Provoked with Darryl Cooper and Scott Horton

Episode 30: The Wars Abroad & The War at Home
Date: January 12, 2026

Episode Overview

In this episode, Darryl Cooper and Scott Horton dive deep into the psychology and politics of violence—both domestically, focusing on the recent Minneapolis ICE shooting, and abroad, examining U.S. operations such as the intervention in Venezuela. The conversation examines not just the events themselves, but the surrounding media narratives, the partisan reactions, and what these incidents reveal about contemporary American society, law enforcement practices, and imperial tendencies.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Partisan Reactions to Police Violence (00:08–27:04)

The Minneapolis ICE Shooting:
Both hosts discuss in depth the polarizing public response to the recent shooting of a woman by an ICE officer in Minneapolis, noting how political alignment often dictates perception of such incidents.

• Scott Horton points to the tribal nature of reactions:

  • "If you lean left then the ICE cop murdered the lady and if you lean right then she had it coming. And that's just how it works." (02:09)
  • Reflects on his own provocative tweet and the backlash received.

• Darryl Cooper emphasizes the escalation by law enforcement:

  • "Why do we have dudes kitted out like they're about to invade Fallujah, walking through and rolling through, like, suburbs in America really looking for a fight?" (03:56)
  • Notes discomfort with the increasing normalization of paramilitary tactics domestically, even as someone who supports immigration enforcement.

• Both agree the situation was unnecessarily escalated, regardless of legal justifications. Scott highlights how details of the incident are selectively ignored or framed to justify bias (“the clock starts when she moves, not when the cop steps in front of the vehicle” [41:39]).

• Media and Social Media Dehumanization:

  • Darryl draws a parallel to Israeli rhetoric about Palestinians, noting how easily people are reduced to mere objects for scorn and violence:
    "It's like the Israelification of the American right... they're talking like Israelis, and they justify all of it with the same exact rhetoric." (10:51)
  • Both express disgust at the gleeful online reactions; Scott jokes about being called a communist for defending civil liberties (22:41).

Notable Quotes

• Darryl Cooper:
  "If you find yourself getting to a point where you can watch that and feel nothing or, you know, even worse, where you feel like a satisfaction from that, you just got to consider that that is real soul rot and that is going to catch up with you." (39:27)

2. The Legacy of Police Militarization (23:00–28:18)

Long-Running Trends:

• Scott traces the roots of current police militarization back to the drug war and post-9/11 era, referencing programs that funneled military gear to local police (e.g., the 1033 program).
  • "Militarizing Mayberry"—every sheriff’s department has to have an armored personnel carrier... Full militarized SWAT gear and training for everyone, regardless of whether it's necessary or not." (25:31)
• Points out that special ICE units are often hunting only a subset of immigrants (typically felons), making the aggressive posture performative and misleading.

3. Immigration, Policy, and the Political Spectacle (28:18–36:00)

• Performative Cruelty & Policy Theater:
  Darryl references Nick Fuentes' term "performative cruelty," describing high-profile ICE raids as symbolic gestures that serve political audiences more than substantive enforcement.
  • "This is just performative cruelty to make you feel like something's being done to people you don't like. But nothing's actually being done." (28:45)
• Both discuss the bipartisan interest in preserving a flow of cheap labor and the economic incentives at the heart of immigration debates, regardless of public rhetoric.

4. The Effects of Tribal Social Media and Culture (31:00–41:09)

• Darryl shares an anecdote about barroom bravado to illustrate how many online “fighters” are all talk, and how social media amplifies road-rage-style interactions that have no connection to real life consequences.
• Social media, they agree, radicalizes and dehumanizes political opponents:
  • "People operating from that mindset with just no sense of the reality of the situation that they're talking about.... It might as well have been like, you know, a zombie from 28 Days Later that got shot." (38:00)

Notable Quote

• Scott Horton:
  "It's always the enemy, them. And you never even get like, the right wingers won't ever show you what the left wingers will say. They'll just tell you what the left wingers say and vice versa, too." (41:09)

5. From Waco to Empire—America's Sliding Legitimacy (12:35–27:04; 41:09–66:04)

• Scott recounts his anti-government roots since Waco and how both left and right have swapped their “anti-establishment” clothes depending on political convenience.
• The two discuss how America’s domestic paramilitary posture can’t be separated from its foreign wars and imperial habits.
• Reference “Hate Inc.” by Matt Taibbi and “The People's Pottage” by Garrett Garrett on how media and government have encouraged polarization and the rise of the executive.
• Scott: "If the Republic does not forbid the rise of empire, then the empire will destroy the Republic." (61:44)
• Discussion of how foreign policy justifies centralized domestic power and vice versa; you cannot have a true republic and empire at the same time.

