Minnesota attorney and prolific online liberal Will Stancil is having a public crisis of faith after getting punched in the head by a masked protester, ejected from his neighborhood’s anti-ICE organizing network, and peppered with munitions by federal agents — all in the span of a few days.
Stancil, who spent years pushing back against conservative criticism of Antifa and black bloc tactics, described his attackers in strikingly familiar terms. (RELATED: Longtime Antifa Defender Will Stancil Apparently Beaten By Antifa)
“Nonsensical,” he wrote on Bluesky after the assault. “Just dudes wanting someone to give them a reason. Not that different from ICE.”
After the Pretti shooting, one of those guys straight-up suckerpunched me for “filming faces”… as I filmed him and fully-masked friends lighting fires directly in front of the dozens of gathered press crews. Nonsensical; just dudes wanting someone to give them a reason. Not that different from ICE.
— Will Stancil (@whstancil.bsky.social) Feb 2, 2026 at 6:08 AM
The comparison marked a sharp turn for the self-described “Do Something Twitter” activist, who has spent recent weeks tailing Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in his Honda Fit and positioning himself as the avatar of Minneapolis’s grassroots resistance.
His troubles began last Thursday, when he announced he was “getting kicked out of ICE rapid response for the moment” after inviting journalists to accompany him on patrols — a move fellow organizers viewed as a security breach.
“There’s a secrecy culture around this that’s unnecessary and probably a bit detrimental to the whole enterprise,” Stancil told Public Notice in a Wednesday interview. “I don’t even know the real identities of most of the people in my network.”
That philosophical disagreement turned physical Monday, when a masked demonstrator confronted Stancil for “filming faces” at a protest following the shooting of Alex Pretti. Video shows Stancil taunting his accuser — “I’ve done a lot more than you have. Shut up. Jackass.” — before someone offered a more kinetic rebuttal, ending the clip with a thud.
ANTIFA PUNCHED WILL STANCIL pic.twitter.com/u55XO4SWYE
— Aetius (@AetiusRF) February 2, 2026
The incident appears to have prompted a broader reckoning about the movement he’d joined. In a lengthy Bluesky thread posted hours after the attack, Stancil lamented what he called the “poisonous” dynamics of coalition politics.
“The problem with social media is that you’re only allowed to hold opinions in batches,” he wrote. “If you believe X and Y, you must also believe Z, which is atmospherically similar to X and Y and believed by all the same people.”
“If you don’t do this, everyone hates you. It makes actual thinking impossible.”
He described the pressure toward conformity as “endless spiraling towards factual minimalism and ideological maximalism lest your peers eat you alive. Intellectual death.”
The Spectator noted that “the black pill may be halfway down his throat,” while observing that Stancil “has been suffering from a touch of Main Character Syndrome while out protesting ICE in Minneapolis.”
Still, Stancil insists he’s not abandoning the cause. He told Public Notice he’s already “working with other groups” and remains convinced the resistance is winning.
“I don’t see any way out for them that isn’t some kind of defeat or retreat,” he said of ICE, “even as they do a lot of damage in the meantime.”
Hours after those comments were published, Border Czar Tom Homan announced the withdrawal of 700 federal officers from Minnesota, citing increased cooperation with local authorities.
Whether Stancil will be welcomed back to celebrate with his former allies is another matter. As one X user put it: “The only people online, or in person, that actually care about Will Stancil, are the right wingers who make fun of him. Seeing antifa physically bully him enrages me. He’s OURS to bully, not yours.”