By WAYNE HEIMER
January, 2026 – I can imagine entering a 12-step, self-help meeting where I stand and say, “My name is Wayne, and I watch FOX News.” The appropriate response from group members would be, ‘Hi Wayne,’ and recovery could begin.
Well, my name is Wayne, and I watch FOX News (just like I check on the New Your Times and NPR). Recently, a FOX News contributor offered the term, “rescue fantasy,” to explain why anti-ICE partisans seem fanatically committed to protecting the projected rights of proven bad-asses along with the masses of criminal aliens who simply became defined criminals by jumping the border.
The internet says rescue fantasy is a Freudian psychological term “…where someone . . . seeks to be a hero or savior, often drawn to vulnerable partners … or conversely, expects to be rescued themselves, playing out idealized roles that can hinder authentic connection and become a destructive cycle…”
Logically, if someone chooses to become a rescuer of the vulnerable, she/he must perceive a peril from which the vulnerable need rescuing. The great disconnect between anti-ICE protestors’ and ICE (the “E” means Enforcement) personnel is the perception of “Who needs rescuing from what.”
Anti-enforcement activists see the established government as the parochial peril to abstract individual rights or freedom. Folks who aren’t quite that cynical have a hard time understanding why that perspective isn’t simply disrespect for the law. Both sides are afraid; some of imported felons (“…the wretched refuse of . . . teeming shores…”). Others fear fascistic governmental oppression via letter-of-the-law enforcement.
Suppose we think in terms of law less as an arbitrary, overreaching social constraint and more as a social contract or code by which members of a society mutually agree to live? In our democratic republic, we the consenting governed, make social contracts (laws) via democratically elected representation. I may or may not agree with any specific social contract, but my greater societal obligation I, as a citizen live by, is that I will live within that law. If I choose to live by my own personal code, outside of the social contract, I become, by definition, an out-law.
There can be no effective law without a consequence for violating it. So, if I choose to become an outlaw, I accept the associated risks. Our justice system will decide whether I, if an accused/indicted outlaw, deserve punishment or not.
Activists who don’t conform to the appropriately established codes of conduct choose risking punishment. Societies agree that individuals who don’t honor societies’ behavioral codes, and established social mores must suffer consequences. Nobody wants to be punished.
Adaptively, outlaws choose to assume protection via the letter of. the law when. they represent themselves or their outlaw cause as justifiable peaceful demonstration. Here, they fudge. Things get Minneapolis messy when outlaw causes turn peaceful demonstration into a violent protest.
Returning to Freud, rescue fantasy also has an adaptive self-protective aspect. That is, rescuer-out-laws fear becoming vulnerable to their self-defined peril. Hence it’s likely they will need rescuing. When one chooses to become an‘out-law, this paranoia magnifies. Mobilizing fellow-rescuers via social media becomes necessary.
If not driven by a pathological Freudian rescue fantasy, rescuers might be purely altruistic. Evolutionary theorists debate whether pure (self-destructive) altruism exists. The adaptative question is, “What’s in it for the altruist?”
Altruism, unless sacrificially ideological, carries a certain scent of superiority. If an altruist can rescue the vulnerable, he/she must self-perceive having resources or capacities the vulnerable victims lack. For example, in the late 1700s, expanding European culture was obviously displacing indigenous Indian cultures. A rescuing Congress assumed trust–i.e. rescue–responsibility for those who were clearly established (like today’s uncertified resident aliens) but needed rescuing.
So, how may we understand the vitriolic-to-violent Minneapolis protests against the established social contracts enforced by ICE?
The most benign explanation is that activists are pure altruists. BUT, a vitriolic prelude to violence is not typically expressive of pure altruism. That would be new. Vitriol and violence are more traditionally associated with revolution than altruism. Vitriolic to violent protestors ain’t Gandhi or MLK!
The second kindest explanation is that the protestors are advantageous altruists who have noble, but ulterior motives. That would not be new. Is there rebellion without cause?
Next, we come to the rescue fantasy with its unseeming scent of superiority and flip-side-fear of becoming vulnerable. That fear is not new. It is either silent acknowledgement of chosen risk or accepting manipulative propaganda.
Finally, there’s a malevolent revolutionary hypothesis. Perhaps we should face it.
My name is Wayne, and I do watch FOX News.
Wayne E. Heimer is an old-school biologist whose interests in adaptation range from molecules to human social behaviors.
Wayne Heimer: Are demonstrations, riots, and revolution just part of the human cycle?
11 thoughts on “Wayne Heimer: Freudian fantasy in messy Minneapolis”
A better solution and approach to this debacle might be a simple trade with Canada:
… Minnesota for Alberta
They get the Unhinged Fruits-n-Nuts and we get the patriotic hardworking energy region.
A complete win-win solution!!!
God Bless America.
So many words Wayne! Fortunately you included this bit early so I didn’t have read the rest of it: “ proven bad-asses along with the masses of criminal aliens who simply became defined criminals by jumping the border.” check out the bios of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Hardly badasses.
You should have read the whole article Evan, you would have learned something! Your naive defense of criminals gets very old.
I agree Scott.
Also, why is a foreigner commenting about domestic concerns in our country? Are they even legal here?
All -and I mean all- illegals need to be deported. No squishyness just because some marxists are upset. Who cares about marxists. If they do not like it then leave.
You still haven’t confirmed my nationality have you dear. And why does it matter? And who is an illegal? There’s many J6 domestic terrorists that were convicted pardoned released and committed violent crimes again. They are illegals, yes? But most don’t have brown skin or foreign sounding names like Ramirez or Singh. What are you going to do?
They are the “anti-ICEpartisans” who got disproved as badasses.
This should serve as a warning to all liberal, Democrat men who think they are knights in shining armor coming to the rescue of wacko, liberal, Democrat women. Your life may be at risk! Especially when the wacko, liberal Democrat women are obstructing and interfering with legitimate law enforcement action. Mr. Pretti’s woman friend will live on to see another day of TDS protesting. But it was Mr. Pretti’s last protest.
This wasn’t PrettiBoy’s first rodeo. He had been interfering with ICE in days previous, and was tackled to the ground by ICE before. A slow learner for sure. No tears for this wacko.
Another term is savior complex or white knight complex. The desire to help others can be good for your health, but putting aside your own well-being to do so can problematic. Doing so for more self-serving reasons such as a desire for praise, power, or a sense of self-worth is also problematic and shows signs of codependency. Some times those with savior complex treat others poorly and demand obedience. Frequently people with mental conditions such as bipolar disorder, delusional disorder, and schizophrenia have savior complex.
As seen in Minneapolis there are many white knight savior complex individuals who are putting themselves, or others, in harms way. They are doing so not because the people they are claiming to protect need their help, but because they are compelled to do so either by internal reasons or by craven politicians seeking to cause a crisis to take advantage of.
Or steveO, those who want to help others are considered neighbors, citizens and maybe patriots. You are skilled at highlighting sewage and failing to acknowledge goodness. Dark world at your Wasilla residence.
Altruism doesn’t exist. It can’t exist. People can still do good things though, except apparently the ICE thugs.