6. Venezuela Raid—Night Raids as Imperial Tactics (48:15–54:54)

Event Breakdown:

• The hosts discuss the recent U.S.-sponsored Venezuelan operation: rather than a full regime change or war, the U.S. appeared to use a special operations-style raid to capture President Maduro, installing his Vice President in his place.
• Darryl speculates, echoing the bin Laden raid, that such operations often involve deals and betrayals rather than direct, movie-style military action.
  • "I'm skeptical...it looks a lot to me like they cut a deal with his underlings to get him out of there." (50:06)
• Scott insists this is an act of war under U.S. and international law and criticizes right-wing excuses for Trump’s authority to conduct such acts unilaterally:
  "It's absolutely an act of war to invade a nation with military force and kidnap their sovereign leader. Give me a break." (55:24)

7. Empire vs. Republic and Constitutional Decay (59:11–66:04)

• The hosts tie together domestic militarization, imperial overreach, and the erosion of constitutional limits on presidential war powers.
• Darryl cites the historical pattern: "If you look at empires throughout history, the legislature becomes less and less and less important as time goes on... We are 100% there." (59:31)
• Scott recommends classic anti-empire writings and highlights the fatal contradiction:
  "You can have a nation or you can have an empire, you cannot have both, they are absolutely incompatible." (65:22)

8. Upcoming Crises: Iran & the Logic of Escalation (66:04–71:16)

• Brief discussion of unrest in Iran and Trump’s saber-rattling, as well as threats against other regimes in Latin America; both hosts see the drift toward more foreign interventions as nearly inevitable.

• Darryl laments the normalization of collateral damage, whether abroad or at home:

  • "We should have the attitude, whether you're religious or not or whatever, just as a human being we should be like, man, like that sucks. Like we killed an 80 year old woman, like we violently killed this, this woman." (67:34)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote | |------------|-----------|-------| | 02:09 | Scott | "If you lean left then the ICE cop murdered the lady and if you lean right then she had it coming. And that's just how it works." | | 03:56 | Darryl | "Why do we have dudes kitted out like they're about to invade Fallujah, walking through and rolling through, like, suburbs in America…?" | | 10:51 | Darryl | "It's like the Israelification of the American right...they justify all of it with the same exact rhetoric." | | 22:41 | Scott | "It's there in my mentions telling on you, hey, Scott, your buddy Daryl's gone full communist...I'm with him on this one." | | 25:31 | Scott | "Every sheriff’s department has to have an armored personnel carrier...militarizing Mayberry." | | 28:45 | Darryl | "[Nick Fuentes] said this is just performative cruelty to make you feel like something's being done to people you don't like." | | 38:00 | Darryl | "It might as well have been like, you know, a zombie from 28 Days Later that got shot… completely dehumanized." | | 41:09 | Scott | "It's always the enemy, them...you never even get...what the left wingers will say. They'll just tell you what the left wingers say and vice versa." | | 65:22 | Darryl | "You can have a nation or you can have an empire, you cannot have both, they are absolutely incompatible." |

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:08–03:09: Introduction and setting up the Minneapolis shooting discussion.
• 03:09–12:35: Police militarization and escalation; Darryl critiques ICE as paramilitary force.
• 12:35–18:32: Scott’s anti-establishment roots and comparisons to historical police abuses (e.g., Waco).
• 18:32–23:00: Forensic breakdown of the Minneapolis shooting footage.
• 23:00–28:18: How militarization and economic policy interlock in immigration enforcement.
• 28:18–36:00: ICE raids as spectacle and the psychology of performative cruelty.
• 36:00–41:09: Dehumanization via social and conventional media.
• 41:09–44:19: Media manipulation and Matt Taibbi's analysis.
• 48:15–54:54: Venezuela operation: breakdown, legal implications, and precedent.
• 59:11–66:04: U.S. empire vs. constitutional republican values.
• 66:04–71:16: Iran unrest, rising interventionism, and the moral toll of normalization.

Conclusion

Provoked Episode 30 uses the current ICE shooting and Venezuela intervention as entry points to explore the deeper patterns of American society’s relationship with violence, law enforcement, politics, and empire. Cooper and Horton blend current events, history, and personal experience to argue that the U.S. is trapped in cycles of violence—both domestically and abroad—driven by performative politics, economic incentives, and a collective loss of empathy. Their discussion is both a critique and a warning about how easy it is to lose touch with basic human decency in such a climate.

For more, follow @Provoked_Underscore_Show on X and YouTube.