. I mean, the moronic statement of the year. You have other people on the right who say that these people deserve it, that they deserve this kind of violence. And they're like, whoa, okay, whoa, whoa. Where are we going with this? 49 states do not have these problems. There's a problem in Minnesota, and an investigation should be looked into as to why this fell apart. But let's get real about something. When the mayor of Minnesota is sitting here today giving high fives, virtual high fives, to his citizens for fighting back ice, what's wrong with you? Apparently, Don Lemon, who went in to the church claiming to be a journalist, and he's not here with the, he's just here to cover it. He's not one of the protesters, has been antagonizing on his podcasts, consistently antagonizing. You have Ben Shapiro, who's gone on and talked about the ICE. You hear podcasters who, you know, we just can't even agree on this. But let's agree on a few things, shall we? Should journalists be part of the protesting? No. Your role is to stay neutral and to stay out of it. But you have too many who do. And if you want to play the role of the podcaster as well as the activists and all that stuff, then you know, as per this morning, Don Lemon has been arrested for his involvement. Yeah, his attorney said so. In my mind, good for you. You should not have been involved. You didn't do journalism, you tried to do activism, wrapping it around journalism. Wrong. Now, the the other thing that I find absolutely freaking wrong is the statements that you see on television. When an ice when a nurse goes on in her videos and tells you how to poison, hurt, harm ice agents, like have we not lost our freaking rocker? We we you are on the medical system, you swore to take care of people, and your mindset is how to harm them. What is that? This makes zero sense. Now, she wasn't in Minnesota, she was in Virginia. And it's ridiculous to think that this nurse, you know, she thinks she's doing the right thing. She said, I mean, calling for poisoning federal law enforcement for political reasons, for just doing the job. You know, that's what they want, she wants them to do. Melinda Cook is her name, and she should lose her license for these kinds of things. You threaten violence like that? You threaten to harm people. This is what it's gotten to. We should not be doing this. If this is handled badly, there is a process. Get the process in place to fix it. Otherwise, you have anarchy. That's what you've created. Now, this morning, we hear that the United States government is likely to shut down over this. That's right. Democrats have decided they are going to shut down government because they want the Department of Homeland Security to be rebuilt, refixed, built up, blah, blah, blah. So let me just get this straight now. People who are being paid by the government, employees, TSA, your flights, all these things, hello, we're not paying you. We're shutting down the government. All processes, all work. Remember what happened last fall. Flights had to be canceled. Programs had to be suspended and put on hold. The economy, though, according to Mr. Trump, was really growing super well. And according to economists, it was really hot, lost a chunk of that growth thanks to the government shutdown. This is how it's done. We shut down government. This is how it's done. Activism isn't like that. Activism is all about change. It's impacting change, but not in a violent and harmful way, like this nurse has done in Virginia. Not in a way that you're going to hurt other people along the way. This is what I don't get. You shut down the government. Who gets hurt? The funny thing about all this is these senators who are doegators and the congressmen who are doing these do-gooders, they're gonna get paid. They're gonna get paid, but not the employees. This is what's likely to happen. And by midnight tonight, on Friday night, end of January the 30th, it could likely be that way. This is how you're going to solve the problem. You know, the political grandstanding is beyond vile. Yes, this was not helped well, this was not handled well. Got it. But let's get real. You have both sides who are at fault here. You have both sides who have stood up and have done harm. Don't tell me Democrats or lefties are superior and morally superior to Republicans who are on the right. Get off your high horse, people. There was a screw up. The president saw that, and he had to send in somebody new. The vilification of Tom Homan is unbelievable. Under Obama, he got a medal for doing the same job that Trump is having Homan do now. Obama made sure that illegals would be taken out of the country. It got no noise because it's just not newsworthy. But here it does. Now, allegedly, this nurse, Alice Pretty, spit on ice agents. Spit again. You're in the medical field. You may not like what goes on here. Spitting? On authority? Where does this end? How does this end? Well, I can assure you of one thing. Both sides are going to take a victory lap at some point. The Democrats, as we get closer to November of 2026 with their selection, will bring this up again and again and again. Words like Gestapo, words like Hitler, words like Nazis. We hear this again and again, and they're trying to make you believe that that is what this government is. Proof, you see, we told you he is a fascist. But then you have no freaking clue what fascism means. You have no freaking clue what Hitler has done and what a Gestapo is. You're out of your freaking mind. And it's offensive, this week in particular, to the six million Jews and millions of others who died in the hands of the Nazis. To sit there and compare ICE to Gestapo, that rhetoric is unnecessary. And the right really doesn't need to go down that road either. We have too many, you know, of those guys who like to show off, and the media is going to paint you as a crazed lunatic. Instead of focusing today on what's gone well, changes that have been put into government, focusing on fixing inflation, focusing on fixing the economy, getting jobs, helping young people afford homes, stuff that you hear again and again and again gets on the back burner because the media doesn't want you to focus there. The Minnesota scandal with Tim Walt, who, by the way, announced he will never be in politics again because you're a damn idiot. We're not solving anything. Now, there's an accusation that this money, there is money here, that like we've seen since October 7th, 2023, paid agitators. And they're again, you're not going to see this in liberal media, god forbid. But in conservative media, this is coming up, that they have proof that the money is coming from other sources, left-wing, back Chinese money. It's not even funny. This is a repeat of the protesters we've seen on campuses, on the we've seen in streets, well funded, stacked. And if you're telling me this is Minnesota at its best, maybe some of them are from Minnesota. Maybe most of them are from Minnesota, but not all. And many of them are paid agitators. So what is we what have we accomplished here in Minnesota? Anarchy. Further, furthering anarchy. Tom Alwyn's gonna go in there and he's gonna have to clean up shop. He's done this before, not the first time. But when you have a people that have been told by their authorities, defy the authority, defy ice. I remember this is the same group of people who screamed defund the police after George Floyd. These are the same people who wanted the police to go away. Because they're bad. You have bad apples everywhere. I don't care what business, organization, school, you have bad apples everywhere. But just because you have one bad teacher in a school doesn't make the school bad. Just because you have one person in a company who's bad doesn't make the whole company bad. But apparently, according to the left, as long as you're an authority, all authority is bad. I want to understand: do you want to live in a city with chaos and anarchy? Do you don't mind that people will break into your stores? Did we learn anything after the riots of George Floyd? What we learned is act any way you want. Be disruptive as much as you want. How sad is it that that is what we are teaching our children? That's what's being taught in universities, anyway. But let's get real people. What's going on in Minnesota today? This whole idea of shutting down a government, this whole idea of people posting on people posting videos saying kill, maim, attack, poison. Like where does, where does common sense, when did it end? Where did decency end? If we're not gonna make change in our society and our values, we're gonna have another Minnesota. It'll be something else. And it wouldn't matter who's in government left, right, Democrat, Republican, conservative, liberal, it doesn't make a difference. A few years ago, I said to some people that I believe that a civil war is imminent, and it really does have that sense. I don't, I hope not. I hope I'm wrong. But with the way things are going and the polling of the extremism, it's off the charts. Where's the sense of values for human beings? If the medical system promotes the bad apples, and I'm not saying all doctors and nurses are bad, remember, I just said a few bad apples. But if you're gonna let those bad apples in to be racist, to call for death to ice, to hurt people, we've gone off the charts. We've gone off the rails, people, and we need a reset. Thank you all very much. Have yourself a great weekend. I wish you all well. February is around the corner, folks. And on Monday, we'll be on the second day of February. So wishing you a wonderful weekend. Take care, people. Stay safe, and have a chat with your children about what is real common sense.