The notion that Good would be able to drive away from this scene just as easily as she drove into it—and that the armed agents commanding her to exit her vehicle could be safely ignored—is as understandable as it is misguided, the product of a world in which activism and political conflict have become Disneyfied.
Rebecca’s last words to her wife have become a Rorschach test of sorts.
What was once an organized, strategic movement with high stakes and concrete political aims has evolved today into a sort of intramural sport for all comers, from influencers to wine moms to aging Boomers who prefer protest marches to pickleball. And if the ease of participation has swelled the ranks of activists to include anyone with an Instagram account, it has also given the entire enterprise a distinct veneer of unreality, like a theme park populated by actors who spend their days LARPing as cops or cowboys and then retire at night to a dorm where they eat pizza and hook up with the guy who plays their nemesis. In 2026, political protest—and even political violence—might feel like a party, or a movie, but the one thing it rarely feels is serious, until it’s too late.
“Why did you have real bullets?” Rebecca reportedly screamed after Good was shot.
The notion that ICE agents would have anything but real bullets in their guns may seem astonishing, but it surely speaks to how Renee Good, an ordinary woman in early middle age and the sole surviving parent of a 6-year-old, ended up behind the wheel of a car, in the middle of the street, engaged in a confrontation, the true stakes of which she so devastatingly misapprehended.
WebMD defines “Main Character Syndome” as “the perception that your life is a story or a movie where you’re the central character,” amped up with a massive case of malignant narcissism, causes once sane people to believe they’re starring in their own version of One Battle After Another.
As Jim Treacher writes:
I haven't seen it reported anywhere else that she said this. It's astonishing. An entire generation of "content creators" who don't know how the real world works. https://t.co/ycT7M2Wlkz
— jimtreacher.substack.com (@jtLOL) January 13, 2026
UPDATE:
The woman's wife yelling out "why did you have real bullets"
The woman is playing, shes playing for fun. They dont understand that ICE is targeting narco gangs, cartel members, and often general criminals
Its not a fucking game https://t.co/CrxLOMLJ4X
— Tim Pool (@Timcast) January 13, 2026